Film sector set for big boom

30 Jul, 2017 - 00:07 0 Views

The Sunday Mail

Takudzwa Chihambakwe
IT was like a dormant volcano, no activity whatsoever happening around or within it. The sector had drifted into oblivion — many had lost interest. Its productions could not match those by foreigners.

For a season, the local film sector was dead. But, since 2013, like the church evangelists would say, there has been a revival in the sector — a “renaissance” to borrow the words of an 18th century industrialist.

There has been a rapid increase in the number of local film productions being made and the quality regards to picture, sound, scripting and acting is gradually improving. Many have rekindled their love with the country’s sole television station, ZTV, to watch productions such as “Wenera”, “Muchaneta”, “Battle of the Chefs”, “Muzita raBaba”, “Sins of the Father” and “KuChina” among others.

Before this revival — any talk of movies would see many nostalgically think back to the days of “Neria”, “Yellow Card” and “Jit”. But today we have loads of movies being produced. Recently launched ones include “Deception”, “Two Villages Apart”, “Playing Warriors”, “Mwanasikana”, and “Escape”.

Just this summer more feature films are set to be launched among them, “Chinhoi 7”, “Camouflage”, “Lobola 2” and “The Cook Off”.

We spoke to Zimbabwe International Film Festival Trust, executive director, Nigel Munyati.

Said Munyati: “There has been a lot of progress made over the past few years. We are indeed at the cusp of breaking through into a sustainable film industry. What is critical now is doing the right things at the right time, setting up structures and being fully aware of the potential the sector has to shake the nation.” However, he said there is need for filmmakers to see themselves as businesspeople and not just creatives.

“There is a lot of money in film sector. Filmmakers can make just as much as those in Bollywood, Nollywood or even Hollywood if they start seeing themselves as businesspeople.

“With this in mind we will actually be running this year’s Zimbabwe Film Festival from August 27 to September 2 under the theme; ‘Business of Film’. We are going to be delving into areas that we have never touched on before such as finance, to equip filmmakers with skills to approach corporates.”

Joseph Bunga, the man behind one of the most successful productions in this renaissance period, Battle of the Chefs, believes that the local film sector is still fledgling.

“In my opinion we are a fledgling industry and we have a really long way to go. In my estimate — the current value of the Film Industry is probably less than $10 Million per annum — compare that to a projected value of US$5,5 Billion valuation of the African Market by 2020. Netflix alone invested US$6 Billion dollars into content in their last financial year,” said Bunga.

He went on to highlight that the fundamental challenge for filmmakers is that of high production costs despite the arrival of various players in the game such as Kwese TV, Zimpapers TV, Zambezi Magic, online platforms, and the much anticipated 12 new stations from ZBC once it completes is switch from analog to digital broadcasting.

“The fundamental challenge that we have is pricing. The cost of production in Zimbabwe remains high and competing with South Africa, which has a larger pool of talent as well as government financial aid programmes and even subsidies. We have a long way to go to be competitive.

“The arrival of more platforms is unlikely to alleviate the situation, in fact, it is more likely to continue exposing our viewers to more ‘global’ content — which since it has previously aired elsewhere is available at a low price. It is simple math that a show created from scratch will cost more than a 20, 10 or even a four-year-old show or movie.”

Bunga who is expanding his format of Battle of the Chefs to seven other countries is expecting a turnover of US$2 million dollars by end of 2018. Such figures show that there is potential for the local film sector to grow.

To buttress this, productions like “Escape”, were estimated to have been produced for close to $100 000, while the movie “Chinhoi 7” is said to have cost $400 000 and a television format show like “Simba Savanah”, which had 13 episodes is said to have seen an investment of US$3000 being poured into each episode.

Though these figures are huge it appears that most money is going to advertising and not necessarily the production.

Explaining on the significance of advertiser funded programming Bunga said; “One of the solutions for content in Africa is going to be advertiser funded programming. This solves the problem for the broadcaster, the advertiser, the production company and the viewer.

“I think the next step is to see a coordinated approach from the stakeholders to have a conversation and bring back TV as an advertising player in the marketing mix.

“In the case of ‘Simba Savannah’, just the fact that they were able to attract funding from corporates and from the US Embassy is an excellent model to follow.

“We all know there is a significant amount of money being invested in terms of aid — this is a great example of using some of those resources towards growing a business.”

But in order to maintain the already gained momentum, Bunga and Munyati concurred that there is need for local filmmakers to start collaborating.

“The other critical component in building a sustainable film sector is to have the filmmakers collaborating. We as ZIFFT are leading the way as we have joined forces with International Images Film Festival in hosting this year’s film festival.

“We are also seeing a lot of collaborations among the players in the sector and this is something we commend and would want to continually see this develop,” said Munyati.

Bunga chipped in saying: “More collaboration efforts are needed — I am constantly disappointed by the low amount of experience but high rates (in a Zimbabwean context) for people with very little experience. Again it’s still a small cake — the focus needs to be on growing the cake.”

The two also highlighted that government needs to step in and play an active role in supporting the sector.

“Government needs to make it easier for foreign companies to come and shoot here — take the example of Croatia and Ireland with the ‘Game of Thrones’. Cruise ships now flood the locations with people on a daily basis. We have the good fortune of having 300 days of sunshine and we are an English-speaking country — we should be able to attract a minimum of US$500 Million per annum in the Film Industry,” reasoned Bunga.

Munyati echoed the same sentiments saying, “It is a shame that the government does not see the importance of film in a sector like tourism. Imagine the influx of tourists we would have if there was a deliberate effort to market the various tourist destinations we have through film.

“Imagine what a movie set in Great Zimbabwe and has some scenes showcasing the Eastern Highlands and glimpses of the Victoria Falls would do in terms of changing perceptions of tourists about our beautiful nation Zimbabwe.”

Another area where the two also flagged as a critical area of concern was the need to build a proper film school in Zimbabwe.

“We have seen a number of youngsters return from the diaspora and inject a lot of new ideas into the sector, because they have been taught by the best whilst exposed to the best equipment.

“Sadly, back home most of the institutions are just scrapping the surface and not getting to equip students with skills that help them compete with their peers in other countries. There is need for an establishment of an institution that sees people specialising so that we develop gurus in specific areas instead of individuals with shallow knowledge in various aspects of film,” mourned Munyati.

Added Bunga: “Establishment of a proper film school goes without saying. I have been happy with students we received on attachment from Midlands State University and I think a grading system similar to the one used in South Africa would be a good start even for rates in Zimbabwe. Availability of equipment and constant use of equipment will go a long way in improving the sector.”

Share This:

Survey


We value your opinion! Take a moment to complete our survey

This will close in 20 seconds