This document proposes an idea to capture the cultural events of Crop Over festivals in Barbados in a movie or documentary format. It suggests filming all aspects of how the festival ideas are conceived through implementation. The footage could then be edited together with graphics and overlays to tell the story of each festival as an envisioned narrative. These movies/documentaries would provide attendees and overseas viewers a visual memento to take home and enjoy repeatedly in future years. Producing and selling these films and related merchandise could generate year-round profits for the band houses rather than relying solely on annual festival funding.

1. SOLID IDEA #1 ON THE CULTURAL INDUSTRY
[This is a public declaration that the idea(s) presented here is(are) of the products of my creativity and imagination. Should you
be interested in the idea, please so acknowledge; any further expansion on my part will be private and compensatory]
Every year band leaders rack their brain cells for concepts that would capture our imagination. Umpteen
hours are spent in research so as to bring authenticity to the idea that has morphed. Designers and
illustrators are drafted in to turn that vision into a visual. Revelers get excited about what has been
conveyed and pay hard earned bucks to be a part of the excitement and exhilaration it promises. Then
there is security... and drinks…and food…and finally the unveiling – the Grand Kadooment!
Stop!! Where is this solid idea?
Here it is.
Most of that entire fancy raconteur is usually lost on the revelers caught up in the ‘mas and bacchanalia.
The beauty and artistry of your costumes become oblivious sights in the gyrating heat of the corpus
massive. So what to do? Capture and convert all of the effort and energy into a
MOVIE/DOCUMENTARY/STORY! I am absolutely positive that our friends from ‘over and away’ would
gladly pay the extra BDS$70 or BDS$100 to take back home visual evidence of the atmosphere of
Cropover, especially where they can identify with the part they would have played in that story.
Gather as much footage as you can, starting from the moment you sat to think to the very last second of
the execution of the idea. Use the now readily available editing and computer graphics technology to
overlay and interplay the historic/imaginative tale with the live ‘acting’ and drama of the revelers. Mix it
and blend it into a flowing story... the very one you had envisioned. Package and label it.
Just imagine for example: PowerX4’s “A Barrel of Fun” as not only a beautiful photograph to be hung on
a wall, but a video to be shown a hundred times after 2013 and 2014…and…yes. You’ve got it. While
you are at that, you can do the spin off – a memento magazine in glossy colour (why not? The
technology is here…so take the risk.)
A little proviso: Each band house should incorporate into a business, and see if you can generate profits
from this project (and other merchandising ideas) all year instead of waiting on the NCF and whoever
else…for a hand-out. Cropover is we ting…so let it wuk for we!!!