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Nollywood Yesterday, Today And The Way Forward - TV/Movies - Nairaland

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Nollywood Yesterday, Today And The Way Forward by 8744Kin(m): 10:37am On Sep 06, 2017
NOLLYWOOD MOVIES YESTERDAY, TODAY AND THE WAY FORWARD (A PERSONAL SLANT TO UPPER IWEKA MOVIES )

In those days back, the number of movies were few. So few that when someone called a name of a movie to you and you had not watched it, you'd readily know it's a new movie in town and itch to go see it at the house of any of the neighbors who was so rich enough to possess a television set and a VHS player.

There were living in bondage, igodo, Nneka the pretty sapient, ijele, the Massenger, ugonma, to mention a few. And all these movies were never produced and released simultaneously. No, They were made and released months and even years after the other. Unlike today that movies are churned out in hundreds every year.

In those days nollywood movies held a great interest to everyone. for those were days of quality and content. Days of attention to details. And Days when men and women of talent and of great intelligence berthed movie locations. Not today that mediocres and charlatans have taken over.

When one talks about suspense and intrigue today, just know they are probably referring to movies of oldies. for just only a few movies have such today.

Today all we do is recycle, type cast and then produce. And we seem so blatant in that.

Now what do I actually mean by recycling and type casting? Come with me as I illustrate.

Here, someone ingeniously invents a story that is rare in the industry and such a story enjoys a massive commercial success and the next thing everyone starts making such movie and also using the same characters so they could replicate their roles from such movie to the new one. We all know of ADA MBANO and how ingenious the storyline is; we also know of DUMEBI and how captivating and thrilling the movie is... These two movies held every nollywood fan at a spellbound upon there release. Needless to say, they enjoyed huge success in the market.

However, we also know the attendant crave and madness that followed -- everyone started producing such stories and type casting... Every movie poster or jacket is emblazoned with the picture of mercy Johnson or Queen nwokoye wearing uniforms, GOING TO SCHOOL. Or Ada udi, Ada Abakiliki, etc. And this craze for these sort of movie has continued unabated... And doesn't seem like it will end anytime soon.

And In all this, it's not even that the recycled stories will be done well... Sometimes the stories are inconsistent... The settings don't synchronise with the storylines and worst still the technical qualities are extremely poor.

You watch African magic and you wonder how callous and insensitive our producers and director could get. How they don't care about the feelings of those that patronise there works. You see a movie shot in 2017 and you'll wonder if it's actually 1967. Stories are so imitational, bland, and inorganic. No suspense, no intrigue. The only thing of special interest is the "super big acts" that feature in such movies: Mr Ibu, Edochie, Mercy Johnson and the likes.

You talk of make up and costuming in nollywood and you talk of the word ABSURDITY in its true sense. Or how can one explain a bearded police DPO character? Or someone carrying a modern day punk hairstyle in an epic movie? Or someone wearing our modern day tuxedo in a film set in 1960s? Or even using some disgusting substance to depict a wound scar. Yes we all know of Hakeem effect! The very talented SFX make up artist popular in the south west. But one wonders why our producers don't hire his services and that of his likes to bridge this gape here...

Why are we ignoring talents and opting for mediocrity? Why are our producer ignoring talents?

A producer, being the one who undertakes the whole financial responsibilities and also bears the pain or joy of the possible commercial results would want to hire second rate practitioners so as to scale down the whole production cost. He would want to look for a free/cheap script, cheap director, cheap DOP, cheap cameras, cheap locations, cheap editor, cheap costumiers and cheap waka pass actors, to produce a BLOCKBUSTERS.

The only thing they do at the end is invite about 2 or 3 well known actors on location so there faces could help sale the movie. And these big names would gulp about 70 to 80 percent of the movie budget.

In all these, the producer has neglected the areas of quality storyline, editing, good locations, directing and other important technicalities. That's why sometimes you'll see a movie of five million naira and Mercy Johnson alone is smiling home with two million. You can now imagine what will be left for the other cast and crew when other big acts have taken their own charge -- Peanuts! This tells exactly the kind of people this cast and crew are -- Mediocres! for its only a mediocre who'd be fine to go home with such paltry some when others are paid handsomely.

It's the mediocrity of these second rate practitioners, poorly scripted stories, poor technicalities, and wrong choice of locations that mar the quality of the movies we consume today.

Ask the producers the reasons they do all this and you'll hear something like: "my gayu e be like say you never hearof piracy? As a biusunesmanu I maku sho I investu d amount I can be able to recover ooo".

OK, agreed, piracy is a big cancawarm and that was why you prioritized. But you got your priority wrong. In my opinion the emphasis shouldn't be on the big acts, it should be more on the story, the story and the story! An organic, ingenious and suspense filled story.

While the Ada Mbano and Dumebi may have their own technical flaws, they were able to attain commercial success not because of the big acts they parade but because of ingenious stories well chronicled.

I am of the opinion that if we must bring back the much desired sparks in our movies, the least we can do is work on the quality of our storyline. And the onus of making sure this happens lies on our producers. Search for good scripts If you must produce. Or better still Look for a good story, take time, hire the expertise of a good writer and build such story into a script. And then you back it up with a good director. This may not cost you much. And if you get these two right be sure your movie will market even if you don't feature any big act.

We want to see different stuff. We would not like to see a movie that half the duration is done in a traditional marriage ceremony. Or a movie that has 35 minutes advert and the remaining 25 minutes for Mr Ibu dancing in August meeting... Or yet another actor going to school. Or even Ada Enugu or Ada Ada. We want ingenuity. We want something more organic, we want suspense. We want good movies to stay happy. We have not asked too much.

Thanks and remain blessed ..

Eze Chidi Victor (Victor chyboy or Da'Seniorbowy) is a singer, script writer and a movie critic with a bias on nollywood.
www.facebook.com/eze.chidivictor
Re: Nollywood Yesterday, Today And The Way Forward by Samsimple(m): 10:47am On Sep 06, 2017
Nice write up... Its nt dat nigerians dnt like good movies, is just dat it will be pirated while they are still filming ...and bros talk true when last u go cinema watch nija film

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Re: Nollywood Yesterday, Today And The Way Forward by 8744Kin(m): 11:22am On Sep 06, 2017
Samsimple:
Nice write up... Its nt dat nigerians dnt like good movies, is just dat it will be pirated while they are still filming ...and bros talk true when last u go cinema watch nija film

I acknowledge your point, but I dey patronize cinema at least three times per month.
Re: Nollywood Yesterday, Today And The Way Forward by Samsimple(m): 12:47pm On Sep 06, 2017
8744Kin:
but I dey patronize cinema at least three times per month.
for nija film right
Re: Nollywood Yesterday, Today And The Way Forward by 8744Kin(m): 12:53pm On Sep 06, 2017
Samsimple:

for nija film right
mostly.
Re: Nollywood Yesterday, Today And The Way Forward by Samsimple(m): 12:58pm On Sep 06, 2017
8744Kin:
mostly.
uuuuhhh u knw u are lying right
Re: Nollywood Yesterday, Today And The Way Forward by 8744Kin(m): 2:59pm On Sep 06, 2017
Samsimple:

uuuuhhh u knw u are lying right
I lie not my bro.
Re: Nollywood Yesterday, Today And The Way Forward by Vine4(m): 6:56pm On Sep 06, 2017
true talk...gone are the days of good stories. And i love nija films well. look @ me that wants 2 be an actor. God help me.

1 Like

Re: Nollywood Yesterday, Today And The Way Forward by 8744Kin(m): 8:06pm On Sep 06, 2017
Criticism and solutions to the dwindling qualities of nollywood movies. Cc ujsizzle prof800 Briareos mynd44 lalasticlala.

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