Lagos – Paul Achebe, a cinematographer, on Wednesday said that the core practitioners of the craft were not being given due recognition by the nation’s movie industry.
Achebe told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos that the inputs of cinematographers were rarely sought by producers during movie productions.
He said that this loophole had always affected the qualities of movies from the choice of words to character personality, making them not to be balanced.
He stressed that movie scripts in recent times were sub-standard due to lack of inputs by professionals.
“Nollywood floods the movie-market with films on a daily basis, but the movie-makers are not concerned about the qualities of movies they push out.
` `It is quite unfortunate that the norm in the industry is to pick road-side acts that even pay their way just to be seen on screen.
` `Our job is to manage personnel and build the exact character that was scripted.[pro_ad_display_adzone id=”70560″]
“And when you don’t have a professional to help do that on a set, your characters might not play roles as scripted,’’ he said.
According to him, film producers are in the business to amass wealth than create movies that will stand the test of time.
“Movie industries in other countries crave for the development of their trade, which can be seen in the movies they push into the market from time to time.
` `I opine that Nollywood is only about financial gratification and this might affect the number of persons who will purchase our movies in the near future,’’ he said.
He added that the industry needed film villages to compel professionalism and standardisation as well as boost the qualities of products that would be coming out from the sector. (NAN)
