Back in the days, to watch a movie meant you had to go to the rental store, make a selection from the wide range of options available, pay the rental fee, and head home.
But if it was a blockbuster that had been rented over and over before it got to your turn, then you’d also have to pray it doesn’t “crack” as you watch it.
That was the familiar “home video” era. And it was quite the experience. Fast forward to the mid 2020s and what we have is the YouTube takeover: your neighbour, her friend, her cousin who lives down the street, even your aunty who barely completed a polytechnic education, is now a producer—all thanks to YouTube. But thankfully, the quality has become much better now and you won’t have to sit through the disappointing freezing or stuttering. Or has it, really?
Call it the democratisation of Nollywood. Or say that “Nigerians understand the internet business so well” like DJ Pakorich. But the reality remains that YouTube is the new home for the majority of Nollywood movie releases in recent years.
The question of choice
Multiple choice is the first thing to consider when it comes to this burgeoning phenomenon. Viewers, despite the short attention span of the current generation, want options.
Media personality and film enthusiast, Moses Dickson (Velvet Sandpaper) remarks on this in a chat with Pulse Nigeria, insisting that no one can be forced to watch what they don’t want to. “We’re in the age of smartphones, smart TVs, and personal computers. No one has to watch what they don’t want to; if YouTube or any platform doesn’t meet their preferences, they can move on to another. I think audiences are spoiled for choice right now, so I don’t see how fatigue could set in. For viewers who rely primarily on YouTube, I’d still say the more options, the better.”
For actress Doris Okorie who also spoke with Pulse, because stories need to be told and people will never get tired of watching movies, it is better to view the options available as freedom of creative expression instead of oversaturation. “Choices can never be in abundance. It’s better to have abundance than to have slim pickings. Maybe YouTube is oversaturated but stories still need to be told and entertainment (the arts in any form) is always going to be useful and needed.”
To buttress her point, she cited the lockdown period during which people sought entertainment to help them manage the anxieties and overall situation. “The COVID pandemic showed us how important entertainment was, you’re locked in and can’t do anything but stream movies and probably pray.”
Actress and Host, Rachel Emem Isaac, also spoke with Pulse but shared a different perspective.
While the numerous options reminds her of way back when we used to visit rental shops to pick from what was available based on personal preferences, having so many choices can also be overwhelming. “It takes me back to the days when we could walk into a shop and there we have like a number of movies that dropped the previous week. And then we just say ‘oh I wan rent this film’, and then you can say ‘oh, this one has my favourite actor’, ‘this one does not have my favourite actor’ but the title is giving me a vibe that I think I want to watch yeah. So, it takes you back to that time where you have options that you can just pick from.”
“But then again, when there are too many things to watch, it can be overwhelming and you’re just like okay? What are we doing here? Because at the end of the day, unlike those days when we had different actors, we have YouTube actors now. If you look at five YouTube films, you’ll see the same set of actors in like three of those movies. So, it can be a little too much sometimes.”
Expansion and growth
Growth is another consideration. Professionals confident in their craft have been given a platform to overcome the bottlenecks and hindrances in the industry in order to bring their creative ideas to life. “With the use of YouTube as a platform for entertainment in Nollywood, it eliminates “godfatherism” and gatekeeping when it comes to creative output in the industry,” Okorie adds.
For DJ Pakorich, the money is a huge motivator and also a significant part of the growth. “If YouTube is paying them well enough, or the money they are making from YouTube is whooping enough to produce another movie, why should they not put the movies there? People were thinking that it’s an achievement to put your movies on Netflix—yes, it’s good; these are great streaming platforms, they’re elite and all that. But there are people who don’t have the fans to get on Netflix or Amazon Prime yet are very good actors, what do they do? They move these movies to YouTube. And they commit 100% to promoting these movies.”
“They go all out to promote these movies. Nigerian movies on YouTube now are gaining results. People these days would not want to go and pay for subscriptions on Netflix to watch a movie. They will rather get their data and watch their YouTube. And that is how Nigeria will conquer Africa. They are using it already. Nigeria has been very innovative on the sales and marketing of YouTube movies. If Netflix and Amazon Prime are not careful, before you know it, Nollywood has taken over YouTube and nobody will patronise them again. And the money comes back straight to them, they don’t need anybody to pay them. That’s how smart they are,” he continued.
Echoing a similar sentiment, actor Jidekene Achufusi in a chat with Arise TV explains that the dollar-naira exchange rate might be tempting for a number of filmmakers. “Something that has given strong wings to that YouTube market is what the dollar is doing against the naira. So, because YouTube pays in dollars, a lot of people have found it very easy to make films and put it there and let people watch. Now, we have a lot of people who watch Nollywood—people in the diaspora and countries that follow Nollywood.”
“For example, Nollywood is first in the Philippines, it is first in Jamaica and all of those areas. So, a lot of those people are just at home. And also, the networks, we have YouTube free plans and night plans. So, there’s a lot of enabling.”
The drawbacks: Quality concerns and perception
During an episode of It’s a Wrap, John Njamah highlights the lack of strict regulatory policies in the industry which gives way to a free-for-all situation: becoming a producer means you just need to create a YouTube channel. “The industry lacks checks and balances. And what that means is that every Tom, Dick, and Harry can just get on board and call themselves a producer without being checked. And of course, the Guild system is not particularly working, so you can’t check this person. And there are little or no criteria for judging who should be a director, who should be a producer, and who should be an executive and all of that. So, there’s no checks and balances. The system is just not working.”
His statement raises concerns about the quality of the output. Should freedom of creative expression supersede strict regulation to ensure that only the highest quality is released to the general audience?
