Don harps on training of film makers for improved movie quality

Head, Department of Theatre Arts, Lagos State University (LASU), Prof. Sola Fosudo, has called on film makers to engage in training to improve on the quality of films being produced in the country.

Fosudo, who is also an actor, made the call during an entertainment stakeholders’ conference, organised by Lagos State Film and Video Censors Board (LSFVCB), on Tuesday.

Our correspondent reports that the conference had, as its theme: “Content Development as a Driver for Sustainable Growth in the Film and Video Industry.”

He said that Nollywood players and practitioners needed continuous training to build capacity and grow in competence.

“Knowledge and technical know-how are key to the transformation and development of any human endeavour.

“Our cinematographers, sound recordists, writers, editors, actors, directors and every personnel in film production need training and retraining,” he said.

According to him, hiring the right personnel in the process of film making is very important.

He stressed the need for language and oral interpretation coaches to work with actors on the right pronunciation of words and subtitling, particularly indigenous language films.

The don said that lack of film infrastructure was one of the reasons Nollywood had been unable to keep pace with leading movie industries in the world.

He, however, suggested that massive purpose-built studios and production empires, with state-of-the-art equipment, should be put in place like what obtained with Hollywood and Bollywood.

“In our Nollywood here, producers and location managers generally scout for houses owned by private individuals as locations to shoot movies and in most cases, stories don’t end well.

“The film and video industry deserves all the support it can get in terms of infrastructure, endowment funds, direct investments, production grants and more.

“The industry needs to be sanitised; associations and guilds should be streamlined, and anyone joining the industry should be properly registered and licensed to practise,” he said.

In her remarks, Permanent Secretary, Lagos Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture, Adenike Adedoyin-Ajayi,  urged parents to monitor and guard their wards on the kind of movies they watched and the music they listened to, in order to maintain their mental health.

She urged Nigerian content producers to work on children animation films that would relay the nation’s culture, tradition and heritage, as they engage in research and create educative stories.

Also, Founder, Zuri24 Media, Mr Femi Odugbemi, urged film makers to engage contemporary technology in the process of film making.

Mrs Anthonia Oredipe, Assistant Director, Directorate​ of Citizens’ Right, Ministry of Justice, Lagos, urged film makers to desist from producing movies with obscene contents, as such usually have negative effects on children.

Oredipe said that many children were recorded to have suffered panic attacks due to the movies they watched in recent times.

She said that the state had recorded increase in cases of rape, child molestation, gun usage and different forms of vices, all of which were influenced by the films they watched.

According to her, these vices have become issue of utmost worry to the state government.

She also urged film makers to desist from producing films which had no moral justification.

“Children cannot differentiate between reality and make-belief. So whichever film they watch, they believe it is real and will want to practise what they see.

“We can have good contents and still make money from the production of films when we try to be creative and deliberately meet these children’s needs,” she said.