A new production agreement for TV commercials will not only benefit the advertising industry but soon the film industry too.
Effective March 1, the various parties involved in the advertising film production industry, namely, production houses, advertisers and advertising agencies, must sign a contract each time a TV commercial is made to regulate the quality and efficiency of production services provided.
The contract will state the responsibilities of each party involved in the production of a commercial besides matters involving payments, work hours and insurance responsibilities.
This production contract is a follow-up action on a provision made by the National Film Development Corporation Malaysia (Finas) in Feb 2015 that requires production houses involved in producing a TV commercial to be a member of the Malaysian Association of Advertising Filmmakers (PPFIM) in order to apply for a Made in Malaysia (MIM) certificate from Finas.
“This is a great help to the members because they will understand their obligations and do not have to spend time negotiating terms for each production. It means they can devote that time to making the commercial as brilliant as possible,” PPFIM president Khoo Kay Lye describes the move in a press statement.
Meanwhile, Finas director-general Datuk Kamil Othman hopes the production agreement will not only be a boon to those in the advertising field, as he is looking into extending a similar production agreement in the film industry.
“Now we have a template and we can ask the other associations to look at it. PFM (Malaysia Film Producers Association) will be the next one,” he shared in an interview.
“Hopefully by the fourth quarter of this year, I think the rest should be able to adopt this as well,” he says adding it is also subject to how ready the associations are.
