MAKING THE MOST OF CORPORATE ENDORSEMENT IN NOLLYWOOD

The stars have clearly begun to align for Nollywood.  Like the beautiful bride, corporate suitors it seems, have turned out in a duel for the hands of some of Nollywood’s brightest stars. It gets better, many are renewing cool deals.

How much is Monalisa Chinda’s smile worth? According to industry sources, Vita500, a new energy drink from South Korea shelled out N30 million for her face on the energy drink. She was also the face of the Rivers state cultural fiesta and Glo sweated millions it has been reported, to have her as their ambassador. Monalisa’s face is every photographer’s dream and her smile conjures the memory of spring. Monalisa should insure her face.

Perhaps, no corporate entity has demonstrated proven commitment to Nollywood in terms of endorsement than Globacom Nigeria Limited. The telecommunication giant at the last count has appointed close to a dozen Nollywood A-list thespians as ambassadors according to information on their website. In an industry long abandoned by corporate Nigeria, Globacom serves as a refreshing alternative.

The rave seemed to have caught on. MTN Nigeria, the company with some of the most creative advertisements in Nigeria, in the past treated Nollywood with courteous indifference. But recently, Nkem Owoh and Patience Ozokwor have featured in the company’s advertisements. Perhaps the days of the cold shoulder are over.

The use of film stars in the marketing of products is not the exclusive preserve of Nigeria. If anything, we seemed to have taken a page out Hollywood’s playbook. Gwyneth Paltrow has been tapped to be the latest ambassador for Swiss watch brand Baume & Mercier. Natalia Portman will also be the new face of the Miss Dior Cherie. Sylvester Stallone has been chosen as the brand ambassador for luxury pen manufacturer Montegrappa and popular martial arts film star Jet Li has been announced by Swiss Hublot timepieces as their newest brand ambassador.

The use of famous faces as brand ambassadors is not just limited to the use of actors and actresses. Corporations have been known to appoint as brand ambassadors sports men and women who have proven their mettle in the field. Rafal Nadal is a brand ambassador for Georgio Armani.

The use of artistes as brand ambassadors by corporations is with the objective of linking their product to a winning athlete or personality to enhance their image and boost sales revenue. Corporations use these popular artistes as validation for their products and hope to transfer their goodwill and star power so as to influence the fortune of their offerings.

Most endorsement deals are designed to offer mutual benefits to both the star and the corporation. Nevertheless, there have been some endorsement deals that went south. At the height of his fame, Tiger Woods was the world’s highest earning golfer and corporations were falling over themselves to have his face on their products until some recent misdemeanors came to light.

Ambassadors of countries usually represent the values of such nations. Hence their personalities are expected to be demure, their actions reasoned and their lifestyles lofty. Similar standards are also expected of brand ambassadors. So beyond the hype and the effect on the bank balance, brand ambassadors must live the values represented by the products they endorse. O.J. Simpson was fired as brand ambassador of Hertz when he was charged with double murder.

It is also pertinent that celebrities who sign the dotted lines in endorsement deals study the content of the contractual agreements and look out for clauses in small print. Most of the deals are worded in such a way that the contract forbids them from other deals or restrict their use of close substitutes to the product they are endorsing. Release terms and other conditionality should be negotiated properly to avoid a conflict of interest.  It also makes good sense to seek legal opinion

When effectively utilized, these endorsement deals can benefit both the artiste and the industry at large. On a personal level, it provides a source of income and boosts the popularity of such artistes especially when the terms include billboards and advertisement in the broadcast media. Endorsement deals like the Glo ambassador provides an avenue to network with those who call the shots in other industries and can be a platform to push innovative ideas for film sponsorship especially those that require a huge budget. When properly harnessed, this could help foster a good relationship between Nollywood and other industries.

Isaac Anyaogu, writes and edits feature film scripts.

Is Jeta Amata Nollywood’s gift to Hollywood?

Globalisation has been generous with new openings for anyone with an interest in cinema, or revolution. Jeta Amata, a maverick Nigerian director, falls into both camps. Last summer, the 37-year-old thought he’d finished his most ambitious film yet, a drama about the Niger delta crisis called Black Gold. He presented it in July at the American Black film festival in Los Angeles – all part of the plan for a project that, alongside its Nigerian stars, featured Billy Zane, Viveca Fox, Eric Roberts, Tom Sizemore and Michael Madsen. Nollywood was going to Hollywood.

But Amata decided his film was already out of date. “It had to be more current. It had to adhere strictly to what was going on right now – the Arab spring and all that,” he tells me. “It was a huge challenge that the Arabs posed to the rest of the world, especially the people in the Niger delta. If they can look at their dictators and say, ‘No, we want a change’, there’s no reason why people in west Africa can’t stand up. And it’s beginning to happen.”

Over six months later, Nigeria is boiling over with protests and extremism, and Amata has a new film. Now retitled Black November (a reference to the month of activist Ken Saro-Wiwa’s execution in 1995, and presumably to avoid confusion with Jean-Jacques Annaud’s forthcoming oil epic, Amata says he has reshot close to 60% of his film. Sewn on to its original storyline about the effects of a pipeline explosion in the southerncity of Warri is another plot strand in which enraged militants take hostages on US soil. Mickey Rourke, Kim Basinger and Anne Heche have joined a bulging cast-list that makes New Year’s Eve look like an exercise in Beckettian restraint.

Amata’s film is weighing into the 50-year history of western exploitation of the delta’s oil resources, local collusion and violent resistance to it. Last year a death threat was sent to his wife, Mbong (an actor in the film), apparently from a militant group. Amata says the shock clarified his intentions: “I looked at it and said, ‘If I’m going to tell the story, I’d better tell it irrespective of what some groups or government or companies think. I had been too conservative, trying not to make them look so bad. In [the first version], I’d blamed my own people, the Niger delta people, for part of the crisis. I put a lot of the blame on us.”

But he sounds as if he’s bursting for his film to be part of the “massive change” he’s convinced is imminent. He mentions others on the Nollywood scene of a similar political mind – the directors Greg Odutayo,Kunle Afolayan and Obi Emelolye – but he’s the one going over the parapet first.

Which brings in the idea of what Amata can do for Nollywood – arguably, with an average 2,000 titles produced a year, the world’s most prolific film industry, but not the one most focused on quality. Already in the habit of shooting on 35mm and with some experience in the international marketplace (he directed 2006′s The Amazing Grace, starring Nick Moran as the 18th-century slaver who wrote the hymn), Amata could be the savvy alumnus who encourages Nollywood to raise its game.

Part of what holds it back, he says, is the same thing that’s choking the delta: the widespread corruption that means “sorting”, the daily greasing of palms, is part of the fabric of Nigerian life. Amata recently had to keep some of Black November’s Hollywood cast waiting in a hotel for a week, while he fought to get his equipment out of customs. The lack of official interest in building a proper cinema infrastructure (there are less than 10 cinemas in Nigeria) is a green light for piracy, and many Nollywood stars still don’t pay tax – galling when some do 10 pictures a year at £10,000 a pop. “The government couldn’t care less, because they’re concentrating on the money they make from oil and buying properties all over the world,” says Amata.

The director certainly has the dynastic pedigree to be a figurehead. His father was Zack Amata, a producer who also acted in a popular soap, and his grandfather was John Ifoghale Amata, a playwright and actor. But there are lessons there, too. John wrote and starred in what is cited as sub-Saharan Africa’s first celluloid colour film: 1956′s Freedom, based on his own play about a fictional African nation’s struggle for independence. It climaxes in a quixotic burst, when the revolutionary apologises to the colonial ruler for his aggression; then in turn the colonialist apologises to his former subject for his oppressive policies.

The note of concession on the African side sounds weirdly like Black November’s first draft. Amata says he watched Freedom “countless” times as a child. His grandfather’s script, written on the cusp of Nigerian independence, feels as if it was going through the same agonies: trying to overcome an apologetic urge for standing up for itself. Amata sounds as if he might have beaten the impulse. And in grappling with the cycle of history, he has learned the revolutionary’s first lesson: the revolution can never rest. Black November has US and African releases secured; now he’s pushing for Europe, and as far as the film will go. “Let’s get the world talking about the delta – in a stronger way than a documentary,” he says, “So we can have a lot of noise in the western world that’s gonna trickle back home. So the leaders and the oil companies know they’re being watched.”

 

• Black November will be released in Nigeria and the US later this year.

 

• What global box-office stories should we be writing about? How does Hollywood hawk its wares in your country? Let us know in the comments below.

MUCH ADO ABOUT BABA SUWE’S SHIT

It is now seven days since popular Yoruba movie actor Babatunde Omidina otherwise known as Baba Suwe was “kidnapped” by stern-faced officials of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) over suspicion that he swallowed more than pounded yam on his way to the airport last week. They have been watching his shit for traces of cocaine the way housewives watch Nollywood movies to see what Genevieve is wearing.

In case you missed it, they have Baba Suwe hold up in a cell, perhaps force-fed him ewa agoyin and Agege bread, fetched him a tank of water, waited for him to hit the toilet, then bagged his shit in a white cellophane and ran to the lab hoping his shit would somehow turn to cocaine. And I used to think I have the worst job in the world.

The last time I heard they turned something into something else was in the holy book. One wedding in Cana where booze ran out so they had Jesus turn water into wine. Perhaps the NDLEA know a thing or two about miracles. Rumour has it that they are trying to turn shit into cocaine. I wish them good luck but I’ll choose turning water into booze any day. Imagine if Jesus were here to see what the breweries are charging us for 75 cl of beer? He’ll just turn the Atlantic into booze and run them all out of business!

Baba Suwe has been to the toilet three times now and all he excreted were, well, just shit. NDLEA spokesperson, Mitchell Ofoyeju, still insisted he will remain under observation for other “procedural measures”. Procedural measures is just the technical equivalent of “we screwed up badly”.

Last Monday, the Director General of the anti-drug agency went on air to say that Baba Suwe would be released if the report of the CT scan and his third excretion proved to be negative. Now they are waiting for CT scan result? Pray, how long does it take to get one?

If your father works in a shit-testing factory or NDLEA lab (if we want to be cute), you should be worried. Your father tests the shit of adults for a living. That’s the last person you want to get a career advice from unless of course shit testing runs in your genes. Hell, I’ll pick a father that “packs” shit to the one that “tests” it any day.

Imagine this scene, two officials of the NDLEA dressed up in a white lab coat over a black jacket and paisley tie hunched over a funny looking contraption with yellowish fluid and several glass containers, one labeled “BABA SUWE’s SHIT”. They make notations on writing pads as they take a reading on the meter attached to the machine… Just what kind of education does one need to get a job testing other people’s shit?

In June 2008, the United States brought four OD Security SOTER RS Security Body Scanners for the NDLEA for security operations for Lagos, Port Harcourt, Kano and Abuja International airports to stop Nigerians supplying their teenagers coke. The machine is believed to be one of the most sophisticated in the industry available for drug detection. It can look through clothes and see anything/everything inside and outside the human body in 10 seconds. (Who do I need to bribe to get the job of watching the machines?)

In any case, the sophisticated machine started flashing red when Baba Suwe was ushered through and the NDLEA guys pounced on him. Seven days now they have held him as Baba Suwe continues to shit just shit sans cocaine. How come they are not exploring the possibility that the machine has been Nigerianized (corrupted)?

In a country where nothing works, is it any wonder that some fancy machine contrived to detect cocaine has started detecting digested pounded yam as cocaine? If a government agency can’t understand logic that simple, shouldn’t we hire drug addicts to do the job? At least, they’ll know their suppliers.

People are already envying Baba Suwe. Just why didn’t I study law?

$200m Entertainment fund: Hopes on sandy dunes?

ON the occasion of the 30th anniversary of the Silverbird Group, President Goodluck Jonathan announced a $200 million intervention fund for the entertainment industry. Six months later, the President’s grant is now indeed of its own intervention.

And the filmmakers have been intervening by the decibels. In December last year, a guild of movie producers raised alarm that the fund might be hijacked. Chinedu Ikedieze and Osita Iheme, two rambunctious actors better known by the unflattering names of Aki and Paw paw has gone to see Mr. Labaran Maku, Nigeria’s former minister of Information and Communications in February over the same fund.

When Mr Jonathan was campaigning for votes in March this year, his head of media and strategy Oronto Douglas herded a group of Nollywood practitioners in a brainstorming session with the President on the way forward. For an industry that’s been accused of lacking brains, this was one session too many.

Release the damn money already, their body language said. Only government bureaucracy and financial correctness do not work at the dizzying pace of Nollywood. These guys make blockbusters in two weeks! Even Hollywood with all its fame has never achieved that feat. That is why this wait has people’s nerves on the edge. The Nigerian entertainment industry is not known to sleep easy in the soft of arms of hope.

It is noteworthy that this is the first time, any government since 1990s when the ragtag army of filmmakers and music producers in Nigeria morphed into an industry, had directly intervened in the performing arts sector of the economy. While the action of this government is laudable, it must be stressed that merely throwing money at problems is not a very imaginative solution.

More ought to be done. The Nigerian entertainment sector is reeling under the weight of a clueless bureaucracy. When the administrators wish to assert their relevance, they dream up harebrained policies that produce the same effect as that of a person who had a surgery where a sledge hammer was employed. The lack of a holistic administrative framework for engaging the industry continues to sound an uncanny death knell.

The question is, to what end did the government give the grant to the entertainment industry? What qualifies a prospective applicant to access the fund? How will it be disbursed among the various groups within the industry? How do you engage rowdy, chaos-prone and divided people in a tidy financial deal? What is the opportunity cost of disbursing N30 billion on the entertainment industry in the midst of competing needs for the nation’s scarce resources? How do you even begin to disburse such magnitude of funds within an industry that has guilds and unions that are always at daggers drawn?
In a saner world, brutal frankness would be the norm but it doesn’t win anyone a presidential election especially when your claim to fame is a propitious name and the munificence of proven charlatans. Already, cracks are emerging in this idea, majority of the clowns shouting themselves hoarse over the loan cannot even write a decent proposal!
Undoubtedly, the entertainment industry in Nigeria needs an intervention but one that goes beyond a financial largess that chances are would be hijacked by people who can’t even tell a boom mike apart from a tripod. Any meaningful intervention must include an enduring policy that forms the fulcrum of government intervention in the entertainment industry. It must also include enduring structures, a potent distribution system, a creative engagement with piracy, manpower development, standardization of facilities and equipments and a nifty regulatory framework that encourages art and industry.

In the United States of America, piracy is a federal crime and the FBI often arrest and prosecute copyright violators. The FBI houses a cyber division in Los Angeles and regularly share information with movie studio representatives to discuss strategies against piracy. Also there is the Motion Picture Association of America that aggressively protects the interests of its members.

Until we develop potent structures that can combat piracy, ensure smooth and efficient distribution of artistic works and make the industry attractive to investors all the grant in the world would only amount to erecting hopes on sandy dunes.

WHEN NOLLYWOOD TELLS OUR STORY

Each time the swashbuckling Minister of Information and Communications (read Re-branding), Mrs Dora Akunyili shares a podium with Nollywood practitioners or adventurers, she takes her time to give Nollywood a good dressing down. She cuts the picture of a stringent headmistress cautioning errant school children.

Daily Triumph Newspaper of November 2009 carried just an ounce of Minister Akunyili’s peppered vitriol against the forces aligned against her mission to rescue Nigeria’s image. She blamed Nollywood for Nigeria’s poor image and charged her to tell our own stories. She said the same thing few weeks into her appointment as Minister at an interactive workshop with Nollywood practitioners in Lagos. And I suspect, she says it everyday. She’s after all a Minister; all they do is say things.

Had Dora Akunyili not being a Minister, she might have understood the inanity of her assertion but as I fear the cordial distance Nigerian public officials maintain with reality has a way of deodorizing the embarrassing stench of empty reason. But that is hardly surprising as it emanates from a Ministry where trite ideas are routinely granted a new lease and executed with zeal that borders on mania.

How on earth will anyone blame Nollywood for Nigeria’s sorry image? Did Nollywood invent Juju or 419? Is the President of Actors Guild of Nigeria operating from Aso Rock? Pray, are Aki and Paw Paw Senate President and Vice President? Is Genevieve the Minister of Power or is Desmond Elliot the Minister of Works and Housing? Even Pete Edochie, a strong advocate of re-branding was kidnapped by a bunch of renegades the police cannot find even if they were to raise their hands in a gathering.

Minister Akunyili keeps charging Nollywood to tell our own stories, frankly, I would be very disturbed the day Nollywood begins to tell our story. The reason is that our story, quite frankly, without putting too fine a point on it, is a glorified mess.

In President’s Yar Adua’s Independence Day speech the dearth of concrete, measurable achievement led him to urge Nigerians to at least be grateful to still be alive. This is a government that returns to the treasury half of the year’s budgetary expenditure at the end of each fiscal year because it is peopled by charlatans of the first order who are so dumb they don’t even know how to spend money!

Isn’t it an irony that Nigeria is on the list of countries with the highest immigration rate to other countries only rivaled by Afghanistan and Iraq – countries at war? Sundays, a maze of crowd so thick you won’t even recognize your mother flood churches and Fridays, normal activities are grounded because Nigerians have gone to find God. Yet God hardly factors in their thoughts and actions. Our politicians swear with the bible or Koran and it is common knowledge that they hold the key to the squandering of our hope. The clowns at the National Assembly have spent more days deciding how to amend the constitution than it took to write the damn document.

And come to think of it, how many times have the budget made provision for the Benin-Ore road and why is it still a death-trap? How come university students sat at home for four months due to a protracted strike and the education Minister’s children school abroad? How come we still have a ministry of health when public officials travel abroad to treat catarrh? How come we are one of the leading oil producing nations in the world and we still import fuel? How come after almost 50 years after independence we can’t even light our streets? Indeed, I’d be very worried the day Nollywood begins to tell our stories.

It is ironical that while Madam Re-branding wants Nollywood to lead the campaign to re-brand Nigeria, she is unfazed with the teething challenges confronting Nollywood. To get funding for movies is difficult even before the current global economic crises, now its impossible. The government’s film fund has not left the paper it was written on. Movie pirates now sell more copies than marketers as Nigerian Copyright Commission only proclaims her tigertude on paper. In spite of this, Nollywood has done more to promote Nigeria’s image than all the gaggle of nincompoops who parade themselves as leaders throughout the country.

Minister Akunyili is still fuming over a Sony advert that implied that Nigerians are scammers (our favourite past-time anyway) and some air-headed people too wanted an apology because District 9, a South African film purportedly claimed that Nigerians were cannibals and scammers. Emeka Mba’s Censors board and Madam Re-branding were outraged because for the first time somebody had enough balls to tell our story.

Minister Akunyili advises Nollywood to focus on the positive things and I wonder how many positive things are we reputed for? Yes, we produce a world class literary genius in Chinua Achebe but we left him in a wheel chair just because someone felt the allocation to fix the road will sit better in his private account. We sent out our soldiers to stop other people’s war (while ours rages unabated) and when they return some higher officials stole their monies and we hound them in jail when they shouted too loud. Yes, we are 150 million strong and yet we awarded the highest office in the land to a man we’ve all been asked to pray that he lives as a matter of national priority.

Studies suggest that behaviour is patterned after media content. At the same time media content reflects the value pattern of the society. And when it comes to the issue of values, ours is reeking like an open sewer. Greed, nepotism, ethnicity, corruption and the politics of the belly have eroded our value system. Successive governments have elevated corruption to a pedestal so high, its beginning to assume the character of state policy.

Minister Akunyili will be outraged at the level of support serious governments give their film industry. In Nollywood we have to rent even the shabby police uniforms we use! Freedom of Information bill remains a mirage stalling investigative journalism and critical research to produce historical films that can help our sorry image. When public officials wish to get their hands dirty, they call up consultants to draw up harebrained designs for the movie industry which they can’t even explain if their lives depended on it.

Minister Akunyili should be grateful Nollywood is not telling our story.

MAKING THE NEXT NIGERIAN BIOPIC

Every year since 1928, the American Academy of Motion Pictures and Sciences gives accolades for best films produced in the United States and other parts of the world. Among the film genres that have performed creditably at the awards include biopics. Released in 1982, Ghandi, the biography of Mahatma Gandhi, won 8 Oscars. In 1997 Titanic directed by James Cameroon garnered 11 Oscar statutes.  Mel Gibson, Jamie Fox, Leonardo DiCaprio, George C. Scott have achieved renown acting in biopics.

Since The Great Ziegfeld (1936), biopics continue to have a strong run at the Oscars. Biopic Films (or biographical pictures) is a sub-genre of the larger drama and epic film genres quite popular in the early days of Hollywood and still famous today. ‘Biopics’ is a derivative of the words “biography” and “pictures.” These films depict and dramatize the life of an important historical individual, people or event from the past or present era- or at least a historically significant aspect. Historical biopics cross many genre types and often stretch the truth for entertainment value.  Some begin with the person’s childhood, others focus on adult triumphs. Most biopics are adapted from books written about the subject.

Because the figures portrayed are actual people, whose actions and characteristics are known, biopics are considered some of the most challenging films by actors and actresses. And it is very easy to run into murky waters after producing them. Alexander a 2004 epic film based on the life of Alexander the Great gulped $ 155 million but was a flop at the box office raking in a mere $34 million. Directed by Oliver Stone, with Colin Farrell in the title role, the film was critically derided upon its release and got some Greek lawyers mad enough to threaten a lawsuit.

Nollywood and Biopics

However it seemed the euphoria for biopics has not caught on in Nollywood despite the plethora of themes, events and personalities that command attention in Nigeria. Since, the commercial inception of Nollywood in 1992 the number of biopics produced are too few and far between. When they attempt to tell the story of an individual or event, it does so only as a metaphor. Brenda was a poor attempt to tell the story of Chief Emeka Ojukwu’s romance with former Miss Biance Onoh. There is also Sango, directed by Obafemi Lasode and Jeta Amata’s Amazing Grace.

 

The era before Nollywood saw more biopics produced through the efforts of astute filmmakers like Chief Eddie Ugbomah, Herbet Ogunde, Ade Love, Ola Balogun and other veterans. Chief Ugbomah was most versatile telling stories in this genre. His works includes Oyenusi, a film about an armed robbery king-pin, the Black President that explored the times of General Muritala Mohammed and the prophetic Oil Doom, that predicted the chaos of oil exploration in the Niger Delta as far back as 1979.

Yet, the social, political and cultural landscape of Nigeria is fertile with stories that will make an engaging experience at the cinema. The world would be enraptured by a well-told story of the sacking of the Benin Empire, adventures of early Christian missionaries, Kenem Borno Empire, the travails of Chief Obafemi Awolowo, MKO Abiola and June 12, the killing of Dele Giwa, the coups and assassinations that characterise our chequered political history.

It is unthinkable that Nollywood has not thought of a feature film on Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart, a book that has won virtually all awards in that genre. We need not always have the West tell our story. We are better suited to tell our stories, our inanities, our conquests, our trials and our dreams. Fela on Broadway is a resounding success today but was produced by a Western drama company – a story about our own legendary Fela! It’s like having an alien recount your ancestry.

Critics ridicule Nollywood for lack of originality.  The concept of originality is cultural contingent yet universally recognized, connotes creativity and invention. Many Nollywood films are a rehash of successful storylines.  Biopics will check this trend. It will also reignite interest in historically significant events and teach object lessons. While Facebook founders disparaged The Social Network as fiction, yet the audience applauded the vital lessons it taught on protecting intellectual property and developing entrepreneurship acumen.

Admittedly, the challenges of producing biopics in Nigeria are many. The passage of Freedom of information bill still remains a mirage stalling critical research into historical events. There is the danger of libel. Security authorities it seems, operates on the code of Omertà. They do not maintain a film unit in their respective public relations efforts to ease the utilization of military hardware and operational procedure. Our research facilities look more like museums. Our archives house dust and neglect. And we do not speak ill of the dead. But a biopic on the life of late General Sani Abacha would be incomplete without with the killings, lootings, Mustapha, NADECO and the infamous Indian prostitutes.

Writing successful biopics require time, patience and attention to detail. Shooting biopics demands even more. The shooting of Titanic dragged on for nearly two years. Though we do not have the financial, technical and cinematic prowess of Hollywood, we can beat back the borders of our limitations by taking time to research our stories and shoot them with an eye on lasting renown rather than quick profit. The authorities too can work to create an enabling environment as biopics have the power to rebrand our image better than any public relations gimmick.

Biopics on the lives of Fela Kuti and Kanu Nwankwo are said to be in the works. Many more ought to be produced.  There are echoes from our past that needs to be heard on the big screen, there are voices in the contemporary Nigeria that demands attention. The new cinema emerging in Nigeria to stand over the ashes of poorly written, badly edited, hurriedly shot and quickly forgotten stories would need the support of biopics to stand in a brighter, rewarding future.

-         Isaac Anyaogu writes screenplays for feature films.

 

 

Titanic – Directed by James Cameroon

 

Jeta Amata

 

A scene from Jeta Amata’s Amazing Grace

THE SOCIAL NETWORK AND MARK ZUKERBERG

A popular refrain in the movie The Social Network is “you don’t get to 500 million friends without making a few enemies”, at the 68^th Golden Globe award held on January 16, at the Beverly Hilton hotel Las Vegas, the movie won a few friends and some not too friendly friends.

A Golden globe statuette for best drama, best director for David Fincher, Best Screenplay for Aaron Sorkin, and Soundtrack (Score), the biggest winning on the night, The Social Network was on a roll.

Interestingly, the movie producer Scott Rudin took time out to thank the folks at Facebook. He said, “I want to thank everybody at Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg for his willingness to allow us to use his life and work as a metaphor for which to tell a story about communication and the way we relate to each other.” Interesting because Facebook and the producers of The Social Network wouldn’t share popcorn over the movie on any given day.

The Social Network, based on the book, Accidental Billionaires by Ben Mezrich is on the life of Facebook founder Mark Zukerberg who created a website to rate girls according to how attractive they were before the idea to create a social network site that connects people all over the world came. In connection with Napster co-founder Sean Parker (Justin Timberlake) who contributed funds and contacts, the idea for Facebook became a hit though not without some legal squabbles and high drama. And the sex, yes, lots of sex on the Harvard Campus and fun dialogue too.

Facebook’s grouse with the biopic is the portrayal of its founder as a dismal, overly-ambitious entrepreneur who betrayed his Harvard school buddies by hitting stardom with an idea that isn’t entirely his. Mark Zukerberg came across as a geek high on ambition. Rudin’s conciliatory words at the Facebook founder, who was made to appear oddly quirky in the unauthorized film, is apt because regardless of how unsettling the storyline is, Facebook didn’t rain on the plans. They could easily have put legal barricade in the way of creativity.

The same cannot be said of the producers of No One Killed Jessica. A film based on the celebrated case of the Delhi model who was murdered in full view of dozens of eyewitnesses on a crowded bar on April 29, 1999. The initial plan was to go the whole hog and recreate the entire case in all its details including the characters with their real names. Sources say the director Raj Kumar Gupta wanted to offer Shayan Munshi the prime witness in the murder, the chance to play himself. Hints of legal and financial troubles convinced the producers to change the characters and tone down the story.

According to Wikepedia, biographical films or biopic (biographical motion picture) dramatizes the life of an actual person, people or real events. They differ from films “based on a true story” or “historical films” because they attempt to recount in detail a person’s true life story or at least the most historically significant years of their lives. A certain amount of authenticity is expected of biopics, often to reduce the risk of libel, but the films often alter events to suit the storyline. Although many viewers and critics forgive such fabrications for entertainment value, some biopics have come under criticism for allegations of deception.

Because the figures portrayed are actual people, whose actions and characteristics are known, biopics are considered some of the most challenging films by actors and actresses. And it is very easy to run into murky waters after producing them. Alexander a 2004 epic film based on the life of Alexander the Great gulped $ 155 million but was a flop at the box office raking in a mere $34 million. Directed by Oliver Stone, with Colin Farrell in the title role, the film was critically derided upon its release and got some Greek lawyers mad enough to threaten a lawsuit.

However there are some biopics that have produced stunning success. Jamie Foxx and Jim Carrey both gained respect as dramatic actors after starring in Ray Charles in Ray and Carrey as Andy Kaufman in Man on the Moon. Ray was released in theaters on October 29, 2004 on a budget of $40 million. The film went on to become a box-office hit, earning $75 million in the U.S. with an additional $50 million internationally, bringing its world wide gross to $125 million and gave Jamie Foxx an academy award for Best Actor.

Mark Zukerberg in an interview said that the story was a “fiction” yet without his unobtrusive mien, the movie would not be a success. Worse still, it would have cost a lot more than $50 million had there been a legal tussle. Prominent individuals in Africa and Nigeria can learn a lesson or two from this. It takes great courage to withstand criticism and media scrutiny yet the reward can be enormous. None of the jabs thrown at Zukerberg has really stuck; rather it has made him even more popular. Time Magazine went ahead to name him Man of the Year. Perhaps criticism is really the best form of publicity.