The thrills, glitz, and glamour of the film industries across the globe are enjoyed mostly by the actors. Nollywood is not an exemption. Meanwhile, behind every fantastic performer as seen on screens, are men of diverse professionalism and expertise. These unsung heroes and heroines enjoy scarce attention during awards, after that, the rest is history. Shoots.ng strongly believe that the technical crew deserves special appreciation and more attention should also be extended to these Men Behind The Scenes (MBTS).
Joseph Omoniyi engaged Damilola Orimogunje the young, versatile, and daring director of the much talked about film –For Maria, Ebun Pataki in a detailed interview, enjoy the excerpts
Shoots.ng: How did you get clarity on what exactly you wanted to do, both in life and in filmmaking?
Damilola Orimogunje: That’s a deep one. For me in terms of clarity on what to do as a person and in my career, it comes from two places, spirituality of myself and as a being. Not from the religious point, but I feel like a person my spirituality tells me things. I am informed of how I want to live my life and how I want to do things and I just follow them.
The second thing is me just believing in my guts. Sometimes people look at me, that I look so orchestrated, look so intentional, but most times it’s you just trying to do your thing and pushing your luck. When you are making projects, it’s you just following your guts and pushing your luck, despite talents, despite the brilliance that is involved. Also when it comes to life as well, I feel like, my getting the decision in the first place was a thing of chance like “oh yeah I could do this” and there is that innate person in you that just tells you, “you know what, this is what you need to do at this time” which I just follow. This is the spirituality for me, I follow my guts and over the years I have found out that me being sure of what I want to do, I never regret it, it’s something I do and eventually it comes out. So if I don’t want to do something, I tell you point-blank, I don’t want to do this thing, because I know that it’s not going to work and this is not juju, I just have that feeling, so whatever I put my heart to do, I give it my all and it comes out, so that has been my intention.
Shoots.ng: For this interview, I’m not going to focus on “For Maria”. So, my next question is this, I want to believe that when you made the choice to go into filmmaking, I always believe that for different people the gap is different, I am talking about the gap between dreams and glory, when you thought about it, when you had a dream and when you shared it with the people around you, how was the reception?
Damilola Orimogunje: They still wanted me to do the normal 9-5, I quit my job in 2016, and that was when I decided that I was not gonna work for any other person, so I mean, of course, the conversation around, “are you sure you wanna do this? It’s really about what I want to do, it’s really about what I feel is right, so if I feel something is right, no amount of “oh why don’t you do this” you know I think it’s just life generally. You have a lot of people saying “why don’t you do this” “why don’t you do this” I feel like when you know exactly what you want to do, you just go out there and do what you wanna do, for me it was like “I got this”, I just focus, but I am privileged to have friends and family that are quite encouraging, just praying to advise and stuffs like that.
Shoots.ng: Ok, so, even for you, before you started getting the accolades or before you started seeing the green light that “yes, I was so right for choosing this”, was there any point where you felt like “maybe I should have done something else”?
Damilola Orimogunje: Of course, like so many times you are just like, it’s even worse when you think you have a talent and other people do not see that talent and then you are not where you think you should be, I think that’s the worst part. It’s not even thinking maybe I should have done something else and make more money, but I feel when it comes to art, its beyond money. It’s about getting the platform, that opportunity to speak, to create, and most times, you need money to create. If you are in that position where you have the talent and you don’t have the resources, you don’t have the amount of opportunities to explore and be creative and go wild, it’s frustrating and I feel like that was the major frustration for me at some point. I just feel like “people are doing a lot of sh*t in the industry, and of course I feel like, the birth of it was FOR MARIA. You know, it’s you trying to make do with what you have as opposed to waiting for some person to come with this big opportunity for you. There has been so many times where I just thought of “you know what, maybe film making is not doing it, maybe I should go and do something else for like 10 years and come back. I mean even if I leave, I will still definitely come back, because it’s my passion. Yeah I’m happy that I didn’t leave.
Shoots.ng: Who trained you and where did you have your training. Apart from going to Caleb to study mass communication, did you understudy anyone, Nigerian, or non-Nigerian, whether directly or indirectly?
Damilola Orimogunje: So, a lot of things I put in myself to learn. In fact, I learned a lot of things I know about on my own, because, when I was in Caleb and I did mass communication, I got introduced, to the media but I wasn’t really taught. I got introduced to cameras, I got introduced to editing suites, and we had like basic understanding and knowledge of it, so I could operate a camera, I could edit a video, I could do all that, you know, that was just like basic. But for me to understand film making, to understand writing, I feel like it came at a point, where I realize that “if I wanna do this, I have to be trained, so I have nurtured the idea…going to film school, you know, I didn’t want to go to film school in Nigeria, I wanted to go to film school abroad, but it didn’t work because of financial constraint at that time. I just said “ok you know what, “I’m not gonna go to a film school and I’m gonna do this and I want to be the best while I do this, so I have to learn myself”. So a lot of it comes from reading, reading, and reading a lot. I am talking about reading film stuff and reading things that are not film stuff, like basically just shape you as a filmmaker. I like what you said about a filmmaker, it’s not just about you being a filmmaker, it’s not just about your work, it’s about you as a person. Because I believe your virtues and the way you think, filters into the art you create, irrespective of whatever you make, music, painting, whatever, and that’s why most times, the best artists are not particularly the best students or best students in film school. They are probably like people with the biggest vision, it’s even beyond talent. For example, now, you undervalue people that are very controversial, people that have issues in their lives, they can end up being good storytellers, because you have so many stories to tell and these are stories that are real. They are not things that are fake or false in any way. For me it was me building myself and I feel life was a great teacher for me as a storyteller beyond a filmmaker and then, all I just needed to learn was the right way to make this right, the right medium or style. So, I watch a lot of films, you know I grew up watching a lot of Nollywood, I really like Tunde Kelani. I’m Yoruba, so I watch a lot of that. The way random Nigerians consume Nollywood is the same way I watch Nollywood too. So, most times I watch all those films and I pick out the good and pick out the bad. I pick out what I can do better, and I pick out what I can take from it. I do a lot of that. I think going into it, my style was basically influenced by foreign cinema, I got introduced to foreign cinema, thankfully. I think God also helped me and introduced me to some people that kind of just shaped the way I think, friends, even people who might not even know about the film industry, but we just have the same taste, you know, and we say, let’s just watch this kind of films, let’s read this kind of books, you know, and that basically just shaped my mind, in terms of how I think about, stories, it’s structure and style. I watch a lot of foreign cinema, films from Europe, from Asia. Language is not a barrier for me and I feel like there is plenty of depth, sub-contexts in those stories and films and that was actually what dragged me or what influenced me watching them and rubbed off on me. Stories that are real with characters that are real, settings that are real and stuff like that, and yeah, so I feel like, over time, I made a conscious effort to train myself, by listening to other people, watching other stuff, reading, making life, and God just pushing me.
Shoots.ng: Can you mention at least two of the movies that inspired you, two movies and two books, either foreign or Nigerian?
Damilola Orimogunje: For films that inspired me, I mean, ok, I keep saying this, so one of my best filmmakers in the world is Wong Kar-wai. He is from Hong Kong. He makes art house films a lot. So in his film In The Mood For Love, released in 2000, it’s one of the films that actually inspired my style, right now, in terms of how I tell a story. Another film that I think I really liked, I am not sure I watched this film at the point where I was starting up, but I think it is a film I actually really like and I recommend it a lot, to a lot of people in terms of its authenticity is, A Separation by Asghar Farhadi. He is an Iranian director. These are great films. For books, I am more of a visual person, so I watch more visual stuff. And again, one of the things I love about books, particularly, might not even be the entire book itself. It could be moments in a page or a moment in a chapter and of course, the fact that you visualize it. The truth about books is, even if you have not been to the US before, you can read a bunch of books about the US, and then you will start feeling like you have been there before, especially when you read books that are written by good writers.
Shoots.ng: Let’s discuss the process of doing your work in detail, take a project for example?
Damilola Orimogunje: Hmmm, I think for me, most times it comes with conceptualization, which for personal projects, it takes a long time. I mean I can think of an idea for a film and I can sleep on it for months, and then when I write, I just take my time, which is like the part I like in the writing process. The funny thing is while I’m doing that, I am also writing other stuff, you know, so I also have like other stuff that I have written down, most times it’s just about what is ripe at that moment. Or, I have the money to make it at that moment, or someone wants to fund it. The next thing I start thinking about is getting into film production, which every filmmaker does, casting, and crew members. I have worked with a large amount of the same people as crew members, for some weird reasons…not really weird, I think they understand me more and I have made friends in the industry. So it’s almost like we are friends, it’s a family, it’s a work-family relationship, so these are my guys. I make films with them almost all the time. Before we get on set, one of the things I actually love doing before we get on a project, despite the fact that I understand my own style, the way I want my shots, and the way I want my stories to be told. I also like references a lot. I have references for visuals, some for style, for acting, for costume, and every damn thing in the film. Another thing is the post-production, because, and I think that’s where most people in Nollywood do not get it right. I understand, sometimes you just have to be swift with it, like doing post-production in a month, two months, I have done it before. But for me, I take my time in my post-production cause I feel that’s like another series of story-telling. Writing the story, it’s you telling the story from a point of view, directing it, producing it, is you telling the story from another point of view, editing it is a different point of view entirely, which is like even the most important. So, for me it takes time. I will do my first cut, then leave the film for a long time, take some time to go over it, basically, just watch the film a bit and take out stuff. I take out a lot, which is very funny, I mean for someone that spends much time writing, I take a lot of stuff while editing, and these are things that I feel are not important. I feel they are not important, that’s why I will probably take them out. These are not things that were not important in the writing stage, but at that point, it’s a different point for me telling the story. So, I am more informed about that story now because I have gone through other phases. So, at that point I basically just know whatever is needed for the project, regardless of how much we have spent to make a scene or how much we have spent to do whatever, I just put up my guts, edit and put the work out there.
Shoots.ng: So, what part of your process do you feel is most challenging for you?
Damilola Orimogunje: Honestly, the most challenging would actually be on set. I feel like it is quite underrated, working on set, that’s why. Working on set back to back or in fact, even, being on set itself, because, first, you are working on a very tight budget, tight timeline to make a film. In the West, people make a film for a month two months, three months, even big budgets films in Nigeria will make a film like in a month you know. Generally, people make films in two weeks, you know, a week. It tells you that, there is a lot of work that needs to be done, I mean quick production has to be tight, when you get that cleared up, the production itself is still a lot and as a director, it’s a lot of good pressure on you. Everyone is looking up to you, actors are looking up to you, crew members are looking up to you, whatever decision you make at that time can make or mar the film. So, it takes a lot of mental and a lot of physical efforts because you are literarily working many hours in a day. On a normal day if you were working on a quick production, you don’t need that amount of strength, but on set it is a lot and I feel like its underrated. So, for me, I think production is very tedious and of course. When you are shooting in a place that is crazy like Nigeria, where you don’t have people to help you, you don’t really have so many support systems, a situation where people just feel like “oh these are movie people, they have money”, so there is a lot: shooting under the sun. I feel like the production itself Is the most tedious of the entire process.
Shoots.ng: At the stage where you are now, how lucrative is your job, how lucrative is what you do now?
Damilola Orimogunje: Hmm., I think in terms of being lucrative, it’s actually good. It can be better, it’s good compared to where I am coming from, especially with the release of FOR MARIA, feels like everyone wants to work with me now. Before now, I released some short films, so few people already know me in the industry and with the release of FOR MARIA now, I mean it’s good, not bad.
There is this thing where the industry should be like “oh as a writer, this is how you should be paid, even though there is no specific fee, we don’t have anybody that says a writer must not get less than this.
So, for me I feel like where I am now is good, not bad, paying the bills, but I feel it can be better.
Shoots.ng: About FOR MARIA, what was the greatest challenge you faced while filming the movie, from conceptualization to shooting, before shooting, casting, and all that too, post-production?
Damilola Orimogunje: I think the biggest challenge for me, ok I think two really, first, coming up with the idea was not an issue, production was smooth, and it was tedious in its own way. After writing the script, I felt the film had a social commentary and I should be able to sell it to NGOs. I tried that for like a month, and then it didn’t work and I felt like that was a challenge. I mean this will be more like a challenge for most upcoming filmmakers In Nigeria and even abroad. So, I mean, it was a problem for me but I quickly just switched to, collaboration. Used my money, used friends’. Another challenging phase was COVID. We shot the film in 2019 and we started post-production, May 2019-early 2020. So, most of the post-production people, 70% was done outside the country, COVID happened and that meant a delay in finishing the work. My composer contracted COVID and it was at the point when you had COVID, everyone is thinking ”ehhh you are gonna die” you know, and there was a lot of issues then, of course, dollar. Exchange rate started skyrocketing at that period, and the money we had agreed to pay, was like me paying double of that amount, because dollar was no longer what it was, at the middle of COVID. It was a lot of pressure, at that point, releasing the film, getting the film done and then the rate increasing, was crazy, but, I am happy that we were able to pull through. Those were the major challenge or major things that were challenging in the process of the film.
Shoots.ng: So, this particular question is two-in-one, if any of your children volunteers to take up this job from you, what would be your advice to him and if you could go back to tell your younger self one particular thing, what would it be?
Damilola Orimogunje: [sigh] I think what I would say is, stick to your guts and I feel like it’s the same thing I would tell my younger self. Like I said before, I had the opportunity to start making films, way back. I used to have a camera back home, my dad used to like a lot of films. We used to watch a lot of wrestling and I feel that’s the difference between living in Nigeria and living abroad. You will hear someone like me saying he was shooting a film when he was eight years old, you know he will just shoot random stuff, they really explore their talent. I feel like we don’t really do that In Nigeria, so most times your talent is there but you just let it be until you are a certain age or until you feel you are grown enough. So, I felt like I had that talent in my own career at some point, where I felt like I had the opportunity to start creating and making stuffs, I didn’t start, because I was scared. I was scared of what I want to tell, I’m not sure if people will like what I want to tell , so it was a lot of confusion on my own part, even though I was still finding my voice. It was a lot of confusion on how to balance what I want to make and what people will like to watch and that got me for years for not making anything and when I started making was when I realized that I am just gonna make my own stuff, I don’t care if its accepted or not, I just wanna tell it in my truest expression. I just wanna tell my own story, how it makes sense to me, and when FOR MARIA was gonna be put on Netflix, I was thinking “was it gonna be liked by people?”. I was thinking “oya oh put it there”. So I think for me what I would tell my younger self or my child is “to make whatever you want to make, like, if you want to be shooting ants that are climbing the staircase and that’s what gives you inspiration and gives you joy and if you are consistent with it and try to be different with it and you keep learning and keep doing more, you will become the best filmmaker in the world” I feel like that’s the mentality.
Shoots.ng: So I am going to move on to the questions outside my general slate now…. How you arrived at settling for the craft instead of raking in the numbers when you look around you and you see people make sh*tty movies, but they get the numbers, as in focusing on the commercial, side of making movies, ehm, not caring whether the story make sense or not as long as it is making the numbers, at what point did you arrive at settling for the craft as opposed to focusing on the numbers?
Damilola Orimogunje: [Sigh] Its basically just knowing yourself, because I feel as a filmmaker, you are coming into the industry, the first thing you need to ask yourself is, what kind of film do I want to make? What kind of filmmaker am I? And then if you don’t have clarity on that, you will just jump into the industry and be doing sh*t and you will be 10 years in the industry, you are almost too late. For me, coming in was like, what movies do I want to make, I am in tune with a particular type of story, cause, I started writing even before I started writing scripts and stuff like that, so the kind of stories I write are the kind of films I want to make. The kind of films I want to make, are not the mainstream films that are sweeping in the entire money right now, I mean, of course, we are currently in advent of comedy, I mean we see like the top highest-grossing films in Nigeria, comedy is probably like eight if not nine. So, coming from that situation, I already knew that this is a problem, so I had to make films, don’t get me wrong, this is not because I cannot write comedy, I tell people that, while I was writing, before I started directing, I write a lot of stuff. I worked as a writer on Africa Magic FLAT MATES, like a bunch of comedy films, comedy shows, so you know. I write comedy really well, but when it comes to making it for myself, it’s quite different, because I try to be careful of the art I put under my name. I mean, the fact that my name is just under it, it’s me creating a mentality not just writing, so at that point, I’m like, “this is not me”. I feel like for a long time there seems to be like a formula, which I don’t agree with, like a formula of “if you wanna make films, this is how you make it, and this is the end result”. I will tell you sometimes, it works. For example, everybody abuses AY, in fact, till late last year, people were abusing his latest film, but guess what, he made the numbers much more than a lot of films that a lot of people reckon to be making sense or nice films. It tells you something, that he knows his job and he is doing it very well. Then the fact remains that, if someone comes into the industry and says I want to make money, “I don’t really care about the art, I just wanna make a lot of money”, and he is doing that, he has done that for about seven projects and he is making money back to back, that’s someone that knew what he wanted to do. If he tries to say that, you know what, let me be different this time, I want to make sense this time, he will probably flop, because he is not used to that system, he is not that kind of filmmaker. If I say I really wanna make money and I go ahead and do it, I might just fail woefully, because it is not coming from me 100%. I am just trying to be that kind of person and it will not work. It doesn’t mean I won’t make a blockbuster film or a film that will gross 1 billion naira, I would, definitely would, you know, but I feel at this point of my career, I feel like being more in tune with the kind of stories I am putting out. Right now, you know, I keep telling people that, one day I’m just gonna pick up three idiot kind of story, really really mainstream and really blockbuster-ish, and I will put it out. I won’t force myself to want to write comedy, I feel like a lot of people are really doing that, making a lot of things trying to go the AY route and then, they are failing woefully, like a lot of films are being released, not making money, rubbishing the talent.
Shoots.ng: So, are you saying is either you do this or that when it comes to commercials or works of art?
Damilola Orimogunje: I think it’s very possible, because, honestly, I feel like we are in different phases, I feel like the phases we are in, in the Nollywood space is different from where we were five years ago. The gatekeepers encouraged it in a way that, the only films you see go to the cinemas are comedy films, so I mean how will you know that a film will sell until you try it, you need to understand the point of view of creating and also a business. If you have someone like Brother Shaggi who has millions of followers on Instagram, have him in a movie and ten others like him, and you were told watching the movie is the next thing after jollof rice, you are gonna watch it, even if you might end up like “wtf did I just watch?” So if you make a commercial film, you know its business. If I want to cast my film, I cast based on talent, casting a commercial film is beyond just talent, it’s also about numbers, you have to get to that point where you are able to merge both. I feel like it’s possible to make a good film, and make a commercial film and try as much as possible to be meaningful with it. Sometimes, it’s about paying a better writer, spending so much time on writing, spending so much time on post-production and don’t take people for a fool. I feel like people are getting out of the illusion of “oh we will just take whatever they give us, people are watching films outside the country, they are interested in good stories. My point exactly is, I feel like we are at a phase where people are demanding more, from the industry, from Nollywood, from films, you know. This is a point of evolution in the industry where a good film, creatively good and then with the right set of minds in terms of business, that kind of collaboration can change a lot of things, a very good film, with good marketing skills, and a good business point of view, and then boom, it hits and then it becomes a trend and then nobody wants to watch the slapstick that makes no sense anymore.
Shoots.ng: Do you think the kind of audience we have here contributes to the low quality of stories production companies decide to church out? Do you think, the lack of critical audience here, contributes to the low-quality movies that our producers always want to make in the Nigerian movie industry?
Damilola Orimogunje: I don’t think we don’t have the audience smart enough, I feel like we underlook our audience a lot. “Do you think, Nigerians can understand this film”? – I have heard it so many times. I remember when I was working for one of the big production houses in Nigeria and I was writing, I did the first part and the producer read the script and said “oh this is a very lovely script, but I don’t think this is for the Nigerian audience. I don’t think the Nigerian audience will like this, I don’t think they will understand this, let’s do a second draft, this second draft, is comedy eh, lose the seriousness, lose the sense, make it like a bunch of skits, let’s have every 10 min like skits, forget trying to make sense, just let it be funny”, and I kind of feel like that’s the mentality of a lot of people and feel like that is wrong because it’s still Nigerian audience that are watching movies like GAME OF THRONES that is not even a comedy. Like if you want to experience that we have people that are actually knowledgeable, speak with ten random Nigerians, sit with like 20 Nigerian audiences, put them in a theater or 100 Nigerian audiences, put them in the theater play them commercial films from like other countries. I’m talking about commercial films that actually make sense, and they were rankable in other countries, maybe 3 IDIOTS from India, show them about three films and ask them what they think about it. You would be surprised what some of them would write about, and you don’t expect them to love what they have not been in experience with. Watching film in Nigeria now is almost a luxury like people are working, some people don’t even watch films, the closest they watch to film is to watch TV. A lot of people are drawn to African magic series that have good storylines, that have good writing, it is not a joke, like it is not a mistake, that they will follow up any of these series, I barely watch these series, but I see comments, people talk about them, people are in love with them, same people are in love with soap opera from other countries. People love them so much, their writing is good, these are mainstream films, they love them so much. How come when it comes to our story, we must watch loopholes everywhere? I mean am like, when you are watching a film and there is so many loopholes, even a child is saying “how does it add up?” “How did this person get here?”, these are basic things. I feel like a lot of people come from being lazy. A lot of people will tell you, “oh yeah we’ve tried it”. I have had conversations with a lot of people that have worked in cinemas, and they are like “oh we’ve tried it, we tried it with this project”. But, the marketing that goes into THE WEDDING PARTY is different from the marketing that goes into a societal story. So, you can’t expect the same result. For a film to thrive you need a mindset of a creative and a good business-minded person. It doesn’t have to be the same person, that’s where collaboration comes in. A good creative director, a very good, industrious, creative producer, coming together to make a film, you know, that is, like you see the great change. One of the films I liked last year was “Ayinla”, Ayinla was produced by Jadesola Osiberu and directed by Tunde Kelani you know, these are two different people, good at what they do best, coming together to make a film. It’s not rocket science. I feel like we just try to be lazy and just say “oh no Nigerians don’t want that, they just want a simple story”, and I said art house is different because a lot of Nigerians are not even used to that kind of filmmaking. So, you have to train people to watch the kind of movie you wanna show them. “People don’t watch intelligent films”, why don’t you train them? Don’t use that as an excuse to just make sh*tty films. Why don’t you just train them, make smaller films that are intelligent, and train them to watch them? Why do washy films that will make so much money at the box office? There are films that are like the underdogs, that are not so commercial, people praise them on Netflix. This is to tell you that we have diversity, we have different people that wanna watch different things. How many people are in this country, we have people that want different things so we can’t just keep giving them the same thing, I think that’s what they want.
Shoots.ng: Ok [sigh]. My next question is about your directorial signatures. Some of your styles in making films, in terms of framing, your choice of music, and cinematography, can you run through some of the inspirations behind them? For instance, in FOR MARIA, I saw some of the reviews from other platforms criticize the minimalism in your framing when you give less screen time to the other character on the same set while you ground the other(s). You grounded the POV of the audience, restricting what the audience could see, controlling their focus on a particular character and how they were feeling at that particular point in time, instead of just doing the regular back and forth ‘cut-to-this-call-to-that. Tell me, what actually inspired that kind of framing style?
Damilola Orimogunje: [Sigh] One of the reasons FOR MARIA was set that way, I wanted people to transform the view of the audience. I wanted it to be more than just a film, I wanted people to see it as a reality, like watch it and then see themselves in that film. One of the comments that I actually like, was when people said they felt like they were invading their privacy, the privacy of the couple and that’s of course because of the way the film was shot. Really, I wanted people to be immersed in the story, I personally as an audience, I don’t like so many cuts, so many edit cuts, I just wanna focus, I just wanna listen and watch, I don’t like filming for coverage. I mean there is a scene going on and you are cutting into everybody talking, you know I don’t need to see that because, most times, it takes my attention away from the essence of that scene, because, sometimes the shot you are even cutting to, is not saying anything. For me, I am being minimal with my edit and then also similarly I am very minimal with my shooting, I barely shoot close ups, and I barely shoot multiple takes Also, I feel like, when you are having a conversation with a person, you don’t look at yourself. I mean right now, I am talking to you, if you were right in front of me, what I will see is you, your face, your reaction to what am saying, it’s not really what am saying, it’s the impact of what am saying on you. Like most time you have a character speaking and the shot is on the one listening because I feel the emotion that is being wrought in that person is more than me just cutting to the person saying whatever he is saying at that point, so for me it’s about what is important in the scene. Beyond the modalities or beyond the way filmmaking should be, in terms of cinematography, and colors generally, I am a big fan of good visuals, I like beautiful visuals and that’s why I am a big fan of Won Kai. If you watch his films, they are fully beautiful; like amazingly beautiful and you know, they are not just beautiful for beautiful sake, they are beautiful for storytelling sake and that’s what’s in my head as a filmmaker. And, of course, I want my film stories to be real, a very good example now, someone is talking to you may be from a living room office space, it’s not always tidy, its sometimes rough. Sometimes you are sweating, these are real-life things that people know, that people go through, so I feel like, in the film, there should be a reflection of that too. So I don’t really like the glam-glam every time, because that is not our reality, our reality is sometimes, you are taking a cool, you are doing things, I mean those are the things I wanna show in films, and then there is like a variation of that too in For Maria, where, NEPA took the light.
Shoots.ng: I know as a creative person you have a million and one ideas in your head or notepad, how do you come about focusing on a particular idea for your next project?
Damilola Orimogunje: Most times it’s about the right timing. I can have an idea for five years and when it’s the right time for it, you know I just go ahead and do it. For the project I am working on now, I wrote the script about five years ago, it was meant to be on a bigger scale, but budget delayed it. One of the things I don’t like to do is compromise my quality, so for me, I feel like my next project can actually be ideas that I have jotted down, so I feel like this is the best follow- up for after FOR MARIA, that’s currently what I am working on right now. I work on other contents too apart from filmmaking, creative contents, corporate, commercials, produce for music videos like I do a lot of stuff and then I write as well.
Picture credits: @damilolaorimogunje on IG
