Company Background
Metrowealth Picture Sdn Bhd (MiG), is a leading film production and distribution
company in Malaysia that produces contents with various genres which caters to the local
community. Highly productive company since the year 2000, Metrowealth Picture (MiG)
currently produces 20 films per year and aim to produce around 100 film titles by the year 2014.
As a dynamic film production company, Metrowealth (MiG) is also responsible for
producing TV drama and plans to produce high quality animation in the future. Through the
years, MiG is a well known brand and have made their name throughout Malaysia entertainment
industry. Apart from that, Metrowealth (MiG) is also know as a post production company
through its brand, “MiG Sound Factory”, and the other, “Temasek Studio” a subsidiary company
renting out filming equipments.
“Bukan Janji Tapi Pasti”
Undeniably a solid tagline which forms the basic and principle that is held by
Metrowealth (MiG), to ensure transparency in every business it endeavors. As the company
stands on these tagline, Metrowealth (MiG) managed to overcome many obstacles to be the
leading film production company in Malaysia for over a decade.
Producer’s background
Major (H) David Teo is the chief executive officer MiG (Metrowealth International
Group) and subsidiaries. David Teo is one of the boards of director of National Film
Development Corporation of Malaysia (FINAS) (2007-2010). He also involves with industry
affiliation such PFM, karyawan, seniman, PPTVM, GAFIM. Member of film appeal
communitee, Ministry of Home Affairs. He also is member of the creative industry Loan Panel of
Advisory, Bank Simpanan Nasional (BSN). He also receive several awards as achievement
successful in film industry “Award of Assent” from his Majesty which carrier the title of “Major”
(Honorary) “best producer 2011” in Majlis Anugerah PROFIMA Award ceremony. He also
receives “The Best Producer” PPFM Oscar Award 2008.
Behind of the successful CEO of the company, his wife work as COO (Chief Operation
Officer) is one that always supports him toward greatest achievement. Nowadays, Metrowealth
picture has produce 89 feature film as well as a variety of TV Dramas for Theatrical release and
Broadcast. His wife also is responsible to take charge on talent management in the company. Her
also will in charge of discovering fresh young talent through MiG young actors and director
scheme. Her also responsible for working across a range of content including formats such as
entertainment, drama, horror and comedy. In term of entertainment licensing and contract
handling are also one of her works in the company. (COO) of the company also responsibilities
include marketing and licensing of film and dramas to International Film and video distributor
and Television Broadcaster, local and worldwide.
In Metrowealth picture Sdn Bhd, there are several departments that include in film
producing. There are three part of film making process, which first is pre-production, production
and post-production. Pre-production is the first stages of the film making. In pre-production, the
film team will conduct a meeting that involve planning, producing a script, searching for good
location and setup a team to shooting. When come to second stage which is production part, this
will involve on shooting a movie. In this part will take long time works part to make a movie.
Sometimes we will take a month to fully shoot a movie. When finish the second part, the process
of the film making will goes to the post production that involve editing of the movie such music
composing, soundtracks, effect, mixing and Dolby Digital Surround System.
There are also many other department in the company such as Graphic design, new
media, script writing team, human resources, CEO department, account department, and
management team. Metrowealth Picture is also provided production consultancy for new
producer. The company provides film making advice and guidance on production and
development of film, TV drama, to new producer. This includes financial control at the heart of
the industry, working with a wide range of Malaysian and International financiers. Through its
extensive network of industry contact, relations and knowhow, MiG helps the new producer to
shaping the new project and oversee development into successful production and sales to screen
and beyond. Before embarked in film production, the company do and recording department for
music producing product. The company produce sound track such popular artist’s such as
Waheeda (Wassini), Maya Karin and also sound track for movie.
Metrowealth Picture is one of the most successful film productions in making movie in
Malaysia. Good leadership style and strength employee in the company make Metrowealth
Picture (MiG) most proactive in film making company. In selecting the worker in the company,
Metrowealth picture always looking for good personality person and attitude. One of the
priorities in the selecting the employee is the honesty of that person. This is because they need
this type of person to be good in business. The employee will interview by the five of head
department in the office and if all of the head departments agree with certain person they will put
some of the selected person namely list for the second interview with one on one with the CEO of
the company.
From many of successful story that had been reach by this company, they must being a
secrete or strategy on how this company sustain and make more profit. The desire to know more
about this successful company make us go to this company and do some interview. From our
short interview, we know that Metrowealth Picture is one of the most successful film productions
in making movie in Malaysia. Good leadership style and strength employee in the company make
Metrowealth Picture (MiG) most proactive in film making company. In spite of that, this
company had been implemented the PDCA cycle (plan, do, check, act). This cycle also known as
Deming's Wheel. In this write up interview, we will discuss more about PDCA itself and how this
PDCA cycle being implemented in Metrowealth Picture.
Introduction of Total Quality Improvement (TQM) in Film Industry
Consistent throughout the literature for the current and past decades are discussions about
the approach to quality relies on the prevention of defective products being shipped to the
customers. This traditional approach results in high percentage of products being discarded or
reworked, which makes it highly ineffective. In the 1950s, Japanese companies looked up to the
quality improvement ideas of such western experts as Deming and Juran, and chose their
approach. That was the prevention of the defective units being produced at all. A core objective
in the prevention of defects is the reduction of variation. All units being produced in a certain
production process vary to some extent.
Those variations depend on the four most important factors: machinery as example
camera, people as example the production team. Production coordinator and assistance director
play important role in organizing the schedule shooting method that the production team use and
materials like film. The question whether these variations do or do not have any effect on quality
can be answered only by measuring variations, and TQM provides tools for that. The process
management systems designed for this film and creative industry have developed significantly
over the past 30 years, and those technological improvements facilitated the reduction of
variation and collecting of data (Davor Donevski, Diana Milcic, Dubravko Banić, 2009).
However, technology alone does not lead toward the goal of the total quality, which is
continuous improvement in quality. This requires the involvement of the company's employees.
Every participant who contributes to improvements in one segment in a series of processes
contributes to the final cost-effective quality. The implementation of TQM is based on the
gradual introduction of the problem-solving tools and techniques. Tools and techniques are used
in a well-planned investigation with the aim of making improvements, and a typical method of
TQM is the PDCA cycle (plan, do, check, act).
Implementation PDCA in Film Industry
The Plan-Do-Check-Act cycle (PDCA) has been embraced as an excellent foundation for,
and foray into, quality improvement standard for the film industry, as it is both simple and
powerful. Its simplicity comes from the systematic, straightforward and flexible approach that it
offers. Its power is derived from its reliance on the scientific method, as example it involves
developing, testing, and analyzing hypotheses. This foundation offers a means to become
comfortable with a host of quality improvement methods and techniques, and to progressively
evolve into addressing more complex problems, employing additional Quality Improvement (QI)
tools, and migrating to system-wide approaches to QI.
Although there are not directly state the procedure for quality improvement (QI) in film
industry, but this industry indirectly have implement this PDCA cycle during making the film.
PDCA is based on the “Shewhart cycle,” and was made popular by Dr. W. Edwards Deming,
considered by many to be the father of modern quality control. During his lectures in Japan in the
early 1950s, Deming noted that the Japanese participants shortened the cycle’s steps to the now
traditional plan, do, check and act. It is interesting to note that Deming preferred plan, do, study,
and act because the translation of "study" from Japanese to English has connotations closer to
Shewhart's intent than does "check." This model has been around for 60 years and it is relevant in
today’s film industry world, providing a defined and well tested process to achieve lasting
improvement to the problems and challenges film industry is now facing.
Plan: The purpose of this phase is to investigate the current situation, fully understand the
nature of any problem to be solved, and to develop potential solutions to the problem that will be
tested.
The first thing that this company has to do is to plan, create and define its philosophy. For
Metrowealth Picture, the philosophy or tagline is “Bukan janji, Tapi pasti”.Then from its
philosophy, this company has to prepare long-term and mid-term management plans. From these
plans, it has to define its annual goals and measures required to achieve them. The described
procedure is known as policy management, and requires the commitment of the Chief Executive
Officer (CEO) Head of Department (HOD) and senior managers. For Metrowealth picture, they
will arrange a management meeting board to plan the company policy and production policy. For
the production, the marketing and management department will decide target for each movie and
rule and regulation to be apply during shooting the film.
When the annual management policies are established on the highest management level,
they should be deployed down the organization. As example, the policy must be obey from artist,
director and all production team.
In the other hand, during planning the quality improvement, Metrowealth Picture
management team try to implement three step. First, identify and prioritize quality improvement
opportunities. Usually a management and crew production team will find that there are several
problems, or quality improvement opportunities in each film, that arise when production member
or processes are investigated. A prioritization matrix may help in determining which one to
select. Once the quality improvement opportunity has been decided, articulate a problem
statement. Revisit and, as appropriate, revise the problem statement as you move through the
planning process. As example, during making Adnan Sempit film, there are several problem to
shoot acting best picture when race using motorcycle. When this film get box office from the
audient, the management team do some postmortem to improve and made the sequel for this
movie and try to produce Adnan Sempit 2 and try to improve the quality.
Then describe the current process surrounding the problem in order to understand the
process and identify areas for improvements. Flow charts and value stream mapping are two
examples of methods to accomplish this. As example when produce film, many problem will
accrue. To solve this problem, producer, director or management team try to take note all the
problem and solve it. This ongoing process made Metrowealth Picture more experience and can
produce more quality film.
Meanwhile, for another department in Metrowealth Picture as example financial
department, they try to collect data on the current process. Baseline data that describe the current
state are critical to further understanding the process and establishing a foundation for measuring
improvements. The data may address, for example, time, people, space, cost, number of steps,
adverse events, and audient satisfaction. A host of tools are available to collect and interpret data
on the process, such as Pareto charts, histograms, run charts, scatter plots and control charts. The
data collected must be aligned with the measures listed in the aim statement. Then, this
department can report the company profit so that our President know this company a going to
success.
Do
The second step in PDCA is do. When we recognize and determine all the problem, now
we must do something to solve the problem. During identify all possible causes of the problem
and determine the root cause, numerous causes will emerge when examining the quality
improvement opportunity, it is critical to delve in and carefully identify the underlying, or root,
cause of the problem, in order to ensure that an improvement or intervention with the greatest
chance of success is selected. Brainstorming is a useful way to identify possible causes and a
cause and effect/fishbone diagram and the 5 Whys are useful for determining the actual root
cause.
As example, during produce the film, all the think that had been plan before must be done.
All the production team must dedicate in their work.” The plan without doing is nothing” said the
person that we had interview. Metrowealth Picture really take this part seriously as this company
really want to produce good and quality film. They try to minimal the problem. This is because,
each time when they don’t complete the film, they face off with financial problem due to produce
one film they cost a lot of money.
Furthermore, Metrowealth picture really dare to do new thing and play with risk. As
example, when they produce “Highland tower” they dare to bring a new actor and do a new film
concept by introduce a reality paranormal activity. Finally their plan is going to be a successful
and this film got a lot of profit.
More over when come to implementing all the plan, they must have an action plan to
made all thing are going on track and smoothly. In Metrowealth Picture, from the top
management until the production team, artist and everyone who are contributes in film making
have their own task. As example, artist must follow their shooting schedule. They must be on
time. The director must make sure this film can be produce on time. Another department also get
their own action plan. As example, when new film release, they must promote this film and try to
attract audient to come and watch this movie in cinema. The survival of this company are depend
on the profit that they get from the film.
Check
Stage 3 in the PDCA, check plan is very important part, which the organization will check
their product from the customer feedback. As in the Metrowealth picture, the company will
always look for customer feedback from the film that has been produce. From the feedback, the
company will look forward to make the improvement in producing the film product such as in
genre of the movie, quality of the script and also the selecting the artiste in the movie. All of
these elements play an important part to determine the successfulness of the film product. The
companies always do checking with the cinema to see the collection from the film. Nowadays,
using technology bring much easier to get a feedback from the audience. Metrowealth picture get
their feedback from the costumer just by using the website, instogram, facebook and twitter. This
much better than using the old traditional approach by face to face feedback. By using this new
technology approach will make better feedback from the customer because they were easier give
opinions to make the improvement. Not just feedback from the film that has been made, but also
the new idea from the audience is also will be used in producing the film. Recently, Metrowealth
Picture is the one of the company film that contributes the expenditure to entertainment industry
which the company gives 31 % of Malay film expenditure of out 50%. Every year the company is
dominant in producing Malay film in the cinema. As in script writing, the company also make
and improvement by meeting with head of every department for brain storming the idea. Not just
only the idea come from the customer feedback, but also the panel from the company. This is one
of the strategic plans for the company to adopt a new idea. There also include strategies of
checking with possibility of the product. For instance, check the current demanding genre film in
the marketplace. This strategy is for enhancing film product by demanding from the audience.
This will contribute to increasing of productivity in the company. This is very important because,
in private sector money is one of the vital components in rolling the business. If the organizations
not have sufficient money to rolling the business, chances to be bankrupt is high.
Then checking whether the policies are implemented as planned should be carried out
regularly as stated in reflection on the annual management policies is also important, and should
be done at the end of each year with the aim of acquiring feedback for future improvements. The
film production can be specialized for only one product, such as newspaper or package. This has
the advantage of precise capacity planning as it usually concerns products which are well
established on the market. This production is oriented on only one or just a few customers dealing
with huge orders, and is therefore seriously endangered in the case of product failure. Another
type of print production, oriented on small markets of various products, has the advantage of
flexibility, but is consequently less efficient in producing a certain product.
Chief Executive Officer's primary function is to establish a quality policy, to involve
employees in realizing it, and to present it to the customers. Chief Executive Officer is also
responsible for the overall organization of the company, and should clearly define tasks of each
department, and responsibilities and authority of each employee. The aim of every company is to
satisfy its customers. The key to this is setting up the procedures of dealing with customer's
claims, and setting up the system for analyzing their claims. Regular quality audits should be
carried out to determine whether the quality activities are being carried out, and whether they are
achieving the results.
Similar evaluation should be carried out internally, to determine whether the departments
understand the basic concepts of quality control, and whether they are implementing them in their
daily tasks. Quality control manuals containing the rules and standards for the assurance,
maintenance and management of quality can be prepared and used as the company's basic
document for implementing quality control. When establishing quality control, non-
manufacturing departments are often neglected. Managers are responsible for implementing
quality policies in their departments, and for defining jobs, responsibilities and authority of their
employees. Managers should monitor the quality of the work in their department, keep records,
make improvements, and keep their employees informed of how the department is performing.
To maximize the performance of their employees, managers should make sure that they
follow the standards. Employees could be involved in making improvements by setting up a
suggestion scheme or by quality control circle activities.
Act
As in the stage 4, act is a more important part to make changes of the product
development. In this stage, the company will react to the problem that has been recognizing in the
stage 3. As the company that always emphasize on business manner. Therefore, the company will
always look for the improvement of the film product. Post mortem for every first screening of the
films is compulsory as to get honest comment from the audience about the film. Metrowealth
picture will always look for new improvement of the product that they produce. As for example,
there are many genres that have already been made by feedback from the customer. Promotion of
the film also is one of the important parts that make the movie well know to the public.
Metrowealth Picture, still emphasize on improvement of the promotion area. There were always
change the strategies of promotion of the film. Nowadays, they use media social to promote their
movie to the audience. Youtube, facebook, Twitter, Instagrams, are the method that they use to
promote new movie, trailer and also behind the scene footage for the audience.
Metrowealth Picture also may react refer to cinema checking. Cinema checking means
that the company will have to the collect of the movie in cinema every day. This is because they
have to know quantity of person watching that movie from the first day until end screening of the
movie. Collection from the first day is very important to acknowledge how many people going to
the cinema. As they get feedback from the first screening of the movie, whether good collection
or not, they still ensure to make improvise time to time toward the audience satisfaction.
Metrowealth Picture still seeks for new interesting idea in producing a movie. Nowadays, the
audience interest in extra ordinary comedy, horror film and romantic comedy. The company will
always apply the concept of “Try and Error”. From this concept, the company will always react
from this mistake in term of genre, marketing and also the promotion. They always learn and
learn more to be solid in the entertainment industry. The company will always try variety of type
film to attract the audience.
ACHIEVEMENT
As earlier in the entertainment industry, the company has received “Best Producer 2011”
in Majlis Anugerah Profima. Metrowealth picture also received the Astro First Audiences’
Choice Award FFM 24 in film “Kongsi”. It’s also been included in the highest Box Office
Collection Malaysia Book World of Record 2011 by film “Ngangkung”. Film “Adnan Sempit”
also is one of the Box Office Film FFM 23. Not just only the film, Metrowealth also receive the
Best Sound PPFM Oscar Award 2008 by film congkak. Metrowealth has always achieved their
goal in the film making. Recently in 2013, Metrowealth Picture has already become the most
popular film distribution in Malaysia. In November 2013, Metrowealth Picture is the one film
company in Malaysia contributes over 31% of Malay Film in Malaysia. Statistic from FINAS
showed that in earlier January 2013 until November 2013, Malay film collection is around 57
million. However, Metrowealth Picture is the first ranking in contributing in Malay film around
17 million and 500 thousand ringgit. The company achieve the excellent era in 2010 which the
company collection from the film is around 41 million. As one of giant company that successes in
the producing the film, Metrowealth Picture also willing to help new producer in film industry to
achieve their goal. The company will give counseling and advised in film making and also the
financial aspect.
CHALLENGES IN THE BUSINESS
There are a lot of challenges in this business. However, the company need to take the risk
in any decision that been made. This is because sometime the business will be great enough and
sometime it will turn over. One of the biggest challenges is the film making is the budget. In
Malaysia context, we are still in low budget film maker. That is because the producer will never
that the high risk in spending much of money if they thing the film will not contribute to a better
collection. Weather also is the one of the challenges that production team have to face in the
shooting situation. They need to have backup plan in shooting schedule for the solution. Another
biggest challenge right now is the technology of internet and gadget. Nowadays, audience can
download their favorite movie in the internet. This is the challenges that company need to face in
the business. However, we cannot deny the technology. Metrowealth Picture recently has deal
with the apple, Samsung and Internet Web downloader which make a great business by using this
element as to extent their expenditure.
Sustaining in the entertainment industry is not very easy. The companies have to compete
with other company that also making movie such as Skop Production, KRU Studio, Line Clear
Motion Picture, Grand Billion and Excellent Picture. All that company is biggest competitor for
Metrowealth Picture Sdn Bhd. However, with the excellent leader in house and also the good
strategies from all the staff perceive a successful in the business film making. Metrowealth
Picture is one of the famous film distributions in Malaysia.
Reference
Davor Donevski, Diana Milčić, Dubravko Banić (2009), A model for implementing TQM in the
graphic arts industry, Faculty of Graphic Arts, Getaldiceva 2, Zagreb, Croatia.
Metrowealth Picture Sdn. Bhd.
T. Kuras and J. Moran.(1997) 20 Questions to Ask Your Team. The Quality Management Forum,
Winter Edition, Vol. 23, Number 4, 1997 are all available at www.naccho.org/toolbox/ in the
Quality Improvement Toolkit
