A tongue-in-cheek take of the movie scene
Can you believe it’s a little more than a week since the epic African Magic Viewers Choice Awards (AMVCA)? As you look back on those unforgettable moments from the dazzling outfits on the red carpet, to your favorite actor busting out some celebratory moves, and the crowd going wild! Why not take a moment to dive into what truly makes a great film stand out? Personally, I think grasping this might cushion the blow if your fave does not snag the award.
From analysing over 20,000 films with my significant other(s) (LOL) I can say confidently that a good film succeeds for these four reasons.
The Story
A huge part of a film’s success is its story. What is the story? How much thought has gone into mapping the story logic? How does an audience connect with it? What emotions do your theme elicit? A filmmaker may or may not have fancy cameras or crew but with a well-constructed story, they’re half way there. Kunle Afolayan’s Figurine and Ramsey Noah’s reboot of the classic – Living In Bondage, lives forever in this category. 2015 Sundance favorite Tangerine; succeeded for the same reason. It explores a topical theme and was shot entirely on three iPhone 5S smartphones but the niche audience connected with the protagonist’s struggles over one day in film time.
Presentation
How do the scenes connect? How do the actors deliver their roles? Where is the camera pointing? What story is the sound telling? Art style and direction? Costumes? … and so on. All these aspects play a pivotal role in bringing a story to the screen. In an age where casting directors fish from the same actor pool and shoot with the same 4K cameras, good cinematography is no longer enough. It is why Breath of Life got all the awards this year, Jagun Jagun as well. They combined many elements together to tell their stories. A good story will struggle if it is poorly presented. More importantly, a good film needs time – time to think it through, time to critic it, time to write and re-write before it finally hits the big screen. Watching a well-presented story appeals to our innate desire for beauty and further endears the audience to the story. It is why the 2019 Academy Award favourite – Parasite by Bong Joon-Ho is unforgettable.
Nuance
The human mind desires to unravel things. It wants to go on the journey and figure things out by itself. It delights in those aha moments. How it does that successfully through film is by engaging with the nuances. What is unsaid or unshown in the film, and how and when does the audience figure it out? Nuance is what separates ‘meh’ films from truly great films. It is why I love Death & The King Horseman. It is why Star Wars has survived 4 decades and filmmakers still talk about Lawrence of Arabia from 1962. It is why we have built temples to worship Tunde Kelani, Steven Spielberg, and Quentin Tarantino; and why Todd Phillips’ hit the sweet spot with The Joker. Nuance is where a story crosses over from good to great.
Marketing
This is the part of filmmaking that may not be as obvious to audiences. Press conferences, magazine interviews, actors’ ‘scandals’ coming out a few weeks before the release date … these are not merely random occurrences. They are strategic and when it succeeds, an ordinary film can become the talk of the town (if only for the time being.) Where marketing fails, even a great film won’t reach the critical mass it needs to reach to gain wide acceptance.
Take the all-time 1994 classic Shawshank Redemption for instance. It bombed at the box office netting only 64% of its budget and it didn’t catch on until much later after its release when word began to spread about the story and the phenomenal performance of the actors. Marketing is what actors/producers like Funke Akindele have perfected. It is why you talk about their films. Whenever we talk about film marketing success no film comes close to the 1999 film – The Blairwitch Project. $60,000 budget, film rights acquired for $1.1m, repackaged with $750,000, promoted with $25m; grossed $250m. The Blairwitch Project was made in eight days without a finished script, shot POV entirely, and the filmmakers saved money by using the actors’ home as a production base while paying them $1,000 per day.
Marketing determines how much a film is seen in first place – and what is a film if it remains unseen? Notwithstanding, while good marketing can make your film visible, and might even make it profitable, it doesn’t make your film good. A well presented story with a strong theme and solid story logic will always stay longer in our hearts and become a part of our life story as well.
In the final words of our Lord and personal saviour Lord Lugard. “E easy to talk. If e easy, do am.” Shout out to the winners and the ‘try-next-timers’ as we look forward to more unforgettable Nigerian stories showcasing our culture and creativity to the world.
–Written by OSUNDOLIRE Ifelanwa, architect, author, film connoisseur and a winner of the Innovation 360 scholarship awards from the British Council in Nigeria and the first beneficiary of a full scholarship from the Birmingham City University in Birmingham, United Kingdom.
