Showing posts with label screenwriting. Show all posts
Showing posts with label screenwriting. Show all posts

Sunday, November 27, 2022

Message Development For Screenwriting

Message Development For Screenwriting

Having a Message Development workshop is a must in screenwriting.
- Ekenyerengozi Michael Chima,
prize winning writer and Publisher/Editor of the NOLLYWOOD MIRROR® Series, the first book series on Nollywood and the Nigerian film industry published since 2013.

I see the ignorance of the knowledge of message development by the majority of screenwriters in Nigeria.
They don't understand characterisation before writing screenplays.

To remember the five elements of Characterisation, simply remember the acronym STEAL, which stands for speech, thoughts, effect on others, actions and looks.

Speech. Characters' personalities can be greatly defined by the words they say and how they say them. ...

Thoughts. ...

Effect On Others. ...

Actions. ...

Looks.

Everyone who wants to be a good screenwriter must understand message development in character development to depict the personality of every character in the screenplay for a movie or series.

As a professional scriptwriter for TV from when I was only 18 in Nigeria, there was no room for flippancy in the writing of the dialogue. And I wrote for three years before I left to work as a public health illustrator for the John's Hopkins University's Population Communication Services (JHU/PCS) when I was 21 to produce fully illustrated booklets on family planning methods in the different languages of Pidgin English, Igbo, Yoruba and Hausa for the Planned Parenthood Federation of Nigeria (PPFN) in the 1980s and later became a national program consultant for the UNICEF in Nigeria. I produced a fully illustrated booklet for nomadic education which would have been very effective in the primary education of the herdsmen and their families and would have been used for the prevention of conflicts between the herders and farmers in Nigeria.



Tuesday, February 22, 2022

Poor Reading Culture in NIgeria is Showing in the Poor Screenwriting in Nollywood

Poor Reading Culture in NIgeria is Showing in the Poor Screenwriting in Nollywood

You have to be a good reader before you can be a good writer and you have to be a good writer before you can be a good screenwriter.

You cannot be good in storytelling if you are not good in reading and writing.

I have written about the literature of motion picture.before, but I can bet  that majority of the people in Nollywood and the Nigerian film industry ignored it, because of their intellectual ignorance of the importance.

Majority of the screenplays of NIgerian movies are intellectually deficient in message development and dialogue. 

How can someone who doesn't read novels, plays, poems and essays be a good screenwriter?

You can see the evidence of poor intelligence in sentence structure of the dialogue. 

You can see the lack of intellectual comprehension in the poor characterization.

In most cases, what we have seen is garbage in and garbage out (GIGO)

You cannot give what you don't have.

Many of the screenwriters in Nollywood are lazy to do research on the historical personalities in the film adaptations of historical biographies such as on Queen Amina of Zaria, Mary Slessor and Madam Tinubu. They end up with poorly researched screenplays for the film and TV productions. But the filmmakers often use good casting, directing and cinematography to cover up the intellectual deficiencies of the screenplays.

Reading is essential for screenwriting in storytelling. 

I was the youngest professional scriptwriter in Africa when I started writing for the puppet drama series of the NIgerian Television Authority (NTA) when I was 18 years old and I wrote for four years. Before then, I was already a notable young writer interviewed by the Times International newsmagazine for my play, "The Prodigal".

Reading improved my intellectual comprehension and literary abilities in creative writing and scriptwriting.

- By Ekenyerengozi Michael Chima,
https://www.amazon.com/author/ekenyerengozimichaelchima



Friday, January 14, 2022

The Top 10 Best NIgerian Movies in 2021


The Top 10 Best NIgerian Movies in 2021

NIgerian filmmakers produced over twenty outstanding movies both on film and video, even though none fulfilled the criteria to qualify for the NIgerian entry for the Best International Feature category of the 94th annual Academy Awards coming up on March 27, 2022.

The following are my selection of the top ten best NIgerian movies in 2021 based on peer reviews, film criticisms, awards and nominations and thematic importance, relevance and significance on contemporary issues of current affairs and history of NIgeria in the screenwriting, directing and cinematography.

1 Eyimofe by Chuko and Arie Esiri

2. Eagle Wings by Paul Apel Papel.

3. Ayinla by Tunde Kelani.

4. Juju Stories by C.J. Obasi, Abba Makama and Michael Omonua.

5. La Femme Anjola by Mildred Okwo.

6. Swallow by Kunle Afolayan.

7. Amina by Izu Ojukwu.

8. Black Mail by Obi Emelonye.

9.  Gone by Daniel Ademinokan.

10. Collision Course by Mrs. Bolanle Austen-Peters.

Notable Mentions

Prophetess by Niyi Akinmolayan.

Blackout by Abbey Abimbola, aka Crackydon.

A Soldier's Story 2 by Frankie Ogar.


Best Actor
OC Ukeje as "Chinda" in Blackmail
Best Actress
Rita Dominic as Anjola in La Femme Anjola.

 Rita Dominic is one of the best actors not only in NIgeria, but the rest of Africa and the world. She is one of the few actors I know who can turn a bad screenplay into a masterpiece.

The cinematic experience of "La Femme Anjola" will be more romantic when dubbed in the French language and Spanish language. Mildred Okwo should have the theatrical release of the French language copy in French speaking countries and the Spanish language copy in Spanish speaking countries.

- By Ekenyerengozi Michael Chima,
Publisher/Editor,
NOLLYWOOD MIRROR® Serie,
The first book series on Nollywood and the Nigerian film industry since 2013,, printed in Raleigh, North Carolina, USA.
Art and book design by Juvelin Aripal in the Philippines.
Published by International Digital Post Network Limited.


Friday, November 5, 2021

Sound and Screenwriting in Nollywood and Kannywood

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.

Experience Last Night in Soho in Dolby

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.