The allure of Nollywood – and Hollywood – has always been the glamour, glitz, red carpets and film premieres. Movie stars that move from photo shoot sets to interview studios. But there is a reason the industry is associated with the word showbusiness. The show and the business; both of them, opposite ends of a spectrum that are not always mutually exclusive.
With the re-emergence of the cinema culture, industry practitioners have had to contemplate newer ways of getting income from their intellectual property. Distribution, which used to be the exclusive rights of the marketers at Idumota and Upper Iweka, opened up to accommodate players like the Silverbird Group, Kene Mkparu’s Filmhouse and the Genesis Deluxe Cinema franchises. New wave as well as old school producers have begun to navigate interesting options to yielding revenue for their moves.
One of the very first steps to a potentially successful film in today’s Nollywood is securing endorsement. Now this may come in the form of telecom companies looking for a shout out in the film or state governments contemplating tourism avenues. In some cases, a windfall of cash is made available up front which the producer is able to plough into actual production. More often than not, such boosts arrive when the shoot is done and are directed to marketing and publicity efforts. In cases where actual cash does not change hands, the filmmaker benefits from the products and services the sponsoring brand has to offer as required in the screenplay and in the process, helping to keep costs low. A-list stars who enjoy endorsement deals and chummy relationships with the major brands are sometimes cast in strategic roles in a film so as to convince these players to invest in their projects. Funke Akindele, Kate Henshaw and Kunle Afolayan are some thespians who have benefitted from this arrangement.
Story: Wilfred Okiche
Read the full article in Issue 06 of Nolly Silver Screen magazine here. Click on the download button.
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