Chevrolet, Mofilm to launch filmmaking academy in Southeast Asia

The Academy for Southeast Asian Filmmakers (ASAF) is designed to offer young people in the region high-level strategic training in storytelling through film. As part of a three-day course, participants will get the chance to develop their filmmaking skills while working on a live brief for Chevrolet.

Mofilm arrived in Southeast Asia at the end of last year at a launch event at General Motors’ HQ in Singapore. Founded in 2007, the platform allows brands to post marketing briefs and filmmaking contests online, which Mofilm distributes to its pool of filmmakers around the world. The company claims to be the first platform of its kind to have crowdsourced TV ads appear during the Super Bowl and the Oscars.

Chevrolet’s relationship with Mofilm goes back five years. In March of last year “Speed Chaser”, a film submitted by a South Korean independent filmmaker, aired during the Oscars broadcast.

Speaking to Campaign Asia-Pacific at the Mofilm Singapore launch last year, Mark Harland, director of marketing at General Motors International, said that film crowdsourcing offers the brand some fresh marketing solutions.

“I don’t think this will replace the traditional advertising agency model, but to me this adds something extra," he said. "It adds some colour and gives us more content. It doesn’t replace an ad agency.”

The new ASAF will be created and delivered by professionals with experience in the Southeast Asian filmmaking industry, at sessions in Bangkok and Jakarta during May 2015. The free course will cover aspects of filmmaker theory and practice, with a focus on developing storytelling skills.

Candidates must be over 18 and must be citizens of Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand or Vietnam. For more information, visit Mofilm.