My long vacation here in ALABA INT'L MARKET LAGOS, NIGERIA, has exposed me to the numerous endless release of our home videos every FLEETING SECOND.
While a large number of them are ruthlessly low-rated movies shot within one's native compound with uncountable characters that ends up making the storyline a flop; few others are highly rated cinema movies with few star studded characters interpreting a powerful plot so professional that it hurts to realize that both categories share the same prize tag under the same umbrella- NOLLYWOOD.
Should all our home videos be tagged NOLLYWOOD MOVIES???
As T. S Elliot would quote " Immature poets imitates, Mature poets steal, and bad poets defaces what they steal. Onitsha entertainers are just the later- BAD POETS-
Do they have all it takes to compete favourably in the foreign market or are we after being the only movie industry in the world with the highest turnout of movies each year?
I don't even know if to call it desperation or hustling that has created uncountable pirates, reshooting already existing movies, or retagging already existing movie titles, copying movie titles and plots from their foreign counterparts ( no originality anymore), shooting impossible and incredible stories that are even improperly edited and the worst of all, splitting a 40 minutes movie into 6 parts or more for gross profit.
My business mogul friend Mr Peters Chiemela calls it 'ONITSHA ENTERTAINMENT INDUSTRY' I never reasoned it until my one on one encounter with those hungry onitsha producers usually merchants doubling as directors and actors who managed to have a few connections and enough money dwindled from ambitious wannabe superstars, ruining and defacing an already flourishing business with poorly written scripts, half-baked actors, poor audio effects and a heavy lightening effects that could land a photo-epileptic patient in coma for good.
And even release a movie which a typical Nigerian toddler would never choose over TOM AND JERRY!.
Xoxo...
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My long vacation here in ALABA INT'L MARKET LAGOS, NIGERIA, has exposed me to the numerous endless release of our home videos every FLEE...
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Nice one dear. Just like Chimamada will say... There is a danger in a single story. I know of a Nigerian movie industry which amongst poor economic and social conditions strive to produce some of the best movies in Africa. I know of a movie industry with people like Afolanya, etc who has sworn to make gold out of what we now have. Though it may not be as we envisage the Eldorado should be, but am proud we are progressing. The man at alaba may see himself as making money, but for me, he makes more than money, he makes Nigerian movies readily available to Nigerians. For once we are consuming what we produce, that's a welcome development. On the state of the actors let and story line, I know of cool movies like 1st October, Figurine etc... They are way out ahead of others.
ReplyDeleteYou may have seen a slum in alaba where movies are copied, I see a gold mine under escalation. Soon we will get it right, soon we will hit gold.
Thank you for your contribution. The fact still remains that ONITSHA producers are really defacing a booming industry
DeleteYes dear. I pray so
ReplyDelete