Laurant was in Malaysia as a guest speaker for the Kre8tif Digital Content Conference, and he spoke to e27 on how the West Coast views the Asian creative industry, and how the region is moving forward in producing better digital content.
How does Hollywood view Asia when it comes to digital content creation?
The view that Asia is a low-cost labour source is not based on nothing, and it’s become a stereotype over the years. But a shift is happening now in Asia – we’re seeing more good content coming out of the region, and it’s part of the natural learning curve that’s developed over time. By working on something – no matter how menial or repetitive the animation is – people will learn more about the big picture and eventually plot their own course and create their own intellectual property.
There’s no shortcut to this learning – while governments here are finding their own ways to give birth to an industrial and cultural baby, it’s not something that can be done by imitating the West. The Hollywood model is inspiring and relevant in many way, but there’s a point that they stop writing the rules, especially where storytelling is concerned – that aspect has to be ethnocentric.
The challenge for countries to produce their own stories is to find the language that transcends borders, and be confident in their history and folklore that it becomes the building blocks for their own storybuilding archetypes. Hayao Miyazaki is one great example of how a country can be true to its own culture, while being successful in other countries.
What promise do you see emerging from the Asian region in the coming years?
We’re starting to see a growing sophistication of tasks being shipped out overseas – and more importantly, the satellite studios of big companies aren’t just saying that these are just an outsource studio, but a studio with its own cultural pride. They’re saying: ‘This is DreamWorks India’, or ‘This is LucasFilm Singapore’ with its own cultural pride. And that gives a lot of confidence within these countries to create their own works.
What are you looking forward to in the next decade in video games and movies?
In games there’s a lot more changes happening – many have observed that consoles are levelling off and stabilising. One of the big challenges in the past was a constantly changing platform, core tools and engine – how could you be an expert when your engine changes every two years? So that’s something good to look forward to. Also, mobile gaming and gestural interfaces are obviously going to be huge in the coming years.
As for movies that are dimensionalised (into 3D)? I’m frankly so down on these kind of movies – I don’t see them succeeding and you won’t see me crying about it a lot. In terms of the movie experience, IMAX is more mind-blowing than any of them.
Photo courtesy of Kre8tif Digital Content Conference.
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