doubts and uncertainty

While I was having a late lunch at Somerset 313, I chanced upon a Mr. S.C. who happened to be the partner of the Japanese restaurant I was eating at. Quick note about the place first. It's called Tokyo Pasta Mario, nice Japanese fusion food and of course curry at a fairly reasonable price. http://www.hungrygowhere.com/singapore/Tokyo_Pasta_Mario__313_Somerset_/

But, that's besides the point. Talking to him I realized he had at one point in time owned an animation company which was based in Manila, Philippines. Of course, he had to sell it off when he started incurring losses. Which brings us back onto point. The animation industry in Singapore may not do as well as the government thinks it will. In Mr. S.C.'s experience, he has had to bring in jobs from overseas, mainly from America's Hollywood. Local South East Asian jobs were mostly for advertising companies looking for local animation houses. Those advertising firms he charged them for quite a large fee seeing that he had a slight niche market and monopoly in terms of animation industry in SEA, but that was about 10 years ago now. He had a slight edge over the competition due to his company dabbling in early 3d software.

He fondly recalls having worked on some Disney titles though I'm not sure which ones exactly. He also recalls the labour force he had under him. According to him, while Philippine artists are in fact brilliant, their poor living standards meant that their weekly salary tends to go missing before the week is up. Sadly, his studio began to make losses so he had to sell the company to an Indian company which apparently has a larger compound space than LASALLE in Singapore.... well, it is India I suppose.

In our discussion it was noted that the animation industry in Singapore may not be as successful as many may think it will be. Indeed, Mr. S.C. who at one point in time was offered a 50% subsidy to help create a Mr. Kiasu animated film by the Singapore government can attest to the growth of the industry. At least from a business perspective. The argument from his side is that Singapore on its own is too small to have large growth in animation. This may also stem from the fact that the mentality in the country regarding animation is to not hold it in high regard. But I digress, the animation industry in Singapore has many hurdles to overcome despite government assistance.

Personally, my feeling about the animation industry in Singapore is well..... uncertain. On one hand, you have the large animation houses such as Lucas Arts and its cohort, Double Negative studios and maybe to a degree Ubisoft....which does require animation in their games. On the other hand, you have rather apprehensive parents and a slightly myopic society who regard animation as something useless and unable to produce money. This creates a rather unusual situation in which people can find themselves questioning whether it will be worthwhile to pursue a career in animation in Singapore.

As a Malaysian in Singapore or any other foreigner in Singapore for that matter, the situation does tend to get worse. Singapore in its zeal to acquire manpower has now brought in too many of us foreigners and risk the anger of their citizens. To be fair though, we are technically encroaching on an already small island and must share income with the locals. Already the government is taking certain subtle steps to reduce and improve the quality of manpower coming into Singapore, meaning that only the best will be employed and even then that might be a large maybe. Have we come into Singapore too late? I certainly hope not.

With Mr. S.C.'s advise fresh in mind, I shall now share it with you. Finish up your studies and bonds in Singapore and search for your fortunes abroad. Most of us are still under 30 or just about there, so it might not be such a bad idea to pack up and relocate elsewhere such as New York or Canada. As for the situation for us in Singapore, I currently doubt that it will improve tremendously over a short period of time, but there will be improvement. The one thing that helps me look forward is the fact that Singapore has in fact opened itself to all sorts of animation companies and recently game companies as well. So, there is that for us foreign animators in this little red speck.

Author's note:

Mr. S.C. is a relatively excitable but generally polite and friendly gentleman in his 50's who is a partner of the Tokyo Mario Pasta in Somerset 313's 5^th floor in Food Republic. He seems to know much about business and as such, the comments he made regarding the animation industry maybe more towards it as a business venture and not in general. In my opinion anyway, at least until I can get it from himself.

Cheers comrades.