Friend of mine just sent me some info on this new regulation restricting the use of foreign talents and crew, post production as well as foreign locations. Everything will have to be done in Indonesia if the commercial has to be aired there. What a set back. It's like taking it back 30 years!

    This is a ministerial regulation which hasn't been passed through parliament. And the minister who signed the regulation was doing it in a hurry before he gets transferred to another post in the cabinet. True enough, in less than 2 weeks after the signing, he was reassigned in a cabinet reshuffle. Apparently this was engineered by ultra nationalists in the advertising and production industry who fed some misleading information to the minister about the amount of money the industry was leaking overseas. How sad!

    We have a regional production meant for several Asian countries scheduled within the next few weeks and the client is now panicking over this new regulation. There's a grace period of 6 months for the networks to continue accepting commercials without checking their "certificates of origin". But come 1st Jan 2008, they certificates must accompany the ads to be aired. But nothing in the regulation provides for ads which were made prior to its introduction. This is just ONE of the several grey areas, I was told.

     Apparently, expats can continue to work in the industry for another 2 years provided they have 3 local trainees or apprentices accompanying them. But the qualification or classification of these "trainees" are unclear. Technically it could mean that one foreign director must have 3 other local directors, and one DOP needs to have another 3 on set. Can you imagine the confusion with so many cooks preparing one dish?

    They say this was fashioned along the lines of the "made in Malaysia" regulation introduced some years ago. But that was well before the signing of the ASEAN Free Trade Agreement and the resolve to integrate ASEAN into one economic bloc in about ten years ' time. Even Malaysia has relaxed somewhat on that rule in view of the developments within ASEAN. And, when Malaysia started that, it was based mainly on protecting the culture and sensitivities of its people. Not aimed at retaining foreign exchange. Foreigners were allowed to continue in the industry provided they're legally registered and pay local taxes. They didn't inflate the crew size by stipulating that 1:3 ratio.

     Malaysia knew they had to maintain the quality of their TV commercials in line with international standards and they knew their advertisers had to remain competitive. Perhaps that's the reason why Malaysians are still winning international awards and accolades while the Indonesians are still far behind.

    From past visits to Jakarta, most post production facilities are either run by expats or depend on expat editors and telecine colorists. The norm for agencies and clients is to go to more advanced places like Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Hongkong or even Australia whenever they have complex jobs involving 3D and special effects.

    Can a director be groomed in 2 years? Can you make a red hot telecine colorist in 2 years? Judging by industry norms, someone either underestimated the requirements of the professionals in the trade or overestimated the talents in their people. A bachelor's degree is at least 3 to 4 years in the making depending on which university one attends. Doctors and accountants go through a much longer period before they are allowed to fly solo. DOPs around the world start either as a camera assistant for a number of years or have seveeral years of stills photography background before they are given a chance to shoot moving pictures. So where does that leave Indonesia in 2 years' time, I wonder.

    As for this impending regional gig, the client will have to decide as to whether they want to risk their investment - production costs plus media buy which is several multiples of the production costs - on producing it in Indonesia or maintaining international quality standards in tune with their competitors by producing it outside of Indonesia. Surely they can then commission something specifically for Indonesia at a fraction of their original production. From what I heard, there are numerous production companies in Indonesia which resort to undercutting just to get the job thru the door. 1,000 USD is quite a lot of money in Rupiah terms. So if someone makes a 1,000 dollar profit on a production, that will probably last him a month or more, depending on spending habits. The CIA World Factbook says 17 percent of the 230 so million people there lives below the poverty line.

    More will come in this next few months. Apparently there are ultra nationalists jostling for control over the policing of this new regulation and the modernists and believers of global competition (these are the true Indonesians who believe that Indonesia can only survive and lift itself out of poverty in this age by maintaining an open economy) who are trying to be the counter-force. Let's wait and see as to what happens in the next few months.