Every Tech, Everywhere, All at Once - 2023

This is Christmas eve and this is my first and probably the last blog post for 2023. The year passed quickly and then I realised that I have not blogged for the whole year. I only checked the blog after someone I met at the Asia TV Forum (ATF) 2023, asked about it. 

I am surprised. I stopped writing because I thought very few people, if any, read blogs these days. Instead Tiktok videos are all a rage!

This is My TikTok.

But I am glad that somebody remembers me because of my blog. Well not quite really, as I also learned that she also happened to promote the short film "Gift", which went viral in 2014. So, a good film does  hangs around in people's minds for a very long time,

A video/film is remembered because it tells a story that makes profound emotional connections with the audience. These days with the Internet, videos can go viral worldwide instantly.

The persistence and wide reach of Youtube also means it is now difficult to estimate the loading fees for commercials. As once online, the commercial technically has a global reach and unless it is taken down, it will be online perpetually. I believe this has caused some downward pressure on an actor's loading fees.

Also these days, talent can also be discovered online via social media. Granted that not every online celebrity has the desired acting abilities or of be of commercial material, the Internet does cast the net very wide. Thus thrusting more potential talents to the front of the camera. I cannot complain about this, as I was too talent scouted online via social media 14 years ago. Though not an influencer, I was picked up out of the blue and thrown into the deep end of acting. The rest is history.

So much so that actors are now expected to have some social media presence. However, not much is done to educate them about how they should go about with this new avenue of self-promotion. Many actors formerly protected by their managers are now thrown into the wild wild world of social media. 

Social media can be a double edged sword. Wrongly applied, it can ruin the online persona and branding of the actor. It can also overexpose the actor.

Also these days, some businesses use online influencers, instead of actors, to promote their products. Usually, this results in more casual production quality and possibly risking the desired perception of the brand name.  However, such promotional videos are likely to be cheaper to produce and they usually work well with brand names that have less snobbish requirements.

In some instances, businesses have also done away with human actors/models/influencers entirely and  use Artificial Intelligence (AI) generated avatars. These avatars are sculptured to look picture perfect and will never age a single day from the first day you use them. Besides, they are also free of scandals. These avatars have been applied with some success in the US and China, even though the followers know that they are not real.

As a learning exercise, I have used AI to generate a dialogue, fictitious faces and animate a 2 minute video recently. Here it is:

AI will continue to make onslaughts into film production and acting. At the lower end of corporate videos, businesses may not need a human to illustrate their product. For instance, if it is a video to illustrate the instructions to use a microwave oven, human emotional connection is less important, but rather,  clear and explicit graphics are crucial. I have given a talk to film makers, technologists and artists about this. See here.

Over time bad actors, that is, those that are unable to deliver the necessary human emotional connections will be replaced by photo-realistic avatars in lower end spectrum of instructional videos. 

Conversely, actors that can deliver strong emotional bonds with the audience and turn them to be loyal following, will get more work despite and because of AI. So, now AI can make the actor look younger, or older, to suit the story. In the case of a story where there is a character that goes from youth to old age, the same actor can be cast.

I believe that with technology, there will be more videos/films made, because it will be cheaper to do so and also that it will be cheap enough to create content that cater to niche interests. Though, the audience will still expect quality productions. The lousy ones will still be ignored, unless it is so bad that they attract a cult following. :)

As we speak now, more and more tech is seeping into film production. Besides the well known AI-enabled deepfakes, LED backdrops, robot rigs...etc, there is now automated product placements. So, it is now even possible for product placements to be automatically inserted into the film during post-production. This saves time, effort and money, compared to placing products during production. Besides, product placements inserted during post production can be geography, culture, context and time driven.

Where will this all stop? I don't know. But I know that we can all make the best of it, if we continue to improve our craft. Yes, I believe that spontaneous human analogue delivery will still count and be here to stay.

I have now been in the media industry for 14 years, mostly as an actor, but recently also into screenwriting, producing and directing my own content. To date, I have won 2 acting awards, have 2 short films gone viral, and recently, also had a film that I produced, "WFH - Worry From Home", won a best film award. 

In the last 2 years, I have also appeared as the main antagonist character in "Titan Academy", a uber viral webseries with very young fans, probably from 4 to 16 years old. Each of these episodes garner upwards of 2 million views. So if I do get recognised in public these days, it will most likely be from a child or a teen. The fans have even set up a fan page for me. Thank you so much guys! 

This contrasts a lot with the mainstream media in Singapore, which I estimate probably gets 150k to 350k for each of their drama episodes. I believe this is the same for all free-to-air TVs around the world. This is confirmed by a few random media professionals I met during the recent ATF. 

In fact, I was once corrected by a young chap that I shouldn't use the term "mainstream media" to refer to free-to-air TV (or TV), instead, "mainstream" ought to refer to the the Internet. He then suggest that I refer to free-to-air TV as "legacy media". I find it hard to debate that, especially while still reeling from his harshness!

That said, this is Christmas and we should also give thanks to the legacies that have propelled us this far. Many artistes and talents have spent a lot of their waking hours honing their skills and craft to entertain and inspire all of us all these years. 

Thus Channel News Asia (CNA) has now made a 3-part mini-series called "Untold Legends", to remember some women who have contributed to the arts in Singapore.

I was interviewed in the episodes that featured Doris Young, who was the lead actor in the Cleopatra Wong movie series in the late 1970s and early 1980s. They interviewed me about my part working with Doris in Reel Frenz, a hobby film making group and as the lead actor in the feature film Certified Dead.

Tune in CNA at 9pm, 31st December 2023 for the episode "Untold Legends: Doris Young".

Have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. We are living in exciting times!

Asia TV Forum 2019 - What I Have Learnt

I have learned the following from the 20th Asia TV Forum & Market 2019 held at Marina Bay Sands Expo from 3rd to 6th December 2019:

1. Streaming
The video streaming market in the year 2019 is worth USD25 billion and is projected to double by the year 2023.  Free-to-air TV will fade away to streaming video-on-demand and subscribed (paid) video-on-demand (SVOD).  The SVOD space is getting very crowded with Amazon, Apple & Disney, joining Netflix and HBO in the global market, among the many incumbents. I think the year 2020 will be a blood bath for SVOD players.

2. Community based TV
These networks create special interest group communities through social network and crowdsourced ideas, putting these ideas to a vote in the community. The selected ideas/content are then developed using resources, crowdfunded from the community. Eg. The Chinese LGBT community.

3. Alliances
Strategic Alliances that create online entertainment that is pertinent to specific end customers with special needs. For instance, creating videos appropriate for airline or bus rides, like ensuring that the content family friendly, tab bite-sized duration and easily downloaded/viewed from the mobile phone. That means planning visuals for the very small screen.

4. Format
The viewership of long form videos (more than 20mins) are overtaken by short form videos in the year 2018.

Further, micro-form videos like Tik Tok, Haokan, KuaiShou,...etc are gaining traction very rapidly and may overtake short form videos.  Micro-form videos started in the 3rd and 4th tier cities in China, initially catering to young people 15-30 years old. It has now spread to big cities and a cross-section of demographic.

Sponsors like shorter or micro videos because they are easier to plant brand advertising in them and monetise.

5. Product placements
Brands have invaded the short form space. For true story telling unfettered by advertising, short films will have to be funded from sources independent from commercialism. Eg. 15 Shorts and Storeys, in Singapore.

6. Making content travel
a. This can happen by leveraging on countries with similar language and cultural background.
b. Using actors that are known in the countries you are selling to.
c. Remaking of content with actors local to the target market.

7. Good Content 
Good content will live longer in the Internet ecosystem of Over-The-Top (OTT) web streaming platforms, as it gets relaunched and re-licensed many times in many platforms.



Other posts...

ATF 2018 - What I Have Learned

The Future of Cinema and TV

Film Making Collaboratives (Singapore)

With the advent of digital cameras, smart phones, social networks and the Internet, film making collaboratives are flourishing.

I know of six of them in Singapore. I may have missed out some, but these are the ones I have attended their events of, or read about. The description of them below are mostly summarised from their online pages.

Running a collaborative needs leadership, funds and tenacity, This is especially hard considering that most of the people in the collaboratives are hobbyists with full-time paying job during the weekdays. That is why only two of the six are still active.

UPDATE 27 APR 2018: ALL THE GROUPS MENTIONED HERE HAVE SINCE EITHER BEEN SHUTDOWN OR ARE INACTIVE.

They are all slightly different from one another, so take your pick.

1. Lens Rebel, Founded in 2012

We believe that there is still an audience for intelligent and alternative cinematography that veers of the beaten track championed by mainstream media.

Lens Rebels were originally founded by Dagomir Kaszlikowski and Karol Jalochowski under the name Gutter Twins. After a short stint with Suhas Bhat, a screen writer and producer, Lens Rebels are now an alliance between Jerry Koedding and Dagomir Kaszlikowski.

Lens Rebels has produced several short films and a feature-length film, called "Kopi-O".

UPDATE 27 APR 2018:  THIS GROUP IS NOW INACTIVE.

Kopi-O Mood Trailer III from dag the dogg on Vimeo.

2. Reel Frenz, founded 19 Nov 2012, 546 members, 139 past meetups

https://www.meetup.com/ReelFrenz/
http://www.reelfrenz.com

"A group with a passion”. It is the place where actors, directors, scriptwriters, lights, camera, sound, music writers / directors and arts students can call home. A place to discuss, pitch ideas and come together for film and video projects. See your ideas turn into reality. You can be a pro, an amateur, someone with creative passion or a movie goer with ideas. If you have an actor, singer, scriptwriter, producer, director, cinematographer, musician, animator, editor, makeup artist, special effects creator, special skills, critic or film industry specialist hidden somewhere in you, do come and join us.

Reel Frenz has produced 15 short films and a feature film, called "Certified Dead".

UPDATE 27 APR 2018:  THIS GROUP IS NOW INACTIVE.

3. Red Dot Film Makers, 28 May 2015, 343 members, 16 past meetups

https://www.meetup.com/RedDotFilm/

This is a group for anybody seriously interested in producing quality films. It's all about creating a team of filmmakers who want to develop, work, experiment and to find new ways to tell stories / move the audience. 

Task is simple and clear: Create emotional high end footage / scenes and impressive results that both crew and cast will want to include in their showreels.

UPDATE 27 APR 2018:  THIS GROUP IS NOW INACTIVE.

4. Cast and Crew 4SG, founded 3 Feb 2015, 318 members, 23 past meetups

https://www.meetup.com/Cast-Crew-4SG-Films/

All Singapore residents are welcome - with or without film experience.

If you are crew - lights, sound, camera, editing - and have equipment, that will be cool. If you don't have any equipment - that's okay too.

We also welcome actors, make up artists, costumers, scriptwriters, designers - anyone who has the passion to contribute behind and in front of the camera.

After three short films, this group seems to have stopped meeting since early 2016.

UPDATE 15 FEB 2017: THIS GROUP HAS SHUTDOWN ON JAN 2017.

5. Singapore Film Makers Group 25 Feb 2012, 340 members, 22 past meetups

https://www.meetup.com/Singapore-Filmmakers-Group/

This group is for people who have some knowledge/training in filmmaking and would love to make short films regularly with like minded people!

This group seems to have stopped producing films.

6. Singapore Film Making Lovers, found 18 June 2016, 74 members, 1 past meetup

Meetup and network with filmmaker lovers,who are local in singapore or expats travel/locate in singapore. Brainstorm, pitch ideas to make videos/film on youtube/others social media platform.

This group is very new. As indicated in their meetup page, they have only two meetups so far.

https://www.meetup.com/Singapore-Film-Lovers-Meetup/


UPDATE 15 FEB 2017: THIS GROUP HAS SHUTDOWN.

For more articles about how technology is influencing the future of the arts, click here.

Disruption, Culture, People & Leadership, Reed Hastings, CEO Netflix

Organised by National Trade Union Congress (NTUC) U-Creative.

Reed relates how travel and living outside the US has changed him. He said that our school system is structured and success within a very structured system may not translate to success outside.

In the world of business, most entrepreneurs fail, but when  a few among the many succeed, they get to be invited to speak in panels like this.

He related that when he was in Pure, a software company he founded, he was promoted beyond as a programmer into a manager responsible for more and more people and also doing sales. Both of which he didn't particularly enjoy as the company was growing bigger and people were following rules more than they were being creative. He felt that he wasn't doing well and wanted to quit as he couldn't forgive himself for doing badly. Eventually he did quit, though the management was reluctant to let him go.

The sales in Pure doubled every year, but was bought over by their largest competitor. It was not fun any more. The creative people got less interested. Business became rigid. This is quite common among many companies. And then they have little ability to adapt and were just following the rules. Design companies should be  more flexible to changes.

In Netflix, there are no policies for somethings, but at the same time they are careful not to let things go crazy. So we need high performance individuals. The company should Inspire people instead of merely managing them.

In the industrial manufacturing economy, it thrives by reducing the variables. Too many businesses are influenced by this aspect of the industrial economy.

Employees want to help companies by not making mistakes. This stifles. Instead, we think of the team more like a sports team. We endeavour to hire the best person in every role. It is about performance and effectiveness, not just longevity or just adequate performance

Netflix does not use the bell curve on staff, nor has a policy to cut x number of people every year. It all depends on the market. If there are high performance individuals to be won over, you either pay and have the player in the team, or lose the player.

However, this practice does not cut across the whole company. For instance, customer support workers are structured and are based on different considerations from creative professionals. The former are measured by their reliability.

Question: It appears that the OTT space is now dominated by the giants. If you were to invest in a startup in this space, which one would they be?

At anyone time it would appear that the giants dominate. Look at the IT industry. At one time Microsoft dominated everything.

What are the biggest challengers?

88 million subscribers may seem very big in Netflix, but it is very small compared to the other players like Youtube or Facebook, that have subscribers running into billions.

We advertised on Youtube (a competitor).

Data analytics was something affordable only to the big companies previously, but now, it is accessible to small companies as well. How will Netflix adjust to this levelling of the playing field?

Data Analytics enables mass customisation, such that shows that are not interesting to you don't get promoted to you.  So virtually, we look consistently good to the customer.  Netflix is working towards making all content available to everybody.

How do you decide what gets made?

We use data analytics where we should. Picking content, however, is a creative leap.

Consumption data. How different globally?

A broad mix of taste in every culture. They are not culture dependent.

For more articles about how technology is influencing the future of the arts, click here.

Exploring the Arts & Culture Industry

26th October 2016 - organised by National Trade Union Congress (NTUC) U-Creative, at One Marina Boulevard, Singapore.

Speakers: Mr Jeremiah Choy, trained lawyer turned creative director, producer and curator; Mr Mathialagan, Asian TV Awards winner; Mr Juan Foo, a veteran film producer; and Ms Som Binte Mohamed Said, a dancer, diplomat and designer

Some of the things I learn from the talk:

• Appreciation of Art: That we should teach the young to appreciate art, so that they will not grow up like a robot.

• Volume to Value: In the commercial world of acting, we first work on volume (of work), then value. When we start out, we take any gig thrown at us. It is a learning period and a time to establish ourselves in the market. But we can't just continue on 'volume'. At some point, we have to decide what value we bring to the project - a value that clients are willing to pay more for. It is harder to jump straight into 'value', skipping the 'volume' stage as clients look for the three 'X'es - Experience, Expertise and X-Factor. Newcomers rarely have all three, if at all, though some may have an X-Factor so big it compensates the lack of Experience

• A Discerning and Educated Audience: At the moment, we do not have a discerning audience in Singapore. We need an audience that can engage in constructive criticism, not just saying whether they like a piece of work, or not, but being able to say why. We have lost this ability, because we started emphasising less on literature in school, and soon the students lose their ability to think. (I think the autocratic political system has something to do to stifle this, in my opinion.)

• Acting in India: What is natural acting, or not, has changed over the years. What was natural acting 15 years ago, is now considered over-the-top (exaggerated) acting. Mathialagan also related to us his experience working in India, where he had to start from the bottom, as nobody knew him there. Whilst in Singapore, he had already 15 years of experience and won awards when he went to India. But nobody cares about that in a new place. That was a humbling experience. It was nothing to do with the acting craft, as the craft is universal.

• Let art be the reason and not the excuse: That means an artist create and when asked to explain, he must be able to articulate what his art is about. If he cannot, and use art as an excuse, then it doesn't work. Eg. "It is too difficult to explain, this is art."

Personally, I am convinced that it is easier to get into art today, than 30 years ago, as the smart phone and the Internet are great vehicles to organise, access information, network and learn. However, I was astonished to meet a group of university students who feel that it is harder today, giving themselves reasons, such as that the obstacles they face today are different from 30 years ago. 

Being born with the Internet and mobile telephony technologies,they have taken everything for granted. I told them that if they were to switch off the Internet and mobile phones, they will learn very quickly how handicapped they would be, and then will realised that they have not leveraged on them enough to gain access to the market.

Those days, we need a committee to organise a simple event. When we call someone, we call them at home and if they are out of the house, we had to wait 12 to 24 hours to be able to contact them. We had to pay to learn almost everything, and even then, less effectively. Now, one can learn almost everything through Youtube and connect with like-minded people online. Finding out audition and shoot locations is a breeze with Google Maps, We can record our rehearsals at home or anywhere using our phones. We can cast people on the streets without going on the streets... we can look for new gigs from the phone.... , buses were packed to the brim and had no aircon, during the rain, they usually leak,..., streets were not as safe,..., the market was also smaller than it is now,... the list is endless. Come on young people, wake up to the reality that you are not hungry enough and not trying hard enough. 

Online Casting Call Sites (Singapore)

This post compares Singapore-based online casting call sites that help freelance actors look for paid roles (those with dialogues), in stage/film productions. 

1. Asian Actor Database (AADB) vs FACEBOOK CASTING CALL SINGAPORE (FBCCS)

Statistics based on: 100 AADB casting calls from 21 January 2016 to 21 March 2016.

Note: FBCCS is a superset. It has more casting calls than AADB. All the 100 casting calls (barring the unpaid ones) in AADB also appears in FBCCS, but not the converse. 

Note: FBCCS forbids unpaid gigs to be posted in the group and bars errant or dubious production companies. It also has a black list of companies who default or delay payments to actors. FBCCS is moderated by a group of volunteer administrators.

Of the 100 AADB casting call posts, only 81 are unique posts for paid work for actors (with dialogues).

In the 30 days from 21 March 2016 to 22 April 2016, there are only 56 unique AADB posts for paid work. This means an estimated:

1.87 posts per day; or 

683 posts per year; 

Given that AADB charges $150 for its basic services, this works out to be 22 cents per post.

In the same comparison, FBCCS has 126 unique posts on paid work for actors with dialogue. This means an estimated:

4.2 posts per day; or 

1,533 posts per year;

and all FOR FREE!

AADB may pride itself as an actor's database that casting agents may go to, but in the last year, I only got 1 paid assignment from this route. 

In comparison, I got about 5 paid assignments  from producers, directors and casting agents having found me on Facebook.  This means that my free Facebook profile page and my blog have worked better than my paid profile page on AADB.

At the time of writing, AADB has about 291 members.

In comparison, FBCCS has 14k members, granted that not all of them are actors, but even if 10 percent of them are, it makes a 1,178 actor pool. So apart from an experienced talent pool, it could well be a goldmine for discovering new talents and new faces.

Clearly, AADB is outflanked and outgunned by Facebook.  If the current trend persists, AADB will be history in 2 years. If it is any consolation, Facebook has been gaining ground in many fronts among a myriad of other online sites.


If you like to learn more about acting and how to improve your chances at auditions, you may like to read this.

2. Facebook Casting Call Groups  [Updated: 27 May 2018]

Moreover, there are several other groups in Facebook, namely:

- Casting Call and Auditions Singapore (17k members)
- Casting Call Singapore (14k members)
- Singapore Actor Database (6.8k members)

- Garang Talent Group. (5.2k members)

- Casting Call SG (4.3k members)
- Casting Call Student (3k members)
- Official Singapore Casting Call and Auditions (it is not 'official') (1.8k members).

3. Other Casting Call Sites:

MANDY.COM

I used to use mandy.com. They used to have more casting calls, but the number of calls had somehow dwindled. Recently mandy.com have stopped offering their services for free. So I am not using it anymore.

CASTINGDB.SG [UPDATE: 11 Oct 2018]

Castingdb.sg came up briefly last year with profile pages, search functions, and a rating system for cast and production houses. Unfortunately, the site was not well tested and was paralysed by software bugs. It would have otherwise made a good alternative.

[UPDATE: 11 Oct 2018] CastingDB is dead. It is replaced by a mobile app Talentora.

ONLINECASTING.SG

There is another site, an onlinecasting.sg, which displays casting calls, profile pages and search functions for producers to converge on the talents they are looking for. At the moment, the casting calls seem to have come out straight from the Facebook groups. But still, kudos for their efforts for coming up with a better site, and moreover a free one to boot.

VIDDSEE.COM [UPDATE [9th Feb 2017)]

They are an Asian short film curator site, has a Casting section now. Click here.

It has only a few casting ads there at the moment, but I think it has a potential to grow with the viewership of their films. At the moment, it allows unpaid gigs to be advertised. Perhaps even becoming a casting place for Asian films or Asian actors.

Yaplat Casting (formerly TALENTPAY ) [UPDATED 10 MAY 2018]

I have found one interesting curated site called TalentPay,  click here. At the moment they are focused on East Asian, Indian and Australian markets.

I think there will be more competition coming up in this space for 'curation'. This is similar to the short film space where curators like Viddsee.com has arisen.

OUTCRY!!! [UPDATED 24 MAR 2017]
Online casting sites are said to be guilty for the rapid fall in actors' compensation, as it has made casting easier. Consequently, this leads to more videos made, particularly with the fall in camera and LED light prices,. So, the number of productions are expected to increase. It is akin to the unleashing of budget airline fares in the travel industry that led to more people travelling.

The downside of thus trend is that we now get a huge number of candidates with mixed abilities applying for every role advertised. So preliminary selections are still needed and the talent agency will still have a place in the ecosystem. Except now, they will have to offer more added value services to both the production company and the talents. The days of merely playing the middleman and commission collector are numbered.

Curiously,the playing field is now more leveled because of the Internet and social networks. There is even a "Little Black List" Facebook Group, (click here) for those who feel that they are unfairly treated to air the views. Thankfully, it hasn't degraded into anarchy as feared. Curiously, the Internet community does find its own consensus for reasonableness and wisdom. The moral of the story here is not to bully or treat anyone unfairly, for karma is always such a bitch. Karmic backlash on the Internet go viral and magnify in intensity real quick.

So despite the absence of unions, some unfair practices do get resolved,  though, I feel that unions will make such resolutions more systematic. 



NO TURNING BACK [UPDATED 24 MAR 2017]
The film industry is not the only one disrupted by the onslaught of technologies. See "The Future of Cinema and TV", click here. Many industries from banking to taxis are seeing their businesses turned-on-its-head by the Internet, digital interfaces, social network and smart devices. For more details, click here.

There is no turning back. Resistance is futile. Instead we should all leverage on these technologies to get ahead, For instance, it is now possible to learn acting and film making via the Internet, eg. "200 gigs and 200 lessons", for more click here,




Do you know any casting call sites besides those above that are worthy of mention? Or do you have any suggestions of how we can improve online casting call sites? Feel free to comment below.

Other posts that you may be interested in...

• To learn about acting and improve your chance of being shortlisted, click here,
• To learn and adapt to the changing trends of Films, Cinema and TV, click here.
• Film Reviews, click here.

Would you like to volunteer and contribute to this blog? 

It will help give this blog a diverse voice and broader perspectives, so more readers will benefit.

Let's talk!!!

The Future of Cinema and TV

Note: Just sharing what I have learned in media forums like SGIFF, ATF and All-That-Matters; and from what I have read and experienced. Hope you find this article useful.

The Internet.

The future is in the Internet. That is the mother of all motherhood statements! We all know that, but how is that going to happen? The Internet has changed most businesses, from banking to how crops are picked. Likewise, it has a major influence in the film industry from content creation, casting, production, marketing to distribution. The current revolution concentrates at the distribution end, which until very recently, has been dominated by those with the financial capabilities. Big production studios make films and own theatres, leaving very little room for upstarts and independents. However, the change has begun and more of it is in the horizon.

There are now successful film distribution models via the Internet, like Netflix. In 2015, Netflix video traffic forms an impressive 37% of all Internet traffic during peak hours in the US. It is a subscription video-on-demand service and now also produces tele-movies like "House of Cards" and "Marco Polo"; with some of them, like "Marco Polo", shot at Pinewood Studios Malaysia with some of the cast from Singapore and Malaysia. Netflix is offering its services to Singapore in 2016, which I think will cause a major shake up in the local market.

There are now other giants in the bandwagon, like Google/Yahoo!, Amazon, Ali Baba and Vimeo. All of them, except Vimeo, produces content. Vimeo offers a very attractive option for film makers to screen movies and keep 90% of the takings.

Meanwhile home theatres and TV sets are getting more and more advance and affordable.

Apart from that, going on the Internet allows lots of data to be collected and analysed, to determine exactly when to show what type of content in which countries.  "Content is King" has shifted to "Content in Context is King", and now finally rests with data analytics as, "Content in Context in Immaculate Timing, is King".

However, despite the strength of big data analytics, the conception of the nature and type of content to produce is still based on human judgment and inspiration, virtually plugged out from thin air. After that, these concepts are verified and optimised by analytics.

For more about "Data Analytics and How We Think", click here.

Youtube Stars
Youtube stars that garner millions of subscribers and hits per day are great influencers in their spheres of interests. They are wooed by TV stations to appear in their programmes and to act in feature films. Ironically, the lure of new media stars to old media broadcast and screening still has its seductive aura at the time of writing. In five years time when on-line markets dwarf traditional broadcast ratings or box-offices, then these Youtube stars will finally sober up to the reality that they are already sitting on an enviable golden throne.

Some mainstream TV actors are now contractually required to maintain a presence in social media and answer to fan mails directly. TV drama plots are also rapidly tweaked and synchronised closer to real time events.

These days, youth below 21 years old rarely watches TV. If they do, they watch it via the Internet and prefer content that is closer to reality. Traditional TV ads talking down to them will not work, as they buy through peer recommendations in real life or via the web. Prevailing trends point to a risk among TV stations to continue to produce content that are no longer relevant, oblivious to the harsh reality that there will be lesser and lesser people watching TV.




Online trends are forming to solve problems and satisfy hobby group interest every few months. "Play-It" has emerged as a form of expression for gamers. "UnBox" a new trend barely imaginable just 18 months ago is now all a rage for new product launches.

There is also a trend towards short form videos, as their average duration has shortened to a mere 3.8 minutes, as of September 2015,  from 5.1 minutes two years ago. The Vine 6-Second video competition hosted by Tribeca, now brings shortness to a challenging new threshold.

Traditional film studios and TV stations are slower to leverage on the Internet, as they are burdened by their 'brick-and-mortar' legacy systems. Much akin to how 'brick-and-mortar' bookshops struggled against Amazon online bookstore during the go-go dotcom days. However, they are doing something about it and have now adopted "OTT " (Over-The-Top) broadcasts over the Internet.

Traditional TV

During the early days of TV in the 1960s, there was only one business model. Then, businesses pay to advertise on TV, the station gets the money and used it to create or acquire content to be broadcast. Fast forward to 2015, we now have at least 49 TV business models and growing. It grew from free-to-air, to paid cable, premium cable, subscription video-on-demand, pay-per-view, branded-TV,...etc.

Inevitably content are now influenced not only by the business models that they are to be sold in, but also the display screen - whether it is going to be on a theatre projected screen, a large 90 inch HD TV, a 10 inch tablet or a 4 inch mobile phone. Cinematography and screen play styles will have to adapt accordingly.

For instance, content creators may like to consider more facial closeups and shorter episodes, as more and more people are viewing videos on devices and smart phones during their daily commute on public transport. Actors will have to deliver subtle and precise actions and emotions (as they are now more often on extreme closeups) within tight time frames, such that they are editable into short episodes.

China

There are examples of successful TV stations making the transition to the Internet, among them the Jiangsu Broadcasting Corporation (JSBC), which grew its revenue from an already high GBP 90 million in 2004 to a staggering GBP 1.5 billion in 2014. The latter achieved partly by going OTT. The revenue of this one station is more than the entire Singapore media market. Much of JSBC viewers are still domestic and JSBC is now looking at creating content that can travel internationally. I had the good fortune of meeting the president of JSBC and suggested to her that she may like to look at making international content in Singapore, since it is a natural multi-system system. Such content can be shaped to be international, but yet retaining the Chinese language and look-and-feel. In other words, it is akin to a cuisine retaining its unique flavours as a Fusion food, instead of slipping into the blandness of International food.

And indeed everyone wants to enter the Chinese market, as it is huge and growing at a breathtaking pace. However, the Chinese Government limits the number of imported movies down to thirty-four movies a year and so co-production is almost inevitable to enter the market. From Hollywood's direction, we can already see more Eastern content weaved into their movies.

India

The other gigantic market India is relatively open, but to date, foreign films barely make 10% of their market. This may be due to the natives' preference for stories that are culturally close to their heart. In India, there are Hindi films and Tamil films, but there are also films produced in regional languages having a captive audience as small as 5 million people.

The Indian film market is so attractive that Western born Indians, and even some Caucasians, have flocked to Bollywood to boost their career. Most of them cannot speak the language and have to rely on dubbing. I was told that non-resident female Indians have the advantage of being more daring when performing intimate scenes or skin flicks, compared to the more conservative natives.

Bollywood has gone international while retaining their character of over the top exaggerated acting, slapstick comedy and energetic dancing - the so-called 'masala films', that make lots of money. Many of these films have snippets of shots in foreign locations with stunning views to add to the fantasy that mesmerises the working class audience in India.

However, there is a growing group of directors that have started making more realistic films catering to the more sophisticated and intellectual crowd. However at the moment, this is still a niche.

South East Asia 
(Data from Wikipedia, click here.)
South East Asia has 11 sovereign states and 2 dependent territories (of Australia and India). It has a population of about 618 million people and an average per capita income of only USD3,538. Each South East Asian nation has its distinct native languages and cultures, some of which has more than one major language.  The largest country Indonesia, has 252 million people, occupies 1.9 million square kilometres of land and a per-capita income of US$4,323. The smallest one is Singapore. It has 5.6 million people, occupies 724 square kilometres and a per-capita income of US$52,049. Though the smallest nation in terms of population is Brunei with 453,000 people.

Most of the nations are governed by a constitutional government elected through the ballot box by the people, with the exception of Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos that are one-party governments and Brunei, which is still an absolute monarchy. Myanmar has just had its first fair general elections. Some of the countries were also at war with each other up till the 1970s. This is less than two generations ago and war stories are still within the lifetime of the older generations. Some nations are independent only since the 1970s, with  East Timor's independence happening as recent as March 2011.

South East Asia is geographically, politically, economically, culturally and linguistically diverse. Religious practices ranges from the mainstream of Islam, Taoism, Buddhism and Christianity, to native folk religions and animism.

It is difficult to produce content that is native to any one country and acceptable by the other South East Asian audiences. South East Asian co-production is therefore difficult from the point of view of content, bar those genres depicting fantasy cross-border crime thrillers, just like the Cleopatra Wong movies in the 1970s.

Singapore and Malaysia have some successful co-productions in the Mandarin language. Some Jack Neo productions, like the "I Not Stupid" series sold well in Malaysia, Singapore, China and Taiwan.

In the year 2008, a Singapore TV series called "The Little Nyonya" (dubbed in Bahasa Indonesia), managed to cross over to Indonesia. It is a popular series about the early Chinese settlers in Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia, and the culture and fusion cuisines that had resulted. It was also broadcast in China.

There are also Malaysian Malay language productions that have crossed over to Indonesia, and vice versa.

For more about movies and language use,  go to section 5a of the blog post "200 gigs 200 lessons", click here.

However, successful co-productions or productions with native content, that gain popularity outside their native lands are few and far between.

The economic and infrastructure development of some countries are also lacking. Some are also not well developed with sufficient Internet connectivity. Indonesia for instance, do not have Internet bandwidth high enough to sustain video-on-demand outside their big cities. Budgets to purchase programmes in South East Asia are also much lower. For instance, it was mentioned in one of the forums that a 40 minute animation programme may fetch US$250k in Western developed countries, but only about US$500 in South East Asia.

So, the South East Asian market is a tough one and tougher yet to be considered as one market. Though ironically, it ought to be fertile ground to create interesting and unique content, precisely because of its diversity. The producers that crack the above challenges will set the trailblazer.



Singapore
Singapore is naturally a crossroad of East and West, not only in commerce but in the natural environment. The tiny land size of 724 square kilometers has a diversity that is not sufficiently leveraged in films and TV. In nature, Singapore has more species of plants and trees than the entire North America. Its tiny territorial waters is home to 200 over species of corals, about half that of Australia's Great Barrier Reef, which is at least 2,000 times the size of Singapore. Also, its short coastline is home to 40 out of the 60 known species of mangrove in the world. So diversity is natural to Singapore. There is even a nature documentary made about it:




Further, Singapore has imported 8,000 plus species of foreign hardwood trees of which 5,000 plus species have survived the local humidity to support the City in the Garden. What the government has done for trees and plants, it has also replicated it in commerce, resulting in Singapore hosting 40.8 percent of Asia Pacific headquarters among 319 global Fortune 500 companies.  The labour policy is also open to foreign talent to supplement its local skilled workforce.

The result is an interesting mosaic of cultures and languages that Singaporeans are now second nature to. The average Singaporean speaks two languages, and can code switch between the two effortlessly. Among themselves, they speak a unique mix called Singlish.  Singapore is in a constant flux of adjustments to fit into the international arena. Just getting into a taxi in the city, requires the reflex to choose the right language to to speak to the driver. Therefore, adaptability is a norm in Singapore.

Going International

Hollywood movies are the biggest successes in the international market. Now 60% of their revenue comes from outside the United States. Less European movies have gone international. I suspect that it is because they are not in the English language and that they exhibit a different script structure that is less catchy, less tensed, less hurried and less formulaic. In short, more art, less science and and less commercialised. 

Generally, I find non-Hollywood movies to be less cookie-cutter like and less predictable, and therefore more inspiring. So there is place for movies outside Hollywood, we just have to find our niche.

Asia International

There are a few common questions discussed in film forums. Namely:

1. Can Asians produce content that can be sold internationally?

There are successful Asian movies, such as the series of Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan movies. Jackie Chan has also moved into Hollywood and acted successfully in English, albeit usually being the only Asian in the main cast. Also, Jackie Chan's movies could well be popular in whichever language  as audiences buy tickets to watch him fight.

SHANGHAI KNIGHTS TRAILER:

K-Pop is also successful internationally, though Korean dramas successes are more limited to East Asia. Both adopt luxury, styles and beats that the West can relate to, and retain the use of the Korean language.

2. Will the West buy movies with an Asian cast, speaking in accent neutral and intelligible English?

Some Asian distributors and producers have told me that English language movies with an Asian cast may work in Asia, but will not be accepted by the Americans and Europeans. The Western audiences are said to be more used to seeing Caucasians speaking English, than Asians speaking English. Or is it? If it is, then it doesn't make sense as there are millions of Asians, in Europe, America, Australia and other parts of the world that speaks English as their first language.  I suspect it has to do with the lack of fluency in the language and acting style (or standards), than mere ethnicity.

Asian actors in London and Australia, find it difficult to get enough gigs as an Asian. It is hard to convince the casting director to accept them as actors that happen to be Asian, rather than an Asian actor. To add insult to injury, Hollywood had on several occasions, literally taped up Caucasian eyes to look slit-eyed, in order to cast them as a Chinese.

Somehow there is such an insatiable appetite to cast Caucasians that even those of Southern European origins are less preferred to white Anglo-Saxons, in Western English speaking countries. So where does it put Asians actors in international movies? So far, they are stereotyped as scientists, nerds and kungfu fighters.

Wong Fu Productions, a video production company with a cast and crew of largely ethnic East Asians, are tremendously popular with 2.4 million subscribers online and have recently distributed their feature film (in American English) via Vimeo. Once again, the Internet enables niche players to gather numbers and be profitable. However, I heard that most of their viewers are Asians. For a sneak peek of the film, click here.

WONG FU TRAILER:

In the late 1970s to early 1980s, there was the Cleopatra Wong movie series that sold very well in the international market. They cast English speaking Asian actors and were able to have their films sold not only in Western countries, but also the former Eastern European countries, Africa states and the Middle East.

So now we are talking. We do have English language films with Asian cast that sold internationally. This has been done.

CLEOPATRA WONG TRAILER:

If that worked in the 1970s to 1980s, then it ought to work better today with the popularity of social networks and cities getting more racially diverse. Diversity is more interesting than mono-culture. Imagine how boring Facebook would  be if it is only about one-country or one-culture/race. Producers and distributors ought to recognise this opportunity quickly.

More recently in 2013, the seven-minute English short film called "Gift", which I acted in with a Singaporean cast and crew, garnered more than 20 million hits online, and is still growing as we speak. This proves that an engaging script with a strong message and actors that can connect with the audience emotionally, will travel. For more about "Gift", click here.

GIFT:

Formats

Format counts too. Format is a growing market in the TV space. It gains momentum with the popularity of reality shows. Besides the successful talent shows like X-Factor, Voice and Britain Got Talent, there are cooking shows, dare devil shows, education shows, parenting shows...etc. Think of a unique idea that can sell to large audiences, have it prototype and sell it to a large network like ITV and you have it made. Leave the legal aspects and IP protection nightmares to them, they have an army of lawyers to deal with that. Even that, I heard  that it is often very difficult to protect a format. However, more often, the copycat succumbs to a lack of know-how to deliver the show to its desired results. So it is not just an idea, but the know-how to nail it down to a fine art.


EXAMPLE OF FORMAT:

SUMMARY

In summary, the Internet has changed the way TV shows and movies are made and it is now changing the way they are distributed. This will cause major upheavals and upset some market players among the incumbents, while creating new opportunities for newer and nimbler players. Some traditional TV companies have made the transition quickly and have succeeded in increasing their bottom line handsomely.  Those that succeed have mastered the art of applying technology to keep up with new trends, behaviour and content development.

There is a quest among all producers to create content that can travel internationally.

The Chinese market is the most attractive at the time of writing with many parties interested in co-production. This in part to by-pass the official limit of 34 foreign movies allowed into the country per year, with that limit to be re-negotiated in 2017.

Conversely, the Chinese are also interested in extending their products to the international market and with international content. So we may well see the genesis of Asian content with international appeal in the coming years.