What Visinema’s Latest Line Up Means for The Indonesian Movie Industry
Visinema just announced its latest movies and series line up for the upcoming year. Announced by Angga Dwimas Sasongko as the CEO and founder of Visinema, the line up consisted of more than a dozen titles ranging from melodrama flicks to fully animated movies.
The way each title has its own unique logotype is akin to how Disney announced their marvel Cinematic Universe, although it seems like Visinema’s titles do not exist in the same universe (at least not as far as we know). But either way, we have to give props to Visinema for enabling this kind of excitement only over a title release — or a slate, as Angga Dwimas Sasongko would call it.
At a glance, it’s easy to gloss over the details on how impactful and important the announcement is for the Indonesian movie industry. And if we were to observe a little closer from several particular perspectives, there are 3 exciting key takeaways that could be highlighted from this announcement.
1. We are reclining towards braver preferences
One of the first reactions towards reading the news about Visinema’s latest line up was: “how did they manage to get Yosep Anggi Noen involved?!”
A little bit of context, Yosep was the director of the 2019 Hiruk Pikuk si Al-Kisah, a highly conceptual science fiction movie which won multiple awards including abroad. Despite the movie being critically acclaimed, it did not generate as much buzz as it deserves here.
The fact that a major house such as Visinema lets Yosep to direct 24 Jam Bersama Gaspar — a novel filled with twists and turns — shows trust. Trust over more and more Indonesia’s current moviegoers are having a braver preference towards the movie they watch. While it’s not definitely not the biggest segment of moviegoers, Visinema’s step to accommodate these braver preferences shows its dedication to develop the movie industry even further.
2. IP capitalization is proven to be a viable business on Indonesia
Having previous success developing Filosofi Kopi as an IP (Intellectual Property), Visinema emphasizes its seriousness on IP development with the line up announcement. Ben & Jody, which is a spin-off from Filosofi Kopi, is a proof that narrative continuity can be a powerful tool to an IP that is properly managed and developed. Not only a spin-off, we also get to see a direct sequel for Keluarga Cemara. Crossing to other mediums, Nussa accommodates younger viewers through the animated series.
Crunchbase.com lists Visinema as an entertainment and IP development company. Visinema conceptualises, produces, and distributes content across several formats, including film, television, and digital.
As of now, Visinema has received financial funding from 3 investors, namely GDP Venture, Ancora, and Intudo Ventures. The total funding amount is $3.3M. Remembering Visinema’s humble beginnings, this shows that along with the commitment of combating piracy and focus toward subject matter, IP capitalization is already proven to be able to attract serious investors.
3. On entertainment, options are always good
How many times have you heard yourself saying “I know how this movie will end!” in the middle of watching an Indonesian movie?
By bringing more diverse people and broader subject matter, Visinema creates a whole new range of narratives that we haven’t regularly seen before in an Indonesian movie. And this is happening because the people behind the new titles have the courage to create more variable options across the currently existing genre.
Those new titles on the announcement could give us fresh looks across Indonesia’s favourite genre such as horror, action, or even drama. The range of the titles themselves is already pretty exciting, and it also serves as a statement that the Indonesian movie industry is in a position to grow by being technically able to create new options outside the currently available choice.
You can see more about the line up announcement on Angga Dwimas Sasongko’s Instagram here.
