International Experts Suggest New Growth Areas for Singapore Media
The Media Development Authority of Singapore’s (MDA) International Advisory Panel (IAP) has given the thumbs-up to the country’s progress as a credible global media player.

Chaired by Dr Tan Chin Nam, Chairman, MDA, the IAP comprises distinguished international media experts, namely Dr Chen Hong, Founder, Chairman and CEO, The Hina Group; Mr Chi Youngsuk, Vice-Chairman and CEO of Science & Technology, Elsevier; Mr Greg Coote, Chairman and CEO, Dune Entertainment; Mr Vivek Couto, Executive Director, Media Partners Asia; Mr Andrew Craissati, Chairman and Chief Executive, Transpac Media Limited; and Lord David Puttnam, Deputy Chairman, Channel 4. The IAP was in Singapore on 31 May and 1 June for the third IAP meeting since MDA’s formation in 2003.

The IAP urged that moving forward, Singapore should play to its existing core strengths, including its positioning as the regional springboard for Western media businesses venturing into Asia and a global launch pad for Asian enterprises expanding beyond their home markets. The IAP also suggested that Singapore raises its importance as a media services centre by building and aggregating ancillary services such as legal, financial, sales, licensing, distribution and digitisation. The panel also encouraged Singapore’s media companies to draw on the country’s forte in education, especially in the areas of Continuing Education and Training (CET) and lifelong learning.

The IAP also urged Singapore to continue building a culture that encourages innovation, and emphasised the importance for fledging Singapore media companies to scale up as they take on the global market.

For more details, read the full press release.


Call for Proposals
Throughout the year, the Media Development Authority of Singapore launches calls for proposals for its array of development and funding initiatives that help media professionals get their ideas off the ground.

Coming up over the next few months are the project call deadlines for a number of schemes, including the following, which were announced at the recent Media Business Forum:

• INVIGORATE⁺, which supports the development of games for emerging platforms such as social networking sites, mobile devices and connected console platforms. The next deadline for this recurring call for proposal is 13 September.
• Cross-Sector (X-sector), which supports the development of interactive digital media applications, services and/or content for commercialisation. The inaugural call seeks proposals for the following sectors:
  • advertising (Deadline: 30 July)
  • education, learning and training (Deadline: 30 July)
  • health and wellness (Deadline: 27 August)
  • tourism and hospitality (Deadline: 27 August)
  • sports (Deadline: 27 August)

Check out the Singapore Media Fusion website for details on the above and other calls for proposals, or download the call-for-proposal timeline.

Be a Friend of MDA
If you wish to play a part in shaping the policies formulated by the Media Development Authority of Singapore (MDA), join the Friends of MDA programme.

This programme, which started late last year, aims to foster closer public-private sector partnerships by providing a platform for the Singapore media industry to give inputs to MDA’s policy-making process. It has welcomed its first batch of industry partners.

Commenting on the programme, Ms Susie Tan, Senior Vice President, Alliance Entertainment, said: "We’re happy to see that MDA is sincere in communicating and getting to know the industry better. Through the Friends of MDA programme and the greater interaction that it will bring, we hope that our views will be heard and incorporated into policy-making decisions."

For more details on the programme, please contact Anthony Chiam.

Fraunhofer IDM Centre@NTU to be Established
Singapore’s Nanyang Technological University (NTU) and Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft (Fraunhofer), the largest applied research institution in Europe, have agreed to set up the Fraunhofer IDM Centre@NTU.

Facilitated by the Interactive Digital Media (IDM) R&D Programme Office at the Media Development Authority of Singapore (MDA) and funded by the National Research Foundation, the centre will focus on the promotion of applied research and the commercialisation of IDM innovations. It will also join the international network of IDM R&D institutions that Singapore is establishing, which includes the Singapore-MIT GAMBIT Game Lab, the China-Singapore Institute of Digital Media and Keio-NUS Connective Ubiquitous Technology for Embodiments (CUTE) Centre. It is hoped that research developments resulting from these institutions will give Singapore a competitive edge in the exciting IDM sector.

The Fraunhofer@NTU will receive funding of S$14 million from MDA, NTU and Fraunhofer. In addition, the collaboration will include a license agreement with Fraunhofer, which secures the use of the protected Fraunhofer brand and processes from inception, thus bringing the estimated total investment to S$25 million.

For more information, read the full press release.

New International Media Producing Programme at Tisch Asia
NYU Tisch School of the Arts Asia has launched a new Master of Fine Arts programme in International Media Producing. The multidisciplinary course aims to train would-be producers in all aspects of producing, finance, marketing and media production and give them with the acumen to identify and produce projects for the global market. Students will be trained in various artistic mediums but will also be able to focus on a track of their choice, such as film and television, theatre, new media and music.

Find out more about the programme on Tisch Asia’s website.

Red Dragonflies Wins Special Jury Award at Jeonju
Red Dragonflies, directed by Singapore filmmaker and visual artist Liao Jiekai, has won the Special Jury Prize in the 11th Jeongju International Film Festival in Korea. It marked the first time a Made-by-Singapore feature has won such an honour at the film festival.

The feature, which uses the flight of the red dragonfly as a metaphor for the coming of age, beat contenders such as Clash and The Man’s Woman and Other Stories, both of which had won awards at the Venice Film Festival. The international competition jury, which awarded the Special Jury Prize, praised it as “a film that we valued above all for its mysterious evocation of Singapore's disappearing history…and its gentle depiction of innocence and passing youth...”

Produced by 13 Little Pictures, Red Dragonflies is Jiekai’s debut feature-length film. It enjoyed two full-house screenings at the 12th Buenos Aires International Festival of Independent Films in April this year and competed in the Asian New Talent Award in the Shanghai International Film Festival in June.

Kai Square Wins Top SME Award
Kai Square, which specialises in multimedia surveillance data processing coupled with wireless computing, has emerged a top winner at the Emerging Enterprise 2010 Awards.

The company, which is supported by the Interactive Digital Media Programme Office (IDMPO) hosted by the Media Development Authority of Singapore (MDA), stood out with its excellent financial results despite last year’s challenging economic climate.

The award is given to emerging enterprises with annual sales turnover of less than S$10 million per year. Kai Square received an interest-free loan and development grants among other resources that will help it build new capabilities.

ITE Students’ Animation Short Screened at Singapore International Film Festival
A four-minute 3D animation entitled Frank & Fridge, produced by students from the Institute of Technical Education (ITE), was screened at the 2010 Singapore International Film Festival in April. This is the first ITE production ever showcased at the film festival. Frank & Fridge features a jobless alcoholic who uses ridiculous antics to shut a refrigerator door that refuses to close. ITE students Simon Ong Rongbiao, Md Noorshafiq Muhammad Sanusi, Timothy Ratonel Michael and Muhd Ridwan Zulkifli created the animation as part of their final-year project for the NITEC in Digital Animation course, which is co-sponsored by the Media Development Authority of Singapore. For more information on the course, please visit the ITE website.