AN AESTHETIC ASSESSMENT OF SELECT NIGERIAN HOME VIDEOS

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

• Background of the study

Nigerian films (home videos) are most often creating aesthetic reality on the minds of viewers. Aesthetic reality, according to Akpan and Etuk “involves nature rearranged”, it is a kind of reality that reflects through the filmmaker’s personality and indicates selection and treatment given life by the filmmaker, with the aid of the camera, sound, light and available techniques of video production (AKPAN & ETUK, 1990). Chandler notes that television and film use certain common conventions often referred to as the ‘grammar’ of theses audiovisual media. These conventions according to Chandler are important for conveying meaning through particular camera and editing techniques as well as some specialized vocabulary of film production (CHANDLER, 2001). Aesthetics lies in the ability of the filmmaker to utilize all the available tools at his/her disposal to pass a message across to his/her audience and make them feel the way he wants them to feel. The actions of the audience while watching the movies are usually programmed by the filmmaker, who blends in diverse proportions, images, light and sound, with his wealth of experience and vocabulary as well as the diverse technique at his/her disposal. Popular opinion, based on UNESCO report (2009), holds that the Nigerian film industry, popularly called Nollywood, which is dominated by home videos is currently rated second in production of films after Bollywood (India) and over Hollywood (America). Whether this claim is true or not, the truth is that Nigerian films (home videos) are widely watched. It is largely a direct to video industry because they are few producers who work in celluloid. The industry has grown from obscurity to become an important phenomenon which has attracted not only world acclamation but has brought scholars, reporters, reviewers, journalists, investors and different kinds of people to the country. Some of the people come to investigate, invest, and observe the industry or network with its people. (Adenugba, 2007) According to Ekwuazi (1991), the film is a cultural index; a cultural reflector, a socializing agent and therefore the instrument of cultural dynamics. He further explains that the film constitutes an industry whose production is directly ideological. What this means is that the film, in this case, home video projects what it seeks to communicate to its audience, what it seeks to sell, what it wants its audience to understand and what it wants its audience to imbibe.  Adenugba posits that the producers of films all over the world use what is in vogue to develop their plots (in terms of messages and themes), in dressing, language and lifestyle amongst others. As we consider their roles as image makers in the country, a casual review prompts us to ask if the viewing audience who would never have been to Nigeria would be able to distinguish an individual actor’s personality, manner of dressing, language and lifestyle as a citizen of the country from the national identity and culture. Further issues these would raise could be if the actors and actresses, either on set or off set, are truly representations of the Nigerian personality, and to what extent? There were occasions when certain film actors/actresses have been attacked and/or molested in the public simply because of the roles that they had played in some home videos. It is true that certain characters in the home videos have gained the sympathy of the viewers while others have been seen as villains and have escaped being lynched by the public when offset. This implies that the viewers do not always separate the actors’ personalities of the real persons. If this is the reaction of the audience to the actors, how would the viewers, especially foreigners and nationals react to Nigeria and its people in view of the portrayals and representations they see in the home videos? On this background the researcher wants to investigate on an aesthetic assessment of select Nigeria home videos.