Following a yesterday article GhanaCelebrities.Com picked for publication from Razz Newspaper titled ‘Idris Elba Snubs FIPAG & Ghana Actors Guild Making Them UPSET’, I received an email from Danny Damah, one of the two founders of Deal Real Productions—the production company responsible for “Beasts of No Nation” which brought Hollywood actor-Idris Elba to Ghana for a recent shoot.

According to Danny Damah who also introduced himself as being a co-producer of the movie, a link to the article published on GhanaCelebrities.Com was sent to him, drawing his attention to a supposed SNUB and failure to meet the executives of both FIPAG and Ghana Actors Guild, so he decided to swiftly make contact, apologise and straighten things.

In the email to GhanaCelebritiess.Com, Danny Damah wrote “ A link was just sent to us on your article about ‘Idris Elba snubbing’ the film Producers Association of Ghana and the Actors Guild. We would like to clarify and subsequently apologize to FIPAG and GAG. Idris Elba is simply a hired Ghanaian actor on this project and only arrived in Ghana when the movie was midway to play his role and leave. He has no knowledge of the production logistics or permitting process and rather being Ghanaian, he is the main reason why the movie is shooting in Ghana. We would like to apologize to FIPAG and GAG as we arranged all the permitting.

We would have loved to engage the services of the associations very earlier on in the process, since this project has been a massive undertaking and would have required industry organizations to help hire the over 5500 people directly or indirectly associated with the film. However until I saw your article today, I have never heard of either of these associations and they were not recommended to us by any of the industry veterans, vendor, agencies or government organizations working on the film”.

The swift manner Danny responded to the issue leaves no room for doubt that they would have done what is expected of them had they known. He added that “I just did a Google search online and could not find any office locations, website, emails or phone numbers for any of the two organizations and their personnel. http://ghanaactorsguild.org links to a tour operator?

The permitting process is one of legal accounting practice and would require some type of registered contact information as evidence for the overseas financing and bonding companies to make payments. This is important as we are trying to bring in three more foreign feature films into Ghana in the next two years. We believe organizations like FIPAG and GAG could eventually be the saving grace of the Ghanaian Film Industry.

If you have any Contact information For FIPAG or GAG please send it to us as we would personally like to reach out to them”.

Though Danny has apologised and intends to contact the executives of the two bodies personally to officially apologise and also set things straight for the future dealings of his production company intending to work more in Ghana, this issue raises an interesting discussion on how vibrant FIPAG & GAG are, how foreign production houses and actors coming into Ghana would even know of their existence—and more importantly, their non-existing status online.

I’ve also searched for “Ghana Actors Guild and Film Productions Association of Ghana” and no contact details or official websites were found for these two important bodies. In fact, just like Danny mentioned in his email, a search on Ghana Actors Guild fetches a web link-http://ghanaactorsguild.org which lands you on ABACAR TOURS’ website when clicked.

Despite the fact that, ignorance of the law is no excuse—a maxim which can be stretched to mean, failure to follow protocols or processes as a result of ignorance can not be a justifiable excuse, it is also the responsibility of those in charge to make vigorous efforts in ensuring that the law or processes they expect others to follow are vibrant, such that they ought to know about it.

I will pass on the contact details of the Presidents of FIPAG and Ghana Actors Guild to Danny Damah and his Deal Real Productions to make contact with these leaders and get things officially straightened.

Now…FIPAG and Ghana Actors Guild, HIRE me to develop good official websites for you!