Peace Oni may just be 23 years old, and may even have started Career on a ‘wrong’ track, having studied Economics as a first degree. But after a 3 months course in screen writing at the royal arts academy, in Surulere, Lagos, 5 short films for Afriwood and several scripts for Daddy girls TV series, she is now ready to explore and go deeper into the world of screen writing. She spoke to Tolu George on her life as a screen writer, among other interesting issues.
How come you switched from a career in Economics to Screen writing?
I hated every minute of studying economics, economics was your regular story of, oh my daddy said I should study this course, but I have always been interested in the arts, but I just wasn’t sure whether I wanted to take it up as a career, I also did a little bit of stage acting in school, and then I decided that this is something I really wanted to do, but as at that time, it was acting, but I knew that my daddy wouldn’t allow me do acting, so I decided to go into screen writing, the idea was to go into screen writing and show my daddy that I am intelligent and I have good plans and from there I could switch to a career in acting. I did acting back then, just for the fun, nothing more, but after a while, I decided that maybe I could just take it seriously, and then I looked at the movie industry in Nigeria and I had a lot of issues with it, and I am a firm believer of doing something about things that are wrong, so I thought Screen writing may just be it.
When did you make the break into the industry?
As a writer that was in June 2013, I met Yinka Ogun, the creator of tinsel, he came as a judge for one of our exams in Royal Arts Academy and from there, we got talking and then he introduced me to Afriwood, which is a project Under Africa Magic MNET, he told me about the project and how they were interested in upcoming writers, that could write an hour script for them and then I wrote the first script titled, a shot in the foot, it took me two months to write that script, I sent the film to the guys at Afriwood and they replied after a month that they liked the story, they went on to shoot the movie, while I went on to write four other scripts for them and am still with them.
How would you describe your experience as a screen writer so far?
Well for me I would say it’s been encouraging and that’s because there are a lot of projects for upcoming writers, as opposed to years before where you had producers treating screen writers like thrash. I think right now the screen writers are getting the respect they deserve. Although it’s not been completely smooth, but then again it’s better than what it would have been.
Men dominate the crop of people who work behind the scenes in movies, do you sometimes feel intimated?
No, not really, I feel intimidated as young writer, more than I feel intimidated as a female writer, that’s because at times when they call writer’s conferences and you see all these mature people, the likes of the man who wrote Mortal Inheritance, and then everyone looks so mature and they look like they know what they are doing, and then I am there, all fresh and young and you know, you have to look like you know what you are doing too. It takes a while to convince people that I am actually into this thing and I’m in it to give the best, but as I said, am new, so maybe I have not entered the circles where I would feel intimidated as a female writer.
So why do you feel intimidated by these writers?
As I said they look sure, they look like they know what they are doing, they look like they dominate, like they are in charge and then they have all these ideas on how things should go and everything, mean while things are changing every day, new ideas, new technology are all coming up, but you know these old generation writers are sort of set in their ways and ideas, so young people seem like a threat to them. For me I think that you just have to respect yourself and do your own stories and you will definitely find an audience, and that’s the thing I like about Ivie Okujaiye, she has broken the norm, came out and is doing her thing.
How would you describe the Nigerian film industry?
This is with all due respect to the industry in Asaba, what I mean is that, we all like to say that we are all Nollywood and all, but these set of guys seem to have these set of movies, called Asaba movies, I don’t know if you know all these movies with the village scenes and epic stories, and whether we like it or not before new projects, the likes of Afriwood came out, we’ve had this Asaba movies and those are the movies that people outside see, and if you take a look at the story line, it can be entertaining but I’m a huge fan of intelligence, so in as much as they can be entertaining, some of them don’t have a certain level of intelligence that I look for in my movies, and that most of my generation look for in their movies, so that is why you hear most people say I cannot sit down and watch a Nigerian movie, what am I watching in a Nigerian movie? I would rather sit down and watch an American movie, and you can’t blame them because they believe that watching a Nigerian movie is just for the laughs, nothing more, so when I say, I have issues, those are the kind of issues am talking about, you know these movies are entertaining and you know the way we are in Nigeria we are very dramatic and all that, but there is more to us as a people than drama, we can be intelligent, we have issues that surround our lives and I think that you can use movies to show these ideas. What inspires your own writing style?
Well, for me, I write what I will like to go to the cinema to see, which is saying a lot, because we have people that will like to go to the cinema to see American movies, and whether we like it or not we don’t have the American culture, we are still Africans and there are still things that we do that make us who we are, I think we are more than drama, so the fact that there is more to us than what the world out there sees, which isn’t their fault, it is what we show them, inspires me to write.
Who are some of the people that you look up to in the screen writing industry?
I look forward to start writing like Tunde Babalola, I think that would be nice. Tunde Babalola is deep and he writes from the angle of someone that understands the Nigerian culture, you know he has lived here and he understands these things and he still aspires to show more about us, as an intelligent people.
Most of the recognition in films goes to actors, very little recognition goes to Screen writers, does that make you sometimes toy with the idea of going back to acting?
I think it depends on why you are doing what you are doing, you know some are in it for the glamour, if you are in the industry for the glamour, you are not supposed to be a screen writer, you are supposed to be an Actor, so people can see your face and all, for me actors are in the public light and I don’t want that, I want to be behind the scenes and that’s another reason why I decided to stick with screen writing. The screen writers guild of Nigeria are discussing about an award show, that is strictly for screen writers, where screen writers get to give directors award, basically, directors that can interpret their scripts well, I think those kind of things will work. I do not think that there is anyone, who would not like his work to be appreciated, in as much as most of us screen writers are quite people and we don’t want all the noise, but still, I think, it will be nice to get appreciated, because without a script, no other person would have a job. In as much as appreciation will be beautiful, it doesn’t mean that is what we live for, or that it is the reason we do what we do, there is passion for something and it is definitely not glamour.
How do you relax?
I sleep a lot, and then I like to hang out with friends, I also like to see movies and go for church activities
As a young screen writer, do you get pressures from men so as to accept your scripts?
No, not yet, but I hear that I would get that, but it hasn’t happened. I think it happens more for actors, than it does for screen writers, you know when a lady comes and she says she is a screen writer, it’s a whole new level entirely, it’s more of intellectual stuff, than just body, that is not to say that actors are not intelligent, I think actors are also intelligent. I happened to meet some guys and I could see from their look, that they already thought I was an actress, and they were ready to do their deed and when I told them that I am a screen writer, their entire demeanor and mood suddenly changed. It’s like a whole new level of respect, which of course I think, is a great thing.
Where do you see yourself, as regards screen writing in 10 years time?
In 10 years, I would really like to have my own production company, producing my own Christian movies.
Source: Thenationonlineng
