7/30/2019 Film making in Kenya

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MAGAZINE

Team gives insights into the production processSomething Necessary is the t hird joint venture between Ginger Ink and One F ine Day Film since 2009 when German filmmaker Tom Tykwer decided to follow his p artner, M aria Steinmann

Tykwer, t o Kenya where she was t eaching art to Nairobis underprivileged in the citys slums.

Tykwer chose to train filmmakers, but not in a classroom sett ing. Rather, his st yle would be practical, a learn-by-doing process that involved collaborating with a like-minded Kenyan filmcompanies like Ginger Ink.

We had been shooting adverts and servicing international film companies that came to Africa and needed logistical supp ort on the ground, said Ginger Wilson, the co-founder of Ginger Ink Film

and Television, who works with her husband Guy Wilson.

We had also begun thinking about making our own films, s tarting with documentaries. And then Ty kwer prop osed we work together, and we have been doing so ever since, she added.

Tykwers plan was t o provide practising Kenyan filmmakers with t echnical expertise and artist ic supp ort from his p rofessional friends, who initially didnt mind workingpro bono to build One

Fine Day Film project.

We hadnt initially planned on mentoring Kenyan filmmakers. The idea was just to share skills and help to build a new African cinema in the country , recalled M s Wilson, co-producer of

Something Necessary with her husband and Sarika Hemi Lakhani, the One Fine Day Film representative whos been working with Tykwer since the making ofSoul Boy, their first collaborative

effort with Ginger Ink and with Kenyan scriptwriters, cast and crew.

In fact, Ginger Ink initially agreed to only sign on for one filmmaking project, t hat ofSoul Boy, but by the time we had completed filming, we had had so much fun we decided to carry on as a

team, Mrs Wilson added.

The collaborative venture, including Kenyans, Germans, a few Britons and most recently the contribution of Americans from Hollywoods Academy of M otion Picture Arts and Sciences, has

evolved serendipitously , observed Hemi Lakhani when we met recently at the Ginger Ink offices near Kawangware in Nairobi.

So much of what we have achieved and built in the w ay of training workshops and film making has evolved out of issues t hat needed to be addressed with immediacy, she continued.

For instance, neither Ty kwer nor One F ine Day nor G inger Ink had anticipated the need t o conduct training workshops in various fields of filmmaking, including everything from scriptwriting to

directing and producing to cinematography, editing and the like. But that is what has evolved t wo week workshop s that some have called mini-film schools.

M rs Wilson prefers t o call them Master Classes, since the company doesnt work wit h beginners, only with local filmmakers w ho have had some p ractical experience and already understand the

basics of the business.

That way, she says, they can make the most of what the professionals (brought in mainly by Tykwer) bring to each workshop.

Explaining how t he first w orkshop came into being, Ms Wilson said Tykwer wanted to make a film working with Kenyans, but there were no local scripts.

He called British screenwriter Emily Brand t o run the first two week script writers workshop in 2009 with some funding from the Goethe Inst itut.

It was a brilliant learning experience, recalled Ms Wilson. The t rainees were introduced to basic concepts , to create screenplays and actual films that p articipants watched, critiqued and learnedhow to analyse rigorously.

That workshop led eventually to the production ofSoul Boy, which was scripted by four Kenyans (supervised by Billy Kahora) but also regularly reviewed and critiqued by members of the

GI/OFDF team who asked for several rewrites before the script for Soul Boy was finally approved.

The film was shot in 13 days and then edited and polished by experts both in Germany and Kenya. The finished product became a sort of p ilot that Hemi Lakhani used to fundraise for our

second film (Nairobi Half Life), said Mrs Wilson.

The p roject now boasts of a modest budget of 500,000 euros ($660,000) which comes from various sources, some with s trings attached.

For inst ance, the Deutsche Welle Academy would only fund training workshops if t here was also a filmmaking component.

That is essentially how films likeNairobi Half Life and Something Necessary came into being, which was not such a bad idea after all.

In fact, M rs Wilson says the deadlines placed on the funding by donors compelled them to w ork quickly and decisively. Sometimes the p ressure [of deadlines] can help produce better w ork since

peop le have to perform.

Asked about the t itle of their latest film, Mrs Wilson said it came out of a conversation with a crew member who noted that everyone in t he film was acting out of what they p erceived to be a

necessity.

It was something necessary for each of them. This defined the title with a s ub-heading of Forgive. But dont forget. This for some is the underlying message of the f ilm.

The crew is already working on film number four.

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