Tamares Goh and Kunyi Chen, curator’s at one of South East Asia’s premiere visual and performing arts venues, Esplanade, spoke last Friday to Animation and Digital Arts students.  Originally planned as a theatre and music venue, Singapore’s Esplanade has grown to produce film and visual arts programs from local and international artists. The artists turned curators spoke about how they were able to use art to revitalize the venue’s architectural oddities, about the vibrant community of visual artists in the region, and about the life of a short art film from film festival submission, to gallery and public space exhibition.

Tamares Goh is a Programming Officer at Esplanade – Theatres on the Bay and, together with a team, is in charge of the Visual Arts Programme at the arts centre which showcases about 60 exhibitions throughout the year in the various spaces at the performing arts centre. Tamares Goh graduated with Masters in Fine Art from Glasgow School of Art in 2001 and as an artist herself, been involved in residencies and exhibitions. Her work has travelled to neighboring countries in SE Asia and also New York, London, Hoorn (The Netherlands), Canberra (Australia), Melbourne (Australia). She was the past recipient of the Della Butcher Award Singapore, Shell Discoveries Award, Lasalle Scholarship and the Chen Chong Swee NAC Scholarship.

Kunyi Chen is a free-lance curator for Esplanade, a part-time lecturer in Drawing, Storyboarding and traditional animation-film-making and occasional illustrator and designer. With a fine-art background in painting and active in the local arts scene before leaving  for the UK, she chanced upon animation film-making while pursuing a degree in illustration. She has since earned an MA in Communications Design [Illustration] from Kingston University [UK] and an MA in Animation from Royal College of Art [UK], while working on commissions for animated TV commercials in the UK from 1996 -2005. Her interest in dance and theatre has led her to work with choreographers, producing moving images for their theatre productions in Singapore in the last few years.  Her works have been finalists in film festivals around the world and among the awards won are: British Animation Awards 2000 – Best Graduate Film for RIEN, Annecy Animation Festival 2000- Special Jury Distinction Award for RIEN, OTTAWA International Animation Festival – Best Graduate Film for SUBIDA, ZAGREB Animation Festival 2002- Audience Jury Award for Favourite Animation Film for SUBIDA, Cream Awards 1997 UK – Gold award for Best Budget TV Commercial for –DUDLEY ZOO AND CASTLE.

When Mardi Gras rolled into Singapore, the “lion city” played host to a Big Easy-style celebration for Ty Lawson ’12 (MFA, Kanbar, International Media Producing). Friends of the New Orleans native threw him a Mardi Gras themed fundraiser for his upcoming thesis film Redemption, which is based on a New Orleans story set in Singapore. It is written by students in the Dramatic Writing program.

Matt & Jenny O’Malley and Shaun & Kristina Thompson hosted the event which included a mix of members of the American Club of Singapore, the American Association of Singapore, Singapore Management University MBA graduates and Tisch School of the Arts Asia students. In true New Orleans style, they let the good times roll.

Hugh Mason leads the new Creative Leadership and Organizational Dynamics course for first year International Media Producing students at New York University Tisch School of the Arts Asia. Four weeks into the course, the group has found an anchor in the creative passion that gives all creative people a voice.

One definition of a producer is someone who brings together talent, ideas and money. The film industry is 100 years old and there are clear career paths to follow. For rookie producers everywhere, the challenge is “how do I kick down the door to get in?”

International Media Producing students at Tisch School of the Arts Asia face a different challenge. They are pioneers, exploring what it means to conceive and execute projects that are “transmedia” from the start. When a project, a business and a career could easily include creating online narratives, flashmob happenings, books and boy bands, the challenge is “where do I begin?”

Transmedia isn’t new. Companies like Disney have exploited characters, narrative and story worlds that span “media” as diverse as film, print and theme parks for decades. But the way they had to work cost millions of dollars. There was no easy way, before the internet, to test out ideas to see if they appealed to audiences and garnered “market traction” without taking a big financial risk.

Today, the internet makes it possible for small, independent operators to showcase and test ideas online, globally, and get results in hours. You don’t even need a computer of your own.

Go into a web cafe, do something funny, outrageous or profound in front of a webcam and post it on YouTube. A million people could see it by next morning. YouTube will tell you, for free, exactly how many people watched, where they live and what they are like. Of course they will also tell you themselves, directly through social media, whether you ask for feedback or not.

The advice I was given by a wonderfully camp old Producer the day I joined the BBC has never seemed more true: “Do anything, darling, but don’t be dull.”

Arguably, small independent operators like fresh graduates from Tisch are extremely well placed to explore transmedia. Sure, they may not yet be backed by big money but they are also not weighed down by the baggage of a big media company’s legacy expectations.

International Media Producing students are pioneers because, in transmedia, there are few right or wrong answers. Every day, they must make their own meaning. All are creative, for sure, and many also want to make a positive social impact on the world. But the fact that everything seems possible prompts one of my favourite Singlish expressions: So how?

For the first few weeks of the new Creative Leadership and Organizational Dynamics course, we have taken a helicopter view of the transmedia industries. We have looked top-down at the big picture — the landscape where International Media Producing graduates will be working when they leave Tisch. We’re beginning to look bottom-up too — at how a transmedia producer works day to day to marshal the very different expectations of talent, ideas people and money people.

But perhaps the most helpful view we have taken has been to look inside ourselves.

When WHAT a transmedia producer does is so varied and HOW to realize his or her ambitions seems unlimited, we keep coming back to WHY we do what we do. The notion that an artist must have a passionate voice — something to say — has become our origin and the place we keep coming back to. With that clear, the street skills of a producer: passion and persuasion, balanced with persistence and planning, all thrust in the same direction.

Over the next few weeks, International Media Producing students are projecting themselves forward, to the time when they leave Tisch and must pitch and produce projects for real, earning a living at the same time. They must lead an incredibly diverse range of people, anywhere in the world. Frequently, life will feel confusing, and a strong sense of WHY they are doing what they do will be their anchor. So every student is working on a Professional Action Plan — a pitch and a pathway that will take them forward — based on their personal passion. It starts from the heart, yet it needs many heads to make sure the plans are on track for an uncertain future.

In a few weeks’ time, we will ask you to join us to hear International Media Producing students’ presentations. If you can help by being in that audience and are willing to share your picture of all that transmedia can be, please let me know - hughmason@nyu.edu

In many ways, Yun is responsible for the revival of the Singaporean film industry through his work as managing director of Mediacorp’s Raintree Productions. His new company, Homerun Production, produces and sells film. Recent hits like Homecoming and Afterschock have paved the way for a healthy slate of films in development.

Yun is both a creative producer and a savvy marketeer and is responsible for 28 films produced and 38 released since 1999. His insights into the industry were inspiring for International Media Producing students. Having just celebrated the new Chinese Year of the Water Dragon, Yun declared that 2012-2103 will be the year that leads Asia into a decade of greater cinematic growth. He believes the film industry in Asia is recession proof and went on to outline his fundamentals of movie producing.

Yun encouraged the school’s producers to:

1. Always behave like the CEO of a company – you are responsible for everything.

2. Always balance art and commerce.

3. Be resourceful.

4. Protect the creative vision of the director/writer.

5. Focus on the bottom line.

7. Manage trade and consumer perceptions.

Yun reminded students that a producer is nothing without marketing. Producers must be able to market from the moment the film is conceived, from delivering the pitch to the one idea that can set the movie on fire at the box office. It is the producer who must define and conceive of the one compelling reason that the film should be made and viewed.

Yun stated that the industry is growing at a rate of 30% and that there are 2 billion movie goers in China. He projected production growth at 41% and 3.3 billion for BO. While marketing is still not a big spend in Asia, it is becoming increasingly crucial as China seeks that big break out success in the Western markets.  It was Tisch graduate Ang Lee’s ’84 (MFA, Kanbar, Film) Crouching Tiger that made international audiences believe in Asia, and it is the new creative producers at Tisch School of the Arts Asia who can deliver high quality commercial stories to the world.

To hear directly from International Media Producing students and to see the kind of work they produce, visit our video gallery.

NYU Tisch School of the Arts Asia International Media Producing students discuss the reasons why they chose to pursue the IMP MFA.

Poster Design by Chris Rebbert

REDHILL ANTISOCIAL CLUB is a comedy troupe created by 2nd Year students who took NYU Tisch Asia’s Sketch Comedy course.  The night showcased a variety of their funniest characters, monologues, songs, and sketches, and had the audience going wild.  The writers, who often performed in their own works, were joined by local actors and comedians from Singapore’s groundbreaking performance group Comedy Masala.

Matt McRee and Wayne Cheong in McRee's "On the Corner". Photo courtesy Amy Hartman.

Sketch Comedy is taught by B. Mark Seabrooks, who wrote for In Living Color, Hangin’ with Mr. Cooper, and The Steve Harvey Show.  Through storytelling, stand-up, and sketch comedy, students are encouraged to experiment with their voices and acquire tools to work in both live and digital media.

We will have highlights from this night posted soon on our Vimeo channel.

Deborah Emmanuel and Christopher Cassetta in "Mom Mom" by Chris Rebbert. Photo courtest Amy Hartman.

Jointly Presents

Introduction by Jean Marc Gauthier

EVENT SYNOPSIS:  Based on the books ‘The Diary of Amos Lee’ by Adeline Foo, written by Adeline Foo & Philip Leung, animation by Jeremy Chia, Ishaan Kumar & Sandhya Prabhat. All recent TischAsia graduates. Executive Producer and Director, Phillip Lim, IMP Adjunct and BMark Seabrooks, Script Consultant and DWPS Professor. Come and meet the Writers, Animators and Producer of this television series.

Date: 10/02/2012, FRIDAY

Time: 5.30pm to 7pm

 BLACK BOX THEATRE, Level 2

All Invited

Shreyom Ghosh

Running, an animation by Shreyom Gosh ’13 (MFA, Kanbar, Animation and Digital Arts), will be be presented at the International Trickfilm Festival in Stuttgart, Germany. The event, curated by Hassan Muthalib, a historian of animation from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, is an homage to Lotte Reiniger who made the first silhouette animation feature in 1926. Running will be in the first program about silhouette animation.

The International Trickfilm Festival, founded in 1982, has developed into an essential event for animation film in Germany over the past 30 years and is one of the biggest and most important festivals for animated films around the world.

Check out more on the International Trickfilm Festival here.

Giovanni Fantoni Modena

Grad Film students at New York University Tisch School of the Arts Asia, Giovanni Fantoni Modena ’12 (MFA, Kanbar, Film) and Nathanael Carton ’11 (MFA, Kanbar, Film), have been selected for the prestigious Berlinale Talent Campus happening this year from February 11 to 16.

Nathanael Carton

This year’s Berlinale Talent Campus consists of 350 applicants from 99 countries and offers a huge variety of different programme elements for actors, directors, cinematographers, distributors, editors, film critics, producers, production designers, screenwriters, sound designers and composers. A partnership with the Berlinale Film Festival, the Berlinale Talent Campus takes place at the same time as the Berlin International Film Festival.

December 2012. Videography by Wesley Aroozoo, Olivia Briggs, and Chris Rebbert. Edited by Olivia Briggs.