Many screenwriters, producers, directors and others connected to the industry in attendance at a recent conference in Hanoi discussing the recycled plan call it little more than wishful thinking.

The plan put forth by the Vietnam Cinematography Department is pretty much a rehash of the same tired one laid out several years ago, said Director Dang Xuan Hai, chair of the Vietnam Cinema Association.

It takes a lot more than talk to accomplish something this challenging, he said, noting he questioned whether the nation has the people with the necessary management and technical skills to pull off such a feat.

At the conference, many filmmakers were quick to brand the plan as utopian and not much more than a lot of ‘pie in the sky’ and something that is not very likely to be achieved.

The plan calls for a new tax to be imposed of one-half of 1% and 3.5% on domestic and foreign ticket sales, respectively. The tax monies would go into a governmental special use fund to be used to promote the industry.

Control over the selection of films to fund would be vested in the Vietnam Cinema Association.

Barren of details, it’s really not a plan at all, said most of the people attending the conference. The so called ‘plan’ does not even attempt to outline the steps required to meet its lofty targets.

It proposes that responsibilities for moviemaking such as developing the script, locating funds, hiring the director and casting be shifted from the director to the producer.

To improve the quality of films, moneys from the newly imposed tax on ticket sales set aside in a special use fund would be used to pay the cost of training for technical crew members, actors and directors.

Those same funds would be used to pay bonused for highly acclaimed successful homegrown films. Purportedly this bonus plan is to provide a quality incentive for moviemakers.

But then the plan provides that the bonuses are restricted for use and must go towards future projects.  So, it’s a little bit like giving money with one hand while taking it back with the other, said one director.

In addition, the plan cavalierly provides for the upgrade of 49 of its theatres and 52 new ones as well as construction of two large modern cinema centres capable of hosting film festivals.

Here again, there are no specifics on how this construction would be funded, said critics of the plan, but presumably the new tax on ticket sales would somehow magically cover all these additional costs.

Other agnostics pointed out that outdated technology is one of the biggest challenges the industry faces and yet the plan as proposed was completely devoid of specifics on how the technological revolution would be funded or transpire.

Technology is particularly a costly proposition, in this digital age of moviemaking.

With the price of six room movie theatre clusters such as those used by CGV, Lotte Cinema, BHD, Mega GS or Cinestar going for anywhere from US$225,000- US$360,000 each, one doesn’t have to concern themselves too much about this plan.

The plan will never get off the ground because there aren’t sufficient moneys available to fund it. The proposed movie ticket tax is only a drop in the bucket to the US billions of dollars needed, let alone all the other obstacles.