DAN Oluigbo, popularly known as chief priest,
is one of the pioneers of Nollywood who
disagrees with the ovation Nollywood is
currently enjoying both from within and
outside the country. In this exclusive chat with
Vanguard Art, the movie maker xrays the
industry’s problems and charts a way forward.
Excerpts.
WHAT’s your rating of Nollywood?
Movie making in Nigeria has nosedived. The
only thing producers are concerned with now
is just how to churn out films in order to make
profit. Nobody cares about the content of
films and how to improve on them.
You sound so dissatisfied. What’s your
agitation about?
This industry died since 1994. Before then,
after we hit it with “Living In Bondage” and I
went on to produce ‘Taboo”, Guest Of Satan, I
told my colleagues that it is needful that we
move up, that is step up the quality of
production to be in tune with technological
advancement. My suggestion was that if we
cannot shoot on 35 millimeters, let us at least
shoot on digital film which is the high
definition. Some of them agreed but sadly,
after a period of time, they all ganged up
against me, went to marketers, collected
money and started shooting the nonsense they
are now feeding people with.
The result is what you can see today. A lot of
films have been made, actors are there, in fact
they keep increasing in number yet they do
not have money to feed. They cannot sustain
themselves, because at the end of the day, the
cost of living is higher than their earnings. You
see a so called film maker who has made 50
films, yet he has nothing to show for it. Some
of them cannot maintain their cars.
But actors say they take home up to a million
naira and above?
All those things are media hype. Producers are
busy pouring out films which are readily
pirated and of very poor quality. You don’t
expect huge sales and whereby the quantity of
film sold is low, how would you expect an
actor to go home with a million naira? An
actor is paid between 30,000 and 50,000
naira, he comes to the papers and tells you he
took one million, that is bull shit, it is not
true, we know all that. Even if there are
people who are collecting 100,000, is that a
big deal?
This is why I said movie making in Nigeria is
dead. You can imagine that there is over three
to four thousand people marketing films in
Onitsha with almost the same number here in
Lagos. Whenever a good film comes out, it is
pirated. The market for a long time has
become so saturated that people are not
buying movies again. Also, the Ghanians
entered the field and then destroyed
everything. They came into the picture and
started producing films that are not in tune
with our norms and values. Their films are
much more adult descriptive than the ones we
make. A lot of nudity and all kinds of stuff
were introduced, leading to serious
condemnation by parents and guardians. That
also reduced the quality of films we sold,
besides, because of the availability of an excess
quantity of films in the market, people prefer
to rent films.
Any Plans to help correct the ugly trend?
Well, I can’t join in the rubbish others are
doing. I will come back to produce films but I
must take my time. Now, you know there is
shooting high definition of movies, or you
shoot on high definition movie or better still,
you shoot on 35 mm. For instance, if you plan
to produce a film with fifty million naira, you
are able to get a crew that is a high definition
crew from either South Africa or from London
who will come with every gadget.
Shooting on high definition
As for the actors, you can get Hollywood
actors and pay their local expenses, give them
allowance and then pay them later from the
sales of the films at box office. This means that
you can even shoot a small drama and sell it
with that effect. You know, because you are
shooting on high definition, the migration to
cut that film into a 35mm reel is easy, but if
you do it on DV, you will spend so much
money to upgrade in a color laboratory, and at
the end of the day you have nothing.
Most producers seem to be making their
money through cinemas…(Cuts in)
I agree. But you see, what I am talking about
is an international thing. When you make films
at the range I am talking about, a lot of
international distribution companies would be
interested.
The problem is that the producers do not want
to go through the right processes, so
everybody puts in some two or three million to
get the film out the following week. Sadly,
Hollywood is praising them, as the biggest film
industry in Africa and the second largest film
industry in the world. You can imagine doing
more than ten thousand movies every month in
Nigeria.
Way Forward?
I am looking at doing more professional films.
I will either shoot on 35mm, or I shoot on
high definition. Sony has gone to PS4. The high
definition camera has gone to grade4 which
gives you ability to do all kinds of magic.
Now, there are 3D films with which a lot of
manipulation is possible because there is high
definition.
The films I want to make, if I find funds to
make them, by God’s grace, am not even
looking at premiering here. If I make my
movies I’ll premier in the U.S or U.K and also
sell there.
Does it mean no improvement in sight for the
industry?
We do not have an industry, let us not fool
ourselves, we just have a market place where
all kinds of charlatans come together, do
whatever they like and get out. We do not have
an industry. For instance, up till today, which
is about 23 years of film making in Nigeria, we
can do not have Nollywood office just like
Hollywood has. And because there is no
organization, no regulation, no management,
there is no future. I have also discovered
from a whole lot of experiments both here and
abroad, film making is not all about money,
film making is about the concept you want to
pass across.
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