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My first official diplomatic assignment, which included the nod to say that I've been regarded responsible enough to be the face of Vinoun films towards the other members of the industry. Gen had bestowed an ambassitorial and fact finding role for me and Monty, at the Asian Broadcasting Network (ABN) Forum in the Presidential state of Putrajaya just south of KL. It was important enough to shed the shorts and sports tops and upgrade to a smart casual shirt and jeans attire. The point to the forum was the network (an asian Virgin media) was expanding in to the country and they wanted to students, production houses, and other interested parties to learn about what they had to offer as well as what current issues plagued the current TV industry.
Looking stylish to the nines, Monty and I were definitely going to turn heads and win respect from our fellow peers. Well, I suppose at least dressed well enough so we wouldn't get kicked out or thought of as the cleaning staff. Traffic was an absolute arse in the centre of KL this day, and we needed to get down to a Large Marriott hotel 40 miles away by about 9.30am. Once we had actually escaped the main city centre and made our way into Putrajaya, the scenery suddenly changed into some thing regal and very finely designed. Looked like we'd suddenly detoured into Dubai, but with out the sand. Everywhere looked like an architect's wet dream, from the 'money no object' business buildings/skyscrapers to the sculpted landscape with picturesque lakes and rivers dotted about. Some of the buildings that had this pastiche look to them, which seemed to scream "We want to regain the past and plop it right next to the present again".
After a short time struggling to find the right turn off for the hotel, we made it there just after 10am, and found we only missed the short intro, which didn't really matter anyway. Everyone from the main ball room hall were starting to make their way out to the snacks and hot drink stands, excellent timing, because I hadn't had brekkie yet. Pile of melon slices and samosas later I was sorted and ready to absorb the day. Both of us sat a table towards the back of the hall and take in the main section of the day. On stage there were a panel of 4 various experts from the film and TV industry of Malaysia and an MC called D.D., who I was going to be strangely introduced to later on. They talked about how the industry is in a bad creative and globally unpopular state at the moment, from issues that they hadn't been promoting it well enough to sell abroad and not developing the local talent to produce better content. As the forum went on though it seemed increasingly clear that the greater facts were that investment money wasn't going to the best talent and people in roles of responsibility were making poor decisions on what content should be produced. At one point, a guy came to one of the Q&A mics in the audience and stated that he'd been in the business 25 years, frustrated by other awful productions being aired over his content, and that a Vietnamese colleague had to turn off a Malay drama because it was worse than on made in his home country (a place with less money to invest)!
It was all a bit of an eye opener to me, and I found it very interesting, although I was getting slightly peeved with doofus in charge of the slide show being projected on the massive house sized screen on stage through his apple Mac. Had no one taught him/her how to just put everything on one powerpoint style click through slide show instead of spending half an hour clicking furiously away in the filing system, trying to find the next video or piece to wack up. Sort your self out son, it was well distracting. Oh and some speaker guy struggling with saying any thing in English, i was wanting to scream for him to speak in Malay and get on with it.
At lunch I had come back from the loo, couldn't initially see Monty in the dining room until I saw him waving from the main central table where he's manage to blag sitting next the MC himself. Bit surprised and apprehensive, I sorted out my lunch from the masses of hot food in the buffet cauldrons dotted about the place (they weren't going to get rid of half of it with what they'd over produced), and joined the convo at the table. The MC or DD as his friends affectionately called him, was a larger than life sort of character, well spoken, slightly camp, loved his anecdotes and had to personal aids either side of him. He asked where I was from and when I said Portsmouth, he surprisingly said he visited our hallowed city before and agreed it was like a cockney off shoot from London. Apparently he knew the Vinoun lot as well, and had worked with them before on other documentaries. Hopefully we could use his clout in the world to gain some useful connections here and there, I thought. Before he had to go off back to the next stage of the day he had some gay spanish guy arguing it was pointless airing his views about the state of the industry because no one would listen, really started having a go at DD. He just brushed it off and escaped quickly.
The rest of the forum consisted of the hall split in to smaller groups, with the production houses going off to find out more from the network representatives about what the media group was providing for locally produced talent. And it seemed quite a bit, two distinct channels in fact, dedicated to what we would produce. They'd obviously drive a hard budgeting and royalties bargain but at least they were happy to provide the platform. After that was spent eating some more posh grub (can't let it all go to waste, it would bring many tears to the eye) and chatting to other fellow networkers. We had a little time after to do a spot of sight seeing, and got to have some snaps done in front of the prime minister's main head quarters, as you may be able to see from the photo album. Also checked out Monty's pad as well, as he wanted to change.
Hooked up with Gen and Mel later on, down at brussels for a beer, and debriefed them on what we'd found out. They were happy with our performance, so Jobs a good'un I'd say.
- comments
WDRoch Bring it on Phil.Got to be good experience,the more contacts made the better, if only telephone numbers.As you say jobs a good"un.