The film industry is a vital part of the economy promoting growth and development. It has the potential of being among the best 5 earners to our GDP if we would take it seriously.
Ghana has produced envious films such as “I told you so”, Heritage Africa among others. We were among the giants of great movies in our sub-region in the sixties and seventies.
Over the past few years, there has been an upsurge of film productions from Ghana produced and directed by the known and unknown.
The quality of these films (both technical and content), how to improve it forms the basis of this article.
Firstly, it is ok to see such an upsurge of Ghanaian films or movies or whatever irrespective of it’s quality. As a friend remarked; “the mere essence of watching a bad film is even an entertainment.” The essence of a film is above all to entertain and also to educate or inform us, hence the numerous classifications, Documentaries, Drama, Action etc.
The American movie industry, Hollywood has also a record of some of the most tasteless and bad films ever produced. There is even a an award category for such films during the Oscars.
Hollywood is the benchmark and envy of every country’s movie industry. It has developed extensively and has been very very profitable. Revenue from the Hollywood has at all times remained among the ten most profitable industry. We must therefore not be intimated or scared to emulate use them as benchmarks.
To make sure film revenues reached above cinema fixed costs, film companies in the US transformed films into branded products. With the emergence of the feature film, they started to pay large sums to actors, actresses and directors and for rights to famous plays and novels. This is still a major characteristic of the film industry today that fascinates many people. Yet the huge sums paid for stars and stories are not as irrational and haphazard as they sometimes may seem. Actually, they might be just as ‘rational’ and have just as quantifiable a return as direct spending on marketing and promotion.
Between the seventies and the eighties most Ghanaians enjoyed their entertainment in an informal, haphazard and often non-commercial way. When making a trip they could suddenly meet a roadside entertainer, and their villages were often visited by travelling showmen, clowns and troubadours.
Seasonal festivals attracted a large variety of musicians, magicians, dancers and fortune-tellers. Only a few urban areas such as Accra, Takoradi, Tema and Kumasi harboured legitimate theatres, strictly regulated by the local and national rulers.
Osofo Dadzie among a few were all what our national TV station could offer. With the formalization and commercialization of the industry in the late 90’s , Osofo Dadzie could no longer live on the peasant allowances offered, they broke up! Probably their only biggest reward were the houses donated to them under the Acheampong regime.
The Ghanaian movie industry is less interested in comedy but for some humorous scenes as enacted by Agya Koo and others, our films could have been best described to be very stiff if not rigid. It is for no reason that the roles of stakeholders in the film production must never be under-estimated or performed by persons with little or no knowledge.
Imagine watching an epic film from Ghana with an R&B soundtrack or a King in full traditional regalia dating back to the ancient times living in a mansion with a plasma TV and all the accolades of modern times.
Whiles an American producer will spend monies to train people to speak like Africans for the production of African films, our local actors prefer to pick up foreign accents ostensibly to boost their inferiority complex.
The ability to enact a scene, or act to portray a perfect resemblance to reality makes a film quite interesting and a success.
But with limited resources and the absence of good legislations, we need not complain much on the quality of films produced in Ghana. We must even commend them for being able to come out with something to entertain us.
During a working visit to a scene production of a Bond film in Amsterdam, I was amazed at the level of input, both financial and logistics involved for just a 3-minutes production. The director spent hours to get what he wanted. I could not compute the exact hotel costs alone for the over technical 25 crew members.
In Ghana, corporate bodies and other institutions have not reached a stage where they can pump monies into our movie industries. Investors or even banks are unwilling to assist. Even those who provide some meagre funding or sponsorship make mega demands such as an over exposure of their products or services which overtly makes a film looses it’s taste.
So all what a disappointed producer cum director as it is in most cases can do is to scribble an idea onto some paper and produce an ad-hoc film to make ends meet. It is out of shear luck that a profit can be made! In some cases, when the producer/director has invested extra time and input, his film is pirated causing serious losses. Nowadays, works of others are abusively infringed and place on the internet for everyone watch for free! These same people will then criticize their works forgetting that no income = poor funding for future films.
Hence most of our producers have resorted to produce whatever will fetch them some income to live. I know of some producers who conceive ideas on Thursday, film during the weekend, edit and duplicate immediately and release on Wednesday for sale with a budget of about €1500.00. Once revenue exceeds their input, they are ok! Revenue generating mechanisms such as , cinema, marketing and distribution are out of the question.
Recently I read that NAFTI organized courses for stakeholders but to my dismay, none of the known producers names appeared on the list of attendees. Ghana needs prolific persons to revolutionize our film industry, we need people with expertise who can repair the lost reputation and win the confidence of financiers to help produce better films.
To generate good revenue, we must among others consider marketing our films beyond our borders, how can we achieve this when our films cannot be identified with the true reflection of ourselves? We can’t pretend to produce American films when we cannot even act it well and expect good revenue returns.
Kwaw Ansah took a wrong business direction when he decided to enter into Television Production. He could have saved Ghana from the hands of our numerous “concert party” productions on tape called Films. It’s not too late Papa Ansah, please save us!
Even our favourite Osofo Dadzie team could have entertained us better if they had decided to produce film versions of their chilling productions. Abbysinia among many was a stunning production that is loved to be watched over and over again.
To our government institutions, the least said, the better. In one word we can say, they are very IGNORANT about the industry.
Leaders of the film industry in Ghana will need to put up a business plan and hire lobbyists to propel their plans for proper legislations that will enhance their works. Dining with presidential aspirants is not an answer to your problems.
The film industry in Ghana needs to be given the best support it deserves but it must first tidy up it’s internal affairs.
In Hollywood where there are numerous unions or associations such as the Screenwriters Association, Directors Guild etc., our country has one organisation called The Ghana Film Actors Guild. Arguably, there might be nothing wrong in forming one organisation to steer the affairs of the entire film industry unless it’s mandate and operations are found to be ineffective, lacks innovation, serves no meaningful purposes to the industry and/or it’s members.
Directors., producers, actors and other stake holders are all members of this group, actors are not well managed, there are no proper contracts and the entire industry is in shambles!
The independence and self esteem of the actors, technical team or even the directors and producers are unduly compromised. It’s like you scratch my back, I scratch yours; all at the expense of producing an ailing industry.
Advocates of a better regime are sanctioned and subjected to sabotage. No actor/actress dare challenge the decision of a producer or director. As a director puts it, we made you and we can destroy you!
Our industry cannot even honour it’s own work and personalities. Members endure a humiliation trip to neighbouring Nigeria to be told that they have done well in sub-categories!
We have had and still have good personalities others envy, the late Alexandra Duah & Araba Stamp, Anima Misa, Super OD just to mention a few.
As Obama said, “Yes we can, we can change it if we believe in it!”
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