Nollywood Reinvented
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Nollywood Reinvented (NR) is an online review platform dedicated primarily to reviewing Nigerian movies. NR is one of Nollywood's first dedicated review platforms and is dedicated to reinventing the perception of the populace about the African Movie Industry by structurally critiquing the negatives and praising the positives. Nollywood Reinvented also creates an avenue for viewers to rate the movies alongside the NR review.
Type of site | Review Site |
|---|---|
| Available in | English |
| URL | http://www.nollywoodreinvented.com |
| Commercial | No |
| Registration | Optional |
| Launched | January 22, 2011 |
History
The website was created on January 22, 2011 and originally started on the blogger platform until it migrated to WordPress in January 2013.[1] It was created during the phase in the Nollywood history when the industry was beginning to embrace new movie making techniques and the cinema culture for Nollywood movies was just beginning to develop.
The audience demanded more of the industry and needed a way to filter through the movies and in this need, Nollywood Reinvented was created. It was created to help viewers decide on what movies are worth watching and what movies were not worth watching. It was also secondarily created to help sort through the movies because at the time there was rarely any means of categorizing movies neither by production house, year, or genre on the internet. Since its inception, Nollywood Reinvented reviews have been quoted[2] and published on different sources.[3]
Searching Nollywood
The creation of Nollywood Reinvented was strongly centered on creating a searchable database of Nollywood movies because prior to that an internet search on many nollywood movies turned up blank. Through the NR system, a small database of an actors recent work is made easy to discover; that is to say that NR created a system where viewers choose an actor and see his or her recent works as well as the ratings for those movies. Thereby making it easier to filter and sort through nollywood.
Asides from that, NR also creates a mini database of producers, directors, screenwriters and production year by category. In so doing we again attempt to make nollywood more searchable and easily accessible to both nollywood movie viewers and those with a potential interest in the industry. It became easier to find movies not only starring a particular actor but also made in a particular year and made by particular people. This encouraged fan followings not only for actors but also those creating the movies.
Reviewing Nollywood
Asides from making nollywood searchable, the obvious purpose of NR was to create a method of filtering through movies that were available - which increases every year by the thousands. Nollywood Reinvented originally involved a category by category review system where movies were graded on story, originality, predictability, directing and production, audio, soundtrack, acting, video, costumes and settings. Each category was commented on and graded and points were tallied. In 2013, the format changed along with the move to wordpress. No longer were reviews broken down into category by category but the movie was then reviewed as a whole with points allocated by category at the top of the review.
In January 2014, Nollywood Reinvented again changed format and stopped grading the cinematic reviews on the same categories as the rest of the nollywood movies. The categories were shortened and cinematic movies were only graded on story, originality, predictability, production and music. It followed the rationale that if our cinematic movies were going to stand against the movies from the rest of the world then they must have at least passed the basic barrier of bad audios and videos and sets and costumes. Regardless, if that was still flawed points were deducted from general production.
The reviews on Nollywood Reinvented are divided into four categories: Home Videos, Cinematic movies, Nolly USA and Indigenous movies.
Home Video Reviews
The home video review section is dedicated to reviews of the traditional Nigerian movies.[4] These are movies that are released straight to DVD and bare the semblances and traits of old Nollywood. Most are average productions with more than one parts. Movies in this category are rated on a star system.
The ratings are allocated in each category: story, originality, predictability, directing and production, audio, soundtrack, acting, video, costumes and settings and tallied. Viewers are also given an avenue to rate each movie and see what other viewers have rated the movie.
Cinematic Movie Reviews
There is a new movement in nollywood otherwise referred to as "new nollywood". It consists of foreword thinking filmmakers who seek to break boundaries and attempt to place nollywood on an equal playing field as the rest of the world - these are mostly the type of movies reviewed under this category.
Cinematic movie reviews on NR are classified by one basic criteria which is whether or not the movie was released in cinemas. This section caters to cinema audiences.[5] These are viewers who visit the cinema and watch their nollywood movies there. Ratings for this category are done on a percentile system and are color coded.
Nolly USA Reviews
This section is for reviews of movies that are made by Nigerians or for Nigerians but in the diaspora. It is called Nollywood USA popularly however, these movies could be set also in Canada or the United Kingdom or any non-African nation
These ratings are done on a letter grade system that ranges from A+ to F.
Indigenous Movie Reviews
These are reviews of movies that are done in languages other than English.[6] These reviews popularly include Yoruba movie reviews, and Igbo movie reviews. However, they occasionally also include Twi movies, Ibibio movies, and Kannywood movies (Kannywood - Hausa movies).
These ratings are done from 1 to 10 point system including decimals.
#NRAwards
Every year since 2011, NR holds a survey called the NR Awards.[7] In late June or early July the nomination phase begins and viewers nominate individuals and movies in categories ranging from best movie to best actor and most original screenplay. Nominations hold for 2–3 months from June to August after which voting begins. The voting period lasts until the end of November and winners are announced live on twitter first early in December and then posted on the website.
References
- ^ About Nollywood Reinvented. N.p., 22 Jan. 2013. Web. 18 Jan. 2014.
- ^ "The Figurine." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 19 Jan. 2014. Web. 19 Jan. 2014. <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Figurine>.
- ^ Whitman, Myne. "[href="http://www.mynewhitmanwrites.com/2011/07/mwp-amnesty-movie-review-by-nollywood.html Myne Whitman Writes]": MWP. N.p., July 2007. Web. 18 Jan. 2014.
- ^ Home Video Reviews Nollywood Reinvented N.p., 22 Jan. 2013. Web. 18 Jan. 2014.
- ^ Cinema movie reviews. Nollywood Reinvented. N.p., 22 Jan. 2013. Web. 18 Jan. 2014.
- ^ http://www.nollywoodreinvented.com/indigenous-movies
- ^ http://www.nollywoodreinvented.com/nr-awards