ContentAsia October/November 2024 by ContentAsia

C NTENT

When everyday is friDay: a view of Taiwan with Gary Tsai

Netflix’s Maya Huang on Chinese-language priorities

Plus Ofanny Choi on CMGO, Mark Francis on Vidio, Doreen Yap on Unforgivable & more

Go forth: CTE’s streaming future

Asian entertainment programmer, Celestial Tiger Entertainment (CTE), entered the streaming universe in August 2024 with standalone app, CMGO. CEO Ofanny Choi talks about the journey after 21 years in the linear pay-TV space.

In the spotlight

Netﬂix has high hopes for Born for the Spotlight, a 12-episode Mandarin series from Taiwanese ﬁlmmaker Yen Yi-wen. The series speaks to everything the streamer has been moving towards since 2020, says head of Chineselanguage content, Maya Huang.

friDay feels

The digital entertainment team at Taiwan’s Far EasTone spends all day ﬁguring out how to make every day feel like friDay.

Allied forces

Takeo Kodera, director for international co-productions for Kadokawa Corporation, talks about the Japanese publishing giant’s live action international co-productions and his preferred way of working with partners around the world.

ContentAsia Awards’ Best Director, Tushar Hiranandani, on a career that pretty much kicked off when the clapper boy fell ill.

TCCF 2024

This year’s Taiwan Creative Content Fest (TCCF) opens with greater participation, broader conversations, expanded networking opportunities, and bigger prize money for the largest-ever number of projects being pitched.

In the zone

Zombies, sex workers and traditional marriage practices mark Indonesian platform Vidio’s path into a new content era.

Singapore drama takes a new turn

a new turn

Mediacorp executive producer, Doreen Yap, on Singapore’s boldest free-TV series yet.

Paramount Animation president, Ramsey Naito, talks to the Asian A.V. Club about...

Director Janine Stein janine@contentasia.tv Events Manager CJ Yong cj@contentasia.tv ContentAsia Marketing & Awards Heather Berger heather@contentasia.tv Production Rae Yong Research Rhealyn Rigodon iyah@contentasia.tv

Formats Outlook 2024

Associate Publisher (Americas, Europe) and VP, International Business Development Leah Gordon leah@contentasia.tv

A life in animation

34

117 adaptations were commissioned or aired in Asia in the ﬁrst nine months of 2024 – a 19% decline in the same period last year. Banijay Rights leads formats distribution in Asia by volume for the ﬁrst nine months of this year, says ContentAsia’s Formats Outlook.

Assistant Publisher (Asia/Middle East) Malena Amzah malena@contentasia.tv To receive your regular free copy of ContentAsia, email contentasia@contentasia.tv

Jesseca Liu as Gao Shuya in Unforgivable

Gary Tsai, COO, Far EasTone Telecom

Go forth: CTE’s streaming future

Celestial Tiger Entertainment’s (CTE) ﬁrst-ever streaming platform changes the game for the 21-year-old Hong Kong-based Chinese entertainment channels operator. The CMGO Chinese movies app, launched in Singapore in August with a Malaysia roll out on the horizon, gives CTE a position in the streaming universe, embracing the delivery system of the future at the same time as keeping a ﬁrm hold on existing strengths. Which, of course, is all so very very easy to say.

New and exclusive movies on CMGO at launch included Andy Lau’s I Did It My Way, Aaron Kwok’s latest action comedy Rob n Roll and The Goldﬁnger, starring Andy Lau and Tony Leung Chiu Wai in their ﬁrst movie together 20 years after the critically acclaimed Infernal Affairs crime trilogy Coming soon is Hong Kong blockbuster Twilight of the Warriors: Walled In From China comes Article 20; from Taiwan the Golden Horse Award winner, Old Fox; and from Singapore, new food comedy King of Hawkers

The content part was easy compared to the 18-month technical journey, says Celestial Tiger Entertainment’s chief executive, Ofanny Choi. “It’s not like you launch the app and then are able to leave it alone,” she says.

Only weeks after the app’s Singapore launch, Choi spoke about the advantages of two decades of experience in the market as well as not being a ﬁrst mover in the streaming space.

“We could take all the beneﬁts from the apps already launched. We know what audiences like in terms of user interface and product development,” she said.

In addition to outsourcing data analysis and customer service, CTE kicked off CMGO in Singapore using existing pay-TV partners StarHub and Singtel, with their marketing platforms, bundling capability and payment gateways. But the telcos are marketplaces only; CTE is in full control of its subscribers, including customer service. This is the ﬁrst time since CTE was established 21 years ago that the programmer has a direct line to its customers. Choi has plans to add a direct-to-consumer line, perhaps in 12 months.

Still, she believes in the strength of partnerships, particularly with mobile and broadband operators. “You can enjoy more beneﬁts by working with partners,” she says. It’s a long-held position supported by industry apps bundling trends, including price promotions and joint marketing campaigns. “Look at the other successful streaming services in the market,” she says. “They are doing both – and I understand why.”

The great unknown in the very early days was the direct audience engagement to the only collection of its kind – and how to respond.

In the app’s ﬁrst days and weeks, while she was waiting for data

Andy Lau in I Did It My Way

I Did It My Way

analysis from third-party tech vendors, Choi said she was wholly focused on a good sign-on experience for new subscribers.

More than 50% of the content available on the app is ﬁrst-run and exclusive, with a new movie every week, including titles that do not meet traditional pay-TV content requirements.

Choi talks about the opportunity to surface “hidden gems” across the Chinese movie universe that have never been available to audiences in other Chinese markets.

“We can buy titles for CMGO that we would never ever have bought for our channels,” Choi says. Limbo, for instance. The raw and violent action thriller directed by Soi Cheang was named best ﬁlm of 2021 at the annual Hong Kong Film Critics’ Society Awards, but its classiﬁcation for violence makes it out of bounds for pay-TV channels.

Director’s cuts and original versions of ﬁlms – including original language versions – are also a CMGO superpower. This means, for instance, that Singapore audiences will be able to access the Cantonese-language Chinese movies with their original dialect soundtracks.

We respect and listen to our platforms, business partners and subscribers. But we also monitor what other streaming services are doing in the market. And we pretty much follow.”

For some titles, CMGO beneﬁts from scale in acquiring rights across multiple platforms. “It’s always challenging because other streaming services are also after content... so, yes, it is difﬁcult, but so far we are good. We managed to get all the content we wanted on CMGO in the end,” Choi says.

For now, CTE is buying regional movie rights for the app, but hasn’t ruled out a country-by-country approach depending on audience taste in speciﬁc markets. Choi says data will, ultimately, inform their decisions. “We will ﬁnd the right content for the right market,” she says.

CMGO carries CTE’s original productions into the streaming universe. “We are always looking at investment in content,” Choi says, highlighting creative collaborations for movies and series. Projects are in the works, possibly for 2025.

At the same time, CTE remains hypervigilant of content requirements in the markets in which it operates, and highlights the parental lock function. “It’s linear we a ﬁlms –to Limbo and other with of rental “It’s not that we don’t care about censorship.

For now, CTE has no plans to add its linear channels to the app. “If there is the opportunity, we can always explore that, but not right now,” Choi says.

Choi shrugs off notions of cannibalisation of core services by the new app, and says CTE remains fully committed to its linear services. Viewers like choice of how they watch, she says. “We still believe that in the next 10 or 20 years, people will still be watching channels,” she says.

CMGO ﬁlls more than a demographic gap. “Two years ago, when we looked at the streaming apps in the market, we saw a gap for a dedicated Chinese movies streaming service. “Our research told us people wanted it. Platforms said there was demand. That’s our differentiator.”

The Goldﬁnger

friDay feels

The digital entertainment team at Taiwanese telco, Far EasTone, spends all day ﬁguring out how to make every day feel like friDay. Team leader Gary Tsai on how the telco thinks about making consumers

that happy.

In Gary Tsai’s world, every day should be friDay. As COO of digital entertainment at Far EasTone Telecom, Tsai’s waking life is spent ﬁguring out how to bring that weekend play energy to Far EasTone’s friDay Video streaming platform around the clock.

friDay Video has four superpowers, Tsai says. These are exclusive and premium content, co-producing global hits, intensifying content investment through joint ventures and co-productions and AI-powered smart and personalised streaming.

The Far EasTone Telecom/friDay Video strategy has been built over nine years, expanding most recently into two entertainment production funds that will be up and running by the end of this year or in Q1 2025. The funds, announced in November 2023 during the Taiwan Creative Content Fest (TCCF) in Taipei, have been in the works since early 2024 with the Taiwan Creative Content Agency (TAICCA), CJ ENM HK and TVBS, among others.

The funds follow at least two years of friDay commitment to coproductions, including the two-year-old joint venture with Mission and friDay Video parent Far EasTone’s successful investment in JapaneseTaiwanese movie, 18x2 Beyond Youthful Days, which released on Netﬂix in August this year after a successful festival and theatrical run. Directed by Michihito Fujii, 18x2 Beyond Youthful Days stars Taiwanese actor/ singer, Greg Hsu, and Japan’s Kaya Kiyohara in the story of an unemployed games developer on a solo trip to Japan reminiscing about a past romance that never blossomed.

“We cannot do these on our own,” Tsai says, at the same time not glossing over the pain points of co-production. “Each co-production project has its own challenges, whether it’s money or having to re-write the script 10 time, or 20 times, or not being able to ﬁnd a great director, or casting,” he says.

The size of the funds has not been conﬁrmed. But the aim is clear: “We hope to continue to work with our domestic and international partners to come up with the best content for both local markets and international markets as well,” Tsai says. Content will span movies, TV series, variety shows and live events.

The co-production approach is ﬁrmly grounded in a broad entertainment strategy. friDay Video, owned and operated by one of Taiwan’s three telcos, is Taiwan’s number one domestic streaming platform. friDay serves Taiwan’s appetite for Korean, Japanese and local content and has committed to a growing slate of co-production partnerships in a crowded environment of more than 20 local and global OTT services.

We cannot do these [productions] on our own.”

Gary Tsai

The average consumer in Taiwan used three OTT platforms from 2020 to 2023, but paid for less than two, compared to the U.S. where consumers pay for up to three, according to friDay Video. In 2023, Taiwan’s average paid streaming subscription was 1.57, down from 1.77 during the pandemic. “What does that tell us?” Tsai asks. “That it’s not easy to win people’s eyeballs,” he answers.

At the same time, Taiwan cable, once the crown jewel of Asia’s pay-TV environment, is shrinking. Streaming viewership overtook cable viewing for the ﬁrst time in 2023. Tsai cites public data that shows Taiwan’s OTT market size up from about US$856 million to about US$2 billion heading into 2023. Although growth has slowed, the trajectory still points north. By 2027, Taiwan’s streaming market size is expected to be more than US$2.5 billion, according to PwC Taiwan Entertainment & Media Outlook.

The top genres are drama, movies, variety shows, animation, music programmes and news, according to TAICCA’s 2023 Taiwan Content Trends report. Surveys from three local agencies –Nielsen Taiwan, the National Communications Commission (NCC) and TAICCA – show friDay Video in top

Distribution of Production Cost for Taiwan’s Television Drama Programmes 2020 to 2022

Production Cost Per Episode 2020 2021 2022

production

Maximum Value

Note: Excludes data of extremely large productions.

Source: Subsidy data for television programme production (for dramas) from the BAMID of the Ministry of Culture organised by this survey.

Distribution of Production Cost for Taiwan’s Television Non-Drama Programmes 2020 to 2022

Production Cost Per Episode 2020 2021 2022

Av. production cost

Note: Excludes data of extremely large productions.

Source: Subsidy data for television programme production (for non-dramas) from the BAMID of the Ministry of Culture organised by this survey.

In 2022, the average production cost per episode of television drama programmes increased by 7.86% compared to 2021, after excluding extreme values, with a median of NT$5.5103 million/US$171,409, according to a report released in September 2024 by the Taiwan Creative Content Agency (TAICCA).

In 2022, the average production cost per episode of television nondrama programmes increased by 7.88% compared to 2021, with a median of NT$1.7447 million/US$54,273.

In recent years, non-drama programmes have seen an increase in large-scale investment due to trends such as outdoor camping and diverse reality shows following the pandemic, and some producers have adopted movie or series specifications for shooting. Some nondrama programmes have capitalised on the professional abilities or fan bases of YouTubers and influencers, inviting them to participate as guests or create specific programmes, resulting in a polarisation of production budget planning.

In 2022, the average production cost per episode of children programmes decreased by 3.59% compared to 2021, with a median of NT$1.4236 million/US$44,295. The decrease was due to the higher perepisode cost of large-scale productions in 2021, which were relatively higher in numbers, thereby raising the average production cost per episode.

AI really gives OTT operators strength... it’s not just something to say to show off.”

Gary Tsai

local streaming spot. That’s behind global platforms, but Tsai is taking the win. “We have been trying our best,” he says.

friDay Video’s line up is led by Korean, Japanese and local Taiwanese content – in that order – with a wide range of movies as well as a strong flow of live content in the form of news (“Taiwanese are crazy about news,” Tsai says) and live events, such as music concerts.

friDay takes the live event approach a notch up with, for example, multi-angle cameras “for a better user experience”, Tsai says, underscoring the focus on being “competitive in a very fiercely competitive market”.

Korean titles include exclusive rights to premium drama followed by movies and a trove of variety shows. In Q2 this year, friDay Video streamed about 18 variety titles. “Variety has really taken off in Taiwan,” Tsai says.

He emphasises a string of strong partnerships with Korean broadcasters as well as platforms such as Hong Kong-based regional streamer, Viu, through which friDay Video accessed 2022 Korean blockbuster Reborn Rich. The following year, friDay worked with Korean broadcaster SBS for Taxi Driver 2. Korean thriller Knight Flower, which broke MBC rating records for a Friday-Saturday drama in Q1 this year, was also part of friDay’s line up. “For the past three years, we have been able to license the highest-rating programmes both in Korea and in Taiwan,” Tsai says.

friDay Video has also inked a slate of exclusive deals with major Japanese studios and TV stations, including an annual contract with Fuji TV, for premium drama and some movies.

Taiwanese content is a third – but rising – pillar for friDay Video. The local initiative kicked off two or three years ago with licensing of drama series, movies variety and reality shows.

U.S. studio movies along with films from China, Hong Kong and Thailand build out the entertainment offering.

Other Asian markets have taken something of a back seat so far, but nothing is off the table, Tsai says.

Meanwhile, AI... speaking during the ContentAsia Summit in Taiwan in September, Tsai said friDay Video’s churn had been effectively reduced by 10% in a year because of its AI-powered recommendation system developed with Microsoft and Open AI. Users have also increased their viewing time by more than 30%. “AI really gives OTT operators strength... it’s not just something to say to show off”. Happy Friday!

Allied forces

Japanese publishing giant Kadokawa Corporation these days is all about the power of a global media mix. Its sprawling business is structured for global growth, its powerful IP already visible and expanding across diverse media channels. The company continues to create new entertainment content as a source of value, and keeps a keen eye on what it views as the ever-expanding global content market.

As the corporation counts down to its 80th birthday celebrations in 2025, its red carpet visibility at film festivals around the world is high. Its latest film co-production, La Voie du serpent (Serpent’s Path), screened in competition at the San Sebastián International Film Festival in September. The mystery thriller, co-written and directed by renowned filmmaker Kiyoshi Kurosawa, was also part of the Busan International Film Festival Gala Presentation section in October.

Between 10 and 15 projects are in the works with various partners in different countries, says Takeo Kodera, Kadokawa Corporation’s director for international co-productions. As yet another major anniversary appears on the horizon – the 50th anniversary of Kadokawa’s ﬁrst ﬁlm, mystery thriller The Inugami Family, in 2026 – Kodera says IP and a global outlook are key.

Kadokawa’s eye on markets beyond Japan is not new. This year is the 25th anniversary of Taiwan Kadokawa, which was established in 1999. Taiwan was Kadokawa’s ﬁrst international outpost. Taiwan was followed by divisions in, among other countries, the U.S., France, Hong Kong and Malaysia. The newest arm is in Korea.

IP expansion is also ongoing. Since its founding by Genyoshi Kadokawa as a publishing company in 1945 after World War II, Kadokawa has also expanded into gaming, e-commerce and education, among other activities.

The early business model developed in the 1970s was to develop films based on books. “As a publisher, of course, we want the audience to read the book and watch the film. Or you watch the film and say, ‘oh, I like this story, maybe I want to do more reading’. That was the business model,” Kodera says. The latest global media mix, including games and e-commerce, grew from there.

Japan has been slower than some other markets, particularly in Europe, to embrace film co-production. Kodero says there are a few reasons, beginning with the size of the local box office. Japanese box office is one of the world’s top five.

“The market is not growing, but still it’s a big market. So all

the business models have been established,” Kodera says.

According to Box Office Mojo, Japan’s box office to 13 October this year was more than US$700 million. In 2023, box office topped US$1 billion, down about 8% from the previous year’s US$1.12 billion, and down significantly from 2010’s US$2.2 billion. 2020 broke a 17-year streak of annual box office of more than US$1 billion. At just below US$897 million, 2021 recorded the lowest annual box office since 2002.

Language barriers may contribute to a certain reluctance. “Maybe we don’t need to go outside. Nobody speaks Japanese outside of Japan, so communication-wise, the language barrier, the culture barrier... we feel kind of comfortable to keep the business model as is,” he says.

Japanese film funding, production and decision-making systems, where a yes from everyone involved is required, are stable and reliable, but also unique to Japan. This could be another reason Japan has been slower to work with outside groups, Kodera says.

A push into international co-production means fundamental changes

[ On potential coproduction partners ] Sometimes we’ve known each other for a long time. Sometimes it’s somebody I don’t know. Then I start with, ‘who are you, why do you want to do this, how do you want to do it’. Those are the three basic questions... Then we get to know each other.”

Takeo Kodera Director for International Co-productions, Kadokawa Corporation

to financing and structure, all without the kind of government support or soft money for co-production that exists in other markets.

And then there are production budgets, which are surprisingly low. The average film budget is between US$1 million and US$2 million. Few films – “maybe one a year” – go over US$10 million.

Despite these familiar obstacles, Kodera remains committed to co-production. “I’ve always worked in an international field... and there’s IP to explore. There are people who are interested in doing coproduction”.

The wins are worthwhile. Produced by Kodera and David Gauquie, La Voie du serpent (Serpent’s Path) is about a grieving father Albert (played by Damien Bonnard), who enlists Japanese psychiatrist Sayoko (Ko Shibasaki) to exact revenge on members of an organ trafficking

organisation involved in the death of his eight-year-old daughter. Kiyoshi Kurosawa wrote the script of the 2024 version with French journalist, Aurelien Ferenczi. The 1998 Japanese original was written by Hiroshi Takahashi (The Ring). Kadokawa released the film in Japan in June this year.

Kodera says the new version of Serpent’s Path happened over two conversations. “I was talking to Mr Kurosawa about the remake of another movie and he wasn’t that interested,” he says. “Then I asked him, ‘is there any movie you want to remake. And he gave me this one [Serpent’s Path]. That was the first conversation,” he says. Serpent’s Path is Kurosawa’s first remake of one of his own films.

The second conversation was with Kadokawa’s French partner, Cinefrance Studios. “We were always talking about doing something. You know, lunch and dinner and talking in general... I asked them if they knew Mr Kurosawa. And they said, ‘yes, of course’. They didn’t know Serpent’s Path... they watched it and liked it... I talked to Mr Kurosawa, and asked if he would be interested in doing the remake in France. He shot a movie [Daguerrotype, 2016] in France before and he had a very good experience. He always wanted to come back to France... So he agreed. And that’s how it started.” The film is a co-production between Cinefrance Studios, Kadokawa and Tarantula.

The risks were not insignificant, including lead actress, Ko Shibasaki (47 Ronin), who had to memorise lines in a language she doesn’t speak and sound like a native who has been living in France for a decade. Three dialect coaches – two in Japan and one in France – and four or five months later, Shibasaki was ready.

It helped that Kurosawa knows exactly what he wants. “Most of the takes are once only. He’s very precise... Every morning he gives all the direction in Japanese, which is then translated. He gives the order precisely and very clearly and very creatively and interestingly. That’s how all the crew was motivated,” Kodera says.

Serpent’s Path was a private co-production co-funded via different channels in Japan and France, rather than part of a formal FrenchJapanese treaty, with Kadokawa taking sales rights ex France and Belgium. “There is no treaty [with France]. We [Japan] just signed with Italy. Slowly, we are changing.”

Kadokawa has between 10 and 15 projects in various stages of development with partners in different countries, including one that has been commissioned.

“Of course we always try to get the global market,” he says. “I know it’s not easy, but that’s always a target. These days local language products can be in the global market,” he adds, mentioning projects in the U.S., U.K., China, Germany and Korea. “Any project has the potential to go global,” he says.

There’s no expectation of simple conclusions and straight lines to the finish. “Sometimes we’ve been friends, known each other for a long time. Sometimes it’s somebody I don’t know. Then I start with, ‘who are you, why do you want to do this, how do you want to do it’. Those are the three basic questions I always ask. Then we get to know each other, make sure they understand the IP,” he says.

Some elements are simple though. “As the publishing company, the author is very important... Once we feel the offers are good enough to present to the author, we do. Otherwise, the project is not going to happen.”

In the spotlight

Netflix has high hopes for Born for the Spotlight, a 12-episode Mandarin series from Taiwanese filmmaker Yen Yi-wen. The series speaks to everything the streamer has been moving towards since 2020, says head of Chinese-language content, Maya Huang.

Original Taiwanese drama, Born for the Spotlight, premieres on Netflix on 7 November, a tiny bit shy of two years since Maya Huang joined Netflix, four years since the streamer unveiled its commitment to Chinese originals, and eight years since it rolled out in Taiwan. The auspicious geometric progression seems to come at a time of particular harmony for the Taipei-based Chinese-language unit.

The 12-episode series, set in the cutthroat world of show business, has been given the star treatment. Written and directed by Yen Yi-wen (The Making of An Ordinary Woman) and produced by Olive Ting (Oh No! Here Comes Trouble), Born for the Spotlight was the only Chineselanguage title selected for the On-Screen section of this year’s Busan International Film Festival (BIFF) in October, where it premiered ahead of its streaming release.

Born for the Spotlight is the poster series for what Huang and Netflix are trying to achieve. “It’s such a great example of a successful local creator trying to do something bigger,” Huang says. A former actress, Yen’s The Making of An Ordinary Woman was a small scale but hugely popular family dramedy. Born for the Spotlight is a super-juicy drama, all about the glamour of showbiz, “on a much larger scale, but still very close to the creator’s heart”.

A screenwriter in a previous life, Huang was behind movies such as Big Little Women and End of Summer. She became Netflix’s head of Chinese-language content at the beginning of this year.

Huang says joining Netflix has given her “the opportunity to take what I learned to the other side, to share with the platform but also to build better communication and to be a bridge for Netflix and creators”.

Asked during the ContentAsia Summit in Taipei in September about what she thinks her creative background brings to the Netflix role, Huang said “being a writer is being all about creating all these characters, creating the story, building the world in your head, and you have full control ... But I am not only interested in my own writing. I’m also interested in helping others people develop their stories, to get their projects going”.

“I think my superpower is the ability to be really subjective when it’s the emotional journey, when we are trying to create a story, but also be objective when I need to look at a story, to look at the show from different perspectives, from the audience perspective, from the platform’s perspective, from the investors’ perspective.”

Netflix’s focus on Chinese content isn’t brand new. The platform made its larger commitment known in 2020, going on to back shows such as dramas Copycat Killer and Wave Makers, both released in 2023.

Huang says Netflix spent time “really trying to understand the audience locally, the audience of Chinese-language content and also the landscape of the creative community, of the production capacity here”.

“We’ve had ups and downs, there’s no one single success formula for making a good story, for making a good show... it’s not only about single titles. We realised that there is a very strong appetite among local audiences for premium Chinese-language content. Audiences in Taiwan have such strong, love, passion, and also a sense of pride for Chinese-language content coming out of Taiwan. That’s one big win we found... and the other is really about the local creative community,” she says.

Copycat Killer, for example, was adapted from a Japanese novel. “The local creators were able to translate it into a story that is so authentic, and relatable... But in the meantime, it has the most thrilling and most engaging element of the crime genre that it is able to attract a wider audience, even outside Chinese-speaking regions.”

Wave Makers, a political drama Huang describes as the West Wing of Taiwan with a #metoo storyline, also changed the game in a big way. Produced by KOKO Entertainment for Netflix, the series was directed by Chun-Yang Lin (The World Between Us) and written by Li-Ying Chien and Wei-Chao Peng.

“We are seeing that creators in Taiwan, whether it’s producers, writers or directors, have a very strong sense of social topics, social issues, that is super relevant to local audiences, and also connects the local culture to the bigger global context,” Huang says.

Wave Makers is at its core the story of a woman who is the victim of an abusive relationship. “When the show was launched, it got so much attention... it ignited the #metoo movement in Taiwan’s local entertainment industry. And then, foreign press like BBC and CNN picked up the story. It is such a great example for us that we are able to have local creators, telling local stories and using our platform to reach a wider audience and also connecting a local story to a global context,” she says.

In addition to dealing with social issues, Huang says Taiwanese creators can be very innovative with stories. Action comedy Marry My Dead Body, for example, is both deeply rooted in local culture and in the universal theme of family crisis. The film, directed by Wei-Hao Cheng, is a coming-of-age story about a dead gay man and the conflict/reconciliation between him and his father. Marry My Dead Body spent two weeks on Netflix global non-English film top 10 in 2023, and was a top 10 film in six countries.

“The premise of the story is very local but it has such a contemporary element in the LGBTQ story and the genre is universal. It is a family drama, mixed with comedy. The emotional journey and theme resonated

The production capacity, the ecosystem, here in Taiwan has its own challenges, but also its own strengths. What we are doing right now is making long-term investments in talent, both above and below the line, one original show at a time.”

Maya Huang

Head of Chinese-language Content, Netflix

with a wider audience,” Huang says.

“What we are looking for are stories that will first and foremost resonate, work for our local audience, which is in Taiwan. When we talk about Chinese-language content, about a Chinese-speaking audience, we are not talking about a diaspora all over the world. We are more focused on the Asia-Pacific region. We don’t only share a language. There’s also the culture, the history.”

“We are looking for creators and producers who are aware of audience needs and have authentic stories that resonate with local viewers first. We have to make sure they are willing to go on their journey on a storytelling, production scale and quality level that will meet our global standards,” she adds.

There is no single formula for success, and there’s definitely no quick and easy path to a “global audience”. Huang says Netflix’s approach is uniform in every region. “A show needs to be successful locally first, and then, with the strength of our platform, we will find its wider audience,” she says.

Within the broad Chinese-language category, every market has its own ecosystem. “For example, the production capacity, the ecosystem, here in Taiwan has its own challenges but also its own strengths. What we are doing right now is making long-term investments in talent, both above and below the line, one original show at a time.”

“We are working with local talent to bring up the quality of the storytelling, the quality of the production, and also implement best practices when comes to elements like safety, respect, etc,” she says. The strategy includes bigger industry-facing workshops, focusing on, for instance, writers rooms and VFX. The longer-term goal is to build a positive creative cycle.

In addition to making local language originals and licensing Taiwanese shows, Huang and her team also acquire Mainland Chinese content and titles from across the Chinese-speaking world. Rather than focusing on which Chinese-language market is bigger/better/best, Huang speaks of all types of Chinese content co-existing on the platform. “Each region has different strengths,” she says.

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TCCF 2024

When Shōgun producer Eriko Miyagawa arrives in Taipei for this year’s Taiwan Creative Content Fest (TCCF) in November as one of the mentors for the pitching workshop, she becomes part of a strategic plan to enhance the creative abilities of the selected teams and foster inter-

national exchanges and collaboration.

Organised by the Taiwan Creative Content Agency (TAICCA), TCCF 2024 runs from Tuesday, 5 November, to Friday, 8 November, at the Taipei Nangang Exhibition Center.

TAICCA says TCCF “celebrates creativity, fuels collaborations, and shapes the future of the creative content industry”.

The event is divided into three main sections – pitching, a market and a forum.

This year’s TCCF MARKET, which focuses on licensing IP, fostering business collaboration and exchanging ideas and resources, brings together more than 88 agencies and companies from around the world.

Market participants include the Korea Creative Content Agency (KOCCA), which is attending TCCF for the first time, along with Gyeonggi Content Agency (GCA), TV Tokyo, Fuji TV, Lotte Corporation, Kakao Entertainment, Rakuten Group, and Singapore’s Mediacorp.

Domestic exhibitors include major Taiwanese TV stations and production companies, along with tech firms such as UserJoy Technology, Inventec, ADATA Technology and ASUS Cloud, and eight film-related city and county government agencies.

TCCF PITCHING sessions are divided into two – “Project to Screen”, which matches film, TV series, animation and documentary projects with funding and facilitates integration into the global market; and “Story to Screen”, which highlights IP with market potential across all platforms, ranging from fiction and non-fiction, comics, and original story concepts.

“The sections are designed for talents to present their projects to a diverse audience of investors and industry professionals,” TAICCA says, adding: “Pitching provides opportunities for co-production, investment, and support that drive these projects forward to the next phase.”

TCCF PITCHING features awards sponsored by CJ ENM HK and Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival’s (BIFAN) Network of Asian Fantastic Films (NAFF), as well as cross-industry organisations in the fields of technology, finance, and animation. Prizes totalling NT$7.35 million/ US$228,000 across more than 30 awards plus international festival resources are up for grabs in this year’s pitching events.

The 2024 TCCF FORUM revolves around the theme “Together for Impact” and will feature 15 panels and keynotes by speakers from 12 countries covering topics such as variety shows, film and television, animation, and children’s content.

TCCF AWARD: Best Story

TCCF 2023

Pitching sessions during TCCF 2023

TCCF market

FOCUS

“I like biopics with a little tadka”

ContentAsia Awards 2024 Best Director, Tushar Hiranandani, talks to Vanita Kohli-Khandekar about a career that pretty much kicked off when the clapper boy fell ill.

ContentAsia Awards 2024 Best Director Tushar Hiranandani’s filmography suggests a person who is, at heart, a journalist who ventured into feature films. Yet he made his name writing successful comedies such as Masti (now a franchise with three films), Housefull (2 and 4) and Half Girlfriend Applause Entertainment’s Scam 2003: The Telgi Story with Studio Next for SonyLIV was Hiranandani’s first streaming series as director. The show chronicles the life of Abdul Telgi, who orchestrated India’s biggest counterfeit stamp paper scam, worth Rp30,000 crore/US$3.8 billion. The Telgi scam exposed deep-seated corruption in India’s political and bureaucratic corridors of power.

Applause Entertainment says the TV series recreates the vibrant tapestry of the 1990s, “immersing viewers in an

eye-opening tale of ambition, corruption and power”.

The ContentAsia Awards Jury clearly agreed, voting for Hiranandani for his treatment of this rich subject matter, his attention to detail and production design, his ability to bring characters and their journeys to life, and creating an environment where viewers become so heavily invested in the main character.

Vanita Kohli-Khandekar talked to the Mumbai-based director about being bad at studies, his best friends, cold-calling director Hansal Mehta, the time Indra Kumar threw him out, and how he made his way back and up.

Your father, Ashok Hiranandani, was a film distributor. What attracted you to writing and directing? “My dad lost our house somewhere in the late 1980s, early 1990s. In those days distributors put in their own money. For me the fun part of growing up was going to the premieres of the films he distributed – Nikaah (1982), Toofan (1989), Pathar Ke Phool (1991)... Since I am dyslexic I was bad at studies. It meant spending a lot of time at home playing cricket and watching films. Movies were my best friends. When we lost everything we shifted to a one-room home in Jogeshwari (in the Western suburbs of Mumbai).

“Dad had produced Indra Kumar’s ﬁrst

Scam 2003: The Telgi Story

Gujarati ﬁlm. Kumar gave me a job as assistant director (AD). My task was to get cigarettes and stuff for people... When the clapper boy fell ill, I was allowed on the set. Over three years of working as an AD on several ﬁlms I learned so much about camera angles, lenses, about shooting.

“When Kumar was launching his third film, I had just seen Dil Chahta Hai (2001, a cult film that defined a generation). I told him it was time for something different and he threw me out. Eventually, just when I was about to write a film for Milaap Zaveri, Kumar called me. And I narrated the film to all of them; they laughed. That is how Masti (Fun, 2004, the first film he wrote) was born.”

How did you move to directing? “I always wanted to become a director. When I got married in 2011, Nidhi (his wife, Nidhi Parmar) didn’t like what I wrote. But I enjoyed the process of writing. I had nine hits and was among the highest paid writers. In the same year, I saw an episode of Satyamev Jayate (a Star TV show hosted by Aamir Khan) which featured Chandro and Prakashi Tomar (the octogenarian sisters-in-law who learned to shoot in their 60s and went on to win several national championships. Chandro died in 2021). It made me cry. And that is how Saand Ki Aankh, my first film as a director, was born. Nidhi said she would produce it (under Chalk N Cheese Productions, a banner the couple co-owns). Then we met Anurag Kashyap (filmmaker and then co-founder of Phantom Films) at a wedding and he said he will produce it. Reliance Entertainment had 50% of Phantom then and they got involved.

Saand Ki Aankh released in October 2019. It didn’t do well but got a lot of respect and brought me several offers from OTT.”

Then Covid happened... “I had spent so much money buying this house, we had just had our son and at one point I was writing six ﬁlms. And suddenly there was no work for two years. When Scam 1992 released in October 2020, I watched it in one night. And early in the morning, I called Hansal Mehta (the director) to rave about the show. He didn’t know me. I kept in touch with him. Later on in June 2021 he offered me Scam 2003: The Telgi Story.”

Scam 2003, Saand Ki Aankh and now Srikanth... Are you becoming the biopic man? “As a writer you create heroes. But in real life there are so many wonderful unsaid stories that excite me. I cry, laugh, clap, if that happens, it is a story I want to do. Srikanth Bolla (the visually-impaired businessman on whom Hiranandani based his second ﬁlm) fobbed me off for long. But eventually his partner, Ravi Mantha, invited me to spend three days following him around in Hyderabad. Srikanth said he had given the rights to Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra (maker of Rang De Basanti and Bhaag Milkha Bhaag, among other movies). Eventually both Ravi and Srikanth were keen that I do the ﬁlm; they got the rights back from Mehra.”

You don’t write your own ﬁlms? “No. Things have changed so much. And writers like Sumit (Purohit), Jagdeep (Siddhu), Karan Vyas know that I like biopics with a little tadka (zingy tempering). (Sumit and Jagdeep wrote Srikanth; Karan wrote Scam 2003) Also Bhushan (Kumar, MD of T-Series and Srikanth producer), doesn’t interfere. He gave us a free hand.”

What are you working on now? “We (Chalk N Cheese) are producing a Marathi ﬁlm for Zee, based on true events. There three ﬁlms in the pipeline.”

Unforgivable: Singapore drama takes a new turn

Mediacorp executive producer, Doreen Yap, spoke to James Moore about Singapore’s boldest free-TV series yet.

In the dark alley behind a seedy brothel owned by her father, 10-yearold Gao Shuya is almost abducted. Police ofﬁcer Wu Yingqiu saves her, changing her life forever. And so begins a new dramatic path for Singapore’s Mediacorp, which premiered the Chinese drama Unforgivable in September this year, with a M18 rating for 20 episodes on streaming platform meWatch and an 18-episode PG version for free-TV broadcast.

The decision to release two versions in notoriously sanitised Singapore was not what raised eyebrows when the show premiered to the industry during the ﬁrst ContentAsiaPREMIERES event in Taiwan in September. It was the subject matter – sex-based crime, including rape and incest, dramatised from domestic true-crime cases – that put a crack in the long-held perception of the kinds of shows prioritised on Singapore’s stories list.

The unvarnished blow-by-blow backstory of the show’s journey from concept to air may never be made public. But when the history of Singapore’s broadcast behemoth is written, Unforgivable may well serve as the dividing line between the Mediacorp-that-was and what came next Unforgivable stars Jesseca Liu as the grown-up Gao Shuya, the newly appointed head of the Sexual Offence Department (SOD). The unit, set up by Wu Yingqiu (Zhu Hou Ren), is tasked with investigating a wide range of sex-related crimes. SOD Unit members join for different reasons. The team includes human rights activist, Lin Yifan (played by Shane Pow); Guan Lin (Hong Ling), who put her father in jail; and Li Junhao (Gavin Teo), who has a ticking bomb in his body. While Shuya appears to be the best person to lead the unit, she remains haunted by childhood memories.

Executive producer, Doreen Yap, speaks about breaking new ground in Singapore...

What were the challenges of bringing to life a drama focusing on such a sensitive topic? “As the stories in Unforgivable were inspired by real-life

cases, our main challenge was in keeping the content realistic and raw, yet also making it tasteful. The drama features several stories that were inspired by real-life cases seen in the news, although the characters and scenarios have been ﬁctionalised for dramatic purposes.

“While it may leave some viewers feeling disturbed or uncomfortable, ultimately, we want them to believe that what they are watching is based on reality. To achieve this, we had to ﬁnd a balance between the intensity of the language and visuals, while at the same time being mindful of sensitivities.”

Would you consider Unforgivable ground breaking for Singapore? “Yes, I think so. It is the ﬁrst drama in Singapore that puts the spotlight on sexual abuse and violence with an investigative angle. We produced two versions: an M18 version that is only available for streaming on meWatch [Mediacorp’s streaming platform]; and a PG version to cater to general audiences on free-to-air TV.

“This is the ﬁrst time that a drama of this genre has been screened for free-TV/broadcast audiences, and was not without its challenges. In addition to allowing more viewers to catch the show, it gives parents an opportunity to guide their children on this topic. I hope both versions will be well received and leave a lasting impression.”

Jesseca Liu as Gao Shuya

Doreen Yap, Executive Producer, Mediacorp

What’s the history behind the project and did you have any hesitation about taking it on? “Sexual violence remains a critical issue worldwide. Yet people find it hard to discuss openly, and victims often struggle to voice their experiences. When our writer, Alisia [Alisia Pek, who wrote the series with Ong Siew Sze], pitched this concept, I was immediately attracted to it and believed that it was important to address these issues thoughtfully.

“However, I also questioned if it was even possible to bring such a concept to fruition in Singapore. Not only had we not taken on such a project before, we also knew it would be very sensitive and challenging, especially if we were going to air it on free TV.

“After much deliberation, we ultimately felt that it would be a meaningful project and were up for the challenge. We hope that through this drama, we can normalise conversations about this subject, to break the silence and reduce the stigma associated with it.”

What did the series mean for you as executive producer? “For me, the broader message I would like to leave viewers is that sexual violence is very real and is happening all around us. I hope we can all play a part to help victims find the courage to stand up for themselves and report crimes to the authorities. And also, to be more sensitive and show concern to people around us, especially when they show signs that they need help.”

I questioned myself if it was even possible to bring such a concept to fruition in Singapore. Not only had we not taken on such a project before, we also knew it would be very sensitive.”

Doreen Yap, Executive Producer, Unforgivable

Two directors brought Unforgivable to life... “The two directors were Zhang Huiying and Yo Chen. We were cognisant that such a sensitive topic could be easily sensationalised, and were determined to portray the crimes in as realistic a manner as possible without over-dramatising them. By doing so, they were able to effectively bring out the heinousness of these crimes and convey the extent of their impact on the victims and their emotions.”

Some cast members have gone public with their experiences of abuse. Was this something you knew would happen? “No, I did not expect them to share in this way. But as I read their personal stories in the media, I felt heartened knowing that they had spoken up. This is exactly one of the reasons that we made this drama – to encourage people to not be afraid to speak up and to create more awareness.”

In the zone

Zombies, sex workers and traditional marriage practices mark Indonesian platform Vidio’s path into a new content era. Chief content and strategy ofﬁcer, Mark Francis, speaks about zones of interest, a measurement system he calls “taste TAM”, and moving from 14 originals a year to between 18 and 24.

Indonesian streaming platform Vidio closes 2024 with 14 original series, more competition for local talent from Netﬂix, less competition than expected from Prime Video, which pulled the plug on grand ambitions at the beginning of the year; and little to zero competition for local production from Disney+ Hotstar, which pretty much followed Prime Video after a big-swinging arrival in 2020.

Vidio’s chief content and strategy officer, Mark Francis, isn’t sure that international flip-flopping on local content strategy will make life easier... or more difficult. “We are already making 15 to 16 series a year. We want to get that to between 18 and 24. That challenge is going to feel painful whether or not Disney or Amazon are vying for local resources,” he said during the 2024 ContentAsia Summit in September. “I guess at the upper level of IP, you could say that less competition makes it a little bit easier for us to breathe, but I wouldn’t overstate the effect... I don’t think those platforms would have scaled that much to make a difference to the subscriber than I want.”

Day to day, he is way more concerned about answering fundamental questions about streaming content.

Francis, who has been around since the beginning of streaming as we know it, continues to ask a version of the questions now as he asked then, albeit almost 10 years later with some wins and a lot of knocks, led by: “What should a streaming show look like?”.

Back then, when TV was all about free and drama was all about low-cost long-running soaps, consumers paid only for feature ﬁlms.

“A lot of the inspiration for what became accepted as a streaming series was inspired by feature ﬁlm,” Francis says. And so he called OTT platforms’ early production efforts ‘movie minus’.

“You take the economics of a feature ﬁlm and you look at doing something in six to eight parts that has production value, that has genre, that has IP, that has A list actors, instead of the actors you see on TV. Because at the time, we needed to market ourselves, so that became the marketing for OTT. That was the beginning...”

One pandemic, some dramatic platform fails and much industry angst later, Francis is looking

at a streaming slate that he’s as happy with as he has ever been for the biggest platform in a market with scale. And he’s working with some of the people he met way back when, producers he describes as partners “in my early experiments”.

“It’s been nine, very hectic months trying to ﬁgure it out again,” he says of this latest job as chief content and strategy ofﬁcer for Vidio, the streaming brand of Indonesia’s sprawling Emtek Group.

Vidio has 4.3 million paying subscribers, including customers who come in through telco bundles.

Emtek’s free-TV channels gives Vidio access to a rich vein of mass market content. Premium sports rights adds appointment viewing and subscription revenue. Part of Francis’ remit is to build up a hyper-local scalable premium entertainment business.

Francis’ focus is on subscribers who come in direct rather than through bundles. “How do we innovate for them?” he asks.

There is no “secret sauce, but I do believe there are ingredients”, Francis says. “If you look at taste as sort of zones of interest you will ﬁnd that there are certain common ingredients. The key is to make that fresh whilst keeping it familiar, which means you’ve got to weed out the ingredients that are irrelevant. This might be a format, it might be a tone... and then you combine the ingredients in different ways to provide uniqueness... That’s a key combination. So I would say there are certain ingredients and we’re getting better at identifying what those are.”

Understanding the reason people pay for the service is very important, Francis says. And then you compliment that – carefully. “Men

like action and they like football. But if you only think that way, then you are going to start to repeat the same format. But if you look more deeply at where their viewership crosses over, you can start to spread that into, for instance, sexy comedy”. And horror.

Francis talks about a version of horror that is entertaining and inclusive, with stories and characters deeply anchored in local lore and communities. Which brings him to Zona Merah, Indonesia’s ﬁrst zombie drama (that anyone can remember).

Zona Merah, which premieres on 8 November, is inspired by a true story about a mayor who kept neighbours in a prison under his house. The eight-part series, which blends true crime with urban legend, is about a journalist and a female laborer who unite to uncover the truth that will bring down a corrupt governor as the rapidly multiplying universe of the ‘undead’, guided by their acute sense of smell, close in.

Written and directed by Sidharta Tata (Pertaruhan: The Series) with Fajar Martha Santosa for Screenplay Films, Zona Merah stars Aghniny Haque, Maria Theodore, Andri Mashadi, Lukman Sardi, Haru Sandra and Devano Danendra. Tata said in early publicity that the series “marks a new leap in my creativity as a director and writer”.

Early signs that Vidio’s risk on an untested genre might pay off emerged on social media. Two days after movie review inﬂuencer site, WatchmenID, commented on the teaser released in September, the clip had 400,000 organic views on X, rising 30% to 520,000 views in 11 days. Series creators were over the moon at the responses, including more than 1,000 comments about the teaser on channels such as USS – Feed.

Zona Merah

Zona Merah is part of a strategy to build out “zones of interest” among Vidio’s paying subscriber base as well as broadening reach into Indonesia’s heartlands. As part of this approach, Francis has coined the phrase “Taste TAM”. It’s his content-appropriate adaptation of the “addressable market” term so beloved by investors.

Ramadan special, teen drama Santri Pilihan Bunda, which premiered in March 2024, is also part of Vidio’s new originals era.

The series is based on a Wattpad story about a modern, slightly rebellious, liberal young woman presented with an arranged marriage proposal by her eager parents. “It went absolutely gangbusters. We saw audiences that we never seen coming to the service,” Francis says. Season one was in the top ﬁve shows of all time on Vidio. Season two returns in 2025 with another eight episodes for a total of 16.

Santri Pilihan Bunda supports the commitment to portraying local life in Indonesia. “My point to the producers is that for the audience, this show is about them and their lives, not about religion. Why shouldn’t we dramatise this? We shouldn’t be sitting in an ivory tower avoiding certain subjects,” Francis says.

The third title, which returned for a second season in June this year, spins to the complete opposite end of the spectrum. Open BO Lagi is a sexy comedy built on a Jakarta urban tradition of “booking out” sex workers. The show has been a blockbuster for Vidio.

Francis says Open BO Lagi is “yet another example, of where can you ﬁnd these sort of unexploited zones of interest in culture... And the same time, not offend everybody”.

Open BO Lagi: Semakin Panas, Semakin Ganas is about Gina, who is trying to help her family, and politician Billy, who faces issues with his ﬁancée.

Earlier this year, director Monty Tiwa described season two, produced by Amadeus Sinemagna, as all about “pushing the envelope in terms of storyline, acting, visuals... because we realised in season one we hadn’t gone far enough”.

“Open BO covers quite a range of topics; most are pretty sensitive

in terms of sensuality and what not. It’s quite a challenge for us to portray some scenes, while at the same time asking ourselves, ‘did we go too far, can we push it a little bit more’,” he said, adding: “It’s basically ﬁnding that balance to make it work with the audience and ensuring it will be allowed to be shown on screen.”

While he’s happy with the three tentpole 2024 titles, Francis is still a way from declaring success.

“It’s one thing to add these big premium six- or eight-part series to the platform. It’s another thing to build a habitat so that audiences stay,” he says. By ‘stay’, he means become so integrated into viewers lives that they stop thinking about the subscription. “It’s just always right there,” he says.

Can he get there with six- or eight-episode series? The answer is “evolving... we have some pretty interesting plans. And, yes, it’s going to affect everything we do, from writers’ rooms to the way we tell stories”.

What he doesn’t want is for consumers to see Vidio like a theater, “where you pay, watch and leave”.

“As we mature, we need to start to separate the purpose of content that gets people through the door and the content that makes them stay. Which means we need to start to explore what TV really looks like in a streaming environment”.

One possible route involves more character-driven stories. Perhaps even procedurals, “which is unheard of for streaming in many of these markets”.

“We already have these in a way – it’s called free-to-air TV. The question is how do you move this into streaming? How do you close the gap between the 10 million people that watch a soap opera every night and this signiﬁ cantly smaller number, but still a good number, who are willing to pay for something like Zona Merah. For me, the challenge remains bringing those middle/mass free-TV audiences over to pay, which would create the beginnings of something genuinely sustainable.”

Zona Merah

A life in animation

Paramount Animation president, Ramsey Naito, talks to Asian A.V. Club about her artistic upbringing, the techniques of being a good producer, and the creative direction she encourages among ﬁlmmakers in her orbit. “I always remember what my parents said to me – be happy, make aesthetic choices, know what they mean to you, and most importantly, ﬁnd your people,” she says.

Ramsey Naito has spent her whole career working in animation. Starting as a production assistant and going on to produce feature ﬁlms, she held executive roles at Nickelodeon Movies, Cartoon Network and Blue Sky Studios before becoming president of Paramount Animation in 2021.

Asian A.V. Club: You grew up without a television. I am wondering how that fostered your creativity? “Both my parents are artists. My father is a sculptor, my mother is a painter. My father is from Japan, and my mother is from New Orleans. When I was young, going to the movies and seeing ﬁlms was very much a part of our itinerary. But TV was not. I think it was because my parents were like, entertain yourself. Draw, fantasise, create.

“My parents, probably with not having gone to a Waldorf school [Ed’s note: an education programme that puts high value in art, imagination, and creativity], were probably the closest thing to Waldorf parents. So, I grew up literally without a television until I was maybe 14 or 15, and even then, my mother decided to get a little black and white Zenith television.”

When creativity is part of your ‘normal’, what kind of kid were you? “I think the creative normal in my life allowed me to be innovative when things weren’t going to plan. When something broke, you ﬁgured out how to ﬁx it. And it maybe wasn’t like the way it was before, but it’s maybe better or different. I love being creative and it’s my safe place, but in the end, I knew that even though I was seeing the world through this inspired lens, the relationships between people and engaging in everyday life was more important.”

You pursued an academic career in art schools. How did that transition into your early career working in animation? “I went to art school my entire life (Baltimore School for the Arts for high school, Maryland Institute College of Art, Cal Arts). I always remembered what my parents said to me: ‘be happy, make aesthetic choices, know what they mean to you, and most importantly, ﬁnd your people’.”

“I met animators for the ﬁrst time in grad school. And when we were graduating, they were getting jobs. So, they were like, ‘Hey, come get this job, work with us!’ And so, I applied for this job as a PA [production assistant] on Duckman. The interview went like this, “Do you know what a number 2 pencil is?” And I was like, “Yes.” “Do you know how to make Xerox copies?” “Yes.” And I got the job. It’s way more competitive now.”

“The ﬁrst week working at [animation studio] KLaSKY CSUPO. I fell in love with it. I just fell in love with the community. Who knew there was an ofﬁce job that employed so many artists all focused on one commercial idea, but also making their own art, and having their own practice. Animation is a vibrant community. It’s a commercial one. But the individuals working in it are fantastic.”

How did you move from animation into producing? “...I worked through art, production design, story. From Duckman, to Rugrats, Santo Bugito, The Wild Thornberrys and eventually The Rugrats Movie [as supervising coordinator]. I left KLaSKY CSUPO to work on the South Park movie [unit production manager]. And then to Nickelodeon/the Paramount lot, where they asked me to oversee animated movie development.”

How did you prepare? “I learned on the job, and I learned from incredible people like Julia Pistor, who I worked for, Karen Rosenfelt and John Goldwyn, who were the heads of production, and Sherry Lansing, who was running the studio at the time. It really was the heyday of Paramount. Then I left and went to Cartoon Network where they wanted to build an animation division, but, funny enough, they pivoted and was like, we want you to focus on live action movies. So, I made live action movies for Cartoon Network. Then Blue Sky Studios offered me a job. Since I’m from New York, and my parents are there, I was like, ‘Okay, great. I’m coming home’. And was based out of Westchester County for about two and a half years, before I moved back into my old house in L.A. to produce The Boss Baby for Dreamworks Animation.”

As your role changed over the years, how did your relationship with the people making animation change? “I think being a producer and being an executive are really different, but the one thing they have in common in terms of managing people in this world of animation is having a relationship with the talent. It’s so important, being true partners, and being friends. You’re in it for the long haul. You’re making these movies for three to six years and a lot can happen in your personal life, let alone on a movie that you’re working on together.

“As a producer, I think it’s very important to always talk about the milestones on a film. We’re going to be here in three months. We’re going to be doing this in six months. Just putting things in context now, so that we can get to these moments in the future. On these films, you have a director and a very small team of key leadership comprised usually of production designer, art director, head of story editor, VFX producer, and they are all managing teams of people that can be anywhere from 200 to 400 people, which makes it a really collaborative process. It’s so important to communicate and streamline and make sure top down, everyone knows what they’re doing. And so, communication is key. Especially from a director who is poised to hear all the great ideas over the course of making a film, and their responsibility is to make the right ones.”

You are now back at Paramount as the president of Paramount Animation... there’s been a very positive approach to relaunching IPs like Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Transformers, while focusing on original storytelling and animation. Can you talk about the mandate you’re giving your creatives? “I love our culture at Paramount. Of course, there are pros and cons to everything, but we embrace a no style on all our movies, so they can be wildly different and driven by the vision of one person and maybe their team. On each picture, they have the ability to create a look that is speciﬁc and original, dare I say. And the way that we’re approaching these franchise ﬁlms is as if they are originals, but they’re not.

“The secret weapon in making movies like Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem and Transformers One is that we’re ﬁnding talent that had a deep connection from their childhood, where they were able to identify intuitively what mattered for the fans, and identify the areas that they’d never seen before, and take liberties to create something new and inspired.”

How so? “So, like on Turtles, Jeff [Rowe, director] loved Turtles. I remember when Brian Robbins [Paramount Pictures president and CEO] and I called him, he was thrilled that we were talking to him about the possibility of Turtles, and just spoke endlessly about the franchise in ways that only someone who loved it could. So, love is a secret ingredient.

“And then the visual inspiration is pretty cool. With Turtles, Jeff put his ﬁnger on being 15, and you’re scribbling and sketching all these things in the margins of your lined paper. Not really knowing how to draw anything yet but being fearless because no one’s told you that you can’t draw. Those drawings really represent the teenage years. And that was the inspiration and energy that made it through on screen that not only kept it fresh but celebrated the franchise.

As for Transformers, it was being able to visualise a planet we’d never seen before. Seeing the planet Cybertron in its heyday, down to the last detail. That came from Josh [Cooley – director] and Jason Scheier [production design] really going for it. Transformers One is also a character story between Optimus Prime and Megatron. It’s their origins story where we see them as best friends who have a dream and begin to understand how their ideologies were born, what broke them up and made them become the revered iconic characters we know today.

“Josh added color in something we’d never seen before, taking characters, and then walking them backwards to being minors, to being empowered with the ability to transform, and not knowing what it meant, to becoming their glorious self. Every aspect of that ﬁlm comes from a great reverence and understanding what the fans want.

“That originality ethos extends to upcoming ﬁlms like the Smurfs and SpongeBob and more importantly, our originals that are coming.”

Animation might be one of the few places in Hollywood where there’s diversity among creatives working behind the scenes. Was that the case for you? “Actually, I was often the only Asian American in the room. But I think that with race and representation through art, often that became a real power in terms of representing Asians in animation.”

How do you make sure there is representation on Paramount Animation productions? “The teams behind the camera must be diverse when creating characters of colour in order to support and promote dialogue towards authenticity and breaking the stereotype. It’s critical. I’ve tried very hard to build teams that are diverse as possible, so that the dialogue can continue, because it must.

“A fascinating thing about animation is that 70% of animation students are women. Women are coming into our industry in a forceful way. They’re all coming out of school, and they’re all wanting jobs, and it’s going to move the needle in a way that we haven’t seen before. I think cultures are changing in order to embrace that... 55% of kids under the age of 12 are blended, are non-white. They want to see themselves on camera, and when they do, they want the characters to feel real.”

ContentAsia is collaborating with the Asian A.V Club on interviews with Asian ﬁlmmakers and talent in Hollywood. Edited excerpts are available in ContentAsia. The full interviews are in the Asian A.V. Club newsletter at https://asianavclub.substack.com/

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Production: Taiwan’s GrX redraws boundaries

Formats Outlook 2024

117 adaptations were commissioned or aired in Asia in the first nine months of 2024 – a 19% decline in the same period last year. Banijay Rights leads formats distribution in Asia by volume for the first nine months of this year, ContentAsia’s Formats Outlook shows.

At least 117 adaptations were commissioned, underway or on air in Asia in the first nine months of this year, according to ContentAsia’s Formats Outlook ongoing report, which tracks formats adaptations in 18 countries. By genre, reality (dominated by singing-related titles) topped the formats chart with 52 titles, followed by game shows with 32 titles and scripted formats with 27 titles in Jan-Sept this year.

Overall, volume for the first nine months of 2024 was down 19% (28 titles) compared to 145 adaptations during the same period in 2023.

Despite the downward trends, Banijay Rights continues to lead in formats distribution in Asia by volume for the first nine months of this year, albeit with significantly fewer titles, the latest report shows.

Banijay Rights accounted for 20 formats (17% of total 117) from January to September this year, down from 30 titles during the same period last year.

India has emerged as Banijay’s strongest formats market by volume so far this year, with five titles commissioned or currently airing through the end of September. These include several versions of Big Brother, such as Big Brother Kannada S10 and Big Brother Hindi S17 (locally

known as Bigg Boss Hindi) for Colors, Big Brother Tamil S7 for Star Vijay, and Bigg Boss OTT S3 for JioCinema Premium.

Mongolia and Thailand are Banijay’s next highest markets by volume, featuring shows such as Spelling Star S3 on Mongolia’s Edu TV and First and Last Thailand S7/S8 for BBTV Channel 7.

Of Banijay’s 20 formats, 12 were reality shows, including cooking format MasterChef Junior Thailand S3 commissioned by BBTV Channel 7; seven game shows, including Don’t Forget The Lyrics Myanmar commissioned by the Forever Group Myanmar for MRTV4 and Pyone Play; and one drama adaptation, season three of Aarya, the Indian remake of Dutch crime/thriller Penoza, commissioned by Disney+ Hotstar.

Banijay Rights has topped Asia’s distribution charts by volume for the past two years, with 47 titles in 2022 and 31 titles in 2023, when it shared the top spot with Fremantle.

For the first nine months this year, Fremantle accounted for 16 (14%) of the total 117 formats, consisting of nine game shows, including multiple versions of Family Feud in Indonesia (commissioned by MNCTV), Malaysia (in Chinese and Malay languages, commissioned by Astro), Mongolia (Star TV), Philippines (GMA) and Thailand (One31); and seven reality formats, including three versions of big-budget singing reality Idol format in Cambodia (Hang Meas HDTV), India (Sony Entertainment Television) and Indonesia (RCTI).

Indonesia was Fremantle’s strongest market with seven titles to end September 2024, followed by Malaysia, Mongolia and Thailand with two titles each.

Korea’s CJ ENM ranked third by volume on the distribution chart for the first nine months of this year. The company recorded 13 titles (11%), which consisted of five drama, four game shows, and four reality formats. For CJ ENM, Vietnam stood out, with game shows like My Boyfriend is Better for FPT Play and reality dancing competition Street Woman Fighter, premiered on HTV7 in July this year.

ITV Studios had 12 titles(10%), all reality formats. The Philippines is ITV Studios’ top market, with multiple seasons/versions of reality singing format, The Voice

NBCUniversal Formats accounted for 11 titles (9.4%), primarily consisting of reality shows with five titles, followed by drama, game shows, and variety shows, each with two titles.

In total, the top five formats distributors by volume – Banijay Rights, Fremantle, CJ ENM, ITV Studios and NBCUniversal Formats – accounted for 62% (72 titles) of the total 117 adaptations from January to September this year.