Friday 29 June 2012

THE SET OF HEAVENS GATE

The Set of HEAVENS GATE

MICHEAL OKON and AUSTIN NWOLI

OSITA OKOLI, ZIK ZULU OKAFOR, ALEX OSIFO, FRED AMATA

SEGUN ARINZE

FRED AMATA

ZIK ZULU, FRED AMATA, ALEX OSIFO, WUBA OGO

The Set of HEAVENS GATE

There is no doubt that the television series and soaps are taking center stage in quality programing in the Nigerian film industry...
TALKER, took a trip down to the set of one of the longest running TV series on Nigerian Television, to find out what has been the secret to their success story these past years. HEAVENS GATE, is a collaboration from the City of David parish of the Redeem Christian Church of God, the Incubator, Optimum media group and Zik Zulu Productions.

This particular scene took place at the beautiful edifice of Zik Zulu Okafor himself, down town Surulere, here in Lagos State.

I met with the brain behind the direction Osita Okoli, according to him, this is basically the winding down of a lot of the story lines created and told in the past eight years. The script describes it as ''Denoumor'' the final chapter, but in our usual style they are surprises and twist here and there it ends with this but ends very well.

HEAVENS GATE stared the likes of Alex Osifo who played the character chief Chukwuemeka dan Philips, Franker Brown as Rebecca Dan Philps and Fred Amata playing his son Kelechi Dan Philips, a character which has gone through a lot of changes, from a play boy, became born again, had his father trying to kill him, become lame, blind and all of that. Now back from it all, its pay back time.... According to the light skinned actor, ''there are some scenes u will just love when we re engineer the very word of God from the bible, I remember there is a particular scene I liked were they say every knee shall bow, the way it was played out I think people will love to see it''. The son's fiancĂ© is Adora which was  played by Monalisa Chinda, and of course the major antagonist Chief Gbadamosi by Segun Arinze, he describes his character as a very mischievous character, the leader of an occult group, called ''Brotherhood''they believe in the ''POT'' and so he is a very cantankerous arrogant character that feels that he knows everything but unfortunately was beaten to it, every move he makes boomerangs him, he just keeps trudging but, let's see how the character walks out eventually, will he die or will he give his life? There are so many questions to be asked.
Zik Zulu Okafor who happens to be the producer and also the current president of the Association of Movie Producers AMP. Playing the role of pastor John says, the soap tells a story that celebrates God in a very subtle way.
I also met with the character Chike played by Okon Micheal, his character grew up not knowing his biological parents, more like a lost son but the intrigue of not knowing and the incidents that brought about the circumstance is what we are about to find out, star studded I must confess.
Now let's meet the crew proper, starting with Emeka Duru as the Production Manager, he has been doing this over the years so, the set of a soap, is quite an easy lane to tread. the Director of Photography Austin Nwoli is well know for his cinematography and on this set he is working with the  Panasonic P2 camera with lenses to get a very good picture. Temisan Esede is a professional male makeup artiste, who understands his craft very well, he talked about how he's been able to tone down the make up for the occult scenes. On sound is Semiu Adewuyi he is using a separate camera to record his sound according to him it will help him get a better sound. Jacob David on lights and Chris Ezirim on continuity, he describes his duty as an assistant to the director, who sees what the director do not see. All in all, about 195 scenes went down in 19 days and over 45 cast and 14 crew personals wrapped up this phase of HEAVENS GATE the final chapter......cut!!!!

Friday 22 June 2012

MRS SOMEBODY








It's really exciting to see film makers put in  so much effort to measure up with the International standards of Filming. I have always admired the quality of films that come out of the Royal Art Academy Production Company. This time it's the conclusive shoot of the film MRS SOMEBODY.

The shoot for this particular scene took place @ Lekki Phase 1, V.I lagos. It was by the pool side of this lovely Guest House, a beautiful sight to behold.
Emem Isong who is currently the head of the Production Company had her sister Uduka Isong Oguamanam as co-producer for this film, It was another  direction from actor/director Desmond Elliot and Tom Robson a graduate of The Jos Film Institute who also doubled as the Director of Photography.

The film which is being shot for the third time, starred the likes of  Yemi Blaq, Uche Jombo, Lilian Byoma, Bobby Ogbodo,Tamara and other sterling acts.

Mrs Somebody is a comedy film about a young lady kayira who was desperate to get married. Unfortunately, almost every man she dated got turned off by her desperate measures and dumped her,but kayira would not relent in her effort to become MRS SOMEBODY, would she succeed?

The pool scene turned out quite interesting that I can barely wait to see the whole story. Uche Jombo, Bobby Ogbodo and Lilian Byoma played  out captivating lines on relationship, love & breakup, and Tom who seems to be very detailed on his angles and shots used the Canon 5D mac 2 to achieve his pictures. Now, this is the part were I do not envy the actors, the drilling under the blazing sunlight? Like seriously? well, I also met with Frank who is a sound engineer, right on the set is his sound mixer, a wireless mic and a boom mic. The costume designer is also a gospel artiste Angel, she costumed  the 5 lead actors in the film. I would say it wasn't an easy task for the young Production Manager, Okenwa but he pulled it through and its a wrap... Really looking forward to seeing the final product myself.
Keep an eye on this spot for more details on MRS SOMEBODY.....