Mediacorp’s Doreen Neo on Innovating Content Formats

Doreen Neo, chief content officer at Singaporean broadcaster Mediacorp, tells World Screen Newsflash about how the company is employing innovative storytelling techniques in its original series, many of which are on offer at MIPCOM this week.

“Mediacorp is proud to be one of the first few content producers in Asia to delve into multiple-perspective storytelling, a novel and innovative format most recently used in All Is Well, a co-production with Taiwanese production house Eightgeman,” Neo says. “Based on the real-life high-profile hacking of ATMs across Taiwan in 2016, All Is Well threads two parallel plots, both sparked by the same seismic cyber-crime that occurs in the first episode of each series. Events diverge in dramatically different directions in each series, before coalescing to a heart-stopping head in the final episodes of both series. The Taiwan- and Singapore-situated sequences can either be enjoyed as standalone series or watched in tandem to tease out the intricate interlinks between the two.”

Neo continues, “Such a format of storytelling via multiple perspectives accommodates appointment viewers as well as younger patrons predisposed to over-the-top streaming. It also allows Mediacorp to expand its exposure to a vast new swathe of spectators with varied viewing habits.”

Neo also highlights Mediacorp’s newly launched English drama 128 Circle, “which adopts a multilingual format to tell the life stories of a group of hawkers. The characters, played by a multiracial cast, speak in a mix of English and mother tongue—Mandarin, Malay and Tamil—peppered with the local patois Singlish. 128 Circle is Mediacorp’s first foray into multilingual dramas and represents an ambitious departure from the regular monolingual production. Going multilingual is especially pertinent in Singapore’s context, as it provides a slice of life in the local heartlands and authentically reflects the reality of social interaction between people of different races, cultures and backgrounds.”

Neo also cites Mediacorp’s transmedia formats, “such as the cross-genre production interweaving the recently concluded Chinese-language drama My One In A Million with the variety show The Destined One. Integrated elements linking both productions include cross-appearances by the drama cast in character on the variety show, and cameos by variety participants within the drama.”

She concludes, “In all, when it comes to creating fresh content to entertain and engage, it cannot be business as usual. Today’s audiences are savvier than ever and come with multifarious viewing preferences and expectations. Mediacorp is committed to constantly breaking new ground by developing new, exciting storytelling formats and tapping on the wealth of talent in the creative ecosystem both in Singapore and beyond.”