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Nigerian Teens Are Making Sci-Fi Shorts with Slick Visual Effects
- cannedslime 7y agoA contender to Wakaliwood?
- mrob 7y agoMore like Wakaliwood is a contender to Nollywood. The Nigerian film industry is the biggest in Africa, to the point that some people in other African countries complain about Nigeria's dominance. VJ Emmie even jokes about this in his commentary to Who Killed Captain Alex?.
- royjacobs 7y agoThis is fantastic. It's been a promise for a long time that computers would become ubiquitous, open source software would be able to allow people to do (semi-)professional looking things for free, having access to the internet would be a great enabler, etc. This is just proof that it's happening! It's genuinely inspiring to see this.
- m_a_d 7y agoSemi-professional? So, only being paid for some projects and not others? Being a “professional” is not a skill, but an employment status. I argue that many amateur productions exceed the quality of professionally made productions.
- tripzilch 7y agoAre you arguing against the term "(semi) professional looking"? Because that last word clarifies what they meant.
- janekm 7y ago"They saved for a month to buy the green fabric for the chroma-key background".
- thelittleone 7y agoAmazing the things we can learn from kids.
- thelittleone 7y agoIf it’s any interest, I meant this genuinely. In my experience kids with less tend to be more resourceful. I find that a valuable lesson in humility and gratitude. The comforts we seek are often not what we need. Kudos to these kids.
- proc0 7y agoNerds!
- babayega2 7y agoThey use Techno Phones [0]. It's really the leading telephone in my country back in Africa to the point my wife refused me to buy her a Samsung one. :D You find those phone have really nice camera, and most importantly power consumption that can span at least 2 days... Peoples complaining that China is just copycat-ing stuff do not know how China is influencing peoples in developing countries. [0]: https://techcrunch.com/2019/08/07/africas-top-mobile-phone-seller-transsion-to-list-in-chinese-ipo/ https://techcrunch.com/2019/08/07/africas-top-mobile-phone-s...
- lonelappde 7y agoChina is well famous for its hardware remix culture. They get a bad reputation for copying unique inventions without regard for IP agreements and foreigner expectations.
- nexuist 7y ago>Peoples complaining that China is just copycat-ing stuff do not know how China is influencing peoples in developing countries. The problem is that altruism does not exist in geopolitics. Why is China influencing these people? Because it wants their support when it comes time to ask for favors. China is using Western inventions to grow its sphere of influence and defeat Western influence (and thus Western values, culture, etc) Not that the West is entirely innocent in its quest for power either, but considering the dystopian state of Chinese government (compared to Western governments, at least), it is perhaps better to keep the devil you know in charge than the one that wants to know you much better.
- sangnoir 7y ago> Not that the West is entirely innocent in its quest for power either You don't say - most of Africa got a taste of Western "values" and "culture". The last generation that suffered from colonial rule is still living.
- ASalazarMX 7y agoOw. Even I felt that.
- kashprime 7y agoImpressive! I wonder what they're using for video editing and vfx? Blender is great for 3d assets, but what open source software can make this?
- TheCoreh 7y agoRecent versions of Blender can also do video editing and vfx. They're probably also using Blender for that
- avhon1 7y agoNot just recent versions -- I just checked my old copy of Blender 2.49b (built on 2009-09-01), and it has the Video Sequence Editor.
- cr0sh 7y agoFor video editing, quite a few: https://www.lifewire.com/best-linux-video-editors-4176979 https://www.lifewire.com/best-linux-video-editors-4176979 Openshot and Kdenlive I'm familiar with (I've used the first in an earlier version, and the latter I know by the name, but have never used) - but the others are new to me. I'm sure there are still more than these, too.
- lholden 7y agoAlso Blender (most likely). It supports video editing and general vfx, not just 3d asset building. It's also being used professionally for this purpose in a few places too!
- ddmma 7y agoPosted on twitter ‘Hope that George Lucas either Disney could finance these guys’
- TheRealPomax 7y agoI hope not - can we let them explore what film-making means to them, instead of sending the worst offending film-colonizers after them?
- dlivingston 7y ago"Can we let them continue to create videos with old smartphones and OSS for YouTube, instead of letting them unleash the full scale of their creativity and massively changing their lives with one of the most well-known movie producers of all time and the multi-million $ funding that comes with him?"
- dwild 7y ago> unleash the full scale of their creativity What if their creativity is about making amazing stuff with limited resources? You suggest giving essentially unlimited resources, seems like a good way to use badly that creativity. I remember when I wanted to do 3D on Flash before Sandy3D. I had a 500 mhz P3 processor at the time, with a a crazy 368 MB of RAM. I learned/did much more interesting things on that machine than when I upgraded to some much more powerful computers. Constraints are pretty great ways to be forced to learns and move fast.
- Infinitesimus 7y agoHa. Who knows? Perhaps they will invent a remarkably efficient way of creating vfx. Maybe they'll design the next generation of processors to help them out. Maybe they'll build a content sharing system that makes sense for their environment. Maybe they'll do things we can't imagine. Who knows?
- ddmma 7y agoAt least on netflix, saw even worst shows there
- abdullahkhalids 7y agoKids making movies by remixing copyrighted content and perhaps shooting some more is the topic of Pirate Cinema by Cory Doctorow. Pretty good book that explores the social implications of such efforts.
- cj 7y agoWhat’s the TLDR?
- dv_dt 7y agoWhere we are now is such an odd place compared to, for example, early Disney remixing open fairy tale story content.
- arvinsim 7y agoWhenever I come across a description of Cory Doctorow's novels, I almost always find them compelling. It's probably time for me to check out his books :)
- abdullahkhalids 7y agoYou should. They are all on different themes and more or less equally good so you can start with whatever issue you are interested in. In immortality, read Down and Out in the Magical Kingdom; crypto, read Little Brother + Homeland; maker culture, read Makers; in anarchism (the good kind), read Walkaway. The last one is particularly good. He really drives home some important points about our current capitalistic world.
- corybrown 7y agoCan anyone tell me what apps they're using? I'd love to play around with a green screen, but don't have much budget either
- panzerklein 7y agoBlender, I suppose, just as the article says.
- themodelplumber 7y agoBlender...I did some green screen work in Blender back in 2009 and it was pretty straightforward even back then. If you just want to play around to get the hang of it without spending anything, last I checked you can get free-to-use, pre-made videos featuring green screen or other chromakey elements and load them up in Blender's video editor. BTW you can use any color you want, so if all you have is a blue bed sheet, you can make it work.
- CptFribble 7y agoIt's not what they're using, but Davinci Resolve also does chroma-key, as well as pretty much anything else in v16. It's also free!
- kayoone 7y agoAfricas tech talent is on the rise, it's quite interesting to see as even 10 years ago it was still hard for them to get access to cheap computers and internet.
- beauzero 7y ago...and this is my hope for Africa. As new ideas, unique to different regions are allowed to fight their way to market share...this, hopefully, will improve their quality of life in the ways they desire. This is closer to freedom, in my opinion, than having a government, technology, and a way of life designed on another continent then dropped in.
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- cat199 7y agogood to see creativity beyond 'ohey check out my youtube product reviews and live vlogging' (not that I don't benefit from those as well)
- richrichardsson 7y agoSo glad that they understood that the gain for the dialogue does not need to be set to 11, something that seems to be lacking from Nigerian TV "professionals" in my experience! Super impressive overall!
- oluomike1 7y agoAwesome creativity! Naija no dey carry last. Proudly Naija!
- nvahalik 7y agoOne of the biggest gifts that we can give our children is a limitation of resources. It is amazing how they learn and get really creative when given really basic tools to work with. They try things that they wouldn't normally try. I remember once my son wanted his own "phone" when he was 5. He ended up drawing the whole UI on paper and stuck it on a little slab of wood. Played with it for weeks.
- arvinsim 7y agoYup, creativity usually takes a hit when you have limitless options.
- rowanG077 7y agoIt's quite funny you post this on this article since it's literally about kids in the developing country becoming LESS limited.
- noah_boy 7y agoThe sweet spot of limitation :)
- nvahalik 7y agoYeah but likewise, when I learned to code in the early 90s, I had no internet. I had to do a lot of exploratory coding and doc reading. It drastically shaped the way I not only learn but has helped me even today to be able to do my own research to solve problems and write good docs.
- bArray 7y agoI love how these guys had better sound recordings from their low cost setup than the TV crew covering them, good work! I think they have the right idea though, start with what you already have. Try to test out ideas and learn with as little pre-investment as possible. Some friends of mine have purchased $3k-$4k gaming machines with the intention of live streaming gaming - all of which never came to fruition. The very best of luck to them, I hope to see their movies on the Western big screen one day.