When Accra Mail’s Silver Bird was coming to Ghana, they promised Ghanaian filmmakers and the media that they have indeed come in as a blessing to Ghana’s movie industry – as far as screening and premiering of movies are concerned.
I recall vividly, Kwasi Aboagye of Peace FM’s Entertainment Review interview the then marketing manager of Silver Bird who assured the public that they have come in very handy for Ghana’s movie industry, but over the years, all their actions have proven loud and clear that their initial promise was a decoy to achieve their real-hidden mission in Ghana.
Silver Bird Cinema is operating in Ghana but has a corporate standard that is simply not permissible for most Ghanaian films to be premiered in their cinemas. They have declined premiering Kumawood movies and even some English movies – declined premiering Slim Buster’s ‘Helmet’ movie, for poor production.
Current Marketing Manager of Silver Bird is reported to have said some weeks back that “it is not as if we don’t want to show any movies produced locally at the cinema. We have movies from other producers being premiered at our cinemas but most of the Akan movies have lower quality and are substandard, that is our issue with those movies.
“If they can upgrade their movies, I am sure we will be glad to show Akan movies in our cinemas because we also want to contribute our quota to the movie industry.” I therefore acquaint myself with these standards that Silver Bird keeps chanting – only to learn of PHONY STANDARDS set by them that will actually prevent a lot of Ghanaian movies from being premiered in their cinemas.
First, I learnt from the PRO of FIPAG that Silver Bird premier’s movies in Blue Ray and DVD versions and have now even upgraded their standard to DCP. Currently, 99% of Ghanaian movies shot are not DCP compatible – but most Hollywood movies shot now are DCP compatible.
In other words, this new standard is coming from Silver Bird’s MASTERS – Hollywood market. Since Silver Bird is not a filmmaking studio, they couldn’t have woken up one day to create such a standard! Their Hollywood MASTERS prevailed upon them to do so.
I spoke to a number of Ghanaian filmmakers and not even one of them know what DCP is – so how does Silver Bird expect Ghanaian filmmakers to meet this standard? It’s simply impossible! It’s like asking a man to go to the North when you can see that the man is taking the path of South – clearly this man can never reach the North.
Secondly, Silver Bird complains about the type of camera Ghanaian filmmakers’ use for shooting. What an unrealistic comparison! Cameras are not manufactured here in Ghana. Out of all the various ranges of cameras manufactured in other continents, Ghanaian filmmakers buy and use only those that they can afford.
Also, they can’t use cameras as perfect or artistic as Hollywood filmmakers – they are only trying their BEST! Aside that, Ghanaian/African filmmakers are very much limited when it comes to cameras.
Currently, the cameras that most Ghanaian filmmakers are using to shoot movies are either outdated or not used by most filmmakers in Hollywood or Bollywood. By the time Ghanaian filmmakers start using the updated versions of camera’s currently used in Hollywood, those camera’s would have become outdated.
So if Silver Bird is comparing Hollywood movies to Ghanaian movies and judges from camera perspective, the comparison is simply zany and unrealistic! The cameras and lenses used by Hollywood filmmakers are not those used here by most Ghanaian filmmakers.
THE WAY FORWARD
I read that Silver Bird has apologized to players in the Kumawood industry for the disparaging comments their marketing manager made in recent times. That is not enough! Kumawood movies are now selling and the Kumawood industry is now the backbone of Ghana’s movie industry.
It will rather make business sense for management of Silver Bird to rather do their research and consultative meetings with players in the Kumawood industry, and design FEASIBLE STANDARDS that can best suit Kumawood filmmakers so that they can screen or premiere Kumawood movies.
If Silver Bird thinks Kumawood movies are not appreciated and or not watched by the highly educated in our society, they are wrong! Silver Bird will be shocked at the huge number of people who will troop to their cinemas to watch Kumawood movies. I am not a seer, but I can tell management of Silver Bird to give this a try and they won’t regret!
A lot of educated people in our society secretly watch Kumawood movies but come public to pretend they don’t or condemn them. If Silver Bird starts premiering Kumawood movies, they could be giving these secret-elite-Kumawood-watchers the confidence to come out of their ‘fears’ and attend premiers. Until then….MOTWUM!!
It’s not like they don’t want to. That’s how it is done. Many of the English movies they show in their cinemas are not supposed to be approved to be shown there. Many of your English movies they show on cinemas are not accepted to be shown in Nigerian cinemas. Maybe because that’s all you have. You can’t expect a 40,000 GHS film to be accepted in cinemas. But, they do that in Ghana. There are standards a film needs to attain before it can be shown in cinemas.
Look Chris, it’s our day today ‘LEFT HANDED DAY’ today, so plz write about us wai?
phony & shady ppl…there actually shld be a cinema based in KSI for Twi movies.
Chris before i make my point would you go to silverbird to watch Agya Koo and pay 20cedis…no popcorn. Whiles the cd are 5cedis on the streets.
The other issue is you do have a point but 80% of the people will not go to silverbird cinema to watch some of our local movies. I honestly believe some of the standards have to be maintained and raised otherwise our film makers will still be putting out low quality and shoddy work. Our local film makers need to raise their game..period.