I think the issue here is you thinking because you are aware of something, everyone is. I guess you haven't seen the other threads raining insults on our heads because we say there's a problem with Nollywood. My goodness man, take a look at the last page and see what a very Nice African American fan of Nollywood has to say about a revolution in the industry. Most people are very, very content with the status quo because no one is saying anything. If we had a Critic show in Nigeria where the critics are honest, maybe we won't be here today but we don't and we work with what we have. So, please, please I beg of you. . . stop assuming everyone has the same knowledge/understanding you have.


This is an open forum where anyone can post anything. . . at least we agree on that, what we won't agree on is someone taking other people to task for not doing or saying something they wish to see, hence the dancing monkeys comment. If you have another way of revolutionizing Nollywood. . . apart from knocking the blinders off the eyes of the Nollywood lovers, please feel free to share it, in fact I will be HONORED to read it. . . . that's all I am saying.

And you are right, I did sorta insinuate you were an idiot, I'm sorry about that. . . Mom has always warned me not to talk or in this case type in the heat of the moment. So accept my apology for that insult to your person. Just because your style of doing things differ greatly from mine does not make you an idiot or anything remotely close to being senseless. Please know this is not sarcasm, I DO MEAN IT! Honest to Goodness, as God is my witness mean it!


PS
Since you were honest about why you have a hard time understanding my comments, it's only fair I return the favor. . . I think it's the spacing or rather lack of spacing in your posts. The words are too close together and sometimes one has to read something more than once to really get what you are trying to express. You also have a cute tendency to jump from one thought to another which kind of gives the reader. . . reading whiplash. This prolly isn't a big deal for others but I think I have a slight case of ADD, so I don't invest the much needed time into your posts to really understand them. Sorry.

Well, it's nice to see everybody being blunt. Refreshing

@Lubracasi. You'll learn to think of Baby_Jinx as Dr. Gregory House if he was cute and cuddly and smiling and saying A while meaning B. And the worst part is that if you don't get it the first time, well, goodluck, you might do a rhinoplasty when all that's needed is a simple dosage. I kid.

Seriously I feel you Lubracasi, and we need more people like you. But frankly you gotta realise the position me and my goons are in. There are these people who love nollywood the way it is. Nollywood that will show you a scene of someone taking a leak for 5 minutes just so you'd get the idea that "This is John Smith. This is John Smith here taking a leak. He should be through in a second. Almost there. Almost there. There, done, see? That was John Smith taking a leak" Point is, naija folks see nothing wrong with things like these. That's why nollywood movies go into pentalogies. They film what's supposed to take a minute in twenty. Dude you're even in Manchester. You don't know what we go through. You'd be watching a local station and all of a sudden a rabid maniac's voice will flood the room and after spilling his brouhaha end thus: "GET UR COPY NOW!!!!!!!!!" But I digress.

I can hardly talk about nollywood without getting worked up. What I'm trying to say is that I have no other means of making an impact than making nollywood lovers realise that they are wasting their time with the present crop of crap parading as films. They'd be better off reading newspapers. Frankly nollywood has negative vibes as it is. Makes you dumber, superstitious and all kinds of ills.

In short, I'm on a mission to open the eyes of the people. Better placed folks will do the actual revolution.

P.S. I believe we do not really lack the actors. The directors and producers are the real problem. The actors just need motivation (materially, socially and intellectually). We have some quite good series. What're they doing right that nollywood can't seem to find if it gave them an uppercut? The one I don't miss is Paradise Boulevard or something. I can't remember.

P.S. P.S. Sisi, when are you gonna review my writs?

like i said earlier,i have never insinuated nor directly said that everyone understands what the problem with nollywood is,what i said was that A LOT OF PEOPLE including many psosters both on this thread and others on here,do understand and with their numbers represent a cross ection of nigerians which in my book points to a general agreement albeit with diffrent solutions, the way i see it after three or more threads of multiple pages dealing with problems in nollywood and solutions,anyone that isnt getting it by now will surely have a hard time doing so even if this particular thread runs 50pages long,you wrote in your previous comment about what a good movie entails and how a good movie feels like and i made a comment that i personally feel we should hav moved on from
1.what the problems are,seeing as we have debated that enough times and the solutions to bring about the "revolution"

2.also that people generally know what the problems are and possible solutions,which is evident in the number of comments both in this thread,your thread and other nollywood related threads

the operative word in my comment which you responded to is "pro- active solutions" rather than page after page of th obvious,the point has been made in previous threads and first couple of pages in this thread and i believe pro active and workable solutions people can actually do something about individually should be the next step otherwise this will just be a writing exercise or a chill out spot to vent after a hard days slog, im not lording it on anybody hence the continuous use of "in my opinion" i personally think" e.t.c i never ever used any commanding words or phrases because i know its a public forum not my living room and you should have take it purely as that, a personal opinion

if i write that nollywood has no problem,its my personal opinion which i have a right to,and if i think baba sala and papy luwe should be the nollywood mascot its my opinion which you r free to disagree with but not shoot down in flames, im still yet to see where i have insinuated or infered that i was taking anyone to task other than disagreeing with a comment and ill equally love to see why i have knocked the blinders off anyone on here, unless you r saying i must agree to all comments on here so as not to be seen as lording a diffrent comment on everyone?

as for my style of writing,well good for you on being a literary genis,im sorry i see nairaland as a chill out spot for me and i dont feel the need to whip out my websters dicco or write a literary piece each time im making comments,thats the whole point of the anonymity on here for me and i really dont take it that serious even when reacting to threads im interested in

@vesc

i totally agree with you,but what im on about is that the thread will be in danger of banging on about the same thing if after a couple of pages all we r still on about is nollywood problems and solutions without solutions one can actually engage in to change the status quo,while sensitising nigerians generally and non nigerians on nollywood problems is an on going thing, proferring pro active solutions in which people can engage in is equally important, remember this thread and others will always be here for anyone that needs to read it including the solutions that individuals can actually start to work on,
this is my personal opinion and while not saying any others might or should agree with me,the way i see it is, if all i see everytime i log on and veer towards this thread looking to see something new is the same old nollywood problems,nollywood inadequacies,nollywood bad artistes e.t.c without solutions that can be engaged in by all and sundry,then ill sort of get monotonous and boring and seem like overflogging a particular issue without moving on, just my 2 naira

guess you have clearly stated your part in the equation which is opening the eyes of nollywood lovers to the problems and leaving the revolution to to others which is fair enough, i am actually interested in the "revolution"in a manner of speaking hence my comments on the issue,
i agree nollywood needs artistes but that is if tribalism ,nepotism and all the isms has been eradicated, most of the artistes used in the tv series are not the genevieves and rmd,in fact they r unknown and they do a good job of acting even while not being paid as much as the nollywood so called stars, i know many of the tv series are apalling(the ones i v seen on ait internat)
but there are a few im hooked to now, family ties,this life and the other adenuga production(cant re call the name)and about 3 others,

@ Vesc
Thanks mi amore, I imagine I will be on a stake right now if I don't have you watching my back!

Writs? Where they at?



@ Lucabrasi
Oh no! I've upset you! Alright from now on, Vesc is doing my talking. I certainly didn't mean any offense by anything I said. . . after my apology I mean. You totally misunderstood my comment about why it's hard to read your comments. It's got nothing to do with all you mentioned in your post. . . Webster dicco using, literary piece writing genius. Nope, definitely not. . . it was just about basic spacing but since I seem to be stepping on your toes front left and center. . . I'm backing off.

You are right, Nairaland is a place to chill. . . so let's all chill!

upset meHELL TO DA NO, then i would be doing the exact opposite of what im on her for i.e taking all these serious, as for nailing to a stake pls count me out,i have a life outside of cyber space so i dont go round the internet looking for wars with cyber- silver tipped stake and hammer, all the vesc dude did was to handle the whole comments in an half hearted way rather than landing on me like a ton of potatoes

all im saying is learn to accept other people's comments without raining bullets on them and also not to take things too serious,after all its a public forum and most important a chill out spot,as for spacing and all that if it floats your boat then by all means do space your comments, dot your i s and cross your t s, me im good with my style of writing thanks, some come on here writing in pidgin english,some even yoruba,ibo or hausa again pls dont take this whole nland thing serious, cheers

My people. Why do I feel like I walked in on the royal rumble?

How come I feel like some of you missed some of the issues I raised here and also some of the questions I asked about the way forward? I don’t know how to do that quoting thing, abi who fit teach me? Anyway just rewind or go back or whatever and re-read some of the stuff.
I know “some people” think maybe this is all we are going to do, yap yap and no action but this is where it may start, know that you just don’t go into a fight without understanding anything about what you are going to fight. Where do you start? Where do you attack first? Where is the weak spot you have to strike to bring Goliath down?

Solutions can be suggested and practical solutions can be proffered, maybe some nolly people might pick up on them and start implementation or we do something ourselves I don’t know but a spark has been ignited sha. Am I blabbing?

Nollywood is about 20 years old and has grown as crap, changing it will not happen overnight but that’s not to say change won’t happen.

@Lucabrasi, You have tried to push a point, ok. Howz about you take the lead now. What should we do? And please don’t just say let’s be pro-active, what do we actually do?

u guys are just blabbing as afr as i am concerned. too many words over nothing. the movie industry is bad, fine! are you just going to start spelling out mistakes or take the initiative, open a forum for change and we can start thinking of making a revolutionizing movie or soap with all the brains we seem to be wasting here on too many things. 07031001670 is my no. i've got terific stories. we get a good script writer, someone to fund it and we are on to changing the scee . call me whenever u are ready to make achange and not just talks without actions, typical of a loosing nigerian.
what should be done . now!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Okay, apparently we have bored MANY, MANY, MANY people with our talk and talk and talk and no action about what is wrong with Nollywood. We apologize for that, we didn’t mean to, honest we didn’t.

I’m sure I can speak for the NRP when I say, we’d like to all get together and make a movie, it would be a delight to work with people who are actually on the same page, however we are all over the place from China to Timbuktu and meeting in real time is going to be an arduous task.

So here is an idea, why not make a virtual movie. . . The way we want to see Nollywood Movies Made?

We start from the very beginning,

A pitch
A story
A script
Rewrites
Casting
Pre-production
Production
Post-production


We are going to have Budget Analysis, Location Scouting, scheduling and the lot.

How are we going to do this? By putting all the great and interested minds on Narialand to work. Our writers, our animation experts, our money expert, our managerial experts. . .  EVERYONE interested in working for nothing with people they’ve never met, please join us in making the first Nairaland Movie.

This is going to be hard, no doubt because. . . Well because it is all going to be done virtually but I think it’s another to move this along and also put some fun into it.

What do you think? In depth details will follow should we all agree to do this.

Thanks everyone, especially the critics of the critics.

Welcome to Nairaland’s first Virtual Movie Studio.

Thirdborn:

My people. Why do I feel like I walked in on the royal rumble?

How come I feel like some of you missed some of the issues I raised here and also some of the questions I asked about the way forward? I don’t know how to do that quoting thing, abi who fit teach me? Anyway just rewind or go back or whatever and re-read some of the stuff.
I know “some people” think maybe this is all we are going to do, yap yap and no action but this is where it may start, know that you just don’t go into a fight without understanding anything about what you are going to fight. Where do you start?  Where do you attack first? Where is the weak spot you have to strike to bring Goliath down?

Solutions can be suggested and practical solutions can be proffered, maybe some nolly people might pick up on them and start implementation or we do something ourselves I don’t know but a spark has been ignited sha. Am I blabbing?

Nollywood is about 20 years old and has grown as crap, changing it will not happen overnight but that’s not to say change won’t happen.

@Lucabrasi, You have tried to push a point, ok. Howz about you take the lead now. What should we do? And please don’t just say let’s be pro-active, what do we actually do?

Re: Quoting
When you are on the reply page, scroll down and just hit QUOTE on the comment you want to. . . errr. . . Quote. If the comment isn't showing (because there is only so much it can display, copy the comment, paste it, highlight the comment and then use the quote button on the list. . . the one right after the # button at the top. You can also use the quotes codes which is [ quote  ] before the comment and [ / quote ] after the comment. Right now my codes are spaced out so it won't quote. 

Jeez, I hope that made sense.

@thirdborn
i wasnt pushing my point as you put it neither was i trying to force my own ideals on anybody, maybe i just see things a little bit diffrent thats all, also im not a leader type as i see myself more as a kind of guy in the corner listening to the individual on the soap boax, as for what I PERSONALLY think should be the way foward, knowing the people who are in a position to change things in nollywood,like directors we admire,some artistes we admire e.t.c and emailing them on what we think should be done differently, i started a thread some months ago about p square and theircontroversial statement on calling the hip hop awards yoruba awards and while everyone was making their contributions,their elder brother actually logged on and stated their own side of the story putting a lot of things into perspective, the way i see it things could actually be moved along if any of these great directors could actually be emailed to check these threads out and see the inputs from nollywood lovers who have smart ideas about changing things, while some of them are stuck in their ways,im sure a lot of them dont even know how to change things and this will be a great help for them, this is a god start in my opinion,

its not all about making movies even if we all lived in the same house and have millions of dollars to spend, we all have diffrent commitments,occupations e.t.c and not everyone is actually interested in making movies, the fact that you and i and everyone on here see something wrong and have proffered solutions as we see it doesnt mean we want to be mvoie producers, that should be left to the professionals

I'm game for the virtual movie thingie

Letter writing campaign
Virtual Movie

You know. . . there is a way we can implent both, do the virtual movie and include it in our letter writing campaign. The way I see it, writing to Nigerian studios and having nothing concrete to offer. . . is a sure fire way to get dismissed but if we do write to them and say, here this is an example of what you can do right. . . who knows.

Does this sound doable or is it my new identity make me overly?

Aah! We'll just wait for the others to weigh in. All in all, thanks guys. 

PS
I have the Contact info for Amaka Igwe Studios!

Speaking of Amaka Igwe, here's an interesting Article.

What she talks about kinda goes in line with what Lucabrasi has been talking about.

"It's the Distribution, Stupid"-Amaka Igwe
With four movies ready in the can and 15 screenplays in the drawer, Amaka Igwe could easily engage a huge swath of the Nigerian population with a new movie every month from now till the next yuletide season. But the creator of Violated says that a lot is wrong about the marketing environment of the film business. And she'd like to deal with the matter, now.

"Our distribution is too inadequate to allow us make the optimum revenue from our efforts", she said in a telephone conversation last week. So, before she embarks on the next round of plastering bridge pillars with colourful life-sized posters of the leading men and ladies in her much sought after movies, Igwe is working on concepts to enlarge the market for Nollywood. The producer appreciates what the Peace Fiberesima-Pedro Obaseki cooperative market in Surulere is about. But she thinks that the impact of the project is whittled down by the fact of the share of the market that's controlled by the participants in that initiative. "In Surulere, we've ended up creating another Idumota. How can you have a solid alternative with 5% of the market?" Igwe will unfold her full vision for the domestic Nigerian film market in a short while, but in the meantime, she speaks eloquently of the work that's going on to put her products in a sizeable part of a formal, documented American market. "I am working with a lawyer that will represent us and a partner that will put our films in 150 outlets.

And what about the other idea she has launched, named BOBTV, or Best of The Best TV? "Its the largest market for African Audiovisual Content (movies, music, television programmes and multimedia) in the World", according to the website, which gushes with praise for the new economic era in Nigeria. "The strategic location of Nigeria, its historical antecedents, natural and human resources and its economy have made it the principal market in West Africa". President Olusegun Obasanjo could not have put it better: "Nigeria's recent economic restructuring and open market initiatives have made it a priority destination for new businesses looking to come into or expand into Africa. Microsoft, Adobe, Kodak, LG, Samsung, DELL, Apple, BMW, Mercedes, Audi, Honda, VW, Sony, JVC, Panasonic, Comcast, to name a few have all relocated their African presence to Nigeria". BOBTV, scheduled for March 15-18 at the Sheraton in Abuja, will feature screenings, talkshops, skill building and a whole range of modules designed to improve the capacity of the Nigerian film industry.

This is not part of the talk, talk, talk thing ooooh, just thought it was interesting.

Huzzuh! There is hope yet!!!

[size=18pt]Nollywood, quest for consolidation[/size]

By Steve Ayorinde

Published: Thursday, 28 Aug 2008

The controversy trailing the introduction of the new distribution framework for the Nigerian film industry should spur a healthy debate about the financial health of the sector.

The word that is now associated with the man behind the rumble, Emeka Mba, the Director-General of the National Film and Video Censors Board, is reform. I think the appropriate word should be consolidation.  Considering the bigger picture, what is at stake is the financial health of this giant industry that is not quite acting its age. Since March 2007 when he took up the gauntlet for a good cause, Mba aim had sought primarily to encourage an industry that must be relentlessly open about its financial stature.

Rather than have as many mushroom film marketers as we do producers, the new distribution framework had devised a new regime of registration for a five-year licence for those that wish to operate on a national scale. But in so doing, it requires an evidence of seriousness or financial capability to the tune of N30m, either individually or as a group. Such evidence, in recognisable business sense, could be in assets, equipment, et cetera. A marketer could also produce evidence of an insurance bond for the remainder of the amount or the whole N30m. The sense in it, as I understand it, is to first appreciate the distribution arm of film production as the engine room of its economic mainstay, and then strengthen it in order to forestall the distant nightmare that may be the consequence of a profuse, unrestrained industry.

The vision from the Censors Board, I reckon, is to save Nollywood from the impending danger where there are more movies, mostly sub-standard, than capable distributors in a market that is not necessarily expanding. The template that Mba seems to be adopting is similar to his kinsman’s, the Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria , Prof. Chukwuma Soludo, during the banking sector consolidation in 2006.

The familiar success story of the banking sector consolidation programme was, of course, necessitated by the pervasive weakness and uncertainty in the banking system, and the need to re-engineer and fast-track a system that will engender confidence and power a new economy. The way Soludo pruned down the number of banks from 89 to 25 and raised the stakes for investors and borrowers is, in a way, analogous to what Mba craves for Nollywood – foster the development of a healthy industry that can regurgitate production and partner with financial institutions .

The initial eruption of opposition to the framework was expected. Just like the initial opposition to the banking consolidation, where critics later turned ardent supporters of the exercise, the framework, if diligently implemented, may soon win over its adversaries. It should dawn soon that the Keynesian theory that worked for the banking sector applies to the business of film in the sense that money can stimulate expansion in aggregate domestic output.

The argument that unlike banks, film marketers and distributors do not hold public money in trust, and therefore should not be required to conform to government’s idea of reform, lacks merit. Firstly, an institution such as the Nigerian Stock Exchange though may operate outside of government’s confines, its functions are subject to regulations and even direct government intervention as we are currently witnessing with the downward trend in the capital market. Such an argument reinforces the weak excuse that since government has minimal involvement in the operations of the music, visual and literary sectors, the motion picture should also be left out of government’s purview. What should be appreciated is not just the law backing the Censors Board’s foray into film regulation, but also the importance attached to the 7th Art (Cinema) the world over.

The price of consolidation in the film industry is worth paying when the arithmetic involved is considered. With almost 2,000 moves released yearly on an average budget of N2.5m, we have a sector that invests not less than N5bn into production alone. If distribution per film is averagedly around 20,000 copies at about N300 per unit of a video compact disc (without cinema/box office releases for a few films) we are talking about an industry where N6bn was generated from sales in 2007 alone. Such an industry cannot be left to conjectures of panicky marketers alone.

I may subscribe to the idea of regional distributors, which in the banking sense will be like the micro-finance banks. But the gains of a fewer, solid, national distributors will be seen in fewer, quarterly movies that can earn money on a national as indeed global scale

wetin be sisi jinx? What happened

KarmaMod:

wetin be sisi jinx? What happened

Lmao! Give me a break now, it was really late when I picked the name, my creative juices weren't flowing quite right. What happened? Let's just say I went Sarah Palin like on some people's behind.

All these incarnations, re-incarnations and re-re-incarnations can disturb a fellas balance. What happened this time Sisi?

I don’t mean to sound like an enemy of progress, but all that yarn no make me feel anything. As far as I’m concerned Emeka Mba is no Soludo, so he can’t do for Nollywood what Soludo did for the banking industry. I strongly believe that what the film industry needs is a total overhaul, new blood, in one simple word a REVOLUTION. I know some people for don tire to dey hear that word, but that is the truth. New people with new ideas, people that have not been blinded with the few naira notes they can make from Nollywood as it is. Quite frankly Emeka Mba is not it. Why, you say?

I don’t mean to sound too “enemy of progressy” but hear me out. If you can go back and find THE GAURDIAN newspaper of July 13th 2006, you’ll find an article on page 66, In this article Nollywood darling Emeka Mba was ordering cinema houses in Nigeria (Silverbird, Nu-Metro, City Mall, etc.) to show Nigerian films or be fined in a stupid move called “play or pay”. Now isn’t that the daftest thing I ever heard. The guy is actually trying to force people to watch Nolly as it is. Instead of finding ways to make the films better, he is actually trying to make the crap we produce more popular. They even went to Cannes Film Festival in France a couple of years back, to do what? I don’t know. From what I heard they apologized to the small audiences through all their screenings. Now tell me if it wouldn’t have been a better move to tell filmmakers that if they met a certain standard, their films would be screened at the cinemas. That would have made many of them serious and that would have improved the quality of the films they make. His silly order was issued 2 years ago, If it had been to film makers I guarantee we will be writing different stuff here.

Thinking the major problem plaguing Nollywood is the distribution is plain silly, Can you confidently try to push sales of unclean pure water instead of just making it more suitable for drinking? Well, that is exactly what’s going on here, cos the product being sold is not good enough for local consumption, talk less of exportation. Just like what happened to the banks, introducing standards is the best bet. I hope I made a point.

Now to address another issue; Like I said a while ago, I am a player in entertainment, to people who feel this is all talk and no action. I can’t count how many letters I have written to some of these people. I have discussed with my people in entertainment, musicians, directors, animators, etc (No actors, because they are so terrible nothing I say will ever help them). So know that I know what I am talking about. When a group of people have something locked down and are having a ball, they will not let anyone come spoil their fun even if you are offering them a lifeline. That is the state of the industry. There are people who actually have good intentions but they are being out muscled. A wind of change is coming (I Didn’t get that from Obama).

Sisi, Why you kill Baby leave jinx?

Wow. . . I didn't know this discussion is already going on on NL here.
Same discussion is going on on FACEBOOK GROUP(WE NEED A REVOLUTION IN NOLLYWOOD) and the blogpage nollyarns..com
Check them out!!!!!

Nollywood, ??read this: http://nigerian-entertainment.evergoodproductions.com/nollywood-movies.html

Nollywood's new generation is slowly emerging. Berra production value, original stuff, and a new crop of stars are on their way:

Take for example this movie that just had it's nation wide release in Nigerian cinemas last month:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u_ZYlGVMKrk

As long as new film makers take initiative and risk to deviate from the norm, who knows, someday a Nollywood flick might be screening at a major film festival like Cannes and getting picked up by a major distributor!