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Nigerian Movies: Whither Imagination?
THISDAY ONLINE
Nigerian Movies: Whither Imagination?
Samuel Ajayi looks at the Nigerian movie industry and writes on the problems besetting it among which is the inability of the average Nigerian producer to think deeply before allowing the camera to roll. Additional reports by Clementina Olomu
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The scene is that of a sitting room. It is in a movie; the captivating world of make-believe. The sitting room is tastefully furnished. All the touches needed to show class have been added. Sitting comfortably on one of the settees is the woman of the house. She is putting on a longerie and a pair of slippers to match. In her hand, she is holding a magazine; apparently not reading it but just using it to while away time. This is an edited version of the flick. It is not when it was being shot on location. It has been released into the market. And it is selling like hot cake. The producers are smiling to the banks while lead artistes in the flick are receiving scripts from different producers who are impressed with their roles in the movie. Suddenly, there is cinematic catapult: on the screen is the legend: 20 years later. But a more than cursory viewer discovers that in the setting of the scene, nothing has changed. It is the same furniture; the same person; the same costume; even the woman is still putting on the same pair of slippers. Twenty years later! The viewer, in anger, stops the film and switches to stations to see what is happening.
Welcome to the world of the Nigerian film industry. Ever dynamic, but perpetually lacking in little details that make a film truly a work of planning. Over the years, the Nigerian film industry has witnessed what can be called a complete revolution, at least in the last ten years. From the boom of the home video in the mid nineties, the Nigerian film producer has had to go from one theme to the other that by today, he must have had up to six different themes to tell story on.
Up till now, outside the country, people still ask for the works of people like the late Hubert Ogunde, Kola Balogun, Eddy Ugboma and even the late Ade Afolayan, a.k.a Ade Love. All these filmmakers shot on celluloid and their works told stories about Africa and its peoples. But gone are those days. The early nineties changed the direction.
When producers of Igbo extraction came into the scene around this period, they took the shine off the 'exploits' of Yoruba producers. By this period, the in-thing was stories that had to do with family issues and values. One of such films that have remained evergreen up till today is True Confession which starred the likes of Zack Orji, late Jennifer Ossai and Liz Benson. It was an instant hit which signaled the shift in paradigm as far as the Nigerian movie industry was concerned. It was around this period that the breathtaking Glamour Girls was released into the market. It was one movie that brought into the fore the Nigerian movie producer's tendency to be daring. There were amorous scenes that some puritanists were roundly condemning the flick. It also starred Zack Orji and the same Jennifer Ossai. Many thought the Nigerian movie producer had arrived; but it went beyond that.
From stories on family squabbles and society ladies looking for attention, as typified by Glamour Girls, the attention shifted to films that were basically fetish in both concept and execution. It was a period when every movie must have elements of fetishism. After some period, the focus, again, shifted to films with violence as the theme. Looking beyond the beauty of production to story execution, what was being seen in most of these movies then was the belief that might is right. Around this period, many were of the opinion that while there might be violence in the country, the average Nigerian is not as violent in nature as most of the films were wont to portray. And if literature is the mirror of life, then perhaps, Nigerian films producers were not getting the mix right.
At some periods, movies with political themes have been produced and there have been films with economic themes. But these last two categories did not gain much acceptability partly because of the viewing orientation of the average Nigerian movie freak and the fact that most producers complain that film marketers say such films do not sell.
That is another problem movie producers are facing. In the last five years, there has been a great influx of businessmen into production of movies. Though there are some of them, like Infinity Merchants, that stand out of the pack, but most of them are interested in immediate profit. They determine story line of films, they decided which hands to be invited to play which role and, of course, they provide locations. To worsen the situation, they have formed themselves into a clique. Clarion Chukwura-Abiola, veteran actress, told THISDAY early last month that the activities of movie marketers have made it 'imperative' that the movie industry must 'die' first for it to be revived.
"They (marketers) have turned the industry to something else. They have not allowed we entrepreneurs to determine the direction things should go. I think we have to allow them to kill the industry first before we revive it," Chukwura-Abiola declared.
Apart from killing the industry, the rate at which films are churned out might be the first killer. An average of, between 2000 and 3000 films, were shot in the country in 2002. This translates to about 200 to 300 per month and 20 to 30 per day. These figures are from the Nigerian Video Censors Board. Pierre Barrot, Regional Audio-Visual Attache in the French Embassy in Nigeria, said this has become worrisome because even marketers are already complaining of excess in supply. Hear him: "Instead of big projects that are planned over a long period and which bring together various talents and energies, and are thus capable of reaching a larger audience since they are long lasting successes and good export products, what we have is rather an endless flow of small films that are quickly shot, inadequately financed and quickly sold." He said the home video industry in Nigeria is suffering from market saturation, cut-throat and sterile competition.
To many, that might be quite on the extreme but the problem facing the industry too is on the increase. Mainly because of lack of marketing drive, hardly are auditions held if a new film is to be produced. Rather, old and established faces are re-cycled over and over again. As a result of this, you see a particular artiste depreciating, both in productivity and imagination. A top actress told THISDAY that in a month, she receives nothing less then six scripts and she is wanted to participate in their executions. According to her, there is no way an artiste will be involved in all these and a director will still hope to get the best of him or her.
Beyond all these, however, is the problem of theme and story-lines. Movies have been produced and viewers are asking if at all the script was vetted by another hand before camera was allowed to roll. If literature is a mirror of life, then complaints over story line in most of these films are not misplaced. For instance, critics have had to take a look at a film, The General's Wife, and concluded that what was portrayed in the film, which features Kanayo O. Kanayo and Peter Bunor, cannot happen in the regimented life that the military is. In the said movie, a major is having an illicit affair with a general's wife and when the issue becomes a public knowledge, the major is bold enough to tell the general to his face: "I love your wife more than you think sir." Even in a civilian setting and a society where morals are being taught, shouldn't a script editor have worked on that dialogue line? Is it practicable for a major to walk up to his superior, a general for that matter, and say he loves his wife? So much for story line!
But as if there is a change in orientation, all movie producers in the last three months have been focusing on love. Hardly is any film out of Idumota (centre of movie market in Lagos) and 51 Iweka Road (its Onitsha counterpart) that would not have love as its central theme. Check the list: Unconditional Love, directed by Jeta Amata; Power of Love, directed by Tarila Thompson and starring Genevive Nnaji and Ramsey Noah; Hot Love, directed by Elois chuks; Jealous Lovers, directed by Adim Williams; Love Affair, directed by Lancelot Odum-Imasuen; Midnight Love, written by Ebere Onwu; Strength of Love, directed by Adim Williams; Lost Love, directed by Mati Abuzie; Forever Yours, written by Sunny Collins; Blind Love, directed by Chico Ejori and a not too recent two-part flick, Disguise, produced by Chizoba Okeke.
The question here is why every movie producer in town is focusing on love issues right now. Does it mean story ideas have run dry? Or is it simple lack of imagination? Perhaps, a combination of the two.
Femi Odugbemi, president of Independent Television Producers Association of Nigeria, ITPAN, said it was the same bandwagon syndrome that affects virtually everything Nigerian that is at play. According to him, perhaps, producers have since found out that that is what is selling now and hence, they rush into it.
"There was time it was fetish films that were being produced and every other producer was doing just that. Filmmakers right now just contend themselves with making just any movie; we just focus on bandwagon effects. If making war movies sells for someone, we all start making war movies; if it is juju or witchcraft that sells, everybody is making love stories. If you are making a film, how does your story contribute to the national discourse? That is what we need to look at," Odugbemi stated.
However, he said the greatest problem is that producers needed to be trained. He said it was not enough that a producer is claiming that he has produced five films hence he has known all that is needed to be known as far as film production is concerned. He said at the last ITPAN Forum in Lagos, attention was focused on content. Unfortunately though, as he said, those who should be at the Forum were nowhere to be found.
And that is where the problems lie. Most producers believe they are on top of the world immediately they produced film and it sold. They believe they have known all that is needed to be known. That is why the problems of content, costuming, editing and the whole gamut of production continue.
And one of such problems is that of casting. Most movies you see parade the same set of actors and actresses. If it is not Ramsey Noah, it is Genevive Nnaji; if it is not Omotola Jalade-Ekeinde, it is Segun Arinze. New hands are not being discovered. Auditions are no longer being held when a movie is to be shot. Madu Chikwendu, president of Association of Movie Producers, AMP, said they were discovering new artistes before, but he added that when the so-called 'Idumota traders' gained upper hand as those putting down the money, they changed the tide. According to the producer, irrespective of the content of a movie so long as known faces are used, it will sell.
Chikwendu said apart from this not being the best, the old artistes are charging quite high and even those that are getting old need to be replaced by up-coming ones. Then he added another bombshell: it is producers that are being harassed sexually by actresses and not the other way round. "It is producers that are being sexually harassed. I know the kind of pressures I'm subjected to by women who want roles at all costs. And no producer will give lead role to a female artiste who cannot deliver," Chikwendu declared.
Segun Arinze, ace actor, said marketers and directors should go out and search for new talents. "Nigeria is blessed with so many of them," he stated. He said in those days there was competition because there was always audition for every movie that is to be shot. "When we started there was audition. You will see some young artistes coming to say I will give this director a run for his money. This created some kind of strength and fairness in competition. But now, everybody is lazy; all they do is table casting forgetting that most of the stars today were one rookies." However, he believes that why some producers still go for established hands is that there is problem of bad diction as there are situations when an artiste cannot pronounce some words of the English Language.
Head or tail, there are problems in the industry that are purely that of using the head properly. One of this is costuming. A director who knows that he has a scene that will require flashback ought to have provided the costume that will reflect the vogue. Also, if truly literature is a mirror of life, then a director ought to know which story is only fit for adventure series and not for home video. In the same vein, auditioning might be time consuming and expensive, but it pays off. If in doubt, let them ask Femi Lasode, current President of PMAN, when he was preparing for the shooting of Sango, his epic movie. But as Odugbemi said, the wheat will be separated from the chaff at the fullness of time. And that is already happening.
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