Hi All, Visual Effects is just not the Problem. The key thing is that we almost have no idea what we are doing. Movies here are shot at least in less than a month and it is all a one camera shot which makes it look like a traditional marriage. if you are not able to buy good lighting which i know costs some cheddar, but then media is not cheap and if done well, makes you good returns on your investment, (mind you we need more lights than the foreign films because of our skin color), I deal with Producers that are everything, both editor, camera man, director, producer, screen wirter, etc etc etc, Now you can blame this Naija not having a bank that can finance equipments. Bottom line is that this is all about cost. The fact that there is no good distribution will make people with money not invest. Forget this current Nollywood, it will change with time.Traders will be out of it before they know it. Now to break down the cost, what is the normal budget for shooting a movie in naija, i dont think it is upto 20mil. Now to buy a good virtual set, (not Chroma Keying) go to VizRT.com and see what a real virtual set is. It will cost you more than that 20mil naira to buy somethng like that, now isnt that the whole budget for the movie??
I know Naija has talented guy but they still need a re-orientation. How many of these editors actually know what editing is all about? most only know the software they are using but cant do a comparison analysis on why they want this over that? till we get the basics, we cant do anything better than kingkong for a while, am seriously hoping am wrong

@9star, be wary of using words that include explosion on the web. just a thought. With the global terror situation, you would be surprised what statements like that could bring to you

Hi All,

This issue about HiTV and DSTV is not just a case of losing signal. To me (My personal Opinion) is that it is a societal thing. Over in this part of the world, we dont really lay emphasis on Customer Satisfaction.

DSTV is just the best amongst the worst. They are not good. When you reboot, it takes all that time because it is loading the interactive portion. The truth is that it shouldnt have to go through that. For example, in the US, when you reboot a Comcast box, it loads right away just like the HiTV one an then the Interactive portion loads on the background or "On Deman". Why load the Interative when i just want to watch the channel?

Just like MTN, they suck as well but in Naija, they seem to be better than the others.

i still however blame HiTV management but more so, i blame the regulatory bodies because there are some basic things that one should have before they launch such business. Things like, minimum subscriber base.

For a Cable Operator to carry something like CNN, you must have a minimum subscriber base of like 500K users or something. Now why would DSTv go for Fox News that is a republican station. My bad for bringing this up but why??

I also blame exposure and expertise. I am not quite certain that HiTV has the technical expertise to deal with most of their situations. An example is the Audio issue in their half time commentary, come rain come shine, as a broadcaster, you cant show that. no matter what. No matter how much it cost. We all appreciate CNN but do you know how much they spent for the graphics at the Obama election? That shows you their commitment to quality.

Why cant HiTV tackle this Audio issue that has been on forever? that is my problem. if they are small, that is ok. there is room for growth but then, we havent seen any signs of improvement. I think this is an African / black thing. We dont really care what our customers think.

I will love to see HiTV succedd but then, their management has to also wish the same and not just collect people's money. They need to invest on experts that understand media and not claimants.

Thanks

I know 3 of the Director's personally but to say who is the best is not straight forward because what Criteria are you using to judge them. In the real sense of film making, there is a Director and Producer but we seem to ignore these details.

I think Izu is good based on the resources available to him and what he has done. But i still criticize all of them as they havn't personally taken it upon themselves to raise the bar. of all of them, who has ever added an animation to their films? who has ever used third party audio? who has applied multicam mode in their films?

No disrespect to none of them but what is the comaprison based on?

the best amongst the worst?

the most ambitious or what? Nollywood is still being set back because it lacks direction. Indian movies before used to be just music. an hour of a 2 hour indian movie before is dance but now, it is getting better.

the whole 9 yards in nigerian movies lacks vision. the actors and actresses are over weight. well genevieve seems to be in shape. they mostly cant seem to forget the camera is there. they are always conscious of the camera. we can go on and on but my blame on producers or directors is that none has gone aboard and said, to hell with this status quo, i will do something beta. they all seem to go with the trand and get controlled by the marketers that have no vision.

thanks

Hi There,

Dont mean to hurt your feelings tho but can you play soccer with Crutches? You might be able to but it is hard. THat is the point.

The subject you are talking about is an Art. You have to have it in your head and then use computer softwares to put it in a visual form. It is just like showing me your thoughts.

If you cant draw, it will be tough. DOnt even know where to start advising you. If you are really passionate aobut it, then start drawing or go to a fine Arts school. Forget the comuputer part for now and get the basics first.

Hi There,

You might not like this but it is the truth.

You have to pay an editor to edit your movie for you. You can't just learn editing because you want to cut out some screens. The fact that you dont know how to cut of screens already while you shot your movie shows it aint something you should do.

I will however retract these statements if what you are editing is not for commercial purposes. If it is something like a B-Day, then my bad, you can use windows movie maker, but then again, you have to learn how to use it. It aint something you can just learn by asking. Editing is an Art,

Hi All,

You first have to realize that Editing is an Art. Whatever software you use is just to enable you to put you art in a visual form that someone else can see.

I see the system recommendations that were recommended. They are ok is you are editing a Traditional Wedding. If for anything commercial, they are absolutely not acceptable.

If you want to build your own system (probably cos you dont like Dell or HP) then go with the specs below:

Duo Core if going with Intel or AMD with is better with Graphics. You have to at least get something that is 3.7ghz
For system memory, 4gigs
For hard drive, this is your choice, maybe a minimum of 256gb. You might even use external hard drives.
For Video Card, go with NVidea at least 256mb.

I dont recommend building your own system especially in this part of the world because you are probably getting hte parts from computer village and you dont know its compatibility with the next item you are buying. Bus speeds matter a lot when you are talking about PC's. My recommendation for a system is,

If you can afford it, get a Dell Dimension T3400 system or something from HP that is built for Editing. These are not cheap products but then again, media aint meant to be cheap. You get what you pay for. If you get cheap tools, you output cheap content. No going around that.

One major reason why i am advising on OEM machines is because of rendering. If you use this commonly available motherborads "gigabyte etc" they cant handle the rendering requirements of editing video and 9 out 10 times, your audio gets distorted. Most editing you see locally have a better audio on the tape than after recording.

For Editing software, someone said windows media and someone else said Pinnalce studio. Well they are all ok but like i said, what are you editing. Windows media is out of the question because it is purely consumer based (editing birthdays). This is not direct attack to the person that said windows media. This is a professional site and i am just voicing my opinion. Please dont take it personal.

If you want good editing, the good softwares are Avid Media Composer, Final Cut pro, Canopus Edius and then the rest. This listing is based on their market share. They also are not cheap products. Avid is better because most of its stuff can be done real time with no rendering therby saving you a lot of time. Final Cut is ok as well.

For all this, you still have to learn professionally how to edit.

HOpe this helps.