Actor and producer, Desmond Elliot, speaks on his gain and losses in Nollywood, JAYNE AUGOYE writes
As the Nigerian film industry continues to attract international attention by the day, many filmmakers say it is time they began telling ‘our own stories’.
While funding and a general apathy towards adapting notable historical stories, such as Chinua Achebe’s Things fall Apart or works on the Nigerian Civil War, into cinema still prevails, some producers are managing to explore some other relevant areas.
For actor-turned-director, Desmond Elliot, the Nigerian cultural space is indeed a breeding ground for great stories yet untold in spite of several impeding issues. Elliot, who recently shot an epic biopic titled Apeye: A Mother’s Love, cites funding as a major stumbling block.
He says, “I will love to do a Sarduana or an Awolowo story but all these require a lot of money. I can’t use my personal funds. How will I get my money back? At the same time, I may have to really convince the executive producer to invest his money in such a project.
“I love to do epics but these are not your everyday kind of movies. I think it is high time filmmakers began to do indigenous stories that border on our heritage and history as a nation.”
Even as some stakeholders still regard the $200m Entertainment Fund intervention by the Federal Government as being inaccessible, Elliot has been lucky to grab a piece of the bounty. He is one of the few Nollywood practitioners to have openly declared so. The Chief Executive Officer of FilmHouse, Kene Mkparu, is the first person that did so about three years ago.
Elliot, who refuses to divulge the value of the money, says it is strictly meant for capacity building.
“Some other members of the Directors’ Guild of Nigeria and I have been able to access the money for training abroad. I don’t know if I am in the right place to say this, but the second set of funds they will be disbursing will be for film production. I am waiting for the distribution because my company is into that line of business and we have about nine stores around the country,” he reveals
When he released another work, Finding Mercy, into the market late last year, little did he know that pirates would go to work from the day the film hit the public domain. While this is not the first time he would be encountering such, this one appears to have hit him hard.
“It is so terrible because normally it takes just a day for a movie released in Lagos to get to Abuja. But I was shocked to my marrows to discover that it was already in Abuja hours after its release.
“I don’t even talk about piracy any longer because I am tired of talking about it. But something needs to be done. I now know what piracy is all about. It is terrible. You won’t believe that of all the 20 films I have shot so far, I have only been able to break even in just about 10. Despite these challenges, I will keep doing films because I love it,” he says.
Having spent 14 years in the industry, the Economics graduate of the Lagos State University appears to have found love in the arms of directing. While he admits learning the tricks of the art from fellow filmmaker, Lancelot Odua Imaseun, Elliot says he is fulfilled.
However, in spite of the glitz and glamour that is associated with showbiz, things are indeed not as rosy as they may appear to the layman. In fact, just like many other people, stars ‘also cry’.
“As a producer, I only get 20 per cent from proceeds in the cinema from a film run for eight weeks. So, how am I going to get encouraged? I can’t shoot a very standard epic or biopic movie with N10m or N15m and remember that an average shoot costs as much as N500, 000 a day. So, for now, we will keep doing our regular films till the industry improves,” Elliot notes.
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