Filmmakers face more problems

The culture ministry had announced building Pakistan's first digital laboratory but work has not commenced.


Express August 24, 2010

LAHORE: To better facilitate filmmakers with post production work, the culture ministry had announced that they would build the country’s first digital laboratory but as of yet work on the project has not commenced.

Sources told The Express Tribune that the ministry had not specified when they would begin work on the project, and because the country is still reeling from the floods which have caused so much devastation, the project may be delayed or shelved for an indefinite period of time.

The film fraternity has been demanding the establishment of a digital laboratory and the culture ministry had also endorsed the demand as there isn’t a single laboratory of this kind in the country. This means that filmmakers have to go to either Bangkok or India to get the production and post production work completed. However, until now the project has not gotten past the paper work stage.

An official of the ministry said that funds hadn’t yet been released for the project and that all the government machinery was busy in relief and rescue activity in flood hit areas. “The standing committee on culture has even advised cultural bodies to raise funds by organising different programs to help flood affected people,” he said. He added that the digital lab project may be ‘delayed’ for sometime.

United Film Association Chairman Amjad Farzand has been involved in negotiations with the ministry for the project and said that the ministry had given them a presentation about the laboratory some time ago. “The land for the laboratory is marked in Islamabad and is adjacent to the Pakistan National Council of Arts (PNCA). A lot of mechanism is involved and a great deal of paper work has been done on the project and I don’t think that it can be shelved. The ministry has not given a definite time to start work on the laboratory but, we are hopeful that it will begin soon,” he said.

The digital laboratory project is likely to save several hundred thousand rupees for filmmakers and improve the quality of the film by bringing in digital effects. Director Sangeeta, Syed Noor and many others have been campaigning for the laboratory for a long time; while speaking to The Express Tribune, Sangeeta said, “Establishing a digital laboratory would benefit the professionals and it should have been done without going into any controversial debate.”

However, a different take on the matter came from an official of the ministry who said that there weren’t many new movies being made in Pakistan and the project can be delayed for a while. On the other hand, filmmakers maintain that establishing the lab will encourage young filmmakers to step into filmmaking and produce good quality movies.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 25th, 2010.

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