Hollywood
vs.
Nollywood
Changes in Film Financing
The Death of Hollywood
Exaggeration or Reality?
- The average Hollywood film costs over $100 million
- Before they were funded by banks and other financial institutions
- Due to the economic meltdown it has become more difficult raising funds for films
- “Other people's money”
by Janet Wasko
- Media in general going through significant changes, primarily because of digital technologies
- Explore some of the changes and challenges confronting the film industry
- Drawing on the political economy analysis of film
Changes in Distribution and Independent Films
Changes in Film Production
Online distribution
- Distribute films outside of Hollywood's control
- Primarily three different models: advertising supported, rental or sell-through, and subscription
- While major studios sell rights to these top distributors, price and timing continues to be an issue
Other new distribution outlets
- Video game consoles, mobile phone apps
This process gives control to independent filmmakers, but with the continuing issues with funding and effective distribution remain
Changes in Film Marketing and Promotion
- Transition from film to digital technology
- Arguing that it gave more power or writers and actors
- Production crew and laboratories have struggled with the transition
- One of the advantages is low cost
- “Films that once required a film lab, a team of special effects gurus..[can now be created by]...some dude with a $500 camcorder and a Mac.”
- Francis Ford Coppola stated that this could result in film being viewed as an art form
- Remains to be seen whether independent filmmakers can challenge the Hollywood hierarchy.
- Websites were being used for many years
- The introduction of social network to create a “viral word of mouth”.
- New methods are being used but the older methods of big promotional campaigns are still in place
- However, the “Twitter effect” can also work against a film. The instantaneous nature spreads both positive and negative reviews.
Changes in Film Exhibition
Changes in the Global Market
- Copied DVDs and digital downloading or file sharing.
- Torrent and peer to peer file sharing.
- DVD counterfeiting is low priority for police but has a high profit margin
- Historical there have been attempts to resist Hollywood's dominance
- New formations and competitions such as Bollywood and Nollywood.
- Technological innovations and new features added to the traditional theatre setting
- Digital cinemas, 3D and IMAX
- 3D has recently gone digital and an increased number of movies are now being released in 3D
- Relying on these technological innovations to attract audiences away from their computers and home entertainment systems
- Enhanced theatrical environment
- Additional revenue through midnight movie premieres and opening night parties and broadcasting live events
Nollywood at Large & Behind the Scenes
by Ramon Lobato
&
Ikechukwu Obiaya
- Nollywood's genesis is a result of niche consumer market that developed as Nigerians began to be exposed more and more to Hollywood and Bollywood during the 70's and 80's
- Considered by UNESCO as the "second biggest film producer (sector), with many more copies circulating through pirate channels"
- Although Nollywood is popular and ubiquitous in its native Nigeria and surrounding African regions, it has no true formal distribution method.
-Formal institutions do not trust film industry in Nollywood due to its capricious nature
- Increased formality would increase quality?
- Decentralization limit Nollywood's world influence
- Questions of censorship, regulation, and trade-laws become a complex issue
FORMALISING IMPERATIVE
- Small, private, movie guilds are developed to counter major violations or to aid in cooperation among studios and distributors
- Association of Movie Producers, Video Club Owners Association of Nigeria, etc...
- These, however, do not see eye-to-eye with the Censor Board
- Formalization is asked for by aristocracy so as to create a "more reliable" model
- Informality is increasingly being disfavored
- Anti-colonial movement
- Equalizing
- big-wigs are "urban
millionaires"
The Fomalising Imperative
-Similar results appear in the South, Yoruba, Igbo, and English-language: pirates dominate distribution
- enough revenue is made despite monetary leakage
- Deals are reliant on speed of sales, not on staggering deals
- Very competitive market
- Social reliance on vhs and dvds for entertainment
- most movies cost around $3.5
- typically watched in large groups and shared in wide-swaths
-"Video clubs" = internet cafes of Nollywood
- entertainment attached to other trades (food, grooming, etc...)
- The industry would no survive without the speedy and informal way of video production, and the decentralized method of distribution
- Horizontal in its organization
- However, not everyone in the industry is happy with the model
- Many producers and big-wigs want a formal system to respect intellectual property; this will affect the model severely
"This is why we can't have nice things"
NOLLYWOOD HISTORY
-Pirates were also involved in the legitimate distribution of films
- Distribution model: Kano -->other northern cities -->smaller urban areas--> rural dealers who provide goods for itinerant peddlers.
- System is based on a "complex balance of credit and trust; though it depends on piracy, it is complicated...
- Well known directors: Hubert Ogunde and Oda Balogun - primarily associated on local films
- Very little production participation during the 70s and 80s of film in Nigeria (35mm and 16mm productions)
- An era when Hollywood, Bollywood, and Hong Kong Films were the entertainment staples...
A Short History of the Nigerian Video Boom
Pirates!
Why is Nollywood thriving? Because...
- Many pirates in Europe (i.e. Amsterdam)
- USA, however, proposes greater protection undert the influence of Film-makers Association of Nigeria (FAN).
- Raids carried out against pirates in the US
- i.e. Flatbush: pirates undercutting producers by $2/video
-Nollywood stretches outwards only through "diasporic" populations
- Nollywood struggles to position itself on the world-stage though not without help
- L.A.'s Nollywood Foundation, and the Afro Hollywood Awards in the UK, as well as private supporters such as Danny Glover support and promote Nollywood.
- Similar to national distribution, Nollywood's international distribution is very informal.
- Piracy reigns supreme; though satellite TV is "catching up"
- The Dawn of Video Cassette
- Direct-to-home video industry
- The industry was based on celluloid video oriented to home TV forced a different film paradigm on the producers and workers
"A New Hope" ?
- Nollywood has various different entities: Hausa, Yoruba, Igbo, etc...
- Hausa films are more conservative in content, and favor Bollywood-esque romances, due to Islamic influence
- Igbo and English films which have bigger budgets are more action oriented.
- Nollywood contains transnational and subnational dimensions... it has created a mini-hegemony in Africa
- Distribution is driven by locals, and rights to distributed films are either bought cheaply or not at all
- Brian Larkin, media anthropologist, connected the rise of Nollywood to the explosion of Hollywood and Bollywood bootlegging
- Bootlegging became a legitimized trade
- Satellite TV
- Online streaming
- Izogn Movies: 3rd world streamer
- Youtube: copyright wars
-No solution to a pirate-originated industry at the global scale?
Questions
SECURITY & RIGHTS
Problems...
-Though Nollywood is built on piracy, this attitude is changing
- STRAP initiative: Strategic Action Against Piracy (STAAP it!)
Looking into the Future...
- Last few years are characterized by overproduction
- Sequelism and low-quality films are annoying consumers
- "Urban millionaires" do not give back to society
- Central government only gains $ based on taxes on CDs
On the other hand...
- Indirect contributions to local areas by repairing roads, establishing some kind of structure or investment to the benefit of the locals and the shoot.
Nollywood mentality = more money for me!
Formal or Informal?
- The measures taken have cracked down on pirates, and elevated the number or registered distributor stores from 500 to 30,000 retailers; more government influence
- These aren't perfect however, as the government soon ran out of license stickers and the licensing scheme generated a huge backlash among exhibitors
- Again, formal v. informal, what is best for Nigeria? what is more appealing to Nigerians ?
(producers...)
- Overall, producers appear to be "more or less happy" with the state of affairs
- Local market is still large enough with enough demand; quality is secondary
- bottom-enders want a better state of affairs but recognize that there is still revenue made
PARADIGM SHIFT
-Paradigm shift from nontheatrics to theatrics
- This was first attempted in '97 with Domitilla screened in Lagos cinemas in conjunction with African Independent Television Channel.
- Big-screen releases are becoming popular; some premiere abroad before at home
- Theatric release appears to deter or slow down piracy of the films in question
-New African Hegemon: Nollywood
- Other African nations (Ghana, Tanzania, etc...) cannot compete at the same scale with Nollywood, thus their film industries do not succeed.
- Counter-counter-colinzation
Are new forms of distribution essential to the success of Hollywood films (peer to peer, online streaming, etc)?
Do you think that there is a future for the Nigerian film industry outside of Africa despite its reliance on piracy?
Behind the Scenes... the bad
- Due to ignorance, poor to no training, and, zero-professionalism, blame on poor production quality has been generally laid out on crew-members
-Insufficient remuneration, delayed payment, discriminatory treatment, and poor working conditions in long-hour shifts are a common thing for film-workers in Nollywood.
-make-up artists and designers, for examples, being kept for long hours without rest in order to get as much as possible done
-Guilds established to promote the respect of film-industry workers and to help establish a repertoire between film-workers and authorities
-Guilds do little to defend the rights of workers or create substantial change
- Guilds have no official policy-making status
-Motion Picture Council of Nigeria; monitors guild activities
- Not only measures quality and validity of production, but also helps arbitrate disputes between parties in the industry.
-Nigerian House of Assembly is presenting acc. to article a bill to give legal backing to MOPICON