Gyo Gyimah, ceo of Phamous Philms, an outfit known for producing some of Ghana music industry's most powerful videos has described the recent 4Syte TV Music Video Awards as 'fraudulent', saying:
“the organizer (4Syte TV) and main sponsor (Vodafone) robbed us and made a clown out of the winners on the stage by promising to give out a BlackBerry phone for each award won, but did opposite to the letter of the promise”.
Gyo spoke to Hi Newspaper late Saturday, Dec. 4 at the prize presentation ceremony at Citizen Kofi Niteclub when the organizers presented one BlackBerry phone instead of the 3 he expected, for winning three awards at the MVA organized at the Conference Center on November 20, 2010.
At the 2010 4Syte MVA, Gyo won all three non-artist (or technical) awards- Best Directing (for 4X4's Fresh One), Best Special Effects (for 4X4's Fresh One) and Best Photography (for V.I.P's I Think I Like Am). “My beef is simple”, Gyo says “I was announced winner of three awards and I climbed the stage three times only to receive three empty Vodafone branded prize bags. At the backstage, Ignas told us each prizes would come later”, Gyo narrated.
“Tonight (Sat. Dec. 4), I came to receive the prizes but Ignas and the Vodafone reps. gave me only one phone. Does it mean all three bags would have contained only one phone on the event day if the prizes were available then? Gyo asked. After Gyo's junior brother and ceo of Links Multimedia, Charles Gyimah had earlier on collected the BlackBerry phone on behalf of Phamous Philms, Gyo went to Citizen Kofi a little after mid night to return the phone.
“I don't need a phone to use, I want the right thing done”, he told the organizers. This created a temporary hold up, prompting Vodafone managers at the event to intervene. Gyo said he asked Ignas at that moment if it was his idea to give out only one prize item or Vodafone's, to which the 4Syte boss said “it was Vodafone’s”.
“Vodafone Events and Sponsorship manager, Cynthia Torto, told me in the face that I was been ungrateful, but she didn't realize that 13 out of the 22 video used in the entire show were produced by Phamous Philms/People”, Gyo asked. “Some of the videos I own copyright because of agreements I went into with the artistes before production”, Gyo says. Explaining the organizer’s version of the story to Hi Newspaper, calm looking Ignas Hego, ceo of 4Syte TV, said “before the show and even on stage, every nominee was made to understand that each winner/person was entitled to a Blackberry phone”.
“Frankly speaking, we had intended to give out only 10 phones for artistes alone but Vodafone generously offered to give out 22 BlackBerry phones so everyone would go home satisfied”, Ignas said. “I'm not fighting for myself; I'm fighting for the industry. If out of 22 awards at the entire event, my videos won thirteen awards; my question then is: would 4Syte TV and Vodafone have organized this show without my videos? Jeez! someone show a little respect, at least. You did business with my creative job and I didn't complain, just respect my creativity and you think that is too much for asking”? Gyo quizzed.
According to Ignace, 4X4 won four awards, one of which Gyo mistakenly received (that's Best Special Effects) when the MC announced it. 4X4 were given three phones, signifying the group’s win. V.I.P won two awards and got three phones because they are three in number as a group. I don't' understand why they all did not complain but Gyo. I'm aware he had wanted from the onset to cause confusion and embarrass the award brand and my sponsors for his personal gains”
But Gyo says: “If I had plans to cause confusion and destroy his show, would I have first allowed him to use my videos, let alone showed up at both events? “The truth is that”, Ignas says, “Gyo did not want us to use videos he produced for the awards since the beginning. Before the show he asked me to pay some money before using video he produced but I never budged and hence insisted the owners of the videos, the musicians themselves came up to my office to sign Release Forms to indemnify us from legal actions before we used the video for any commercial purposes”, says Ignace.
Hear Gyo: “I hate to be taken for granted. They disrespected me in the first edition and I told them not to involve me in the second edition, but Ignas had to beg me to use my videos at no cost”. According to Ignas, the rules of the show stipulated that each nominee (artiste of outfit), no matter how many times they won, is entitled to only one prize package.
At the time of going to press Gyo was planning to return the main statuettes he received at the Nov. 20 show to 4Syte TV “if they are not ready to go by their words, I will return the statuette by the close of this week so they can now erase my name as winner from their records. I’m very pissed by embarrassment meted out at me at Citizen Kofi over the weekend”, he said.
Vodafone could not be reached for an official comment, but a Manager at the Marketing Department (who prefers to remain anonymous) confirmed that Vodafone initially promised 10 phones for the winners but had to change that decision to give out 22 phones in all. The prizes include SIM cards and various talk time packages.
[BlackBerry Curve8520 is valued at GH¢350 and BlackBerry Bold 9700 at GH¢750 at local Vodafone Shop]
