Small Camera with Big Dreams Versus Big Camera with Small Imagination

Reading in Motion" showing #Nollywood actress,, Celina James reading, "Conspiracy of Lagos" by Bisi Daniels in my documentary film, "Lagos in Motion".

Small Camera with Big Dreams Versus Big Camera with Small Imagination

It is better to have a small camera with big dreams than to have a big camera with small Imagination.

What makes a great filmmaker and photographer is not the size of the camera, but the size of the Imagination.

Without cinematography, there is no cinema. 

What has really affected the quality of film productions in Nollywood is the lack of enough professional cinematographers. 

From the first 60 seconds of a movie, you can see if the cinematography is good or bad.

What will guarantee the picture quality of a movie are the technical quality of the camera; the professional expertise of the cameraman or camerawoman and the expertise of the cinematographer.

Years ago, as a member of the Digital Cinema Society founded by James Mathers, I started the Nollywood Digital blog to announce and introduce new digital cinema cameras to Nigerian filmmakers to keep them updated on the best cameras for the best film and TV productions. I also proposed a quarterly Nollywood Digital Cinema Exhibition for hands-on demonstrations of the cameras and screenings of award winning movies shot with the cameras.

The most popular cameras in Nollywood are from Sony, BlackMagic Design and Canon. 

It is important for these manufacturers to have regular demonstrations of their cameras like Sony Middle East and Africa in collaboration with Kontakt Pro Nigeria Ltd had in Nigeria last September, 2022, showcasing the Cinema Line FX3, FX6 and the FX9 full-frame digital cameras.

Sony has recommended the new FX30 as an ideal choice for filmmakers actively working on or considering entering the Sony Future Filmmaker Awards, a major new annual awards program for short films. www.sonyfuturefilmmakerawards.com 

- By Ekenyerengozi Michael Chima,

Publisher/Editor,

NOLLYWOOD MIRROR® Series,

Founder/CEO,

International Digital Post Network Limited,

Screen Outdoor Open Air Cinema (SOOAC)

Vuulr Program Partner

Cinewav Affiliate Partner

What Matters Most in Filmmaking?

"What matters most in filmmaking is not the size of your camera, but the size of your imagination."

- Ekenyerengozi Michael Chima,
Publisher/Editor,
NOLLYWOOD MIRROR® Series,
The first book series on Nollywood and the Nigerian film industry since 2013.

Case study: Mami Wata: Directed by C.J. 'Fiery' Obasi.

Winner of the World Cinema Dramatic Special Jury Award for Cinematography at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival, USA.

Mami Wata won the PRIX DE LA CRITIQUE Pauline S. Vieyra (African Critics Award) at the Special Awards Gala.Next, the drama received the MEILLEUR IMAGE (Cinematography Award) and finally the MEILLEUR DÉCOR (Set Design Award) at the Closing Awards Ceremony of the 2023 Panafrican Film and Television Festival of Ouagadougou (Festival panafricain du cinéma et de la télévision de Ouagadougou or FESPACO) on March 4, 2023, in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso.

Complete list of winners of the 28the FESPACO
 
FICTION FEATURE FILM
– Golden Stallion of Yennenga: “Ashkal” by Youssef Chebbi (Tunisia)
– Silver Stallion: “Sira”, by Apolline Traoré (Burkina Faso)
– Bronze Stallion: “Shimoni” by Angela Wamai (Kenya)
– Best Performance by an actor: the whole cast of “Sous les figues” by Erige Sehiri (Tunisia)
– Best Actress: All the actresses of “Sous les figues” by Erige Sehiri (Tunisia)
– Best set design: “Mami Wata” by Fiery Obasi (Nigeria)
– Best editing: “Abu Saddam” by Nadine Khan (Egypt)
– Best Screenplay: “Le Bleu du caftan” by Maryam Touzani (Morocco)
– Image Award: “Mami Wata” by Fiery Obasi (Nigeria)
– Sound Award: “Ashkal” by Youssef Chebbi (Tunisia)
– Best Music: “Our Lady of the Chinese Shop” by Ery Claver (Angola)
– Special Mention of the Jury: “Regarde les étoiles” by David Constantin (Mauritius)
FICTION SHORT FILM
– Golden Foal Short Fiction: “Will my parents come to see me” by Mo Harawe (Somalia)
– Silver foal short fiction : ” A doll ” by Andriaminosa Hary and Joel Rakotovelo (Madagascar)
– Bronze foal short fiction: “Tsutsue” by Amartei Armar (Ghana)
DOCUMENTARIES
– Golden Stallion feature documentary: “Omi Nobu/L’Homme nouveau” by Carlos Yuri Ceuninck (Cape Verde)
– Silver Stallion feature documentary: “Nous, étudiants” by Rafiki Fariala (Central African Republic)
– Bronze Stallion feature-length documentary: “Guardian of the Worlds” by Leïla Chaïbi (Algeria)

– Golden Foal short documentary: “Angle mort” by Lofti Achour (Tunisia)
– Silver foal short documentary: “Katanga nation” by Beza Hailu Lemma (Ethiopia)
– Bronze Foal short documentary: “Kelasi” by Fransix Tenda Lomba (DRC)
– Special Mention of the Jury: “L’Envoyée de Dieu” by Amina Mamani (Niger) and “Cuba en Afrique” by Negash Abdurahman (Ethiopia)
PERSPECTIVES SECTION
– Paul Robeson Award to the feature documentary “The Spectre of Boko Haram” by Cyrielle Raingou (Cameroon)
BURKINA FASO SECTION
– Best Burkinabe film: “Laabli l’insaisissable” by Luc Youlouka Damiba.
– Best Burkinabe hopeful: “Le Botaniste” by Floriane Zoundi

 

What Makes A Great Movie?

Hundreds of thousands of movies of different genres have been made since  the Skladanowsky brothers who used their self-made Bioscop to display the first moving picture show to a paying audience on November 1, 1895 in Berlin to the Lumière brothers who showed their short films in Paris on December 28, 1895 .

What Makes A Great Movie?

What makes a great movie is not the size of your camera;

It is not the size of your cast;

It is not the size of your crew;

It is not the size of your budget;

But the size of your IMAGINATION.

- Ekenyerengozi Michael Chima,

Artist, writer, filmmaker and publisher.

Author of "Children of Heaven", "Scarlet Tears of London", "Bye, Bye Mugabe", "In the House of Dogs", "Diary of the Memory Keeper", "The Prophet Lied",  "The Victory of Muhammadu Buhari and the Nigerian Dream" and co-author with Dr. Chika Christian Onu of "Naked Beauty", the first Nigerian screenplay published for commercial distribution.

One of Chima's most popular short stories, "Daughter of a Beggar" is included as "Beggar's Daughter" in the critically acclaimed "CAMOUFLAGE: Best of Contemporary Writing from Nigeria".

What You Need Most To Make A Great Movie

#movies

#filmmaking

#cinema

#filmmakers

#budget

#actors

#Bollywood

#Hollywood

#Nolllywood

#Netflix

What You Need Most To Make A Great Movie 

"My mentor said what you need most to make a great movie are not big cameras, not big budget, not big cast, not big crew and not a big story. But a Big Imagination."

- Success Iyoha, from Benin City, Edo State, NIGERIA.

Case Study:

The Blair Witch Project is a 1999 American supernatural horror film written, directed and edited by Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sánchez. It is a fictional story of three student filmmakers—Heather Donahue, Michael C. Williams, and Joshua Leonard—who hike into the Black Hills near Burkittsville, Maryland in 1994 to film a documentary about a local legend known as the Blair Witch. The three disappear, but their equipment and footage are discovered a year later. The purportedly "recovered footage" is the film the viewer sees. Myrick and Sánchez conceived of a fictional legend of the Blair Witch in 1993. They developed a 35-page screenplay with the dialogue to be improvised. A casting call advertisement in Backstage magazine was prepared by the directors; Donahue, Williams and Leonard were cast. The film entered production in October 1997, with the principal photography taking place in Maryland for eight days. About 20 hours of footage was shot, which was edited down to 82 minutes. Shot on an original budget of $35,000–60,000, the film had a final cost of $200,000–750,000 after post-production edits.

Budget

$200,000–500,000

Box office

$248.6 million