Tunku Mona: Policymakers have to believe in the importance of the film industry.
DIRECTORS, producers, screenwriters and others involved in filmmaking are thankful to the National Film Development Corporation Malaysia (Finas) for all it has done to boost the local film industry, especially when it comes to granting “soft money” to filmmakers to make movies.
But there are many more things the film development agency can do to further facilitate filmmaking in Malaysia, say those in the industry.
As director and screenwriter Al Jafree Md Yusop bluntly puts it: making films is expensive.
The grants given by Finas are limited but other international funds around the world can help filmmakers.
“There’s the World Cinema Fund and yet a lot of filmmakers are not aware of the existence of such funds. So there should be a local body that should be responsible for helping these talented filmmakers get this funding.
“[For example] Finas can give 20% of its actual budget and by having that, they can go to other funding bodies around the world to get more. That is what was done with Tiger Stripes and Abang Adik.
“Finas has to be more creative in helping local filmmakers find funding other than blindly providing the Digital Content Fund [DKD] to them, because the DKD is not enough,” Al Jafree says.
Making good films is more than just about throwing money at filmmakers, says independent producer Danish Mokhtar.
He points to the example of Jin Ong, who was a producer for many years before directing his first movie, the critically acclaimed Abang Adik.
“He had to learn and experience all those years for him to be able to make a film at 48 years old that was finally able to crack RM6mil at the box office.
“His experience and entrepreneurship led him to that, so like I said, with directors, you can’t just throw money at them. You have to train them first.
“So that’s why I feel Finas should come into the picture of training these producers, directors and writers.”
Ong was a film producer before venturing into directing and working on the award-winning 'Abang Adik'.
He is not expecting Finas to be the sole training provider. The private media sector such as Astro and Media Prima can also invest in building the next generation of filmmakers, he says.
Finas can also work on improving the filmmaking infrastructure in Malaysia, says director Tunku Mona Riza.
With all the filmmaking facilities under Finas, the body can also offer rate cuts for filmmakers to help cut down on expenses, she suggests.
She also acknowledges that Finas has shifted its focus to giving funds to scripts rather than producers’ pitches but she questions who will be vetting these scripts.
“If you are going to get someone from our industry or outsiders, it has to be someone who understands enough about our culture and at the same time there are no biases in giving judgement or feedback.”
There also should be some regulation in place in terms of working conditions for the film cast and crew, she says.
“Finas should come out and say if you want to do a 100-minute film, it cannot be less than this number of shooting days. If you cannot do this, we will not provide you with the documentation you need.”
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While there is a lot Finas could do, at the end of the day, Tunku Mona says policymakers have to believe in the importance of the film industry.
Filmmaking contributes to the economy and filmmakers pay taxes too, she says.
“If they take our industry seriously, then maybe they will start looking at smaller things that are affecting the industry that cumulatively become big things.
“See how far our industry can create a big tsunami in our economic income.”
