died since 1994 – Dan Oluigbo

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.
*Dan Oluigbo
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.
Sent from my BlackBerry wireless device from MTN