My talent hunt show remains on course –Emmanuel Eyaba

Emmanuel Eyaba, a producer, director and member of the Directors Guild of Nigeria (DGN), is one of Nollywood’s prominent personalities based in Abuja. OSEYIZA OOGBODO BLOG met him recently during a working visit to Lagos and he spoke about his plans and his talent hunt show, Unleash Ur Creativity. What’s the latest about you? As usual, I’ve a lot of irons in the fire, and they’re all searing hot. One of them is Raw Impact which I’m very passionate about because we celebrate raw talents through it. Another is Unleash Ur Creativity, a movie talent hunt which continues to gather steam by the day. And there are still others. How did you get into filmmaking? It’s a very long story dating back to 1997 after I finished secondary school. I wrote and produced my first movie then but it did not see the light of day due to lack of experience. I then gained admission to study theatre arts at the University of Calabar. While in school, we were into a lot of stuff, stage plays, radio drama, church films and so on. But professionally, I worked as an IT student with Mr. Teco Benson on the set of The Senator in 2002. I gained so much knowledge on his set and on return, I directed my first movie, The Enemy Within. After that, I directed The Pottersbride. I then produced and directed my first project which was a short film titled Millimetres, an action film on the Niger Delta militants’ saga in the South-South. I then worked on the set of Streets Of Calabar as a third assistant director for a Chinese director. And I learnt so much on the set. Then I moved to Abuja in 2011 for my NYSC where I served with Zenith Film School as an instructor. NYSC was fun because I published my first book, a compendium of five plays which I donated to schools in FCT. The project gave me an NYSC honours award. After NYSC, I was contracted by the Nigeria Customs Service to shoot a series and we came up with The Frontiers, a series which aired on NTA Network for 30 weeks. After The Frontiers, I co-produced and directed Spycing featuring Iyanya, Emeka Enyiocha, Uti, Alexxx Ekubo, Nazareth Jesse and a couple of other actors. You went for a professional filmmaking course in America. How is it helping you now? Well, the programme changed my total orientation on how we made films. I am more detailed in my work now. A good script starts from the story, the script, and the cast, down to the interpretation of the characters. So I try to infuse all of these elements into my work now. I have also created a platform where I can share my knowledge to the younger generation so that the industry can improve. What have you achieved as a filmmaker? Wow! Achievement? I wouldn’t like to blow my own trumpet, but I get people telling me, ‘Oh, Emma, saw your work. Nice one. Keep it up.’ What are your plans for the future? To set up a film school and TV station soonest. It’s believed that it’s better for entertainment people like you to be based in Lagos, but you are based in Abuja. Is that affecting you in any way? Well, I have heard a lot of people saying that, and some have even asked me why I’m not in Lagos, but I think I can still make impact from Abuja, so I’m good with being in Abuja. How far with Unleash Ur Creativity? We’re still on it. We’re still going strong in our plans. We intend to empower 50 filmmakers in Africa. I’m very, very passionate about it because it will empower upcoming filmmakers. As I said earlier, fifty of them, in two groups of 25 each will be selected and camped for one month during which they will learn the rudiments of filmmaking and then shoot a short film. They will be required to conceptualize a story, produce and premiere it within the period. The movie will then be premiered to an audience on live TV and the winning group will receive N10,000,000 (ten million naira) to produce a feature film. Those selected will comprise of storytellers, actors, cameramen, editors, musicians and songwriters. While they are working, the audience will watch their efforts and get to know how things are done behind the camera from the scripting stage, casting, down to choosing of locations, rehearsals, principal photography, and editing of the movie. Just watch out for it.