Beloved filmmaker, Biodun Stephen Oladigbo has become a Nollywood household name as a result of her expertise in crafting engaging stories that captivate diverse audiences. A storyteller through and through, Stephen has made her mark with blockbusters like Picture Perfect, Breaded Life, Sista, A Simple Lie and many other screen favourites. She reveals her path to filmmaking in this tell-all interview, while also revealing the challenges and misconceptions that besiege the business of filmmaking.
TOMI FALADE brings excerpts as transcribed by Kofoworola Ogunbiyi. Beloved filmmaker, Biodun Stephen Oladigbo has become a Nollywood household name as a result of her expertise in crafting engaging stories that captivate diverse audiences. A storyteller through and through, Stephen has made her mark with blockbusters like Picture Perfect, Breaded Life, Sista, A Simple Lie and many other screen favourites.
She reveals her path to filmmaking in this tell-all interview, while also revealing the challenges and misconceptions that besiege the business of filmmaking. TOMI FALADE brings excerpts as transcribed by Kofoworola Ogunbiyi. lot of mistakes I made when we did ‘The Visit’.
I had, before film school featured a little bit in a show called ‘Spiders’ where Mary Njoku of Rok Studios played my daughter. So when I came back, I reached out to her. Then she had kicked off Iroko, and she was on the verge of starting Rok.
I told her I was in town, I’d just left film school and asked how I could be of service. I went to work for Rok for about a year and sort of built a network. I learned on the job, learned some of the mistakes I made, and realised I got scammed when I was doing ‘The Visit’.
Eventually, I left, wrote a series called 30 Minutes, and then line produced and learned set design, production design, and the rest. Everywhere I worked, I saw it as a learning ground, soaking in as much information and knowledge as I could. And then in 2016, I eventually launched my film company.
I had registered my company way before then, and we had made about two films with Koga Studios. The second one never came out because Chris died. In 2016 October, I did Picture Perfect.
Tell us some of the trends you have noticed in the Nigerian film industry overtime. One of the things I learned as I was working and understudying the industry was that the industry as at then was very reliant on the cast. I think we are still in that place.
Back then, the cast was powerful, and now they are even more powerful. I wanted to build a structure where the audience trusted me. It was very important that the audience trust me.
When you become reliant on the cast, then you can’t open the door for new people to come in. You keep using the same people because this is what everybody loves. The strategy for me was to build a brand that people trust for storytelling, quality and then it wouldn’t matter anybody I use.
Off the bat, we were taking chances when we did The Visit. We were taking chances when we did Picture Perfect with Bolanle Ninalowo. It was always about me taking a gamble.
Again, I then realised as I was going that I really like to tell intimate stories with a not-too-large cast. But of course, you can only keep that on for so long. I always wanted the responsibility of the storytelling to rest heavily on the actor.
Which is why my movies were always very intimate. Some people sort of misconstrued that as low budget rather than seeing it as art, which I thought I was making. I was making art, using very limited cast to tell a story that would grip the audience for 90 minutes.
Working in radio and doing my shows allowed me to understand the kind of stories I wanted to tell, which was human-angle-related stories. I wanted to tell stories that were relatable, everyday life experiences. That was what my show, ‘Whispers’, was about.
I wanted my films to sort of highlight societal issues andspotlight those kinds of things. In the 12 years you’ve done so much work, where do you draw inspiration? As a writer, you must write from what you know. Take for example, ‘Picture Perfect’.
Situating it in Agege was because growing up, my mother used to have a shop in Agege Market, and those Agbero’s were my friends. We used to fight and arguewhen the container of our goods would come and we wanted to offload. Those Agberos were also the ones that we could rely on.
I realised that the area boys there have some great guys among them. ‘Picture Perfect’ was really to celebrate those people. Every time I write, I write from what I know.
I always like to write from what I know, because I think therein lies the relatability and the authenticity of the story. It’s not my story, people got it wrong. My cleaner, who has the job that Sista has, is a single mother.
I leave my cleaner in my house because I trust her. She will say, ‘Auntie inventory o’. My mom was also a single mom.
The only part of that story that is my story was the outlook of the children. When I met my dad, my mother and I had a little argument. I left the house and went to my dad’s house.
Of course, he shipped me back the very next day. My mother cried and said, ‘now you have somewhere to go. Because you have seen your dad now, small argument you pack your load and go’.
The other thing with Sista was to help people look at the story holistically from all angles. I just wanted to write a story that sort of looked at everybody’s point of view. You recently hinted at making Yoruba films for yourYouTubechannel.
Asafilmmaker, what’s your take on actors who cannot speak a native language being cast in Indigenous films? Our creative rationale is always very different. When you’re making a film, sometimes you’re making it because this particular actor can perform but unfortunately is lacking in language. Yoruba actors are excellent actors, because, there’s something about acting as you are thinking.
Many times, if you were born in certain areas where you grew up speaking Yoruba, automatically when you are thinking, you think in Yoruba Language. For some of us who speak English in our homes, we think in English. And then we have to first think in English and convert to Yoruba, which is what happens.
Many times, the really excellent actors, those Yoruba actors are really great. But grammar, with all humility, is a struggle sometimes. Somebody like Deyemi Okanlawon, we gist in Yoruba when we are off camera.
But let him come and speak it on camera he’ll stammer. But that doesn’t take away the fact that Deyemi is such an amazing actor. What I think that the directors should do sometimes would be to let the actor do the work and learn the language.
If there is a need, redesign the characters so that it favours their weakness and it then looks like a strength. I’ll give you an example. There is a film I am starting tomorrow.
The story was originally written for a Yoruba family, but I realised that I want to move from my Yoruba era into Igbo because I do a lot of films that favour the Yoruba tribe, and I am not even Yoruba to start with. This year, I want to move into my Igbo era. It means that if I am casting, then I redesign the characters to be an Igbo family, it means that we are going to recast.
We did a film with Blossom and Jessica Nze. They were originally designed as Yorubas, Jessica can speak Yoruba, but Blossom cannot speak. He cannot even pronounce a word properly.
I had to say let’s make them Igbo if Blossom is struggling. Both of them speak Igbo, so it was easy. We shot some really beautiful scenes that they expressed in Igbo.
I think for directors, you can always redesign the characters if the story allows. I listened to an interview where you stated that every word that is spoken in your film is scripted, is it still the same? It depends. For a film like Picture Perfect, everything Ninalowo said was scripted.
I wrote every single phrase. The only thing Ninalowo said was Jobestina. In Sista script, ‘inventory’ was written.
I’m always on social media and I’m not browsing social media for fun, I am learning and imbibing all of this so that when I’m writing and I use these lines, you can relate. An actor’s interpretation can shoot it off, there must be that allowance for the actor to sort of bring his or her own understanding of the moment. We always script as much as we can.
If it’s comedy, if you make a joke, even off-cam, I can easily catch it and add it. At every point, I’m archiving information. Some suggest that in casting, you generally stick to the same set of actors.
I’m a lover of talents and people like Bimbo Ademoye, Bisola Aiyeola, Bolaji Ogunmola, Jessica Nze, these are the kind of people that I have featured many times. They are onions and I enjoy to peel. What nobody can accuse me of is saying that they’ve come back to do the same thing, it is always something different.
What’s your average budget as a producer to ensure that a film comes out right? Let me first demystify this. There’s nothing like because it’s four person, one location film, it’s low budget. I think that people should just trash that thought in the bin.
In 2013, we made ‘The Visit’ with N14 million. I don’t think people were making a film for N14 million in 2013. It was one location, a house alone, and we were there for 14 days.
So let’s just first discard that low-budget idea. When we made ‘a Simple Lie’, the entire budget was about N31 million. The focus is not on one location or whatever.
It is how do you engage people for 90 minutes looking at the same thing? It was important that the location was beautiful. That location was not how it was. We in production designed it.
We put in a lot of accessories. And then, again, you have to have a long conversation with a cinematographer because you have to design your shots so that it’s moving and engaging. It has to be done so well that people are not tired and bored.
Another thing is that because the story can’t do so much, you cast people that can sort of make the story. It was just important that as a director writing a story, you’re thinking of the cast. The fluidity of the camera is very key.
The visual representation, the clothes they’re wearing, and other details like that. I’ve come to learn that people watch films for different things. Some people don’t go for the story but for a fashion.
Some people are there because there are many fine boys to drool over. You need to cater for all those people, so that you have given everybody something to watch. Give them one fine boy.
Give them one fine girl that has big breasts. Give them stories, give them pictures so that, before the 90 minutes is over, everyone gets something. Can you share some of the challenges you face in terms of filmmaking, particularly those you want the government to address? We have been sharing with the government.
Area boys want to kill us.The landscape of the film business now, compared to when I started in 2016, is very different. Everybody sees you as an ATM.
Even for you to sit down, you are going to pay. Those statements infuriate me because they feel once you see filmmakers, money is coming. It doesn’t work like that.
The area boys are getting empowered, more brazen, and they are bold; they challenge you. They don’t even mind injuring you. There is nothing that has happened to filmmakers that has not made it to social media.
People have been stabbed, generators, equipment have been smashed. We need to film on the streets, if not, we will be stuck indoors. How do you capture everyday life if you are not on the road? If you decide to rent a location, I don’t know what we have done, people hate us.
I don’t understand how you see a group of young people in this present time where young people don’t want to work, and somehow they irritate you. Somehow, you don’t like them coming. If you go and film in a hotel, a yahoo boy has more dignity than the crew member.
They will tell us to stand under the sun because a yahoo boy wants to spend money, even though he looks worse than we look. They don’t care how they look because they are paid, but they are valued. What kind of message are you passing to these young people who are choosing to make a honest living? You are telling them that yahoo is the way because you don’t even regard them.
The only people that are respected are the actors. I have been insulted so many times, yet it is me that brought the actor and I am paying the actor. They will offer the actor a seat and shoo me to go outside.
Me, the EP. We can’t do anything about it. I just feel that it is not just a government situation, it is that where we are now, the kind of children we are raising now, it is important that every human being you see that is working, salute them because many children are choosing not to do anything.
And we need to save these ones that are choosing to work. Let’s save them by giving them some regard. Speaking about filming on the streets, the Lagos government for example, has begun to issue permits to prevent harassment of filmmakers.
Is there no form of cover, security-wise? Permit is the document that says you have permission to film on the express, or anywhere you have chosen that is Lagos State property. You will provide your own security. The government does not give you security, it is to show if any government official approaches you that you have a permit to be here.
You, as a producer, need to hire security. Now, there are two levels of security. There is uniformed security, depending on where you are going.
If you are in Lagos Island, then there is uniformed security, and then there is the security of Lagos Island, and you also need to settle them. God help you if you are filming at T-junction that means there are three levels of security. It’s exhausting.
We are constantly fighting. You have got to speak their language and fight like a crazy person just to stamp your right to be in that space. There needs to be rules and guidelines.
If I have paid the market anddone all the needful, I don’t see why one boy, from one place or group of boyscomes to demand money. It’s annoying when every single human being you meet on the road says you must give them money just to move away or stay outside of your shot. I film a lot on the mainland, and it is saner to film here.
I don’t like crossing that bridge because it is an entirely different terrain. How do you inculcate, feedbacks and criticism from individuals, who are genuinely, trying to make you better? Till now, I read every review, watch every video, because I want to understand people’s opinions and thoughts. I have also been able to distill opinion and critique.
What we have many times is an opinion. Telling me how my film will end, or should end is an opinion. So I have been able to distill what is a critique, and what is an opinion.
I take the critique, but I do not accept opinions. And when you talk down at me, I will come for you because if I fought areas boys to shoot this film trying to force your opinion will lead the frustration to you..
