After Peter Jackson bought my full conscience with his splendid directorial work on the ‘Lord of The Rings’, my desire for more of his excellent works couldn’t be fulfilled with the numerous times I watched ‘The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey’ when it was released last year.
Yesterday, I took time out to see Peter Jackson’s latest ‘The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug’ in its full 3D glory. At the Deluxe Cinema hall of Cineworld in Woodgreen-London, I kept saying to myself; this man has more than just the needed skills and experience…
As a Peter Jackson fan, I know he continues to play cameo roles (less than 60 seconds mostly) in most of his movies, so he can have a taste of the struggle the actors he directs go through in the making of a movie, and he did that once again in ‘The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug’ .
The reason why the sudden new African order of our ‘not so good’ actors and ‘best’ actors jumping the broom to become Directors hurts my heart is the lack of PASSION they have for their work—passion in cinematography is more important than acquired skills—and Peter Jackson is a living testimony…
During the making of ‘The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug’, I followed the various video blogs Peter Jackson and his crew produced to keep fans updated and it was obvious that, Peter as Director is able to achieve his success because he has a great PASSION for what he does.
Peter Jackson has no room for substandard work and pays special attention to details, even the tiny ones. There is no way he could have achieved the huge success of his latest movies by being a LEAD Actor in the movie as our African actors/actresses are doing—-being a director and a lead at the same time. This is simply because, it is impossible to direct yourself even if you are great as Peter, compared to directing others.
PASSION is the bedrock of Peter’s success. And if you are working simultaneously as a full blown Actor and a Director, where will the passion be? You can have passion for more than one thing, but it is the one you have the greatest passion for that needs your attention…
If African film-makers ever want to achieve the peak success that people like Peter Jackson have obtained in the world of cinematography, they must begin to look into their PASSIONS and establish where they actually belong…
Having the skills and needed experience is just not enough, there must be that great PASSION for the work you do.
Anyway, if you’ve not seen ‘The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug’ yet, go out there and see it—-Peter Jackson has done it again.
Chris, I think you should not say Africa, (though I understand where your coming from) because there are very great world class standards coming from Africa in the industry. Just NOT from Ghana. And what these guys do, you can never compared with what’s coming from GH. Over all great article.
Chris, good points. While I agree with your point about passion, I think your other point — [“being a director and a lead actor at the same time” is not successful] — is debatable.
Passion: Or lack of– is very evident in every form of Ghanaian media. The extra step taken for creatives to raise the bar is laughable. Whether it be the audience’s acceptance of mediocrity or lack of skills in professionals, Ghanaian entertainment is seriously subpar. From stories, to acting, to principal and post photography, Ghanaian movies from afar is an eye-sore. It’s almost 2014, and I’m yet to see a single Ghanaian movie with good enough lighting or sound to not distract from the story! Believable acting that would draw an emotional reaction (besides disgust). If you visit vimeo.com and check out the Staff Picks, you’ll find a bunch of very creative videos that are done by average people with little or no money. The common aspect that they share is PASSION. And they’re great inspirational videos is testament of that passion.
Now to your second point, about actors not making great directors, is not valid.
Actors CAN actually make great directors. They know how to deal with other actors. I find that most actor-turned-directors have better compelling stories with well-rounded characters. Albeit these are seasoned actors who have been under the apprenticeship of great directors. In the case of Ghanaians, actors have no great resources in the form of directors to shadow. Our directors suck. Plain and simple. So if these inexperienced melodramatic actors are looking at these mediocre directors for umm… direction, the outcome is worse.
Here’s a short list of great award winning movies with directors as leads:
Clint Eastwood – Gran Torino, Million Dollar Baby, Unforgiven
Mel Gibson – Braveheart
Kevin Costner – Dances with Wolves
Ben Affeck – The Town, Argo
Ben Stiller – Walter Mitty, Tropic Thunder
George Clooney – Ides of March, Monuments Men
Peter Jackson is a rare case – sure, he’s meticulous and nit-picky– but you have to, if your source materials (Hobbit and LOTR) are vehemently harbored by diehard fans. But I get your point on the passion. Just disagree with the statement “There is no way he could have achieved the huge success of his latest movies by being a LEAD Actor in the movie as our African actors/actresses are doing—-being a director and a lead at the same time”.