SUMMARY OF THE OCCUPATION
Trinidad and Tobago’s film sector emerged in the late fifties to early sixties and was well established by the late seventies. By this time the industry saw a handful of local productions, both feature film and for television. Along with an outstanding geographic location, the country has substantial resources for the production of feature films, with a well-developed theatrical community, playwrights and experienced production crews.
As of January 2007, the Trinidad and Tobago film industry consisted of 12 production companies; 33 companies offering production support services; 9 television stations. Altogether, the production companies employ a core staff of approximately 200 full-time employees, while the television stations employ over 700 persons.
Within the local film industry there are several occupational streams, these include:
- Creative – screenwriters, film directors, art directors, actors, directors of photography, animators, music composers, editors
- Production – producers acquire the rights for a property, assemble the creative team, secure financing, develop the property and arrange distribution
- Distribution – local, regional and international
- Exhibition – theatrical (cinemas, DVD/video outlets) and non-theatrical (schools, Government and other institution)
- Broadcasting – television, direct television, cable, pay per-view, specialty and conventional channels.
For the prospective film producer, Trinidad and Tobago has a unique advantage, with its concentrated variety of contrasting geographical sites all within the close proximity to each other. Products of the local film sector includes feature films, documentaries, music videos, television dramas and sit-coms, entertainment programs, commercials, corporate productions and educational programs.
The camera industry has evolved over the years. With the advent of new technologies, the industry has now progressed from analog to digital recording formats, and from 3D and 4D to Blu-ray recording and display formats.
- Analog technology – information is translated into electric pulses of varying amplitude
- Digital technology – translation of information is into binary format (zero or one) where each bit is representative of two distinct amplitudes
- 3D – is short for 3-dimensional (e.g. width, length and depth). 3D movie uses a particular filming technology which presents two individual images simultaneously to each eye and provides a stereoscopic vision to the viewer. It has been enhanced to offer a perception of depth of image to the audience with tinted glasses, who will be tricked to have a sense of true depth and feel the objects in the 3D movies extending out from the screen.
- 4D – moves the object around the mirror image of the exact same object, which provides an extra depth to the object’s motion. The effects produced by the 4D technology and the extra dimension actually makes viewers feel as if they were there inside the screen themselves.
- Blu-ray – Blu-ray movies feature high definition video and audio as well as advanced interactive features. It offers up to 50GB of storage capacity and enables playback, recording and rewriting of HD in all of the HD resolutions. Blu-ray discs are also more resistant to scratches and fingerprints than today’s DVDs, while still preserving the same look and feel.
The critical objective of the industry is to capture moments and transmit this content for a genuine feeling of “realness”. The dynamism of the industry, technologies and working procedures change almost on a daily basis, and as such constant research is essential to be up to date. The major employers in the industry are: television stations and production houses.
In this occupational area we will examine three job titles:
- Technical Operator
- Production Assistant
- Director of Productions.