Outside the Malaysian creative content circuit, names such as Leon Tan, Hasnul Samsudin, Rhythm and Hues may appear alien, but titles such as War of the Worlds: Goliath (WotWG), Life of Pi, Alvin and the Chipmunks, Yogi Bear and X-Men: First Class, would have movie buffs sitting up in their seats and animation fans close on their heels.
Tan, Hasnul and the team at Rhythm and Hues in KL are Malaysians who have made it big on the global front through their involvement in various creative capacities in the respective productions, earning themselves international recognition and attention.
Award-winning Production Makes Waves
For example, Tan, the producer of WotWG that attained the Best 3D Animated Feature in the 2012 Los Angeles 3D Film Festival in September 2012, led a team of about 200 Malaysians, involved in the computer-generated/digital production process, and they worked in collaboration with almost 60 Korean 2D animators and up to 20 non-digital related preproduction staff in the US.
The complexity of this production, compared to other international projects of similar budget size, its genre and format, required an international crew to pull it off, supervised by Malaysia’s Tripod Entertainment Sdn Bhd, said Tan, Tripod Entertainment’s CEO.
In 2012, Tripod received a RM1.1 million from the National Film Development Corp (Finas) CGI (computer-generated imagery, now known as CG) Fund to fund the production’s CGI, which amounts to about 11% of the RM9.7 million production budget.
While many live-action movies today involve scenes using CGI for visual effects, there are many scenes without CGI, as in the case of live-action shoots. Yet any animated work, every scene in animation on-screen requires some element of CGI, making CGI/digital elements present throughout an animated feature for TV — and WotWG was no different.
Hence, the role of Finas’ CGI Fund was vital in enhancing CGI elements for WotWG within the final production stages, specifically through its Stereoscopic 3D.
The fund, initiated under the government’s Economic Transformation Programme (ETP)’s National Key Economic Area (NKEA): Communications, Content Infrastructure (CCI) and Education, according to Tan, successfully enhanced the stereoscopic 3D effect and treatment for the movie to gain international acclaim.
In the 3D awards last year, WotWG outdid Hollywood favourites including Paranorman, Madagascar 3 and Tinkerbell: The Secret Wings.
The team, was also invited to screen their movies at James Cameron’s CPG 3D facility in Los Angeles and were later commended for their good work in WotWG by Cameron’s top studio management and stereographers, who worked closely with Cameron on Avatar, Tintin and Life of Pi.
Tan added, that with the assistance of the CGI Fund, WotWG has become Malaysia’s first stereoscopic 3D animated feature, putting it firmly on the global 3D film-making map. Cameron’s CPG team is in talks with Tripod for future 3D collaborations.
On the company’s return-on-investment for this project, Tan merely said that WotWG is well on its way to commercialisation as the company continues to screen at festivals and secure distribution globally for theatrical, broadcast, video-on-demand, DVD/Blu-Ray release.
Financial Backing
While the government-led agencies and investment bodies have been supportive of the development of the creative industry, Tan said the private financial institutions have not yet caught on in a big way, citing the creative industry’s intellectual property (IP) as one that remains hard to quantify and value.
“Even if the industry as a whole may yield significant growth and rewards, it’s hard to pick winners at the start of any IP creation,” he said, adding that this dilemma exists even in established industries such as Hollywood.
According to Tan, Malaysian film investors and financial institutions have a wealth of case studies, industry trends and financial frameworks/models to assess, from Hollywood and other developed film industries around the world. Further, there are now opportunities to even partner with international producers, media fund managers and distributors now exploring business opportunities in Malaysia.
“The good news is (that) international film financiers are now curious about the Malaysian creative industry landscape as we enter the global arena, due to the inroads made by WotWG and other projects, the Film in Malaysia Incentive (FIMI) 30% production rebates, and the launch of Pinewood Iskandar Studios…and this is the time for our local financial sector to explore partnerships and knowledge transfer with more experienced parties worldwide,” Tan added.
Filling the Talent Gap
Finance aside, education and training requires top urgency. It is not the lack of talent that the industry is facing, rather the lack of relevant industrial training and the need to hone skills of existing talents to meet the industry needs. For instance while institutions of higher learning in Malaysia offer degree programmes on games development, there is a need for more graduates who are equipped for the fast-paced, evolving games development industry.
Europe’s leading independent games company’s Malaysian office-Codemasters Studios Sdn Bhd which has set a base in KL, signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with KDU University College to address this through an ongoing short-term Train-The-Trainers (T3) programme, while the college is adopting Codemasters’ benchmarking and standards for curriculum and assessment methods within its Bachelor of Games Development (Hons) programme.
Codemasters head of business development Nicholas Shariff Collins said this is to bridge the existing gap between educational institutions’ academic input and industry needs.
The programme covers skills development, and know-hows on appropriate systems and processes — pivotal to games development, such scheduling and quality assurance systems and the one-month in-studio training and takeaway courseware and delivery assessment to the institution’s games development academic staff. The school’s curriculum and the quality of its undergraduates also undergo long-term, periodical reviews. Codemaster signed a similar MoU with Universiti Pendidikan Sultan Idris, and several community colleges and polytechnics will follow suit soon.
“One of the problems in the creative industry, particularly in the games development sector, is that the graduates are often ‘recycled’ back within the academia circles to become teaching staff without adequate industry experience,” said technical art trainer Ivon Smith.
He said the job market for games production in Malaysia offers opportunities for 3D to 2D artists, animators, games designers, producers, programmers/coders and production management.
Optimistic of future prospects in the industry, he cited well-regulated government funding, incentives distributed to established firms and start-up companies, and industry-standard training programmes as potential leading contributors to enlarging the talent pool in Malaysia’s game development industry.
“Draining of games talent to overseas studios will continue if the industry isn’t supported in healthy ways parallel with training and staff development to supply the industry.”
Neighbouring Singapore, has become a popular career destination among Malaysians in the creative industry since it is the hub for many regional and global ventures, like the legendary George Lucas who until recently, had a Singaporean-outfit called Lucas Art.
Cohesive Global Sales Push
As they strive to remain competitive in quality and delivery, production companies and government alike acknowledged the need for a stronger, unifying voice to represent the Malaysian creative content providers in the global market. Presence, visibility and consistency are keys to capturing international acclaim, and so the newly-formed Creative Content Association of Malaysia (CCAM) was tasked since they began operations in mid-2012.
With an annual marketing grant of RM1 million from the Economic Planning Unit under the NKEA CCI to support its modest annual operating cost, the 25-member, industry-led government funded CCAM showcased the recent works of 12 of its member organisations at 12 international roadshows. These include film festivals in Bangkok, Korea, Cannes, Johannesburg, Tokyo and Istanbul.
Aimed at positioning Malaysian content and creative service providers on the world map, CCAM oversees the promotion and export of these services to the international level.
Together with Finas, CCAM reached total international sales exceeding RM100 million in 2012, said CCAM CEO Datuk Mohd Mahyidin Mustakim, adding that there are expectations to double this figure in 2013, through intensified efforts.
One milestone that may contribute towards this end is Malaysia’s debut at Cannes with the screening of four new Malaysian feature films at the prestigious Marche du Film business counterpart to the current Cannes Film Festival ending May 24.
The Malaysian titles taking centrestage alongside over 500 other film titles from around the world to prospective global film buyers, acquisition executives, international sales agents and film distributors are Vikingdom (from KRU Studios), animation Bola Kampung The Movie (Animasia Studio), Horror Penanggal (Tayangan Unggul/Primeworks) and drama KIL (Primeworks).
The Marche du Film, one of the largest in the global film market established in 1959 is held annually with over 10,000 professionals registered to participate in the 2013 event, a 7% increase from last year’s turnout, with notable increase of North American and Asian presence.
“CCAM believes that the industry will be a major contributor from the current 1.5% to 6% in 2020,” Mohd Mahyidin said adding that the association hopes to be a one-stop agency for international marketing and promotions of creative content. The association also plays a pivotal role in providing market intelligence and while guiding producers to the relevant markets.
Apart from WotWG, other notable Malaysian productions that have made it big in the global marketplace include animations — Seefood, Saladin, Upin Ipin; feature films — Merong Mahawangsa, Vikingdom, and drama series Bola Cinta and Pesona Kasih.
He challenged animation producers to aggressively work towards creating productions with international appeal, establishing coproduction deals with foreign partners.
Mohd Mahyidin added that local creative content ranging from animations and dramas to religious documentaries, films and entertainment programmes have made their way to China, Latin America, Eastern Europe and the Middle East. Of what is to come, he is optimistic of the potential growth citing Latin America and Africa as two huge potential markets being established by Malaysian pioneers.
Malaysian creativity reaches global heights - The Malaysian Reserve
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