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Its Unfair to Compare Nollywood with Hollywood
THISDAY ONLINE
'Its Unfair to Compare Nollywood with Hollywood'
She demonstrates supreme confidence when she talks about her life as an entertainer and as the MD\CEO of Twice as Nice Nigeria Limited, a digital audio visual studio. Elvina who has a degree in International Relations and Economics had always wanted to be a lawyer. But she delved into what her heart really wanted-entertainment. In this chat with Ify Oluku she gives a critical review of the Nigerian movie industry.
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How would you compare your experience with the film industry in England with that of Nigeria? Well, it's a completely different kettle of fish. What I was into was theatre, but of course, I still have a little bit of knowledge about the film industry in England. Nigerians are good at criticising one another, but considering the fact that we have only been doing home video for ten years and we are now next to India in the quantity of films we are producing, I think we've done very well. Hollywood has been doing it for a hundred and nine years now. You can't compare a hundred years of experience with ten years of experience. Especially under the condition that we work. Economically the country is not stable to make actors and actresses attain the standard of living they want. That's beginning to change now. Five years ago it wasn't like that. To show you how talented we are, a lot of our directors or editors didn't get an education. A lot of it is guesswork, while some read to improve themselves. You can count quite a handful who went to school to read theater or film, or directing. But in America, it's an institution on its own. It's a whole degree in America. There you go to school for four years to learn how to direct. You can imagine four years of intense study of learning how to direct, and Nigerians are doing it from mere knowledge. I wish doors will be opened to Nigerian artists, so they can go to school to learn. If banks and businessmen in Nigeria realize the worth of entertainment in Nigeria, then they will start investing in it. Entertainment, is the second highest earner in America. Economically the first is Information Technology. The second is entertainment. They are the biggest money spinners. They make money for America mostly. So if businessmen and the Nigerian government begin to realise the worth of entertainment, then maybe we'll be able to send people to scholarship abroad, and they won't want to stay there. Because that's another thing. The ones who manage to go there, learn and want to remain there, because they feel things are bad in Nigeria. We want a situation where people can go there learn, and they'll want to come back and give us the knowledge they learnt. But then they'll prefer to work abroad where they can earn more than receive peanuts here as artist . That's one reason why films are rushed and shot haphazardly in Nigeria. You can produce and market a film in one week in Nigeria, but in Hollywood, mere rehearsals is three weeks. Then you are talking about six weeks of shooting and three weeks of editing. But in Nigeria its one week, because they know they have been booked for another film the other week. So I think that's the situation in Nigeria. But it's hopeful, because I'll love to be one of the few people who will make a change.
How do you intend to make that change?
How I'll make that change I don't know. A country like Burkina Faso, Senegal, Cote d'Ivoire are making beautiful films, while a bigger country like Nigeria is not. South Africa doesn't even rate as high as them as far as the standard of film making is concerned. The reason they are making such good films, is because they have alliance with France, you know they are French speaking countries. We are supposed to be British why can't we have alliances with Britain and make beautiful films. I don't think that it's something that is so impossible. I want to make a 15 minute film with maybe three or four cast members in affiliation with the BBC or some other British Industry, and then air it at the International film festival. We have a lot of them in Europe. The biggest one is in France. In Nigeria we have raw talents, which is what nobody can take from us.
We are good at everything. It's just a matter of turning negative energy into positive energy. What it means is that whatever a Nigerian puts his mind to, he can do it well, which is the important part. To do 419 is not easy. Do you think it's easy to lie? Not only lie, but do it convincingly. If it was so easy why are the Oyinbos not doing it. We have poverty in England, we have poverty in America, and even in Germany, but they don't have the 'liver' for advance fee fraud, a.k.a. 419. I'm not trying to encourage 419, I'm only saying that Nigerians are gifted in every department we decide to follow. We have raw talents in this country, we just need investments and opportunities. Then we can take it further. Nigerians need to know that they can get the basic needs of their lives. They need to know they can get adequate transportation, steady light and water, and even telephone for communication. Not just a GSM, but every Nigerian should be able to afford a NITEL line at home. In England, if you don't have a phone, you simply call British Telecom and tell them you have just moved into so and so address and you need a phone. The next day, I bet you they will get it fixed and you only need to pay a ridiculous amount of 24 pounds which is very cheap. It took me six months to get my office phone, and not only that I also had to pay 'egunje' apart from the normal fee. And then out of every month, I get only two weeks or more of regular talking because there there's one k-leg either somebody went to cut the line. So we need basic things, transport, a roof over our head, light, water, communication, employment opportunities. I believe if we have things in Nigeria, generally, I believe the rate of crime will go down, the youths will get out of the streets. We need public care, we need free health care. In England when you are sick, you go to the hospital, they'll treat you just for the fact that you are British. That is what we are paying taxes for, that is what the British people are paying taxes for, so that they can have free medical bills and the rest. They have the basic things in life. If you leave school, and you are not working, you'll get what they call unemployment benefits. Can you believe this. You don't even have to look for work for yourself, they start looking for work for you. Can you imagine? All you have to do is go and register and say this is what I did in school, I have a degree or I don't have a degree, but this is what I can do. They will go and look for a job for you, while you go there every week to collect a cheque from the government to look after yourself. They will pay for your house, if you have a child, they'll give you extra money for your child. They don't have oil, gas and minerals. But in Nigeria we have oil, gas mineral and even vegetable (laughs) and we cannot do these things for our people. Then there's something seriously wrong somewhere. And then you have the extremely rich and then you have the very poor people. Poverty that is so horrific. On one scale, you have someone that goes to Paris for breakfast, on the other scale, you have somebody that has no roof over his head, all in the same country. It's all relative to the film industry. People complain that actors are not professional in Nigeria, how will they be professional when they have three or films to shoot at the same time. Actors rush from one film to the other in Nigeria. Robert De Niro does not have to rush from film to film because he can earn as much as 20 million dollars on one film. He doesn't have to act in three films in one month, to make ends meet. 20 million dollars for one film is not bad. He can afford to come to set on time and give his best. So it's all relative. Having said that, I believe there's hope. There's hope simply because I believe in that raw talent. I don't believe God would have given that to us, if he didn't have purpose for it. It's just a matter of how we channel it, how we bring it surface, and how we get people to notice that we have it. As bad as the film industry is in Nigeria, people are crazy over it abroad. I have friends calling me from England, please send me 'Ukwa', they are also fond of Mr. Ibu. Oyinbo girls not even Nigerians. "We want Mr. Ibu and Osofire" when they are actually asking for 'Osuofia in London that stars Nkem Owoh as the lead actor. My friends call me from London to send them Nigerian home video. So what does that tell you? And we have not nearly reached the standard of film making. And then you can imagine if by mistake one British or French person should come and have an affiliation with us and make a very beautiful film, with our story lines oh. You know our story lines can love. Both the quality of the film will be the standard that is attainable abroad, then you can imagine what will happen to the Nigerian film industry.
What are you working on now?
I have a studio now. I opened it last year. It's called Twice as Nice Limited. It's a digital studio, but it's for visuals at the moment. I want to eventually open an audio studio, where we can record artists as well. For now, we just do visuals. We do documentaries, adverts, music videos e.t.c. We haven't gone into films yet because as I said before, I have plans. I am a very patient person. I'll not venture into it until I'm sure I have what I need. I'm talking in terms of money, the right producer, director, the right script.
Do you sing too?
Yeah I sing too. My voice is just coming back. I lost my voice two years ago. The doctor said I had chronic lignite's which means that my vocal cords got torn from stress of singing, shouting, and crying too much. It's taken about two years but thank God it's back. I hope to go back to the studio before the end of the year. Apart from that I'm also into organising events, anything that has to do with entertainment. I try to help up coming artists too. There are some boys coming under my wings now, called the pillars they are an accapella gospel group. There's one called Abedy, he sings middle belt music from Jos, he mixes it with R&B. There are some boys called Final Four, there's another group called Ozone. I don't have the kind of resources that I wish I had because ideally what I'll do is that I'll find raw talents, groom them and send their materials abroad to see if they'll get deals. You know more like a football agent. Finding good players and sending them to clubs. Unfortunately, It's very expensive to put some people into recording studio and make their albums. I'm hoping that with the little help I'm giving them now, will give them a chance to be seen. If I have the time I'll be a manager. So many artists want me to be their manager, but I really don't have the time. For now I see myself as a semi-agent. I'm definitely not an LPO or contract person. I don't know how to do it and I'm not interested. If its going to be a contract, then it has to be in line with entertainment, because I believe in doing what I know. In Nigeria, we don't do what we know. You have business men trying to put up shows and you are wondering why the show is dry because the people who are putting it together, don't know anything about show business. Or you have an actor trying to build road. Or you have an actor building a road, and you'll wonder why the road is not smooth, because the person who get the contract do not know anything about roads. I know how to entertain people, I know how to organize events, I know how to put on a good show. That's what I know how to do well.
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