Replacing old cinema with the new (2)

In the meantime, a new type of cinema is evolving based on digital technologies. The factors shaping this new creature remain in flux. But just consider the possibilities:

Today, you can buy a Digital-8 or Mini-DV video camera and basic accessories for less than P50,000. There is even an excellent-quality Digital-8 handycam priced at P22,000. The quality is not as good as 35-mm or 16-mm films shown in most moviehouses. But it is good enough for CD players and TV broadcasts, even if some professional videographers tend to belittle this cheap CCD camera since it doesn’t pass muster as “broadcast quality”. A good quality Digital-8 blank tape now costs only P105, a Mini-DV tape a bit more.

You can save and edit your video footage on an ordinary PC platform, so long as you install a Firewire-compatible video I/O card, a large-capacity hard disk, and any of the more well-known editing software such as Adobe Premiere or Ulead MediaStudio, or Final Cut.

(It’s a dream come true if you are lucky to use a Mac G4. But it’s not an absolute must. In the mid-1990’s, I worked with a group that edited analog video footage, using what would now be considered as semi-obsolete junk: a Pentium II PC with a Miro card, 64 mb RAM and a 2-gigabyte SCSI hard disk. We sometimes experienced a few dropped frames, but no complaints otherwise.)

Based on current Manila prices, you can buy a basic PC platform at about P30,000, and for another P30,000 install all the other add-on hardware and software needed for a complete video and audio editing and CD-copying equipment.

In short, for less than P100,000, and after a patient canvass of ordinary computer and camera stores, you can acquire the basic equipment to produce all kinds of digital video - from 1-minute spiels and 5-minute MTV and videoke pieces to full-length, 60-minute features.

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Your next concern would be the actual production. To simplify things, let us assume that your first project is not the kind of film that requires a cast of actors, but a plain 60-minute documentary or thinly-fictionalized account of real people’s lives - perhaps a true-to-life story that you are already familiar with.

If so, you need not spend a fortune on cast and crew, elaborate sets, and travel to exotic locations. You could just form a group of two or three, and distribute among yourselves and other interested volunteers the work of research, script-writing, directing, actual camera work, dubbing and editing.

I won’t go into details, and each project will widely vary, but let’s estimate that your first full-length project will require 30 days’ work (from writing the script to final edited master copy) and cost you P25,000. If you are dedicated, skilled and resourceful, a whole month and P25,000 should be more than enough.

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Finally, you will need about P60,000 to mass-produce and package 2,000 copies of your obra maestra in VCD format. You can estimate marketing costs yourselves, but it should not exceed P10,000.

Suppose you sell all 2,000 copies at P50 per. If so, you might not exactly become the next Mother Lily of indie film, but you have just proven the potentials for a sustainable and socially significant business.

You can find ways of including ads in your VCD, or broadcasting it on TV, or producing a DVD version, to maximize income. On the side, you might want to do weddings, graduations, birthdays, funerals, MTV’s, videokes and commercials to ease your cash flow. Don’t laugh! You’d be surprised at how much some people are willing to pay for a personalized 30-minute video package.

With enough bravado, you could even invest in an LCD projector so that you can conduct video showings in schools, offices, and communities to help promote and distribute your work and those of others. #

From Northern Dispatch Weekly, Sept. 5, 2004