Parable of the Smoke and Mirrors
Nigeria has now joined the rest of the world particularly Hollywood with the production of her first Computer Generated Imagery (C.G.I) film entitled Smoke and Mirrors. The film was premiered during the Valentine season at the SilverBird Galleria, Plot 133 Ahmadu Bello Way, Victoria Island, Lagos during the Valentine season.
The hall was beautifully decorated from the roof of the building to the ground floor with guests and lovers savouring the joy of the moment. The premiere commenced with a red carpet reception for artistes, guests, friends and well wishers who were ushered in amid light refreshment and music.
According to the producer and director, Ehiz Ojesebholo, Smoke and Mirrors is a riveting, spellbinding and exhilarating movie that revolves round Akin, a young billionaire (Keppy Ekpeyong), who had his world shattered when his company won a major chemical contract unknown 5to Akin, his beautiful wife (Bimbo Akintola) connives with her husband's father (Olu Jacobs) and streetwise lawyer (Ehiz Ojesebholo) to defraud him but following a lot of intrigues and suspense, they all disagree on the sharing formula and because of greed, they all end up eliminating one another.
In his words, “ Smoke and Mirrors is the first Computer Generated Imagery (film) in Africa, otherwise known as the Black Dot Process. It is unique and has high sound quality (where the film was shot in a green scene environment for special effects and 100 percent of the scenes done in one room). Some other Hollywood movies that have used these effects include 300, Since it is, Sky Captain and the world of tomorrow, Star Wars among others.).
Talking about the cost of the movie, Ojesebholo disclosed a budget of 10 million naira and a period of 18 months for the production of the movie. It is an animated movie that was very tedious to produce because of the processes involved. The director equally gave glory to God for making him complete and achieve the project since some people told him that they cannot produce an animated video because of the high cost involved.
In addition, Ojesebholo enjoined artists to carve a niche for themselves because as he grew up, he watched a lot of television programmes and movies and had learnt about producers as George Lucas, Stephen Stielberg, Tunde Kelani, Teco Benson, Lancelot Imasuen who inspired him as a young man. I watched Olu Jacobs, and enjoyed working with him.
This project is being sponsored mainly by Adonijah Owiriwah who believed in me and gave me money to go on with the project. This inspite of the setbacks I encountered from people and other organizations that promised to sponsor the movie but reneged on their promises.
Featuring in the movie are top artistes like Olu Jacobs, Bimbo Akintola, Femi Brainard, Femi Durojaiye, Titilayo Akinmoyo, and James Oludare.
It would be recalled that Ehiz Ojesebhole had won the Focus Dialogue Award at the International Film Festival in Germany last year with his short movie entitled Chill Pill and he hopes that Smoke and Mirrors would win awards at the AMAA and Oscar awards respectively.
James Oludare who played the role of Abu in the movie noted that the character is like a green snake in a green grass, who was called over to Lagos from Kano to come and kill some people. The role was challenging and it is a privilege for me because I had to speak like an Hausa man using the right accent, mannerisms and I am happy to have featured in this movie.
Among Nollywood stars that graced the occasion were Bimbo Akintola, Keppy Ekpeyong Bassey, Titi Akinmoyo and Ibironke Ojesebholo