African Film Making
January 30, 2007 by clive
So, I’m hunched over a keyboard in an internet cafe in Accra, Ghana. I’ve been in the country four days and this is the first chance I’ve had to get online!
I’m staying with a film maker and we’ve been talking about the state of the African film industry.
It’s in a very poor state and Kwame is determined to make a significant difference — he wants to bring production values up to the same level as European productions.
The problem with West African film making is lack of money for equipment, lack of production skills and above anything else, there just don’t appear to people in the industry who really understand how a script works. The story telling is all done by exposition, the dialogue is sub-Mexican soap opera standards and as a result the acting is unique in its over the top, anti-realism.
Talking to Kwame it became obvious really quickly that micro budget feature production was going to really suit the industry here. They’re facing exactly the same problems most indies are, lack of production funding and no real professional industry to work within.
So, for the last four days I’ve been restructuring the outline for the feature film I want to do here. Very little of the original idea has survived this process as I draw on Kwame’s experience of the culture here. But, the new outline is good.
What we’re attempting to do is apply western writing techniques to an African story — then planning a micro-budget production, maybe for next year.
The plan is to mix some of my regular crew with Ghanaian crew and bring up the production values so we’ve got a film that will stand up in the West as well as selling in the vast Africa film market.
Anyway, it’s big task, but I’ve got another five weeks here to get the screenplay finished.
I’m trying to get online a couple of times a week — so I will be posting again soon.
The African countries each have their own very unique ways to get their shot-on-video flicks distributed. This may be indicative of just S. Africa, but as I understand it there is a big DIY movement where the filmmakers make movies, dub them, and sell them in the marketplaces themselves.
I think local broadcast tv is an afterthought…
Your trip sounds extremely invigorating creatively. I hope it goes well for you.
It’s a wild place all right. If you can imagine the entire TV and Film industry run by penniless indies, then that’s the whole deal.
I’m working on a feature script here with a film maker and it’s a blast.
In reality, if the guy here adopted the 1000 principles, in particular as it relates to getting a great script he’d have zero serious competition.
The interesting thing is, the whole digital revolution is letting these guys have a serious shot at have a film industry of thier own for the first time ever.
There is a whole industry in West Africa still working SVHA!
So when we’re talking about bringing HD film making here, that’s a huge step up.
Anyway, will try to post again soon!
after all am excited that somebody is taking the initiative to take african movie production to a deferent level. am a film edidtor, student for avid,in los ageles california,am glad you are in Ghana, cos am a Ghanaian too and the idear is to com eback to ghana and make Africaan, movies great.the weakeness in our production is finances, equipment and technology but i believe in this digital age we will get there befor we know it.keep up the good work. hey after your production get intouch i may be your editor.