By Bolarinwa Akande
Rave-of-the-moment filmmaker, Kunle Afolayan, last week, received accolades from fans that graced the press screening of his new movie, October 1.
The film, which is scheduled for release on October 1, has secured a distribution deal with Filmhouse, where it was screened for the choice audience at its Surulere, Lagos cinema outfit.
Guests at the screening were excited about the movie, which provides a dose of comic relief, despite its critical subject matter.
Rising from a question and answer session, the filmmaker who revealed that the film has gulped N200million so far, prayed commercial success for the movie which is still in post-production stage.
As a way of recouping his investment in the movie, the filmmaker had evolved a series of private screenings to drum support for the film, before it is released to the public in October.
“We are certain that from these private screenings, we will be able to make some money also. This goes to subsidize our budget before we go public. Because once the film is out, it’s out,” he said.
Afolayan who provided an insight into the money spent on the movie said: “We shot on RED cameras. All those forest scenes were shot using two pieces of 12K HMI light; to rent one 12k costs between N80, 000 to N100, 000 per day, and we shot for about 60 days. We had more than 30 lights on that shoot altogether. We had about 100 cast and crew, living and feeding on the production.
Post-production costs more than N20 million, which is why the film looks good. We tried to maximise the potentials that we have in-house. By this, the only thing we did outside the country was colour correction and grading. We used two RED cameras, each one costing over N100, 000 a day. Also, look at the costumes for that period, look at the cars. We had to refurbish some of those cars so as to create that period and put them to use. The CDI, the PFX (Production effects) etc. in that town are electric poles, electric wires, transformers and billboards, MTN, Airtel and Globacom masts all over the place. Did you see anything like that in the film? They were all removed at post-production, and PFX costs fortunes. If I start breaking it down, we will be here all day.”
He said he chose to spend so much on the film because he believes there is potential for indigenous productions. “How many viewers do we really need to be able to recoup that money?’ he asked. “It’s not a lot, and the good thing is that now, you have Filmhouse, whose cinema chain seems to be expanding every day. And they already said to me that by the time we are releasing it in October, they will be having like 20 screens, compared to the six that we had when we released The Figurine and Phone Swap.”
He revealed that Filmhouse’s projection for the film is $1million.
“This film is a great film in so many ways. It tells different stories in just about two hours and it brings everything together very well; I see nothing collapsing. Really there is no film without liitle errors here and there, but I think this is a very great film. The significant thing is that it successfully brings together different generation of artistes and it does it so well. I have also noticed that a lot of people who participate in this film are Nigerians. I was looking out for the Director of Photography (DOP) and Screenplay writer, and I see they are all Nigerians. I’m just standing up to say congratulations,” said Niran Adedokun, a fan of the filmmaker.
A psychological thriller, October 1 pictures September 1960, with Nigeria on the verge of independence from British colonial rule. It tells the story of a northern Nigeria Police detective, Dan Waziri (Sadiq Daba), who is urgently dispatched by the colonial government to the trading post town of Akote in the Western Region of Nigeria, to solve a series of female murders that have struck horror in the hearts and minds of the local community.
On getting to Akote, more murders are committed, and with local tension high and volatile, Waziri has a race on his hands to solve the case before even more local women are killed. Matters take a turn for the worse, however, when Waziri discovers that his prime suspect is none other than the highly influential, university-educated son of the King of Akote, Prince Aderopo (Ademola Adedoyin). Intelligent, good-looking, charismatic, witty and daring, the prince proves to be a most complicated adversary for Waziri.
Set against the backdrop of the national celebratory mood of the impending independence, Waziri and Prince Aderopo indulge in a game of cat and mouse as they try to outwit each other… leading to the climatic end in which the life of a popular local female teacher and village belle, Tawa (Kehinde Bankole), is held in the balance. Waziri has to race against the clock to capture the prince, save Tawa and solve the crime before the British flag is lowered and the Nigerian flag is raised on October 1, Nigeria’s Independence Day.