In Nigeria’s movie industry known as Nollywood, is believed by us Nigerians that ninety-nine percent of our movies are all crap based on the numbers of bad movies that are being churned out by our unprofessional producers every week. In Nollywood, direct to DVD movies are known as ‘old Nollywood’ movies while the ones that are being screened in cinemas are known as ‘new Nollywood’ movies. Old Nollywood is that section of Nollywood that is believed by us Nigerians to be bad and lacks creativity, but surprisingly, the Actors/Actresses being featured in movies under the ‘old Nollywood’ seems to be the popular/famous ones in the country; I can remember vividly some months ago when I asked a female friend of mine who is a fan of Nollywood whether she knows who O.C Ukeje is? I was surprisingly shocked when her reply was; “who is O.C Ukeje?”
What am I trying to say, it is us Nigerians that are promoting these bad movies, making them marketable just because we can afford them with just ₦200 ($1.17) for part 1 and 2, that is the reason why we only have one to three percent of quality made movies in the country, and it is believed that eastern part of the country producers are the ones churning out badly made movies at least ninety out of ninety-nine percent bad movies; for example ninety percent of Nollywood movies shot in Enugu, Asaba, Owerri, Awka etc belong to the ‘old Nollywood’ category, based on my experience we are going to understand how mediocrity in the industry are being eaten like our daily bread in Aba, Abia State Nigeria.
SCRIPTWRITING – as of the year 2013 when I’m seeing myself as a real sucker in scriptwriting, I joined a theatre group here in Aba, coordinated by one former T.V presenter, occasional actor and an advertiser, I joined the theatre only because he’s popular in Aba. I personally wanted to be among the creative crew but was pushed to act, we all were, I didn’t understand at first but I later found out that there was nothing creative about the theatre group, his plans were to shoot a T.V pilot, and with his influence he’ll get sponsorship/partnership in completing it into a complete T.V series.
So… at first, I was given a script to read, to my amazement, what I was staring at is neither a screenplay nor stage-play written in arial font, stage-play format and visibility of camera movements, I was like; “what the heck is this?!”
I felt relaxed when I understood that the movie in progress is an ‘us thing,’ so bad script is consciously acceptable.
CASTING – casting in Aba really sucks because the casting managers or maybe the producers put money first before talent, a female friend who was also in the same theatre with me told me that if you’re a female with no money and the casting manager or the producer happens to be male, they’ll ask you to pay by ‘kind’ (don’t really know what that means, lol).
Same in 2013, based on my experience, I saw an audition notice poster in Aba and felt like to give it a shot because of my experiences garnered in the theatre group, I might get a role. First the audition venue/address got me confused, so I decides to call the number on the poster, I dialed the number a lady picked, and her first question was; “who are you?” in a very harsh tone.
I explained who I am and about the audition too, she then popped another surprising question by asking me who gave me her number, I became confuse at that moment thinking that I might have called a wrong number without even knowing it, her next question got me startled, she ask me whether I’ve registered with them before asking where the venue is, she then added that the audition is for registered actors and actress, that the registration fee is ₦10,000, I became out of words, forgetting my next choice of word, but she refuses to cut the call (I was the person that called though), patiently waiting for a reply, I then helped myself out by ending the call.
I know too well that there are mediocrity in the movie industry and other sectors but doing the wrong thing boldly as if it’s all right is what I don’t understand.
CREW – this stage where the crew arrive at the location where we were about to begin with principle photography made me chuckle, this stage was where I knew that I’ve been involved with the wrong people.
We (the members of the theatre) knew that our coordinator is already struggling with his career in the advertising industry, that means he’s financially unstable, but the annoying thing here is that he (the coordinator) won’t stop bragging during our rehearsal concerning how great the production is going to be, I don’t know whether he was trying to give us hope or just mistaken mediocrity to perfection, though our assistant coordinator is financially stable and is believed to be the co-executive producer, he later left the production after Day 1 shooting, maybe he found out that our coordinator isn’t as good as he said he is.
We all arrived at the location as discussed; we came with our own costumes too, waiting for the crew to arrive for shooting to commence, like forty-five minutes later, an amateur cameraman with low quality camera (not HD), a tripod, two camera batteries and a camera light arrives, I was still seated waiting for the remaining crew to arrive, like; the real lighting guy, boom mic handler, set designer or something similar, at that moment what I heard was; “kehinde are you still sitting? We are about to start recording,” the coordinator yelled at me.
Kehinde was my character’s name, so after the coordinator yelled at me, I stood up grinning while I joined the so called cast and crew, at this moment I realizes that I’ve gotten myself into a messed up production.
Throughout our two days shooting we weren’t talking/conversing while acting, we were shouting so that the camera’s inbuilt mic will capture our voice, and the annoying thing is that the camera kept going off and on due to low battery. It was too late for me to leave the production because if any cast should leave at this hour, it might destroy production.
DIRECTING – now we’ve mastered our different roles and lines, and I was thinking that our coordinator who happens to be in the advertisement business for close to twenty years might use his directing skills to ‘up’ the production, if not perfect maybe manageable.
Indoor, First scene: the crew (camera with camera light) position, then action… camera rolling – acting begins, then… one of the actors miss his line, as the director refuses to cut the scene, the actor then ask the cameraman to cut, but the director yelled at the cameraman, for example below:-
Director :- (to cameraman) why are you stopping?!
Cameraman :- he (the actor) said I should stop.
Director :- is he the director?
Cameraman :- (no comment)
Director :- continue rolling.
NOTE :- at that moment the director and the cameraman were arguing the camera is still rolling.
Director: - (to the actor) my friend continue where you stopped, you can do it, you did it during rehearsal.
Camera still rolling o.
The actor tried catching up but made another mistake.
Director :- (to the actor) my friend what are you doing? I will change o.
This was how the entire pilot was recorded, and I knew too well that there’s no shot recorded this way will come out good or manageable.
POST-PRODUCTION (editing/sound/graphics/soundtrack) – one month later after shooting we assemble to finally see the fruit of our labor after the post-production, to myself I said, “maybe the pilot won’t be as bad as it seems as some additional work have been done to it in the studio.”
We all sit, our coordinator/director/producer/executive producer/actor/scriptwriter insert the DVD plate, then on the T.V, the pilot opens with a messed up title over seconded with a buzzing sound, which is the theme song. Throats were cleared for a weirder view.
Scene one: the only thing good in this scene is audio because it’s an interior shot, the amateur cameraman’s hand were shaking as the camera was on its tripod.
Scene two: I was in this scene; the audio was zero, upon how loud we shouted the camera mic couldn’t capture our voices, a static sound is being heard due to increase of volume at the studio. The one I so much have issues with is the shot with no cut even when we missed our lines, gosh, I was just like a reality show, the guy I was acting with forgot his line and it took him like ten seconds to remember, only medium shot was recorded in this scene due to battery problem, every mistakes, delay etc was recorded, it was like a stage performance.
The soundtrack is way out of this world, and not needed in my own opinion, we should have managed the theme song alone, I don’t know where our coordinator got these two whacky singers with croaked voice, when I heard these ladies voice, I was like, is this necessary?
The closing credits title is another thing of its own, almost all names were spelt wrongly even the character’s name were spelt wrongly too.
Post Script => even till date the man have not gotten any sponsor, though I invested very little cash in the production, I pray that it’ll never be on air because of my involvement. Source: http://okerekenkem..nl/2014/12/show-business-in-aba-abia-state-nigeria.html?m=1 |
