Nizam, Safwan & Anas - Boboi Boy

Profil Usahawan Pilihan

 

Nizam, Safwan and Anas, all 27 years old, are three cool dudes who met as classmates in MMU and graduated in 2005 in Films and Animations. Since then, they have made their name in Malaysia’s animation industry.

What is your most significant principle in life? 

Answering the question: “Why would people want to spend RM10 and 90 minutes of their lives to watch your movie?”

What started it all? What inspired you / your business?

We were in the Final Year Project together in college, and our project got an overwhelming response from the audience in the hall, which was full to the brim that day. The satisfying feeling of entertaining them was awesome to us – that was when the idea of having our own animation studio started. In 2005, we started work with a small 3D animation company before we met Hj. Borhan who founded Les Copaque Production (Producer of Upin & Ipin) together with us.

How did you make it happen? 

After 4 years in Les Copaque, we decided to build Animonsta on our own in Sept 2009. We were eager and excited to face the challenges of running Animonsta as a business, where it takes more than just focusing on the creative production aspect, but also to ensure the sustenance of the overall business operations - finance, sales negotiations, etc. We believe that the MAC3 program by MDeC is a very, very good programme that gives serious Animation Entrepreneurs a big opportunity to realise their dreams. And the BCi2 grant programme gives a huge relief to Animation Entrepreneurs like us to focus on the quality of their ideas, therefore helping them to negotiate in the market better. 

Who do you owe it to? 

MDeC who provides a strong support through facilities in MAC3, office space accommodating 20, complete with hardware and software – for 1 year until we are ready to build our own facilities. We think it is very important to have this support at this very critical stage, where we want to focus on strengthening the animation concept without worrying on the high cost of start-up. Also, we owe it to Les Copaque who taught us a lot in terms of building and running a successful animation studio, and producing a successful world-class animation.

Who is / are your idol(s) in business and in life? 

Pixar Studio, but not limited to it. We believe we can be more. We don’t want to be like them, but instead, shoulder to shoulder with them, if not better. Prophet Muhammad Rasulullah S.A.W. is our idol in terms of building the right character and having the right mindset in both, business and personal life.

Any profound quotes that you stand for in business / entrepreneurship / leadership?

Moderation and Honesty are the best policies. We do things for others the way we want others to do for us.

What is so great about the winning idea? How is it different from the others?

Not many 3D animated TV series are available in the current market - only feature films. Our series have the same quality of 3D animations as feature films (some even says better). Therefore, we have a high confidence to be one of the pioneers in that market. We have the capacity and the capability to produce better quality 3D animations at a much lower cost compared to the American studios, for example. That puts us ahead of them in terms of producing great 3D animation such TV series, because for them it is still the question of feasibility.

While some prioritise quality in terms of the visuals, scripts and storytelling aspects, we also focus on understanding our audience and giving them exactly what they want and how they want them.

What is it about? 

Boboi Boy is a 3D animated television series targeted for 6-12 age group. It runs for 11 minutes – in both, Malay and English. The animation is about the adventure of Boboi Boy and his 3 friends (Gopal, Yaya and Ying) who have superpowers, fighting against the evil aliens who want to invade the earth for coffee as their main source of energy. 

Boboi Boy has the superpower of splitting himself into 3; Gopal’s magic touch turns anything into anything that he wishes, while Yaya can fly and Ying has hyper speed. 

When they are not fighting aliens, the superkids are normal kids in school and at home. This provides a natural setting that kids can relate to. The character approach is strategically made generic enough to be accepted globally, but unique enough to be at the heart of each audience. So kids around the world can relate and appreciate the animated series. In short; local content with a global appeal or universal content with a local touch.

What do you foresee the future for this animation? And how do you see it turn out over the next 3-5 years?

Starting with a secured, major local market (but not limited to), we are aiming for regional exports next. The question is not about getting our product in any TV channels, but for the series to be in Prime TV channels (e.g. Disney, Cartoon Networks, etc.).

2 seasons are being developed now and we’ve secured local and regional markets, airing at the end of this year. We’re targeting the world market by next year. We are currently already in negotiation with large international cartoon channels for 40 episodes, and have received enquiries for sponsorship offers and merchandise licensing from big international names.

In 5 years’ time, we foresee ourselves with 3 to 4 seasons and at least a feature film for Boboi Boy.

What do you think are the key success factors for our animation / content industry? And how do you think we can achieve them?

(1) Seriousness and Commitment of the industry players / Animation Company – in terms of quality, on-the-job talent development and market expansion.

(2) Talent pool, of which Malaysia is not short of. In fact we think that Malaysia has one of the highest quality talent pool, thanks to all the great government incentives which results in great ideas being created and executed.

(3) University–Industry relations. This determines the readiness of talents for the industry in terms of working attitude, professionalism and level of skills needed by the industry  

What do you think of the support given by MDeC to the animation / content industry far?

Great! MDeC even has the initiatives to closer connect the industry with universities in Animation, in order to create a larger and higher quality pool of industry talents. We are currently involved in helping to train the university lecturers in understanding more of the creative and technical aspects of it.

Do you think the BCi2 programme is adequate in getting our animations / contents into the world market?

Yes. The great thing about the BCi2 grant programme is, it gives Bumiputra Entrepreneurs the funds to build their resources in terms of office space, hardware, software, manpower etc. With that worry out of the way, we are able to give 100% to creativity and production which results in quality products that are world class standard. When you have a good product, marketing becomes a lot easier. Besides, through MDeC and NEF, we also have access to a large network here and abroad as well as the chance to exchange skills and knowledge, which help tremendously when trying to penetrate the world market. 

Are there any improvements that you would like to suggest to MDeC?

We think there is room for improvement in terms of enhancing the marketing aspect of the animation products in Malaysia. Maybe MDeC can help more in initiating or opening opportunities or giving more support for Malaysian animation companies for more aggressive negotiations with the big players around the world. We can do it on our own but we may lose a lot of opportunities along the way by not fully utilising the strong connections that MDeC and our government already has with the market.

What do you see as the biggest value of NEF to its members / the industry?

The privileges given by NEF to its members in terms of accessibility to Government assistance, especially in terms of funding opportunities and business networking. These enable exchange of business leads and synergising opportunities with other Bumiputera companies to complement and add value to our business.

How would you and / or your ideas inspire our next generation of Malaysian animators?

We believe with focus and a lot of hard work in business, the sky is the limit.

What do you think our animation industry needs in order to become prominent?

Awareness to the importance of having a strong business model in order to move ahead of others, especially when we talk about competing globally. We have to move the industry into creating more and more profitable content businesses. And most importantly; understanding the audience, understanding the talents, understanding the how the market works. 


Source : 
http://thenetwork.my/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=20:boiboi-boy&catid=30:creative-industry&Itemid=65

Posted in: ICT