I was not joking when I told you guys in my previous articles (and also in video) that photography and videography, both commercial and non-commercial were banned during the current lockdown in Malaysia. However, I was surprised to find out that the production that was carried out indoor, in a private space, that involved no crew or anyone except the owner of the said space, shooting food and products, was also prohibited. In the article published today the government agency/authority FINAS (The National Film Development Corporation Malaysia) raided a commercial studio that was allegedly doing a small scale shooting indoor. Unfortunately, I cannot find any articles in English.
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| Press release circulated by the government agency, serving as a warning and reminder that ALL filming and production are not allowed during the lockdown period. |
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| The official press statement from FINAS |
From my understanding, the general rule being mandated by the government during the lockdown is - no economy or social activities are allowed with minor exceptions for essential services such as healthcare, supplies and food. Photography and videography, or any commercial productions are strictly banned. Not only you are banned from shooting outdoor, now it seems clear that you cannot even do anything indoor, inside your private property. No questions here, any form of activity that is non essential (photography and video included) cannot be performed ANYWHERE in Malaysia.
They also have specifically banned outdoor photography under the category of social activities, but I will not repeat what I have said in my previous article here.
How the heck are we going to survive this? How does shooting food in a studio environment cause any virus infection? This does not make any sense at all. I understand that we are not allowed to move or do anything outdoor, but why can't we do anything indoor, in the private space to at least be able to earn whatever little cash possible? Struggling small business owners, photographers and videographers especially are dying out there. This is so unfair, and honestly quite unnecessary.
I am not even sure which category "filming for YouTube" falls into. I wonder if that is wrong too.
Well, if you don't hear anything from me, if I sudden disappear, I guess you know what happens. I am fighting as hard as I can to weather this storm, but it seems like even the government is against me, instead of helping us who are already suffering massive loss of income.
The lockdown has been doing on for 2 months now (since beginning of May) and cases are not going down, in fact, it started to rise again. From the looks of things, I can kiss 2021 goodbye at this point. And I sure have little hope for 2022 too.
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Since your government is so busy shutting things down, I wonder how much time they have left to do things like obtain vaccines and run clinics to get people vaccinated -- which seems to be the only sure way of stopping the spread of this terrible virus! Hoping for the best for you, Robin!
ReplyDeleteI've sent $25 to you, Robin. It's the least I can do considering all the enjoyment and information you have provided me over many years. Good luck to you, I hope the lockdown ends soon!
ReplyDeleteThis is worst than the commies. I could see a raid had the photographer been using models that were not his own family living in the same house. To me it looks like he was doing still life. I guess it is fine for the government people to run around to people's houses, but do not let the citizens have even a bit of freedom at home.
ReplyDeleteI hope that your government can find a way to stop the spread of this terrible virus, because I don't want any more people getting sick. Your country has been doing an amazing job at keeping everything running smoothly for so long now; it would be crazy if you guys stopped being able to do things like keep up with vaccinations and run clinics!
ReplyDeleteCurious to know how available vaccines are in Malaysia and if the change of government I read about was caused by continuous lock downs. Will the political change have any good effect? I read and listen to your blog and YouTube channel and I get so infuriated with what is happening in some parts of the US. Here, we have plenty of vaccine but people who willfully will not get vaccinated and not mask up. It drives me crazy at times. At any rate please be safe and hang in there.
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