Profile: Mr. Leecat Ho ka-hoo, who is currently working at TVB as production assistant, keeps shooting short movies and pursuing his dreams. His newest work "Shall we meet?" was shown in Hong Kong International Film Festival last year.
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Written by Chloe So
My name is Leecat Ho Ka-hoo. I was born and raised in Hong Kong. I am now working as a production assistant in TVB.
I graduated from the School of Communication of Hong Kong Baptist University two years ago and my major was Digital Graphic Communication (DGC).
When I first entered the university, my major was Computer Science. At that time, I was one of the committee members of the university publication--- Jumbo. And I was responsible for its graphic designs, layouts, posters and website.
The more I learnt about graphic design, the more I found myself interested in it. So I made up my mind to apply for internal transfer and luckily my application was successful.
Except graphic design, I am very interested in animation and film too.
Though I work full-time now, I keep making short videos by myself when I come up with story ideas and when I have time.
Previously, I participated in the Fresh Wave Short Film Competition held by the Hong Kong Arts Development Council and Hong Kong International Film Festival (HKIFF).
I was selected as one of the ten young directors to enter the final round. And each of us was funded to produce a short film, which was to be shown during this year's HKIFF.My short film Shall We Meet? was about the relationship between two orphans with their mother, who was a drug and gambling addict, and their foster father. I came up with the story idea all of a sudden.
During the production, the greatest difficulty I encountered was time management. I needed to work and make the film at the same time. At the beginning, it was really hard for me to make a balance. The support and thoughtfulness from my family and friends were so important to me.
It finally came to the day that the film was shown in HKIFF. Though I didn't win any prizes, it was unforgettable to see the names of myself and my crew members on screen. It was like a dream!
Sometimes, people would ask me when and why I started to be interested in animation and film. They may think that I am a "filmaholic" since I was young or there may have some famous directors whom I admire and who influence me a lot.
However, it is not the case. I had no idea about it until I was engaged in a course about television and film during the university study. It found it very interesting and challenging.
Also, I enjoy listening to and telling other people's stories very much. When you want to tell a story, it doesn't confine to either animation or film. And during the production, it involves communicating and cooperating with different people, different people would actually give different inspirations.
Therefore, among story telling, advertising, interactive (like websites), I chose the first one for my graduation project. And it was actually my first try on animation and film, giving me confidence in pursuing my dream of working in creative industry.
My graduation project was a short animation film called The Story of Angel. Without any dialogues, it told the life of the character, Angel, from cradle to grave. It highlighted her happiness and sadness, love and hate……the moments that I believe every one of us will experience in our life.
I was inspired by a photo that I unintentionally saw on the Internet. It was a photo in which an old person was standing on an uphill, looking back down the road from the end of it. I thought that the road was a symbolization of life.
I was awarded a Singaporean animation prize. It is interesting that the message behind the animation was cross-border, even without a single word. And it was very special, significant, encouraging because it was my first award in animation film.
Time flied. I have been working at the Creative Imagery Department in the company for two years. From my work, I gain various experiences like motion graphics, video shooting, editing, sound mixing and sometimes directing.
Sometimes, I am really exhausted because of work. But I am very contented because doing in creative industry is my dream. And by sacrificing the time to rest, I gain valuable experiences.
I think what we learnt in study will never be enough for our work, so be eager to learn and don't hesitate to ask other's questions and seek advices when you foresee the difficulties. I think keep exposing to new knowledge is very important too.
Some people plan and set targets for their life. But I seldom do that and I have no specific plans.
I remember once I interviewed an old person when I was doing research for my project, he told me life was that you wouldn't know what would happen on the next day, if you knew what would happen, life would lose its meaning and wouldn't be so interesting.
It was so impressive to me. And at this moment, all I want is do my best to try and learn more different things, having a better understanding about my talent and clearer direction for the future.
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