Daily, the music and film industry finds ways to reinvent its products. This seems to be more profitable in the direction of the “big names” of the industry, for lack of mastery in art, at the smaller creative circles. This confirms the “why” of Swatvolume, a media startup in Nigeria, in ensuring visibility and upscale infrastructure for budding creatives.
In the entertainment industry, optimization for broader visibility is point for a focused consideration. Swatvolume (Nigeria) is a media startup that strives to bolster direct investment in Africa’s Music and Film industry. Heeding to its mission, Swatvolume held in August 2021, a webinar featuring Chike Nwaoffiah, founding director of Silicon Valley African Film Festival.
Partnership For Creative Productivity.
A major highlight of the webinar is the call for creatives to establish relevant partnerships, with focus on properly packaging their media offerings. This is with an in-depth understanding of the target market’s media tastebud, in order to expand reach and improve penetration rate. Partnership is a great catalyst in improving the standard of a creative’s ability. Obviously, lurking in entertainment pipelines are calibre contents that will be profitably harnessed if indigenous producers are efficiently partnered with.
The Need for Educational Infrastructure.
In the article, “Focus of Film and Audiovisual Industry in Africa”, UNESCO confirms that the education gap limits both the filmmaker’s ability to tackle creatively ambitious projects and the industry’s growth potential and this calls for an education infrastructure.
Acquisition of technical skills can never be overemphasized in every creative’s journey. This is because, the industry, for its unending diversity, seeks dynamic products, year after year. Acquiring these skills, further sets creatives on a business platform with exportable content.
What matters in Creative Exportation?
In the creative market, rules matter; originality matters; sensitisation matters; genre of expertise matters as well. Carving a solid niche in the creative industry is one of the prerequisites for visibility. You don’t just run round the hole, expecting to be seen for “everything”. The rules are simple.
Prof Chike in his statement on the rules of the creative market, says—
Approach the creative market with technical standards. However, bear in mind that technical excellence is not the only requirement for a creative product to be accepted. The tastebuds of the society matter. Create your identity. Develop your originality but put the target audience’s tastebud into perspective.
Get Motivated by the works of others but not intimidated. This can be achieved by staying original in creating your products. Resonating with the relevance of originality, Arisa of Swatvolume Media confirms that his prior inspiration to explore sound engineering is the drive to create sounds for himself. He further says that—
African Sounds should be unique to Africa and also “musically right” when marketing to other continents.
Get mastery. With purpose, mastery becomes evident. Glorygirl, US based artist, also featured in the webinar, maintains that —
when you feed your brains with things often, it becomes part of you.
Financial Implications of Creative Productivity.
“It’s true that finance is a key player in accessing resources that leverage growth but creativity shouldn’t die for lack of investments. This is because, finance is not ultimate where ideas are formed. Get creative first, engage the facilities available to you and seek for funds when you have something tangible to offer”
Prof. Chike says.
Following a suggestion on “Pan African Labels” by Pedro Nwankwo, Swatvolume Founder and Media critic, Prof Chike recognises the negative notions already created about Africa and even enshrined in the African mindset. He maintains that the system created for Africans can only be improved by Africans. This can only happen when Africans learn to use the power of the media to change the narratives.
By extension, Africa here, is a representation of African creatives. Creatives can always do better in creating a system that works for their products with proper observation, management and partnership. However, uniqueness and marketability comes First.
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