We have so many good and bad productions each week coming out of what we boastfully call the Ghanaian Movie Industry—whether such an industry truly exist or not is a discussion for another boring day when I wake up with a headache.

Over the years, what I’ve realized about some of the great world movies is; they’ve durability when it comes to their viewing cycle, and some movies even live within certain quality hype longer than human beings. It may be sad to know that some movies have longer life span than human beings but it does happen—with some movies shot in the 90s still living in their full glory today.

A lot of things come to play when you talk about the life span of a movie with the first key elements being the quality of production, the storyline and more importantly, the well put together plans which go into many years ahead to give the movie a deserving life span.

Slowly, it seems some Ghanaian film-makers are playing with the production quality box but still lack the needed strength when it comes to those storylines which can fit into the future. Even the few good stories out there together with the increasing strength in production quality do not give Ghanaian movies any well deserving life span, beyond premieres.

Movie premieres have become so important in Ghana when you consider the life span of movies to the extent that, you sometimes have to asked yourself this; what did we use to do with our movies before the whole premiere booming season in Ghana? Can’t we look beyond the one day hype of our movies if they are worth anything and give these movies some sort of a live-on into the near future attire to wear?

In other parts of the world, premieres mostly begin the life of a movie—serving as the main outdooring event where the movie is unveiled, but the real life of the movie takes off after the premiere through its long weeks in the cinema, equally hyped DVD/Blue Ray release season, thereafter we see the online release and later on, it makes it into the few but important video shops for hiring and exchanges.

This week, I came across an online advertisement about a James Bond movie having been released on Netflix and for a minute, I thought a new Bond movie is out; so I was shocked as to where I’ve been sleeping to have missed the whole production completely. Then I realized, the ad was talking about SKYFALL, the last Bond movie we saw in 2012.

SKYFALL is living through it life stages and two years down the line, the movie is still being advertised/hyped—its life was not cut short or did not end at the premiere and cinema stages. Perhaps, a lot has been spent on the production and as such, terminating the movie’s life as we do in Ghana is not an option or those at the far end really have well put together plans and structures for their movies—in order to give the movies such admirable life span.

Over the last few years, we’ve heard a lot about the premiere of movies and less about these movies immediately the premieres are over—as if, our movies are theatre plays which mostly live and die within the walls of theatres.

The VCD/DVD markets may not be selling back home but the life of a good movie can surely go beyond just this—and a good movie should at least be able to live beyond its premiere hype. The premiere should set forth the journey and not end the journey….

Maybe at this stage, you would understand why I said the question of “whether we have a Movie Industry or not” is for a different day. Certainly, a movie within any well-structured industry must live beyond that single day of hype called Premiere.

The question still remains; what really happens to most of our Ghanaian movies after the various premieres? Our movie-makers seem more interested in making movies for premieres than looking for a better life for these productions they sweat over…