INI234H1 Lecture Notes - Lecture 11: Celluloid, Anglo-Irish Big House
17 Dec 2016
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INI234: Welcome to Nollywood (Lecture 11)
Nigeria and Nollywood: What about it?
• Basic Info of Nigeria:
• Located in Africa, has around 170 million people
• The capital city is Lagos and spoken languages are: English, Igbo, Hausa and Yoruba
• Gained independence from Great Britain in 1960
• Nollywood: What is it? Why is it important?
• Nollywood is a term used to describe Nigerian film industry in which the term backs to the early 2000s
• It is the 2nd largest film producers, in terms of the number of films, behind India (Bollywood)
• In terms of money, it is the 3rd largest earning industry in the world, behind the United States and India
• However, most of these films are not promoted to a cinema experience, rather, these movies are made
straight to DVDs for viewing at home
• In addition, most of these films are made with digital technologies, opposed to celluloid techniques
What is Celluloid Filmmaking? And why is it important?
• The main use of celluloid was in the film and photography industry, however, it has become obsolete because
they are highly flammable and expensive to produce.
• Usually, celluloid film making is associated with studio-driven films with a high budget in order to be shown in
cinemas during late 20th and early 21st century.
• In relation to Nollywood, the Nigerian film industry had experienced negative impacts of celluloid film industry as
the production costs of celluloid had to paid in British pounds or US dollars – this created two side affects: an
inflated budget for the film or a drai o the outr’s foreig reseres due to the epese of produig elluloid
films. (Adesanya 1997: 14-15)
• Nowadays, most film productions would rather use digital technologies over celluloid as it is the most common
and convenient method of showing films – celluloid will exist in a minimal fashion like art house films, etc.
Popular Culture and High Culture and its definitions
• Popular Culture vs. High Culture? What is it? Why is it important?
• Popular culture – cultural activities or commercial products reflecting, suited to, or aimed at the tastes of the
general masses of people
• Strongly linked to the concept of mass media and globalization
• Mass media – A means of distribution of information that reaches many people at the same time (or
very small window) of time. It is often linked to aiming at a specific target market
• Target Market – A specific demographic of people (age, class, income, geography, interest, etc.) that an
advertising campaign desires to exclusively reach to sell a product or service
• High Culture – the idea that some artistic and literary products in our society are superior in scope and form
to others.
• Example: Classical vs Pop Music, Concert vs Opera/Ballet, etc.
• The competition between these two classes are often engaged in a contest of class, hierarchy and access in which
are not clearly defined
• Popular Culture is ieed as a tpe of ulture reated for the oo ad geeral people, while high class
is sophisticated and limited to those of the upper class, creating a sense of exclusivity and elitist towards
other classes.
Nigerian Popular Culture: How is it different from Western Popular Culture?
• I Nigeria, the oept of lass aot e deteried oe’s iterest i popular or high culture – the community
does ot are aout oe’s iterests ad ho it ight relate to their lass [popular ulture is ore aepted tha
it is in Western countries]
• African Popular Culture is defined by the large number of consumption and addressing the concerns of the masses,
rather than targeting a specific demographic
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