Encouraging Production Companies to Use Facilities at Mediapolis@one-north

Mr Ganesh Rajaram asked the Minister for Communications and Information what steps has the Government taken to encourage more production companies to utilise the state-of-the-art facilities at Mediapolis@one-north.

Mr Speaker, Sir, Mediapolis@one-north has grown to be a vibrant infocomm-media cluster and is home to many media companies, including Lucasfilm, Mediacorp and Infinite Studios. Many of the facilities in Mediapolis are privately owned and the owners are promoting the use of their facilities for media productions. For example, Infinite Studios offers a diverse range of media activities, such as soundstages for filming, visual effects and production services. The soundstages have been well-utilised by local and regional large-scale television productions. Several Hollywood films have also used the soundstages in their filming, for example, "Hitman: Agent 47", as well as "Equals", that were both filmed in 2014. In June this year, Warner Brothers' "Crazy Rich Asians", starring Hollywood and Singaporean actors, utilised Infinite Studios’ facilities as well.

The main facility in Mediapolis under the Infocomm Media Development Authority's (IMDA’s) purview is PIXEL Studios. IMDA launched PIXEL Studios less than a year ago in November 2016 to provide shared content production facilities for online content creators and game developers to experiment with and create innovative digital media content. In addition, development space is available to incubate promising local games startups and there are currently 15 of them incubated at PIXEL. IMDA also organises a slate of programmes for content creators to learn from experienced local and international industry leaders. Since the launch of PIXEL Studios, more than 4,200 participants have attended over 150 events. These events range from networking sessions and video production clinics to workshops and talks on immersive media trends and technologies.

IMDA has also opened up PIXEL Studios for independent digital content creators to use the facilities for free. Some examples of the facilities available are audio and video recording suites, post-editing suites, thematic areas and backdrops, as well as filming equipment. All these facilities serve to meet the basic production needs of content creators. So far, the response from industry users has been positive. Over the past six months, about a dozen productions by content creators have taken place at PIXEL Studios.

In addition, the Singapore Film Commission within IMDA has launched the Filming Friendly Zone at one-north. Obtaining permissions to film at some locations in Singapore may be a challenge for some production companies. Thus, IMDA has established agreements with various building owners in the one-north precinct for a higher level of openness towards production companies which may be interested to use some locations for their filming. This supports small-size film productions by helping them gain easier access to film at these areas.