₦airaland Forum

What about those of us who "bath" with buckets and a bowl of water?

I think Hausa men are lovely, especially the ones who live in the South, but you must not offend their beliefs.

I've been busy trying to get some feedback about the quality of my story. It's the most difficult aspect of my quest. One spends a lot of time waiting for people instead of marching forward. But at the same time, I'm not making the movie for myself only. What I have to do is find more efficient ways to obtain feedback about my work. We'll see. Cheers!

if my spouse is screaming and yelling at me for doing something wrong.

Why should you deliberately do something wrong and why should your spouse scream at you??

I will delete your navy thread if you don't indicate the source, sir. No source, no story.

I have seen movies(HD DVD) played on the so called high-definition TVs(1080i) in many stores but i see no much differences

I'm pretty sure Nigerian stores don't have HD-DVD players. The difference is clear unless you're blind!

I don't know why, but the Lord Of The Rings movie never impressed me. Couldn't really fall in love.

Looking forward to Iron man.

Moderation has been required for years, but getting the right people isn't easy at all.

What is the problem exactly? Does his innocent child have two heads or what?

When I watched Harry Potter 5 recently, i was afraid I would not really enjoy it because I already knew what was going to happen. To my surprise the movie engaged me completely because it was so beautiful. The designs! The colors! The special effects!

[b]King Kong [/b]is another movie that was just as beautiful in my opinion. The exotic yellow/blue lighting scheme!

What movies have you watched that made you say, "wow, it's so beautiful"?

are u even interested in nollywood?

I want to make movies for Nigerians who don't like current Nollywood movies.
(Nigerian Hollywood fans who want more carefully made and intelligent movies.)

Thanks, yicob and eddyiren. I appreciate your words of encouragement very much.

I'm about to complete the second draft of my story outline. The story has more twists and turns now, to the point where someone suggested that I might have to cut some parts. But it's still not flowing as smoothly as I know it can. I expect to have to rewrite it two or more times until I'm satisfied. I'm very happy with how easy it is to develop a story while it's still in outline form, but there's so much I still need to do before I can start with the script.

On the next draft, the psychic hero character will get development. Her sidekick is well fleshed out - the story is told from his point of view - but she remains a mystery. Why is she the way she is?

Also, I have to work on the emotional journey of each character. How do the events of the story transform them? What do they learn to make them better people? The arcs have to be well planned.

I also need to think about how important I want the fight scenes in this movie to be. Should it play like an action film or like a suspense thriller? We'll see.

I think the villian's current name sounds silly. I'll have to think of something more appropriate, and a more believable motivation for his evil ambition.

And that's all going to happen before I start writing the script! This process would be tiring if it wasn't so much fun!

Culled From Naijarules:

, I know this sounds like the dumbest question in the world but help me out here,

1. There's an unknown # of bootleggers out there.Do marketers get the movies out before the bootleggers do?

2. If the movie is release in Nigeria,who gets it to yanki,the marketer or the bootlegger?

3. With God knows how many movies coming out practically every day,how do people know which to buy and which to watch?

4. How does the producer know this or that movie made any money?

5. There's perhaps some production companies out there that make tons of movies every month so there's probably an offset somewhere but,how about the independent producer that makes two or three movies per year,how will his work stand out in the crowd?

6. If I pool together a powercast of Nigerian actors in a movie,and a movie ends up costing me like, say, $50000 after all costs(which by that estimate is considered low budget by many),which avenues do I go to go ensure recouping what I've invested ,if it's considered topnotch work by all and sundry??

abeg help me here, I'm looking for serious answers please,
Pa

If we make great movies, we can export them and use the foreign exchange money to develop basic amenities.

I would like to own the Canon HV20 because it's affordable, supports high definition video and has a pretty big 1/2.7 inch imager. I've downloaded high definition videos captured with this camera; they are stunning and far above 'broadcast quality'. It even has some professional features such as zebras, adjustable sharpness, and a true progressive 24p mode. Downside to this camera: its exposure, gain, and frame-rate are difficult to control.

If I must buy a professional HDV camcorder, it will be the Canon XH A1 1/3 inch 3CCD Camera. It has better low light performance than the HV30 and a lot of professional features I've never used. It's funny how filmmakers can get away with using consumer cameras because they are in full control of lighting while videographers need to use professional cameras due to their superior low light performance.

If you are married, it has to be your spouse. Especially your bank account. You don't want your "next of kin" brother taking all your money while your spouse is struggling to cater for your children. It has to be your spouse.

My little super heroine has a problem. The idea of having 5 specific powers makes more sense if her abilities are magical. In a science fiction context, it's difficult to imagine why she would have 5 specific mind control powers instead of a general ability to influence people's minds freestyle. To fix this, I could:

A. Change her origin story so her psychic powers are spiritual/mysterious:
(Each ability would be a specific magical spell that she invokes verbally.)

B. Re-imagine her powers as the general ability to influence weak-minded people
(instead of 5 specific powers, her abilities will be limited to her imagination)

Approach A is much easier, but I think I'm going to attempt approach B first. Approach B might force me to change my story drastically, but at this stage I can afford to change my story - It's just 20 paragraphs long!

Take note, guys:

"International self-distribution" is not the same thing as "international distribution". The advertising plan for self-distribution involves using Google Adwords and websites I own, posting the trailer on youtube, showing the movie privately to bloggers and journalists and movie critics, etc. Those who want to watch the movie will be able to get it on Amazon.com. My quality control process is so tight that I cannot promote an inferior movie.

Thanks for your time!

Jemit, the following writers are good and quite willing to work:
https://www.nairaland.com/nigeria?action=profile;u=142758 << romance, family drama >>
https://www.nairaland.com/nigeria?action=profile;u=44318 << morality tales, some comedy>>

I've finished the first draft of the treatment. 20 paragraphs, 1000 words. It's better than I expected but not yet tight enough to use. I can't show it to anyone yet, but I can see its awesome potential!

I'm going to have to rewrite the treatment at least 2 times. During the first rewrite, I'm going to be adding any scenes that may be missing and correcting any plot holes I can find. During the second rewrite, I'll be looking at the overall structure of the story and comparing it to the standard Hollywood formula to see if there are things I can add to round up the story. After this, I'll be sharing my script with story critics I still respect. During the third pass, I'll be changing what I can in response to their feedback and suggestions.

This is the most fun project I've worked on since the first script I wrote 2 years ago. I love superheroes!

All good writers will tell you that writing is rewriting. Most successful writers rewrite their stories 3 to 7 times before attempting to sell or publish them. But rewriting is such a chore. Personally, I cannot rewrite an entire screenplay more than once. I think the solution is to start rewriting as early as possible!

Stage 1) I spent at a week trying to decide what my story would be about. I wrote several versions of the story and asked for ideas and feedback. Eventually, I got a satisfactory story idea (logline). Now imagine how much harder it would have been if I had to change what the story was about after writing the entire script of 90-120 pages? To change it at this early stage, I only needed to change a page of character notes and one paragraph representing what the entire story is about.

Stage 2) Right now I'm working on the treatment - the entire story in a few pages of prose. So far, it's the easiest 12 paragraphs I've ever written. At this stage, every scene in your complete script is represented by a mere paragraph of prose. I cannot easily change what the story is about at this stage, but I can add and remove scenes with ease. Instead of rewriting a two page scene, I would only have to rewrite a paragraph. I will not - must not - start writing the actual script until the entire story in prose form seems perfect.

Stage 3) After this, I'll start writing the screenplay using Celtx software. For each scene, I'll first write out just the heading (INT. HOUSE - DAY) and a one paragraph summary of what takes place in the scene, based on the treatment Let's call that "skeleton". I'll then start filling in the screenplay by replacing the summaries with the detailed dialog and actions I had initially imagined. This step would be a piece of cake (if my screen-writing books are to be believed).

After writing the script, I won't need to make any structural changes. I'll just be fixing typos, making the dialog snappy, correcting grammatical errors, etc. then we would start preproduction. Yahoo!

The movie industry in Kano, if I'm not mistaken. Kano Nollywood.

There are basically two ways to write a movie:
1) Write the script with your heart, until it's complete, then rewrite with your head (Stephen King).
2) Start with a log line, rewrite it, get an outline, rewrite it, write a script, then rewrite it (Hollywood).

Method (2) works pretty well, and I'm sort-of using it. Like most director-types, my power of visual imagination far exceeds my writing ability - but it's not as if I can't write! I've decided not to start writing the script until I can see the entire movie in my head. It's more of a dreaming process than a writing process.

As a fan of the super-hero genre, I can judge my story ideas mostly by myself; I don't need as much feedback as usual. If I can be patient with myself and allow the story to develop in my head, I won't even need a writer. (The parts of the movie I can see in my head are awesome. You must be dying to see it! Just kidding)

The power of imagination. Awesome.

What makes me super heroine different from most is that she's not a fighter. She cannot fly, jump, or defeat giants with karate. She cannot dodge bullets and she's not bulletproof. She has just one offensive ability but its effects are 100% psychological. She can neither kill with her powers or do any lasting physical damage to anyone. Purely mental.

My former story consultant couldn't accept this. He felt her powers were lame and not cinematic. But that's not how I see the movie in my mind, and the 3 other people who have heard various versions of the story don't seem to have a problem with the hero's powers either, although one of them would like to see some stunts. There will be, but:

Why can't my hero fly or dodge bullets? (1) Budget. Psychic powers can be satisfactorily portrayed on a tight budget (2) I think we have too many 'action heroes' who think violence is the solution to every problem.

Intelligence is not the problem. The problem is money. How many of us actually buy original movies?

I've finally decided on a name for the super hero. First name and surname. Her names are unique, easy to pronounce and spell, and the surname suggests 'strength', which is fitting.

I've also named the male sidekick and main antagonists - father, son, and daughter. The first names are from the bible while their surnames are based on colonial names. Simple, short, and universal.

I don't want to give them Nigerian names because I'll be self-distributing the movie internationally even if I can't get international distribution. I hope my actors' accents won't be a problem. Update: ( www.createspace.com )

Oh, and the name of the movie is based on a combination of the super hero's name (e.g. "Spiderman 1, 2, 3", and the current antagonist or his project (e.g. James Bond's "Goldfinger", "Moonraker). Something like this: 'Super Hero 1: The Antagonist'. A hero heroine is only as strong as the opponent or challenge she overcomes!

It's not such a big deal; she's just flirting with you. You're taking it far too seriously.