WILD ROSE ON TELEVISION
From acquiring foreign television content, Shileola Ibironke has taken on the intimidating challenge of producing local programmes that can be sold to the world. She tested the waters with the first Nigerian tele-novella, Taste of Love. Her new project, T
Many people who are aware of her monumental achievements and influence in television content marketing and production wonder how she does it. For an industry populated by characters that frequently carry the make- believe role into the real world, it is a marvel that she is able to keep her cool around them. Even as she sat calmly at the head of the long table filled with journalists and actors, it was easy to identify where the power resided at that meeting. There was an occasional question to the actors and the production manager, but many of the inquiry were directed at Shileola Obisesan Ibironke. Every now and then, a staff would walk over to whisper something into her ears or approach at her behest to receive instructions.
The gathering at the lobby restaurant at the Federal Palace Hotel, Victoria Island- Lagos was arranged a few metres from the customary space of the restaurant, perhaps to remove the party of media men and ladies, producers and actors from within earshot of other diners who may be oversensitive to the presence of cameras.
When attention was not on her, you could hardly tell that Shileola was the chief executive officer, Micromedia Limited, a television content marketing company that has successfully annexed production as part of its key activities. With a grin permanently plastered on her face, she kept her gaze on her computer which had a chic pink covering. She would gingerly approach and deal with the question thrown at her and return to the engagement with her computer. The gettogether served to announce the arrival of a new series, The Casino from the stable of her company.
Shileola cut her teeth working in the magic box called television as a staff of Consolidated Media Associates, owners of the music channel, Soundcity. Her initial interest, when she left the University of Abuja with a degree in Economics, was in acting. Before long she had come to terms with the fact that her strength lay in conceptualizing, branding and marketing. It was her duty to study and understand the kind of experience television viewers desire and the type of programmes advertisers would like to identify their products and services with. By the time she left Soundcity, she was not only the head of her department; she also had the added responsibility of acquiring content for the channel.
Away from paid employment, it was natural for her to set- up shop in an area she had garnered considerable
SHILEOLA CUT HER TEETH WORKING IN THE MAGIC BOX CALLED TELEVISION AS A STAFF OF CONSOLIDATED MEDIA ASSOCIATES, OWNERS OF THE MUSIC CHANNEL, SOUNDCITY. HER INITIAL INTEREST, WHEN SHE LEFT THE UNIVERSITY OF ABUJA WITH A DEGREE IN ECONOMICS, WAS IN ACTING. BEFORE LONG SHE HAD COME TO TERMS WITH THE FACT THAT HER STRENGTH LAY IN CONCEPTUALISING, BRANDING AND MARKETING. IT WAS HER DUTY TO STUDY AND UNDERSTAND THE KIND OF EXPERIENCE TELEVISION VIEWERS DESIRE AND THE TYPE OF PROGRAMMES ADVERTISERS WOULD LIKE TO IDENTIFY THEIR PRODUCTS AND SERVICES WITH
experience and contacts. Micromedia was born as a platform for her to continue doing what has since become her second nature. Instead of taking on production of feature films which may be less challenging, she chose to engage herself with the backbreaking production of series. She explained her preference for walking the hard path. “Micromedia has both the production and marketing divisions. As a group, what we do is to acquire contents that are series in nature and re- sell to corporate investors. That is what we have always done and are known for. So, when we decided to go into local production, we adopted the same strategy and framework that we are known for by embarking on productions that are in multiple sums ( series).”
Before now, Micromedia was known for marketing a couple of series. For the children segment, it owned the exclusive right to distribute a BBC world acclaimed series in Nigeria. The programme is an edutainment content. Lies That Bind, a Kenyan content is part of the catalogue that it has exclusive right of distributing locally. The company was as well given the privilege of distributing Tinsel on terrestrial stations. After working on a couple of productions for Mnet, it decided to start producing its own content.
Her knowledge of the television industry did not come overnight. It was the product of painstaking studies, travels and mistakes from which she learnt vital lessons. “I have been in the content selling industry for over 15 years, and that is where I acquire the knowledge from. I have also worked in a production house at a time, where I sold content. One of the things that have helped me is that while going through the content selling process, we are made to take the content as brand element. If you are a brand manager, you will always have to make sure that your production team was getting the right deliverables that you signed with your clients. That was where I learnt content selling and little bit of production. I have also distributed contents at the international markets. I pick up a lot of leaflets with contents. Over the years, I was able to learn from the contents, understanding what they did differently. I did a tour of the Universal Studio and that was where I got a whole of the knowledge. While there, we were taught that whenever you are filming, you believe that it is a new world. We were taken through all their studios, particularly set designing. We were made to understand that when you make the set beautiful, it helps the character enter the role better.”
Her new project, The Casino, could not be wished away. It had become inevitable following the huge success of her first production, the first Nigerian telly- novella, Taste of Love. Her three publics-viewers, advertisers and the pool of talent- were expectant. The challenge for her was to come up with something that would surpass the previous experience. Meeting these expectations could not be compromised. She knew as always that she had to assemble the best material and human components to achieve the desired result.
She revealed her timetested method. “We produce series approaching it from movie standard. A movie is differentiated by the picture; take for example an action movie, if we have a 100 episode, what you would be watching is 100 movies. We put in all the aesthetics that make up a movie; we don’t just shoot it plain. We make sure that when you walk into any of the set or scene, you see the characteristics that are associated with movies. Each set or scene has its own characteristics. We are proud to have produced The Casino as a movie series; if you watch every episode, it is more or less like you are watching a movie, from beginning to end. To get the quality and the reality that we wanted, we had to build our own casino on set. It was cost intensive; we had to ripoff a lot of things because we didn’t get what we wanted at end of the day. My team and I had to walk into a casino and play to get a feel of how it is. One of the main casinos I
visited was the Federal Palace. I visited some in Las Vegas, United States, but they were too glittery. I wanted to see what the local casino looks like, I visited often the one in Federal Palace to live with the character and see how they behave.”
She would stop at nothing to get the best of materials that would bring home the story to the viewers, she demanded no less from the talents who would act the different characters. The cast of The Casino parade a rich mix of known and new faces like Zack Orji who plays the role of Prof or The Godfather, Ayo Adesanya ( Funke AkinBenson) and Funsho Adeolu ( The Governor), Tony Umez, Mofe Duncan, Tina Mba, Lola Savage and Kunle Remi. It is a glorious appearance for fresh face, Omawunmi Dada, who plays the role of Adanma. For Sola Onayiga, The Casino is another shot in the arm for her flagging career that had really taken a dip. Her last place of prominence on television was a role as one of the cantankerous wives of the lead character in Fuji House of Commotion. With her appearance in The Casino, perhaps a couple of enterprising producers and directors would be reminded that she still got steam.
All the actors saw the finished product of the project they took part in for the first time at the Federal Palace luncheon. For the purpose of the movie, the hotel had acquired a new significance for Shileola and her team. It was from several nocturnal visits to and participation in the activities in the hotel’s casino that their imagination was fired to capture the essence of a casino. For many of the actors, shuttling between the Ibadan location of The Casino and their residences in Lagos was the easy part. The toughest part was meeting the very high bar set by Shileola. As a few of them, particularly the ladies, walked into the restaurant that afternoon for the meeting with the media, they walked to her and genuflected out of courtesy. They would later speak of the rewarding and challenging experience of working with the executive producer of The Casino. Her gentle and unassuming mien, they said, belied a tough no nonsense personality who insists on excellent delivery of assigned roles. However, they were also quick to acknowledge her benevolence which humbled many of them.
The Casino enjoys the production managerial experience of Bakare Adeoye, better known as, Bakky, whose wife, Iretiola OsayemiBakare also stars in the series. Apparently, Shileola was eager to bring the best, promising hands on board, working on the proposition that there is much wisdom in the multitude of counsel, she hired the services of three directors: Obed Ekele, Tope Alake and John Njamah.
Bringing together an A- list cast was not like a stroll in the park. To enlist the cooperation of some of them whose asking fee she could not afford, she had to involve third parties that they deferred to. “Sometimes, I had to contact people who are very highly influential; I mean people who had their ears. When we had the reading, we had three people for each character. So when they came in and read the script, they became engaged. They were not the only one jostling for the role, so they put everything they had into it. Zack Orji fitted very well into the character of the Godfather. Even when he came for his reading, his diction, posture and everything fitted the exact individual we wanted. Though we sent people to him; he personally saw the role and character as a challenge. He has not really done major or challenging roles in recent times. He brought the character and role to reality, he helped achieve the main objective that we set to achieve. From his mien in the poster, you could see and feel the Godfather factor in him.”
Micromedia has already produced 30 episodes of one hour per episode of The Casino. She quickly did the calculation, “when you multiply the 60 minutes of content by 30 episodes, you have 1800 hours of production.” She refused to treat the question about how much the production gulped with the same forthrightness. “We are open for partnership and sponsorship. A lot of time, people and organisations wait to see what you have done before they come on board. What we do first is get the work right and once this is done, you bring it to the market to show prospective investors, who appreciate the work and like to partner.”
THEY WOULD LATER SPEAK OF THE REWARDING AND CHALLENGING EXPERIENCE OF WORKING WITH THE EXECUTIVE PRODUCER OF THE CASINO. HER GENTLE AND UNASSUMING MIEN, THEY SAID, BELIED A TOUGH NO NONSENSE PERSONALITY WHO INSISTS ON EXCELLENT DELIVERY OF ASSIGNED ROLES. HOWEVER, THEY WERE ALSO QUICK TO ACKNOWLEDGE HER BENEVOLENCE WHICH HUMBLED MANY OF THEM