Audiophile Naija

Dear filmmaker, I write in sheer concern for our future as our destinies are interwoven one way or another, whether we choose to admit it or not. There is a lot to learn from our western counterparts who have mastered the art of filmmaking and turned it into a million dollar industry, however, this letter will focus on just one aspect. Nigeria is a hard country for creatives and the lackadaisical approach of the government towards developing other sectors of the economy besides oil and gas has made things even worse. Funding is no doubt an issue and young practitioners in the artistic sphere have had to use whatever they can gather to make whatever they can. This has been the story for a long time and whatever solutions this letter profers, they were made with this fact in mind. As a sound engineer and music producer, I've had a couple of of indigenous movies (feature length and short films) brought to my studio for mixing and mastering or scoring or both. At the cinemas t...

Okay, I promised myself I wont quote the notoriously famous “jack of all trades, pro at none” line in this post – I just did that didn’t I? Damn! Anyway, this is a dicey topic as the key factors to be considered such as mental ability, opportunity and financial income vary amongst individuals and greatly influence ones decision to either specialize or do all. Clearing The Myths Before we start talking about specialization, we have to look at what people can actually specialize in from a realistic stand point. I’m not saying you cannot go into sound design for games or movies or even be an audio software engineer in Nigeria, all I’m saying is have a spare car for Uber, you’ll be needing it to make ends meet. My point is, from a lucrative point of view and assuming all your clients are going to be from Nigeria; music production, audio engineering , mixing and mastering  are the most realistic areas of specialization as long as audio production is concerned. Sound design, film ...