African Entrepreneurship Records 2

Chapter 1387 Film and Television Base
In fact, before World War I, Russia's railway network had covered as many surrounding countries and regions as possible, such as the Far Eastern Empire, Persia, Central Asia, and parts of Eastern Europe.

East Africa does not have such conditions. If East Africa wants to further extend its railway network in Africa, it can basically only achieve great success in West Africa.

To the north is the Sahara Desert, and to the south there is only a small area of ​​Britain's South African colony.

However, because of the Gulf of Guinea, sea transportation is more cost-effective than rail transportation for exchanges and trade between East Africa and West Africa, and East Africa can have an important impact on West Africa without the need for rail transportation.

……

Our attention shifts to the city of Kitwe in the copper belt.

It has been a year since Kitwe City began its economic transformation, but the road to transformation has not been smooth.

After all, having been accustomed to the long-term command economy, many officials in East Africa have not yet adapted to the rules and methods of the market economy. Similarly, the Kitwe Municipal Government should also feel confused about reform.

The city of Kitwe has introduced some reform measures and policies that are more in line with reality, but these are either difficult to be effective in a short period of time or are restricted by the huge funding requirements and have been delayed in starting.

So is there any good project that can produce quick results, is economically affordable for Kitwe City, and can meet all the needs of Kitwe City’s economic development?

After more than a year of exploration, Kitwe Mayor Deborn has finally found a shortcut to development, which is the film and television industry.

"The film and television industry is a completely new industry. It appeared much later than the automobile industry, almost at the end of the 19th century. It can be said to be a blue ocean."

“Moreover, the film and television industry belongs to the tertiary industry, and because of its cultural attributes, it is conducive to improving the visibility of Kitwe City. With visibility, our other plans can be carried out based on it.”

At the year-end economic meeting in Kitwe, DeBern tried hard to sell his subordinates that developing the film and television industry was definitely a more visionary idea, but this might not be recognized by everyone.

"Mayor Debern, although your idea is good, we have just started comprehensive management of the city's environment this year under financial pressure, whether it is closing down heavily polluting mines and factories, or restoring forests and river ecology..."

"All these have put the city government's finances in jeopardy. After all, in addition to the massive expenditures, our economic transformation policy in 1921 has also caused a serious decline in government revenue. It is certain that the government's financial reports will not look good in the next two to three years."

Kitwe is a typical industrial and mining city, so the first blow of the economic transformation was made on the main artery of the city's economy, namely copper mining and non-ferrous metal processing.

This could be fatal to Kitwe's economy, but of course, Debern does not see it that way.

"Copper mining and the industries that surround it are the lifeblood of Kitwe's economy, but there is little room for growth," DeBern said.

"Especially in the context of increasingly fierce market competition, we can't even compete with Lubumbashi next door, not to mention a number of coastal cities that are also eyeing us."

"If we don't change, the end result is that even if we continue to invest heavily in the copper mining industry, it will become increasingly difficult and we won't be able to achieve good results. We may eventually be surpassed by coastal areas."

“Therefore, finding a new economic outlet is something that Kitwe City must do. We cannot pursue short-term economic performance at the expense of Kitwe City’s development potential.”

“As for the current financial pressure faced by the municipal government, in my opinion, it is not entirely a problem. After all, economic transformation requires sacrifice, so promoting the establishment of the film and television industry in Kitwe City is one of our key economic projects next year.”

“I hope that during the five-year plan, Kitwe will become the country’s fourth film and television industry centre, and even the first film and television city in East Africa.”

At present, the recognized film and television industry centers in East Africa are distributed in three cities. The first is the cultural and foreign exchange center of East Africa, the capital of East Africa, Rhine City.

However, the film and television industry in Rhine City serves politics to a large extent. After all, it is the political center of the country.

The cities that have been more successful in commercialization are Mombasa and Dar es Salaam. As the most developed cities in East Africa, these two cities have the economic advantages to develop this industry.

For example, capital, talent, technology and market, these advantages are not possessed by most cities in East Africa.

Overall, the film and television industry in Mombasa is the best developed because in addition to its economic advantages, it also has advantages in foreign exchanges and natural conditions.

External communication is very important for the film and television industry. It means that film and television industry practitioners in Mombasa can better connect with the international community and maintain continuous progress in technology and creative content.

Although East Africa is a country where the film and television industry developed earlier, the development progress of the European and American film and television industries is actually not slow. The main reason for this is that the management of European and American societies is more relaxed, or there is almost no management of the film and television industry.

In this way, they can shoot much more content than in East Africa. Although this may lead to a mixed bag of content, it is conducive to the opening up of the film and television market. After all, only when the content is richer can the market demand be better met.

The market liberalization in East Africa was not until after 1910. Moreover, after the market was opened, the East African government also had a regulatory role in the development of the film and television industry. Therefore, while the film and television industry in East Africa was developing, it naturally had a tight rein on its head.

This places higher demands on practitioners in the East African film and television industry, so international exchanges are conducive to inspiring their creative inspiration. Of course, this is also conducive to plagiarism of content, but this is a minor issue.

In addition, Mombasa’s convenience in external exchanges also allowed him to be exposed to some new technologies, especially exchanges with Germany and the Austro-Hungarian Empire, which played a huge role in the development of Mombasa’s film and television industry.

Germany is the center of the Second Industrial Revolution, and the same is reflected in the film and television industry. The Third Reich in the past used movies, documentaries and other means to carry out political propaganda, and achieved quite remarkable results. For example, the German army left behind a large amount of audio and video materials, showing the appearance of German soldiers at that time.

As one of the great powers, the Austro-Hungarian Empire had its share of talents. To a certain extent, it could be said that it was the most culturally sophisticated of the three German powers. Of course, the Austro-Hungarian Empire, like East Africa, was not a purely German country. The Austro-Hungarian Empire's achievements in traditional literature, music, and art surpassed those of Germany and East Africa, which gave the Austro-Hungarian Empire a deeper and more fertile soil for artistic creation.

This is also what East Africa lacks the most. Specifically, before World War I, the East African government organized its own literary and artistic creators to go to Vienna for exchanges and studies every year.

After all, East Africa's own history and cultural heritage is too weak. Going back further, it would be impossible for East Africa to shoot film and television works about the capture and slaughter of black slaves during the colonial era, or create related literary and musical products.

At present, East Africa tends to shoot traditional German historical themes in film and television creation, adding some historical and cultural themes of the Far East Empire. There is no doubt that the materials for both come from the three countries of Germany, Austria and the Far East Empire.

Of course, there is also local film and television content in East Africa, especially science fiction themes are very popular in East Africa. This is similar to the United States and the Soviet Union in the past. The common point between East Africa and these two countries is that they are relatively lacking in history. The situation in the Soviet Union may be better, but not much.

In general, the weakness of historical and cultural heritage is an important limiting factor in the development of the film and television industry in East Africa, and East Africa is more inclined to learn from other countries.

Mombasa is a window city for communication between East Africa and the world, so the film and television industry in Mombasa benefits from it, which is something that even Dar es Salaam cannot compare to.

In terms of natural conditions, Mombasa is also a city that is very suitable for the development of the early film and television industry.

In terms of climate, Mombasa is located in the transition zone between the East African Plateau and the coastal plains, the intersection of the central and northern regions, and the transition zone between semi-humid climate and semi-arid climate.

To put it simply, Mombasa's overall climate is relatively dry, with many sunny days and suitable temperatures, which is conducive to film and television shooting.

Take Hollywood in the United States as an example. Hollywood is located on the outskirts of Los Angeles, California, with a mild climate and plenty of sunshine. There are many sunny days throughout the year, which is suitable for filming.

Especially in the early days when filming technology was not yet developed and relied heavily on natural light, Hollywood's climate advantage was extremely obvious. For example, when shooting on location, abundant sunlight could provide good lighting conditions, reduce reliance on artificial lighting, and reduce shooting costs and difficulty.

The overall situation in Mombasa is similar to that in Hollywood.

At the same time, because it is located at the intersection of grassland and desert, the transition area between plateau and plain, and is close to the Indian Ocean, the climate, terrain and landforms are complex and diverse, which makes Mombasa very convenient for filming.

De Boerne said: "The development of the film and television industry in Mombasa and Dar es Salaam is of reference significance to us, and Kitwe also has unique advantages, such as our proximity to Rhine City."

The reason why Debern mentioned this is that Rhine City, as the capital of East Africa, has the best educational resources in the country, that is, many of the top universities in East Africa, including future talents in the film and television industry.

Debern said: "For example, there are the National University of Media in Rhineland and the Film Academy in Rhineland. So we don't need to worry too much about talent and technology. We can cooperate with these institutions of higher learning."

Because Kitwe City is assigned to the Central Province and Kitwe City is not far from Rhine City, this greatly facilitates the cooperation between Kitwe City and relevant colleges and universities.

"Besides, there is currently a lack of competition in the film and television industry in the Midwest. As long as we can take the initiative, we will be able to get a piece of the pie in this new industry."

"In the entire Midwest region, apart from Rhine City, there is no city known for its film and television development. In fact, the film and television industry in Rhine City itself is not very in line with the market, which is a bargain for Kitwe City."

"I think that a large number of new film and television bases may appear across the country in the future, but by that time, no matter how much investment is made, it will definitely not be able to compete with other cities with economic advantages."

“So, starting next year, our city should make arrangements on how to vigorously develop the film and television industry. In my opinion, Kitwe should become the first film and television city in East Africa.”

"This coincides with our new round of infrastructure construction requirements. We can take advantage of the opportunity of urban environmental governance to build a number of landscapes that are convenient for filming, thus laying the foundation for another film and television base in the central region in the future."

At present, in order to address the environmental problems caused by the over-exploitation of Kitwe City from the last century to the beginning of this century, namely copper mining and non-ferrous metal smelting and processing, Kitwe City has launched the so-called new infrastructure to restore the local ecological environment and related project engineering.

DeBern believes that this opportunity can be used to promote the development of the film and television industry in Kitwe, which is killing two birds with one stone.

"For example, how to manage abandoned mines was a problem for us in the past, but now that we want to build a film and television base, we might as well utilize the waste from abandoned mines and use it as a film and television shooting location after eliminating its safety hazards."

"For example, some films and TV shows about miners can be shot in the mines that have been rectified by us."

"The original mining machinery and equipment have become ready-made props, and we no longer need to think about how to deal with the waste."

“In the process of urban renewal, we should perhaps invite some professional film and television industry practitioners from Rhine City and other places to make some suggestions for the urban renewal of Kitwe.”

The Kitwe urban renewal project is also an important task in this round of Kitwe's economic transformation. After all, Kitwe decided to develop other industries and closed down a number of heavily polluting enterprises. At the same time, due to the rough management in the past, Kitwe's infrastructure was too outdated.

However, these old infrastructures, such as roads, factories, railways, etc., may not necessarily need to be demolished directly, or some of them can be selectively retained as a unique memory of Kitwe’s past industrial and mining development era, which is also part of the historical memory of East African countries.

After all, Kitwe is one of the earliest industrial and mining cities in East Africa and has a relatively long history. It has made great contributions to the early industrial development of East Africa.

Of course, which specific landmarks and heritage from the industrial and mining eras to preserve requires the guidance of professionals. Before, Debern had not considered people in the film and television industry, but now he can let them participate and contribute to the future construction of the film and television base.

In this way, Kitwe's original industrial and mining heritage can be reused. In addition, under Kitwe's natural ecological restoration work, the local natural landscape will also be significantly improved. Kitwe itself has rich natural landscape elements, including rainforests, grasslands, rivers, mountains, swamps, lakes, hills, etc., which can all provide help for the development of the film and television industry.

(End of this chapter)