Chapter 1: INTRODUCTION

CHAPTER 1 – INTRODUCTION

1.1  Research Motivation

My full name is Fauziyah binti Md Aris and I am well known as Qash Aris. I considered it as my commercial name and I used it for creative activities such as scriptwriting, directing, producing, and songwriting. Being creative and actively involved in the Malaysian Creative Industries, particularly in the film and television (TV) productions for various TV stations like ASTRO and RTM, give me a quite fulfilling in terms of my own creativity and my spirituality as a human. As someone, who did not have formal learning qualification in creative arts, I find it sometimes quite overwhelming, thinking that there are so much that I do not know and there are so much for me to learn. I, then, pronounced myself a self-directed learner, a lifelong learner that need to look for new knowledge, experience, and skills such as creative skills, technical skills, interpersonal skills, and leadership skills.

            Interestingly I am not the only one in the Malaysian Creative Industries; the film and TV productions that are lacking knowledge and skills needed for us to excel in our creative endeavor. Currently, the film and TV production sectors, have more than 14,645 film and TV production workers who registered with Persatuan Pekerja Profesional Filem Malaysia or Professional Film Workers Association of Malaysia (PROFIMA) from 101 work areas in the film and TV productions (PROFIMA, 2020) and 1,200 directors registered with Film Directors’ Association of Malaysia or FDAM (FDAM, 2020). I am an active member of both PROFIMA and FDAM.

With the announcement of Pelan Jana Semula Ekonomi Negara (PENJANA) by the Prime Minister of Malaysia on 5 June 2020, the Malaysian Creative Industries now can breathe a bit as RM225 million budget has been allocated by the government to rescue and stimulate the creative economy of the industries. Nevertheless, Barker (2020) is worried that the budget given will be misused and not properly allocated and distributed accordingly, as what had happened in the past years of 2009, 2011, and 2014. Most of the budgets were being distributed to the film and TV producers, and people behind the scenes; the film and TV production workers were far left behind as we did not get any benefits, what more the monetary benefits. He added that 80% of the budget was given to the film and TV production industry (Barker and Lee, 2017).

Back in 2012, government through its agencies; FINAS and PEMANDU, Creative Industry Lifelong Learning Programme (CILLP) had created a special lifelong learning opportunity for creative individuals to participate and enroll in creative programs locally or overseas.

           

“In part the rationale for CILLP states "although there appears to be enough talent to meet the demand, the industry has however expressed serious concern over the quality and skills of talent pool" (CILL, n.d.). The Creative Content Industry Guild (CCIG) an independent Civil Society Organization was created to lead the initiative. Inspired by the "lifelong learning" principle goals of improving knowledge, skills, and competence, CCIG aims to increase relevant skills for creative content practitioners. There are four schemes in the program: the up-skilling and re-skilling scheme; internship scheme; attachment scheme; and creative skills certifications. The fields of study in the schemes mostly include producing and directing, scripting and screen adaptation, animation, games development, visual and special effects, sound effects, and production support services. The scheme also includes a series of short courses and workshops. Successful applicants are then required to work in the creative multimedia industry for a minimum period of three years.” (Barker and Lee, 2017)

Even though hundreds of creative practitioners have benefited from the Creative Industry Lifelong Learning Programme, the film and TV production workers are still having issues in getting more jobs and increase their income earnings (FDAM, 2020). This due to their status as freelancers and the issues become worsen right after the government announced that Malaysia was under Movement Control Order (MCO) due to the Covid-19 pandemic on 18 March 2020. I personally have created a Google Form; https://forms.gle/WP45x2G2c3ts5AHE8 to get an initial data from women creative practitioners; directors, assistant directors, production managers, make-up artists, musicians, actresses, singers and managed to collect about 373 responses (333 females and 40 males) on their well-beings after the MCO being announced.

            This online survey shows that the MCO has given an impact on their finances and livelihood. Even though the main issues of getting more jobs and increase income earnings among the majority of the film and TV production workers, Barker and Lee (2017) believe that training in creative skills such as for production development and scriptwriting are needed most to help spur the film and TV production. This is because they see the creative industries involved culture and Malaysia has multi-culture resources that can be displayed through film and TV productions that worth being told to the global market. Kim Taik Sik (2020), one of the top filmmakers from South Korea also agrees that the Malaysian Creative Industries can use the local culture as the background of film and TV productions in promoting our local films and TV programmes to outside Malaysia (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5R-QIOCDD2A)

In embarking my journey as a lifelong learner, creative practitioner and most importantly as an Instructional Designer, I have observed, experienced and part-taken in a few lifelong learning studies that use online learning platform as the learning environment such as I did my master’s degree 100% online at the Open University Malaysia (OUM), enrolled and completed 8 Massive Open Online Courses (4 with certificates, and 4 non-certificates). Down the road, I have created few Facebook Groups as a Social Learning platform for me to share my interest in subjects like Music, Flipped Learning, Women in Education, Lifelong Learning, Educational Research Design, PhD Research, Instructional Design and Technology using social media such Facebook, YouTube, and Pinterest. My recent activities are doing live videos on Facebook which I share my experience as a lifelong learner and I am focusing on creativity such as creative mindset and story-telling; https://www.youtube.com/c/QashAris

After the initial discussion in January 2020, I was offered by the President of FDAM, to work on a proposal for FDAM to offer online courses to its members on 9 June 2020.