THAT NOLLYWOOD MAY GET IT RIGHT

Anyone familiar with the history of Nigerian movies would know that the industry (Nollywood) has come a long way.From poor interpretation of roles to poor editing,mismatch of soundtrack,weak and poorly developed story lines,there has been a splendid improvement over the years.

Over time,the lax and errors noticed in our early movies have since improved greatly thanks to the exposure to Hollywood and Bollywood movies,self development of some of the principal actors in the industry i.e.producers,directors,actors and actresses etc.

It would be foolhardy to assume that Nollywood should be at par with the likes of Hollywood and Bollywood movie industries bearing in mind that these movie industries started well ahead of Nollywood and have really advanced with time.They did not get it right the first time-afterall,Rome was not built in a day.They had to go through several processes,training, and extensive research to get to where they are today.

One can argue that the Hollywood producers for example get funding through crowd-equity,private investors, pre-sales agreement with film distributors,grants and bank finance to make big budget films like Hobbit trilogy ($623m),Pirates of the Caribbean ($378m),but their Nollywood counterparts do not have this luxury of making big budget films or to compete with high gross earning movies like Avatar ($2.7b)Titanic($2.1b), Dangal ($280m) etc.

Notwithstanding,Nollywood should get the basics of acting and film production right.

Below are some of the areas i feel they should improve on 

Fake accent

What ever happened to being original and Nigerian.You do not need to speak like an American to pass your message.If i wanted to hear American or British accent,i would watch Boyz n the Hood,Juice,Kes or The Full Monty.Please stick to your accent,language and our traditional parables.We like it like that.

https://youtu.be/Czvda4xD5vs?t=4024.https://youtu.be/OFOUO-4dP0M?t=32 https://youtu.be/PTe9wHH1gRw?t=4116

Incorrect subtitle

This baffles me a lot.We have thousands of English graduates in the country(probably without job).With as little as N5,000 per movie,an English language would do a perfect job making subtitles,trust me.I watched some films sometime back and the subtitling was rubbish.What is '1,2,3,4, both of you follow me,Mummy is calling you from the up,I came to your house,you didn't dey'.

I wonder if these guys edit their films at the end of production.Please get qualified English graduates to do the subtitles.

Soundtrack over conversation.

Okay,soundtrack passes a message in the movie scene(s) but when the soundtrack, rhythm overshadow the dialogue or monologue,how do you expect us to hear what is being said unless we read your subtitles which are in many cases fraught with 'mummy is calling you from the up-ish ' subtitle.

Jobless man;expensive apartment

It's only in Nigerian movies you find a jobless man living in a posh,well furnished apartment.He begs whoever he sees for N500.00 transport fare to attend a job interview when his apartment alone is worth about N2m. Does he get social benefits from the government? Or does being jobless come with a good apartment?

 https://youtu.be/l2x5icmRCjM?t=895

Money rituals

A young man(more baffling an old man nearing his grave) looks for job in one or two places without success,sees one of his 'oooold' time friend riding in a big car,living in a palatial home who gives him money,and he tells him,'don't give me fish,teach me how to fish.Show me your source of wealth,this suffering is too much'

He introduces him to one baba,or their cult for money rituals.After some time,repercussion and consequences set in.He loses everything then he dies.Come on.We are tired of this story line.Fine,you guys are trying to warn and educate us about the dangers inherent in money rituals,but there are other vices in the society you can use your movies to preach against i.e. illegal killing of wildlife,incessant collapse or buildings under construction due to greed and use of substandard materials by the builders,inability of a woman to bear children due to natural causes and not because of one witch in the village who has tied the woman's womb.You can tell us how a 14 year-old develops cure for a rampaging,viral disease in the society.Degradation of the ozone layer etc.

 https://youtu.be/R5mU895c674?t=3246

Cleric or babalawo to the rescue 

Don't get me wrong,we wrestle against spiritual forces and principalities and as such one needs spirit to fight the spirit in the spirit,but there are some things that we don't need the clerics or babalawo for.A young man looking for job needs education,experience and a little bit of luck not the baba. Or is this because our scripts are always about 'one person behind his case'?

https://youtu.be/o7lZ7PTw_u4?t=2184

Your gatekeeper must be saucy,disrespectful to  you and your visitors and there is nothing you can do about it

Every movie director tries to add comic relief to the movie which is a fantastic idea but becomes absurd when your gatekeeper or house-help in the name of comic relief,abuses you,trashes your visitors and you can't do anything about it.There are better ways to introduce comedy.We have comedians all around us.Give them a 5-minute cameo appearance.

https://youtu.be/E5B4TLak6L0?t=382

 (Dis)Honourable mentions

Heavy make-up to bed

Same story lines,different interpretations

Anyone that 'hits' money suddenly, is shown next at an uncompleted building inspecting his house/shopping mall under construction