Truthfully, I don't know if it's because I am a part of the team working on the film glossary. Maybe it's because I am writing more often in the Inkwell Community or because I had started drawing inspiration from movies long before the film glossary became a thing. But something keeps drawing me to films, scriptwriting, screenplays, and everything else related to filmmaking.
Now, Google decided to show me writing upon writing this evening which finally led to opening a link straight to someone talking about filmmaking.
I got the shocker of my life when one of the links I was reading mentioned something that sounded as though filming making wasn't taken as a business in the past. These were the exact words
Investment in filmmaking isn’t an emotional decision; it’s a business one. Technology has improved the transparency of numbers in Nollywood
I was beyond shunned. I mean if these folks were mostly making emotional decisions with the process, instead of focusing on it being a business, how were they making their money?
Right around the period, when Netflix recommended more cartels and money laundering schemes to me, I began to question the music industry. I had questions like;
"What if when artists say tickets have been sold out and stuff, those sales are mostly a cover for money laundering? What if?"
I never had an answer because I haven't been directly involved in the industry apart from just loving music and streaming as much as I could, learning the lyrics as they make sense and meaning to me. But this evening, reading these articles, made me realize, my thought process must have been in the right direction.
And I thought, if you all weren't taking filmmaking as a business before what were you all doing? How were you all getting paid? How did investors make their money? Was the film industry a charity event and stuff? Or was it a laundering front like I thought the music industry was?
Several questions ran through my head but believe me I can't pin my fingers on what I want to believe at this point. Neither am I trying to point fingers or judge.
I do know I had a good feeling actors and actresses mostly lived for the camera and would do anything to look rich to gain ground, popularity, and possibly stay relevant. Especially in Nollywood.
With the rise of gossip blogs, it was becoming clear to me that being an actress or actor wasn't bringing as much money as social media claims and the younger generations get suck into these lies every day until they reach the point of understanding. Once they get there, depression becomes the order of the day for them because their expectations do not match reality.
Where was I? The articles. The revelation. Where am I going with this? I don't know.
I do know that as humans if something is working out really well for us, we barely want to share. Hoarding becomes the order of the day. But if we were lured into something that we thought was the real deal only to realize it was a fake or camouflage, we wouldn't want to be the only one looking stupid. We will definitely want to pull other people into that pit so we don't end up alone.
I remember a book that rightly disclosed that if anyone is trying to keep up with the Joneses, there are certain things they should. These include understanding that the Joneses are flaunting those things and making you want to buy things you do not need to please people you don't like because they don't want to be left feeling like an idiot for purchasing things that added less value to their lives.
If truly, filming wasn't considered a business in the past, then, I am lost for words. I do need to do more research to get a clear picture of the whole thing. This is because while I worked on the glossary and I kept seeing the box office gross income for some of those films, I had always thought the people who played one part or the other had benefited from those numbers. Right now, I don't know what to think. Was it mostly investors who pumped money into the creation of a certain film and then sold the finished products to distribution houses, collecting their money plus profit on the way, while the actors and actresses went home with peanuts?
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