I have a unique perception of movie production —Ohikhuare, multiple award-winning cinematographer March 12, 2016
March 12, 2016
Stanlee Ohikhuare, is a multiple award-winning cinematographer, director and producer, whose emergence into the cinematic movie production has been marked as revolutionary. Born in Edo State, the graduate of Fine Arts from the University of Benin has won over seventeen awards and recognitions of excellence, both locally and internationally, for his works. Stanlee, who believes that moviemaking is an artistic expression, spoke with Newton-Ray Ukwuoma about his transition to the movie industry.
As a cinematographer, you put the lights on actors, while you are rarely seen, what do you have to say about this?
Yes, but someone has to do the job, you know, and you don’t have to see all of our faces. In fact, it is the preferred alternative for me. I’d rather prefer that people know my work more than my face (laughs). It works best for me. A good job does not need the face to speak for itself. For me, it is about the work.
When did your career in the movie industry begin?
I started in 2004. What I did then was an animated movie. But I started live-action movie in 2012. From 2004 till 2012, my preoccupation was on animated movies. I was also shooting TV commercials.
Animation movies in Nigeria still has its challenges, how much of the challenges did you face?
I think is an aspect of film production that people need to persist in, not necessarily because of the money, but because we need to keep the genre alive. I will still go back to animation when the time comes because it requires a lot of money. It is not something you do without having a lot of support.
Lack of support, was that why you left?
It was not exactly why I left animation. It was part of it, however. I was working on one project at that time with no support. All I did were presentations upon presentations. I didn’t get anybody to support the initiative. I had spent eight to nine years working on the same thing. All the money I made went into it. At some point I had to sit up and ask some vital questions, you know. I started working on the project before I got married and I continued working on it so many years after my marriage. I believe you can understand the reason for the transition into live-action movies.
How would you define yourself, the animationist or the cinematographer?
I am an artist. That is the most important part of who I am. I draw, paint just like any fine artist. I am an artist by training. I studied Fine Arts at the University of Benin. I specialise in painting. My filmmaking career as far as I am concerned is feeding off my training as an artist. So, it is not the other way round. My survival as a filmmaker is dependent on the fact that I have a background in fine arts.
Now, let’s talk first about your transition from fine art to animation. At what stage did it occur to you to make the move?
That was after I graduated. You know, painting entails images. After I graduated, I was always fiddling with computer graphics using Corel Draw applications as well as handmade graphics. It was more like I wanted to advance my profession. I learnt how to use the computer myself. The interest for image design began to grow. One fateful day, I stumbled on a vacancy for a graphic designer. I sent my curriculum vitae. I was invited for an interview. After looking at my sketch pattern, I was employed. I learnt more about graphics on the job. That was when I became more comfortable with the computer. I started expanding my knowledge to animations. I kept trying until I got a good grasp of it. After that, I learnt how to do video editing. From there I started servicing advertising agencies in terms of shooting commercials from story boards to animated commercials. I was doing animated commercials at that time. I think I practically worked with all the agencies at the time. From animated commercials I started shooting live-action commercials and directing them. After a couple of years doing live-action commercials, I decided to do live-action movies. I just wanted to stamp my presence in the industry.
And no sooner had you come on board than you began to receive recognitions and awards, would you like to highlight some of your awards?
It is hard to highlight really. But I have won seventeen awards since 2012. The most popular award is the Africa Magic Viewers’ Choice Awards (AMVCA). In my first year in the industry, I did two jobs, ‘The Deadwood’ and my online series called ‘Prayers for my Nation’. ‘The Deadwood’ won the AMVCA for the best documentary. The next year I did a couple of jobs. I did the animation for my movie ‘Verdict’. Humphrey Day, another work that year, was nominated as the best comedy AMVCA. My short movie, ‘Oblivious’ won the best short movie of the year. ‘Verdict’ won a number of awards, and I won the award of the Best Cinematographer of the year, AMVCA. Last year, my movies got a total of 49 nominations. And from across the world I won fifteen awards. My movies generally won seventeen awards. I personally won fifteen awards, twelve of which were international awards, while two were local awards, that is the AMVCA and GIAMA awards. The rest were international awards.
How much would you attribute your background as a fine artist to your huge success in the movie industry?
My being an artist, like I said earlier, is a very important aspect of my filmmaking. It gives me a different perspective about movie production, a perspective that no one else in the industry shares. I make movies like an artist. I use the same artistic style of painting images in my making movies. This helps me see the entire production differently. From the lighting, cinematography, art direction and even the directing itself, for me is art. If you introduce the basic elements of art into filmmaking, there is no way you can do things that will be seen as ordinary. The attribute of every art work like detail things as toner, the temperature in the scene, lighting and understanding how light work beyond what the lens can do and understanding colours, when all of these are taken into consideration the outcome will not be usual. For instance, you can use colours to tell stories. Beyond using colours, you can use different hues of colours and different temperature of the same colours to tell stories and they will all mean different things. However, it takes someone who is vast in these things to appreciate your work.
Would you say that we are waking to a brand new approach to movie production?
I don’t know how much that is true. But things are changing, no doubt. I think this is the time we must begin to expand our scope. Generally, I think that is what happens with effective cross-breeding.
Do you have a message for your movies besides money making?
First, no one is into the movie industry without the aim of making money. That is always the goal. However, there are movies I do with the mindset of addressing things. We call them conscience movies. It could have comedy in it on the deep level is the message. As a painter the style of my painting is called surrealism. It’s all about the world of fantasy, of imagination, and not necessarily the things that hit you in the face. In most of my movies you will see that a lot. There is a lot of mysticism and surrealism and imagination going on in my movies. The images are all representations of things that are hardly direct.
What is your philosophy about what you do?
I think I am one of the people who believe that just like painting, filmmaking is a form of art. I believe that we can use films to provoke change and initiate paradigm shift from the norm and about the way people see things. Like three of the awards I won last year were based on that. I won the filmmaker of inspiration award in Indonesia during the World Peace Day for Film Festival for my movie ‘Verdict’. I think people actually pay attention to movies that address issues. And for me, I shoot movies just to express myself; and so, majority of my movies address something in the society.
As a Nigerian, what aspect would like changed if you had the means?
I think it is the standard of living, not the cost of living. If you get too rich and you have enough to be comfortable, you might be able to meet up the cost of living. But I don’t think there is anybody who actually enjoys the standard of life in Nigeria. For instance, I don’t think anybody’s life is as much secure as it should be with kidnapping, police abuse of arms and other forms of insecurity. I believe everybody should keep talking about until it changes. It might take time, but someone said that evil prevails when good men say nothing. It is something I would keep addressing in my movies.
Tell us about the people whose works you appreciate in the industry.
People like James Cameron, Stan Lee, Salvador Dali, Quentin Tarantino, for directors like Francis Fort Coppola, the director of Godfather, my best movie of all time. Peter Jackson and Steven Spielberg are also part of my favourite. For cinematographers, Emmanuel Lubezki is a very intelligent cinematographer. There are a couple of local film makers, who keep doing things I admire, people like Imoh Umoren, Teco Benson, a very humble man; Femi Odungbemi, also a very humble man. For actors based on those I have worked with, it is always a joy to work with Patrick Doyle. He is elderly, but he doesn’t give you any stress. Recently, I am planning to shoot a movie with Sadiq Daba. I love to work with TaiwoAjayi.
I have you ever done any work you didn’t like?
Yes. My first live action movie is not act. The directing was beauty, cinematography, and everything was nice, but the sound was bad because we wanted to get live audio. The person we hired to do the audio recording did every terrible job and we tried resolving it by doing ADR (Automated Dialogue Replacement) and that also did not work. Rather than putting out a job that is not good, I dumped it at that closet.
What is your perception on the quality of sound in movie production?
It has to be 100 % or nothing. I try to do the best to get the best sound. For me I do ADR of all my movies. After the first bad experience, I don’t bother to do live audio. When I finish shooting I call the actors for ADR. It is difficult. There is no other way to put it, it is the most difficult thing to do, but it is the most rewarding. It is either you are doing live audio or an ADR. I do ADR of all my movies.
How was your growing up like?
I was playful right from day one, but I knew I wanted to be an artist. I never gave a different answer when asked what I wanted to become in the future. I ended up being artist. My parents encouraged me.
As a married person, how do you cope with fans’ expression of love for your work?
On a daily basis, I get an average of 60 mails from people all over the world, who like what I am doing. I try as much as possible to politely reply them, which is tedious on its own. I also get mails from actors who also admire my work and want to work with me. There are also young film makers who want me to encourage them, who want to be in my shoot, etc. I get all those mails. I answer as much as I can. I try not to make promises I can’t keep.
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