Ever wondered what it’s like in the very creative mind of Producer/Director; Mildred Okwo? Well you can thank us for relieving you of that arduous task. In this two part series we chat with TASC’s creative director, and she shares her views on Nollywood and working in our one of a kind film Industry. If there are questions you would like answered by Ms. Okwo, be sure to visit the comments section. 

Enjoy!

Question: Nollywood is famous for churning out large volumes of films at an astonishing pace, why do you not follow this quick release model?

Answer: (laughs) I don’t have that kind of energy, that is simply the truth of the matter. My first priority is to make good films that many people can appreciate, and I’ve looked at it every which way, the only way to achieve that is to take a bit more time in crafting what I feel will achieve that objective. It is not like I have money to hire tons of different directors and filmmakers to be able to churn out good stuff so I choose to take a little bit more time.

Question: The Nigerian Film Industry has very unique challenges and filmmakers are usually forced to take certain shortcuts, are there any aspects of film making you are willing to compromise on, if so what areas and if not, why?

Answer: Damn! What a question? I say that because it is forcing me to confront certain weaknesses in my game as a Nigerian filmmaker. It is obvious when you watch our films that we are making compromises every minute and that is the life of an independent filmmaker, making films in Mother Africa. Hmmmm last film I made I feel I unknowingly compromised in some areas and it is still haunting me till today. I do not want to state where because that would be putting people on blast and I do not want to do that. However, I have learned from that experience and it won’t happen again.
But back to your question, I think that for now I do compromise on locations and sets because we are not there yet in terms of getting everything we want for locations. I have to work hard with what I have to make things work. I compromise on special effects and certain stunts for the same reason meaning that sometimes because of certain limitations, I cannot tell the stories as big as I want to.

Question: Could you quickly outline your film making process?

Answer: Ah it varies every time depending on the story but it invariably starts with me loving a story or script, me mauling over it for months looking through and making changes that I feel will make the story better. I typically would have about 6 to 10 trusted people from different creative backgrounds read the script and tear it apart. That is a big part of my process especially for Audrey Silva produced films. Some other producers may not want to wait that long. Once I get the script I want, budgeting and finding funding are next and so on and so forth. We could be here all day if I told you everything I do to get a film made. Another big part is casting the right people for the roles in the film. We are not a massive company yet, so I have to delicately walk the lines of creativity and marketability. Casting the major roles for a film is a spiritual thing for me. It has to just work for me to be motivated. My greatest fear is to put the wrong actor in a role. I feel like a failure when I do that.

Question: Is the story really King or are there other aspects of film making that supersede a great story?

Answer: Story, story, story is not only King, it is also the Queen. Story is the only reason why many movies in early Nollywood were hits. That is what got Nollywood the notoriety and once we moved away from writing great stories, many people lost interest. If you have a script that is engaging, there is no limit to where you can go with it. Just this morning, I was gripped by a story I was watching on AFMAG, the pace was so good that I totally forgot the many production mistakes.

Question: Nowadays Nollywood is informally divided into Old Nollywood and New Nollywood, is this distinction necessary and what is your take on it?

Answer: I am still trying to figure out what the distinction is based on. I notice a lot of Lagos based actors and filmmakers calling themselves “new” implying that they are better, but when you watch their movies, they are worse than what they are trying to distance themselves from. I just feel that what is happening is a natural classification of the work but people are unable to adequately describe it so they call it old and new Nollywood. The industry is continuously evolving and people will keep trying to define the evolution. Wait till Project Nollywood Act releases the Jonathan funds and we see the crop of movies made with those funds – I wonder what we will call them then.

Question: What is your take on New Nollywood’s crop of filmmakers and actors; have they gotten it right or is there still work to be done?

Answer: To tell you the truth we are all struggling to get it right and that is not a bad thing, after all Rome was not built in a day. The problem I have is when there is no growth or when people are so boastful that they fail to see we have so much work to do. I have been impressed with a couple of new filmmakers who have created their own styles and are working towards perfecting them. I like Kenneth Gyang’s work, he is promising and I like that he lets his work speak for him.

Question: Nollywood and the issue of funding, do you consider this a valid challenge or is it an excuse some film makers use to justify their less than stellar work?

Answer: It is a valid challenge. Film-making is not cheap. It is not like music where if you have good talent and some studio time you can put some stuff that shows people what you can do. Feature films cost money so you see many newcomers and even some experienced filmmakers making short films while they wait for the funding for a feature film or a television series.

The typical Nigerian investor needs to make their money back this minute and that is not how film business works. It takes years to start to reap from what you have sown, but when you do start to reap, it can last forever. So taking that into consideration you can imagine that many filmmakers need to make money back quick to pay back their sponsors, so they make films really fast and push it out on the market. However, I have a problem with creative people who now use this as a business model. I also believe there are some who can never make a good film even if they had millions of naira. In those cases, it is not about funding, they are not just good filmmakers period.

Question: When directing, do you pay extra attention to your actors, or do you simply assume they will deliver and concentrate on the more technical aspects of film-making?

Answer: I pay extra attention to actors because I almost always want the viewer to believe that these people are not acting. I tend to take care of the technical aspects way before hand so that when I am in production, I am mostly about what the actor is giving. I also pay extra attention in edit. Most of my time outside production is spent watching actors and their good and bad habits in hopes that I will have to direct them one day. I am believer that you tell the story through the actors, and that everything on screen is supposed to support the actor tell this story. So yeah, I am passionate about actors and the work they do on my set. There are films that people call awesome but I find horrible because the acting was not so good. I don’t care if your special effects and camera angles are on point if your actors are not convincing. That is definitely not my style.

*********Watch out for the concluding part of this interview**********