Five ways to promote local content in Kenya

1. Government can be of great help

It’s long since I heard the infamous phrase “serekali saidia”, but please allow me to call on the government to step up the efforts and do more for the local entertainment industry. I do appreciate efforts such as the progressive implementation of the regulation requiring the TV and Radio broadcasters to have a minimum of 60% of their content to be local by June 2018, the funding programmes for the film industry in which interested film makers can borrow up to Shs 25 million, the implementation of anti-piracy rules that have ensured that there are close to zero incidences of pirated local content, the establishment of film school at KICC, but there is one important thing the government can do.

Related article: Communications Authority adamant local content will clock 60% come 2018

The government can set up a body mandated to produce content on behalf of any creative Kenyan who does not have the tools or the money; and given credit history, cannot dare borrow any money from the Take254 film financing initiative.

The reason I say that a body (like a production house) should be set up to produce film on behalf of Kenyans is because I have interacted with many youth with interesting ideas but can’t see their ideas come to reality given the many hurdles they face. Take a situation where one has a really nice plot but is not able to write a script for whatever reason, this person’s plot will rot in his/her brain.

If however there is a body mandated to seek for ideas through avenues like auditions, pick and produce interesting ones, then the issue of quality could be dealt with once and for all. This body, once set up, would call for film ideas either in writing or verbally in an audition like setup, carefully go through the plot, and pick the ideas that they are certain will capture the market.

The person whose idea will succeed will be “recruited” to be part of the production team either as a producer, a writer, director, or cast. During the production, this person will be trained and mentored on film production so that the proceeds he/she will reap once the film becomes successful can be used to produce future films. To give as many varied ideas as possible a chance, the body could audition per county per year.

This body doesn’t have to be a permanent one, but can be thought of as some kind of an “affirmative action” type of initiative meant to ensure that the film industry picks up in terms of quality of content and market establishment.

If the government thinks that this will be too much work, then one of the production houses already in the market could take this challenge and start receiving film ideas. I have personally tried to “sell” some of film ideas to the existing production houses but the reply from all I contacted was that they only “produce” for those with the money to fund the production.

In US where the film industry has been properly established, there are a number of production houses that receive ideas as per the description I have given above – and this explains why there are many unique films churning out of Hollywood everyday, including low budget ones.

2. Establish distribution channels

You cannot watch movies in Nakuru, there is no theatre. I heard there is one at a place called Shabaab that features 3D film viewing, but since I am a movie lover but I don’t know exactly where it is, I bet very few know about the theatre. Movie theatres should be established in every county, but not to show the expensive movies from Hollywood.

I once asked in this forum whether Kenyans would rather pirate movies or spend about Shs 100 to watch a movie at a theatre, many said they would opt to spend Shs 100 at a theatre. Of course you will not expect theatres like iMax and 21st Fox to charge you Shs 100 for premium content like Furious 7, Avengers Age of Ultron or the upcoming Mission Impossible – Rogue Nation, but the county theatres that are government owned could charge that amount for the films produced by a body as suggested above.

Related article: Poll: Would you visit the theaters if pirated movies were confiscated?

When these theatres are set up and the body described in item one supply them with quality films that will catch the attention of Kenyans, then independent film producers will see the theatres as readily available market and thus be encouraged to produce more quality content. Within three to five years, the film industry shall have taken course.

3. Media houses should adopt a new strategy

Even before the body to produce films on behalf of creative but destitute Kenyans can be established, before the theatres can be set up, we have local TV stations that already air a variety of local productions including Inspector Mwala, Papa Shirandula, Churchil Show, Pendo, Mali and others, but the way these shows run is such that it is very hard for new entrants to get airtime.

These shows are designed to never end, which in itself has huge disadvantages not only to upcoming film makers but to viewers too. Take Tahidi high for instance, this is a show that has lost viewership (does it still air) week after week ever since characters like OJ, Tanya, Shish and Freddy left the show. Inspector Mwala and Mother in Law have also become less popular over the years as the shows have become boring with time.

If however TV stations would restrict TV shows to series such as the Mexican soap operas that are created to have a definite ending, then more and more Kenyans would have a chance to show case their talents and keep on upgrading the quality of content being shown on TV.

Also, the TV stations should adopt a strategy that balances all the film genre out there. Ever since Ridykulous and Red Corner took Kenyans by storm and later Churchil Live launched, and together with shows such as Vioja Mahakani and Vitimbi, the TV stations have since believed that only comedy can sell in this market. The promotion of comedy is great, but personally I would love to see more drama series like Mali, some action oriented productions, and even locally produced horror movies to show on my screen.

4. Producers, create great content

As much as I will call upon Kenyans to lower their quality expectations a little bit in item five below, the producers ought to go out of their way and produce the best their equipment can enable them to. Even with 560 or 760p cameras, pictures with professionally captured images, clear sounds with interesting sound tracks, and well lit scenes can be achieved with budgets as less as Shs 50,000 for a thirty minutes episode.

Today, many production houses have high end HD cameras, powerful boom mics, and high quality white light that they can use to capture great pictures, thus I do not expect poorly done productions as seen in some local TV series and movies.

The next item that producers must work on is quality of acting. There are a lot of fakeness in acting in most local productions. Things like facial expression for anger, excitement, sadness, sorrow, and surprise are not expressed naturally. I won’t even comment on the hard to pull stunts like shouting at someone, running, hitting a target to death, or being involved in an accident.

I have told most friends that fakeness in acting does not portray a poor actor, but it speaks of how much a director doesn’t understand his/her work. Speaking as a director, most of those poor acting can be solved by two to three extra takes per scene.

Finally, dear producers, work on your story lines. Some of the shows on TVs have dull, boring and nauseating plots. You could always call a third or fourth mind to inject fresh ideas in your stories, for god-sake.

5. Kenyans, swallow your pride

Kenyans, I know you want great content, I know you want to be entertainment, excited, horrified and thrilled. I know you have experienced these over and again from the Hollywood movies. Good. But please don’t push the bar too high for our local producers, these people don’t have the money Fox, Colombia Pictures, Sony Pictures, Marvel, and Universal Pictures have access to.

As I have mention already, some of the Hollywood movies are produced by budgets 22 times higher than our national budget. Even what are termed low budget films like God’s not Dead are still on very high budgets on Kenyan standards. God’s not Dead was produced on a 2 million dollars budget (shs 180 million), which is still out of reach for most production houses in Kenya.

What you should understand as a Kenyan is that our production houses would like to spend less than half a million shillings for a movie, simply because getting that money back will be a nightmare, a nightmare because you, the Kenyan consumer, is not willing to consume that local movie. For TV series, a local producer is not willing to spend more than Shs 100,000 per episode.

But what if you start consuming what’s available as quickly as it is released? The producer will be able to get his/her returns on investment very fast, put that investment plus a little surplus to produce a better content, and a better content thereafter, until we perfect our film industry to where our small economy can allow us. Then you, your friends, and friends of your friends will get jobs, many jobs.

Take Churchil Live for example. The first shows were technically poor according to today’s standard of Churchil Show, a one man show. But you supported him until he has become the king of comedy recognized by guys like CNN and Big Brother. Churchil has used the big name you gave him to give many youth jobs, even made some of them millionaires.

For the sake of local content in Kenya, please, start buying the currently available local movies, show our musicians much more love, and insist on watching only locally produced TV shows; even as the government, the media houses and the producers work to ensure that you receive the best they can possibly deliver.

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