They are always right and they always get away with all the evil they ever commit against women. A man will chase his wife away from his home for 3 years, and marry someone else who will off course disappoint him. In the meantime, the wife is beating the path to the local church every hour of the day and praying and fasting continuously to get back her cheating, back-stabbing husband. All he has to say, but it’s not compulsory, is that he is sorry. And she’ll come back running with the blessings of her family and this will be a day of great joy for her. She’ll confess to him that she never lost hope while he was enjoying himself with someone else.

wow this is so true

When I watch a movie I want to be transported by the acting, the directing,the cinematography,the script, having taken stuff like good editing and sound for granted. Tsosi was made in SA, and it's beautiful. Man, not only are you stuck with pretentious no-talent asses who can't portray subtle emotion to save their lives in Nollywood, you're stuck with the most horrid,unimaginative scripts ever. You cannot compare even Bollywood products to the BS Nollywood churns out. You can tell Bollywood is familiar with the basics of good film production at least,and some good movies come from there:Rang De Basanti,Munna Bhai MBBS,Don,Lagaan. How much less Hollywood. I'm yet to come across truly great acting in Nigeria,and don't believe we have a single soul to hold up against the Meryl Streeps, Al Pacinos,or Sean Penns,whose performance in Dead Man Walking was a miracle. A deaf mute portrays a myriad of complex emotions in Babel,all without saying a word! Never seen it in Nollywood. When are we going to make a Moulin Rouge or The English Patient or American Beauty or Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon?The tragic thing is,we've the potential!

Real artists take their art seriously and will do anything for it. And they aren't drop-outs either.I'm continually amazed at the number of actors in Hollywood who went to the best schools, invested in their education and professional training. What Nollywood lacks is the passion and the perfectionism of the true artist. People who feel and know their art, because it is that passion, from the director to the actors to the technicians,that we experience when we watch something memorable. The wrong  people are in Nollywood,and are scaring or disgusting the right people away. We made some good movies in the past:think Herbert Ogunde or Jimi Odumosu,who made Fiery Force. But now Nollywood is BS Factory. And they feel so superior, and think they have arrived!  
A revolution? Hell,yeah!

at the risk of repeating myself again seeing as i have posted something similar on similar threads funding is not the most pressing problem in nollywood
the most pressing problems in nollywood are professionalism and a proper distribution network

professionalism is killing the industry because 99% of the directors,scriptwriters,camera men e.t.c are learning on the job as they go along,the alaba marketers draft their family members on movie productions to safe costs of filming and movie making,like i said in another post on here look at the likes of clarence peters,dj tee and co who do most of the awesome music videos for the naija hip hop artistes,they are professionals and know what they are doing and you can see the end result in the music videos,the industry cannot get better no matter how much is spent on a movie real professionalism is not introduced,script writing is another thing often neglected,to me what is being shown now is a story adapted directly into a poorly directed movie(not a script being made into a movie)

,if the distribution network is not sorted out then you can spend 1 billion naira on a movie,you can even make the best movie and have roman polanski direct and have brad pitt alongside jim iyke and baba suwe with anjelina jolie and pirates will reap all the benefits,in the present situation where the only distribution outlets are alaba,lagos island,iweka road and other smaller outlets spread out unevenly it will be very difficult to push out millions of dvds immediately after release, in a country of at least 140 million potential viewers,who needs to have these movies in the shops the first 2days to 1 week after it is released ill hazard a guess and say at least 10/20 million copies of the dvd should be distributed,thats when the money people will have the incentive to spend millions on a production especially as they know you have a wide distribution coverage than the average pirate

The Music video guys might want to come help out there NOLLYWOOD guys o.
The quality of music videos has really stepped up too (Mostly because of MTV Africa), Maybe we need a Paramount or Sony to setup shop here in naija for things to improve

Ok lets be realistic here.
You get what you pay for. It's as simple as that.
If we had theatres scattered all over the country to show these moives, i bet they would be better produced.
I don't see why anyone would spend so much money to edit/produce movies that go straight to DVD.
If the movies could be aired on a larger scale in cinemas, the production will definitely be top notch.
As a kid, i remember the days we used to go to the national theatre to see Ade love, Aiye and a couple of other movies.

If you guys think the movie standard will improve without theatres, you're wasting your time.
If a typical producer spends 30 million naira to make a movie, he/she would have to sell a whole load of dvds to break even.
On the other hand, if viewers had to spend 500 naira to see the movies in several theatres, they would recoup their investment in a matter of days/weeks. This would even encourage more money to be pumped into better productions.
Most people just "borrow" dvds and complain about quality. I know the current movies are whack but i won't complain since i watch everything online free of charge.

A Babel type production? A Moulin Rouge? Oh Max, isn't that a bit ambitious!! Let's settle for a Blair Witch type production right now and before anyone says, well that's what we have, keep in mind that BWP was done PURPOSELY.


@ A- Town
Pray tell. . . what type of movies are gonna see at this theaters? Surely you don't mean these ones we can barely watch at home? What say they make the good movies first, then we pay through our noses to see 'em in theater.

A-town:

Ok lets be realistic here.
You get what you pay for. It's as simple as that.
If we had theatres scattered all over the country to show these moives, i bet they would be better produced.
I don't see why anyone would spend so much money to edit/produce movies that go straight to DVD.
If the movies could be aired on a larger scale in cinemas, the production will definitely be top notch.
As a kid, i remember the days we used to go to the national theatre to see Ade love, Aiye and a couple of other movies.

If you guys think the movie standard will improve without theatres, you're wasting your time.
If a typical producer spends 30 million naira to make a movie, he/she would have to sell a whole load of dvds to break even.
On the other hand, if viewers had to spend 500 naira to see the movies in several theatres, they would recoup their investment in a matter of days/weeks. This would even encourage more money to be pumped into better productions.
Most people just "borrow" dvds and complain about quality. I know the current movies are whack but i won't complain since i watch everything online free of charge.

makes sense but do you have any idea how much it ll cost to build a theatre anywhere in nigeria?
im sure you r not proposing building it in the village but a location acessible to movie goers,while its a worthwhile solution on the long term,on the short term,its just not feasible and its just a pipe dream, if they cant make the quality of movies silverbird can show in its cinema,surely that wont give private investors an incentive to sink their millions into building theatres
that guy kunle afolayan's movie was shown in silverbird because it was good,but we have not had anything near to that ever since

So what exactly are you proposing? Because so far all we've gotten is how things are too expensive for them

Get Better technology - Too expensive
Build Theater - Too Expensive
Get a Studio - Too Expensive

Might as well just scrap the entire industry and be done with it.

Actually, theatres are really not that expensive to set up. ROI's wouldn't take longer than 2-3yrs at the max.
This is the only solution that i see. You can't expect good quality movies if they keep going straight to DVD.
If naija was well regulated, it might even work . A lot of people don't even buy the dvd's na so so borrow borrow sef.
The solution is theatres. It worked in the 80's. It still can.
In the states, you go to the theatre to see a movie, the movie maker makes money. After a couple of weeks, they release the DVD and you still go out to get ur collectors edition. They make so much money that they are bound to make good movies by investing heavilly.
The reason most Nollywood movies are restricted to drama is because they can't afford to waste money on making other genres such as sci-fi, action, thrillers e.t.c
Nobody wants to loose money

like i said,theatres are a great idea but you need to factor in the finances, remember its nigeria we are on about here where a plot of land in the right location for what you have in mind is as expensive as a property in chelsea london or hamptons in the united states.
we know the nollywood practitioners do not have the finances so the only other option is funds from private individuals/banks,multi nationals,
in my own opinion,the cheapest and the fastest way to attract these ppl is professionalism in the industry and blieve me with a couple of good movies,these guys will be throwing funds at them,same as they are doing with the nigerian hip hop industry then your idea of theatres can realistically happen

if all you have gotten from all i have said is how expensive everything is,then ill suggest you go through my earlier comments again,to clarify some points i made earlier,in my opinion ill keep on saying professionalism in the industry is the very first step to showing the banks,multi nationals,private individuals that they r serious,this is encompassing good scriptwriters,professional directors and not quacks,professional camera men who know what lightning angles mean in a movie set e.t.c this first step will make people pay attention to nollywood and see the potentials, hollywood didnt get there in one day,neither did bollywood,so theres really no quick fix to the nollywood problem because its like decay from the insides

lucabrasi:

if all you have gotten from all i have said is how expensive everything is,then ill suggest you go through my earlier comments again,to clarify some points i made earlier,in my opinion ill keep on saying professionalism in the industry is the very first step to showing the banks,multi nationals,private individuals that they r serious,this is encompassing good scriptwriters,professional directors and not quacks,professional camera men who know what lightning angles mean in a movie set e.t.c this first step will make people pay attention to nollywood and see the potentials, hollywood didnt get there in one day,neither did bollywood,so theres really no quick fix to the nollywood problem because its like decay from the insides

Forgive me for having a hard time understanding what point you are making. A few times I thought I got it but then you post something else or you disagree with someone else's point. . . A point which I thought was similar to yours and  it throws a wrench in the whole point getting process. I won’t deny I can be a little slow on the uptake, so I’ll ask your indulgence as I try to get there by breaking it down crayola style.

Thanks.

Earlier in the thread, someone made a point about Nollywood putting some life into their movie production, acquire land in the village, buy some gadget and technology, he even gave an example using Bollywood and their tiny room. You summarily dismissed this, saying they don’t have the money, they needed money from outside.

I made a little dig at you (sorry about that) by saying ever heard of something called investment? I stated that this would be naïve to think they can get money from outsiders in their present state because there is no incentive for an outsider to want put their money into something that is a mess., which leaves us with one last option for funding. . . Nollywood investing in itself. If they made themselves attractive enough, they might attract interest from outside investors. Is it going to be expensive? Absolutely but in the long run, they are going to reap the rewards!

You said it’s all well and good to say Nollywood should invest in itself but for you, it is all about distribution and marketing, Something I think is akin to talking about roofing when you haven’t even dug the ground for foundation . . . but let’s leave that to the side.

A-Town suggests they build theaters for their movies (another form of investment) and even makes a good point about ROT, you say it’s too expensive for them right now and then you bring in Professionalism.

According to you,  professionalism encompasses the following. . .

1) Good scriptwriters.
2) Professional directors and not quacks.
3) Professional camera men who know what lightning angles mean in a movie sets

And all these people are supposed to work for free. . . maybe out of the goodness of their hearts and they will do so with shoddy equipment?

Of course not!

So we know three things 

1) Professionalism in the industry is the very first step to showing the banks, multi nationals, private individuals that they r serious

2) Professionals (who bring professionalism into the industry) won’t work for free.

3) Since NOLLYWOOD can’t look to outside investors, like banks for money to pay the professionals who will infuse professionalism into the business so they can attract outside investors. . . Like banks, then the money must be coming from NOLLYWOOD themselves.

Right?

So having said all of that, It kind makes me wonder why you dismissed my post about INVESTMENT and Nollywood investing in itself.  . . by saying it would be too expensive for them to do?

If we even add the little fact that the long term cost of an equipment is less compared to that of services (i.e. professional services), on account of you know.  . . . having to pay the Professional writers, directors and camera men each time they work as opposed to the one time fee of buying an equipment, we will see that what you are proposing is far more expensive than what others have suggested.

Now, going back to marketing, what exactly are we marketing. . . The same crappy movie? Sure there are good sales people out there who can talk anyone into buying anything. . . but how many times will anyone buy poo packaged as brownies before say they say enough?

@Sisikill - good analysis. i'm not sure lucabrasi is really investment savy otherwise he wouldn't be insisting on the "expensiveness"

I stated that the Return on Investment (ROI) is about 2-3yrs. Do you think i just picked a number from somewhere? Obviously start-up costs and capital have been considered. Yes, Land is expensive. Notwithstanding, you can still make profit. It's a gradual process. The theatres don't necessarily have to be just cinemas. They could be encompassed in a mall. Kind of like nu metro and others.
With regards to professionalism, abeg whilst most movies are rubbish, there are some good Yoruba movies out there (Mainframe productions) and i heard silverbird is about to/has started showing some of their movies. Its going to take time but i repeat, the only solution is theatres
There is no way on earth they will ever make money if they continue to depend on DVD sales.
A typical well produced movie would probably cost em about 60-100 million naira if you factor in good post production, editing , scripting and all the likes.
Please tell me how you intend to make profit. I think any sane business man would prefer to just pick up a video camera from walmart spend roughly 1 million naira, make a quack movie and earn a profit of about 2-3 million naira(maybe more).

If the industry is well regulated and movies are restricted to theatres, things will change, trust me.
Concerning your point about Hollywood and Bollywood starting slow,,,,yes they started slow but they didn't start by relying on DVD sales. They depended on people going out to see the movies. I don't know if they still have all those old school joints in london, but they do in the states where u just sit down in your car and watch a good movie.

i have to agree.
I AM BORED.

Sisikill:





Earlier in the thread, someone made a point about Nollywood putting some life into their movie production, acquire land in the village, buy some gadget and technology, he even gave an example using Bollywood and their tiny room. You summarily dismissed this, saying they don’t have the money, they needed money from outside.

well,seeing as there seems to be some wires crossed in both our understanding of each other so ill explain myself,first off ill assume we r both after the same thing which is nollywood stepping up to their rightful place and the huge potentials they have second indulge me whenever i start rambling on cause i tend to do that sometimes,having said that i said land would be expensive either in the village or for theatres like "a" has suggested, now let me just give a rough estimate from my limited understanding of real estate in nigeria
1.in even a backwater,remote village in nigeria of today a plot of land will not go for less than 50,000 naira at least now we have i think 6/7 plots that make 1 hectare that is(50k multiplied by 6 equals 300,000 naira)
a.land-at least 300,000 per hectare excluding clearing and all the other miscallenous bearing in mind that you will require at least 10/20 or more hectares seeing as its a long term project,now start to factor in building the actual structure no matter how cheap on just one hectare,

with this little illustration,which is a rough estimate already running into millions,do you really see the genevievs rmd and co doing that?

Sisikill:


I made a little dig at you (sorry about that) by saying ever heard of something called investment? I stated that this would be naïve to think they can get money from outsiders in their present state because there is no incentive for an outsider to want put their money into something that is a mess., which leaves us with one last option for funding. . . Nollywood investing in itself. If they made themselves attractive enough, they might attract interest from outside investors. Is it going to be expensive? Absolutely but in the long run, they are going to reap the rewards!

.
while i agree with you that nollywood needs to make itself attractive to potential investors,by my lay man's calculation of the financial implications,i just dont realistically see them being able to afford buying land,buldng a film village e.t.c
which was why i opted for the cheapest way to make themselves attractive i.e professionalism
its like saying investing in tourism is expensive but in the long run one is going to reap the rewars,of course we know the rewards are there,the bone of contention here is wheres the funds coming from seeing as these guys dont have it,im not saying its not a solution but im being a realist here as per the siuation on ground

Sisikill:





You said it’s all well and good to say Nollywood should invest in itself but for you, it is all about distribution and marketing, Something I think is akin to talking about roofing when you haven’t even dug the ground for foundation . . . but let’s leave that to the side.

if nollywood practitiones had the will and the way to invest in itself then why not,im in total agreement,after all the likes of herbert ogunde(sorry i only know of the yoruba practitioners)went in the direction of what you and a town had in mind way back in the 70s,80s but died untimely all im saying is when the funds are not there,then oe has to look to another direction moreover i agree distribution and marketing isnt the first thing which is why i have kept on repeating the professionalism mantra

Sisikill:




A-Town suggests they build theaters for their movies (another form of investment) and even makes a good point about ROT, you say it’s too expensive for them right now and then you bring in Professionalism.

AGAIN,its a totally awesome idea IN PRINCIPLE if the funds for it is available,correct me if im wrong but theatres like that have to be situated in areas where it is acessible to movie goers right?
so lets say agege-where a plot of land will not sell for less than 2/3 million assuming a theatre will not require more than that size,we r not talking of structure now.
going upscale with it anywhere on the island-where a plot of land will not go for less than 10/20 million up to 1 million dollars per plot(yes its true)so tell me how feasible that is

Sisikill:




According to you, professionalism encompasses the following. . .

1) Good scriptwriters.
2) Professional directors and not quacks.
3) Professional camera men who know what lightning angles mean in a movie sets

And all these people are supposed to work for free. . . maybe out of the goodness of their hearts and they will do so with shoddy equipment?

Of course not!

they are not working fo free but will charge a lot less than millions that will be required for all the other grandiose plans, labour is cheap in nigeria and scripts exchange for less than 50,000naira in some instances,also it requires only or or maybe two good scripts for them to prove a point,ill give you an example the cast of "sango"didnt get paid millions neither was the script writers,consultants(some of the worket for free)the sucess of the movie hinged on professionals who knew what they were doing and the cast extended beyond the tribal divide,there were ibo as well as yoruba arstites there and the lead actor was a random university undergraduate who just dropped in to the casting and we all know the rest
personally i think if the directors,camera ppl,scriptwriters e.t.c know what they are doing,they will work with any kind of camera and deliver a good job, look at the charlie chaplin movies even without any sounds,look at classic hollywood production of the 60s,70s they didnt hav superior hd cameras and the like did they?

Sisikill:











So we know three things

1) Professionalism in the industry is the very first step to showing the banks, multi nationals, private individuals that they r serious

2) Professionals (who bring professionalism into the industry) won’t work for free.

3) Since NOLLYWOOD can’t look to outside investors, like banks for money to pay the professionals who will infuse professionalism into the business so they can attract outside investors. . . Like banks, then the money must be coming from NOLLYWOOD themselves.

Right?

So having said all of that, It kind makes me wonder why you dismissed my post about INVESTMENT and Nollywood investing in itself. . . by saying it would be too expensive for them to do?

i didnt dismiss your post about investment or nollywood investing in itself,all i was trying to say is that nollywood practitioners cannot afford to spend their millions on these plans and even if they could afford it,will realistically not feel confident enough to do so its obvious by what we see on ground the likes of genevieve,omotola ,jennifer okereke are reputed to be hgh rollers but they r not putting their money where there mouth is,right?

in the absence of them doing that,what option is REALISTICALLY left -either everybody will keep the status quo and churn out the horrible movies like they r doing now
or look for the cheapest short term fix that will propel investors towards nollywood,they cannot convince the investors we r talking about totally but can make them pay attention and be interested in seeing what they r up to
if the funds were available,theatres where movies can be shown to punters is an awesome idea as we can see from the national theatre
bulding film villages is an awesome idea but the funds are not there

Sisikill:





If we even add the little fact that the long term cost of an equipment is less compared to that of services (i.e. professional services), on account of you know. . . . having to pay the Professional writers, directors and camera men each time they work as opposed to the one time fee of buying an equipment, we will see that what you are proposing is far more expensive than what others have suggested.

Now, going back to marketing, what exactly are we marketing. . . The same crappy movie? Sure there are good sales people out there who can talk anyone into buying anything. . . but how many times will anyone buy poo packaged as brownies before say they say enough?

i dont agree with you there,first nollywood has equipments,even in the yoruba genre where they have less money to play wit,they use hd cameras and the likes to record talk less of the ibo side, the reason why the films dont come out good is the same thing iv been banging on and on about, professionalism im sure you ll agree with me that if you give a quack the best camera in the world he ll come out with a crap movie and if you give a spielberg,or polanski a cam corder they ll come out with a nice effort
what im proposing is all about giving the people that actually spent years in a college or university studying the art of fim making the chance rather than using quacks under the guise of saving money, do you realise that all the awesome music videos from the d banjs,p square and the rest are actually done by nigerians living in nigeria?

we have some awesome directors and cinematographers in nigeria like dj tee,clarence peters,tunde kelani of main frame productions,ayo shonaiyae.t.c who wont charge millions to make movies if they are given the chance and its still a lot less expensive than spending multi millions on structures when the movie that ll be shown is not guaranteed to come out nice

we r giving movie pratitioners a wider distribution network for their movies,marketing is another thing entirely which will speak for itself with the quality of movies, kunle afolayan is part of the yoruba movie industry and his movie irapada was shown at silverbird and odeon cinema in uk and i learnt in some cinemas n the united states(not sure)not because of superior marketing from other movies but because of the content speaking for itself,

@a town
you obviously didnt understand my comments or ou wouldnt be saying im not investment savvy,while mathematics isnt my strong points ill like you to tell me how many malls we actually have in nigeria to start with,secondly in what locations if not abuja and lagos island
im highly sceptical for want of a better word on your 2-3 years on investment because i dont think you r being realistic,ho did you come about your 2/3 years projection?
what location in igeria because its certainly not abuja or lagos island or you wouldnt think im harping on about the expensiveness
we are all in agreement thet its a gradual process
we are all in agreement that what you have proposed will work and its an awesome idea
what we are not in agreement with is if the funds for all that is there or not,where will the money come from

exactly,most movies are rubbish because(wait for it, )theres absolutely lack of professionals in the industry,do you know what the mainframe man has to contend with?
do you think if he could afford it,he wont be making movies more often?
even dj tee who is a music video director of note said he didnt want to get involved in nollywood because of the whole politics and stuffs going on and would rather do his music videos,
im not arguing with you that theatres isnt the answer,im saying they do not have the funds and in the absence of funds something else has to be done unless you are saying they should keep on waiting for manna from heaven in form of funds to build theatres,
there are soo many businesses that i know will be lucrative and profitable in the long run,but i cant afford it, i know buying and building blocks of flats to let out in banana island is lucrative but i dont have the 3 million dollars or more to make it happen capische?

Now I'm officially ten seconds from slumber.

sisikill again!!!!
i love you loads. Thought credit crunch caught up with nairaland. I was there some days back and noticed nothing has changed since like the independence day thing or was it the mccain v obama stuff

hmmm! i don miss loads o!!! im so not happy that i cant keep up with u guys anymore. I don suffer myself too much. Seriously we need to talk, the last time i was meant to PM you wasnt i? Walahi, another history no need spilling beans here.

i need my bed!!!!

directors, writers, actors, like light, camera, action.
can you write with a medium you do not fully understand? can you write a good script in English, when you are still battling to understand English words and phrases? Can you make your character believable when you are not at home with the words. Can you bring out the best in an actor, when you can not communicate your feelings.
My believe? It is all a function of a medium misunderstood.
I stand to be corrected.

Word!

I could play with your name.

Gbam!

Nail on the head!

Though I'm afraid nollywood's problem is a plethora and cannot be rendered so concisely.

gailnaba:

directors, writers, actors, like light, camera, action.
can you write with a medium you do not fully understand? can you write a good script in English, when you are still battling to understand English words and phrases? Can you make your character believable when you are not at home with the words. Can you bring out the best in an actor, when you can not communicate your feelings.
My believe? It is all a function of a medium misunderstood.
I stand to be corrected.

Rotflmao! You are correct. . . to a certain extent. Let's give 'em the whole English is not their language excuse for English movies but what about the Yorubas? The Igbos? The Hausas?

vescucci:

Word!

I could play with your name.

Gbam!

Nail on the head!

Though I'm afraid nollywood's problem is a plethora and cannot be rendered so concisely.

Plethawhatnow? Oh Vesc. . . there ya go with the showing off!!

lhm

smh

Baby Jinx. Are you stalking me or you just married my attitude with just one posting?

Hello my people. Sisikill I see you have been holding fort. Sorry about my absence, my story long o’. Its nice to see we have some new people and no Kanto.
I’ve been trying to catch up, so here it goes.

@Lucabrasi, I like your gun but I’m not sure I dig your bullets. Cos I see that you are trying to make a point but not sure what that point is exactly but this is what I say from what I gather so far.

I have to say first that Hollywood and Bollywood operate without their government, just like Nolyy they are driven by investments. I have said repeatedly that a movie does not have to be expensive to be a good movie. My person Sisikill used the “Blair Witch Project” as an example, the movie cost just $25,000, which is not too far from what nolly spends on their crap. Can’t Nigerian film makers learn how to improvise? There is always the “Robert Rodriguez way” or the “Mariachi style”. Rodriguez is the whiz kid director who brought you movies like Desperado, Spy kids, Once upon a time in Mexico, Sin City, From dusk till dawn and others. Do you know that his first movie “El-Mariachi” on which he cut so many corners by working on it as the cinematographer, director, editor, camera man, etc. cost only $7,000 to make. It went on to make millions. So what’s the nolly excuse. Even worse, Rodriguez did not go to film school, hell even Quinten Tarantino and Spielberg didn’t go to film school.

All that stuff I see about people talking about buying land and this and that…, Nollywood are always bragging about making so much money. Why can’t they re-invest this money into making better movies for us. They don’t have to buy land, let them stick to shooting on locations. They don’t have to buy cameras and equipment, let them rent like every other major production company in the world, that’s right Cameras are rented from companies set up to provide services like that e.g. Panavision. According to Rodriguez, “find what you can afford, what you can get and make a good film with them.” You see. Improvise.

Some people here have said some great stuff (A-Town). Enough talk about DVD releases. Theatres are the way to go. I know some people are going to start crying blah blah blah, but check this. We have Silverbird, City mall, New Metro and Cedi Plaza, these are the major ones. Then we have The old cinemas that lay dormant for years that some churches have started taking some of them over for worship e.g. Penn cinema, Casino and many others scattered all over Nigeria. All that is needed is Refurbishing, a plan and telling filmmakers that if their films meet certain standards they will be screened at these cinemas. Not only do I guarantee you that there will be an improvement, I also guarantee you that the filmmakers will turn a profit in a couple of weeks. You see it is actually quite simple. All you need is good people and good films.

Enough talk about people not buying DVDs, Do you know what a classic is? I bet almost everyone up in here has a DVD of their favourite series (HOUSE, LOST, PRISON BREAK, etc.) I myself have a collectors special edition of the GODFATHER trilogy. If a great Nigerian film is made some people will definitely buy and keep their copy instead of borrowing or renting. No present day Nollywood project will ever be a classic because those that watch these crap watch them once and move on to another on and will forget in due time what the crap was about. I don’t believe anyone here can say they forgot a thing about TEN COMMANDMENTS, BEN HUR, SOUND OF MUSIC, etc. You get my point don’t you?

NOLLYWOOD MOVIE

GUY: Baby it is not like that
BABE: Jerry How could u do this to me?
GUY: I was tempted to touch. Baby I love u.
BABE: I saw the two of u together.
GBOSA********SLAPS GUY*********

GUY: WHAT! U slap me?

GBOSA**********SLAPS BABE*********

NOLLYWOOD MOVIE 2

OLD MAN: R u talking to me?
MAN: Yes. I am talking to u.
OLD MAN: R u talking to me?
MAN: Yes. I am talking to u.
OLD MAN: R u talking to me?
MAN: Yes. I am talking to u.
OLD MAN: R u talking to me?
MAN: Yes. I am talking to u.

@thirdborn
dude,if you don't get what I'm on about then all i can say is I'm sorry cause it shows you obviously didnt read the comments, besides its not a compeition and i dont have to agree with you or everyone else to be right

@Lucabrasi
Touchy. There you go, now na you no get the slang wey i use my brother. I meant it seems you were making 2 points at the same time, so i wasn't sure what to drop. i read everything through (hey, i started this thread. DUH!) if you re-check you'll find someone else felt the same. Its not a competeion of course just like minds (smart people) having a discussion about something we care about. Maybe you don't know it but you are essential to this thread. Ride on my brother(fist in the air).

@Sisikill.
Where you dey?

I'm African American and residing in America, I personally love Nollywood movies. Luckily, I have been able to watch Nollywood movies for free on YouTube.

I am thinking that my addiction to Naija movies is getting out of hand. lol

Example being: I arrived home from school this past Wednesday. I immediately dropped my books and started watching a Nollywood movie posted on YouTube entitled "Because You Love Me - Super Story". I didn't get to bed until 4 AM the following day. This movie made me laugh, it made me angry, it made me cry. I can't get that "Super Story" song out of my head and I found the MTN commercials to be very refreshing because they used real black actors of the darker variety, which is rarely seen here in the states.

I also enjoyed a movie entitled "Letters to a Stranger". I am so in love with Sadiq. I will fly all the way to Lagos to find him and make him mine. Sigh, he is so gorgeous,

My least favorite Nollywood movie so far has been "Beyonce and Rhianna". Just dreadful! But, I enjoy most of the movies I've seen thus far. I feel that Nigerians should be proud of the movies that Nollywood makers produce. Some movies will be better than others and some will have a stronger message than others.

My thoughts ~~EbonyMermaid

@EbonyMerma
Is this some kind of joke? No, i mean really? what , how can you you watch a movie by , say Denzel, watch a Nollywood movie then , in your right state of mind say , ok i get it, you didn't say they are good. you just said you love them. Where can i get the drug that can make me delusional enough?

PROUD? Of what? These films?

Sister, please you should be helping us out not helping us in.
By the way nice to have you here.

@EbonyMerma
Is this some kind of joke? No, i mean really? what , how can you you watch a movie by , say Denzel, watch a Nollywood movie then , in your right state of mind say , ok i get it, you didn't say they are good. you just said you love them. Where can i get the drug that can make me delusional enough?

PROUD? Of what? These films?

Sister, please you should be helping us out not helping us in.
By the way nice to have you here.

LOL, No, I am not joking. I REALLY enjoy Nollywood movies. I want to tell my friends and family about them and purchase the DVD's that interest me. Here are my reasons for loving Nollywood movies and I will also list what I don't like about Nollywood movies:

1. The nigerian actresses are always covered and dressed respectfully.
2. The women are usually very beautiful and come in all sizes, shapes and colors.
3. It is nice to see darker black women playing leading roles, example being Genevive (spelling).
4. I have seen story-lines and scenes that were very romantic without being overly-sexual and offensive.
5. For those of us who have never traveled to Africa, it is nice to see Africa towns and cities from an African perspective instead of the American perspective (lions and tigers running everywhere).
6. The men in these movies are so fione, and I love the accent.
7. I enjoy seeing Nollywood movies that reflect positive images of Nigerian dress, culture, food and music.

But here is what I dislike and it's very minor, yet substantial.

I REALLY dislike how the women in these movies tear each other apart. They are either fighting, arguing or wanting to rip off their wigs over a man or some small misunderstanding. I do not like that image of Nigerian women at all, and feel that the intimate relationships between women in these movies, should be improved.

The women are often portrayed as being mean, evil, deceitful, untrusting, desperate, cold and wishy washy (sometimes, but not always). While the men on the other hand are portrayed as being playas, gentlemen, nobel kings or having more importance than women.

This has just been my observation, but I know that my statement above is only reflective in some Nollywood movies, definately not all. Overall, I find them to be refreshing.

My mum is addicted too. I do not understand it