Lagos (AFP) - The camera rolls
from left to right on a dolly as the actors, all African, go through
their lines, a sound operator holding a boom steady over their heads
under bright studio lights.
"'CEO'
represents Africa as a continent," said the 41-year-old during a break
from filming at a luxury resort outside the financial capital, Lagos.
"By
virtue of the kind of story, the actors, the team and every element of
the film to a large extent, embraces who we are as Africans," he told
AFP.
The film's plot is about a telecoms firm looking to replace
its boss. Five members of the company's management are dispatched across
Africa to find the best candidate.
Cast
members include Benin's Grammy award-winning singer Angelique Kidjo, as
well as actors from South Africa, Kenya, Ivory Coast and Morocco.
"It's
a fairly great mix and I think it's a mix that's like Kunle himself,"
said Moroccan television and film actress Fatym Layachi.
"(He's) a
totally Nigerian director in the sense he's proud of being Nigerian and
proud of his culture... and at the same time he's part of something
completely universal."- Corporate backing -
With
a budget of more than $1 million (880,000 euros), "The CEO" is a far
cry from the shoestring productions that characterise the bulk of
Nollywood's output.
Some cost
as little as $25,000 to make -- a fraction of the $250 million average
in Hollywood -- and can be turned around within a month from filming to
sale.
Afolayan has secured
financial backing from Air France in a first for the French carrier,
which is banking on his reputation to drive up its brand in Nigeria.
The
company has provided tickets for shooting to take place in Kenya, South
Africa and even at Paris' main airport, Charles De Gaulle.
Better
financing, it is hoped, will change Nollywood's image of poorly made
films with wobbly cameras, poor sound and often rudimentary editing. His ambition fits into a wider context of a greater role for Nollywood in Nigeria's economy and recognition of its value for the country.
In April last year, Nollywood was included in Nigeria's economic data for the first time -- a sign of its growing power and influence.
The film industry was estimated to be worth 859.9 billion naira ($4.3 billion, 3.8 billion euros) or 1.2 percent of GDP.
With an average of 2,000 films produced every year, Nollywood, which developed out of the digital boom of the 1990s, is one of the biggest cinema industries in the world.
That puts it in the same bracket as movie-mad India, although revenues -- thought to be about $590 million a year -- are considerably less.
- Production values -
In 2013, the United Nations estimated that Nollywood, which releases about 50 films a week, employed some one million people and could create one million more jobs if properly run.
Many of the movies tackle social and cultural problems -- corruption, drugs, love triangles -- and rely heavily on melodrama.
Most are sold as DVDs at the roadside, either at market stalls, from wheelbarrows or by hawkers at traffic lights.
Online
distribution has started through Internet platforms such as iROKOtv and
via cable and satellite television, expanding their audience and appeal
across Africa.
Nigeria's President Muhammadu Buhari earlier this
year ordered a crackdown on bootleg copies, to regularise sales and give
actors and producers a fairer deal of revenues.For Afolayan, better quality films, as producers and directors hone their skills, and with actors from across Africa, will boost interest on the continent and beyond.
The filmmaker has already shown his films at a Nollywood festival in Paris, which has become an annual fixture since 2013.
"Some
people are very comfortable in making low quality products because for
them it is only a means of livelihood, for them they only make money,"
he said.
"For me film is not about earning a living, film is life for me. I breathe film, I sleep film."
Whip
that pon
ytail, Bey! Plenty of celebs performed at the Tidal concert at
Brooklyn’s Barclays Center on Tuesday, Oct. 20, but the set that really
brought the house down featured two top ladies in the biz. 
the last time you saw them, there were actually plenty of mistakes you might have missed.
