Who defines quality? - Amaka IgweBy Modupe Ogunbayo, Newswatchngr.com
Published: February 7, 2007
Print Newswatch: Industry practitioners often say the biggest problem Nollywood has is piracy. How can it be tackled?
Igwe: Nollywood's biggest problem is not piracy but distribution. That is why piracy is rampant and thriving.When you want to distribute a film you must start from the cinemas, from the cinema you go to ATB before you go to video clubs. Then you go to home video production, before you go on TV. It is a whole fixed point distribution plan. In Nigeria the scenario is different. When a film is released, you jump cinemas, you jump video clubs, you jump ATB and you jump to the last one, which is the making of a home video. So you find that once you have done that, people show films in their rooms without paying the owner, video clubs play film without paying the owner, they do what we call cinema parlour in Warri and all those small towns. They are not paying the owner. So nobody is distributing. The people who are making films did not plan how to sell them, they just make it and they release it on video. And once they release it somebody takes it on and makes money from it and that is what people call piracy but if you market it well yourself, you need not worry about piracy because the pirates will not have the opportunity to pirate it because there is a distributor who is making sure everyone gets the movie easily.
In America, when a film is made, they pass through all those channels of distribution before you finally make home videos. So, even if people decide to take your work and make money they are not going to make one-third, one-quarter or one-eighth of the money you have already made. So, distribution is a major thing in Nigeria.
Newswatch: You rested Checkmate in 1993 and since then, you have not produced any soap in that league for over a decade. Why?
Igwe: It was not that long. Fuji House of Commotion came on air 2000. Soap operas are very difficult to produce and maintain; so, it is very expensive. If nobody sponsors you, you have to use your money. And it takes a long time for you to get a sponsor. For you to be on air for 30minutes on Nigerian television network costs N750,000. Who has that kind of money? People wrote in to say I should extend Solitaire to one hour and one hour is N1.5 million or N1.2million, if they give you discount or you are lucky as I am, I have a big brother like Peter Igho... who has two million Naira for an hour's programme? It is even more expensive to gather a cast including the likes of Richard Mofe-Damijo, RMD, Barbara Soky and others. It also takes a lot of time. Home video came in between and it was bringing more money than soaps, so who wants to suffer? But I love television. I love making programmes, which is why I am back at it. It is not that it pays me as much as making it.
Newswatch: You said once you love working with artistes and not with stars. What does that mean?
Igwe: That means I love working with professionals, people who understand what it takes to deliver a role, that is to deliver a script as different from people who walk around the air having their heads in the clouds with an exaggerated feeling of self-importance. When I submit a film for competition, there is no way that the actors do not win the categories for which they are nominated. There was an award ceremony sometimes back and we had 22 nominations for two different award ceremonies, this 22 and the other 22, all the actors were nominated either in the main role or support role, the best new comer, the best lead actor, all won. And they would win because when you work for me you work, I choose people who I knew have ability to work. They have the ability to break down a role to get it to the real stage and to deliver. I work with people who have integrity, if they say they are coming by 9 o'clock, they come, I don't work with people that I have to go to their houses, to beg to do their work. I don't work that way. People who are professionals, people who have the understanding of the work. People who are well- trained, who went for proper training and understand what it takes to be an actor. The example is a two-time African-American Oscar award winner who insists on going for auditions despite being offered the role already because he must beat all others to get the role to be able to get into the proper mode. Somebody like Denzel Washington, he is an actor, when he wants to do a role he will train for months. People who are Oscar winners, go and check their work history. They are artistes; they are professionals. They don't have their heads in the cloud. They don't have all these scandals attached to them. They break down the role, and they deliver and that is what I want.
Newswatch: How do you know someone who can deliver a role perfectly?
Igwe: I know, that is what I am trained for. I am a director.
Newswatch: How does a layman know this?
Igwe: The person will know, the person will stop seeing the actor as RMD, instead you will start seeing the character. RMD has been in a number of roles, but when you see him in some roles, you don't see RMD, you don't remember what he played. You remember him as Segun Kadiri as in Checkmate. They are two different characters. In Solitaire now, he is a playboy but in Checkmate, he was a wicked, hard man. These are two different roles. And RMD is a symbol of excellence when he decides to work… most of the time he plays, but when he is working or when he becomes professional you will know and that is the same thing with a number of actors. Another thing is when you watch somebody and you are calling the person RMD instead of his stage name, that person is not delivering the role. The person has to totally change. If you see an Oscar winner, you will know.
Newswatch: In your films, there is this common characteristic and that is you always alter your character physically. For instance, Teju Babyface is fat, now he is very thin and likewise Barbara Soky, a slim woman is plump in Solitaire. Hilda Dokubo was similarly fat in Forever though she is petite. How do you achieve these?
Igwe: With Hilda, we padded her up. Teju was slim as at the time we shot the film before he became fatter now. But we work on set, there are no two ways about it. Sometimes we tell people what we want for a role. For example, like there is a scene in Solitaire when RMD has to mourn for a while. We gave him time to allow him grow his beard. As it grows, we do a take. When it grows more, we do another take and on and on like that. This allows for a very natural depiction of his grief over a period in Solitaire. So film making is a hard thing. That is why I say I work with people who understand their roles, because they would even suggest what they want to do simply because they are artistes. When we were about to shoot The Tempest, we sent Bimbo Akintola to a famous hairdresser who read the script and designed a style for her that will suit her role. When she got there and saw the hair style, she started crying that it was not just her, does not suit her person. But the role is not about her but about her role. By the time he finished making her hair, she got herself into the character. That is why I said I always decide to work with people who know how to deliver a character.
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