Kenneth Ibeanusi… the record-breaker and his magic wand
Many times, we seat back in our comfort zones watching movies; the aircraft is not left out, we also visit theatres to catch the glimpses of epic movies, and now with smartphones, while on the bus we watch flicks that sweets our being, praising and castigating acting characters created by movie directors.
However, the Movie Director is not just recording what happens on location or creating a background sound, it has the capacity to influence viewers’ responses on what they see. Mr Kenneth Ibeanusi, President Association of Nigeria Movie Directors (ANMD) is a fantastic movie directors, his works full of intrigues and endless imagination will take you into a world other movies will not dare.
Kenneth an indigene of Anambra State, Orumba South Local Government Area, he attended Agboju Secondary School, in Lagos, and holds a Bachelor of Science Degree, in Political Science and Public Administration from Abia State University, Masters Degree in International Law and Diplomacy, (UNILAG) he also has a Diploma in Philosophy.
He Stepped into the movie-making industry immediately after his first degree in 2001, and he has produced quite over 300 movies and has featured in over 150.
Kenneth was the first movie director who brought 45 ft crane to the East, he revolutionalised gospel music video in Nigeria, some songs easily get under your skin; gospel songs under the auspices of Kenneth’s Kibex Productions seem to take this euphemism literally. For decades, he has given us visions that operate on intellectual presentation, he is the brain behind the production of the award-winning music titled ‘Akanchawa,’ by Prince Gozie Okeke and Njideka, music that gained world recognition, it won several; awards like; ‘Song of The Decade,’ ‘Nigeria Music Award,’ “Best Video of the Year,’ ‘Best Song of The Year,’ his magic wand produced ‘Testimonial Worship’ a worship song that sold over 550,000 copies on the day of its release and succeeded in ranking itself among Platinum Albums.
It is overwhelming that the record which was set by him was also broken by the huge success of his Multiplatinum Album, ‘Cry for Mercy’ which was produced in 2017.
The record-breaker as a growing child was delighted in the Movie and Music industry; he was also into the round leather game, he played for Badagry LGA, Greater Tomorrow FC, Volkswagen FC, Iwuanyanwu Nationale, fortunately, injury stalled his football career, and parental influence diverted his keen interest towards becoming a lawyer, thus ensured he studied Political Science and Public Administration, for him football was the job music was the fashion.
As a brilliant graduate he satisfied his parent’s desires and swiftly switched to quench his burning desires for music and movie, he started as a scriptwriter, and he worked and learned a lot of movie directing techniques from the late talented Nollywood Movie Director, Ndubuisi Okoh, according to Kenneth, Ndubuisi was the best music technical director he has ever worked with, the knowledge he got from the late director shaped his career.
He is currently working with a Chinese production company collaborating with Nollywood and Chinese movies, the production is been handled by a subordinate who travelled to China but unfortunately, COVID-19 brought him back.
Creekvibes news magazine asked the ‘Who Are You,’ sub lead actor how government can help the Nigerian movie industry.
He said, “Moviemakers are not asking the government for help; what they can do is to safeguard our intellectual property, the copyright law as at when it was promulgated, if found guilty you are to pay a fine of N1,000 (One Thousand Naira), as at when the law was made in the 70s a thousand naira has value (general laughter), when CD came in vogue, for instance, you tidy up your job and unleashed it into the market, somebody in Alaba International picks a CD and travelled to Singapour and produced a container full of it and import it back into the Nigeria market amazingly the consumers prefer the Singapore CD than the one you produced in Nigeria.
I remembered a case when some guys were arrested in Alaba International over piracy, Charly Boy was PMAN’s president then and the ‘Nigerian factor’ came in, a factor whereby some people went behind telling Charly Boy, ‘be calming down… no be your papa business be this o.’
But he did a lot at the end of the day when you prosecute you get next to nothing because the pirate knows the penalty, what is trending now is between the producers and the artists it is kind of discouraging piracy, when you finished your song you contact the Alaba boys and pay them to pirate your music then your song will be joined with other songs and they began to sell.
In the western communities, you hear a musician saying ‘when my music is played I get paid.’ Concerning royalty, the reverse is the case here, you pay for your music to get played, excerpt if we have a government policy that can checkmate the piracy monster which is ravaging the music and movie industry, our population is ok; we’ve got the market for our musician and actors to live like Jayzee.
For instance, you watch KOK as a wealthy man in the flicks but physically he may be driving a truck, many time, artist with health challenges begs for money and this shows that they are not making money.
Kenneth took a few questions from CreekVibes OLUWADAMILARE DANIELS.
Excerpts,
For those musicians giving license to Alaba Boys to pirate their songs, what do they stand to gain?
They gain a lot, when the musician wants his song to go viral, he engages them, what they do is include his song in a collection mixed with musicians currently making waves and push it into the market so wherever the collection is been played with the likes of Olamide, Flavour his song too will get played and it will be registered into people’s consciousness, though it is illegal.
When you take your music to the radio station for airplay they will tell you to sign, that officially you are not supposed to pay a penny and you sheepishly played along that song will never go on air but when you grease their palm you may hear the song.
Going on movie locations and staying for a week or two, hope madam does not complain?
Like now I am in Lagos and my family is in Asaba, they will complain but that’s where the money comes from, for an entertainer either in music or movie the job entails you move around and your family bears the brunt, what I do mostly is whenever I am off location, I stay with my family it could be a week or two.
What have you learned in marriage?
Marriage is a wide institution, a philosopher said, ‘marriage is an institution where those inside is struggling to graduate while those outside is struggling to gain admission.’ There are no standard rules in marriage what works for A may not work for B, sustaining factor in marriage is not money, if you go through the courses of divorce money is on item 9, first, it is understanding many think it is love.
Once you understand your spouse both of you will climb mountains. But when you love each other very well, I bet you that marriage won’t last three years.
Love is strong; it breeds a lot of negative feelings like jealousy; over-protectiveness, for instance, I am here and I started thinking about who is admiring my wife at the moment or she started calling me incessantly trying to monitor me, and once it goes towards that direction man get tired, fights may start cropping up with jealousy but If you understand the person and love the person, love is not enough what you need to love is the flaws in your spouse then tolerance comes in, you need to love the ugly, the bad, the good is already loveable.
By nature, there is a certain level of maturity one has to attain before going into a marriage, age, experience and financial maturity are important.
When I was in the higher institution, I don’t tolerate rubbish from my girlfriends, when I give a visiting time and she did not meet up, that relationship is over. So I said to myself ‘you will marry someday, is this how you will continue?’
I had a live-in-lover then, each time she washed her underwear she will spread them on my clothes rack after pushing my wears backwards if any visitor stepped into my room his eyes caught the panties array so I wasn’t happy with it, I complained and complained but she didn’t cave in, besides there is a bathroom but she won’t hang her underwear there, so one fateful day I came in and saw the pant array again, I brought them down ironed them, I went across the street bought a basket with lid and packed them neatly into it, so when she came she said, ‘you have burnt them right, are you happy now?’ I said no, I told her to check inside the little basket, she did and she was very happy, ever since then she stopped that nonsense act. So I found out that it is tolerance.
Can you mention six actors that you will want to feature in your next movie?
I like actors that are real, like Petre Edochie though he is elderly and bossy you must like the production, Queen Nwokoye (Ada Mbaise), Jim Iyke, Emeka Ike, Olu Jacobs and Eniola Badmos.
What is the most trouble you’ve ever gotten into?
I don’t get into trouble, I keep to myself nobody is perfect though, but I have done so many things that most people in my field won’t do, I pay my workers as at when due and more than normal rate, as I have always been telling my marketers, “I am in this business to make money so everyone working around me must make money, so if you don’t pay me I can’t work for you, so they call me ‘Mr too expensive.’”
There was a Director of Photography (DOP) that came to work with me, I was supposed to lodge him in a hotel I had earlier booked for 12 rooms, but due to customer exigencies we got 7 rooms, So I had to plead with my guest to share rooms but the DOP guy refused, amazingly he said he has an assistant and if I don’t allow him he will put my job on hold, so I reached out to Isaac Martins who was the head of Cinematographers then, so Isaac Martins told him to work out of that set because time was ticking and I needed to shoot that night, So Martins sent me another DOP and we did what we ought to do.
Three years later I contracted a camera assistant, Austin who negotiated with my PM that his payment will be N10,000 for the job, while I had pencilled down N25,000, for that job, my PM told him N7,000 then we started working, when my 45ft crane took the camera up Austin will go under the crane and positioned himself should incase the camera fall he catches.
At the end of the shoot, I told him not to worry that I was going to pay him for that day, so he was paid N25,000, astonishingly.
On a very good day, the DOP and the camera assistant meet and while they were discussing the DOP said I was the most wicked director he has ever met, Austin disgustingly slapped him so the scene became messy at the end of the day the DOP guy was beaten up by 3 guys, I had news at home.
I am not saying I am an angel that can’t be caught up in between web of a scandal but I am just being careful what causes scandal mostly in Nollywood is sex, there is nothing wrong with a director dating a lady where the problems lie is when you demand sex before role.
It causes scandal so quickly, I learned something from the late Sam Loco Efe, he said, ‘You will not fuck while you work, do not chase people that work for you.’ If you see a girl that you love on set quietly collect her number after the production you speak with her.
After a tedious day’s job, how do you unwind?
Do I relax? I do that by writing script on my laptop
What kind of music fascinate you during relaxation.
I like R&B music; the music of the 1990s, brings back old memories.
Do you have any messages for your staunch followers?
The message is simple, do well and write well.
There is a watchword, in my mirror that I look at every morning, ‘Life is a road I am going to walk through but once anybody I meet on this road, that I must assist, God don’t let me deter from helping that person even if he or she is the most cantankerous being, in the end, there is always a reward for good and bad deeds.
