According to the Prevention and Control of Disease (Prohibition on Group Gathering) Regulation (Cap. 599G) (the Regulation), during the period specified by the Secretary for Food and Health, save for the exempted group gatherings specified in Schedule 1 to the Regulation, no group gathering (meaning a gathering of more than four persons1) may take place in any public places.
Under Schedule 1 to the Regulation, one of the exempted group gatherings is “[g]roup gathering at a place of work for the purposes of work”. We have received enquiries from the trade about the practical arrangements for location filming of film, television, advertising, etc. pursuant to this provision.
First and foremost, we must emphasise that, as the COVID-19 epidemic remains severe, for protection of public health and the filming crews, location filming in public places should be avoided unless absolutely necessary. Where a filming crew considers it of absolute necessity to conduct location filming involving a gathering of more than four persons, the company/responsible agent must first contact the Film Services Office (FSO) of Create Hong Kong, to provide the required information and justifications2 for the FSO’s consideration in granting a “no-objection letter” to the filming crew for filming at the specified filming location(s). The filming crew should also have notified and obtained the necessary consent(s) from the relevant Government authorities (e.g. the Hong Kong Police and the Transport Department, etc.) before the location filming takes place.
In addition, the company/responsible agent shall guarantee that the filming crew undertake the following precautionary measures:
For location filming in non-public places (i.e. places with access restriction on the public, such as studios, indoor places, etc.), we recommend that the aforementioned precautionary measures be adopted also for the sake of protection of public health.
More information on prevention of COVID-19 can be found on the website3 of the Centre for Health Protection of the Department of Health and the relevant guideline4.
For any enquiries, please call the FSO at 2594 5745 / 9389 3121 or email5 to the FSO.
27 June 2022