The rise of Uganda’s film industry

What was the Africa Magic Stakeholders’ training forum about and what brings you to Uganda?
The forum was a two-day workshop where we engaged all our stakeholders here… producers, script writers, directors and any one that has audio, visual piece of film that can be broadcast. The last two days have been about story writing and technical development; we taught people about sound, lighting, equipment and how they can produce the best film or television content.

How was the response from the participants?
Overwhelming! They seem very excited; I think this is a market that is really at the beginning of its growth and I think the biggest thing for us is that we are investing in helping people improve the quality of what they are doing. Everyone wants to be better and improve what they are doing and I think when we give that platform, we are going to get a positive response.

You consistently mention the word quality. How do you assess the quality of content coming from Uganda?
Look, I think every market has its strengths, every market has areas of improvement and I think one of the things we find impressive about the Ugandan story is its strong relevance. There is universality in the stories; we find the way they tell their story to be appealing to a wide audience. Across the continent, we can all improve on our quality, things like sound, lighting and writing remain a challenge.

You passionately talk about universality in reference to films that do not just appeal to the Ugandan audience but an African audience. Which is your favourite from Uganda?
One of those programmes is The Hostel. It is a big programme for us. It is a nice family programme.

The story cuts across everywhere that students are; of course everyone goes to school. It is the kind of programme someone in Nigeria, Nairobi and elsewhere can watch and enjoy. It is a very good programme, we are excited about it.

Any other?
You asked me for my favourite. That is one of my favourites but there are a number of programmes on the platform that the audience is excited about.

The Hostel went into limbo for some months and when it returned to our screens, some critics thought it came back with some good changes. Did this have anything to do with Africa Magic Entertainment?
Not only M-net - other people had a role to play. One of the big things is that once your work is showcased on the continent, it tends to give reflections that make you want to do better so it was not only our feedback; they also got feedback from the viewers.

It is really nice when you are getting feedback from the consumer as that gives you a lot of impetus to do better. So, a lot of the improvement was not only M-net wise but also self-wise.

What do you think Uganda’s film industry ought to improve to better their content?
Ugandans are already doing the right things to improve the content we receive from them. If you look at the last number of years, we have aired more than 60 Ugandan films. So people are already doing the right things but the biggest thing is to continually keep improving in the areas of capacity-building through workshops like these. Our producers need to explore working together in collaboration.

Does the average Ugandan movie maker have hope of his work being showcased on a platform such as Africa Magic. What are the bare minimum standards?
The average Ugandan producer already has their work shown on M-net. So, they don’t only have hope; that hope has been realised.
I am talking about the upcoming producer, one perhaps who has been sent back because he did not meet the standards.
That is why we are working with the producers to help them understand what the quality of their work needs to be and what stories we are looking for.

And what kind of stories are you looking for?

All stories, like I said earlier, stories that cross borders and tell the African story, things that our viewers are going to enjoy.
As Africa Magic Entertainment, we carefully select the programmes before we acquire them, ranging from movies to series. Anything that meets our standards will play across the continent.
I know of a Ugandan film producer who returned home with his film because he felt you underpay people for their films, he says M-net pays peanuts.
Wow, that is really strange because more than 60 per cent of our content on the channels is acquired from the producers across the continent, which means that people are willing and doing deals with us. I guess this might just have been a one off incident.

So you don’t give peanuts?
I don’t have peanuts to give but I do have cash. Remember a transaction is a negotiation; both parties have to be happy. We don’t want to just do business based purely on one deal; we want to do business based on relationships with people. We want to give them feedback and help them to develop quality content. It is just one deal and I don’t want to focus so much on this producer because I haven’t seen the content. I don’t know what the quality is and I can’t spend more time on that. There is back and forth in every negotiation and we try to offer the best deal so tell him to re-submit.

Do you have deliberate efforts to tap into the Ugandan market and what do you make of it?
Well, as you see now, we have a two-day workshop. We are going to work with the Uganda Film Festival and we have sent people here on quarterly basis to acquire content. These are deliberate efforts we are taking to build the market.

Do you think this market has the potential or it is one of those where people gamble and see what comes out?
In any business you want to be investing time and money in people. Our investment is based on the fact that Uganda is a growing market, we know that there are amazing stories to be told from this market and we believe in the people. The wealth we have in Africa is in the people so as long as we invest in the people, we can achieve much.

From your interactions with the men and women in Uganda’s film industry, what challenges are coming from them? What are they telling you?
The usual challenges are about access to finance, which is why we are here to help them understand how global media markets work, how economics of the media works because there is the creative side and the business side. We are really trying to help them understand how we celebrate people and their achievements. These are the types of information sessions that we feel are important.

Let’s digress a bit to the Africa Magic Viewers’ Choice Awards which are due soon. Some of our own actors and actresses think the viewers’ voting arrangement does not work in their favour given that Ugandans are not the best at voting, especially in comparison Nigeria and South Africa.

I am not really sure there is anything particular I can say; I am not sure if you spend your life trying to please everyone. What you do is do the best you can and create an award ceremony that you believe is going to celebrate people and ensure that you have the right systems in place. That is what our job as organisers is. I don’t think our job is to go and change the voting system.

It is just like a presidential election; not everyone votes but we have a president at the end of the day. We want to make sure that people are aware of the platform and what this means, and for people that are nominated to do the same. I almost have to disagree that that is the case because if you look at the category of best actress… a Ghanaian won and there was a couple of Nigerians in that category.

So I don’t really want to believe that it is small countries, big countries or countries that don’t vote, it is all about your fans. We are building African stars that transcend country, it is not where you are coming from but how you entertain viewers. If Denzel Washington was nominated today, I think you would vote him because he is a great entertainer.

How would you compare Uganda’s film industry with that of her neighbours? Can you project our future?
I have the benefit of understanding the industry and how media industries grow and I look at that in relation to their economies. Putting that into consideration, I believe that Uganda is on the right track. We are on the positive path and in the next five to 10 years, we are going to make leaps and bounds when it comes to content in Uganda. We are in a fast moving media industry and people are upping their game.
Is there anything else you want our readers to know?
In general, what I would like them to know is that one of the biggest projects we have right now is Kona. It is an East African drama series and it is going to be on every day (starting from August 26). We have a cast from Uganda, Tanzania and Kenya and we are producing in Nairobi. What is important for me is that Kona is a locally produced telenovela, it is not a Columbian telenovela, it is not a Mexican telenovela, and this is the new phase of stories we are going to be telling.

Bio on Biola Alabi
She was named a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum and listed by Forbes magazine as one of the 20 youngest Power Women in Africa. She is based in Nigeria and, in the last four years has been credited for increasing M-net’s portfolio on the continent, most notably by expanding the range of Africa Magic channels available to audiences in sub-Saharan Africa. She has also overseen four editions of the Big Brother Africa. .Alabi is a University of Cincinnati graduate of public health and marketing with work experience in Asia, USA and Africa.
(Sourced from: mnetcorporate.co.za)

What people in the film industry say

Matt Bish, producer and director

It’s true the film industry in Uganda is steadily growing. One thing for sure is that Ugandans appreciate the art of film-making now, and people are getting into quality work because that is the only way to win the audience over. On the M-net pay for our content, well, everywhere you go you find such a thing on the table. It depends on your bargaining power, but you see our people want to be paid the amount of money they spent shooting the movie and that is not going to happen any time soon.

If M-net gives you say $3,000 (about Shs7m), surely that is not peanuts. It is better than nothing. I advise my peers to first set the foundation, let people know you so that when you make a film, they look out for it. They should consider striking a deal with several broadcast houses to get more money.

Mathew Nabwiso, actor

I would agree more with Biola Alabi. I think there has been steadfast improvement in the quality of our movies, thanks to The Hostel which got many people thinking seriously about quality, though other quality stuff was already out there.

Certainly, we can do better. Much as M-net may not pay that much for content coming from Uganda, I appreciate that they pay something. In our local channels, you have to pay to get your stuff aired but DSTV will ask for your movie or series and pay you to have it aired. It is one client that will pay you and that I honestly appreciate.

Hannington Bugingo, actor, producer and director

I think that they (M-net) have concentrated more in West and Southern Africa. Recently I shot a movie series called the Banana Republic but the money they were offering was abnormal, it was too low! They were offering Shs600,000 per episode, which cannot even cater for costs of shooting one.

Oh yes, they liked it, because the quality was standard, the technology such as cameras used in West and Southern Africa is the same technology we use here so our quality is standard. I think they have not yet embraced us with that professional feel. How do you offer $1,000 (about Shs2m) for a movie? That is too low. They should increase the budget allocation because we have the talent here.