B

atam-based film and animation company PT Kinema Systrans Multimedia, under the flag of Infinite Frameworks (IFW), is upbeat about getting more international projects, overcoming competition from companies in India and China, which claim cheaper costs.

The company'€™s managing director Michael Wiluan told The Jakarta Post recently that in the middle of the month, they would start production of two films for the international market, namely Singapore 1965, a film about the evolution of Singapore since its formation until now, and Sky Line, a science fiction film.

'€œBoth films will be produced side by side. Shooting will take place in this studio, with only a small part of the Singapore 1965 film being shot in Singapore,'€ said Michael.

He said the two projects were among seven wide-screen film projects and television series which his company had worked on over the past four years. Michael said the company aimed to produce six films annually at their expanding studio.

'€œIt cost US$10 million to build the studio. It is a long-term investment, probably for the next 30 years. The film industry being built up here is not for a year, or five years, but for the long term,'€ said Michael.

To date, the company has produced animation series such as Garfield, Franklin and Friends, Dr. Contraptus and Rollbots, and also a feature-length animation film adopted from a Japanese novel written by Yoshihiro Tatsumi titled A Drifting Life, which is a story of social life in Japan.

'€œEach of our film productions needs almost 400 local artists, while almost half of our animators are Indonesian. This shows that Batam and Indonesia in general have quite good creative-industry skills, especially in the animation field,'€ said Michael.

Batam Tourism Agency head Yusfa Hendri said the agency believed that if PT Kinema Systrans Multimedia continued its work in the creative industry, it would not be impossible for Batam to become the biggest animation-film production center in Southeast Asia in the near future. '€œWe see production being carried out consistently. With the planned Kinema studio, said to be the biggest in Southeast Asia, I'€™m certain that Batam will become a center for animation-film production in the near future,'€ said Yusfa.

Located in the Nongsa Area, Batam, The Kinema studio stands on a 10-hectare plot, with indoor and outdoor studios. The sets of Singapore in the 1960s era have been created in premises that have also been used for a number of films, including HBO Asia'€™s detective-noir drama Serangoon Road.

Although the Ministry of Creative Economy has been scrapped by the President Joko '€œJokowi'€ Widodo government, Michael hopes that the President will remain supportive of the Indonesian film industry.