By Alex Matu
Director Taye Balogun identifies himself first as an African, then a Nigerian. He’s a guy who’s traversed the continent as he continues to perfect his artistry. I sat down with him after a busy month spent shooting three Africa Magic Original Films for Spielworks Media. He’s directed some of Kenya’s leading actors including Maina Wilfred Olwenya, Elly Young, Helena Waithera and Neville Misati.
Taye had his first degree in chemistry before he went on to study film, majoring in Cinematography and Photography. His love for drawing and design led him into Production Design which he pursued for a couple of years. Recently he’s done production design for a Microsoft commissioned film in Nigeria.
Taye’s dabbled in various roles as a lover and maker of film, “When I’m not on set, I’m teaching film. When I’m not teaching, I’m speaking. When I’m not speaking, I’m consulting.” He’s an erudite on matters film, a quality that is required of all film teachers. He tells me that he likes to remind filmmakers who take this industry lightly that movie making is a profession that combines many other professions (Business, Art, Storytelling).
Taye is a true artist who’s been around for twelve years, so I had to ask him about the change of tide in the Africa film production business over that period. We touched on the industry he knows best; Nollywood. “The Nigerian filmmakers began by making home videos,” he tells me. Mr. Balogun pins the success of the Nigerian film industry on a strong sense of storytelling in their culture. The movie producers knew if they caught interesting stories on camera people would care to watch. What Nigerians were connecting with were the relatable characters in the movies and the occurrences they went through. Folks weren’t very keen on the quality of the picture or the cameras used.
So you see growth of the Nigerian movie culture has been organic. Nollywood is fast growing with the advent of affordable digital cameras like the DSLRs plus a lot of people are gaining interest in film business. The number of young guys going to film school has increased and movie production tutorials are freely available online. There’s more expertise than before. This upswing in human capacity translates to better storylines and a higher standard in picture quality.
Taye stresses that what makes a good film for him is the script. “The camera, the cinematography, the movement, every other thing serves to enhance your storytelling.” He encourages those looking to learn film making but are short on money to volunteer for production houses. “Get some training however you can. Go on the internet and learn. If you have the passion go for it. Nothing should stop you.”
The major hurdle we face is lack of good script. He asks of African writers and film producers, “Why do we stop telling our stories?” He goes on, “When I watch a film, why does it remind me of a film in America? Or Bollywood?” Taye advices that film writers and producers emulate African authors whose stories are celebrated in Africa because they tell stories that we can relate to. “When we read books by Chinua Achebe, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Wole Soyinka et al we see real people and we have the setting in the mind where these characters are placed. Even though we’ve not been there.”
Africa is an overflowing pot of stories from everyday life and Taye emphasizes that these tales need to be told. He says home-grown stories by Africans are in demand all over the world. Taye urges filmmakers to take the camera out there and show the real Africa, the real people. He mentions Tsotsi as one of his favourite African films because it utilizes setting so much that the film’s Soweto backdrop comes out as a character in its own right.
Above is the trailer for Tsotsi, a film that Taye says is able to tell a story about the real Africa, with a setting so powerful it is a character in its own right.
He has a few words on the Kenyan film business, “I see people making a fortune…but they are not making an impact.”
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