VETERAN actor and producer Tomas Brickhill has challenged local film producers to be quality driven in their productions and embrace best practices in production to attract external markets.
Brickhill made the remarks speaking to NewsDay Life & Style on the sidelines of his Film Production Masterclass presentation at the recently held International Images Film Festival for Women (IIFF).
Hosted by the Institute of Creative Arts for Progress in Africa (Icapa) Trust, this year’s annual film showcase ran from November 28 to December 2 in Harare, under the theme, Women of Hope.
The festival offered a series of masterclasses that presented an opportunity for practising and aspiring filmmakers to improve their storytelling and production skills.
“In order to be a good film producer, the most important thing that one must focus on is the preparation and identifying of all what must be done in advance. The preparation process entails suggesting and providing solutions to all foreseeable problems,” he said.
“On the day of shooting the film, the producer should be fully aware of what has to be done with an open mind to provide good solutions for film continuity.”
Brickhill said producers needed to be conversant with film broadcast protocols, distribution lines and networking or engaging with line producers for the purposes of maximising benefits on the digital platforms.
“The main producer of a film is responsible for hiring a director and providing an excellent job description of his roles and responsibilities. A director puts his focus more on the creative ability and all desirable artistic attributes.
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“All problems to do with financial and material resources are the producer’s responsibility. This should enable the director to produce the best film possible.”
Brickhill encouraged filmmakers to think like Hollywood companies which have a universal commercial mindset if they are to make business and money out of filmmaking.
“International film distributors and producers now use artificial intelligence to make judgement on quality control for the online markets. Take your quality control benchmarks seriously because local markets are not good enough to fulfil your ambitions,” he noted.
Brickhill described the IIFF as a lifetime experience of best film screenings as most productions were showing for the first time in Zimbabwe.
