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.
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