Recently, a netizen posted a video saying that a short drama crew was filming not far from the ICU area of a hospital, and told the patient's family to "cry less loudly". Afterwards, a self-proclaimed "hospital director" found the video poster and said that because it affected the filming, "the crew might sue the hospital". This incident caused an uproar in public opinion after being reported by the media on June 3. On June 5, there was news that the video poster reached a settlement with the hospital and the crew.
It is not surprising that TV dramas involve the filming of hospital environments, especially medical dramas, where hospitals are the main scenes. But generally speaking, the filming of hospital environments is completed in several ways: one is that the crew builds the scene themselves, such as the TV series "Conscience", which built an 8,000 square meter hospital scene for filming; the TV series "All About Dr. Tang", the crew built a 7,000 square meter studio in Huairou District, Beijing.
An 8,000-square-meter hospital scene was built for the filming of "The Heart"
"All About Dr. Tang" built a 7,000-square-meter studio
Another way is to rent a real hospital location for filming. For example, the TV series "Together" once used a hospital location in Wuxi for filming, and the TV series "Surgeons" was filmed at Peking University International Hospital.
Judging from the events mentioned at the beginning, this so-called crew filming in the hospital seems to belong to the second type of shooting situation, but many of the details are problematic.
"Surgeons" was filmed at Peking University International Hospital
An executive producer in the industry named Xiao A (pseudonym) revealed that, usually, it is quite difficult for a medical drama to shoot in a hospital. Even if it is borrowed, it will be strictly restricted and supervised by the hospital.
For example, they restrict the use of the venue, time of use, and number of people using it. They also often arrange special personnel to supervise whether the crew has affected the normal medical treatment of patients. If so, the crew must compromise and apologize. "The crew asked the patient's family to apologize? I have never heard of it."
According to media reports, during the filming of "The Surgeons" at Peking University International Hospital, the hospital arranged a special operating room for the crew to shoot in order not to disturb the patients. In addition to the regular passage, this operating room also has a special passage. The cast and crew can only enter and exit from this special passage. Another door connecting to other operating rooms is always kept closed to ensure that the crew will not affect the work of other operating rooms.
"Not affecting the normal work of the hospital" is almost the consensus of the professional crews in the hospital and the industry. And because of the strict restrictions imposed by the hospital on the crew, many crews will choose to shoot on the set. Unless it is a special scene that is absolutely necessary, the real hospital venue will be used, such as involving rare and difficult to move large medical equipment, or scenes that cannot be built. However, in the case of recent news events, the shooting location is not a special hospital scene that cannot be replicated. It seems more like "using local materials" to save costs.
Nowadays, the emerging content form of short dramas is indeed far inferior to long dramas in terms of creation and production process and institutional norms. "Taking a step back, considering the cost of short dramas, we can understand that the crew needs to shoot in the actual hospital, but must it be outside the intensive care unit? Must they ask the patient's family to 'keep the noise down' instead of the crew choosing a more suitable time and venue?" Executive producer Xiao A said, "In addition, I think the hospital should also make a reasonable explanation. Why did they allow a crew to shoot in a situation that obviously affected the patient's medical treatment, and shoot in front of the most important intensive care unit? Why didn't they supervise and require the crew's shooting? Why didn't they clarify and apologize immediately after the conflict occurred?" In Xiao A's opinion, the hospital bears an unshirkable responsibility for the occurrence of this incident.
In addition, Xiao A, as a producer of long series, also expressed his observations and concerns about the creation and production of short series. "Some short series now have a short production process and low cost. It's okay that they are crude in production, but in order to rush the work and save money, they don't care about the health and safety of the cast and crew, nor the impact on the lives of others. If this industry can't even do these two most basic things, it's impossible to ask this industry to consciously abide by the moral bottom line and professional ethics."
