Wednesday 30 March 2016

CGWORLD.JP covers "Global Meetup! 2016"

Today, Japan's biggest web magazine in CG industry "CGWORLD.JP" has released the "Global Meetup! 2016" seminar report today. The presentation I gave in Fukuoka.

http://cgworld.jp/feature/1603-globalmeetup.html

Sorry its only in Japanese.


タイ・シンガポール・マレーシア・そして日本。4カ国の代表が語り合った「映像コンテンツ海外進出セミナー」レポート

ゲーム・アニメ・映画・音楽・ファッション・デザインなどの企業が肩を並べる福岡市。2013年にはクリエイティブ都市・福岡の実現にむけて、産学官連携 による任意団体「クリエイティブ・ラボ・フクオカ(CLF)」を立ち上げ、さらなる取り組みを進めている。2016年2月25日(木)にはASEANから 3名のコンテンツビジネス関連企業を招き、Global Meetup!「映像コンテンツ海外進出セミナー」がT・ジョイ博多(JR博多駅直結の映画館)にて開催された。

(...Full Article Here)


From the Archives: David Kwok on the local animation industry and education



Facebook reminded me of an interview I had in 2013. Just realised that the strategy and vision I mentioned still very much applies today as our industry is facing new challenges.

David Kwok on the local animation industry and education
Tell us about your trip to USA

The recent trip to LA and New York has been fruitful. We have met with top executives from Blue Sky Studio, Sony Pictures Animation, Warner Brothers Animation, 20th Century Fox Animation, Bardel Entertainment, Hasbro Studios, Saban Brands and Dreamworks Animation. There is a lot of potential over there. Being good in what you do is just the first step, building relations and contacts is the next important thing.

What are your thoughts on the animation industry in Singapore today? In terms of things we are doing well and what we need to improve.

Singapore has a very good worldwide reputation in terms of doing business in this industry. And we have a good IP protection system. Many companies see us as a gateway to Asia and the trust level on Singaporean companies is very high.

Since we first started. We had been focusing a lot in building production skills, which is essential. But moving on, we should look at skills in business and production leadership, distribution, IP creation, licensing and merchandising to build the entire ecosystem.

Due to our cost, we cannot establish ourself only as a service hub for production. Or else our situation will end up like the manufacturing sector, where work is moving on to cheaper places like India and China. We do not want to just manufacture sports cars. But we need to look into designing sports cars.

We need more entrepreneurs to build our SMEs and hopefully, become an MNC someday. In this way, we can have a sustainable industry. In order to survive, we need to learn how to stand on our own two feet and create opportunities for ourselves. We need to control our own destiny.

Friday 18 March 2016

CEO Thoughts: Its the journey that matters. Not the destination.




Building this company has brought me to places I never dared to dream of. One thing that I have learnt is that you need to keep trying no matter how impossible it may seem. The dream keeps you alive and keeps you going. Someday you may get there. Even if you don’t, it’s the journey that matters. Not just the destination.

Stepping into Dreamworks Animation was one of those “impossible” dreams of mine. This is probably not a big deal to those who works in the US industry, but for someone like me from this “tiny island”, it was something beyond my wildest imagination.

Many years ago, I had the honour of meeting an US executive who was running one of the largest US Animation Studio in Singapore. Years later, she became one of the key executive at Dreamworks. Having only met her just once, I thought that she would have probably forgotten about me. Still, I tried my luck at contacting her anyway. Unsurprisingly, I didn’t get a reply; which is very normal when you write to someone so high up there. I tried again after 6 months. And this time, astonishingly, I got a reply. She told me she had forwarded my mail to another important executive who was handling all of Dreamworks’ major overseas operations. This is a miracle and I am really thankful to every one who gave me such a rare opportunity. (...read more)

Monday 14 March 2016

CEO's Thoughts: Thinking Out Of The Box

When I was first developing a master plan to promote Dream Defenders, the first step was to identify growing trends in technology. Next is to apply our creativity to integrate/utilise these new technologies to produce a new product to engage the audience of this new generation. From here, we add value to the IP and expose them to a larger market. That is why we moved from Stereoscopic 3d to AutoStereoscopic 3d to Augmented Reality to Virtual Reality. In today’s market of rapid change, you can no longer just build an animated TV series and call it a day. (...read more)


Tuesday 8 March 2016

Stem Inc Partners Appreciation

STEM Inc Partners’ Appreciation and Sharing Session on 7 March. James Phang (Our business development manager) received the letter of appreciation on our company's behalf.


Global Meetup! Fukuoka Japan 2016

The current state of the ASEAN content industry, and future Prospects in the ASEAN content market. (February 25th , 2016 14:00-20:00)

Keynote Speakers
【Thailand】Panida Dheva-aksorn (Dream Express / Director)
【Singapore】David Kwok (Tinyisland / CEO) 【Malaysia】Edmund Chan (Animasia / Managing Director)

Panel Discussion Moderator

【Japan】Tadashi Sudo(Anime!Anime! / CEO, Editor)

Venue

T-JOY Hakata (Cinema Complex)

Organizer

CREATIVE LAB FUKUOKA, Fukuoka Creative Content Association

Supporter

Fukuoka City Government



Full Gallery at https://www.facebook.com/tinyislandproductions/photos/?tab=album&album_id=969015763182173