Marvellous Studio

I met them when doing Mango work and they made us a boom pole for our movie and lent us lights we never used. I like them. They have a video editing and sound recording studio - rugged but functional. Razak, the guy who made the place, practically lives in his edit booth. He has about 30 siblings and they are all somehow involved in some aspect of production. I'll put up pictures soon.

His father was the first guy to shoot video in the North. For television, a long time ago... Razak went to school for Electronics, a vocational one upon his father's insistence. He wanted to go to normal school and is still upset about it but likes that he can build amplifiers and wire things. He has a lot of dreams. He wants to make a computer factory in Tamale and a film school too.

The filmmakers here are mostly uneducated, some making scripts without knowing how to read or write. Some of the acting is so good they are wanted in other parts of the country and Nigeria but they can't 'cause they don't know english. But mostly they look up to Indian movies.

Razak wants to learn more effects, maybe in Hollywood, so he can make movies about the traditional stories - how horses climb trees and dwarves turn into any shap or size (like ghosts). He believes in the power of movies, not just for entertainment, but for development. They have a booming business. BUT there is a Stigma about filmmakers I just found out about! They are seen to be bad people and prostitutes. (Probably because of music videos and some of the Nigerian ones.) But really cause people can't seperate the people from the charachters they play. They think they are real.

I just spent a few weeks with them editing a video for the Ghana Danish Communities Association (GDCA) - about the RIGHTS BASED APPROACH. It's a neat and sensible idea. I'll try to upload some of it.