7ISSUES GROUP RESEARCH REPORT

IS CENSORSHIP THE MAIN REASON BEHIND LACK OF PUBLIC SUPPORT FOR

RISHIKA, LUCINDA, PENG SHENG, CARISSA, MEGAN

(S10169967D, S10172766G, S10169971C, S10169924E, S10173699A)

T05
 Is censorship the main reason behind lack of public support for local productions?

Over the years, Singaporeans financial and emotional support for local productions has

been deteriorating. In 2014, even though the Gross Cinema Box Office for all films had a

gradual increase, Gross Cinema Box Office for Singapore films suffered a decrease of more

than $8 million compared to 2013 (see Fig. 1). This raises questions such as: Why is support

for local productions important and what is the leading factor behind the lack of local

support for them?

In many countries, local productions are used in terms of soft power. Soft power acts as a

cultural influence tool through introducing a variety of audience the countrys traditions, and

affects the countrys economic by boosting their tourism. It also creates an identity for the

country. For example, the locations shown on Koreas hit series Descendants of the Sun

caused travel agencies to receive a huge demand to visit the location (Chung). Most of the

support for the series came from the country itself. The series highest viewership rating

reached 44.2% in Seoul alone (Bonquin). Therefore, local support is important for Singapore

productions to reach bigger audience groups internationally.

Our group believes that censorship is the cause of the lack of support. The high level of

censorship in Singapore leads to very restricted content, causing lack of creativity and loss of

identity. Censorship restrict(s) freedom of expression of belief, which has direct

consequences for freedom of artistic expression (Ezzat). Royston Tan, whose feature film,

15 received 27 cuts in his film from the censorship board said that "Sometimes in the midst

of shaping the country, certain things are filtered out. I think what is missing is our real
identity" (Tan). Our group aimed to prove that censorship is the leading factor behind the

lack of public support for local productions.

Through our survey, we found out that although censorship has an effect on the quality of

films in Singapore, it doesnt have a direct impact in causing the lack of support for local

films. 69% and 56.7% of respondents were indifferent towards whether they would watch

censored or uncensored content respectively. Hence censorship is not the main reason for

lack of public support for locals films. Censorship is only a supporting factor for the lack of

support in Singapore film industry. Other than censorship, there are also 3 other factors that

our group focused on that causes the lack of local support for local productions. It also

raised a question as to whether Singapore will ever be able to catch its consumers interest

and attain the locals support.

Firstly, Singapores local market is losing to its international market. Singapore has a higher

viewership of international content compared to local content. When asked how many times

they watched foreign channels, 71.7% of the respondents ranked themselves as regular

viewers. Both Western (42.6%) and Korean (25.5%) content were ranked the top while local

content was ranked last in our survey. Supporting our survey is evidence from

hellokpop.com which shows that the Korean mini-series, Scarlet Heart became the number

1 in Singapore and Malaysia and took over 70% of the share in timeslots, doubling the

timeslot ratings in its first 9 episodes (Sharon).

However, there was an opposing response when asked the exact times they watch local TV,

32.9% picked never while 30.1% picked once a week. 62.3% of the respondents ranked

themselves at the negative end of the spectrum which meant that they never or rarely
watch local TV. This further reinforces the fact that locals are uninterested in local TV and

their increasing support of international content instead. We support the findings as we

came to the conclusion that most locals would rather watch international films than local

films when given a choice (Hadi).

Another factor that our group discovered in our survey was that people ranked trend as the

most important factor in determining their choice of series, culture ranking second while the

plot was ranked last. There were instances where 'trend' was prominent in influencing the

public to take action and buy tickets. For example, last year's anthology film 7 Letters

comprising seven stories from seven local directors received good word-of-mouth and

general hype online which led to snaking ticket queues and multiple sold-out sessions (Yip).

We do not support this finding as even though the responses were such, when asked what

local productions can improve on, creativity and originality had the most votes, with 71.1%

and 66.2% respectively. This shows that even though 'trend' is a significant factor in making

their viewing choices, it did not cause them to stop supporting local content. Rather, it was

the mixed views about the plots written. According to Irene Ang, the CEO of FLY

entertainment stated that she felt that in terms of storytelling skills, we're not experienced

enough. In fact, I feel that Singapore is not a mature movie industry yet (Jagdish). Some of

the respondents see local context as being too Singaporean or cheap propaganda, while

others think positively about it and want more creative content that leant towards it. Hence,

we found out that the plot is one of the supporting factors behind the lack of support from

locals.
Another supporting factor is the local media industrys lack of competence, leading to the

lack of creative individuals. When asked about what they wanted to see in local productions,

35.9% of the respondents wanted local productions to have a variety of actors and actresses,

while 53.5% of the respondents wanted it to showcase more talent. We do not support this

finding as even though there are creative individuals with good content in Singapore, it is

very hard for them to get into the mainstream media without having achievement outside of

Singapore. According to Aishah Abu Bakar, the Programme Manager of The Substations

Moving Images Programme, Some of our works are definitely on par with those based

overseas, (Yeo). Unfortunately, even with their skills, they do not receive local support

without recognition from foreign countries. They only focus on the end result. Singaporean

filmmaker Anthony Chen became popular only after his film Ilo Ilo had won the Camera d'Or

at the Cannes International Film Festival, as well as four Golden Horse awards from Taiwan,

including for Best Picture. Even though Singaporeans were praising his film, they did not

support his film financially. Its total gross at its second run was only $1.2 million, which was

far from the $7.9 million earned by Ah Boys To Men 2 (2013), the highest-grossing local film

to date (Yeo). As much as locals should applaud the results of local content, they should

continue supporting local talent as well as rising talent so that they can achieve more in the

future.

In conclusion, we found out from our research that censorship was only a supporting factor

and there were other factors behind the lack of local support of local productions. We also

learnt that Singapore will not be able to catch up with its consumers internet and attain the

locals support as most of their locals have a negative mindset about their productions. 69%

of the respondents replied negatively about their opinion on local productions. The
misunderstanding has to be cleared up in order for them to receive more support from

locals.

References

Figure 1:
 Work Cited

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airing-next-week.htm>

Chung, A. (2016, March 24). 'Descendants of the Sun' makes Taebaek a tourism magnet.

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Sharon. (2016, September 23). 'Scarlet Heart' Becomes The No.1 Korean Drama In Malaysia

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<http://www.hellokpop.com/news/one-scarlet-heart-malaysia-singapore/>

Yeo, C. (n.d.). Singapore's Film Scene (Critical Analysis). Retrieved December 3, 2016.

<http://christieyeo.weebly.com/singapores-film-scene-critical-analysis.html>

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