Oh Nouvelle Nollywood, Nouvelle Nollywood where art thou?

Let’s be honest with ourselves for one moment. Week after week we are bombarded with Nollywood films that are, quite frankly, painful to watch. What in the world is the problem with our so-called ‘Directors, Producers, Writers and Stars’?
First and foremost, let me begin by asking you to forgive me for this lengthy post. Secondly, please ignore if the paragraphs do not link logically – it’s freehand right of the top of my head.

I might be wrong in believing that all members of this forum are tired of the slapdash productions we, the consumers, are forced to purchase or watch. I am not going to waste your time or insult you by tabulating the filmic wrongdoings of the above-mentioned group of people. There are more than enough posts that go into such detail.

The simple question I ask is “When will there be a Nouvelle Nollywood Movement”? For the benefit of those that do not know – it simply means a ‘New’ Nollywood movement. As I will, also, not go into Film Theory here, if you need to know more please google ‘French New Wave’ for an example. I do believe some of us, in the Diaspora, have studied or are studying film and film related subjects, have worked on ‘western’ productions – big or small and have knowledge of what gives a production its worthwhile ‘values’.

Where is ‘our’ younger generation of talented filmmakers? I cannot tell how much I would love to see a Nollywood film that can compete with the production quality of even films from our Francophone neighbours. People will say “Yeah but their directors studied in France or under someone that studied in France and France also invests in their films”. True, but must we continue to make excuses? Why are ‘our’ filmmakers at home so lazy? (or is there a different cause?). Isn’t it better to do a job well than to do a hundred badly? Your country NEEDS you! Please tell me if I am completely wrong.

I have worked on 3 Nollywood films shot here in London. Each time I promised myself – “Never again”. I was hired as cameraman; little did I know I would end up doing camera operation, DOP, lighting, sound and even some directing – all at the same time. I had to literally beg for someone to boom the mic – that of course never happened. Personally, I absolutely hate having a mic placed on the camera (that should only be done for reference sound). Lighting – how do you expect to light a scene with 2 Redheads, sometimes just one and not expect the images to look boringly flat? The director of the last Nollywood production I worked on will be back in London next week; he had the film edited in Nigeria and has mentioned that people think it is ‘amazing’… I definitely beg to differ. It was a 30 page, badly written script that was ‘somehow’, in 8 days, turned into a full-feature film. How will that ooze ‘quality’ in any way, shape or form?

Nollywood badly needs people like you that are talented. Starting from ‘writers’. Again I remember at the London branch launch of AMP (Association of Movie Producers) for which I was one of the cameramen covering the event. One of the ‘top’ Nollywood guys mentioned how stupid and useless Final-Draft software is, simply because they ‘tried’ using it and the script ended up with hundreds of pages. Do we have to blame software if we have no scriptwriting skills? A great director can NEVER turn a rubbish screenplay into a great film; it’s impossible. Syd Field posits, “You can never make a good movie out of a bad screenplay”. During the AMP 'question and answer' section – some people asked valid questions but were rebuked with “You’re a small boy?”, “How many films have you made?”, “Who do you think you are?”. I will bet my right arm that one of the kids that was studying theatre here would easily make a film far better than all of the films of the ‘top’ guys that were belittling him. By the way the AMP launch was a load of bloated ego crap.

Another excuse is ‘equipment’. It really does not matter if you shoot on cameras that are considered to be ‘ancient’. Just after my studies, a couple of my classmates snuck into a hotel bar and had a chat with J.J. Abrams (Lost, Cloverfield) – He said “Shoot on anything… even ‘toy-like’ camcorders… just shoot!” The simple fact is a rubbish director with a $150,000 camera is still going to have an end-product that is, well… rubbish. Learn the basics of the trade! Rule of thirds, crossing the line, basic lighting, basic sound, basic scriptwriting – including character development, directing the cast, acting for film and not that stage acting we notoriously put into our films amongst other elementary things. Everyone knows this so why is ‘nothing’ being done about it? (this is possibly a wrongful observation on my part). Is it that everyone involved is looking to make a quick buck out of we, the ‘gullible consumer’? Or not one of ‘them’ is actually an artist or cares about the art of filmmaking?

We live in an age when it is so easy to log onto the Internet and read anything about film production from Pre-production to Production to Post-production. Why do we not apply simple little changes that will give our productions more value? I have read posts where people have stated “The film was so bad I couldn’t even finish watching it” or “So bad I fell asleep.” Can we ever take on ‘World Cinema’ at the Oscars? Of Course we can. But in order to ‘change the world’, of Nollywood filmmaking, we need to take a look deep inside our individual selves.

I, Villag-Boi, hang my head in shame because I am ‘guilty’. Guilty of sitting on the side-line and not doing anything about my views, guilty of talking-the-talk and not walking-the-walk. Am I a fool? Yes, I am a certain type of fool. Our people say “A fool that does not know he is a fool is really a big fool, but a fool that knows he is a fool is not really a fool – for he does have ‘some’ knowledge. I hope that someday I will fall into the 2nd type of fool category. I have much more to say and much more to ask but I will stop here. In the meantime I will continue to hone my scriptwriting skills and hopefully be a part of the ‘inevitable’ new movement.

Please, please respond with your views. Let everyone get involved and contribute to this. Can we get there? How? Why are we presently the way we are? Will we have a culture of filmmaking 'unity'? Give us hope, inspire each other, will there be a Nouvelle Nollywood?
Thank you so very much for taking the time to read this and participate in this discussion.

These issues have been extensively discussed here for years, Village-Boi... I don't know where to even begin here...

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"Anyone can make the simple complicated; creativity is making the complicated simple." - Charles Mingus

"My ultimate vocation in life is to be an irritant, someone who disrupts the daily drag of life just enough to leave the victim thinking there's maybe more to it all than the mere hum-drum quality of existence." - Elvis Costello

Thank you very much for that TS, I will continue searching and learning from the past posts.

I don't mean to brush you off, V-B, especially after your impassioned post.... It's just that I agree with completely, and it's exactly what I myself have been saying for years on this board and other forums both on- and offline. Ultimately, though, I don't think anybody is really interested, so I stopped talking about it.

In the final analysis, I believe that the Nollywood audience gets the movies that it deserves.

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"Anyone can make the simple complicated; creativity is making the complicated simple." - Charles Mingus

"My ultimate vocation in life is to be an irritant, someone who disrupts the daily drag of life just enough to leave the victim thinking there's maybe more to it all than the mere hum-drum quality of existence." - Elvis Costello

Hey, no problem TS, honestly not taken as a brush-off. Furthermore, I completely value you taking the time to respond.

Now that would be such a shame as I'm sure we all do really want change.

They shoot the movies with thirty page scripts. How is that possible? How do you turn thirty pages into two hours?

This to me is the not the best place to discuss these issues. But I will say this. There is a lot of talent in Nigeria. The talent just does not work in the industry. I was at the NFI Jos, and I got the opportunity to see some of the short films their students make and there is talent in Nigeria.

None of them work or will work in the industry. I met Clarence Peters who is very well trained. He swore he will never direct one of those movies.

Until there are alternate sources of funding the movies, away from the marketers, the present crew will continue to dominate the industry.

Godard did it.

And a lot of Wong Kar-Wai's scripts are around 30 pages too, I think.

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"Anyone can make the simple complicated; creativity is making the complicated simple." - Charles Mingus

"My ultimate vocation in life is to be an irritant, someone who disrupts the daily drag of life just enough to leave the victim thinking there's maybe more to it all than the mere hum-drum quality of existence." - Elvis Costello

They aren't full scripts with written dialogue. They are beat sheets. Something an alternative director would use but not something a mainstream production would consider. But those guys are minorities. Godard's scripts are interesting though. They are useless to anyone apart from himself. It lacks any detail.

Anyway, does that mean they use beat sheets? I assumed he was taking about full scripts. Though, all Nigerian screenplays I've seen use the play format.

Well, I gather that the indigenous-language movies are shot using beat sheets more or less... English-language stuff, yeah, they use the screenplay format, but there's enough improvisation that it might as well be a tricked-up beat sheet.

(Well, that's not wholly accurate; rather let me say that there are usually enough surprises during production that while the script is written with the intention of functioning as a "hard" screenplay, the cast and crew must always be ready to extemporize to maintain or even throw it out altogether.)

Ultimately, I think it's not really about how many pages are in the screenplay... Like you said, a big problem is the marketers. And to that I would add the audience.

(I hate calling the audience a "problem" with all the moral judgment that implies, but I think there is a fundamental disconnect between the ambitions of more progressive-minded Nigerian film folks and the realistic expectations/needs of the Nigerian movie-viewing audience.)

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"Anyone can make the simple complicated; creativity is making the complicated simple." - Charles Mingus

"My ultimate vocation in life is to be an irritant, someone who disrupts the daily drag of life just enough to leave the victim thinking there's maybe more to it all than the mere hum-drum quality of existence." - Elvis Costello

In the case I was talking about the director was saying "People, people ideas please now." He wanted us to come up with scenes as we were shooting, I kid you not. Well dude, next time have a script to start with.

Good information there bro. Thanks.

Just like it has already been mentioned,a new alternative source of funding movies must first of all establish itself.When talents in nigeria say that they will never work in nollywood,what they mean is that they will never work with the present source of funding,that is the marketers,and who can blame them?Who wants to waste his/her talent working for people who have absolutely no respect and regard for proper filmmaking?
Let us continue to wait for something to spring up,or make una pray for me make i win lotto...

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Oga Vince, I pray for you. And when it happens I'll be on your crew - count me in.

To answer this question realistically, though...

In order for a "Nouvelle Nollywood" to emerge, there must first of all be a support system for it... a "scene," if you will.

If you look at the nouvelle vague, it didn't just sprout up spontaneously: it grew out of an informal scene of students and critics who would get together to watch American B-movies and then spend all night discussing what they liked and didn't like until they finally decided to make their own films.

Ditto the "New Hollywood" generation of the late 1960s and early 70s: film students watching the new cinema coming from Europe and Japan and getting inspired to do their own thing in and out of the then-decaying Hollywood structure.

Same thing happened with the American independent revolution in the early 90s.

Anywhere in the world you see some form of "alternative" cinema movement burgeoning, it usually starts in this way. And the mistake I have seen time and again with folks who have attempted to do the alternative thing in Nigeria is that everybody wants to be the solo star who blows up and singlehandedly transforms the movie culture in Nigeria.

It won't happen.

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"Anyone can make the simple complicated; creativity is making the complicated simple." - Charles Mingus

"My ultimate vocation in life is to be an irritant, someone who disrupts the daily drag of life just enough to leave the victim thinking there's maybe more to it all than the mere hum-drum quality of existence." - Elvis Costello

We are at it again, a never ending situation it is.
Those that know what to do have been left in the struggle of sourcing funds themselves.

Who even born monkey for a marketer to put production cash in the hand of a "JJC" cash.

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Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore get wisdom: and with all thy getting get understanding. -Proverbs 4:7

"When beggars die there are no comets seen;
The heavens themselves blaze forth the death of princes." -William Shakespeare