Chinyere Okoye
22 October 2009
Lagos — Some players in Nollywood have in recent time come under severe criticism as many of them have refused to curb their excesses and demands. Most of them are flashes and not professionally trained. For many, the essence of Nollywood should be on what you know, not what you have which seems to be the case now.
After the debacle, the centre certainly could no longer hold for Nollywood celebrities and hapless producers were made to churn out movies of all kinds. Quality and delivery were no longer the rule of the game. They produce half-baked artistes and unrepentantly push down the throat of the public in the name of discovering new and fresh faces for Nollywood. Today, the trend has changed and the supposed 'real players' of the movie business have decided to take their destiny into their own hands. Stupendous revolution on the entertainment landscape has begun, but not a few hard-nosed critics noticed or predict that the cream would soon melt off the cake.
With the avalanche of movies produced, whetting the appetite of the expectant Nigerian movie lovers, the demand became so high, but some of them were actually a boom to doom
Due to lack of proper infrastructure, lay down and strictly administered rules and regulations for all players of Nollywood, most actors and actresses in Nollywood are poor. Nollywood stars that are posing and posturing as rich celebrities cannot afford brand new models of the latest cars, except the "Tokunbo" cars they drive.
How many Nollywood stars can afford to live in Ikoyi or Victoria Island where the real rich Nigerians live? By assumption, Nollywood is a huge industry and the third largest in the world, yet people pirating Nollywood videos in America and Europe have made millions of dollar.
Stakeholders in the industry still want government to investigate and probe marketers who are claiming to make millions of dollars from Nollywood. The sector is yet to make impact on American shores, for its torrid romances and black magic-filled morality tales are rife with technical errors that would scare away most western audiences.
Americans and Europe know about Nigeria only as a country of vast oil reserves, corrupt, notorious email scammers, and the country has become the chief exporter of locally produced movies for most of the African continent.
Nollywood has grown since its birth as there is reason to be optimistic about the industry's future.
There are bad and good movies, directors and producers have the technical expertise to make quality movies. Nigeria's film industry has become the world's second largest, churning out 2,400 films a year. Most are made on budgets ranging from $10,000 to $25,000. They go straight to DVD and are shipped off to marketers and street-side stalls throughout Nigeria and West Africa where they sell for about $3. Across Africa, the movies earn an estimated $290 million annually.
Producers expect the films to be wrapped in less than two weeks and, remarkably, they usually are. As long as there is a healthy dose of melodrama, a few recognisable actors on the covers and a catchy title, the movie should sell.
The lightning quick growth of Nollywood has in many ways mirrored the breakneck speed with which Nigeria's oil-rich economy has doubled over the past two decades to a gross domestic product of $300 billion. Many Nigerians feel that with better political governance fortunes could turn around quickly for Africa's most populous country, which has more than 150 million people, likewise Nollywood.
It is only in Nollywood that you see movie that has no script, an actual set or wages for the cast and crew. Actors were required to provide their own wardrobes and transportation. Generally, most of them lack formal and basic training in voice coaching, body language, and impersonation of the character. They don't feel their characters and don't play them convincingly. Acting is a formal training; a great figure or face is out of it.
Some actors and actresses lack creativity to develop a theme, while producers and directors lack funds and technical knowledge that hamper movies in the fields of sound and image, special effects, scenes choreography and structures.
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