Q1. What are some of the key initiatives that you have introduced as CEO of MDA?

As part of continual efforts to grow Singapore's media industry and support the nation's transformation into a global media city, we have introduced several key initiatives namely:

1. Nationwide deployment of High-Definition Television (HDTV) technology

To accelerate nationwide deployment of HDTV technology, we embarked on a holistic plan which included R&D and developmental support to enable broadcasters to upgrade their capabilities/ infrastructure to deliver HD content and services; working with the industry players to ramp up HD content in Singapore for local and international audiences as well as partnering the industry to roll out publicity and consumer outreach initiatives.

Today, we are not only the first to have started HDTV terrestrial and cable trials in Southeast Asia in June 2006 but also the first to have launched commercial HDTV services in January this year. To date, we have also completed 100 hours of Singapore-made HD content in 2006 and aim to double it to 200 hours by end 2007.

At the recent MIPTV, a key highlight of Singapore's offerings was the record slate of over 50 Made-by-Singapore HD programmes. New HD titles which made their debut at this international market included documentaries such as Little Big Dreams (Threesixzero Productions), Guge-Lost Kingdom of Tibet (Bang Singapore) and Oodles of Noodles (Yellowstone Productions); to lifestyle and sports programmes like Beach 360 (Upside Down Concepts) and Parkour (Mega Media HD) respectively; as well as dramas like 18 grams of Love (Boku Films).

2. Spearhead the growth and development of the Interactive and Digital Media (IDM) sector

In Jan 2007, the IDM R&D Programme Office unveiled its comprehensive initiatives to support and develop IDM R&D in Singapore. This follows 2006's announcement that the National Research Foundation had allocated S$500 million over the next five years to fund the development of a strategic IDM research programme and the set-up of a multi-agency IDM R&D Programme Office within MDA to spearhead the growth and development of Singapore's IDM sector.

Singapore's IDM R&D efforts have also attracted international Web 2.0 companies like Google and Linden Lab to set up offices in Singapore as reported in the recent news. To date, we have supported 24 IDM R&D projects focusing on three core areas:

a. Animation, Games & Effects (AGE):

Our focus on AGE will strengthen existing investments in AGE technology and support R&D for tools, platform development and new genres for the AGE industry. Areas of focus include, but are not limited to: Game design and aesthetics, game spaces and worlds, knowledge reuse, learning in games, modeling, multicore programming, process management, rendering and simulation.

Note: The animation industry will grow from US$59billion in 2006 to US$80billion in 2010 and the worldwide video game and interactive entertainment industry is expected to grow from US$29 billion in 2005 to as much as US$44 billion in 2011 Forecast includes revenue from video game hardware and software, dedicated portable system hardware and software, PC games, and online PC and console games. (Source: DFC Press Release dated 26 Sep 06 - http://www.dfcint.com/news/prsept262006.html)

b. "On-the-Move" Technologies:

The market for mobile content and services will be worth US$150billion in 2011, compared with US$89billion last year. Of this, US$13.6billion is expected to come from user-generated content; with the number of people sending videos to sites like YouTube jumping four times by 2011 to 198 million. (Source: "'Content is king again – this time, on the cellphone'", International Herald Tribune, 11 Feb 07.)

We will invest in R&D to identify new ways of reaching and interacting with mobile-connected people who are always on the move so as to latch onto the growth of this market. Focus areas include: Ambient intelligence, humancomputer interaction, immersive environments, location-aware computing, mobile computing, personalisation, pervasive / ubiquitous computing.

c. Media Intermediary (Mediary) Services:

These are crucial for the effective flow of information in the IDM sector. To ensure that Singapore has the ability to arbitrate this in a safe and efficient manner, we will invest in R&D to enhance technical capabilities in the organization, distribution and security of digital media. R&D areas of focus include: accessibility, coding, transcoding & compression, digital rights management, saliency algorithms, search & retrieval, multilingual translation & understanding.

Examples of the projects supported include:

- PGK Media's Advertising On-the-Move (ADMove) service on the public transport using digital mobile broadcasting. Contact Mr Giulio Dorrucci at gdorrucci@pgkmedia.com or 6866 3280 for more information.

- 10tacle Studio's R&D of MMOG game engine (NeoReality). Contact Mr Aroon Tan at 6221 2478 and info@10tacle-asia.com.

- GoMobile's proposal to develop a technology platform to securely deliver live TV, DAB digital radio and data services to mobile users through multiple broadcast platforms. Contact Jamshaid Akbar at jakbar@smartmsg.net for more information.

- Sparky Animation's research on Crowd Animation software. Contact Wong Kok Cheong at kcwog@sparkyanim.com for more information.

Establishment of the Singapore-MIT GAMBIT (Gamers, Aesthetics, Mechanics, Business, Innovation, Technology) game lab between MDA and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Oct 2006. GAMBIT will conduct fundamental research to address important challenges faced by the global digital game research community and industry to contribute towards the development of next generation games. The core focus is to identify and solve research problems using a multi-disciplinary approach that can be implemented and applied by Singapore's digital game industry.

MDA supports innovative research from Institutes of Higher Learning in the three core areas spelt out above and has called for a submission of proposals in Feb this year. To date, we have received 53 proposals and these proposals will be further evaluated by an appointed international review panel in June.

MDA also launched the trial of an "idea jamming" portal that provides a platform for individual and small experimentations to be shared, debated and worked upon. The portal is currently in the trial stage with selected partners and schools and is expected to be launched to the public in the third quarter of this year. We are exploring some of the ideas that are being generated during the trial.

3. Singapore Media Fusion

To further promote the creative efforts of Singapore's media industry globally across the whole spectrum of media services and genres including TV, animation, film, publishing, music and games, MDA launched the Singapore Media Fusion in Oct 2006 at MIPCOM to showcase the industry's collective richness and diversity under a unified front and communicate its strengths in a coherent and compelling manner.

Under the consolidated platform of Singapore Media Fusion, MDA aims to position Singapore as an ideal marketplace for the financing, trading and distribution of media content and services by interesting trade professionals, buyers and sellers to Singapore, attracting investment funds, and enhancing knowledge of intellectual property rights. In addition, through its online portal, it offers information on Singapore's media industry, and allows like-minded local and global talent to interact, exchange ideas and explore partnership opportunities.

With the maturing of Singapore's media industry, and growing competition from our regional neighbours, the new strategy will significantly raise Singapore's profile internationally. The picking up of the global economy and the exponential growth expected in the media industry also makes this an opportune time to implement a strategy that allows us to showcase the essence of Singapore's media strengths and offerings so that we take full advantage of this buoyant outlook.

Q2. What yardstick does MDA use to chart success or failure, since there isn't a precedence to follow?

Since our establishment in 2003, we have made successful strides towards the goals outlined in our Media 21 blueprint where we aim to transform Singapore into a global media city by increasing Singapore's GDP contribution of the media cluster by 3 percent and creating over 10,000 new jobs for Singaporeans by 2015.

Singapore-made TV, film and animation content have been unveiled at some of the world's most competitive trade markets/ film festivals such as MIPTV, MIPCOM and Cannes Film Festival. Local filmmakers Eric Khoo, Kelvin Tong and Royston Tan have won international acclaim and awards in global film festivals. Singapore animation and TV content producer are collaborating with industry players such as US' VOOM HD Networks, Discovery and National Geographic, UK's Fremantle Media Enterprises, New Zealand's Natural History, Canada's Nelvana, Australia's Flying Bark Productions, Hong Kong's Agogo Media and Korea's Sunwoo Entertainment to co-produce world-class content.

To encourage the development of new projects and fresh ideas, MDA has implemented a variety of schemes that will help new media players establish a foothold in the industry. These schemes serve to nurture and deepen the capabilities of local media talent and companies.

Q3. In your opinion, what are MDA's biggest success stories to date?

Singapore films are increasingly traveling the international film festival circuit and picking up international accolades. For Cannes Film Festival 2007, Anthony Chen's Ah Ma will compete for the Short Film Palme d'Or while Pok Yue Weng's SuperDONG, another short, will be screened at Directors' Fortnight. Ekachai Uekrongtham's full-length film Kuaile Gongchang (Pleasure Factory) has also been selected for official screening at the Un Certain Regard category and will compete for the Camera d'Or award.

Looking at 2006:

1. Royston Tan's 4:30 held its world premiere at the Berlin International Film Festival and went on to bag several international awards such as Grand Prix Award for Best Film at the Bratislava International Film Festival, Slovakia; NETPAC Award at the 26th Hawaii International Film Festival; and Best Film Award at the Rome Asian Film Festival;

2. Kelvin Tong's The Maid was named Winner of the EFFFF Asian Film Award at the 10th Puchon International Fantastic Film Festival; and was one of the official screenings at the Shanghai International Film Festival;

3. Jack Neo's I Not Stupid Too won the Children Jury Prize for the Moscow International Festival for Children & Youth 2006;

4. Husband-and-wife team Colin Goh and Woo Yen Yen's Singapore Dreaming won the Montblanc New Screenwriters Award at San Sebastian International Film Festival.

Eric Khoo's Be With Me opened the Directors' Fortnight at Cannes Film Festival 2005 to a standing ovation while Royston Tan's Monkeylove won the Grand Prize in the Labo Competition at France's 29th Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival. Kelvin Tong's flair for art-house and commercial movies has attracted the attention of film financers in Hong Kong. Last December, Hong Kong's Fortune Star, Singapore's Boku Films and Innoform Media, as well as MDA tied up to invest in Kelvin Tong's movie, Rule No. 1. At this year's Hong Kong-Asia Film Financing Forum, his Bed is also one of the shortlisted Projects. Jack Neo's, I Not Stupid Too is also shortlisted for Best Asian Films at the Asian Film Awards.

For TV, MDA, Sitting In Pictures (Singapore) and FremantleMedia Enterprises (UK) is co-producing a nine-episode TV series featuring celebrity chef Kylie Kwong. Scheduled for launch in 2007, this is the first time that FremantleMedia Enterprises will be collaborating with a Singapore production house on a project for international distribution.

Riding on the success of the first German-Singapore telemovie House of Harmony, Singapore's Oak3 Films announced its collaboration with German company Smeaton Entertainment, to coproduce telemovie Love under the Sign of Dragon, which is slated for broadcast over primetime on ARD, Germany's largest terrestrial broadcaster and is being distributed by one of Europe's largest distributor Beta Films.

Mega Media HD's on-going collaboration with US' VOOM HD Networks and MDA has resulted in a number of successful HD programs, including fashion reality series Style Me with Rachel Hunter, travel documentaries Ultra Eye Tokyo/Singapore and sports documentaries Beyond the Edge - The F1 Powerboat; Muds, Guts and Glory; Planet Pakour and Hope on the Andaman Coast, which have been broadcast on VOOM HD channels in the US. In animation, Growing Up Creepie (Peach Blossom Media with Mike Young Productions and Sunwoo Entertainment) which premiered over US' Discovery Kids Channel last year, is an Emmynominated series. Nanoboy and Clang Invasion, two original series produced by Scrawl Studios, are slated to become the first Singapore-created animated series to debut in North America. The latter has already been sold to Canada's YTV.

Q4. MDA had recently led large delegations to international shows such as MIPTV and Hong Kong FILMART. How does MDA benefit from participating in these shows?

In leading delegations to international platforms, we aim to sell Singapore's media content, production capabilities, post production and animation services, talents and filming locations; facilitate and broker co-productions and collaborations between Singapore based media companies and international partners; enable local media enterprises to showcase their content and services to the international industry that will be gathered at these markets; and Singapore talents and content to travel beyond our shores and reach an even wider, global audience.

Supporting the strategic thrust to foster international collaborations is Singapore Media Fusion which consolidates and showcases the collective richness and diversity of Singapore's media industry under a unified front. Our efforts are paying off as witnessed by the recent MIPTV where Singapore companies inked a slate of international co-production deals worth US$128million.

Q5. How would you rate the success of the ongoing HDTV public awareness program? What can be improved?

I believe our slate of on-going consumer outreach efforts on HDTV have been highly successful and well-received by the public. I would like to highlight the Hi-Def Showtime recently concluded in April, which was the latest in a slate of publicity and educational programmes by MDA for the community to learn more about HD technology and its benefits in a fun and interactive way. Held over the three weeks, the creative contest with a HD twist drew 220 solo and group participants and received over 416,400 online votes.

To further accelerate nationwide HDTV deployment, MDA will also continue to:

- provide R&D and developmental support to enable broadcasters to upgrade their capabilities and infrastructure to deliver HD content and services;

- work with industry players to ramp up HD content in Singapore for local and international audiences; as well as to build up HD post-production capacity to prepare for the increase in HD content production

- collaborate with industry partners to roll out publicity and consumer outreach initiatives to engage the community.

Q6. There is a large expatriate community in the local media industry. What are MDA's views on using foreign talents as opposed to nurturing locals for the jobs?

Singapore has always had a healthy workforce of both international and local talents in the media sector. By working alongside these international media talents, Singapore's young and nascent media industry can tap onto their expertise and build skill sets to enable them to compete effectively in the global media platform. We will also be able to learn more about international best-practices, open up collaboration opportunities and position Singapore as the region's producer of choice and collaborator for international media products.

MDA has a comprehensive set of initiatives to develop and nurture the Singapore media industry. They are focused primarily on content creation, deployment of digital media, upgrading capability and expanding markets. Underscoring these is the push for high quality and exportable Singapore-made content across TV, films, animation shows, games, books and music.

Q7. We've seen examples of MDA facilitating or investing in local production firms that engage in co-productions with oversea partners, be it in films or television. Why aren't we focusing more on fully homegrown productions instead?

Ours is a young media industry and relatively small domestic consumption for Singapore-made content. Hence, it is crucial to seek and expand markets for local producers to partner international players and export Singapore-made content. Our primary co-production strategy allows local content producers to get up to speed on the needed expertise and knowledge transfer between local and international partners. Through international collaborations, we can:

- open up more markets to export Singapore content;

- position Singapore creators as the producer of choice in the region and collaborator for international media products.

- encourage creation and management of original IP content and exploitation of the potential revenues from it.

- gateway for management of IP between East and West.

Q8. Media 21 hopes to double the media industry's contribution to the GDP by 2015. How is that coming along?

We are on track to achieving the objectives outlined in Media 21. To further encourage the development of new projects and fresh ideas, MDA has implemented a variety of schemes to help new media players establish a foothold in the industry, nurture and deepen the capabilities of local media talent and companies.

Q9. One of MDA's objectives is to turn Singapore into a media financing hub. What does it take to achieve that, and how will we know whether we have already achieved that status?

Singapore's development as a regional centre for the financing, trading and making of media has heightened the international profile of its media industry. We host two annual major media markets, namely BroadcastAsia and Asia Media Festival, which attracts buyers, sellers and investors from all over the world. Asia Media Festival 2006 closed on a high note with a seven-fold increase in transaction revenue since its inception in 2002. At the Media Financing Forum, one of the Festival's anchor trade events, about US$250 million of funding, US$50 million more than that of the preceding year, was also available to filmmakers.

Another success story is RGM Holdings, a talent management, film financing and executive production company. Founded in Australia, but headquartered in Singapore since 2004, it has partnered MDA to set up a loan guarantee facility (LGF) to finance at least six international films involving Singapore companies, costing a total of S$80 million (US$52.9m).

The LGF has been successful in catalysing private capital into the media business. In the process, opportunities are created for Singapore media companies/ talents to participate in world-class projects. Three projects have been partially financed thus far: The Girl in the Park (US$4m) starring Kate Bosworth and Sigourney Weaver, and Pushing up Daisies (US$5m) starring Rose Bryne. The third, Winged Creatures (under US$10 m), was recently announced. Starring Oscar and Golden Globe Best Actor Forest Whitaker, Jennifer Hudson, Kate Beckinsale, Guy Pearce and Dakota Fanning, it is directed by acclaimed director, Rowan Woods. Other funding for Winged Creaturescomes from Singapore private investors, Artina Films and Standard Chartered Bank.

In all the above projects, local producers have benefited. Oak3 Films and Infinite Frameworks participated in the production of The Girl in the Park and Pushing up Daisies respectively while Infinite Frameworks will be doing post-production in Singapore for Winged Creatures. Their involvement allows them to gain invaluable contacts and experience in the industry at an international level and initiate projects that can strengthen the local industry for the future.

Other than RGM, several funds have also been set up over the last two years. Bigfoot Entertainment, which has a presence in Singapore, has set up a film fun to invest in Asian film projects including those from Singapore. Mega Media has also set up a US$3 million Singapore-Indonesia Digital Film Fund with their Indonesian partners. Recently, a Singapore-based games publisher, 10Tacle Asia announced its alliance with Hong Kong-based asset management firm Sinotime to initiate Asia's first games fund to produce games.

And at the recent Hong Kong Filmart, Upside Down Concepts announced its tie-up with Quixotic Media Group from US to form Upside Down Entertainment, a new joint venture that will bring Western film financing to production companies in Singapore and Asia. The first project invested by this company is Battle of Hong Kong, a US$12 million special effects film.

These developments are a significant milestone in MDA's efforts to attract private media funds to fuel Singapore's media industry, the result of which also deepens the capabilities of our production sector through participation in international film projects.

Rate This Article

Excellent
Very Good
Good
Quite Good
Poor

  Rate This Article

Related Stories

JVC debuts Final Cut acquisition product at MacWorld - 6/1/2009

San Francisco - JVC Professional kicks off the 8th Annual Final Cut Pro User Group (FCPUG) SuperMeet with the introduction today of the world’s first video acquisition product developed for Final Cut [...]

Foundry drops prices on Autodesk advanced systems plug-ins - 6/1/2009

London - The Foundry, a leading developer of visual effects, image-processing and compositing software, has effective immediately, reduced prices on plug-ins for Autodesk advanced systems. The dec [...]

DAZ 3D boosts performance with Carrara 7.0 - 5/1/2009

As the demand for an efficient, feature-rich and cost-effective 3D toolset expands, DAZ 3D responds with the release of Carrara 7.0, the latest version of its popular all-in-one 3D modeling, animation [...]