Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg visited Afrinolly, a studio which is using cutting edge technology to help make Nollywood films.
Whilst there he met some of Nigeria’s top stars including comedian Basket Mouth, Kunle Afolayan, Rita Dominic and Yemi Alade.
Nigeria is home to the second largest
film industry in the world, known as Nollywood, which produces more than
100 movies a month.
Zuckerberg is in Nigeria this week to
see first-hand how entrepreneurs in the country are creating the next
wave of mobile innovation and to learn how Facebook can better support
tech development and entrepreneurship in emerging markets.
Mark was given a tour of Afrinolly by Chike Maduegbuna, who runs the production studio.
Maduegbunaa gave Zuckerberg an overview
of how films are made and distributed in Nigeria, with Afrinolly’s
mobile app being one of the most popular ways that Nigerians watch
African music videos, films, comedy and trailers.
Maduegbunaa demonstrated how Nollywood
film studios are already using cutting-edge 360-degree cameras and
virtual reality to create new experiences. He also gave the Facebook CEO
a guided tour of the studios where the films are made and introduced
him to some of the talent in front and behind the camera.
Chike Maduegbuna, owner of Afrinolly said:
“Nollywood is struggling to grapple with
the level of organization and resources required to provide
Studio-based Production Infrastructures/Services. Similarly, Piracy and
inadequate Cinemas have limited the Movie Distribution channels
available to Nollywood.
We see two opportunities for Nollywood:
first, is to embrace technology and establish viable Mobile-phone
Distribution of Movies to complement the expanding Cinema chains. Second
is to reconcile content production and its business model to
accommodate technological changes in available audience-screens. It used
to be Cinema, TV and DVDs but we now have a huge Digital audience that
use Mobile phones and Portable Devices to watch movies. Nollywood must
adjust to the new audience by redefining content production to include
Shortfilms, Comedy Skits and Music Videos. These are areas that
Afrinolly is currently focusing on.”
At the end of the tour Mark dropped in
on a special content creators workshop which was being held with some of
Nigeria’s biggest stars, designed to help them master Facebook Live and
Instagram Stories.
Stars in attendance included Basket
Mouth, Kunle Afolayan, Rita Dominic, Richard Mofe-Damijo, DJCuppy,
Chidinma Ekile, Yemi Alade, Stephanie Linus, Adebola Williams and more.
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