Different Factors That Contribute to the Growth and Failure
Introduction
The Film Industry is an important vehicle for social, cultural, political and economic development because a well nurtured film industry can be a major source of employment and an effective tool and platform for the cultured expression of the people. The industry can also promote a country’s potential as an investment and tourist destination and as an advocacy tool and shaper of opinion; film can in itself be used to effectively demystify cultural and ethnic differences by using it to promote integration and unity of people.
Film is not only a tool for information and entertainment but also a powerful communications instrument for national integration, for social and economic development and for the exploitation, preservation and further enrichment of cultural heritage. By writing this paper I intent to find out the different factors that contribute to the growth and failure of the film industry in general. This in turn helps the current students learning film production and those already in the film business because they can improve or learn from the shortcomings of the current methods.
The audience will also benefit from this because they get to appreciate what it entails to produce a film.
Background
The Kenyan film industry has improved drastically from the hay days of only using one editing suite for the whole country and not using top notch equipment. People have become creative and innovative with the development and advancement in technology. Although these benefits reside on our side, there are some challenges that decline the growth of film industry. Capital and Finance:
In order to produce good quality films we need a large amount of capital for the production and marketing. Good quality films need a large amount of capital for production and marketing just like we observe from our Hollywood counterpart where millions of dollars are spent in production and marketing and this makes their films unbeatable with quality in the film market. The production of a film requires lots of traveling, costume designing, hiring of affiliate partners like production houses among other expenses incurred during the whole production process.
Before a movie appears on your screen or a cinema hall, it goes on a very long process which might take a period of more than one year, during this whole period the actors and actresses need to satisfy their daily needs and hence they are signed a contract in which they are paid. All these require a large amount of capital which is still a scarce in many Kenyan industries. Limited creativity: One important factor in finding Kenya’s film voice comes in the very first stages of a film: telling the story. Sitati (2008) explained that attention to cinematic storytelling is the key:That’s been our biggest challenge here.
We have excellent stories being told, but sitting and formulating a story and creatively bringing out the true aspect of what it is you want to bring out, that’s what is lacking. We have excellent cameramen, but it’s important to have a creative story. The few films that have been produced locally lack enough creativenesses in the storyline and the production itself. Creativity is a quality that makes a product distinguishable from others because of its uniqueness, and when it lacks, the whole project is incompetent.
Market:
Another challenge explored in this study focuses on what to do with a film once it has been completed.
The market for African films is still a way too far from reaching a climax where it tops the film charts across the globe with Nigeria struggling. This makes the movies outdated before making a major sale in the market; sometimes the cost of production overtakes the amount of sale. For a Kenyan film to find an audience, both within Kenya and without, it needs to be irresistibly good. This is an inevitable consequence of the development of the Kenyan film industry. Beginning with a solid foundation in film education, the films to come from Kenya’s educated filmmakers can’t help but eventually be deserving of international attention.
A great film will get noticed.
Film policies:
The policies governing the film industry in Kenya have restricted the production of certain films example Otto The Blood Birth, a film produced in Kenya by Kenyans was banned even before its release to the market simply because it was a genre type horror. This demotivates local and international film makers who had a potential of investing in this industry.
Piracy:
Piracy is a global issue affecting software and film industry all over the world. In Kenya, music and other entertainment productions have severely suffered this crime which is way too far to be stopped.
As the World Story Organization sees it, it starts with education in the principles of storytelling with the language of film, embedded in the indigenous life and culture of the people: better stories being told better. As Kenya’s film industry organizes itself, it will lead to greater opportunities and happy filmmakers, drawing the attention of local businesses, rewarding them for taking a risk in investing in Kenyan film. These stories will lead to memorable, distinctly Kenyan films that will be irresistibly good, garnering attention even beyond Kenya’s borders.
As the industry grows more secure, so will the audience following the product. A film made in Kenya will be able to be relied upon to provide quality, unique, challenging, noteworthy, and important films as time goes on. This should be the vision for a self-sustaining, indigenous film industry in Kenya. Problem Statement The overall research problem addressed in this study is that despite having all the relevant facilities and equipments to make beautiful work we are still lagging behind. We have had exposure to film for about 60 years but e haven’t taken the advantage of this and compete against the big guns. The main problem is that people enter into film with their mind set that they will be making money and become millionaires, they should first see it as a passion because it might reach a time that they will have to do free stuff for people and do other extra jobs so as to make ends meet. This in turn makes them quit half way.
The Purpose of the Study
The purpose of this study is to find out the different factors that contribute to the growth and failure of the film industry in general.
This in turn helps the current students learning film production and those already in the film business because they can improve or learn from their mistakes. The audience will also benefit from this because they get to appreciate what it entails to produce a film.
Objectives:
To determine the main factors that lead to the success or failure of the film industry in general. To establish interventions of helping the industry to grow. To find out the effects of this factors in the growth of the industry. Significance- here state specific beneficiaries and how they benefit i. e students, government, policymakers etc The significance of this study is to help in the improvement of the industry not that the industry is in shambles but to help in the improvement of the small areas that need improvement.
Scope
The study is to investigate the impact of different fundamentals of film in the success or failure of the industry in Multimedia University College of Kenya.
Limitations and Delimitations
Due to time limits on the study, however, the population was restricted to the school, MMU.
Because the majority of studies concerned with the aspect of the situation needed to be addressed more with the media students than with any other respondents so as to determine the problem. conceptual framework The major yardstick used to measure the successful output of the industry is the number of productions that are done in a year. We still don’t have the 40% of local content in our television even though we have the best quality of equipments in the country. The input into the production process includes the audience, creative work, capital. The study seeks to establish the best way we can help the industry to move forward.
