Don’t make a movie without script, Cinematographer warns filmmakers

By Oluwafemi Dosu

An outstanding Cinematographer and Film Coach, Evang. Kunle Adepoju is warning filmmakers never to shoot a movie without a script.

Adepoju who shot several award winning movies including ‘Akobi Laaroye’ and ‘Neema’, made the call today in a post he entitled ‘One Script, A Hundred Directors.’

 
Gospel Film News gathered that the cinematographer noted that script is the bedrock of a movie, as the building plan is the guide to building a house.

“Following this film guide called script makes a great movie provided it is well crafted. Please let me blow this trumpet that you should not in anyway do a movie without script. Let me approach my teaching today from the cooking point. Script is the movie recipe, production is the processing. Director is the chef, production crews are the caterers, and marketers are the servers. I can go on and on, but my interest today is on director- the chef,” he added.

 
He stated that every chef has his cooking style, every director has his style of storytelling, saying this makes him conclude that one script when given to several directors, will come out differently due to their different approach to the same story not only in their approach, but also in terms of emphasis.

Adepoju reiterated that in storytelling, the point that one director decide to emphasize may be totally different from another director’s.

“Let me use the story of Jesus Christ as example, the emphasis of Mel Gibson’s Passion of Christ is totally different from that of Franco Zeffirelli’s Jesus Christ of Nazareth. Also, the act of storytelling is an Art. Art is not strongly depending on rules but more on the knowledge and exposure of the storyteller especially the director. Check several versions of “Robin Hood”, “Sango”, Joseph Ayo Babalola’s story ever produced and so many others. You will understand what we address here,” he concluded.