I just watched the last instalment of Peter Jackson’s Hobbit—-The Battle Of The Five Armies in 3D and I kept asking myself, when will African film-makers just be able to pull 1% of such great work?
From ‘The Fellowship of the Ring’ to his latest, Peter Jackson always takes you to a different dimension and the increasing improvement in his directing is so obvious. He is able to engage you for over 2 hours without you wanting to even blink.
Of course I cannot compare Hobbit to any African movie made or to be made in the next century but nothing stops our film-makers from improving, from where they started.
Even little things such as advertisement, our film-makers take for granted and their desire to make disproportionate profits mean, they do not even want to spend any good amount of money on advertising, let alone invest in their works.
I walked out of the cinema hall and for a minute, I thought I had time travelled into many years ahead to see a movie there…The whole elevator was blasted with the Hobbit advertisement and I have also seen several London buses, blogs and prints with the Hobbit adverts all over…
To be frank, the makers of Hobbit could have decided not to advertise and yet it would have been a huge success because there is no movie out there today with loyal fans like the Hobbit. Even that, a lot is being spent on advertisement.
Our African film makers will tell you; we have spent all our money on the making of the movie….And they expect their movies to receive huge views? By saying they have spent all their monies on the making of the movie, they mean they have put in some coins and expect to make millions—even without advertisements.
The total budget of the 3 Lord of the Ring films was 281 million dollars which I know it’s a hell lot of money. But the box office revenue the movies brought was 3 billion dollars. This is what we call; do it great and your returns will be great. How can anyone turn 281 million dollars into 3 billion in 3 years? Peter Jackson can do that for you because he does not compromise on standard—and he takes advertisement as serious as his projects.
Anyway, let’s hope we get there one day but I wouldn’t even bet my unworthy coin on our progress because our people have insatiable desire for disproportionate profits and quick fix.
The Elves came to glow in The Battle of the Five Armies and they remain my favourite group of persons.
My best part of the movie was when Legolas was fighting one of the Orcs of Middle Earth—and when the self created bridge was falling apart; he beautifully stepped on them each by each as they fell into pieces to make his way up.
Peter Jackson’s last instalment of the Lord of the Rings ( The Return of the King) received 11 Oscar nominations and won all the 11 (breaking the Academy awards clean sweep record). And his latest instalment of the Hobbit—The Battle of the Five Armies will definitely sweep more than 11 awards…