₦airaland Forum

thanks for that jideosik

Writing for the screen goes beyond writing for the movies and tv soaps and drama series. You could be writing for lots of TV shows too. But that would bee more possible if you're working for a TV station of media independent company.

Some writers earn as much as 75k per episode [at least i know one writer, writing for an MNET sponsored Nigerian soap series (on Nollywood) bound to hit DSTV in the first quarteer of 2008. And you can imagine he's writing 65 episodes (running through a season: mondays thru fridays for 13 weeks). Of course he has assistant writers too]. That however, doesn't come easily, and its not common.

For easy breakthrough into Nollywood however, learn the ropes of producing. Raise the funds and produce your own script. That's the way to earn recognition and respect in the industry. Depending on living by solely being a writer can be degrading, humiliating and frustrating.

@Seun
[quotePersonally, I hate unions. I really do. A union dominated industry is not robust. Can't we all negotiate our contracts individually? Having said that, only a union can fight a powerful union like the one the producers have!]Seun, unions are present in vibrant industries, outside of which professionals in the particular field are not really useful. Take for instance PENGASSAN or NUPENG, let them go on strike, Nigeria's economy will halt! If their rights are not protected, who will fight for them. Havent you heard the saying that "United we stand, divided we fall"? The banking industry have unions, insurance industry have their unions, same goes with others like COREN, NSE, ICAN, NAICOM, CIIN, MAN, etc. In fact every sector of the economy have their unions and guilds. Unions allow for regulations of laws and harmonisation amongst practitioners etc.

In Nollywood, we have the DGN, AMP, SWGN and the NSE. We also have ITPAN and INTARRPAN. The SWGN (Screen Writer's Guild of Nigeria) is one that needs to be more active and encourage the influx of new members. I dont know if Ekenna Udo Igwe is still the president of the union (he has been the president for up to five years now, i think). It must place emphasis on training its members more. For the industry to grow, there must be conscious efforts aimed at changing the way things presently are, else, Nollywood would remain a joke.

Currently there is a writer's strike going on in Hollywood, as declared by members of the Writer's Guild of America (WGA) and it has started affecting productions. They are asking for reviews in their royalties amongst other things. I'm not sure i know of any Nigerian movie where a writer gets a percentage of the gross or net profits, not to talk of royalties over sales of internet movie downloads, etc.

It's more of a clique thing. At times, they'd rather have the money circulate within the clique (Know of the Idumota marketers?). At other times, quite a good number of producers are themselves writers, so they re-write it themselves. Those who can't go through the hassles rather lift the entire screeeenplay and maybe rearrange the scenes or just change the title only.

Seun, the thing is there are indeed some very good writers here in Nigeria. However, few have been lucky to have their scripts produced while the majority have not been able to breakthrough. Do you know most marketers (or movie financieers) have their own writers, whom they hire to write their screenplays? Same goes with most producers. In fact what lots of aspiring screenwriters get when they give producers their scripts, is that, the producers read them, like some things about the stories, (though the storyline or screenplay might not be particularly fantastic); as they read along, their own idea begins to form. Then they tell you, its was nice, however they do not need that kind of story for now. Thats why people try to hide their scripts and maybe show you their Loglines or Synopsis, in case you're interested, beeforee sending you the full script or treatment.

They then hire their writers to write that kind of screenplay with slight modifications, and change the title (they could even lift the entire screenplay with slight modifications and change its title). Where are the copyright laws to protect screenwriters in such situations? Those that even get lucky to get their scripts purchased by producers or marketers, often get ridiculously low offers for their works.


Nollywood is an industry where practitioners do whatever they like and get away with it. You can't do that in Hollywood.

That aside, Have you seen Nollywood film scripts and ever compared them with Hollywood scripts? There is a standard format for writing screenplays, and its taught in film schools worldwide. Most Nollywood scripts do not have these formats. Infact there is a special type of font used to write screenplays. When a script is in another font, you know such screeenwriter is 'wishywashy' in the global contest. However these days, more people are becoming better informed in that regard.

I think the problem is an industry thing. The producers themselves are quacks (most, not all). Most movies have no production documentation. Do they make use of preproduction forms, contract forms for cast and crew? They shortcomings are almost endless, however as the world's searchlight is beamed on Nollywood, the situation can only get better in the years to come.

i agree that our screenwriters should be more creative. However there is a limit to how creative they can get, if they have to be realistic. Nollywood is known as an ultra low budget industry. With low budgets producers have to shoot movies, they become overtly concerned when your script involves a large cast, outlandish settings and special effects, use of multi-exterior locations, just to mention a few. Also storylines are also limited to the possibility of really shooting in strategic facilities, which in some cases, may not secure approval of the relevant authorities. So in my opinion, so many factors affect a screenwriter's creativity. For the few producers who go ahead to produce such film scripts, they make a caricature movie of the original screenplay's intention. That's why many Nollywood movies revolve around the "home" and family unit. You rarely see movies about the Nigerian Navy, oil companies and otheer multinationals, the Police Headquarters, just to mention a few.

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typographical error pls,

peach

crane