Narrative Power of the Shot: A Reading of Izu Ojukwu’s Cindy’s Notes

Abstract

The ability to tell a convincing story on screen lies in the expertise and mechanics of the director’s coordination while on the film set. Whereas film is a collaborative art, it takes a director who has a grasp of almost every aspect of the art to properly galvanize other collaborators to achieve what he intends to interpret as the film. Many film sets have been bedevilled by the presence of directors whose only expertise is in calling a shot already planned out by a competent director of photography. This misfortune is further extended to the editing suite. Finally, the film is released without the director having to see how the story has been told. As a result, some films in Nollywood are replete with boring scenes which would rather pass as a recorded stage play. This study shows uses the analysis of Izu Ojukwu’s film text to show a director’s passion in plotting and executing a scene to achieve good picture in the overall film while telling a good story. It further recommends that if the director must claim ownership of a film, then it becomes imperative for him to plan, call and see to the execution of shots on the film set. This way, it becomes easy to manipulate the picture during editing as a result of the many shot that have been taken on set.