What's in the horizon for Haitian Cinema in 2010?

Movie Premiere Gala Photo

Read this article by Raynald Delerme, the President & CEO of the Haitian American Association of Filmmakers, and see what he has to say about it:

Here it is...

Ten years ago, most homes relied on dial-up connections to access the Internet, flat-screen TVs and the Nintendo Wii didn't exist.

In 2010, consumers will see more revolutionary products supplanting old mainstays. In media, DVDs, books, newspapers and magazines will continue to lose ground to services like in-home movie rentals.

As a result, some consumer products appear poised for a dip in sales, which could be the start of the end of DVDs

The days of going to a video shop to rent a movie are at an end. In September, Blockbuster said it plans to close roughly 22% of its stores by the end of 2010; meanwhile, third-quarter revenue was down 21% from the year-ago period.

Looking ahead, DVD purchases could turn cold, as well. On average, DVDs sell for at least $10 to $20 each. That's pricier than signing up for Netflix or renting movies from cable providers' on-demand channels. Netflix charges as little as $8.99 a month to rent one DVD at a time (with no limit to the number of monthly rentals).

Time Warner Cable offers thousands of movies on demand for around $4.99 each. Verizon Fios cable service charges $5.99 a month to download unlimited movies.

What does this mean for Haitian cinema?

It will be long before our community makes the full transition to the new methods of acquisition of digital media but those outlets, specially Video On Demand (VOD), could be the new way to fight bootlegging that is crippling our movie industry. It will make movies cheaper to watch for the consumer and it will allow producers and distributors an easier way to find and sue the bootleggers. Two Haitian associations are presently at work for providing Haitian films on demand, that is, you can watch Haitian movies on your computer, full-screen and high resolution, for a small fee ($1.99 to $3.99, depending on the movie) whenever you want. You can pause, rewind, fast-forward, most everything you can do with a DVD player. You can save your movie on your hard drive but you cant burn it on a DVD. We are not talking about low resolution pictures like you get from the pirate Haitian websites showing Haitian movies with no authorization from the producers or distributors. I mean new releases that are still showing in theaters and of course some old releases but at full quality.

What about viewers in Haiti?

To benefit from this service, you need broadband internet. In most countries today, broadband is readily available and affordable. In Haiti where politics come first, unfortunately, broadband is still a luxury. When it is available, it is bad. There is a fiber optic cable linked to the Bahamas that is available at Teleco Grand-Rue, but politicians are still bidding on who gets to use it and how much will they get? But it will be available soon. No one can stop progress. News is that a Vietnamese company just bought about 70% of that state owned company. Let's hope it will mean better service to the Haitian people.

Source: Haiticinema.com

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