By the Gazette Editorial Board TELEVISION channels will as of tomorrow or the day after (depending on Moon crescent sighting) start screening some 30 drama serials in the largest ever such open, month-long festival of TV dramas since the rise of the tradition of offering front-line production for free-to-air (FTA) viewing during the Holy Fasting Month of Ramadan every year. Though no awards are dedicated to marveling productions, a great prize, the greatest indeed, is public appreciation which goes to stars, directors and producers. Such public appreciation and admiration, as so has been the case, translates into sizable ad revenues and higher pay for stars and directors in future productions. But that, to say the truth, is far from the main objective of star actors and actresses, directors and the entire cast. When it comes to appearing in this unofficial festival, artists are principally preoccupied with and motivated by the aspiration to show excellence, distinguished talent skillfulness. For the biggest prize is the love and admiration of the millions of fans who try to sort out as early in the month as they can the productions that they find more appealing than others. The process of voluntary public refereeing of such a large number of competing productions is by no means simple; for it involves complex balances, criteria and preferences. In fact, it is no less sophisticated a process than professional literary and art criticism. Substantially factoring in this process are the skillfulness of the cast, the big names, the glamour of the production and the extent of the closeness of any given drama production to the intellectual and life issues of relevance to viewers. Distinguishingly, the season that will start the day after tomorrow is getting all the more complex in view of the fact that prime time is non-expandable; hence the expectation that only a few of the 30 serials will find their way to prime time screening. Accentuating this assessment is the observation that some of TV channels that are very much in the race have obtained exclusive rights to the screening of more than one of the top-line productions. One of these channels has acquired as many as 6 such productions. Some media experts would argue that that is in the best interest of viewers since they can balance their viewing hours with the programming schedules. Other media watchers suggest that the more productions available for prime time screening the less will it possible for viewers to pick their choices for daily following. The prime time issue apart, the volume of this year's TV drama production and the diversity of its content and themes reflect a significant part of the country's tremendous soft power potential. Thirty serials mean a production capacity in the range of 675 hours for a month-long event, or 22.5 hours per day – quite a huge activity, all the more so given that this capacity involves authoring, scripting, directing, artistic presentation, acting, music composing and a lot many other creative occupations. More significantly, the quantitative and qualitative increase in the volume of drama production motivates further creativity and provides ample room for the rise of talented young people. TELEVISION channels will as of tomorrow or the day after (depending on Moon crescent sighting) start screening some 30 drama serials in the largest ever such open, month-long festival of TV dramas since the rise of the tradition of offering front-line production for free-to-air (FTA) viewing during the Holy Fasting Month of Ramadan every year. Though no awards are dedicated to marveling productions, a great prize, the greatest indeed, is public appreciation which goes to stars, directors and producers. Such public appreciation and admiration, as so has been the case, translates into sizable ad revenues and higher pay for stars and directors in future productions. But that, to say the truth, is far from the main objective of star actors and actresses, directors and the entire cast. When it comes to appearing in this unofficial festival, artists are principally preoccupied with and motivated by the aspiration to show excellence, distinguished talent skillfulness. For the biggest prize is the love and admiration of the millions of fans who try to sort out as early in the month as they can the productions that they find more appealing than others. The process of voluntary public refereeing of such a large number of competing productions is by no means simple; for it involves complex balances, criteria and preferences. In fact, it is no less sophisticated a process than professional literary and art criticism. Substantially factoring in this process are the skillfulness of the cast, the big names, the glamour of the production and the extent of the closeness of any given drama production to the intellectual and life issues of relevance to viewers. Distinguishingly, the season that will start the day after tomorrow is getting all the more complex in view of the fact that prime time is non-expandable; hence the expectation that only a few of the 30 serials will find their way to prime time screening. Accentuating this assessment is the observation that some of TV channels that are very much in the race have obtained exclusive rights to the screening of more than one of the top-line productions. One of these channels has acquired as many as 6 such productions. Some media experts would argue that that is in the best interest of viewers since they can balance their viewing hours with the programming schedules. Other media watchers suggest that the more productions available for prime time screening the less will it possible for viewers to pick their choices for daily following. The prime time issue apart, the volume of this year's TV drama production and the diversity of its content and themes reflect a significant part of the country's tremendous soft power potential. Thirty serials mean a production capacity in the range of 675 hours for a month-long event, or 22.5 hours per day – quite a huge activity, all the more so given that this capacity involves authoring, scripting, directing, artistic presentation, acting, music composing and a lot many other creative occupations. More significantly, the quantitative and qualitative increase in the volume of drama production motivates further creativity and provides ample room for the rise of talented young people. TELEVISION channels will as of tomorrow or the day after (depending on Moon crescent sighting) start screening some 30 drama serials in the largest ever such open, month-long festival of TV dramas since the rise of the tradition of offering front-line production for free-to-air (FTA) viewing during the Holy Fasting Month of Ramadan every year. Though no awards are dedicated to marveling productions, a great prize, the greatest indeed, is public appreciation which goes to stars, directors and producers. Such public appreciation and admiration, as so has been the case, translates into sizable ad revenues and higher pay for stars and directors in future productions. But that, to say the truth, is far from the main objective of star actors and actresses, directors and the entire cast. When it comes to appearing in this unofficial festival, artists are principally preoccupied with and motivated by the aspiration to show excellence, distinguished talent skillfulness. For the biggest prize is the love and admiration of the millions of fans who try to sort out as early in the month as they can the productions that they find more appealing than others. The process of voluntary public refereeing of such a large number of competing productions is by no means simple; for it involves complex balances, criteria and preferences. In fact, it is no less sophisticated a process than professional literary and art criticism. Substantially factoring in this process are the skillfulness of the cast, the big names, the glamour of the production and the extent of the closeness of any given drama production to the intellectual and life issues of relevance to viewers. Distinguishingly, the season that will start the day after tomorrow is getting all the more complex in view of the fact that prime time is non-expandable; hence the expectation that only a few of the 30 serials will find their way to prime time screening. Accentuating this assessment is the observation that some of TV channels that are very much in the race have obtained exclusive rights to the screening of more than one of the top-line productions. One of these channels has acquired as many as 6 such productions. Some media experts would argue that that is in the best interest of viewers since they can balance their viewing hours with the programming schedules. Other media watchers suggest that the more productions available for prime time screening the less will it possible for viewers to pick their choices for daily following. The prime time issue apart, the volume of this year's TV drama production and the diversity of its content and themes reflect a significant part of the country's tremendous soft power potential. Thirty serials mean a production capacity in the range of 675 hours for a month-long event, or 22.5 hours per day – quite a huge activity, all the more so given that this capacity involves authoring, scripting, directing, artistic presentation, acting, music composing and a lot many other creative occupations. More significantly, the quantitative and qualitative increase in the volume of drama production motivates further creativity and provides ample room for the rise of talented young people.
