Tuesday 25 June 2013

The Essential of Investment in Creative Industry: A Reality?

In reference to my previous post of Investment in Entertainment: A Myth, I want to reaffirm the reality of investment in creative industry in general.

In my opinion, in Malaysia or Indonesia, we don't have an ecosystem to harness the potential of creative industry. We have bits and pieces everywhere. It is like a huge puzzle without a real possibility to be solved, may be in the short run.

Government Malaysia interventions and promotions of creative products are good but not in the long run. The systemic bias towards quantity or demand rather than quality is becoming a norm. Business sense will kick in to reflect the inherent tendency of viewers preference.

As for me, we don't actually have a total film industry in Malaysia or Indonesia. Simple. We don't have something that Hollywood or Bollywood has.

Do we need to follow Hollywood or Bollywood? Hell ya! Because the structure and fundamental framework they have simulate as an industry.

We don't have dedicated professional writers community at large, casting professionals, professional investors/producers, established distribution network, professional actors (we got a few familiar faces though) etc.

We got a few good directors. We got a lot indies practitioners who do not entirely conform with the mainstream. I suppose in Indonesia, independent film or music movements are bigger than the mainstreams. Indonesia herself is a puzzle, nonetheless.

In Indonesia, it is more like a market mechanism. The market will determine the size of demand and supply, prices, quality, quantity and allocation of resources. Participation from government would be very minimal. Sadly, more on regulating the market mechanism. Don't expect too much on government intervention although I do think that the inflow of capital or investment is necessary to inject and catalyst the market mechanism.

Who is the 'Universal Studios' of Malaysia or Indonesia, anyway?