Podcast with Ser En Part 2
Summary:
From the dawn of NFTs to the future
of film industry in the cloud - dive into part two of our thrilling chat with
Ser En as she uncovers how SendJoy is preparing for an NFT revolution and how
COVID-19 has been a digital game-changer. Plus, hear her take on the age-old
struggle against piracy - all in this podcast that's sure to leave you
questioning everything you thought you knew about the digital transformation of
entertainment. Buckle up! Ser En delves into SendJoy's exploration of
integrating NFTs to support creators, reflecting on how the market has become
more ready for it. She also discusses the digital transformation due to
COVID-19, highlighting how it's fast-tracking industries to the cloud, and
addressing concerns about security and piracy in the film sector.
[00:00:05] Andrew Liew Weida: Hi, everyone. Welcome tothe AI of mankind show where I share anything interesting about mankind. I'm
your host for this season. My name is Andrew Liew. I work across four
Continents and 12 international cities. Also, I work in tech startups across a
range of roles from selling products, making customer happy, figuring out
fundraising, making finance tick, building teams and developing sticky product.
Apart from building startups. I've also worked in fortune 500 companies as a
chief data scientist or technologist or people leader. [00:01:00]You can call me Jack of all trades or master of learning. I hope to make this
podcast show a great learning experience for us In each season, there is a series
of interesting things where invite guests to share their views about their life
and interests.
[00:01:14] Andrew Liew Weida: Now let the show begin.
[00:01:31] Andrew Liew : In our previous episode, wehad the honor of sharing a captivating conversation with Ser En, the
BAFTA-winning filmmaker turned tech entrepreneur, who's transforming the way we
connect and engage in the new normal. We journeyed through her career
transition from the film industry to tech entrepreneurship, and the creation of
SendJoy, her innovative venture. We discussed the trials brought about by the
COVID-19 pandemic and how innovation played a significant role in connecting
people and providing services in unique ways. If you haven't yet indulged in
this thought-provoking exchange, [00:02:00] wehighly recommend you to do so.
[00:02:01] Andrew Liew : As we initiate the secondpart of our riveting dialogue with Ser En, we'll traverse from the dawn of NFTs
to the future of the film industry in the cloud. We're set to delve deeper into
how SendJoy is embracing the NFT revolution, and how the digital transformation
propelled by the pandemic is thrusting industries towards cloud-based
operations. Ser En will also share her insights on the battle against piracy in
the age of digitization. We'll discuss her vision of a future where these
digital transformations don't just transform the entertainment sector, but
reshape it, questioning everything we thought we knew. So let's fasten our
seatbelts as we continue on this enlightening journey with Ser En.
[00:02:36] Andrew Liew Weida: okay, and so you guys gotfunded, the marketplace, you guys keep growing, and then I noticed that you did
mention that you want to go into NFT, so what happened in the, what's the
journey like
[00:02:46] The first time weheard of NFTs was in March and April last year.
[00:02:51] Ser En: We did some research, we tried to findout more about it, like how it can help creators. Because in the West a lot of
people are very bullish about how [00:03:00]NFTs can help the creators economy. So that's something that we are interested
in. Because one of the reasons we started SendJoy is to help creators get an
additional income from whatever that they're already doing. We want people to
be able to make money from doing things that they love. That's one of our
really primary motivations in starting SendJoy. So when we heard that, okay,
there's a promise that NFTs can help these creators we were very interested in
it. We went to research, we went to speak to people who were in the technology
of minting and making NFTs.
[00:03:31] Ser En: But we felt that back in April, themarket wasn't ready yet. A lot of people still think that it's a scam. We don't
know how long it will last. Is it like a bubble? Yeah we just put it aside and
continued running SendJoy as per normal. But it was in around November, October
last year that we saw the market heating up.
[00:03:50] Ser En: And even some of our SendJoy creators,they are evangelists of NFTs. They were making videos teaching people how to
sell on OpenSea. And they were telling people to get [00:04:00]into the NFT world while it's still early. So we felt hey, the market is maybe
ready now. People are... Talking about NFT among themselves so that's when we
thought, okay let's look further into how we can use this technology to help
the creators.
[00:04:14] Andrew Liew Weida: So you're right now at thestage of trying to explore how this NFT is going to be part of the SendJoy
journey.
[00:04:21] Ser En: Yes, for sure.
[00:04:22] Andrew Liew Weida: Okay, cool. Like you weredoing digital work. As a producer and then we were doing Send Joy and then now
before COVID 19 and after COVID 19.
[00:04:31] Andrew Liew Weida: It's almost like coming tothree years to be passed. How do you think has COVID 19 changed digital
transformation or changed the way your industry or what you think of the
industry is moving?
[00:04:42] Ser En: Yeah, definitely it has sped up theindustry's digital transformation like steroids. I think we were very lucky
because in Singapore, I think IMDA has talked about digital transformation for
a very long time.
[00:04:54] Ser En: But, so we were ready , the country isready for it. Yeah when COVID [00:05:00] hitOur company actually started SendJoy started remotely. Yeah, so from day one,
we were remote. So we were getting partners on board getting people getting
employees in, all remotely.
[00:05:12] Ser En: Yeah, so we only had the physicaloffice, went back to the physical office like about five months after COVID
hit. Yeah, so it was very fortunate that we started that way, lah. So we have a
very good for example, all our things are stored in the cloud and we have
things like Zapier, like Slack and Notion to help with communication and doing
some simple automation in the backdrop.
[00:05:35] Ser En: We were quite lucky that way. Thinkingback, the film industry was. really not tech ready at all. Like a lot of things
we put, we store in our laptop, they were not, it was not on a cloud, even if
it's on a server, it's like a physical server at the company. You have to be
inside the company to access it.
[00:05:53] Ser En: Yeah. So those were. The things that Ifelt that made remote work a bit difficult for [00:06:00]like traditional film companies. Yeah, so what I heard is that some companies,
they, during COVID they really tried to move things to the cloud. But because
all the film files are quite heavy. So it took a while to transport all the
things to the cloud.
[00:06:14] Ser En: Yeah. So I'm thinking that by now thefilm companies are definitely a lot more ready to work remote.
[00:06:21] Andrew Liew Weida: So do you think that now,like you mentioned before that people are using, producers using pen and paper,
Excel, even Excel is on, on your desktop and like film is in the hard disk of
do you think that now moving forward, all these filmmakers, entertainers,
everything will just be streamed to the cloud. That means that as in, when they
make a movie, this thing, as they record, it moves up to the cloud. As they
book the schedules, it's all on the cloud. What is your thoughts on that?
[00:06:48] Ser En: That should be the way moving forward.Because What happens in a film set in a film environment is that a lot of
people actually come from all over the world. So if you have things on the
cloud people from different [00:07:00] parts ofthe world they can work together more easily, like more seamlessly.
[00:07:04] Ser En: But I think one reason that things arenot on the cloud before was due to security. Because for film, we, we are very
worried of piracy, and also we don't want storylines to leak before it's meant
to be released. I think people are afraid of the hacking. So that's a concern.
[00:07:22] Ser En: That's a legit concern. Interesting.
[00:07:24] Andrew Liew Weida: Hold on to that thought. Iwanted to ask you that question. Hold on one second. Yeah so coming back to the
question that I wanted to ask you, and I'm very curious, is it, you mentioned
about people are very concerned about moving to the cloud because at those
times, the old times, people are concerned about piracy, right?
[00:07:39] Andrew Liew Weida: But yet, there's two pointsthat I want to think about to talk about. The first point is, piracy has always
been there since the 1970s where people do the tapes and the CDs and the DVDs
and now... It's just a a thorough transfer. Yeah. The second point is the fact
that isn't the case that as a producer.
[00:07:56] Andrew Liew Weida: As an entrepreneur, we,I've seen those kind of [00:08:00] Hollywoodones where they, behind the scenes, they make snippets, like a few short, few
cuts, 30 seconds or three minutes, and then they pitch it to the investors. Of
financing studios and they agree on that. Wouldn't that be a situation in which
that, that should be like the norm where they... Do the minimum viable product
line. You iterate yeah. What are your thoughts on that? Because piracy has
always been there. Security has always been an issue that can be prevented. Or
do you think that it's the perception of security that is the one that is
holding people's back in the old days?
[00:08:33] Ser En: I think for sure that there is a hugeconcern over security or like leaking of content. For example, I used to work
in a visual effects facility. And things are very secretive because we are
working on Hollywood projects, on films that haven't been released or seen by
anyone yet.
[00:08:51] Ser En: Yeah even so sometimes even the emailsneed to be secured, because we might be sending an image over that it could be
leaked [00:09:00] somewhere else. So everythingis really kept in house. Yeah, and even when we want to send like the file out
outside of our company server to an external client, we have to use like very
secure software such as like Aspera instead of uploading on Google Drive or
like Dropbox.
[00:09:18] Ser En: So security is always like a huge concern.
[00:09:19] Andrew Liew Weida: Interesting because Iremember there was one studio maker like they, what they did is to move to the
cloud early on and to. Prevent leakages is to film all sorts of different
versions of the same scene and so Anybody that try to pirated or leak out
they're like, hey, which scene is it?
[00:09:37] Andrew Liew Weida: And then spark furthercuriosity and end up like this some of these hollywood movies again Make it big
because of the leakages. What is your view on this strategy?
[00:09:45] Ser En: Okay, I'm thinking if somebody wantsto pirate the movie it means there's demand So I think my biggest fear as a
filmmaker is nobody wants to pirate my stuff .
[00:09:54] Andrew Liew (2): Hello listeners, weappreciate you staying with us as we journey through the digital landscape with
Ser En. We've just [00:10:00] wrapped up Part 2of our captivating discussion where we dived headfirst into the dawn of NFTs
and the future of the film industry in the cloud. We explored SendJoy's
forward-thinking approach to the NFT revolution and discussed the sweeping
digital transformation, fast-tracking industries to the cloud in the wake of
the COVID-19 pandemic. We even gained insight into the battle against piracy in
our increasingly digitized world.
[00:10:21] Andrew Liew : As we transition to Part 3,prepare to journey further into the labyrinth of the media industry's digital
transformation. We'll be joining Ser En as she unravels the intricate process
of directing a film remotely and gives life to foreign ideas locally. We'll
learn about the power of communication in making technology an enabler rather
than the sole solution and discover the importance of culture in global
collaborations. Expect to explore the fine balance between cost-efficiency and
quality in this new era.
[00:10:47] Andrew Liew : This is more than just aconversation—it's an exploration of the unknown. Get ready to step into a world
where borders blur and creativity knows no limits. So, don't miss out on our
next episode where we continue to chart unexplored territories with Ser [00:11:00] En. Stay tuned!
[00:11:01] Andrew Liew Weida: Hi guys. Thanks forlistening to this podcast. If this is the first time you are tuning in.
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this is the first time you are tuning in. Remember to subscribe to this show.
If you have subscribed to this show and love this. Please share it with your
friends, family, and acquaintances. See you later and see you soon.