What I learnt making movies in Nigeria, USA – Austin Ogbuefi

Nigerian film producer, Austin Ogbuefi, on Wednesday, shared his lessons from experience gathered shooting in the US and Nigeria. At an event in Lagos, the CEO of Stanford Film Production company narrated some key notes about shooting and premiering Different World in US and Nigeria.

He acknowledged Different Worlds movie as a big budget project, “It’s the biggest project I have done up to date and of course the shooting in America was very expensive. Nigeria too is expensive as well but shooting in two different countries, you know of course makes it tough because I have to fly some of the actors to Nigeria and pay for their hotels, flights and all that. And all other expenses involved, I had a lot of crew in the united States and a lot of locations”.

He went further to say, “What I discovered from the U.S premiere is that Americans love Ngozi Nzeounu. A lot of them want to see her. They were all over her during the Different World premiere, taking pictures from left and right at the event. Others from the panel session of the premiere said they want Mama G. It was surprising to hear Americans demanding for Patience Uzokwo and even calling her by her stage name”.

He highlighted what should be done to create boom for the movie sector, “here in America, movie producers gets tax incentives. If you shoot a movie here in America (in some of the cities or states) they give you tax incentives. From the money that you spent to make the movies because they know that when you make this movies, you are providing employment, job for the people, for the actors, so in America that’s how they think”.

The award winning producer who belongs to a 20-man active Nollywood Producer’s Guild Association USA also added that, “in America, they are always thinking of how they can compensate producers like us. They encourage producers to come to their cities to make films. Because movies create jobs and help the youths busy creatively and productively.”

“For my previous movies, it hasn’t been easy. The good side is we, most of the movie producers, are driven by passion. Because we live what we do. It’s easy to do it for the passion. Most times, all we do is just try to recoup our initial investment. But things have quite changed. Since I started premiering in the U.S. And also showing my films on other platforms like Amazon has also ensured I get reinbursements. I also have distributors that help me with the movies”.

So that foriegners and local film makers can focus in creating international movies like Different World which is billed to show in Europe, Asia, India and America and Africa.

Different World is the story of an African prince (Kenneth Okolie) coming to America to celebrate his birthday. Before leaving Africa (Nigeria), he was already bethroted to a lady as it is the customes of the land. While he was in America, he ran into a lovely New Orleans lady and they started a love affair parallel to his Nigerian sweetheart (Lillian Esoro).

Some of Austin’s past movies are Flash of Pain, Nina’s Diary, Cold Silence, My Uncle My, lover, My Worst nightmare, 4World, 3Some and Different Worlds for his Stanford Film Production company.

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