CHALLENGES AND PROSPECTS OF THE DIRECTOR‟S ART IN NOLLYWOOD. A DECADE STUDY (2006-2016)

Abstract

This study focuses on the challenges and prospects of the director‟s art in Nollywood from 2006

– 2016. This study problematizes the constraints experienced by Nigerian filmmakers which seek to emasculate their creativity and role in the production of video films. Towards this end, the study adopts historical method and personal interview as it methodologies.The study hinges on the auteur theoretical paradigm as its framework with the intention of understanding not just how these directors make stylistic statements in productions but also the influences and factors of production external to the director that contribute to the final outcome of video film production in Nigeria. To achieve this, the study sources information directly from experienced Nigerian video  film  directors  in  a  generic  manner.  The  findings  of  this  study  show  that  undue interferences from executive producers/producers, negligence by government and corporate institutions, absence of a legislation guiding the practice of film in the country among others contribute   to   the   challenges   faced   by   video   film   directors.   The   study   concludes   by recommending among others, the speedy consideration and assent into law of the Motion Picture Practitioners Council of Nigeria bill to forestall future sharp practices in the industry.

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1       Background of the Study

Today, the place of Nigerian video film as a means of entertainment, education and social enlightenment cannot be denied. Nigerian video films especially those produced in English have continued to enjoy considerable patronage in and beyond the shores of Nigeria. Along with this growing acceptance are questions as regards the challenges of video film production in Nigeria. Against this backdrop, this research intends to reflect from the directors‟ perspective on what these challenges are and also explore ways through which they can be alleviated; if possible totally expunged from the video film industry. The reason for this is that any film is a result of the director‟s effort, his point of view and his feeling which is why films are firstly presented by the name of their director(s), and not the producers or the stars (Sedat Cereci, 1). In some cases, efforts have been made to unravel these challenges as a whole without much work done to identify  these  challenges  from  the  specific  views  of  select  professionals  who  make  up Nollywood as it directly affects them. In particular, this research intends to focus on drawing out to the full glare of both video film practitioners and film scholars, what these problems are; based on the perspective of the film director(s).

The director, whether he explicitly controls all the subordinate work of a film or merely creates a certain context through his very presence, is the only participant in a film‟s creation whose moment of self-expression is wide enough and thus whose artistic vision may come to characterize the film as a whole. The director‟s very role in the film making process forces him to attend- explicitly or implicitly – to the entire film (Filmmakers). He shapes it and directs its creativity. Ken Dancyger submits that:

In each case, the consciousness of the director‟s idea is where progress begins. The competent director conveys a singular attitude about the script, be it romantic, violent, or victorious. The good director conveys a more complex, layered vision of the narrative. The great director transforms the narrative into something surprising and revelatory. Each of these options exists. Only the ambition of the director can elevate the audience‟s experience (13). By the same token Sedat, Cereci observes that,

Director is the person responsible for the creative aspects, both interpretative and technical, of a motion picture production in a film. In addition to orchestrating action  in  front  of the  camera  and  guiding  acting  and  dialogue,  film  director controls camera position and movement, sound, lighting and all other ingredients that contribute to the final look of a motion picture (3).

Contributing the roles of director in film making, Kim Jong Li in The Cinema and Directing states that, “The director is the commander of the creative group. He should have the overall responsibility for artistic creation, production organization and ideological education and guide all the members of the creative team in film- making” (2).

This is to imply that the role of the director in film-making is unitary and all encompassing in nature. But the way he plays this role can be determined by the society in which he/she is domicile. On this, Kim further notes that:

The director in the socialist system of film-making is fundamentally different from the “director” in a capitalist society…In the capitalist system of film-making the director is called “director” but, in fact, he is an agent of the tycoons of the

film-making industry whereas in the socialist system of film-making the director is not a mere worker who makes films but the commander, the chief who assumes full responsibility for everything ranging from the film itself to the political and ideological life of those who take part in film-making (2-3).

Drawing meaning from the above statement, the society is a determinant factor in directorial roles, artistic expression and the end product in film production which also implies that as society differs from another so are the challenges video film directors are faced with.

A study into what a contractual agreement between a film director and producer looks like, reveals that the rights and job descriptions of a film director include among others: monitoring and approval of the final version of the manuscript; appointing artistically executive persons, casting and choice of filming locations together with the producer; approving the production plan, production schedule, budget and marketing plan together with the producer; monitoring of the post-production works; image and sound editing, music selection, mixing, colour specification, monitoring of the image post-processing and approval of the final film form; The director shall decide on the final film form the frames set by the agreement and in accordance with the Producer‟s instruction (Film Director Agreement, 2-4). A careful view of the aforementioned brings to the fore the thought of what challenges he/she could face to complete the task of film directing successfully.

In all the work that go into his job, a film director gets most of the credit for his finished piece of work.  This  is  largely  because  he  is  so  intimately  involved  in  all  aspects  of  the  film‟s development (Fransworth).    Based on this, the director‟s opinion could be regarded as representing to a large extent, all the facets of film production and the inherent challenges there in.

Regarding who can be a director in terms of gender in whatever clime or society, the answer is that both sexes can be directors but it remains a fact that there are more male directors than females. This is not only in Nollywood but also evident in other video film industries around the world. A study on gender disparity among film directors in the United Kingdom film industry reveals that: “Just 13.6% of working film directors over the last decade were women. Only 14.0% of UK films had at least one female director. UK films are over six times more likely to be directed by a man that a woman” (Follows, Kreager and Gomes, 14). Furthermore, Follows, Kreager and Gomes noted that the reason for this gender disparity were traced to more of Systemic issues than unconscious individual bias listing these principal four systematic issues as:

There is no effective regulatory system to police or enforce gender equality. The pervasive nature of uncertainty which creates a climate of insecurity, leading to illogical and ritualistic behaviours resulting in the industry operating based on preconceived  motions  of  the  archetypal  director,  rather  than  on  the  their individual abilities and talents. The permanent short-termism in the film industry. The vicious cycle of individual bias leads to systematic issues and vice versa, so the system is self sustaining (79).

These systemic issues raised above tend to be the order of the day in Nollywood as there only but a few notable female directors in the industry and thus limits the voice of the female folks in what could be the challenges of film directing.

Whether male or female, the training of a film director which determines his/her philosophical approach in cinematic expression to a large extent contributes to the challenges that may be encountered in the production of a film. Attesting to this, Rosalind Nugent-Williams in her work Australian Film Directors and Film Performance notes that:

In Crombie‟s case, it appears that his original training in theatre, where he was steeped in the craft of acting, has indeed influenced his approach as a director- he is actor focused and his method involves collaboration with actors to develop character.  By  his  own  admission,  he  uses  Stanislavskian  method,  which  he learned at NIDA . In at least part of his key work with actors and accordingly his NIDA training has had a marked influence on his later work (59).

Considering the enormous demand on Nollywood as a result of the populous nature of Nigeria, the industry has over the years witnessed a rise in the number of directors who have contributed in one way of the order to the ever increasing number of film productions that Nollywood has recorded in recent years. Helena Barnard and Krista Toumi observed that “its annual output is estimated at between 500 and 1,000 films- with The Economists estimating it at as much as 2,000 films” (14). It is against this background that this research work intends to source information directly from the directors as regards to the challenges of video film production in Nollywood.

1.2       Statement of Problem

Every human endeavor is faced with challenges; the video film industry is not exempted from challenges which if surmounted, will contribute to its development and growth. There have been calls in recent times from within and outside the Nigerian video film industry popularly referred as Nollywood for the challenges of the sector to be addressed by appropriate authorities. These calls have revealed that almost every movie production in Nigeria is problematic and has been affirmed by practitioners themselves. As a result of this, the Nigerian film maker is subjected to many constraints which aim at stifling and emasculating the great role he could play in reflecting and expressing the efforts and endeavors of the people. These revelations therefore necessitate an investigation into what makes almost every movie production in Nigeria problematic. It will

consider the remote causes, the prevalence of these problems and mitigation measures. To this effect this research will try to proffer concrete answers to the following research questions:

–    Are Nigerian video film directors allowed to fully take charge of productions?

–    What are the artistic and professional constraints of video film production in Nigeria?

–     Are there sufficient and readily available financial resources for the directors to work with?

–     Are there other external factors outside the video film industry that pose a challenge to film production in Nigeria?

–     Are knownthere measures to you that are being put in place to ameliorate or mitigate these challenges that are faced by Nigerian video film directors?

–     What are video film directors‟ personal views on how video film production in Nigeria can be improved upon to enable the directors do their job without hitches?

1.3       Aims andObjective of the study

From studies, a lot has been written by erudite scholars as regards to video film production in Nigeria with little effort to determine challenges that emphasizes the perspective of actors, effect designers, editors, directors, etc. Therefore, this work aims to ascertain the challenges of video film production in Nigeria precisely from the film directors‟ perspective by sourcing information from experienced Nigerian video film directors in a generic manner so that by the end of this research, some definitive conclusions would have been reached with the view of setting out possibly guidelines for alleviating the challenges. In doing this, the study will

–    Ascertain the place and role film directors in video film productions in Nigeria

–    Determine the artistic and professional constraints of video film production in Nigeria

–    Establish the sufficiency and readiness of financial resources for directors

–     Determine the if there are other external factors outside the industry that challenge its productivity and growth

–     Find out measures put in place to ameliorate the determined challenges faced by Nigerian video film directors

–     Ascertain what the directors consider as ways to improve on their art in the Nigerian video film industry.

1.4       Significance of the Study

It is intended that by the conclusion of this research, the researcher will be able to unravel the prevalent challenges of Nigerian video film production from the experiences of the film directors whose role in the industry cannot be underestimated. The findings of this research are intended to serve as possible template for addressing the need of film production in Nigeria starting with that of  film  directors.  It  will  also  serve  as  a  reference  material  for  future  researches  into  the challenges of film production in Nollywood from the perspective of other film production personnel not undertaken by this study.

1.5       Scope of the Study

This study specifies on the director‟s art in view of the challenges and prospects of video film productions in Nigeria from 2006-2016 with a selected number of film directors who are recognized members of the Directors‟ Guild of Nigeria (DGN) and have been practicing in the decade in review. The study is hence divided into five chapters:

Chapter One states the background of the study, the research problems, the objective of the study, Significance, Scope, Limitations, Methodology of the study and Theoretical Framework. Chapter  Two  is  the  Review  of  Scholarship  on  global  and  African  film  practice  with  its challenges. Chapter Three entails the directorial persona of the selected directors. Chapter Four portrays the video films directors‟ perspective of the challenges of video film production and its prospects while Chapter Five concludes the study and makes necessary recommendations.

1.6       Limitations of the Study

This lack of a functional and reliable data base of video films produced in Nigeria within the decade in view which would have aided this study was a big challenge. In addition, there is a problem of limited number of research materials on Nigerian video film practice available in bookshops and libraries.

1.7    Methodology

In order to determine what the challenges and prospects of video film production in Nigeria are; the researcher intends to adopt the Survey and Historical research Methodologies. For the Survey method, personal interview will be adopted as the investigative tool. Emeka Nwabueze opines that:

Personal interview is one of the most effective means of obtaining pertinent information in survey research. This is because personal interview accords the researcher the opportunity of face-to-face  interaction  with  the  respondent.  He  can  ask  follow-up  questions,  direct  the destination of the interview to significant issues and seek clarification where necessary (66).

This research method is necessitated by the nature of the research problem and the objective of the study. Therefore, the researcher will engage selected Nigerian video film directors with requisite experience on incisive interviews that are designed to decipher the challenges and prospects of video film production that truly depict the views of the directors. These interviews will be conducted using a questionnaire validated by the project supervisor and data collated will serve as basis for analyses on the subject.

On Historical research, Nwabueze is of the view that, “Historical research deals with evidence. It involves description of past events, attitudes, events or facts” (57). This method will help lay the foundation for the study as regarding the practice of video film production in Nigeria.

1.8Theoretical Framework

The theoretical frame work hinges on Auteur theory of film directing.

According to Nick Lacey, the emergence of „auteurism‟ can be traced to Francois Truffaut who while  writing  in  Cahiers  du  Cinema,  excoriated  what  he  referred  to  as  French  Cinema‟s

„tradition of quality‟, films that were tasteful and bound by their scripts. He dubbed the directors of such films as metteurs en scene, those who merely filmed the script, and contrasted them negatively with auteurs, directors who brought a personal vision to the film (155). Truffaut‟s ideas were subsequently formulated into what became known as „auteur theory‟ by the American critic Andrew Sarris in the 1960s (Paul Watson, 97).

Thompson, Kristin and David Bordwell points that:

Auteurism sensitizes viewers to narrative experiments that expressed a director vision  of  life.  It  also  prepared  viewers  to  interpret  stylistic  patterns  as  the filmmaker‟s personal comment on the action. Auteur critics were especially alert for ambiguities that could be interpreted as the director‟s reflection on a subject or theme (382).

As deduced from the above, the director‟s ability to make the audience see his personal imprint on a given production different from what may be obtainable in normal situation marks him out as an auteur. Robert Stam in Film Theory: An Introduction notes that:

Auteurism took a different turn when it was introduced to the United States by Andrew Sarris in his “Notes on the Auteur Theory in 1962”… The critics must therefore be alert to tensions between the directorial personality and the materials with which the director works … Sarris proposed three criteria for recognizing an auteur: (1) technical competence; (2) distinguishable personality: and (3) interior meaning arising from tension between personality and material (89).

The first stated view of auteurism implies that initially, auteurism was conceived to enable critics engage only the directors‟ work in relation to their ability to make stylistic statements without regarding the process and encumbrances that are encountered by these directors in the process of doing so. Later on with the expansion of knowledge through further research as indicated in Stam‟s contribution, it became necessary for critics to look beyond the director‟s vision of life as expressed in films only but also consider what transpires between the director and the resources available to him (both human and material resources) which in one way or the other may have contributed to the meaning he gives to a film.

Outside the aforementioned views of auteurism, as a concept in constant flux, the Marxist hold a different view of auteurism. Patricie Janstovia writes that:

The idea of the author being the only and sole creator of meaning has been attacked. The Marxist movement took the emphasis of the individualism and put

it to collectivism. Instead of destroying the theory, it has been remodeled and reorganized with structuralism, a method also used by other disciplines such as linguistics and anthropology. Rather than simply granting the auteur his or her authorship  of  the  film,  structuralist-auteurist   theory  searched   for  familiar structures such as characters, or plot that occurred in more films through group and team effort (9).

The Marxist  concept  of  auteurism  tilts  towards  Stam‟s earlier opinion.  They advocate  that practice of individualism where in the director is singled out for applaud, be replaced by collectivism recognizing the other determinants that contributed to the stylistic statement made.

Contributing towards another view of auteurism with emphasis on the acknowledgement of external factors that affect film production and invariably the director‟s work, Erin Hill-Parks reveals that:

Although auteur ideology has its roots in structural and modern theories, it can be evolved and applied to contemporary film studies using post-structural and postmodern ideas.  Moving thinking about the auteur into postmodern concerns allows for both the abstraction of an author, but the acknowledgement that a physical individual exists who is also influenced by social and cultural factors. Culture and in this case film specifically, needs to be considered through the conditions of production… (39).

This opinion indicates a swift shift from the founding ideologies of auteurism introducing a fresh understanding of the theory in tandem with changing realities of modern filmmaking.Furthering this shift, Thomas Dorey submits that:

Contemporary auteurist scholars such as Brian Michael Goss in his 2014 analysis of  Steven  Soderbergh‟s The  Limey  have  recourse  to  a  modified  version  of auteurism which moves far from Sarris‟ subjectivity, instead acknowledging the

influence and importance of other factors of production external to the director or writer while focusing on the auteur in order to produce a cohesive study (3).

Hill- Park and Dorey‟s trajectory of auteurism moves criticism of the auteur‟s output not only about his personal stylistic imprint on the production but to encompass the entirety of all factors that contribute to the final outcome of such production as it directly or indirectly affects the director. Based on these, this study will therefore examine the challenges of Nigerian video film production from the directors‟ perspective anchored in the auteuristic theoretical paradigm.

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