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management. An applicant is required either to submit his/her request in writing or fill in an application form. The request is then vetted by the management. If the applications are made by news organizations, the Public Information Unit will give comments.
Generally speaking, the approval authority is the senior management staff of the venue. For applications that involve booking of facilities for hire by the public in the Hong Kong Coliseum and the Queen Elizabeth Stadium, approval from the Entertainment Select Committee has to be sought.
Applications for location filming must be made in advance. As a general rule, applications for location filming should be submitted 14 days in advance. However, the Department will exercise flexibility in dealing with urgent requests with justifications.
Depending on the filming contents, the time for processing the applications varies from 2 to 14 days.
The third part of the question is about the guidelines. In response to the request by the Film Services Office under the Television and Entertainment Licensing Authority, the Department has prepared a set of guidelines for location filming in PUC venues for distribution to members of the film industry. The guidelines are also available to interested parties upon request for reference.
Apart from the general guidelines, applicants may check with the respective venue management for details because different venues have different arrangements.
Mr. Joseph Lai Chi-keong (in Cantonese):—I would like to raise 3 follow-up questions. First, there were 124 applications rejected in the past three years. In rejecting an application, did the Department give the unsuccessful applicant an immediate verbal reply followed by a written notification (within a few days) rather than just give him a verbal reply?
My second follow-up question concerns one of the guidelines for location filming which states that the nature of the film shall not be a cause of embarrassment to the PUC, the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR), or the property itself or any of its occupants, nor should it offend the laws of Hong Kong'. Would the Chairman of the Select Committee please tell us the names of the films for which the applications for location filming were rejected on these grounds for our reference? What is the meaning of 'embarrassment”? Would you please give some concrete examples?
Besides, we understand that commercial location filming in PUC museums is strictly prohibited, but we usually ask the filming companies to take out an insurance policy to protect the PUC from any loss or damage. As there is insurance coverage for the PUC, why is location filming in museums still prohibited? I hope all these can be explained to me.
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