WHAT GOES ON BEHIND THE SCENES ON A MOVIE SET

               WHAT GOES ON BEHIND THE SCENES 
            ON A MOVIE SET

Behind the scene shots of Leila's "And there was you"

Do you ever wonder what goes into a movie production? Are you one of the many who watch movies and exclaims “Ah? This movie is good.  Have you ever tried to find out about the many preparations and the deadlines your technical crew and actors have to face? What about the words CUT, ROLL, ACTION, do they make any meaning to you? Well, those are a few of the many challenges your favorite stars like Majid Michel, John Dumelo, Jackie Appiah, Yvonne Nelson, and many others face from Movie Directors. In this feature, i bring to light what happens  behind the scenes during movie production.

Tony Tormeti on Leila's movie set

The term “behind the scenes” means designed and carried out secretly or confidentially.  Confidentially and secretly because most of whatever is done behind the scenes is in its raw state until editing is done and processed on a CD. It also allows for mistakes and blunders to be made during a production. That is why the movies are edited several times and given a perfect finish, before being released to the general public. 

Directors, Productors and Cameramen on Leila Djansi's movie set

A film director is responsible for the directing of actors and the crew. He sees to the artistic and dramatic aspects of film making. The director, make up artiste, costumiers and production managers are a small section  of  those who work behind scenes to make our favorites actors and actresses  who they are at the end of a movie production. For most movie lovers what they do not know is that their favorite characters in movies are not fluent in their scripts. They make a lot of mistakes hence the production terms “CUT” and “ROLL”.  For some movie producers to create humour, they add the blunders committed by our favorite actors and actresses to the final edited work and presented to viewers as “goofs” after   the movie is rolled.

Accidents do happen at times behind the scenes. These accidents could either be minor or major so care is mostly taken during production of movies so as to avoid accidents.  Due to this most movie producers are advised to make use of the presence of medical personnel when shooting a movie, so as to treat all accidents. Recently most movie  directors and producers adopt the Western  Style of relocating to  different regions  or countries , if need  be  to shot either a scene  or  the whole movie and  to have  their story lines depict the western concept.  These mostly cost a lot hence, the need to pump much money into movie making. Behind the scenes also entails the props, cameramen, sound men,set designers, make up artist and the costumiers for the production. It considers the musical composition for the movie as well.

For most movie directors creativity is their hallmark at the end of the day , hence  they employ all the tactics to capture the attention of the audience at the end of the day.  It is  really questionable when movie producers always feature particular people as  their characters, but hey who do we blame , since a must watch movie to sell  in Ghana  must consists of the stars  like Jackie , Yvonne  Nelson, John Dumelo, Majid Micheal, Yvonne Okoro, Joselyn Dumas and  all our favorite stars. So in effect we make and unmake our stars, while leaving no room for the new discoveries on the block.

On the lighter side though, behind the scenes is  the happy time that all stars from all walks of life are brought together with  the help of the producer. It is a  to eat together , chat and  laugh at amusing  incidents on location  and above all  imbibe knowledge into the new crop  of stars they find themselves acting with. Just like a replica  of Hollywood where musicians  like  Jennifer Lopez,  Janet Jackson and all others have been  planted into the  movie industry, Producers are gradually developing talents in  our Ghanaian musicians through  acting and  imputing  more explicit scenes  in their movies.

For as it is said sex , sells and  indeed for these script writers a movie  with sex scenes   and a wild title just gets the  populace  to get a copy  of the supposed movie.   But  have you ever wondered  how many days, months or years it take to shoot a good movie.  Well  you would be amazed to also find out that  most of our stars do  not  know the title of the movies they shoot, neither  the story line of the movie.  For them its all about executing their jobs and getting paid.

So the next time you decide  to  praise  your favorite actor or actress in Ghana and beyond and say  that "wow" this Actor  is good.  Just  think  and give gratitude to the  cameramen and women, make up artiste, costumiers and above all  the script writers and producers for making  your favorite actor and actresses for making them who they.