ANIMATION AND NOLLYWOOD

Greetings,

Animation is a wonderful entertainment tool, it has become a domineering force in media and cinema since its inception. Animation accounts for billions of dollars in revenue worldwide, it is that immense. Moreover animation is the strongest tool for storytelling, anything imaginable can be brought to life through animation. A lot of countries have exploited the power of storytelling through animation, but The Nigerian Movie Industry (Nollywood) are yet to make head way in the sector. By the end of 2013, the film industry reportedly hit a record breaking revenue of ₦1.72 trillion (US$11 billion). As of 2014, the industry was worth ₦853.9 billion (US$5.1 billion) making it the third most valuable film industry in the world, behind the United States and India. It contributed about 1.4% to Nigeria's economy; this was attributed to the increase in the number of quality films produced and more formal distribution methods. But the same massive industry has done little when it comes to animation.

After making the above observations, I immediately began researching what it takes to set up an animation studio and to my surprise, it doesn't take that much compared to the massive budgets used to produce the filmed movies.

Let's say you have a small budget and you want to go into commercial animation. Firstly setting up an animation studio doesn't have to cost much, an animation studio can be done in a room, yes, in a room. You don't need a lot of space because all those complex camera and lighting rigs are not needed. Secondly, most of the work is done on computers, from sets to props and special effects. Today, putting together powerful computer systems is not as expensive. And with a handful of animators/artists you are good to go. Thirdly, voicing or voice over of characters can be easily done with friends or relatives with little or no money, thanks to modern audio production, auto tuning enables you to use one person to voice over many characters. Fourthly, with so many  movie distributors around, putting your movie in the market shouldn't be a hassle if you can meet their quality and standards.

I was over convinced to dive into this goldmine. Not just producing a Nigerian themed animation movie but setting an industry standard for others to follow.

In subsequent articles we'll unravel how to bring this vision to life. Thank you for reading.

Suremovat.