I've always loved movies, since I was a kid immersing myself in fully realized world's and stories has been always been one of my favorite past times. Everyone who knows me in real life and social media knows I am near obsessed with them . And on a fateful day while scrolling on social media , a message from a director I respect offered entry level work for those interested in the industry,so you know what, I decided I should give it a go at the industry that makes the content I adore ( granted I am more of a fan of western/asian cinema) and get first hand hand experience at making a film, golden opportunities just don't present themselves all the time, so in November 2017 I took it , I applied as production assistant and BTS photographer.
Plus it wouldn't be too difficult, isn't it just to write a script , tell people to line up and get the camera rolling, it was gonna be a breeze and since I was low level intern I wouldn't do much work. I was wrong, dead wrong super wrong but I would find that out much later.
So it first started with call casting that same month of November , which was a fun experience . Watching people force words out and deliver them so badly was funny to see, I did admire the confidence and moxy that alot of the participants showed, but some of them were dead awful. After watching the producer and director take notes , and factoring some obvious things , talent , time they showed up , looks , some I didn't see coming eg social media presence ( for marketing reasons of course ,) that was that.
Next was in early December , which we scouted different locations and met with the owners and managers of the areas , and we went all the way to Ogun state , director and producer were keen on it ( for reasons I'd find out later ) . There was a moment that was very tense in the village we visited when we saw a herdsmen and his cattle , well we just decided to call it a day at that location t and left quickly. And that was the end of my involvement in pre-production, still a breeze, my confidence even higher, I am crushing it doing the bare minimum.
Main production and filming was meant to commence in January , mid Janaury comes , no contact yet, but i am told just one or two things need to be ironed out. February arrives and I start getting worried that I may have been removed from production, I was an unimportant cog , so I could have just been forgotten , suddenly my director reaches out to me , production starts in a few days , , I am beyond ecstatic , informed me that I need to pack for 2 weeks , and I have a choice to either come a day early with him or day after where most of the production crew arrives, I opt for a day earlier.
That's where eye started to shine, the real work begun. As soon as we arrived it was like an army drill. I was a production assistant/intern , but do you know what they call us , Runners , and the name is apt cause all I did was run around as soon as I got to Ogun state , helping getting minor but important things ready .There was so much to do. Only some of the heads of departments had arrived and by the first day I was spent . It was re-orientation point. I realized I was in for it. a film isn't simple at all. there's alot of moving parts to it , it was something I knew but hadn't consciously realized, and if i was going into the industry I had to focus on a certain parts.
A quick run down of movie stages : pre production includes script writer, producers , financial partners and budgeting , production managemet , set and location , directors and all. then there's the guys on production and filming , customes , directors , sound , lighting , video and director of photographhy , casting and extras , art and location, makeup and of course post production editing , marketing . I was just a production assistant on filming and production.But we were short of of them we were meant to be 4 and only 2 arrived on set. and my partner didn't really seem cut out for it just yet , so after a while the crew just relied on me , so it was essentially me just doing the work for 4 guys along with BTS , I also managed food, rooms and making sure to the best of my ability the actors were comfortable . It was incredibly taxing. Catering and food was pretty hard, simple as it was, it is incredibly important you see as we in production work immense hours , usually 17 to 21 hours a days, so food has to be delivered in time , because cast and crew can't be going off to find food, that would waste too much time. So i had to make sure food was delivered 3 times a day in time, share and manage the food to the best of my ability , as 50 people didn't have matching diets and tastes . The food wasn't great so while working 17-21 hours I rarely ate or ate just enough to keep going, my weight really crashed initially, the crew felt the same , I had a crew member I loved telling the meal when I knew he'd hate it, it was a fun little game that kept me going. I also had to communicate and follow up between different department to make sure minor things were on schedule at times. Things really ramped up on day 3 when actual filming started back the village. Oddly a cast member disappeared for a few hours , set us back 3 hours , so the only day we could have finished early , we had to shoot all the way to 4am in the morning.
Day 5 was beyond hectic for me , I was on the verge of burnout as the crew had yet to establish a true rhythm, also wasn't helped by the fact my partner got cast into the film last second, but it also happened to be the day of our most ambitious scene, it was shot at the river, it was then I suddenly reminded I was also in charge of BTS, I scrambled to find my camera and take great shots to the best of my ability . The food wasn't great so while working 17-21 hours I rarely ate or ate just enough to keep going, my weight really crashed initially, the crew felt the same , I had a crew member I loved telling the meal when I knew he'd hate it, it was a fun little game that kept me going.But the long hours were really helped by the cast and crew, especially the cast , who unsurprisingly were far from divas and were pretty respectful towards me. The production crew were especially great , at times I felt I was almost in a trap, getting me into the industry cause it wouldn't be like this, but I learnt it's a reputation based league and people sometimes move up the ranks quickly , so people tend to be respectful. The hours were especially long because the director is a bit of a perfectionist , we took multiple takes till he felt it was just right, to a point that at times , it was driving me crazy , I wanted to scream sometimes , because it felt we had aced a take , but he'd insist on maybe three , sometimes even up to 6 more takes(he was still incredible courteous to the crew and an excellent boss).
On Day 7 we had to re-work entire scenes and locations and turned the entire hotel in which we stayed to our playground. We did alot of shooting there to save time, there was a cost though , being around our rooms cause the production crew to get lax, there was a sense of urgency that was created when we were moving all around ogun state that was being lost.
Of course d-day came on day 8 , we worked till 7 in the morning , it was long this was because we filmed the most taxing scenes, which involved car chases. Worse however an actor left the set back to Lagos, for reasons I don't know till today, without telling anyone , that set us another 4 hours. Which led to the image below , I was done. I was so so tired the floor was so incredibly comfy at that stage, I slept like a baby , the concrete was like a water bed at that point by 5.30 in the morning.
We had to finish all the scenes every day , because nothing like re-shoots in Nollywood, cast and crew immediately move unto other projects after one , so we have to get every scene possible, that also includes cutting scenes or re-working some scenes to make them feasible and keeping to time. This was almost impossible cause on day 9 , we lost an important location, and we had to scramble for hours to get a new one. We had to shoot some scenes earlier.
Last day I got a cameo scene as an extra, so If it isn't cut and my scene makes it , it doesn't matter that I don't have up to 3 lines, I'm now a movie star as far as I'm concerned, and it's entering my CV, and should be treated as such.
So in the end will I continue in this industry ? Maybe, but it made me rethink for a long time just because I love Chinese food doesn't mean it'd be a great idea to open a chinese restaurant, the hours are so so taxing , but the crew and actors made it so much easier to deal with, and even though I do think Nigerian movies need to do a lot to improve , seeing the amount of work it takes to make one, it's hard for me to just casually insult one anymore. I also realized due to the extreme long hours, my memory was actually spotty and I couldn't remember some things that happened a few days before going on set , being on set and a few days after. Everything good thing takes work and time. And making an excellent movie in Nigeria is beyond challenging, but it was exciting and worthwhile and I truly believe the film is going to be amazing when all is said and done.
- some notes since i signed a non-disclosure agreement about details about the film , can't really name names and gives details about the film , so had to leave it as vague as possible , will revisit it in a few months after the film has been released.
Update 21/05/2018: the movie has premiered. THE NAME OF THE FILM IS KNOCKOUT BLESSING , IT'S GONNA BE AMAZING . IT'S ON THE 28TH DECEMBER.
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