Cultivating creativity
Content Malaysia pitching Centre not only offers funding but helps groom the creative community.
HAVE an idea to produce the next YouTube video sensation or an ambitious sci-fi action flick but don’t know where to begin?
“Creativity has a new home and that new home is Content Malaysia Pitching Centre,” declares Communications and Multimedia Minister Datuk Seri Ahmad Shabery Cheek during its launch last week in Platinum Sentral, KL Sentral.
The pitching centre was established to stimulate creative content in the country as, according to Ahmad Shabery, Malaysia’s creative content market size is RM7bil but only 15% is local content.
Those with ideas — whether in the areas of film, television, music, YouTube videos, gaming, mobile apps, comics and others — can pitch them and seek for financial support beginning at RM1,000.
“In the past, people may have found it a hassle to go to one government agency to seek for funding only to be referred to another and then another. I can imagine how difficult it can be for people to get their projects started.
“The pitching centre will act as a one-stop centre where representatives from four agencies are gathered under one roof,” explains the minister, adding the centre’s accessible location allows for all to travel with ease and convenience.
The four agencies comprise the National Film Development Corporation Malaysia (Finas), Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC), Multimedia Development Corporation (MDeC) and Radio Television Malaysia (RTM).
Ahmad Shabery also asserts the pitching centre has taken steps in ensuring an open and transparent environment: “There’s a perception that if you want to get funding you must know ‘someone.’ But this doesn’t provide a good ecosystem for getting as many people to produce content for the country.
“It has to be open and transparent. There will be a website that publishes which projects have succeeded or failed to receive funding and why, as well as the progress and results of the projects.”
Besides providing funding, the pitching centre is also aimed at grooming and cultivating creative minds. Workshops in directing, scriptwriting, making music scores, finding a product’s target market, patenting an idea, formulating a convincing pitch and more are in the pipeline.
The centre is equipped with auditoriums and meeting rooms for the creative community to gather and discuss ideas.
Asked if the submissions must fulfill certain criterias such as the obligatory use of the national language, the minister responds: “In the context of creating projects, be it YouTube videos, films or others, that aren’t targeted at domestic consumption but for the world market, there won’t be restrictions outlining that only the local language must be used.”
Indeed, Ahmad Shabery hopes the pitching centre will ultimately help elevate the quality of creative content and promote Malaysia to the world.
“We want Google to buy our homegrown apps, we want more Malaysian directors like James Wan (
to direct Hollywood films and we want our videos to dominate YouTube’s world charts,” he says.
“As (Finas director-general) Datuk Kamil Othman puts it, ‘If you are an athlete, you would strive to win an Olympic medal. If you are a filmmaker, you must think about how you can win an Academy Award.’ ”