Our Music Odyssey Project | Pan Music Trinidad & Tobago

The PAN! Our Music Odyssey Project is dedicated to Pan Music Trinidad, Tobago and Worldwide. The PAN! Our Music Odyssey Project is a trans-media steelband project based on a film, aimed at globally promoting our steelband movement and branding Trinidad & Tobago as its home.

The project involves: (1) the production of a 90-minute cinematic docu-drama on steelband in Trinidad and Tobago, (2) the production of several 52-minute television documentary films on steelband specific to TV networks in North America, Europe, Asia and Africa, combining footage of pan in those countries with excerpts from the 90-minute docu-drama; (3) production of ancillary items, including CDs, DVDs, coffee-table books on pan, a dedicated interactive website, online MIDI steelpan competition, social networking and blogs, phone apps; and (4) a global marketing thrust combining international broadcasters, distributors and touring agents to release the film and the ancillary items at main film and music festival worldwide along with live performances by Trinidad and Tobago steelbands.

Our Project Goals

Diversify the economy: A 2010 Chamber of Commerce report, repeated last year by Sir Richard Branson in a visit to Trinidad and Tobago, recommended a vigorous international promotion of our culture industry, especially those related to Carnival. PAN! Our Music Odyssey is the most realistic approach to the Ministry of Planning’s target of doubling the number of tourists to Trinidad and Tobago by promoting the best of our culture to a world beyond the Caribbean diaspora.

Network pan global: The international steelband movement comprises a network of educated, articulate pan-lovers scattered throughout the world. Reggae and brand Jamaica’s global spread began in the 1970s through the Jamaican community in the UK and the release there of The Harder They Come and live performances of Bob Marley in 1973. Today we shall trod a similar path, using modern digital technology and leveraging the international pan community through PAN! Our Music Odyssey, its ancillary products and live performances.

Add value to pan: As the global pan community internationalizes pan, our project will:

• Provide marketing opportunities for steelbands abroad (as Lioness of the Jungle did for Calypso Rose) and at home through out-of-season tourism.
• Document the history and achievements of pan at home and abroad, and present it internationally, thus elevating pan to its rightful place alongside the great creations of popular music
• Brand Trinidad and Tobago as the home of pan, where the best instruments, music and instruction are all to be had.
• Built national pride and offer an alternative source of self-esteem and achievement to youth.

Transfer knowledge: The international film industry is opening up to newcomers as digital technology dissolves the Hollywood monopoly. However, the only way for Trinidad and Tobago to develop the skills, experience and contacts, which allows one to compete internationally, is by working with top international producers, directors, videographers, scriptwriters, etc. Knowledge will be transferred in disciplines including film directing, editing, acting, videography, sound engineering for film, makeup, costume and set design, scriptwriting, marketing and distribution.

PAN! Our Music Odyssey has already begun to achieve some of this, with our script consultant Fernanda Rossi having been invited to work with the Trinidad and Tobago Film Company.

A unique business model: To enable the foreign TV networks to “buy in” on the project, we have created a unique business model, which makes our story (the Pan story in Trinidad) their story, and in doing so address the concept of “proximity” with their audience. This concept is to propose in each specific country with major TV networks and a pan presence, to tell the story of Pan in their own country. The TV network will re-edit our footage with additional footage of the specific history of Pan in their country. This way it will become their story!