By Millicent Ifeanyichukwu and Chidinma Agu
Lagos – Two experts in Screen Play Development and Pitching Essentials, Messrs Emad Ahmad and Efefiong Akpan, on Thursday urged Nollywood film producers to evolve a national film culture that would dignify Nigerians.
They gave the advice at the ongoing 2019 Nigeria International Film Summit in Lagos while speaking on ”FilmLab Nigeria Masterclass on Scripting/Development and Pitching Essentials.”
They said, ”It is time that Nollywood film producers have national intellectual direction in story-telling.
”This involves the continuation of intellectual discussion of the Nigerian situation on screens and a national message device in their films.
”To do this effectively, committing time and money to research is essential and ensuring a high concept that combines romance, politics and music.”
Akpan said that coming up with a higher concept movie would help such films to be globally accepted.
He said that the film producers and screen writers should understand the themes of whatever films they wanted to produce and that they should learn how to transfer local meanings from such films to national meanings.
He regretted that most of the existing Nollywood movies were meant for TV Soap Operas, adding that the producers should move from element of entertaining to messaging.
Also, Emad Ahmad, a Pitching Essential expert, said that film producers should be realistic in the way they would wanted to present their characters.
He said that being realistic by them would involve moving from being static to being adventurous.
Ahmad said that about 99 per cent of movies produced in Nigeria were done indoors, while adding that they should do subsequent ones in fundamental ways by giving them life.
According to him, the suspense should be on the script and not in the screen.
Similarly, Ms Ifeoma Onah, who spoke on producing Faith-based films, said that film producers should create an avenue for church ministers to watch their films so as to have an idea of the messages such films wanted to pass on.
She said that this would persuade them to encourage their church members to support such films and watch them in cinemas.
Onah said that there was also the need for the films to have the right value that would make them appealing to a larger audience.
(NAN)