February 23, 2023

Mr Chu Kang-ki, the Assistant Creative Director at Television Broadcast Limited was invited to speak with students of the School of Communication and share his experience at the SCOM Talk Series #47 on 23 February.  A renowned and veteran scriptwriter, Mr Chu has been in the film and television industry for 30 years. At the talk, Mr Chu explained  the techniques of pitching story ideas to television management and actors. He also highlighted the characteristics of drama series which are distributed on streaming platforms.

Mr Chu explained the workflow of completing a 20-episode TV drama series in great detail. The team determines the theme and genre of the story, then establishes the character relationship tables along with the main storyline, they also conduct research to determine the scene breakdown of each episode. Each scriptwriter then writes their own part, and the script supervisor revises and unifies the scripts to create a cohesive storyline.

During the session, Mr Chu explained how to pitch story ideas to senior management. He ties the story to current social issues and ensures that they align with the community’s concerns and market trends. When pitching the story to actors, the writer should understand the actor’s life history and their previous acting roles first. He joked that writing the biography of drama characters for actors to accept was like writing a ‘love letter’ to impress lovers.