Bulletin Autumn 1975

that I T V programmes are "boring", which, in effect, is taken to mean "lack of entertainment". The problem to be faced squarely by us appears to b e—c an learning be made into another form of entertainment? More specifically, can “an eye operation", "the 19th lesson on shorthand" or "the difference between debit and credit" be made entertaining? The answer is only too obvious. In consequence, we have learned to ignore unconstructive and sometimes even malicious criticisms from the world of entertainment, in conventional I T V subjects. We confine our work to serving only the target audience, those who have enrolled in our courses, as well as those who are otherwise interested and drawn to them. Foolhardily We Charge We are proud to associate ourselves with a commercial organization which imprecedentedly offers an two hours' prime time for educational broadcast. This arrangement offers far more convenience to students than the Open University, which receives a Government subsidy of 10 million pounds a year as well as a team of 50 BBC producers. Open University transmission times are set down in the very early morning or afternoon hours. In their five years of operation, the Open University has served a student body of roughly 45,000. Our I T V programmes with far inferior provisions in finance, time, manpower and facilities are serving a student body of 10,000 after two months' operation. Taking that as an indication, I T V should gradually establish itself in Hong Ko ng television even under adverse circumstances. The decision to spearhead the I T V project has not been an easy one. Scepticism was natural. The immense working load and consequent manpower needs in the midst of the economy drive of the University were not to our advantage. Production quality was yet another worry. Subject experts were hesitant to commit themselves. As far as presenters (studio teachers) were concerned, we had hardly any at hand. Production crews were totally unfamiliar with the requirements of I T V . Our greatest asset was a handful of I T V producers, young, enthusiastic and energetic. The successful launching of the I T V programme is a tribute to their effort. Inevitably, the work of a producer is assessed by the quality of his programme. By and large, the home viewer is interested only in results and working constraints are seldom taken into consideration. Take, for instance, the recent Hong Ko ng entry to the Film Festival of Youth, organized by the A BU (Asian Broadcasting Union). Hong Kong was represented by "Sunrise, Sunset", which only received an Honourable Mention. Careful analysis shows that the film cost roughly H K $14,000. The time taken for shooting, editing and dubbing was a week. The Japanese award-winning film, on the other hand, took a year to shoot, and the cost was doubtlessly enormous. The incident helps to prove that a producer's success or failure is dependent at least on four factors: time, finance, manpower and facilities, none of which is satisfactory in I T V . “Sunrise, Sunset" had a producer and two production assistants, a filming crew of seven, one sync sound technician, one film editor and a whole week to do the work. I T V cannot even boast of these minimum working conditions. A simple comparison with some known cases in educational television also shows immense working strain on I T V personnel, where a full-time producer, always a university graduate, with proper training, produces an average of one 15-minute programme every three weeks. Assuming that a school year covers 9 months of the calendar year, his average workload, which is by no means light, is twelve 15-minute programmes, or six 30-minute programmes a year. I T V producers are employed on a part-time basis, responsible for one, and sometimes two, half-hour programmes per week. Admittedly, an educational television producer must carefully plan his programme to tie in with classroom teaching, but I T V producers too, must also work to realize the educational objectives set down in all programmes by the subject expert. We are fully aware that the production format presently employed by I T V producers is simple. We realized long before transmission date that for us simplicity is the best tactics. The Controller of BBC, the Director of Education, and the staff of the Department of Extramural Studies including my- s e l f - a ll of us doubted the feasibility, not to mention success, of launching such an ambitious project. We were faced with the choice of either waiting another 10 or 15 years for working conditions to become better, or making a foolhardy start and hoping for gradual improvements. We are not sorry to have chosen the latter. 1 6