Why Cant Nigerians Make Good Movies And Music Like South Africans?
I watched Tsoti - An Oscar Award winning movie from S/Africa. It was so different from Naija movie and well made. I saw Soweto Choir on Jay Leno. They were awesome. They also won a Grammy  for traditional music.

http://www.sowetogospelchoir.com/storiesweb/index.htm
http://www.tsotsi.com/english/index.php

What's wrong with Nigeria? There is no decency in  our entertainment industry. People are engaged in cut and join business.

Maybe you should join the movie/music industry and teach/show them how to go about it since you're now a professor in the course "entertainment 203"

we should stop complaining and cheer them instead, they're all trying their best and even though atimes their best is not good enough, they've got lots of to-die-for videos/musicals.

Many other african countries don't even produce movies atall, they depend on Nigeria and yet we nigerians can't be proud for once.

What's all the comparisms for, we all can't be winners at the same time.
BTW no south african music will beat AFRICAN QUEEN by Tuface Idibia

May be that you did not know that Naija movie cannot even compete in African Film festival let alone Oscar. The very fact they are made in Nigeria does not mean that we should not criticize the industry. I feel that industry is really going down. Scenes are shot in video tapes instead of 35mm. Every movie is an offshoot of Living in Bondage. Ezra, a movie made by a Nigerian based in France won a top prize at African Film Festival, but the ones made Naija producers cannot even make it to the festival.
I was telling you of a Choir that won Grammys and you were telling of TU Face. There is no basis for comparison.

Can you eat a award? Can you use it to pay school fees of your children? Please, somebody tell me o.

The Nigerian movie industry is very good at what it does, even though it doesn't appeal to those of us who have been spoilt by pirated Hollywood films. Nigerian movies are only good at entertaining the masses, and that's ok.

A Nigerian filmmaker won the Golden Stallion at the biggest Film festival in Africa, FESPACO last week.
Others have won awards at other events.

Most of the local ones don't win awards at the Grammys and Oscars, because you cannot win these awards if you don't follow their guidelines.
You have to meet their criteria and not cutting corners.

In film, I am doing my best for some of our local Filmmakers. But they are disappointing me.
In 2004, I lost 50,000 Euros, because of a Nigerian director who failed to measure up.
One celebrated Nollywood director was asked to send some samples of his movies by Cinemart and he failed to do so.
Now, one of them is having finding it difficult to fill an ordinary form from the Prince Claus Fund after I recommended him to them as a leading filmmaker. And he is even doing his doctorate at a Nigerian University and to fill an ordinary form is a big task to him?

One highly rated Nigerian filmmaker was in the US last year and when he saw their film equipment, he was dumb-founded and I wonder what they are doing in Nigeria when the film institute in Jos has the film equipment to shoot any feature. But, most of them are ignorant and posing and posturing to be experts.

The French Embassy in Nigeria has been giving grants to Nigerian filmmakers, but the filmmakers have been misappropriating the funds for their self-gratification.
And even right now a young Nigerian filmmaker is busy with schemes to cheat and exploit me and I only feel sorry for her. But my partner Faruk Lasaki is a good example of a serious Nigerian filmmaker and his Changing Faces will speak for his genius.

What we need most is to be honest, straight-forward and transparent and we can excel anywhere.

EZRA won best film at Fespaco discuss this on nairaland

we won an african award

the problem is dat the films are made by just igbos who are just in it to make money without quality.not until real professionals are involved in the process just manage the crap.and wen u have a good story to tell,the finance is always the problem.i have been tryn to get a good movie produccar but have not seen any one among the present shits to work wit.u guys should give me time.am here to save nigeria wen i finish my course in film making.

t200m:

the problem is that the films are made by just igbos who are just in it to make money without quality.not until real professionals are involved in the process just manage the crap.and when u have a good story to tell,the finance is always the problem.i have been tryn to get a good movie produccar but have not seen any one among the present shits to work wit.u guys should give me time.am here to save nigeria when i finish my course in film making.

how can the igbos be the problem? when they are the ones trying to push the industry to another level. i hate when foul mouthed haters like you talk and very soon when u finish your so called study u must deal with them in nollywood, it all takes money and for good movies to be made in Nigeria the govt. must come in by co-sponsoring some movies and someone just said that the film institute in jos has it all, without the igbo film makers there will be no nollywood and this is just the starting of the Nigeria film industry, maybe the present generation of directors and producers are not going to make this a reality but before the next ten years i think there will be many changes in Nigeria film industry.

People are here talking about south African films and winning Oscars, how about the rest of Europe that has not seen Oscar even though they have all the machinery (schools, equipments, fund)?

Nigeria music has also come a long way and must be shown respect by this badly-informed members. Sade has won the Grammy and Seal too and Dr. Alban too has gotten many awards and today we have many young Nigerians making us proud in different parts of the world with their music.

romeo:

how can the igbos be the problem? when they are the ones trying to push the industry to another level. i hate when foul mouthed haters like you talk and very soon when u finish your so called study u must deal with them in nollywood, it all takes money and for good movies to be made in Nigeria the govt. must come in by co-sponsoring some movies and someone just said that the film institute in jos has it all, without the igbo film makers there will be no nollywood and this is just the starting of the Nigeria film industry, maybe the present generation of directors and producers are not going to make this a reality but before the next ten years i think there will be many changes in Nigeria film industry, people are here talking about south African films and winning Oscars, hoe about the rest of Europe that has not seen Oscar even though they have all the machinery (schools, equipments, fund)

Nigeria music has also come a long way and must be shown respect by this badly-informed members (Sade has won the Grammy and Seal too and Dr. Alban too has gotten many awards and today we have many young Nigerians making us proud in different parts of the world with their music

THANK U MY BROTHER!!! SPEAK THE TRUTH!!! Don't mind such ignorance

Darr!! We make crap movies!

The guy who won the Golden Stallion is 100% Okoro Igbo.
And he is higly rated.
Another Igbo, a pretty lady is also a world class prize winning filmmaker.

its funny how some people are allowed to make ignorant comments on other threads yet they run and "defend their own" rubbish mumuism araroro

EZRA was made by a Nigerian living abroad- France. That's why his film conformed to international standard. If you have seen Tsotsi, you will notice the huge differnece between Naija films and S/African films. pls could someone take Igbos out from this topic because they are the greatest risk takers in this industry.

Many of these "international" and "award winning" films actually lose money. And what's the point of that?

Seun, your argument sometimes baffles me. How can you say that an award winning film with bigger audience is losing money. Do you mean losing money in Naija or Abroad. Piracy is not as open as it is in Naija. I would think that Naija film makers lose a lot of money because of DVD marketing instead of theater distribution.

Theatre distribution is not as lucrative as you think, even abroad. You have to advertise heavily on TV to get people into the theatres and that costs millions of dollars. If you don't get a very large audience, you lose. And you have to share the revenue with theatre owners and the MPAA. [s]DVD revenue, on the other hand, is almost pure profit.[/s]

Add to that the enormous expense of shooting and editing celluloid film, hiring actors with international appeal, and taking your crew from one country to another for various scenes, and the movie will not make money unless it appeals to a broad audience i.e. not just the award people. When piracy is rampant, you need to cut costs to make a profit.

Filmmakers are very smart. When a movie they make loses money, the investors lose but they pocket their pay.
Nollywood movie sponsors are too smart to be swindled in that manner, and I respect that very much.

Seun you are talking of a regulated industry abroad while Naija is unregulated. Piracy is no 1 enemy for movie makers in Naija. They make their money from theater distribution mostly b4 it hits the market abropad. Even DVD distribution , you will have to pay for massive production,transportation, warehousing etc. Retail stores also take some peercentage for distribution. If there is so much money to be made from dvd distribution, then there will no theater distribution.

This film is produced and marketed at onitsha ,Viewers are hereby warned against the use of English and inconsistencies

first step to making an award winning movie = use better cameras/boons/trolleys (for stability)

second = change plots all nigerian movies can pretty much be categorised under 5 or less different types of storyline. no diversity.

same stories in hundreds of different movies, how would u expect any of them to be award winning.

@betantee

Have you taken any business risk? that's why you felt that Onitsha Marketers could not speak English. The issue is that you are taking a swipe at people investing their money. By the time we know it, this thread will be tribalized. Naija and their class consciousness. Do you know that Onitsha has got the highest numbers of financial institutions in Nigeria after lagos, Abuja and PH. In UK, a place that has these banks will be respected, but for Naija its always a class issue. Do you know that there is no difference between what Wal Mart does and Onitsha trader. Simply put; buying and selling.

lawyers can prosecute, but cannot deliver justice. lawyers can prosecute but cannot enforce the law. This sounded like Naija we are looking forward to living in. As for now, e no dey possible to stop piracy.

Huge amount of money is realized on the theaters across Europe and any award winning movie makes it if not before the award, after the award. because awards generate interest, And piracy is ripe on the streets of Spain and other parts of Europe, they call it "top manta" meaning "top mat" and we on the net with the ability to download 6-7 movies weekly on dvdrip proper, IT'S UNSTOPPABLE

Let's discuss the piracy issue here: I Can Solve The Problem Of Movie Piracy .

As for movie theatres, the main problem is that people don't have that movie-going habit anymore. Once upon a time, in the US, people trooped to movie theatres every week to watch whatever was being shown. So there was no need to advertise a new movie - just distribute it to movie theatres and you make your money.

But today, people have television and home video, so in order to get them into theatres you have to pay huge amounts of money to tv stations. A movie that costs 50 million to produce may take another 50 million dollars to get people in to theatres. This makes most movie unprofitable until they are released on DVD and television.

Previously I said DVD was pure profit. That was not true, but the cost of producing a Hollywood DVD and shipping it to distributors is nothing compared to the cost of promoting a movie on television. And once a movie gets into video stores and retail chains like Walmart, you don't really need to advertise it on television. Because in a retail store, the advert is the packaging. That is true as long as people have the habit of shopping for DVDs.

However, there's one area that is actually pure profit. Selling cable TV and broadcasting rights to your movie.

So back to the issue of awards. Based on new logic, I agree with you guys that awards can help to sell a movie. However, this doesn't mean that we should spend huge sums of money for the purpose of winning awards. Because at the end of the day, you might not get the award, and you will face financial ruin.

Rather than targeting international awards that you may or may not win, why not target international distribution i.e. money? A clever movie with a niche audience may win awards, but won't make a lot of money.

word

mhn huh!!

i just changed my mind with regards to WORD

How about Cinemas are encouraged in Naija here? You know, put that movie on 3.5mm or whatever piece o' lenght cuts it.

@ Seun:

The Internet seems to be a more useful and cheaper tool in advertising movies that would be shown in theaters. And advertising costs would be smaller than production costs and revenue generated. I dunno, just thinking out loud.

Looking at it from another angle, the vast majority of Nigerians have not fully exploited 'em DVDS. Most are released on VCDS (95% pirated). So introducing massive production of flicks in DVD in Naija doesn't seem profitable to me.

JESUS! WAT HAVE WE HERE? BARBARIANS?!

SEUN,
U SERIOUSLY THINK AWARDS ARE NO BIG DEALS? U THINK WATCHING HOLLYWOOD FILMS "SPOILS US"? OR WERE U SLEEPING WEN U TYPED IT?

WATEVA HAPPENED 2 THE SPIRIT OF ASPIRING TO BE PERFECT?

WAT IS THE VISION?

Y SHUD SOMEONE BE APPLAUDED WEN HE MAKES MOVIES HAPHAZARDLY AND INTENDS TO MAKE A LIVING OUT OF IT?

U KNOW WAT, I THINK SOME OF U GUYZ ARE SO FREAKIN' NIGERIAN! AND I AM NOT - COZ I'M A "HUMAN" FROM NIGERIA

nanaboi. thanks for seeing beyond Nigerianess. cos if Nigerians were hosting the Oscars, only Nigerians will win with our cut and join production

we'll b getting some soon-by God's grace
I'll b working on it soonest

we have all it takes to get awards from all competitions but i am afraid the nigeria movie industries have different objectives from what it ought to be.
who is hoping for awards here when we don't allow men to stay? how come all of a sudden men like pete edochie and co were suspended to give way for the youngstars.
people's growth must be through the lader. the youngstars can be part of the movies and learn and grow through the older ones.
the greed for just the financial benefits have taken over the movie industries hence awards are no longer important. most nigerian movies are organised in a bed room apartment with new faces or maybe with one known actor just to sell the movie.
gone are those days when you see four or more big actors in a movie.
the industry is loosing forcus on daily bases and government on her own is doing absolutely nothing to protect the industry because it has nothing to do with petrol.

sound scheme is horrible
noise reduction is yet to be achieved
viewing angle or camera angle is an apology
script is awful
actors are still dreaming
theme of each movie is a disgrace to the movie industry
setting for the movie is no go area

we have a long way to go.