12 July, 2018 - 08:02 The African movie industry will experience an exhilarating transformation when scores of filmmakers breakout of the Multichoice Talent Factory (MTF), located in three hubs- Nigeria, Kenya and Zambia -a few years from now. The Director of the MultiChoice Academy in Nigeria, Femi Odugbemi, a renowned filmmaker says it is an intervention in the creative industry designed to empower a new generation of film makers. Bennett Oghifo reports
The Multichoice Talent Factory (MTF) will no doubt open a lot of possibilities in the creative industry, judging by the concept presented by Femi Odugbemi, who is the Director of the Nigerian hub of the MTF.
He talked about the MTF with so much excitement because he sees a clear vision that the academy could produce sturdy film makers in a year, just as a similar project called New Direction honed his skills, and positively guided the hands of Mammud Balogun, Amaka Igwe, and Joke Silver's about 20 years ago.
The multiplier effect can be seen in the excellent works and mentoring programmes that these creative giants engage in presently. The Multichoice tradition is to grow talents and watch them grow bigger in the movie and film industry. It is their contribution to the industry and they are very proud of that. Besides, it will help the company in content; they are a content creation company. They are going to have wide range of content on their channels, as well as content that feeds into every other part of entertainment hub around the world. It's not just Multichoice, because the competition can harness from there.
The MTF aims to train and produce highly skilled filmmakers, who will also be empowered to understand the business-end of film making. It combines the creative and the business in one curriculum and in one module, said Odugbemi, who talked excitedly about the expected outcomes of the Academy, during the week.
The students will learn how to produce Tv film or movie. The Academy is a dedicated institution where 20 students learn in a special curriculum the creativity, the business and the technology of film, which are the three touch points. The 20 student would be in a class for a year.
Odugbemi emphasised that the 20 students will be in a film school, combined with a business school, combined with a passion school and they get to network with the 20 students in each of the two other MTF hubs in Kenya, which covers East Africa and Zambia, which covers Southern Africa. Hopefully, in a year's time the Academy would have created 60 highly skilled film Makers, in cinematography, in lighting etc, and also people who understand how to pitch, how to crowd-fund, how to create a business plan, a distribution plan.
He described this as the first leg of intervention, stating that the second leg would entail master-classes through which they would connect with existing filmmakers, who are already working, who benefit from an encounter with someone who is superior in the industry, who has current knowledge, who has future technology knowledge in different spheres.
This, according to him, would enable them do a master-class in acting, bringing an actor who will be able to go through the three hubs and help other actors' want-to-be-like and he or she can talk about their experiences. We will also bring actors from different African countries to meet each other; we might do class online and look at how our lighting can improve.
The master-class will take more people, up to 50 or 60 practitioners, and this will be a regular feature over the next year. So, the Academy can be viewed as a place for different sets of people, such as new film makers, the master-class as something for practicing film makers. There is a third plain, a technology driven platform, a portal, something like IMDB, LINKEDIN, like Facebook that uses technology as a platform for all of us to network. It attempts to exchange knowledge because film makers can talk to film makers, not just from Nigeria but from across Africa. I think it is, perhaps one of the greatest investments that we can make, because how many times have I wanted to know if the way we marry in Nigeria is the way they marry in South Africa- can I write that into a story? Because if I could find something that is common between South Africa and Nigeria or between Zambia and Nigeria or between Tanzania and Nigeria, then it means I want to make a story or film. My film would find an audience in those places as well, and the greatest way to empower a film maker is to increase his audience.
For instance, Nollywood has do so well because it has traveled across borders and people have discovered in Nigerian stories things about themselves that they may like the world to know, Odugbemi said.
We feel confident that at the end of the year, all things being equal, we will have been able to empower 20 champions. We hope that the Academy creates the kind of students who are not only knowledgeable but also passionate, who are not only passionate but motivated and not only to work as individual script writer or lighting person but who has the ambition that in five years, in 10 years, they would form production companies that can then employ others, he said.
The idea has its strength in the hope that the Academy would create champions who have big ambitions and who want to, in 10 years' time, become the brand name of the industry and employ others.
Multichoice has opened a portal for entries for the MTF-www.multichoicetalentfactory.com- and prospective students would, among other things, provide a statement of motivation. The process is going to be rigorous, said Odugbemi, adding that they would engage the shortlisted people to feel their commitment. One thing that is key is that the students should not be distracted and for the next one year, they are committed.
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