Local film makers willing to sign over rights to their movies to local cable company Flow (Columbus Communications), can begin reaping financial rewards almost immediately says the company's managing director Brian Collins.
In an interview with the T&T Guardian at Wednesday's launch of the tenth Annual T&T Film Festival (ttff) at the Hyatt Regency in Port-of-Spain, Collins said: "If they give us the rights to it, we will actually show it in our other markets. We are currently in eight markets in the Caribbean.
"Our goal would be that all local movies have the ability to be shown in T&T and watched by all of our customers, and up the islands. That would be our dream. That is what we want to do and that avenue is there for them to do it. They hopefully will embrace the deal for what it is and move forward to see that it is a viable alternative than just going through the traditional movie theatres. There are other avenues to do this."
Collins added: "Since our start with the Film Festival, eight years now, we offered producers and directors of movies the ability to show their movies via our Video On Demand (VOD) platform. So effectively, they have that. We have always said that it was available. All monies raised from that–that we take from our customers–will be passed on, 100 per cent of it to the producers."
He also announced his company's plans to expand its support of the festival by introducing an Amateur Film Award which will be an incubator where newcomers to the film industry will be paired with more experienced practitioners to produce works for the 2016 edition of the festival. Under the plan, 12 emerging film makers will be chosen.
"They will be paired with a local film producers and directors to give them the necessary guidance to bring their ideas into life. We will supply them with the equipment and then it will be aired at the Film Festival next year and people will be able to chose which one is the best. I think it's a very exciting idea and it brings film making outside of the university and professional film industry into the community and we are really excited about it," Collins said.
"We are eight years into a ten-year sponsorship. We hope to do another five-year sponsorship in two years' time. We see this as a long term plan and we have invested a lot of money in this festival. I would say $8 million. Again, it just shows our commitment to local production, local artistes, local actors, local movie makers that Flow is here to support them through the Festival and where we can and where we think it appropriate to support them directly, as well."
Collins praised the decision by the ttff organising committee to create a database where films can be archived and categorised.
"It's a really good idea. A lot of times people don't necessarily know where to go and get these Caribbean movies. With a centralised database that's been both archived and categorised, it makes it easier to pick out what you want to watch, with the power of when you wanted to watch it. We are going to try and collaborate with Bruce Paddington, festival founder, and his team and make sure that we spread this as far and wide and shout from the rafters if we possibly can, because we are very excited about this."
From the inception of the company's partnership with the ttff, said Collins, Flow has worked to understand the vision and passion of the organiser. Once their passion became clear, the company entered into a five-year sponsorship deal which allowed them "to go off and plan way in advance and set things in motion."
"That, I think, has allowed the Film Festival to accelerate in its growth over this period of time to become the premier film festival in the region and to be one of the most recognised around the world. We are just here to support them. They have the vision. They understand the industry better than we will ever do. Our job is to make sure that they have the financial support and where need be for the business support and the technology support to elevate this even further," he said.
