The C3 Africa kicked off at the Oriental Hotel with an opening address by Tunde Akinolu of the Nigerian Film Corporation (NFC) introducing the keynote speaker of the day MD, Trace Anglophone Africa Sam Onyemelukwe who spoke on content and how it is one of the most valuable resources to mankind. He said “Create,doesn’t have to be large, just create,everything has value”.
Shortly after that was a presentation by Ngozi Madueke-Dozie GM West Africa for Kwese Iflix as she narrated the origin story of the mega video on demand platform iflix and also the need for content diversity and the beauty of running a multi- media model with the Kwese Iflix platform. Dozie enthralled participants with her parting words on the future of the TV;
“I predict the TV is going to be like the cassette a few years to a decade from now”.
Mby Johnson CEO of Basement studio, a Nigerian based animation studio that runs multiple French co-productions and recently featured at Annecy,the largest animation festival in the world,spoke on the challenges facing the animation industry in Nigeria and stressed the need for more healthy fund injections. Johnson affirmed the growth of the animation industry in Nigeria;
“We started telling stories that people could relate to”
The event further flowed into the 1st panel session of the day CONTENT IS QUEEN moderated by Uzo Akumah of Businessday featuring Sandra Oyewole (Partner, Olajide Oyewole LLP),Stephanie Findlay (Regional Corespondent, AFP) & Ngozi Madueke-Dozie (GM West Africa,Kwese Iflix), they spoke on the emergence of a new industry, the culture of content trade in West Africa.
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Stephanie Findlay shared the struggle of selling news content and operation model of AFP;
“No one wants to buy news content despite it being the most relevant form of content in society”
Sandra Oyewole narrated the need for legal advice, how the internet has reduced the demand for legal consultancy and the challenges with corporations;
“Rome wasn’t built in a day, if its too good to be true it probably isn’t”
Arguably one of the highlights of the C3 Africa Symposium was the press conference that featured the cast and director, of the blockbuster movie Lara & the Beat. Tosin Coker, the director of the movie revealed the process of making the film and the original OST behind the film (being the first Nigerian movie with a Collection of original music). The cast shared their experiences as a team and how the production behind the movie was so robust and large; “We had over 70 extras in one scene, I have to give it to the team for managing such a vast project”.
The movie was released on the 20th July 2018 at the cinemas and is available nation wide.
The event swiftly moved into the final panel session of the day; Women Behind the Scenes, it was moderated by Micheal Williams Head Of marketing EBONY LIFE MEDIA and featured Temidayo Abudu Producer and Director with EBONY LIFE MEDIA (Daughter of the media mogul MoAbudu) and Mariella Mostyn-Willams, British but Ghana ,based Producer of Black Star International Film Festival (BSIFF).
They discussed the challenges facing them as young women in the industry. Temidayo spoke extensively on her new film project MMM (Men Marriage Money),which is already popular on social media;
“MMM is a project that digs deep into the lifestyle and culture of Nigerian girls looking for the Nigerian dream, its going to be fun”
Mariella gave details on the Black Star film festival which will take place from the 11th of August to the 18th;
“We are trying to make the festival not just for film makers but lovers of film and all kinds of people from multiple works of life”.
The event concluded with a closing remark from Hafeez Oyetoro Saka. The website for C3 Africa was also launched, alongside details about the next symposium that will revolve around the content market system, this is slated for November and is in partnership with Afriff(African International film festival) . It will held during the festival week.
