Saturday, March 07, 2009 Nollywood Millionaire Posted by Bill Benzon on 03/07/09 at 09:53 AM I was working my way through the TED* Talks, particularly those on Africa: the Next Chapter, and I found Franco Sacchi on Nollywood. Nollywood? What’s Nollywood? It’s the Nigerian film industry. It brings in over $200M per year and produces over 2000 titles annually; it’s the third largest film industry in the world (after Hollywood and Bollywood) and employs a million people a year, making it second only to agriculture. The films are made on a shoestring, budgets of $10K to $20K, and are produced in a week or two. Limited budgets mean the industry is built on digital technology, HD cameras and post-production on Macs and PCs. The films aren’t shown in theaters, which are scarce in Nigeria, but are distributed on VCDs (video CDs) and DVDs to be watched in people’s homes. These are movies for the masses: love, witchcraft, corruption, families, action, women’s rights, all that good stuff. It’s thriving. And, of course, it’s on the web (Google query). Nollwood serves up video clips while Making African Movies “is a forum for Nigerian and African Professional filmmakers discussions.” For example, here’s a discussion entitled “No Way Past Final Cut Pro?“ And here’s a long post on “Slumdog Millionaire and the Nigerian Dream! (originally from here). The author concludes: Ever since the success of the movie, most Nigerian have been asking to know when Nollywood would have their big moment as well, but I have refused to comment because the last time I wrote an article on the Nigerian film industry, I was called unprintable names and told to mind my own business by a Nollywood big name. But if it helps in any way, then maybe we should take note that Slumdog Millionaire is actually a British film (and not a Bollywood creation) simply based on an Indian story! But the lessons I draw from the movie are more for we Nigerian as a whole. First of all, the movie was made with $15 million and that by Hollywood terms is unbelievably cheap. Yet it went on to win 8 Academy Awards. The point being that we do not always have to spend all the money in the world to achieve results. For example, unlike in the past when billions of dollars had been spent to generate power in Nigeria, we should draw a lesson from that and make sure that the recent N303 billion allocation to power this year actually yields results and we are not left with many more stories at the end of the year. Both the Minister of Power and Governor of Benue State, have stated in clear terms that 6000MW of electricity is achievable by the end of this year and we would like to take their word for it. Another lesson for me from the movie is the ability to discern, go for what you want and follow your heart. A lot of Nigerian especially the young ones today, are clueless, career wise and even when it comes to relationships. Most people, young and old do not live for themselves but to please people around them. Like Jamal did in the last two questions, it is important for every one of us as individuals to be able to dig deep in the most trying times (like with the financial crisis now), take risks and be ready to make responsible decisions for ourselves. They may not always work for us but they are better taken than left undone. We cannot always expect to be guided especially with issues that affect us personally. Also, we were made to see that the power of persistence does pay off at the end of the day. Jamal and Latika were childhood friends and he had always wanted to be with her but one circumstance after another kept tearing them apart; yet he never stopped trying to have her to himself. He did at the end of the day and it seemed like the perfect time for the both of them to be together; all grown up and with a whole lot of money. So never give up because you may not have realised your dream simply because it is just not the right time yet. The last and most important lesson for me is the ability to learn from our past and shape our future. Jamal was successful at playing the game because with each question he was asked, he was able to look to his past and draw an answer from there. He was no genius but just a young boy who had a history and used it well to his advantage. *TED: Technology, Entertainment, Design. It’s a chichi conference held annually in Northen California featuring innovators, nabobs, and fun: “The annual conference now brings together the world’s most fascinating thinkers and doers, who are challenged to give the talk of their lives (in 18 minutes).” Some of the talks are astonishing. And some aren’t worth the bandwidth. So it goes. Comments PRESS RELEASE 2009 CHAINS OF CINEMAS AS A MAJOR MARKET FOR NOLLYWOOD MOVIES By Natty Bruce Idigbogu 08060470940 nattybrucepro@gmail Cinema is a major revenue drive for any country’s Film industry sector where venues are made conducive for the projection of movies to entertain, educate and inform the audience who pay to watch the movies. It represents the major market of any country’s Film Industry. There is a need for this proposal to take immediate effect to savage the Nigerian Film Distribution hitch which is now taking negative sides between the Nigerian Film Distributors and the Censorship Board’s initiative, tagged; “DISTRIBUTION FRAME WORK.” I think Nigeria Film and video censors’ board should look into this and encourage it as part of the “DISTRIBUTION FRAME WORK.” The Nigerian Filmmakers and distributors made the initial mistake of embracing the ancillary market of direct to video distribution to the detriment of theatrical (cinema), which is the major market thereby flooding the market with more movies than the audiences who buy them. I am not saying that there is anything wrong with ancillary right i.e. revenue from non-box office sources like: DVD, Network TV rights, Independent TV Stations, Pay and pay-per-view TV rights, Airline rights for in-flight movies, Music sales for film soundtrack, Film-related merchandise (toys, etc) and Book Publishing, (When a book follows the movies) what we are saying is that let the major market of Cinema be explored to increase the revenue from distribution. Any right thinking individual must not stand to say Nigeria does not have a Cinema Culture. What about in the 70s/80s when Cinema Industry flourished in the Country before the nation’s economy became so bad that Cinema Companies could not afford to buy prints and so many went bankrupt and some operators changed business. What do you call that, is it not culture? With this era of digital cinemas and productions, which is a lot more cheaper than Cine films, and now that Nigeria is one of the major producers of films in the World, with the right facilities in place to set up the cinema chains, making it attractive to the audiences, creating scarcity in the home video and putting up the right security, husbands and wives will take their families to see the movies in Cinemas before the ancillary market. Silver bird Cinemas, City Mail Cinemas etc are in the level of Cinemas we are proposing in term of facilities, attraction and security, but I advise them to show more of local contents. Nigeria is said to be among the largest producers of films in the world behind American and India. We must not fail to follow also their pattern of distribution by exploring all the avenues (Cinemas, TV, Cable, VCD & DVD representatively). With this you can control piracy and if it is well executed, you will gross your investment from revenue accrued from the Cinema shows and whatever comes out of the ancillary market becomes a plus and surplus profit. World Cinema’s digital Distribution of digital cinema films to multiplexes by fiber optic cable has long been the (pipe) dream of the movie industry. Qwest and Fox tested it in 2000. Japan’s NTT West tested it in 4K with WB, Paramount and Sony in 005-2006. But as of May this year, Adlabs together with Reliance Communication are doing it on a weekly commercial basis - week in, week out. From Adlabs Digital Cinema adds that it has also established a world first by becoming the first and only operator in the world to-date to commercially distribute digital cinema films over the optic fiber cable (OFC). Using the network of Reliance Communications, over 2000 digital cinema shows to-date have come from digital copies delivered via OFC on a weekly commercial basis. Films are encoded at Adlabs Digital Cinema Mastering Facility at Film City in Mumbai and sent over a 200Mbps connection to its Content Distribution and Logistics (CDL) Hub at Dhirubhai Ambani Knowledge City (DAKC) in Navi Mumbai, from where they are sent further via dedicated 100Mbps OFC to cinemas as far as Ahmedabad. OFC allows for transportation of digital cinema films that is faster, more reliable and more secure than any other form of delivery. With Reliance Communication having laid down 80,000 kilometers of fiber all across India, we could not have asked for a better partner (and it helps having the same parent company in Reliance ADAG), though the ‘last mile’ to the multiplex we’ve had to install. So forget hard drives or satellite. If you want to see the future of film distribution, book a ticket to Mumbai. LOS ANGELES — Sony Pictures studio unveiled plans for a new digital cinema unit to bring filmed presentations of Broadway shows, rock concerts and sports events to specially equipped movie theaters nationwide. The new venture, dubbed the Hot Ticket, with a presentation of the final staging of the music and dance extravaganza Delirium from Cirque du Soleil, which closed its worldwide tour in London in April. In September, the final performance in the 12-year Broadway run of the hit musical Rent will be presented. “Our mandate will be to identify the one-of-a-kind, and sold-out events that people around the country most want to see ... and present them to audiences everywhere,” Sony distribution president Rory Bruer said in a statement. Hot Ticket presentations will be shown in high-definition format for limited engagements only, starting out on roughly 400 to 500 screens in theaters across the country, with audiences paying roughly $20 a seat, Bruer said. The new Sony business is capitalizing on a sweeping upgrade of movie houses being undertaken by major theater chains and studios to bring state-of-the-art digital projection technology to thousands more screens in the United States and Canada . Besides lowering distribution costs for studios, digital technology is seen as paving the way for the introduction of more “alternative content” to theaters, helping exhibitors bolster sagging admissions, especially on weekdays. Sony is hardly alone in bringing such non-movie entertainment to a theater near you, but it is believed to be the first major studio to create a separate unit devoted to such content. “We’re excited to be on the ground of floor of what is going to be a new business for movie theaters,” Bruer told Reuters. About 5,000 of nearly 39,000 U.S. cinema screens are already digitally equipped, and that number is expected to climb steadily, said John Fithian, president of the National Association of Theatre Owners. He called Sony’s move a “confirmation that everyone in the movie industry envisions the cinema as a growing entertainment destination for a variety of products.” “It’s significant that Sony recognizes the potential for alternative content in cinemas by creating a separate unit,” he said. The Sony initiative builds on a trend that has been evolving in the movie industry for some time. Concert films have long been popular offerings at the multiplex, and the Walt Disney Co. scored a box-office bonanza with its recent 3-D release Hannah Montana & Miley Cyrus: Best of Both Worlds Concert. Landmark Theatres screened opera star Placido Domingo’s 40th anniversary concert in 22 playhouses last month, and several theater chains have teamed up to show auto racing, soccer matches and even Tour de France competition. National Amusements, the controlling shareholder in Viacom, has been screening high-def broadcasts of select Boston Red Sox baseball games in its Showcase Cinemas in New England since 2003. Digital Cinema; A digital cinema is a movie theatre that is equipped with specialized digital film projectors that effectively replace traditional film projectors. Digital Cinemas allow the film industry to create, distribute and project full-length feature presentations filmed entirely on digital cameras and stored on hard disk space rather than celluloid film. This innovation will allow studios to distribute digital data rather than converting digital films to 35mm and/ or copying the master recording onto numerous projection reels for cinemas across the world. History Digital Cinema is a relatively new form of film transmission. Until recently, most productions were filmed on celluloid film and then digitally converted using computers. The first film to be digitally recorded, produced and distributed was The Last Broadcast. It was released during the week of October 23-29, 1998 to select theatres in Providence, Orlando, Philadelphia, Portland, and Minneapolis. The film was transmitted by satellite and projected using DLP projectors. The first major motion picture to be released to digital cinemas electronically was Star Wars Episode 1: the Phantom Menace. This marked the first time that digital films were digitally projected to a paying audience. Although most Hollywood directors still film on celluloid film using traditional methods and cameras, a select few, like Robert Rodriquez and Steven Spielberg, have filmed parts of their films on digital. The first full-length film to be recorded entirely on digital cameras was Star Wars Episode 2: Attack of the Clones. George Lucas, long a pioneer in digital effects creation, is single-handedly pushing the industry to an all-digital medium. Many would argue that the future of filmmaking lies in the usage of Digital cameras to record, produce and distribute films; although it is not certain if there will be considerable backlash from traditional filmmakers who do not want to use this new technology. As of 2003, out of the estimated 150,000 movie theatres in existence throughout the world, only 156 were capable of showing digital films. (IEE, 2005) To date, there have only been 20 films recorded and distributed entirely though a digital medium. Technology Digital Projectors are slowly becoming more commonplace in cinemas throughout the world. Most digital cameras record at a widescreen format of 16:9, unlike the traditional ratio of 4:3. Most cinemas are equipped to show widescreen format films, allowing for a higher bandwidth and reducing the need to crop films, thereby increasing film resolution. The standard Digital projector uses 1280x1024 resolutions, and runs at 24 frames per second. The picture quality is equaled to if not better than 35mm film. Because of resolution restrictions, it is unlikely that IMAX films, which run at a higher resolution, will be technologically equipped to handle digital projection in the near future. The most common Digital projector is the Digital Light Processing projector (DLP). Instead of showing an analogue screen image, the image is broken up into millions of pixels. A large data file is made up of each pixel. Assuming that the average full-length feature film is 2 hours in length, the total size of the data file stored by the digital projector stands at around 850 megabytes. (IEE, 2005) The larger the raw data files are, the better the resolution and quality of the projected image. Advantages Digital cinema has a substantial economic advantage over traditional film. Digital film is significantly cheaper than celluloid film. If digital cinema becomes increasingly popular, the cost to make a film will become considerably less. This particularly affects low-budget films, and independent filmmakers who can create, produce and distribute better quality films for much less than what it costs to film a traditional movie. Distribution costs will also be significantly less. Digital film can be transmitted a number of different ways, all of which are cheaper than converting digital data from computers to film reels for distribution. The average film print can cost upwards of $2000 dollars. This digital master copy can be used to mass-produce DVDs, which are inherently cheaper than VHS tapes. Disadvantages There is one major disadvantage to the development of digital cinemas. The upfront costs to convert a standard cinema into a digital cinema are extremely large. The average cost for one theatre to be converted is upwards of $150,000 dollars. It is apparent that the slow development and adoption of this new technology is directly attributed to the reluctance of theatres willing to convert their theatres to an all-digital format. It remains to be seen if more theatres will be inclined to make the switch to a digital format without compromising their annual income and profits. NATTY BRUCE PRODUCTION; INTRODUCTION: Natty Bruce Production (NBP) is a film production outfit which is focused on creating, producing and distributing action movies, television series, documentaries and exercise videos for local and international releases. To be linked with overseas distribution companies. To have a pool of talented writers, producers, directors, stunts coordinators, researchers, casting personnel and all related crew. VISION To be the best of makers of Action oriented productions to educate, inform and entertain the world with the best of Nigerian stories and procurer of digital Film-making/cinema facilities to make it available and cheap to every Film-maker in Nigeria. MISSION To take the NOLLYWOOD to a new dimension through a thorough PROFESSIONAL AND CREDIBLE APPROACH and to leave a lasting impression in the Industry for the posterity to see through quality and professionalism. PROFILE: Natty Bruce Idigbogu Actor-Filmmaker/martial artist: Natty Bruce Idigbogu, CEO, Natty Bruce Production and chief instructor Natty Bruce Action film Academy which he founded through his knowledge of Martial Arts and film in the year 2003. Natty began his martial arts training at the age of 7. His martial arts education consists of Judo, kung-fu, Karate, TaeKwondo and Kickboxing. As his knowledge increased, he decided to take a step towards a career which will best utilize his martial arts expertise. In 1986 natty joined the cinema industry as a projectionist and later into film/video making. In 1988/89, Natty produced and released his first martial arts movie, “HUNDRED STEPS OF KARATE” which he wrote, produced, directed and starred as lead and since then has been acting, producing, directing and collaborating with other filmmakers in Nollywood in covering the areas of stunts, action and fight coordinating/directing in Nollywood movies. Natty Co-ordinated stunts in films like “BACKSTAB, LOVE WITH OUT LANGUAGE, AGUBA IGOGORO, GUARDIAN ANGEL, NEVER END, PRESIDENT MUST NOT DIE” “BEST OF THE GAME”, 30 DAYS, GREY FOCUS, KINGDOM OF MEN and host of others. In 2007, Natty wrote and test published a book titled: “How to write, produce, Direct and Act a great film SCRIPT” which is now under full publication. PRESENT PROJECT: Natty Bruce Production, a Nollywood based Film Production and Distribution Company has concluded the production of an action packed movie, SURVIVAL CV, and also has embarked on plans to premiere it. SURVIVAL CV is a story of a young man who joined the Nigeria police Force to track down the murderer of his best friend and also to fight against the bad eggs in the police force who joepatise the good image of the police force. The movie is written, produced and directed by Natty Bruce Idigbogu, an international acclaimed stunt director who directed stunts in Nollywood films like Ego Boyo’s 30 DAYS, Imeh Esen’s GREYFOCUS. Norway, GUARDIAN ANGEL/NEVER END by Ifeanyi Onyeabo and Zeb Ejiro’s PRESIDENT MUST NOT DIE. The movie SURVIVAL CV is starring some prominent Nollywood stars. It will be entered for local and International Film Festivals to seek for local and International distributors to distribute it in CINEMAS, DVD, VCD, SOUND TRACK CD, PAY AND PAY-PER-VIEW TV, etc. It is our hope that the movie will be an opportunity for raising the standard of the Nigeria Police Force and help flush out the corrupt officers who collaborate with crime especially now that the country is clamping down on corruption. COLLABORATIONS: Therefore, I seek the consent of corporate bodies, financial houses and government of Nigeria or even major production and distribution companies to embrace this worthy proposal and begin to invest in the development of building new generation cinema houses with digital screens and endeavor to make the place attractive, security conscious with theme park, restaurant, night club, etc. if possible and see how the Nollywood movies business will get into the next level. Natty Bruce Idigbogu 08060470940 nattybrucepro@gmail By natty bruce idigbogu on 03/09/09 at 12:44 PM | Permanent link to this comment Let me add that you need to know a little about a number of things in order to appreciate Natty Bruce Idibgogu’s Press Release. But that’s OK. That Nigeria can leap-frog over the USA by going directly to digital theaters is rather exciting, no? And the infrastructure needed to do that can also serve education and (tele-)medicine as well. By Bill Benzon on 03/09/09 at 01:08 PM | Permanent link to this comment I’ve just gotten a note from David Bordwell who tells me that he’s seen production estimates of 200 titles per week. That works out to roughly 10K titles a year, which is way higher than any estimate I’ve seen. If we assume that each VCD or DVD sells for $2.50 and each title sells 50,000 copies (both numbers I’ve seen in Nigerian sources) and then multiply it out, we get $1,250,000,000 annually, which is comparable to the (one and only) estimate I’ve seen for Bollywood’s annual gross. I’m guessing that no one really knows what’s going on. By Bill Benzon on 03/12/09 at 12:18 PM | Permanent link to this comment David Bordwell is wrong and most movies do not sell 50,000 copies. 50,000 copies is considered a hit. By raskimono on 03/13/09 at 09:00 PM | Permanent link to this comment David Bordwell didn’t come up with the 50,000 estimate. I got that from another source, which gave no justification for the number: naijarules/vv/nollywood_business/how_we_make_nigerian_movies.html By Bill Benzon on 03/13/09 at 09:26 PM | Permanent link to this comment I am also a Nollywood enthusiast. The talent and expertise of the people in the industry is really comparable and I really hope they’d be given the chance to show it to the whole world. By Nigerian Movies on 12/20/09 at 12:52 AM | Permanent link to this comment.
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