When Chioma Paul-Dike witnessed first-hand the problem of logistics while shooting a film in Nigeria, she decided that it was time to join her friends in building an “Uber for film production”. Filmmakers Mart is Africa’s one-stop marketplace for all things video production. This platform connects entertainment businesses and creatives to everything they need for video production, from video equipment to location and staff, including talent and crew. Vendors, talent, crew, and the like can onboard themselves on the platform, and filmmakers can book whatever they need directly. This platform cuts down production costs and time and streamlines the process of filming for filmmakers in Africa.
The state of film production in Africa
The African film industry is rapidly changing and a big catalyst for this growth is the Nigerian film industry, colloquially known as Nollywood. Over the years, the Nigerian film industry has evolved from being an African powerhouse of entertainment to a global billion-dollar industry and the second-largest film industry globally. In 1984, Nigeria’s first blockbuster, Papa Ajasco, earned ₦61,000 in three days. Now in 2024, A Tribe Called Judah has amassed over ₦1.4 billion in theatres. These numbers indicate the massive growth the industry has witnessed in the past 40 years as it has become an industry that now contributes 2.3% to Nigeria’s GDP.
Technology has been pivotal to the changes taking place in the Nigerian film industry. Whereas, in the past, production took months and sometimes years. Now, with technology, Nollywood is churning out projects faster and reaching a broader audience. As this industry expands, so do the demands for more efficient and better production services. Stakeholders in the film industry are launching innovative solutions to solve filming problems, tech investors are turning to Nollywood for collaborations, and the film-tech industry is gradually rising. Filmmakers Mart, a recent recipient of $336,500 in pre-seed funding, is one film-tech startup contributing to the growth of this industry with its production solution.
Uber for film production
Founded by a team of four, including Eric Kafui Okyerefo (CEO), Victor Tobi Awotidebe (Engineering Lead), Igho Arusi Avuiroevarie (Operations Lead), and Chioma Paul-Dike (Product Lead), this group initially set out to only provide location services to filmmakers. The quartet met at the MultiChoice Talent Factory in 2019. While in film school, Eric, whose focus is the business side of film, had a conversation with Igho about the challenges filmmakers face while telling stories. While researching these challenges, Chioma became a consultant for them because she had hands-on experience working in the film industry. The trio met Victor through a mutual film school friend. Victor was also enthusiastic about the film industry and building solutions, so he was ideal when the team needed an engineering lead.
When the COVID-19 pandemic began and the world slowed down, the team took this time to conduct extensive research about the film industry in Africa. This research led them to realise that providing location services to filmmakers was paramount, so they launched Recce Solutions. Recce Solutions was a location solutions product that has now evolved into an end-to-end marketplace for all things video production called Filmmakers Mart.
According to Chioma, “Over time, we noticed some specific requests that directors and other filmmakers are particular about, so we created more solutions for them. Now, we have created a section on the marketplace where if customers come and don’t find what they want, they can shoot us a brief and tell us the specific service or the specific location that they need, and our in-house scouts go out to find these unlisted services and provide them.”
As Filmmakers Mart grows to fit the changing needs of the industry, the platform has also expanded to cater to the entire spectrum of the film industry, including music videos and TV commercial production. The team is actively onboarding as many service providers as possible to cater to these demands. According to Eric Kafui Okyerefo, expanding to meet the varied needs of the industry also comes with business challenges. Sometimes, the requested service still needs to be created in the industry or is challenging to provide.
There is also the problem of liability when damage occurs. According to Eric, “The way we deal with risk at the moment is to make our customers pay a security deposit in case of damages when they go to film in people’s homes or use certain services. If you want to scale, this is not very sustainable in the long term because sometimes the security deposit may not be adequate to cover the damage incurred. A better fix for that is introducing insurance coverage that covers not just the customers but also the service providers. So for now, we mitigate this with security deposits, but in the medium term, we will introduce insurance coverage to cover both sides of the marketplace.” he says.
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In 2024 and beyond, the startup hopes to introduce insurance coverage and expand beyond just Nigeria. Speaking about the funding received, Eric states that they plan to improve the technology and scale into significant African cities. “The goal is to improve technology so that we can quickly scale into markets like Ghana, South Africa, Kenya, and North Africa,” he says. “We also hope to improve customer acquisition because in as much as we are a tech-based solution in Africa, one important thing for us is to position ourselves to international productions outside Africa that are working within Africa. So we hope to become the bridge between them and Africa and platform the best talent within Africa.”
As the film industry in Africa sees massive growth, the teams providing solutions to this industry are major catalysts to this growth. Filmmakers Mart is a forerunner in this area as they are solving essential problems of the film industry, including logistics and talent problems, through technology. The team at Filmmakers Mart is committed to advancing the African film industry. By providing bespoke production services, they are helping this industry operate more efficiently and produce better work.
If you’re a filmmaker looking for production support or talent looking to advertise your skills, shoot a brief or sign up to Filmmakers Mart here and find what you need.
