Narey, Keeper of Tales (TV Series)

 

INTRODUCTION

"Narey, Keeper of Tales" is an original IP that I conceived on one boring, uneventful July afternoon during my mandatory two weeks' quarantine at Harbour View Hotel, Kuching in 2020. I had just arrived back from the United Kingdom after a couple of years of study, and the direct flight from Heathrow to KLIA and to Kuching International Airport, not to mention lack of good rest had me feeling severely jet-lagged over a couple of days.

My then ex-lecturer-who-would-later-turn-into-my-boss, Maurice, found out that I had returned and asked if I was willing to pitch an idea to a local TV channel. I said yes, and since one of the pitch requirement was to generate Sarawak-related content, I immediately thought of animated Sarawak folklore (which has not yet been successfully done in the history of Malaysian animation). I bounced the idea back and forth with Maurice, and here we are.

The little girl protagonist that I had always wanted to create since my student days, was born. And she had a name - Narey.

Very quickly, Maurice had assembled an entire production crew big enough to set up a studio based in Kuching Waterfront. I carry the responsibilities as art director, and co-director of this wonderful IP. There were so many huge ambitions burning within us during the first few months of project planning. We wanted this IP to be the first project that would be the pride of our own natives and all Sarawakians alike. We also hoped that with all the talent pool Maurice had sourced into the current team, that we will be able to create an IP with quality superior enough to compete with the other existing animation IPs from West Malaysia and Singapore. That is, until we faced our first problem. 

Funding.

Since then, we have been looking into various grants, crowdfunding and servicing other projects to earn enough to feed ourselves in the meantime. We have also reached out to MDEC, our IP was shortlisted in SEASCREEN Singapore 2021 and we are continuously looking for all means possible to resume pre-production work on this IP. If anything, producing an original IP of this scale has really taught me the true meaning of what it means to create a labour of love and it has become a great learning curve for me.

More updates coming soon!

Character lineup & concept art direction by yours truly.

I have prepared a pitch deck, and it is available upon request. Please email me if interested, NDA applies.