KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 21 — The three-day Visual Arts Expo (VAX) 2015 kicks off today with an ambitious goal to elevate Malaysia’s creative multimedia industry, which it said has long been ignored by foreign investors and producers.
The maiden convention starts with a closed-door business-to-business meeting today between Malaysian talents and veterans from the Japanese market, prior to a two-day event where the talents will be showcased to the public.
“They're not getting the proper attention, the proper amount that they deserve … people know the titles, but most people don't know who did them,” said Christopher Low, the business development director of Valkyrie Creative Solutions Sdn Bhd, which organises VAX.
Partner and co-founder Fazri Nuha explained that Malaysia is home to several animation studios that have been around for more than a decade, such as Lemon Sky — it has worked with video games studios such as Bandai Namco and EA — and Fly Studio that has joined Tokyo-based animated feature company Digital Frontier Group.
The two also singled out 16-year-old Silver Ant, which has been lauded by fans for its joint-venture work on the anime (Japanese animation) series Knights of Sidonia, but remains largely unknown to the local public.
“If you’re a local company, the most important thing to have is local support. Because you cannot expand overseas if you cannot even grow locally,” said Low.
Low claimed that this lack of recognition, in addition to the stifling censorship the industry faces, has led to most start-up companies seeking greener pastures overseas as they unfortunately see no value in targetting the local audience.
Fazri and Low said this is where VAX comes in to promote the talents both to the public and investors, especially at a time when a number of Japanese production studios are looking to expand their market to Southeast Asia after years of business inertia.
“So now they’re looking for 3D computer graphics animators. With the ringgit going down, we’re [looking] very, very attractive,” Fazri said, relating his conversation with Studio GAINAX, whose chief executive and co-founder Hiroyuki Yamag will be a guest in VAX 2015.
Together with Studio Satelight’s Shōji Kawamori and manga (Japanese comics) artist Keitarō Arima, Yamaga will conduct a portfolio review for local talents where the three will share their decades of experience in the competitive Japanese industry.
In collaboration with the Selangor state government, VAX 2015 will be showcasing 16 studios based in the state in what it calls the Selangor Pavillion.
It has also worked together with federal agency Multimedia Development Corporation to provide space for winners of the latter’s MSC Malaysia Intellectual Property Creators Challenge.
The convention is adopting the same attitude with grassroots fans of Japanese pop culture, especially costumed role-players called cosplayers, by hosting a workshop held by local cosplay group Helios-E that has worked on film promotions with cinemas.
Local store Gundam Toy Shop will hold another workshop on Gunpla, the hobby of assembling Gundam model kits.
“It’s something different that we’re trying to push, and when it comes down to content, we’re trying to raise the level higher,” said Low.
Tickets to VAX 2015 are on sale on its website http://visualartsexpo.com — RM25 for two-day entry, or a RM100 Gold Pass that also includes special access and a mystery gift bag. Tickets will sell at RM15 per day at the door.
* Malay Mail Online is the official media partner for VAX 2015.
