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The African movie industry is among the biggest movie industries in the world. Nollywood from Nigeria, is the 2nd largest movie industry in the world. How come Ghanaian movies don’t make it that far?
Since my infancy, I have heard people not only complain, but lament on numerous occasions, their dislike for Ghanaian movies.
I won’t use hate in this context because. After all, if they hated it, they wouldn’t even glance at it. The fact remains that we have all watched Ghanaian movies before. Unfortunately, the ratings of these movies aren’t so impressive.
Many Ghanaians just lack interest Ghanaian movies.
In March, a Ghana-based television station proposed that we eat, wear and watch Ghana.
But let us be honest. How many of us even watch Ghana independence day celebration? Quite a few!
So, what could be the reasons for the low patronage of our own things?
Things keep changing in our entertainment industry, but the love for our industry is still not enough.
The fact that we prefer foreign movies indicates that something is not right somewhere.
Therefore it’s a loss to us. It’s about time we checked our flaws and filled the potholes in order to enjoy and appreciate our own.
Here are some of the reasons why most Ghanaians prefer foreign movies to Ghanaian movies.
One fact is that Ghanaians see their own movies as boring. There is no suspense in most Ghanaian movies.
The story line can be told without watching to the end. The movies do not make us glued to our television sets because one can easily guess what is up next and the guess would fall just in place.
Once tragedy occurs in a movie, the setting will be a group of people mourning alright, but there’s a little bit of comedy.
I agree that there’s tragi-comedy. But when it’s a tragedy, let the tragedy be felt and when it’s comic, we will all laugh over it.
Have you wondered why people cry when they watch movies? The actors act out of passion, and the viewers view it with a sense of passion too.
Also, most Ghanaian movies are duplications of other foreign movies such as Hollywood or Nollywood movies. This is very bad.
Some Ghanaian movies are nothing but unoriginal scripts full of copied scenes. Watching these movies is unpleasant. The copying could be word-to-word, without any sign of innovation.
However, copy and paste could be a great innovation for producers who are innovative.
Even with the same storyline, the scenes could be acted well, and a bit different from the original. This way, it may even get recommendations more than the original movie.
BAD EDITING EFFECTS
In movie production, visual effects and editing contribute significantly to the cost. Sadly, Ghana’s movie industry faces challenges with editing and visual effects.
For example, in some Kumawood movies, the characters speak their local dialect (Twi), without the movie displaying English subtitles.
Well, not all Ghanaians understand Twi. Therefore, the lack of language translation is a big minus.
Additionally, the music at the background (soundtrack) can be so loud such that the characters cannot even be heard.
Ghanaians will start to patronize local movies if only the industry is willing to take certain things into consideration.
Though some local movies are also very good, one bad nut spoils the whole soup.
Let us call on Ghanaian movie producers to raise the standards of their game.
Long live the Ghanaian movie industry.
