By Wisdom Agbonta
The Edo State Commissioner for Arts, Culture, Tourism and Diaspora Affairs, Prince Bamidele Obaitan, has stated that the need to continually train and retrain staff can never be over emphasized as new innovations keep emerging.
The Commissioner made this assertion during a one-day training organized by the Edo State Council for Art and Culture in collaboration with the Ministry of Arts, Culture, Tourism and Diaspora Affairs.
The training, which had as its theme: ‘Equipping the Performing Artiste for Modern Day Service Delivery’, was held at the John Odigie Oyegun Public Service Academy (JOOPSA) in Benin City.
While speaking, the Commissioner noted, “Film-making encompasses the entire process by which a picture or a film is created from its inception to the final product hitting the theatres or your favorite on-demand services.
“It includes many stages from thinking the initial story to writing the script, casting, shooting, recording, pre-production and post-production and taking care of many small and big details between each step of the process.”
“We are aware of your challenges as an Art Council. I, the Permanent Secretary and other members of my team will be putting ideas together to fashion out the best way forward to mitigate the challenges. The Governor of Edo State, Mr. Godwin Obaseki, has continued to prioritize Arts, Culture and Tourism under the MEGA Agenda; the Edo State Arts Council will not be left out,” he added.
Obaitan used the medium to inform the Art Council to make use of the Sir Victor Uwaifo Creative Hub to produce block buster films/drama that could win the next Oscar Award, while also reminding them of the Edo State film festival 2022 slated for 1st – 4th of September, 2022. He encouraged everyone to be actively involved.
The first guest speaker, Mr. Ossa Earliece, who is an editor, director, filmmaker, screenwriter amongst others, spoke extensively on the art of script writing, acting and directing.
Similarly, the Second Speaker, Prof. (Mrs.) Josephine Ngozi Mokwunyei, the Head, Department of Theatre Arts, University of Benin, said acting is the performing act in which movement, gesture and intonation are used to represent a fictional character.
Also in attendance at the workshop was the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry, Iryn Omorogiuwa Esq., Directors and other dignitaries.
