Why is today very necessary to you?
I recognise the fact that the media has been there for me all through these years. They have been nice to my career, which was why I decided that it would be nice to have them around. The truth is that the media has been with me right from when I started with the small budget films to now that I am associated with bigger jobs like Invasion 1897 which is still travelling round the world and has been getting accolades even in foreign land. So this is a way of telling them thank you for being there for me all the while.
Aside the very successful films associated with you what other things do you consider astounding in the past twenty years?
I take pride in the people who have become successful by working with me. I am one director that likes discovering talents, so I am grateful to God for making me the vessel that produced some of today’s stars who adorn the screens all over Africa. For instance many will not remember that my set was the first set that people like Alex Ekubo worked on as an actor. And there are several other examples like that.
At the beginning was there a time you felt like calling it quits?
Of course, and if you ask my brother Charles Inojie, he will tell you that after I left Benin to Lagos, some people thought I had died. In fact, before I came to Lagos, I used to do programmes in Benin, but a mentor advised me to leave and play on a higher platform which Lagos avails. That was why I came down to Lagos. In Lagos, NTA helped a whole lot of us. I specially feel thankful to the likes of Peter Igho and others who helped to shape my career today.
What has changed in your approach to making movies from the days when you shot ‘Year 2000’ and ‘Yesterday’?
If you ask me, I will say nothing much really. I know however that I have a penchant for quality. From the days I started this, I have sought to distinguish myself in my chosen field. I also took time to understand our shortcomings in the movie industry.
What are these shortcomings?
One is lack of the right training. The other is not having the right environment, while the last one is not having the right finance. As a country, we have championed the video film making medium. Whether the world likes it or not, Nigeria has been at the fore front of ‘videography’ in the world. Most of us in this sector are what I would call ‘film migrants’, because we have backgrounds in theatre and television, and just discovered the video medium by ourselves and for ourselves; and suddenly the world started paying attention. Because the world is now paying attention, I understood that I must work around the challenges like lack of finance, the right environment and the lack of training.
How did you do it?
I went to work. I decided to find the replacement for these shortcomings. Yes, I cannot change the environment, because the responsibility lies with the government. But I have been shouting about it. In terms of training, I resorted to training myself. Already I have a theatre background. If you come to my house, I have a library of film books on all aspects of film making around the world.
How do you get around the finance aspect?
Well it is important to explain that in film making you may never have all the finance you require. Sometimes you circumvent. If you need $20m and you can access only $1m, you have to ask yourself as a movie maker, what can I do to surprise people with this amount? That was what my job stood for when I shot ‘Yesterday’ and ‘Year 2000’ then. Those films were within $100,000.
We also had to look around for young men and women who are hungry to achieve success and allow them to develop. I throw my library open to them in Lagos and Benin and the ones that cannot read, I make DVDs available to them. I have also made myself available to international workshops and seminars, which attract the ‘who is who’ in the film making business. I have also gone to sets abroad to see how they do it and how it would improve my art. Sometimes my colleagues even criticise me. They say the money I should have used to buy cars and build houses are spent of foreign trips. But I gain a lot from those trips and interactions.
Your works Invasion 1897 and Adesuwa are everywhere. How does it make you feel?
Great, of course! There are some promotional ideas that we did not do well in ‘Home in Exile’, which we corrected in ‘Adesuwa’. When I was flying into Lagos everyone was asking me when the film would be released in cinemas. We are still evolving in finding replacements for the obvious inevitable. The government must also come to the aid of the industry. They have done that to the aviation industry and banking, why not the home video industry, with all its potentials to change the fortunes of this country?
Entertainers are virtually on tax holiday in Nigeria. What do you want the government to do?
The government owes us massively. If you go to Benin Airport, you will notice the transformation being done by the current Minister of Aviation. These facilities are being enjoyed by the airlines to do their business, why not the movie industry? And mind you the movie industry has a group of people who out of their ingenuity are championing an industry that has employed many youths.
The industry has also created a lot of good will for the Nigerian nation outside the country. Nollywood, as I am talking to you is one of the most positive aspects of the country. You said we do not pay tax, but you cannot give what you do not have. To whom much is given, much is expected. What stops the government from creating an enabling environment for the movie industry like they are doing in aviation?
What do you expect government to do?
If government decides to build cinemas in the major state capitals in the country, that is what I mean by enabling environment. If this is done, getting tax from the practitioners will never be a problem. Even the one that is being collected from us by the National Film and Videos Censors Board is an aberration because no organ of government has done anything for the development or sustenance of the industry. If there are five cinemas in every state capital, I bet you the movie industry will vomit so much money that we can sit down and decide who will rule Nigeria.
Is the essence of this to gain political power?
No, but I see movies as a tool of change even in politics. I actually mean making movies with the idea of remaking Nigeria the way it should be. I have grown past making movies to only entertain. We should be postulating social reformatory ideologies. All aspects of Nigeria require dramatic expedition to make it function. We can use a movie to address the question on what a pension scheme should look like.
As a film maker, you have a penchant for issues that address the Nigerian experience, how do you source your scripts?
Sometimes I develop a concept and commission writers.
Was it the same with Adesuwa? What informed the idea?
‘Adesuwa’ is an incident in history and I have to pay glowing tributes to the young man who supported the project with funds, one John Chukwuma Abua, who came to me and showed his interest in movies. It was not the script I had in mind but I told him we could do this despite that the budget was higher than what he could put in. I told him we could make a statement with ‘Adesuwa’ because it has drama, intrigues, and emotions. I set out to make a statement with this considering what people often say about our works in terms of sound and other technical details. We concluded recording in December 2009. We did post-production for seventeen months. But ‘Adesuwa’ will be a child’s play to what we are currently shooting.
What is it called?
It is called ‘Invasion 1897’. I tell people that this is yet another journey.
With over 160 movies you must have lost count of your works?
When people say Lancelot has made over 160 movies, I just laugh. Those were the lesser days. This is a new phase. I have just made two films. ‘Home in Exile’ and ‘Adesuwa’. I am currently making the third.
You swing from one film genre to another. As a director, is it drama or comedy or epic that appeals most to you?
I am a director. Once they wanted to cocoon me to a corner, but I told them no, I am a film maker. My job is to interpret whatever story given to me.
One of the greatest challenges in Nollywood is scripting. How do you manage to tinker what you have?
I work with one Mr. Osaile, we call him the Professor. He is a theatre practitioner and media consultant. He wrote ‘Adesuwa’. They are the kind of minds we want to engage. We shop for them and engage them. The way around bad scripting is shopping for the good hands. It is art; it shows.
How do you spot the actors? The lead actress in ‘Adesuwa’ is unknown?
I have a project called Nollywood Project 101, designed to spot talents. I shoot most of my movies from Benin, and that is to give people from there the chance to join the industry. I encourage some of us to also do that, because it is not all about Lagos.
How long has Nollywood Project 101 been on?
It has been on for about a year now. She is a product of that. A big artiste was being considered but I decided to use her because she has what it takes. We took the risk and it worked. She has gotten a lot of attention and nominations. It is not new with my productions, so many Nollywood big names started like that.
A foreign crew came down to package your life into a documentary. What do you think qualified you for this?
To that I will say ‘Glory be to God’. But I was once told by a prominent director in 2001 that I had become the in-thing in directing. The guy said that after his reign, he passed it on to one guy who passed it on to me. But I looked at him and said ‘whoever is coming to take over from me would have to wait for long, because I do not intend to drop stop. I approach my job with determination and desperation. I am always striving to achieve something higher with each experience. I have always ignited my passion. I have always defended Nollywood because I know the potentials it has. I have been on CNN, BBC, South Korean TV; and others and last month a crew flew in from Japan to engage me on a talk about Nollywood. I am passionate about this industry.
What are you doing about raising future film directors?
On my current set, I have three assistant directors. They are there to understudy not only me, but also the members of the Indian crew working with me.
How much is it costing you with the foreigners around?
I will want the result of the work to speak for itself.
With all these, do you still have time for family life?
I wish I could have enough of it. It will never be enough, but I thank God for an understanding family.
How do they cope without you?
It is all about communication. When I am not there, we remain in touch.
If you should write a book on how to become a successful film personality, what would be in the book?
The person should keep his hands clean, have passion for his job and also learn In his office how to follow the masters. It is a pity that some girls join this Industry to position themselves for ‘prostitution appeal’. This is a wrong reason to b e in the industry.
0 comments:
Post a Comment