Sound and Screenwriting in
Nollywood and Kannywood
Majority of screenwriters in #Nollywood and #Kannywood need to learn how to include sound cues during screenwriting and not during post production.
If we ask even those who claim to know a simple question about sound in screenwriting, they may not know, because they have not shown that they know in several of their film and TV productions.
Seeing is believing.
Many people listen, but only few learn in Nigeria. That's why we hear and see repetitions of the same mistakes in film and TV productions in Africa's largest film industry.
They still don't know how to use sound for characterisation in screenplays before the principal photography.
They just copy and paste soundtracks during post production without creating and composing any original score.
Sound in a movie includes the music, leitmotifs, dialogues, sound effects, ambient noise, and/or background noise and soundtracks.
There is what I call the "Ambience of Romance" in filmmaking and it can only be achieved with sound.
And what is the ambience of romance in screenwriting and in the atmosphere of a scene?
I am still waiting for the cinematic experience of Dolby Vision in Nollywood and Kannywood.
To me, any Nigerian filmmaker whose movies have not qualified for the Official Selections of the Cannes Film Festival, Venice Film Festival, Toronto International Film Festival and Berlin Film Festival is not qualified to teach any Masterclass.
How can you teach a Masterclass without the proof of being a master of the subject?
How can someone who is still having issues with the nuances of sound in storytelling teach a Masterclass on directing or screenwriting?
Do you know that majority of the filmmakers in Nollywood and Kannywood are clueless about spherical and anamorphic lenses? And they are teaching Filmmaking in some so called film and TV academies in Lagos, Asaba, Calabar and Kannywood without any certification or accreditation.
- By Ekenyerengozi Michael Chima,
Publisher/Editor,
NOLLYWOOD MIRROR® Series
distributed by Amazon, Barnes and Noble and other booksellers.
In acclaimed director Edgar Wright’s psychological thriller, Eloise, an aspiring fashion designer, is mysteriously able to enter the 1960s where she encounters a dazzling wannabe singer, Sandie. But the glamour is not all it appears to be and the dreams of the past start to crack and splinter into something far darker.