MOVING ON UP

The signs are good in Indonesia and the foundations are becoming stronger. The Southeast Asian nation's developing market economy is performing strongly, and was one of the few countries across the globe to record high growth during the global financial crisis. At the moment Indonesia is the third-fastest growing economy in the G20 group of developing economies, behind China and India. This growth is tipped to continue in the feature as Indonesia is expected to become one of the top ten largest economies in the world in the next 20 years.

A strong economy gives way to more money going towards the advertising sector with Nielsen recording that advertising spend in Indonesia increased 23% in 2010, with advertisers spending Rp 60 trillion (US$6.84 billion). With a growing middle class, an expanding television industry and digital media continuing to increase its penetration, not to mention the revival of the local film market, Indonesia's post-production sector looks to be in good shape.

Cynthia Agustina, executive producer at post house Cinered, believes the country's postproduction industry is getting a positive impact from the expanding local economy and advertising markets. "Last year, Indonesia reported a 6% economic growth, spurred by strong domestic spending and government expenditure," she said. "TV is still the best way to reach a mass consumer market in the archipelago. The Indonesian film industry is also enjoying its revival with more than 100 titles produced in the past few years."

Despite the general optimism, limited technological knowledge and client generalisation of post-production are issues that still need to be addressed. "It is becoming commonplace for clients to generalize all productions/ post-production costs and work within a generic formula, for example a 30-second TV spot will cost roughly this amount with X weeks turnaround time," she said. "Production companies are forced to come up with last minute quotes without a chance to fully digest how the idea can be executed properly. It's common to hear things like, ‘Oh but so and so did it for $$ amount last time, how come you're more expensive?' Not many people understand that every job is different and must be approached differently to ensure optimum delivery and highest quality."

New technology is also a problem as historically, the Indonesia postproduction sector has been slow to respond and adapt. "There's that notion of ‘don't fix what's not broken' type-of mentality," Agustina said. "We need to constantly run workshops, establish new workflows for various new post-production technology and try to educate the market, every time something new comes up."

Wim Berlinawan, managing director of post company Evolution, agrees that client education on quality and creativity is crucial. "These days, some clients love to push the budget on the post area," he said. "I think in Jakarta the value of the appreciation for creativity needs some attention. But for sure, other clients are more than happy to spend it like crazy."

Berlinawan believes Indonesian post houses need to become more clever at juggling with the demands and needs of their projects. "Budget, quality and production time are some of critical points that need to be juggled cleverly," he said. "Not all projects come with pleasurable budget and time constraint. You'll get this kind of case every now and then."

The lack of government regulation and support for the postproduction is something that hamstrings smaller operations. Berlinawan noted more capital and investment would be a boon for the industry's smaller players. "Once you're locked with good capital then automatically you'll generate a better team and [have] better infrastructure," he explained. "In other words, proper capital allows you to not only create better, but [adds] a solid performance on your post. Another thing that may help is to have a strong financial regulation and restriction for all post houses. This kind of regulation would definitely secure the business and it will help the small post houses to sustain and selfgrow." The use of DI technology in Indonesia is also growing, although some post companies have to play roles in promoting and advocating its benefits. "In other countries, DI is more commonplace, but in Indonesia the conventional film work flow still reigns supreme," Cinered's Agustina said. "That is slowly changing now, as more international directors come to Indonesia and choose the DI workflow." Evolution's Berlinawan believes the proliferation of DI will continue for years to come. "DI has somehow broadened the possibility for creative thinkers to achieve their desired ideas," he says. "It has faster work flows and [is] highly efficient. The only disadvantage of having this new process is the margin of mechanical error that may occur."

Like most post-production markets, problems with talent and sustainable work levels exist. Ambi Pratama, executive producer at production outfit Shooting Gallery Asia's Jakarta office, says the Indonesia's postproduction industry is in need of more skilful people. "Yes, we do have a few awesome people with awesome skills, even I must say that their ability is in the top tier in at least the Southeast Asian talent pool, but we don't have enough of people like them," he said. "It's different with Bangkok, Hong Kong or Singapore where most international post-production goes to whenever they're in Southeast Asia, Jakarta is not too attractive for that kind of market.

So our people don't have the kind of challenges from international markets like the people from the countries I mentioned above. I believe, with more and more international directors working here, our talents will be more recognizable internationally, at least in the region. I work with a lot of international directors, and some of them have said the post production people here are great, a few are on par or even better than Bangkok, Malaysia or even Paris. So the potential is there, I wish the young ones are given enough challenges and guidance from their seniors and from the directors that they're working with to escalate their quality."

Cinered's Agustina has similar difficulties finding good talent, so her company takes a different approach. It uses a teamwork initiative that involves using mentoring programs and supporting local talent. "We don't believe in a star artist who shines solo, but we have a group of people delivering a stellar job," she said. "Every artist takes turns in supporting each other; and each team is customised according to the need of the job. We try to always put together the best team for the job."

Indonesia's post-production market might be in good shape but it does have obstacles to face. Shooting Gallery Asia's Pratama feels that local post houses may face more competition from home-based freelancers and those with lowcost operations. "Companies like Apple and Autodesk are releasing post production software that is affordable and can even function in a laptop. I see that in near future, just like the photography digital imaging business, post houses might have challenges from freelancers who work at home or even on location from their laptop or less than top of the line desktop," he said. "Of course the skills of those freelancers and the ability of that kind of software and equipment has their own limits, and also they might not have a decent workfl ow or postproduction system, but note that a lot of jobs that are going around here in Indonesia, and I believe in other parts of the world, doesn't really require top of the line equipment and crew."

In the eyes of David Hewitt, executive producer of production shop Kemistry, the biggest challenge post companies face is remaining relevant. "What do people want to watch, what excites them, how can we help our clients communicate the benefi ts of their products, how can we engage our audience?" he said. Hewitt believes post-production shops need to keep pushing themselves, keep trying new things and keep exploring new horizons. "If we stand still we die, and we want all the people we work with the share our passion," he stated. "The creative industry has never been more in need of the skills and services we offer. It's a communication business and so on a creative level we are seeing ways to better communicate stories, feelings, emotions and brand properties."

Despite Indonesia's strong economy and buoyant advertising market, post operators in the country must remain vigilant. The spectacular growth that Indonesia is enjoying means that the eyes of the world will be on the massive Muslim nation and multinationals will be out to grab their share of the expanding pie. Regional businesses are eyeing off Indonesia's business opportunities and competition in post-production may increase. As the country opens up economically, socially and culturally, foreign investment should grow. Conflict in Indonesia's fi lm industry, with the government seeking to curb the amount of foreign films imported, could also have a wider impact. But, overall the future appears is bright for the post sector. The market's players remain optimistic and positive about its chance of continued success.

According to Cinered's Agustina, Indonesian post-production needs to continue to grow and not surrender to the needs of the market. "The talent pool in such a big country is huge, and we need to foster those talents towards international standards," she said. "The future is defi nitely bright, asIndonesia continues to grow from strength to strength economically."

Evolution's Berlinawan concurs, and describes the future as "still promising". "Having said that, we need to realize that post production has become a regional business, which means, we need to be ready with the global competition," he said. "Indonesia is filled with many amazing talent which are equally ready for the business."

Kemistry's Hewitt is another who believes the Indonesian post market is in for exciting times. To him, new technology, new investment and talented staff equates to good times ahead. "In many ways Jakarta is at the forefront of new trends," Hewitt said. "As I have said there has been some investment, and there is a lot of exiting new software and hardware to play with. We have been able to make a technology leap because we are not overbrimmed with older technology like SD telecine machines etc. We are able to leap headlong into the future and there are people here doing that.