How's your January weather?

Happy New Year Guys! How has the new year started for you?

Sunny skies or grey skies?

For me, it's been all sorts of weather reports especially in the film industry in Nigeria.?

In other related news, our REDTV film 'UNINTENTIONAL' has hit over 700,000 views in less than a month. Just wow!

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If you have not watched it, just click the link below and make sure you subscribe.

But that's not the story!

If you have been following the Nollywood content space for a couple of weeks, a lot has been happening. Amazon Prime Video signed deals with InkBlot Films and Anthill Studios. I cannot tell you how significant this is for developing the film industry especially around providing jobs and raising the bar of excellence.

I think we are at an inflection point in the TV/Film industry. We need to re-evaluate what our standards are, especially around the quality of our storytelling. It's quite apparent that the cinematography we see these days is much improved from what it is used to be, especially with the advent of affordable and available technology. A lot of kudos must be given to young DOPs who have pushed themselves to achieve great things with the tools at their disposal. Our films are beginning to look really good. The colour-grading prowess of our colourists is boasting new palettes and appetites to learn and produce more. We have new and daring directors who are inspired to do great work!

Our audio however does need a lot of improvement. For some reason, the dialogue is never crisp when we have about 5 - 10 people speaking in a scene. We need to have more quality infrastructure around audio post-production. It is CRUCIAL!?

I've always opined that the sound is more important than the picture. The sound will always guide your senses when you can't see what is happening.

The music situation is what really worries me. You find significant monies allocated for line items in a typical production budget for other items but when it comes to the music, it's disheartening to see what is allocated. There are some producers who get music supervisors to work on their projects as should be but that situation is few and far between.?

What's a great film without great music?

Some years ago, I watched a Nollywood film in the cinema that used free Apple loops from Apple Garageband as its music. Go figure!?

The industry needs to do better in this regard. There are really good music composers who can provide quality work here in Africa. We also need to start paying them much better. The originality of the source matters.

We have seen massive investments in the African TV/Film industry by Netflix Showmax IROKOTV DStv in various forms - streaming, commissioning, acquisitions, partnerships et al but it feels like we are not yet scratching the surface of what we should be. Yes, our films are making big bucks at the box office. My great friends at Filmhouse Cinema will give you all that data. With all of these powerhouses at play in the African space, we should see more content from Africa showcased at the highest levels globally.

Now one thing to note is that the audience has evolved. There was a time when people who consumed Nollywood content were from a certain sub-set of society. That has changed. Everyone now has a mobile phone and data prices are more affordable. These folks are on TikTok, Instagram, Twitter & Facebook so they are very well exposed to the world around them. The content they consume daily when endlessly scrolling has actually made their collective palettes evolve. In simple terms, they don't want mediocrity anymore. They want to watch things that make sense to them beyond reliability.?

The storytelling fabric is now on the hot pressing iron table for these movie fans.?

You cannot just shove them anything and think they will take it lying down. Times have changed.

I would like to see more non-scripted content - documentaries and actuality from Africa on various streaming platforms. There should be diversity in the form of content we make and push.

Every entity in the film/TV space needs to invest in the key business of audience intelligence. It's not enough to spend tonnes of cash! You MUST channel the money where it should really be channelled - TELLING GREAT STORIES!

I would love your thoughts about the evolution of the African Film/TV space, especially in recent times.

#film #television #televisionproduction #redtv #africa?