- Says Nollywood entering final frontier
Pioneer Nollywood actor Okechukwu “Paulo,” Ogunjiofor says the industry has entered the final frontier or the fourth epoch of its evolution where global investors will join hands with local ones to create products for a worldwide audience. He calls the fourth epoch, the Investors’ Market.
Speaking at the unveiling of the Masters in Film Production at the School of Media & Communication, Pan Atlantic University, Ogunjiofor stated: “The fourth dimension is the final frontier of Nollywood where investors from all over the world will come to Africa and Nollywood to make their millions because there are a few people who are trained and have the requisite skills to tell stories and drive people to the cinemas and create a lot of eyeballs that would watch the films at cinemas and then put monies and profits into the pockets of the investors.”
He added, “That is the rise of the final frontier that we got to in 2013, and then the likes of the World Bank started to give us money, and the federal government instituted what they called Project ACT, and a lot of grants started to fly around from all around the world. Now that the grants are flying around and the banks are offering money to an industry that they never took notice of before, we need people who are trained in the art of filmmaking and also trained in the business of filmmaking.”
He endorsed the Masters in Film Production for its vision of producing industry-ready graduates that would man the new Nollywood of global standards.
Ogunjiofor’s latest work is Amina, a biopic on the life of the legendary Queen Amina of Zaria. He identified the three earlier epochs of Nollywood as the producer’s market, the marketer’s market and the viewers’ market.
In the producer’s market, he said, “they were just producing films and moving into the market, but they were good stories, and by creating those good stories, Nigeria had a new brand out of the brands that were in the world.” In the “marketer’s market”, he stated, “the marketers in the market who were not trained in the business of filmmaking but had shops and distribution avenues in the market hijacked the market from those who were professionals and began to tell the stories to the whole world. That was when the industry got misguided again because they were now telling stories that were no longer driven by passion and professionalism but by gain and profit.”
Nollywood then moved to the next stage, the viewers’ market. “So we moved from that level and came to the place where the likes of (Mahmoud) Ali Balogun and some other people, who decided to take us back to filmmaking, moved us into the third stage called the Viewers’ market.
“Now the viewers market meant that for us to tell our stories and make money because the marketers had failed us, and the producers were not making money from the content they were creating. They realised that people needed to migrate to the cinemas so that they can then watch films, pay for it before it gets to the hands of pirates who call themselves ‘marketers’. So you see this third level was where we were as of 2009.”
The next was the Investor’s Market with expectations of entry of global players and the global competitiveness of Nollywood.
Ogunjiofor endorsed the MFP course at SMC.
Box: The four epochs of Nollywood, by Okechukwu Ogunjiofor
The first one was in 1992 when a few people gathered and made a film called Living in Bondage. It was just a form of passion that drove them to create a new platform so that people can tell stories using lesser equipment. Nobody was fooled that the equipment they were going to be using then – VHS machines – were at par with the big formats. No. But it was just so that there would be a new brand of filmmaking; a new way of doing the old things so video was introduced into filmmaking so that we liberalize it and demystify the 35mm, 16mm formats that we were using in those days and it became a global phenomenon; everybody could now make film.
That first level was the Producers’ market; they were just producing films and moving into the market, but they were good stories, and by creating those good stories, Nigeria had a new brand out of the brands that were in the world. You had the Bollywood, the Hollywood and the Nollywood but there is no other film industry in the World that you can call by name. It broke away from the norm of what Bollywood and Hollywood were doing so there was a new form of telling stories that the World was very curious about. That was why when the Dean was talking, he was saying that we don’t essentially need to change how we tell our stories, but we need to up our game as to the level of technicality that we put into them.
From that moment where we were telling stories from the Producers’ perspective, we moved to the next epoch called the Marketers’ market. In this second phase, the marketers in the market who were not trained in the business of filmmaking but had shops and distribution avenues in the market hijacked the market from those who were professionals and began to tell the stories to the whole world. That was when the industry got misguided again because they were now telling stories that were no longer driven by passion and professionalism but by gain and profit. So we moved from that level and came to the place where the likes of (Mahmoud) Ali Balogun and some other people, who decided to take us back to filmmaking, moved Us into the third stage called the Viewers’ market.
Now the viewers market meant that for us to tell our stories and make money because the marketers had failed us, and the producers were not making money from the content they were creating. They realised that people needed to migrate to the cinemas so that they can then watch films, pay for it before it gets to the hands of pirates who call themselves ‘marketers’. So you see this third level was where we were as of 2009. But by the time we moved from 2009 to 2013, the economy of the country was rebased, and suddenly the whole world took notice that what we were doing was very very essential to the growth of not only Nigeria but the whole world. Of course, when you go to countries like Ghana and Kenya, you find variants of Nollywood because there is something to base it on.
Now on this fourth dimension, called the Investors’ market is why I’m here. When I was told that there was an MSc. programme coming up, I knew that this is what we need to get to the fourth dimension. The fourth dimension is the final frontier of Nollywood where investors from all over the world will come to Africa and Nollywood to make their millions because there are a few people who are trained and have the requisite skills to tell stories and drive people to the cinemas and create a lot of eyeballs that would watch the films at cinemas and then put monies and profits into the pockets of the investors. That is the rise of the final frontier that we got to in 2013, and then the likes of the World Bank started to give us money, and the federal government instituted what they called Project ACT, and a lot of grants started to fly around from all around the world. Now that the grants are flying around and the banks are offering money to an industry that they never took notice of before, we need people who are trained in the art of filmmaking and also trained in the business of filmmaking.
This is why I am so excited today; that History is being made, and somehow, nature/God has brought me to be part of this event. So I must say to you, Dean, this is something I am very proud to be part of. I am happy that I was invited to. I can hear your words to would-be filmmakers or maybe some people who are already making films which are here today. I know in the few months and years to come, they will gravitate into this final frontier and begin to reap the rewards because you are trained and have the requisite skills. Thank you so much.
