What Do You Think About The State Of Visual Effects In Nigerian Home Videos?

Hello people, I'm Spade

They say as time progresses, movies progress and their visual effects advance. It has been like that in foreign films like King Kong, Jurassic Park, Spider man 2 and of course, Star Wars but those are for foreign movies. What do you think about the current state of visual effects in the nigerian home videos.

Good Or Bad?

I've tried to remake some of those techniques done in Naija movies like chroma keying, but it's complicated and hard. . . but anyone can rig up a bullet time type effect (from matrix) at home , foreign flicks use easy techniques and get great results, we use difficult once and it's not so good. . .

uhmm really. i thought it was the other way round

I honestly think visual effects and computer generated imagery is going nowhere in the nigerian home videos. you can hardly see a 3d animated character blend properly with iths co-actors and nobody seems to care. you cant even compare the visual effects in nigerian movies in 2006 to those in jurassic park in 1993 and this is horrible. Nigerian computer generated imagery is going nowhere and this is becoming a very big issue.

They look fo fake!!

I seriously think nigerian movie makers should go back to the drawing board and re-polish the visual effects in their movies because its the visual effects that even makes the film more exciting.

Am I right or Wrong?

true talk that

yeah i feel u guys on that one
the effects are so terrible smtimes
its really hard to watch these movies

I feel so embarassed when I am watching nigerian action movies. they lack co-ordination. Nigerians now resort to romance movies which require less CGI(computer generated imagery) shots,

I have to confess, no nigerian movie has ever levelled up to the 1973 Star Wars and in areas of visual effects and I must say, this is sad.

They don't necessarily have to use CGI in their movies to make it appealing. A lot of Hollywwod movies do not drive their stories with visual effects and these movies are masterpieces. With that said, I'd like them to improve on that area but there is no cause for alarm since a lot of people are working towards that underground and I predict before the end of 2007 there will be a couple of well done Naija films with a near perfect blend of CGI and live footage.

I heard from a reliable scource some Naija/UK based producers are working on a heavy effects epic film. From the look of their software line up (Masive Prime, Natural Motion Endorphin, Vicon Mocap System, Softimage XSI Advanced, Houdini Master) I don't think these guys are joking. If they can invest over $100,000 on software/hardware alone, we shouldn't wave them aside.

I will keep my fingers crossed till I get more info on the cast and crew since my info is rather sketchy at the moment.

uhm cool are they doing an action flick

@Candylips

Something like that. It's a bit sketchy though. One of the producers is my friend so I believe I can get a concrete info by the end of the year.

thats cool man. keep us posted

They should stop using the effects first. God knows I don't watch those movies. They should try perfect tradition film-tricks. Get better footages on behind the scene from foreign movie makers. Learn those traditional tricks before going CG.

Btw, some idiots invest a lot of $$$$$ and got no good people to use the machines. Same in music videos. Good cameras poor handlers.

visual effects on Nigerian home videos?

You call those things they do visual effect? in 2007? HABA!

If you talk about Nigerian music videos I will say yes, but Nigerian Home videos?
forget it!

It's not that there's not been growth in the Nigerian Film industry, but it's the fact that the growth has been a very slow one.

first things first, no disrespect to those of you who may be in the industry in NG, but tis a simple case of a lack of creative talent topped with a sprinkling of ignorance.
Where the ignorance comes in? Home movies are too long and poorly edited, why? cos the producer/director wants a drawn sequence spread over 6 discs which enables him to suck money out of suckers. Before we even think of special/visual fx lets get a good quality edit, not all these 'real time' scenes. At of good direction is based around implied fact, a character gets in a car and starts it implies he/she is going somewhere, we do need the whole of that journey captured in the movie more so when it is not relevant to the plot, cut, next scene character arriving and alighting from the vehicle.

With regard to special fx, are the individuals in the field blind? weve had references to star wars from 73, Jurrassic Park 93, if you cant come up with something new, then make a good reproduction. If that is not possible then the individuals behind the fx are not capable. I know nigerian aborad who are as good as the Matrix et al, but they are not willing to work in NG, why? no light, security etc, that is for another forum. The creative talent is not currently doing their business in this field, till then, cringe and keep watchin

At least u culd say that Ibo directors have beta equipments than Yoruba ones, Most Nigerian films use halls 4 deir films, dey just set up bed in one corner table in d oda and d set is done!!! wat do u think bout dat, Almost 99% of things used to produce a nigerian film is crap, setting, props, clothes, makeup, talk bout it[.

If they can invest over $100,000 on software/hardware alone, we shouldn't wave them aside.

Above all, you guys you buy it and not borrow for free from friends!

babasin:

Above all, you guys you buy it and not borrow for free from friends!

lol. Nah, I don't think anyone in their right ming would let their friends ''borrow'' their mocap system unless they are all working together on a project but they gotta stay there and do whatever they gotta do, the system stays in the studio.

@ Rodent

You have said it all, thumbs up!
I'm a Scifi buff and personally do not bother to watch Niaija movies any more.

They are trying but there is room for improvement.

9ja4eva:

They are trying but there is room for improvement.

My brother trying is an understatement! I think this local FX people just think we are down right ignorant or what?
The level of expore that kids have this days should compel them to go back to the drawing board or school and learn some new tricks.

Visual effects do not yet exist in Nigerian movies, what we have could best be described as visual put-offs. dont mean 2 sound 2 critical but if after fifteen years of makiing movies in Nigeria we still have the same sub-standard visual effects, it really sucks

TaxMan:

My brother trying is an understatement! I think this local FX people just think we are down right ignorant or what?
The level of expore that kids have this days should compel them to go back to the drawing board or school and learn some new tricks.

Dts true.Dts y i said they is need for improvement.

Poor and we can do better than microsoft powerepoint for things like this its we come over and take some lessons from our superiors

Hmm who told u its Microsoft Powerpoint

Power point as visual graphics? That's so amateurish, what they need is motion graphics application like Avid, Final cut pro or the baba of them all Adobe After Effects.

Yes oh


I dnt tink dey use Ppt

@ 9ja4eva
With all those weird spinning text intros, its got 2 b powerpoint or some other mundane piece of software
Less is more, enough of all those weird transtions, they are painful to the eye. good titling and movie editing is about simplicity. The moment they become overly noticeable then a bad job has been done.
With regard 2 special effects, it is the lack of realism that is the bane of the nollywood industry, how hard is it 2 create realistic lightening and fireballs? since we like movies filled with 'jaz' & other occultic elements.
The post production editors need to up their game or it is just a case of the production teams not wanting to pay 4 good quality services?

Well well dere is room for improvement

bump

Hi All, Visual Effects is just not the Problem. The key thing is that we almost have no idea what we are doing. Movies here are shot at least in less than a month and it is all a one camera shot which makes it look like a traditional marriage. if you are not able to buy good lighting which i know costs some cheddar, but then media is not cheap and if done well, makes you good returns on your investment, (mind you we need more lights than the foreign films because of our skin color), I deal with Producers that are everything, both editor, camera man, director, producer, screen wirter, etc etc etc, Now you can blame this Naija not having a bank that can finance equipments. Bottom line is that this is all about cost. The fact that there is no good distribution will make people with money not invest. Forget this current Nollywood, it will change with time.Traders will be out of it before they know it. Now to break down the cost, what is the normal budget for shooting a movie in naija, i dont think it is upto 20mil. Now to buy a good virtual set, (not Chroma Keying) go to VizRT.com and see what a real virtual set is. It will cost you more than that 20mil naira to buy somethng like that, now isnt that the whole budget for the movie??
I know Naija has talented guy but they still need a re-orientation. How many of these editors actually know what editing is all about? most only know the software they are using but cant do a comparison analysis on why they want this over that? till we get the basics, we cant do anything better than kingkong for a while, am seriously hoping am wrong