Happy New Year! from Dream Defenders

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Before the line jams up, here wishing all our fans and friends a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. 

Happy Holidays!!

My son and Dream Defenders

I have never shown Dream Defenders to my son. I was worried it is too scary for him. The series wasn't meant for pre school kids and I can never imagine he will like it someday.

Years passed and now he has grown up. The other day, he saw the new pitch trailer that was done. Since then, he kept asking me to show him the series. He seems to really enjoy the show. I have to say it touches me when I see how excited he was when he was watching it.

This kind of joy guess not many will understand. The feeling is priceless. And money can never fulfil. It adds meaning to our journey. No matter how many fans you have. Your son appreciation is the most valuable gift that one can ever ask for. All the effort and sacrifices that has been put in during the past years is all worth it now.

For our Indonesian friends!

For our Indonesian friends. Thanks for your support. To read the article, click here.

Moving to a new market

In business, we are always facing changes. Whenever there is a change, it's like a Tsunami. It wipes out those who cannot hold on when it comes. Entrepreneurship is about persistence. Its about holding on and staying alive during these times. As long as you are fast to identify the new wave and move with the change. There is a chance to survive.

Diversification is a must for survival. You need to have multiple revenue streams. So that if one stream is facing danger, you have other streams to depend on.

In Tiny Island, we are always looking at new advance technology that has potential to propagate. Technology means nothing without Creativity. We treat Technology like a pencil. By understanding how the technology works, we can creatively create new engaging product.

But R&D in new technology could mean spending indefinitely with no results if not handle with care. This is especially difficult for small companies.

So what we do in Tiny Island is we form alliance with technological and business partners so that we can provide a variety of services which makes us more competitive.

For Example: We team up with consulting agencies who are strong in locating MNC clients. At our end, we use our creativity to push the technology beyond its boundaries with the help of our technological partners. With this, we provide a list of new media solutions. (Stereoscopic 3d, Auto-stereoscopic 3d, AR, VR, MR etc) to our clients. We leverage each others strength and form a strong consortium. Together, we appears to be a much bigger organisation which helps us engage a variety of new businesses and opening new markets.

Many startups die within the first few years. Or many never even reach the sea and stay within the shore. (Keep depending on local market) We started the company with zero external investment till today. Through this strategy, it helps us pull through 10 years and many tough times. Believe it or not, we are now getting outsource work from countries like Vietnam and China even though we are from Singapore (ranked as the most expensive country in the world) You may wonder why. In order to survive, one need to provide a unique service that others cannot provide. Else why should others pay you a premium if all you can provide is what others can already do and even at a cheaper cost than you. Moving to new market is the key.

Dream Defenders VR Phase 2

We are in progress with the 2nd phase of our plan. That is to bring Dream Defenders Series into the world of Virtual Reality. A whole new experience of storytelling that allows the audience to participate in the story. 

Not only will it allow you to look around in 360, but you can also walk, run, jump and fight side by side with Zane and Zoey against the evil queen Icela and her momoks (The nightmare monsters). You will be able to fire laser beams at the momoks, just by staring at your targets like Cyclops in X-Men.

In the 3rd phase, we plan to allow audiences to decide their own path in the story. And also allow multiple audiences to go into the same world simultaneously.

Now we are waiting for Microsoft's Hololens to be released in Asia. Next, it will be bringing Dream Defenders into the world of Hololens.

In July, we will be making another announcement of our 4th entry into the US market. The first 3 entries were 3net, Hulu and Discover Family. Together with our new US partner, we will be launching a campaign for Dream Defenders in the next 9 months.

Next stop will be China. In August, we will go to Beijing, Shanghai and Nanjing to go into the 2nd phase of partnership discussion.

Currently the series is distributed by DreamWorks and the series has reached out to 80 countries world wide.

Stay tuned for more news coming up.

YouTube Link: https://youtu.be/i_JzLPPIs_M

Featured in Animation: A World History: Volume III: Contemporary Times

Both CG Protege and Tiny Island including Dream Defenders were mentioned in Mr Giannalberto Bendazzi book (Animation: A World History: Volume III: Contemporary Times) Honoured to be recorded as part of Singapore Animation History.

Available on Amazon
https://www.amazon.com/Animation-World-History-Contemporary-Times/dp/1138854824

"A continuation of 1994’s groundbreaking Cartoons, Giannalberto Bendazzi’s Animation: A World History is the largest, deepest, most comprehensive text of its kind, based on the idea that animation is an art form that deserves its own place in scholarship. Bendazzi delves beyond just Disney, offering readers glimpses into the animation of Russia, Africa, Latin America, and other often-neglected areas and introducing over fifty previously undiscovered artists. Full of first-hand, never before investigated, and elsewhere unavailable information, Animation: A World History encompasses the history of animation production on every continent over the span of three centuries.

Volume III catches you up to speed on the state of animation from 1991 to present. Although characterized by such trends as economic globalization, the expansion of television series, emerging markets in countries like China and India, and the consolidation of elitist auteur animation, the story of contemporary animation is still open to interpretation. With an abundance of first-hand research and topics ranging from Nickelodeon and Pixar to modern Estonian animation, this book is the most complete record of modern animation on the market and is essential reading for all serious students of animation history."

4th Entry into the US, Expansion into South East Asian markets, VR plans.

Dream Defenders is going strong. Just received news that the Dream Defenders Series is potentially expanding to South East Asian territories and also in Africa & the Middle East (including Pakistan). This is on top of the 80 countries we have reached out so far.

We have also recently seal our 4th deal in the US. This marks our 4th entry into US.

We are also now planning a Virtual Exhibition showcasing The Art of Dream Defenders in a VR world. Followed by launching the actual exhibition. Its all getting very exciting. Stay tune.

Dream Defenders – animated in Singapore for the world

Coverage in FutureReadySingapore, a publication of EDB

When he founded Tiny Island 13 years ago, David Kwok hoped that by making a direct reference to the island nation of Singapore, the fledgling animation studio would one day put the country on the world map.

Today, Tiny Island is a major player in Asia’s vibrant animation industry. Its 26-part series, Dream Defenders, made its United States debut on 3net - a 3D network jointly owned by Sony, the Discovery Channel and Imax – in 2011, and has also been aired on major European networks such as German television network Super RTL and Planeta Junior. Closer to home, Dreamworks TV Asia has also acquired the rights to air the series across 19 countries in the region.

Photojournalist Calvin Wong takes a closer look at Tiny Island’s work in a walk through the animation studio. (Click here to read the whole article)

CEO's Thoughts: Its the journey that matters. Not the destination.

Building this company has brought me to places I never dared to dream of. One thing that I have learnt is that you need to keep trying no matter how impossible it may seem. The dream keeps you alive and keeps you going. Someday you may get there. Even if you don’t, it’s the journey that matters. Not just the destination. Stepping into Dreamworks Animation was one of those “impossible” dreams of mine. This is probably not a big deal to those who works in the US industry, but for someone like me from this “tiny island”, it was something beyond my wildest imagination. (...read more)

Dream Defenders in German. SUPER RTL

Dream Defenders in German. SUPER RTL

Synchro: Dream Defenders - 2014 from Michael Borgard on Vimeo.

CEO's Thoughts: Thinking Out Of The Box

When I was first developing a master plan to promote Dream Defenders, the first step was to identify growing trends in technology.  Next is to apply our creativity to integrate/utilise these new technologies to produce a new product to engage the audience of this new generation. From here, we add value to the IP and expose them to a larger market. That is why we move from Stereoscopic 3d to AutoStereoscopic 3d to Augmented Reality to Virtual Reality. In today’s market of rapid change, you no longer can just build an animated TV series and call it a day. (....read more)

For more of such sharing, join our group at https://www.facebook.com/groups/EntreAnimation/

Christmas at Tiny Island Productions

Christmas at Tiny Island Productions more pictures here!

We have a good meeting with the team of government delegates from the Fukuoka City of Japan. 

Fukuoka is a very interesting city. It is expected to grow in the years ahead especially in animation and media. In terms of rent, it is much lower than Singapore. Salary is about 35% cheaper than us. In general, it is much cheaper than most Japanese cities. It is well linked to other cities in Japan and the location is in the centre of Asia. Their government is looking at ways to grow the animation and media sector by providing support. Fukuoka is considered as a earthquake free zone. I am not surprise that someday, it will take over Tokyo. 

It will really be exciting if Tiny Island can setup a branch in Fukuoka to tap on the creatives there to produce a Japanese version of the Dream Defenders trilogy. Something I have been thinking for sometime. 

The immediate collaboration we are in planning stage is to go there to share our experience in IP creations for the global market. Hopefully this will encourage more Japanese indie producers to go global and build a whole new market for themselves. We will probably be there next year to present a industry talk and hopefully followed by running seminars there.

Tiny Island Productions at ATF

Our first round of VR/Stereo3d prototype test for Dream Defenders. It has been well received at the recent ATF. We have shown it to companies like Jim Henson, DHX Media, Guru Studio etc. We have also shown to major Chinese companies like Alpha Animation and SMG. 

Imagine we can allow user to experience being part of the story. Walking, jumping high and shooting the nightmare monsters in the Dream World. And joining Zane and Zoey in the adventure. Next we will work on multiple users. 

Next stop, Hunan and Shanghai. And we will see you at Kidscreen Miami. https://youtu.be/wqhDxNydrOM 

Thanks to Presence Pictures our partner for all their contributions.

New Home for Tiny Island Productions and Dream Defenders

 Its official. We are moving to 2 Veerasamy Road on the 21st Nov 2015. Our New Home, our new office.

Dream Defenders on VR

 

Our prototype is almost done. Thanks to Edmund. We are experimenting using VR and stereoscopic 3D technology to tell the Dream Defenders story. Allowing users to feel as though they are in the scene interacting with the environment, walking and jumping high, shooting lasers at the momok just by staring at the momok. 

Moving forward, we also hope to allow multiple users to participate together. And all you need is a iPhone. 

The first stop demo will be at the coming Asia Television Forum. Followed by in China, Kidscreen Miami and LA.

Dream Defenders on EDM website

Dream Defenders featured on EDM website. Link here