NEWS: Turn creative ideas into money

KUALA LUMPUR: Creative multimedia developers stand to win RM1mil worth of grants at the MSC Malaysia Intellectual Property Creators Challenge (IPCC) 2009.

IPCC organiser Multimedia Development Corporation (MDeC) will give out 26 grants in the competition’s four categories — animation, computer games, digital interactive comics and mobile games.

The RM1mil total is a slight increase from that during the past three years that the competition has been running. Previously the grants totalled about 870,000 per year.

This year, there are six RM50,000 grants for the animation category, five RM50,000 grants for computer games, five RM50,000 grants for mobile games, and 10 RM20,000 grants for digital interactive comics.

IPCC is in an initiative by MDeC that aims to unearth creative content. It expects 360 entries this year — an increase of 20% from last year.

Saifol Bahri, vice-president of MDeC, said the entries can be as simple as a concept put on paper, with a few accompanying visuals.

Out of these initial entries, 51 participants will be chosen to make a pitch to local industry players in mid-July.

These will then be whittled down to 26 participants, who will be given grants to develop their paper concepts into prototypes over five months.

There is an added bonus exclusively for those who receive grants in the animation category — they will get a chance to make a pitch to a panel of regional industry players next year.

MDeC hopes to extend this bonus to the other categories in the near future .

Stepping stone

Saifol hopes that the annual event will act as a launching pad for local talent in developing content that can meet global expectations.

“Last year’s animation winning team, Roaring Tin Toys, has attracted interest from satellite TV and production company Astro Bhd,” he said.

“Astro was impressed with the team’s winning clip about ghost-hunting superheroes, called Ghoul Smashing Quarters, and are currently in talks with Roaring Tin Toys.”

That year’s runner-up team in the animation category, Insipidea Sdn Bhd, has been shortlisted by internationally-known Cartoon Network for a co-production deal, said Saifol who declined to elaborate.

He said it is time for the local creative multimedia industry to move up a gear because there is a huge global market for the taking, estimated to be worth about US$780bil (RM2.6 trillion).

There is also a lot of space for revenue growth locally, according to him. “Revenue from Malaysian creative multimedia was RM2.4bil in 2007, we hope to hit RM3bil by 2010,” he said.

Those interested in competing in IPCC 2009 should send a brief story outline and accompanying visuals to submitipcc@mdec.com.my.

Participants must be college graduates or working professionals. The closing date for entries is July 12. For more information, surf to www.msc.com.my.

MDeC is caretaker of the MSC Malaysia initiative.