AS someone who has attended one of the four outreach workshops hosted so far by the Ministry of Information, Media and Broadcasting Services, I am now convinced that 2016 is the year Zimbabwe could be on its way to generating a vibrant film and television industry.
And some of us have been waiting for this kind of development for many years.
So far, the day-long workshops have been hosted in Harare, Bulawayo, Masvingo and Mutare and are meant to bring together ministry officials, independent producers as well as those interested in matters cultural.
What has sparked this unprecedented countrywide interaction between the ministry and independent producers is the digitisation exercise taking place all over the country.
The expectation is that by the end of 2016, the bulk of the digital infrastructure, which includes the installation of 24 new transmission sites and the upgrading of another 24 plus broadcasting studios for both television and radio, among others, will be more or less complete.
According to work-schedules presented during such workshops, a lot of technical work is already being done, but a lot more is still to follow before the digitisation exercise is completed.
Of particular interest to most of us is not so much the detailed and precise technical updates which are also presented during the outreach workshops mentioned above, although these are important in their own right, more so for those who are technically inclined, but the vast opportunities for the production of local content which are likely to accrue from the digitisation exercise itself.
Put briefly, instead of one nationwide terrestrial channel being used by the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation (ZBC), when the digitisation exercise is completed, it is initially scheduled to avail, in immediate terms, 12 high definition broadcasting channels.
And all these channels are expected to rely on the availability of good quality local content produced by our people here in Zimbabwe in particular and in Africa in general.
To illustrate the huge amount of local content required to feed into the multiple channels that will be availed and keep them broadcasting 24 hours per day, seven days a week and 52 weeks per year: Six channels only would require huge quantities of broadcast content to cater for 144 hours of broadcast time per day, 1 008 hours per week and 4 032 hours in a month and
48 384 hours per year.
This means that the 12 channels to be availed would require broadcast content to cater for 97 768 hours of broadcast time per year, courtesy of the digitisation exercise that is taking place right now.
These figures alone dramatise the huge amount of production work that has to be done to keep all the channels busy entertaining, informing and educating all of us.
In order to meet the vast quantities of local content material that is required to keep the broadcast system well provided for, the ministry driving the digitisation exercise has had to think outside the box.
Of particular interest to producers is what came up during one of the workshops — that production facilities will be set up in Harare, Bulawayo, Gweru, Masvingo, Mutare, Victoria Falls and other cities still to be specified.
As far as most of us can remember, provision of production facilities has never been done on a nationwide basis before.
This development amounts to a bold and radical shift in direction which for the first time dramatises the active role the state intends to play in promoting the growth of the film and television industry in Zimbabwe.
Should these production facilities turn out to be well equipped with state of the art cameras, lighting kits, sound kits and other accessories required for film and television productions, it means that one of the toughest challenges which has always impeded growth of the film and television sector in Zimbabwe would have been successfully surmounted.
One hopes that this progressive development does not get delayed by the usual bureaucratic hurdles which every ministry encounters when executing nationwide programmes.
One can argue that the provision of the necessary equipment is bound to be a ‘game-changer’ in so far as it will make it possible for many of those who are talented, those who are serious and passionate about producing television programmes to get involved and to start producing in a short space of time.
During one of the workshops, the ministry also promised to look at the plight of those film producers already in the field and who intend to import their own equipment, but find it too expensive to do so.
In other words, the provision of film equipment, the necessary expertise and some form of assistance from production facilities which will be set up is not meant to be a substitute to facilities which individuals or other corporate entities have either acquired or set up on their own, but complementary.
Of immediate priority is to lower the entry costs into the film and television sector and to avail expertise in order to jumpstart and multiply production activities in a concrete and practical way.
The good thing is that the jumpstarting process is being done well before the technical side of the digitisation programme is completed.
What most of us find exciting is that the state has come to recognise that unless something is done to deliberately invest in the film and television industry, it means losing out on the thousands of jobs that can be created in that sector.
And the reason is simple: No film project, very few television programmes can be done solely by individuals.
Film-making and the production of television programmes are by their very nature undertakings which demand that people get together, get organised as a purposeful group of people and proceed to execute a specific production task.
In doing so, whoever is the producer is bound to generate some employment for our youths.
While the state is busy putting in place transmission and production facilities and already purchasing a substantial amount of the equipment that is required, some of which has already arrived in the country, there are those who are asking questions such as: Do we have enough people who are going to produce the local content and where is the material for local content to come from?
These questions will be addressed in our next instalment.