We shot the Nigerian scenes of my film "Dynamics" today. It was really interesting to say the least. My day started with a major part of my crew and an actress with a major role canceling. To replace her I had to get my friend Ranti Ihimoyan fill in with extremely short notice. After the first scene I had to go to the bank and there was horrendous traffic, my star,Yemi Okanlawon suggested I get on a means of transportation that's immune to traffic in Nigeria "Okada", motorcycles with drivers that have death wishes and I did! The next scene was pretty straight forward, except for the fact I had to get employees at my brother's law firm to become extras. The final scene had to be the most interesting, the scene involved a prostitute and my actress apparently had a flat tire and didn't have an extra. Given it was crucial to get the shot, we enlisted a lady working in the bar to be our prostitute and she was great!
Lesson learned: never ever, ever give up. Shooting in Nigeria comes with a lot of uncertainties, and that's the case in filmmaking and life, just keep moving and find solutions to any issue that may arise. Peace.
Friday, August 26, 2011
Thursday, August 25, 2011
A Road Trip...
I'm writing this as we travel through Ogun State, we are headed to Ijebu Igbo specifically. The reason we are here is of great importance to me, I'm here to interview my grand mother. I'm making a video memoir the future generation can watch and hear her talk about her life and get words of wisdom from her.
For this trip I mounted a Go Pro HD on our car and took time lapse pictures, the pictures are been taken every two seconds (I'll show you what it looked like). I started from when we headed out in Ibadan, Oyo state all the way through Ijebu Igbo.
Today turned out to be too rainy to interview mama, my grandma as we call her, so I'll conduct the interview tomorrow in Ibadan before we head out to Lagos. But I got loads of b-roll, we went to a few historically relevant houses, went to two schools mama attended, but the biggest adventure was when I climbed a church tower to get an aerial view of Ijebu Igbo, I asked the attendant if I could climb it and he said yes as non chalantly as possible. I went up, climbing some really steep stairs and got the shots I wanted. Advice for shooters, do whatever it takes to get your shot!
Overall this shoot was really cool, got the b-roll I wanted, even though I had to stride through red mud and rain to get the shots I wanted. My favorite shot of the day had to be a shot of a mother hen and her chicks. Also seeing the first school my Grandma went was pretty cool. Peace.
For this trip I mounted a Go Pro HD on our car and took time lapse pictures, the pictures are been taken every two seconds (I'll show you what it looked like). I started from when we headed out in Ibadan, Oyo state all the way through Ijebu Igbo.
Today turned out to be too rainy to interview mama, my grandma as we call her, so I'll conduct the interview tomorrow in Ibadan before we head out to Lagos. But I got loads of b-roll, we went to a few historically relevant houses, went to two schools mama attended, but the biggest adventure was when I climbed a church tower to get an aerial view of Ijebu Igbo, I asked the attendant if I could climb it and he said yes as non chalantly as possible. I went up, climbing some really steep stairs and got the shots I wanted. Advice for shooters, do whatever it takes to get your shot!
Overall this shoot was really cool, got the b-roll I wanted, even though I had to stride through red mud and rain to get the shots I wanted. My favorite shot of the day had to be a shot of a mother hen and her chicks. Also seeing the first school my Grandma went was pretty cool. Peace.
Monday, August 15, 2011
Impressed!
Today was quite interesting, I had a few meetings, but one really stood out. I met with a filmmaker who does a lot of creative for the advertising industry and I was quite impressed with the body of work he has done in Nigerian advertising. Unfortunately prior to meeting him, if I saw the same body of work I would have assumed a creative company in the US or europe created them. So in short, I was highly impressed and realize more than ever that there is major talent in Nigeria. Ingenuity like amazing set design, a make shift CGI room made out of a permanent tent with green sheets draped on some of he walls and from this they have executed major campaigns. All in all major big up's to the Nigerian creative community, we are going big stuff together!
Other stuff I'm working on: we are shooting my short on Thursday and Friday this week, just ironing out logistics now. Also, I've been shooting the Nigerian people at work, I'm realizing that the average Nigerian is hard working and I want to capture them at work. Peace!
Other stuff I'm working on: we are shooting my short on Thursday and Friday this week, just ironing out logistics now. Also, I've been shooting the Nigerian people at work, I'm realizing that the average Nigerian is hard working and I want to capture them at work. Peace!
Saturday, August 13, 2011
DSLR Filmmaking Workshop Lagos was a blast!
First things first, thanks to every one that came out to the workshop in Lagos, really appreciate it! Overall the event was a huge success, turn out was really encouraging, it just goes to show that Nigerians are hungry for knowledge and not complacent about getting it. It was great to meet everyone, people came with different skill sets, but I think at the end of the day we all walked away with something.
We had a casting call for my short film "Dynamics" after the workshop and it was great to see so many people interested, and I think I we have our whole cast and crew.
What organizing this workshop has taught me is when you have a dream, just take a step towards that dream. No matter how small the step you take is, as long as it takes you closer to your dream go for it! This is a small step towards my ultimate dream, but I can see the finish line. And big thank you to Pastor Kay and Pastor Nuel of Kingsword, they provided the facilities we used.
We had a casting call for my short film "Dynamics" after the workshop and it was great to see so many people interested, and I think I we have our whole cast and crew.
What organizing this workshop has taught me is when you have a dream, just take a step towards that dream. No matter how small the step you take is, as long as it takes you closer to your dream go for it! This is a small step towards my ultimate dream, but I can see the finish line. And big thank you to Pastor Kay and Pastor Nuel of Kingsword, they provided the facilities we used.
Friday, August 12, 2011
My first night in Nigeria
Hey guys, thank God, got to Nigeria safely and I'm really excited about this trip. One of the reason's I came down was to host a filmmaking workshop for my people and I have nothing but high hopes for it tomorrow. Something else I'm looking forward to is meeting up with people in the industry and collaborate on future projects.
As a filmmaker one of the things I noticed was that the Nigerian people really have a story to tell, case in point; when we left the airport, a street hawker was selling birds on the street, live pet birds that is. Really wish I had my camera, but it was not handy. But it's amazing material like that makes me just love my country Nigeria.
On this trip, I promise to update you guys at least every two days and I'll put up videos and pictures that I shoot. peace out.
As a filmmaker one of the things I noticed was that the Nigerian people really have a story to tell, case in point; when we left the airport, a street hawker was selling birds on the street, live pet birds that is. Really wish I had my camera, but it was not handy. But it's amazing material like that makes me just love my country Nigeria.
On this trip, I promise to update you guys at least every two days and I'll put up videos and pictures that I shoot. peace out.
Wednesday, August 10, 2011
Picked up Zacuto equipment and more
I'm really, really excited. I picked up the gear Zacuto gave us for the workshop in Lagos on Saturday August 13. For those that don't know, Zacuto USA makes amazing DSLR accessories.
I'm also really excited I received the GoPro HD car rig and monitor. GoPro HD is an amazing little camera that can enhance your production especially for car scenes, underwater scenes and in general action scenes. I'll be discussing this camera on Saturday. See you all!
I'm also really excited I received the GoPro HD car rig and monitor. GoPro HD is an amazing little camera that can enhance your production especially for car scenes, underwater scenes and in general action scenes. I'll be discussing this camera on Saturday. See you all!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)