What is Balla? It's a very low budget indie Jamaican web series on Youtube. The producers Barracks Entertainment was originally a theatre company that put on stage plays with heavy youth involvement as a programme to keep kids off the street, and have them doing something useful and fun.
Unfortunately the pandemic hit and they could no longer host plays. They decided at that point to film their plays as web series. They started off very rough, with cellphone cameras and very little knowledge of making films and slowly progressed in quality.
The start was so rough the first 3 episodes of season 1 are hard to watch. The only reason I got through them was because I kept hearing people talk about it. I started to wonder, why are so many people talking about this show. I also noticed some of their videos amassing almost 500k views. At that point I had to stick it through and get passed the first 3 episodes, which I did and needless to say, I was hooked. I literally became one of the fans looking forward to a new episode every Friday, as if I didn't have better things to do, like get wasted.
Anyway, fast forward 2 seasons and while watching one of their after show lives on Instagram, I heard the producer saying season 2 was going to be the last because it was taking a toll working below budget and having to spend money from their own pockets to the point of being broke and the added pressure of the camera guy and editor constantly flaking on their responsibilities. I decided to reach out to them and hook them up with my business partner who is a fast and dedicated filmmaker, producer and editor.
Since that relationship was forged, we had to edit another series they had called "True Colours" sort of as a test. We passed that with flying colours (Pun intended), and we got to shoot season 3 of Balla.
Balla was an experience like no other. It was highly ambitious and underfunded, which means a lot of stress and a lot of extended deadlines. Well we stuck it through and season 3 premieres on July 28th. It is going to be the best season yet. Lots of drama, far improved camera work, sound quality and colour grading.
If you haven't seen Balla yet, if you like nollywood style films and you don't mind seeing the progress of quality of a low budget production over time, check it out. The trailer above will take you to their Youtube channel. Do the like share subscribe thing and leave a comment below only after you have watched at least 3 episodes. Peace out.
