KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 18 (Bernama) — Raw talent in the creative and content industry in Malaysia has to be nurtured to ensure its survival and, in the process, meet the government’s targets for the industry outlined in the Economic Transformation Programme (ETP), according to Multimedia Development Corporation (MDeC) Sdn Bhd.
MDeC Creative Multimedia Division vice-president Kamil Othman said many such talents were left wasted because they were not ‘polished’ to enable them to produce world-class content.
“For example, everybody has a story to tell but due to lack of imagination, we lack good writers,” he said after taking part in a forum on ‘Nurturing Raw Talents and Turning Them into World Beaters’ here.
It was part of the three-day KL Converge, a multi-platform digital content and creative industry conference and exhibition, taking place at the Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre (KLCC) here until tomorrow.
“There should be no right or wrong in being creative. People talk about being innovative but please remember that creativity comes first,” Kamil said.
Kamil said MDeC, which has been entrusted with, among others, the growth and exports of animation, had been nurturing talent for the last 10 years, including various winners of creative competitions held locally and abroad.
He also pointed out that the government had laid out plans to increase digital economy contribution to the country’s Gross Domestic Product to 17 per cent by 2020.
Another panellist, film director and producer Datin Paduka Suhaimi Baba said raw talents in the country needed a conducive environment that could inspire them to achieve success.
She said the industry currently was not being supportive of that as producers were struggling to work within tight budgets because returns from films were not as lucrative as before.
“This is a people-oriented industry. We get inspired by seeing success but, at the moment, that’s not happening. I can say only two per cent of us (in Malaysia) managed to come up with world-class content.
“A box office movie could collect up to RM14 million at the box office previously, but nowadays we only manage around RM200,000,” she told the forum, referring to the slump in the local movie industry.
Meanwhile, KRU Studios executive president Norman Abdul Halim said his company currently preferred to work on animation because of the vast available talent pool, high demand and the control factor it entailed.
He said compared to working on action movies, animation was a safer bet as uncontrollable factors such as the weather were out of the picture, helping to ensure no cost overruns.
KL Converge is organised by the Communications and Multimedia Ministry, Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission and National Film Development Corporation (Finas).
It is premised on the convergence of communications, broadcasting, digital technology and creative content like films, animation, music and drama.
— BERNAMA
