By Adeyemi Robinson- Adefioye, Lagos
A Nigerian-British born actress, Oluwatoyin Oyenike Olabintan has said that producing quality films takes a lot of efforts as getting sponsorship to push out money for quality production is never easy.
Speaking in an exclusive interview with www.sunrisetimes.com.ng, Olabintan a graduate of Economics and Law from the University of Greenwich in United Kingdom also said it’s challenging enough as a producer, it takes even more efforts to get returns on the money one invests into movie production.
Her words:“ The biggest challenge as a producer sponsoring a movie is that it takes a lot of efforts to get the money for production and also ensure to get the money back in returns.
“Another thing is getting the right director, working with the right crew, looking for locations that will suit the narration of the production. Security is another challenge to face.
“Finance is another obstacle in discovering new actors and directors. Film-making is an act, its big business and making money is also a serious business but funding it, is a big challenge faced by aspiring film makers which is one thing I face as well .
“ Most of us put our money down to start the movie. Getting insurance is also a challenge, it is a risk that you take, when you don’t get it well. anything can go wrong ,
“Managing finance is also a big challenge for the film makers and another thing is the marketing, though I have not started marketing yet, but I know that it is one of the challenges our film makers and producers face.
“I never thought marketing is a challenge, but it is a big hurdle to scale especially for the film- makers or the producers who are limited by budget and contact constraint.
“Another bane of the industry is the lack of deep insights on the part of the producers.
Olabintan a former footballer with Arsenal Ladies Fc of England further stated that “Story telling is another thing entirely when it comes to production , you need to have people focusing on telling the story , In some stories they have good beginnings but the end is not interesting while another big challenge is being new and unlearned as a movie producer.
“Being a new producer is a challenge reaching the audience , to get their attention and get them entertained with your movie .
I am a new movie producer , I don’t really have much of audiences , I am not a popular person, so getting the attention is the hurdle I had to to scale through , the audiences would instead prefer to be entertained by known names than a ranked new-comer.” she said.
The footballer turned film-maker also hinted that in Nigeria, acting is a different ball game because when given a script the director or the producer would not want you to miss a word from the script .
Olabintan said another challenge in the Nollywood industry is getting the actors into the script to portray the characters the way it should be. Adding that for any story to come to life it must be truthful and believable.
The multi-talented Olabintan also shared her experiences as a writer, in her words; “Being a writer, I only wrote one book , the book is more or less like a relationship piece and one of the challenges a writers face is how to put together his/her ideas, for example a writer could know how to write but lacking ideas on what to write on.
“Lack of productivity as well can be a huge problem as a writer especially if you live in an environment filled with children or a busy and non-productive environment .
As a writer one of the challenges I faced is that people don’t read books in Nigeria and most of the books written are targeted towards Nigerian audience .
Olabintan who turned to boxing after her professional football career, emphasized that back in the UK, she has not produced any movie but has acted in some Nigerian themed movies and in an Hollywood/British movie, one of them titled “Gascoigne” done in 2012 and also a recent one called: ‘Hard to Leave’ a British and Hollywood gangster movie for youths where she acted as a Nigerian immigrant to the UK.
Comparing the UK film industry and the Nigerian Nollywood, Olabintan said “ there are lots of differences, the UK is far better than Nigeria in film productions for different reasons , number one, in regards to financial aspect , there is proper funding , there are different institutions you can go to for proper funding in the United Kingdom, especially BFI which is also known as British Fund Institute but such institutions are not in Nigeria.
“A lot of films are produced in Nigeria with low budgets and this in return have an impact on the quality of production,
“Number two is regards to renumerations, when you are getting paid , the pay is different for artists in the UK and Nigeria, to get good act in UK is like 800 pound sterling but in Nigeria, it ran to like two million naira or more than that.
The payment of actors in Nigeria is quite low compared to UK, another thing is that for you to shoot in UK, all you need is license, when you get the license you are fine but in Nigeria, you worry about security and most of the time, you shoot your film late which is very dangerous, sometimes we finished 3am, 5am in Nigeria , for artists to go home around that time is dangerous”.
I believe if there can be funding available for movies productions and movie producers as well from various institutions in Nigeria and security in place for directors to have more options for locations these will have positive impact in quality production”.
Olabintan also confirmed to www.sunrisetimes.com.ng that most of her movies would be moved to Nigeria very soon. The one she shot in the UK since February 2021, titled “Identical Justice” is not out yet, not in cinemas and Neflix but will be out shortly just waiting for the editor, director and the producer.
The prolific actress and graduate of Crossways Academy in Brockley , London promised that one of her plans in the future is to feature in the Nollywood film industry.
“Most of my movies are going to be in Nigeria now, I just finished shooting my production; “The identical Justice”. I have done the Nigerian scenes since February/ March, and I have also done the UK production. When I get to the UK, I would have it sent it to the editor.
My plans in the future is to feature in the Nollywood industry as a producer and as well as an actor”. She said.
