Behind the scene | 8 November 2005 14:07 CET

Funny: “I don’t watch movies”

The Nigeria movie industry might be full of crap but hope lies ahead says Ruke Amata. He spoke to Chibueze Okereke.
Can you please give us a brief of some of your notable works?
The first movie and I produced and directed was a movie called SOD, Son of the Devil. There are a couple of other ones like Fire and the Glory.

Which of your movie would you say is dear to your heart and why?
Well the first movie I did, SOD was a great challenge in terms of the resources, I mean lack of resources, both financial, human and technical and at the end it came out relatively well, because it got a lot of critical acclaim.

Apart from a critical acclaim, what was the sale of the movie then?
Hm, it didn't come out as financially rewarding as I would have wanted it.

As a director and one that has been commended for doing some good jobs, how would you rate the art of directing in the country today?
We are working on a very tight rope, in the sense that we are handicapped a lot by the facilities that we have and no matter how good a director is, if he has a poor script that the producer insists must be shot, if he doesn't have a good camera man, if he has actors who do not fit the role but which the executive producer insist must be shot, the production might not come out as good as it should be.

Apart from poor scripts and producers, most directors are known not to be educated in the art, could this be one of the reasons?
In everything you would always have a couple of charlatans who are not actually directors but that is not really the problem because one or two of them might not go to school to study directing but have the creative know-how, if you have the creative ingenuity. Definitely the handicap you have, if you do not have the formal training in directing can be overcome, if you actually studied under somebody who is a good director. Directing is something that even if you did not go to school to read, Theatre Arts or Dramatic Arts but once you study under somebody who knows what he is doing, you can pick up from and apply your own creative way.

Did you study in school or under somebody?
I studied both ways/studied Dramatic Arts at the University of Ife and I actually studied under TV producers, when I did my youth service in Jos. Then Jos was like the TV capital of Nigeria, it had a lot of good programmes then, like Behind the Clouds, Cock Crow At Dawn and even when I came to Lagos, my brother Fred was working with NTA. So we had a couple of things. So, by the time I added everything together, both my formal education and studying under people and added my own little bit of creativity, I became what I am.

While studying Dramatic Arts in school, did you decide that it was going to be directing?
Yes. I have always loved to be behind the stage. Even when we were in school I got on the stage just once or twice. This was in my first year and my third or final year. I have never really loved being on stage or acting, but if I am called to do it, I do it because I have the talent. But my true love is behind the scene.

As a director, do you make correction on any scripts, to ensure that your job does not come out a sham?
It's actually wrong not to bring out the bad part. When you have a script you must go through it as a director, because at the end of the day, your name is going to be attached to it. You look at the places you are not comfortable with and call whoever the producer is; explain to him why this thing shouldn't go. But unfortunately the way it is in Nigeria here, most of us are doing it for the money. So if you tell the producer of the necessary changes and he insists that you go ahead, what do you do? I have dropped a couple of scripts because what I pointed out, for me just couldn't go but then they insisted that, that was what they wanted and I had to drop their script for them.

When the scripts have been corrected and it agrees with you, how do you manage the case of actors who don't fit in a role?
Some artistes do not fit the roles. The ones who are actually good who have been doing some roles that they can fit in easily, but when you are faced with a new artiste, the challenge is there, if the person has a little talent, the challenge is for you to see how you call merge this person's upcoming talent with the challenges of the script you have. It's not all the time that you must use seasoned artistes who can deliver the job. It's actually easy working with them because, it reduces the workload but then there are some artistes who are coming up, who have some talent and the onus is on you, the director, to make sure that you groom this person well enough to, at least, bring out his own interpretation of the script because, in every role, every artiste have a different interpretation and they bring a different flavour into the role. So it's just left to see how the person's flavour blends with all the other artistes' and bring out a good script that is worth doing.

Apart from finance, many directors, like actors, are known to undertake more than one job at time, don't you think this is part of the problem?
Saying that taking more than one job at a time will be making a categorical statement, which I wouldn't want to make. It might not be creatively right to take more than one job in a short space of time. It might be two different scripts and two different interpretations, with different approaches to the different scripts. If you have two jobs running simultaneously, it is going to take a lot from you, I am not saying it is impossible, but it is going to take a lot from you to be able to know, handle the two productions, because you have to face one at a time and maybe what you are doing in one, you are not doing in the other. So, you might have to be a little superhuman to be able to do both of them well. But I won't say it's wrong because at the end of the day, we are doing it for the money, too, because it's a full time job for most of us, it's not as if we are running a business somewhere else and with the kind of fees involved for directors. For now, it's a wonder how people can survive shooting one movie at a time.

But the impression one gets is that some directors get paid even much more than the lead actor in some productions, how true is this?
I don't know. But once I called on our marketer to tell him this is the amount I am going to take on a job. He told me that it was too much and even mentioned one of the big directors whom he said would collect half the amount and I was surprised. He is one of the guys who actually do a lot of their productions. If this said guy could be collecting this, I don't understand, but for me like I said it is business.

If you are to leave directing today what else will you do?
I can go into a lot of things. I have an MBA apart from the first degree which is Dramatic Art. The MBA actually opened a wide vista for me because I have so many options I can go into.

MBA from which school?
From the Lagos State University. So, but for me it's not all about making money. It's about doing something that I love, something I am comfortable with, if not I would have dropped it after my MBA and looked for something better to do but I am not that kind of person. The creative juice inside me will have to be expressed. Even if I stop directing for home videos, there are so many other things I can do. Television Stations are opening up everyday and most of us started from television, we got frustrated then, because there was just one television station in the country, so we channeled this our creative resources into the home video industry and the home video industry is getting frustrating and we are looking for the avenues and the avenues are opening up.

You are one of those directors that we hardly read about in the papers. Is it that you don't grant interviews or what?
I read some of the magazines and most of what I read is negative stories. It's just goes to say, maybe I am not a controversial person. My stories are not interesting enough to make headlines. I am not that kind of person who goes out of his way or whose lifestyle actually generates controversies. So my stories might not appear so much in the papers because, for me, I don't think they are very necessary.

When you are not working how do you relax?
Now, I relax with my family. It's a full time relaxation outfit. My wife and my two children, I can stay with them all day. Before I got married, I loved challenges, competitive challenges and most of these challenges express themselves through video games, computer games or puzzles and stuffs like that, things that generate a lot of interest. That is what I like basically, I don't like watching films.

You don't like watching films?
Yeah, I don't like watching films.

That is odd coming from you?
Watching films, I did not say I do not like watching films; I do not like watching Nigeria, film generally because, when I watch, I do not watch to enjoy them. But I was watching to maybe develop my own skills, so when I watch films that I do not appreciate, it affects me terribly. So, for me, the film has to be good for me to sit down and watch it and enjoy it. There are actually a few films that I can say I have sat down to watch and enjoy.

How often do you watch the films you direct?
Em… once in a blue moon. A couple of them that I have directed I sit down and watch and when I watch I see so many lapses, I see so many things I could have done and didn't do but not because I couldn't do them but maybe the environment wasn't conducive. It hurts me a lot because when I watch such film and expect it to be good, but the kind of equipment, artistes and so on, its terrible.

What do you do in situations where your wife kind of asks you to watch a movie with her?
Eh, I forgot I like watching football. I can sit down and watch football the whole day. When it is time for her to watch movies because she likes watching movies a lot, she likes the normal things that women like, romance films and detective movies, basically whodunit films, someone kills somebody, ok, how are we going to find out? That, I can sit down and watch with her. The kind of film that I enjoy like science fiction movies, she doesn't like, you know. Sitting down to watch movies like the Matrix series. She doesn't understand why I would want to watch movies of a guy flying around. There are some Nigeria and romance films that we sit down and watch.

Can you mention three films that you have actually watched from beginning to end?
Maybe foreign films. The Lord of the Ring trilogy because before the film came out , my father, when I was quite young had the books and when they said they were making it into films, I said, ok, I must see the film and I must confess that those people really did a good job. But for the Nigerians films, I will be sticking out my neck. One of the best one, I've watched of my own films that I directed, Waiting To Die. This is one of the best films I've enjoyed. Then for other people's works, Oracle. I really loved the movie, Oracle because of the storyline works in line with what I like. The action in Waiting To Die was solid and I was very impressed with Chidi Mokeme and Omotola Jalade.

You strike me like a quiet and easygoing person. As a member of the Amata family, how did you feel when your brother was going through his marriage crisis?
I blamed both of them, that is Fred and his wife, because, like I said, there are certain things that you do that you do not let the public know. Fine, you might be a public figure but it doesn't mean that your life is for public consumption. They are not the only ones who have gone through problems, so, but when you love your lies on the pages of the newspaper, invariably you take whatever comes. Normal small quarrel that every couple have, but unfortunately they have to marry publications about this and that of course, when it happened the publications continued. Once you have things in the press and over a million people having different interpretations and judgment of what you could actually have solved as a couple or with one or two other people. Negative publicity is not a very good publicity. If you want to grant an interview, make sure it's for the right reasons, it's for your job, not that you want everybody to know about your love life. Well, it was sad.

You talk like someone that is experience in their matters. Would you say it was inexperience that caused the whole thing?
Maybe. But things like this, there are so many factors involved, especially when it starts with something small and you open your self up to everybody. People start coming with different kinds of suggestion and advice because they have read this and that in the papers. When they say things like that, you know words can be very powerful, words can kill actually. These little words that they say actually sow seeds in your own mind without you knowing these same kind of seeds that has been sown is the one you take back to your relationship and you might find out that you start behaving in a strange way. Not because you want to but because you have heard so many negative things. You listen to people who read something and interpret their own way, which in turn affects your own family. That is the price you pay for living your life on the pages of the newspaper.

What has been your joy in marriage?
Let me accept the thing you said about maturity. I got married, three, four years ago. I am not a very young person that means I actually took my time. Most of my mates got married over ten years ago but I did not get married then. But like I always say, use the experiences of other people as an example of how to live your own life. I found out that a couple of the problems most of my friends were having was because of their relationship at home and, of course, every sensible person will try and correct such mistakes. That is what I am trying to do.

So what has been your joy in marriage?
It will be difficult for me to pinpoint a particular thing because it's a whole life. Marriage is not just for this or for that reason; it's a whole life. It's like asking me, why is my life enjoyable. I can count so many things, that I have a wife that is a good wife at home, have two lovely children. By the time you blend everything together, it makes everything enjoyable

Which film are you presently working on?
My wife's job, actually, the story we shot for her NGO. I am still working on it. Though we have started showing it. But the way I work, after finishing the first cut there might be one or two observations. You go back and make corrections.

Aside from directing and sometimes acting, what else do you do, as far as the movie industry is concerned?
I would say I do everything. The first two films I did I actually wrote the scripts. The first one I wrote and my brother directed. It was called The Fire and The Glory, a Christian story. Now, if I direct a film and did not edit it myself, I cannot claim to have directed the film, editing the movie is as important as calling the shot on set.

In all these what future do you foresee?
The future is so bright that people need to wear dark glasses. Forget the fact that we have all these mistakes and criticisms. The way you know you are going somewhere (in the right direction) is when people start talking about you. When people that are not supposed to even care about the industry are taking interest. Not people locally, I am talking internationally, when people from BBC were so curious about the phenomenon called Nolly wood, they came down and did a documentary. And people from Canal France, the French Embassy, from the USA are taking interest because they know that there is something we have to offer. Though we might not see all this, I say the future of the Nigerian economy, I think, will rest on the Nigerian movie industry.

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