Entertainment Society of Goa to set up TV channel

Kishore Sharma - Televisionpoint.com | Panaji
Creation of a television channel to relay festival news and proceedings, the institution of Vasudha awards for films on environmental issues, setting up of a unique film archive with a technology called 'Digital Asset Management,' organisation of heritage walks and the constitution of the Goa Cinephile club were some of the highlights of IFFI 2008.

Manoj Srivastava, chief executive officer, Entertainment Society of Goa (ESG), said that for the first time ESG will set up a television channel to relay 16 to 18 hours of festival proceedings daily, news, press conferences, etc. The channel will also give recorded feeds to local and national channels, and the yet-to be-named channel will also cover the IFFI-related cultural events in all 11 talukas of the state.

Also for the first time, the ESG is introducing the Vasudha awards for films on environmental issues in the short film category. The best film will receive a prize of Rs 3 lakh.

The issue of environment preservation is very important to Goa and hence an award in this category has been introduced in IFFI 2008, Srivastava said. The short film centre will be inaugurated on November 23, 2008.

Films will be stored on a central server and members of the archive can have access to the play list. Even if the film is played hundreds of times, there will be no deterioration in its quality as it is stored on a server.
While the ESG is buying about 100 world class films, it is getting Indian films free of cost for its archive, Srivastava said.

With a view to promoting the heritage of Goa, ESG will also organise heritage walks for interested persons every morning from November 23 to December 1. The Goa Heritage Action Group will also have a counter for registration of visitors for the walks.

The ESG is also creating the Goa Cinephile Club for film professionals of the state. Membership to the club will give free access to all ESG organized film festivals and the extensive ESG film archive and book library for one year.

The ordinary annual membership fee is Rs 1300 and includes the registration fees for International Film Festival of India. The annual membership fee for students of recognized media related institutions is Rs 700.

Meanwhile, the Entertainment Society of Goa governing body has decided to raise the fee for film shootings in Goa to Rs 10,000 per day. Of this, Rs 7000 will go to the Entertainment Society of Goa and Rs 3000 will go the concerned village panchayat. This decision will be sent to the government for notification, Srivastava said.