I decided to embark on this
big task at the beginning of the month of August 2015 to really understand the
point that the Nigerian movie industry is presently at, especially in terms of content
quality. I left Nigeria in 1991 at the time when Nollywood was still in its
teething stage and has since been a sporadic viewer of some of the movies
produced by this very popular and internationally recognized industry.
After watching 23 latest
movies from different stables and different directors from the industry this
august, although I could not complete watching some of them and had to desist
from my initial intention after 20 minutes of viewing and the movie had still
not started proper, I realized that the industry had evolved technical wise but
not as much in terms of content creation and content quality. In my memory some of the movies and
tele-films shot long before Nollywood gained international recognition and
during that genesis era of the industry still stuck and appealed more to me
than most of the movies recently shot in the industry. I remember with
nostalgia movies like Domitila, Silent Night, Rattlesnake, etc and I realized
that we still really have a lot to do, not as much in terms of the technical
aspects as in the creative aspect of movie making.
Some of the telefilms I watched on N.T.A as
far back as 1979 such as Scandal which director and writer I cannot readily
remember and later “Heretics” and “To save a fallen angel”…. are all more
superior creative works compared to most of the movies I watched with the
2014/2015 date on them. It is unfortunate that the creative quality of our
works have dropped resoundingly, that is not to say though that there are still
not a handful of persons still dishing out quality works in Nollywood but the
ratio of those doing quality works is inconsequential compared to those who are
actually making bad movies.
True, Nigerians like to
gate crash into anything that is the trend and bringing good money at any
particular time but I think that as a mark of respect for faithful followers of
the industry who have been giving their unflinching support to the industry in
terms of patronage, stakeholders in the industry need to step up their games. Not
just shooting movies but shooting movies that people will still talk about long
after seeing them and long after even the directors are gone.
I do not want this to be
seen as a criticism but rather as a contribution by someone in the industry who
believes in the industry and its unlimited potentials; people can be pardoned
when they are just getting started but not after 2 decades and more doing the
same thing, we have gone beyond trying to show the world what we can do with camera in our hands, right now it is only normal that they begin to expect quality movies from us. Some issues in the industry are just not right, I do not understand
for instance why our movie postal still appear with all the actors in the movie
on them as if there is a tussle for popularity somewhere, or how a 25 year old
actor would have more films to his credit than someone like Morgan Freeman who
has spent over 4 decades in the industry, any professional actor will tell you
that an actor need some time to remove his character armor and be able to clad
a new character armor in order to convincingly “marry” his role, any wonder why
you see some Nigerian actors doing the same thing in every movie and leaving
the viewers with a déjà vu impression even when they are watching a different
movie?
Like I said the real area
that interests me personally even though every aspect of movie making is
important is the area of script writing, it is perhaps the most important
aspect of movie making as far as I am concerned, although a lot of people take it for granted, If a
script is bad, there is no way that the movie will be good even if you employ
the best actors in the world. You can be a good movie director and not be a
good script writer, that is why in most Hollywood movies the directors are not
even the script writers, so let us learn to divide labour where it is important, there is nothing wrong in telling your stories to professional writers who can better transmit the essence to the viewers.
A friend told me that until the kind of revolution that occured in the Nigerian Music industry happens in the Nigerian Movie industry we will not genuinely be able to appreciate any general quality drive in the industry, I think that the time for Directors to be forming a corporate conglomerate or for producers to form a brand under which they will have a team of Directors on their pay roll as we have in Hollywood with Warner bros, Sony Pictures, 20 century Fox, Paramount, metro goldwyn mayer etc, the issue of gate-crashing and very low standard productions will not be checked, if this is done and well managed, the viewers will buy a brand with the assurance that that brand delivers quality productions for their money.
And lastly, I will like to implore the government of Nigeria to be genuinely involved and partner with the industry especially in the area of Piracy check and punishment for copyright offenders. I think that if this is done, Nollywood will take the nation to unimaginable development heights especially in the area of job creation, wealth creation and professional training and even crime control and eradication since it will be engaging a lot of our youths and empowering them.
