
Nigerian Teens Are Making Sci-Fi Shorts with Slick Visual Effects - kwindla
https://kottke.org/19/08/these-nigerian-teens-are-making-sci-fi-shorts-with-slick-visual-effects
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babayega2
They use Techno Phones [0]. It's really the leading telephone in my country
back in Africa to the point my wife refused me to buy her a Samsung one. :D

You find those phone have really nice camera, and most importantly power
consumption that can span at least 2 days...

Peoples complaining that China is just copycat-ing stuff do not know how China
is influencing peoples in developing countries.

[0]: [https://techcrunch.com/2019/08/07/africas-top-mobile-
phone-s...](https://techcrunch.com/2019/08/07/africas-top-mobile-phone-seller-
transsion-to-list-in-chinese-ipo/)

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nexuist
>Peoples complaining that China is just copycat-ing stuff do not know how
China is influencing peoples in developing countries.

The problem is that altruism does not exist in geopolitics. Why is China
influencing these people? Because it wants their support when it comes time to
ask for favors. China is using Western inventions to grow its sphere of
influence and defeat Western influence (and thus Western values, culture, etc)

Not that the West is entirely innocent in its quest for power either, but
considering the dystopian state of Chinese government (compared to Western
governments, at least), it is perhaps better to keep the devil you know in
charge than the one that wants to know you much better.

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sangnoir
> Not that the West is entirely innocent in its quest for power either

You don't say - most of Africa got a taste of Western "values" and "culture".
The last generation that suffered from colonial rule is still living.

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poiuyt098
do you believe africa was some peaceful wakanda-like utopia before europeans
arrived? arabs got there first anyway.

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Infinitesimus
Certainly not. Just like every place on earth, Africa had its share of
problems. But that didn't warrant the damage slavery and colonialism did - the
effects of which are still rippling through the very fabric of the continent
today.

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royjacobs
This is fantastic. It's been a promise for a long time that computers would
become ubiquitous, open source software would be able to allow people to do
(semi-)professional looking things for free, having access to the internet
would be a great enabler, etc.

This is just proof that it's happening! It's genuinely inspiring to see this.

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m_a_d
Semi-professional? So, only being paid for some projects and not others? Being
a “professional” is not a skill, but an employment status.

I argue that many amateur productions exceed the quality of professionally
made productions.

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tripzilch
Are you arguing against the term "(semi) professional looking"? Because that
last word clarifies what they meant.

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janekm
"They saved for a month to buy the green fabric for the chroma-key
background".

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thelittleone
Amazing the things we can learn from kids.

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thelittleone
If it’s any interest, I meant this genuinely. In my experience kids with less
tend to be more resourceful. I find that a valuable lesson in humility and
gratitude. The comforts we seek are often not what we need. Kudos to these
kids.

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bArray
I love how these guys had better sound recordings from their low cost setup
than the TV crew covering them, good work!

I think they have the right idea though, start with what you already have. Try
to test out ideas and learn with as little pre-investment as possible. Some
friends of mine have purchased $3k-$4k gaming machines with the intention of
live streaming gaming - all of which never came to fruition.

The very best of luck to them, I hope to see their movies on the Western big
screen one day.

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nvahalik
One of the biggest gifts that we can give our children is a limitation of
resources. It is amazing how they learn and get really creative when given
really basic tools to work with. They try things that they wouldn't normally
try.

I remember once my son wanted his own "phone" when he was 5. He ended up
drawing the whole UI on paper and stuck it on a little slab of wood. Played
with it for weeks.

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rowanG077
It's quite funny you post this on this article since it's literally about kids
in the developing country becoming LESS limited.

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nvahalik
Yeah but likewise, when I learned to code in the early 90s, I had no internet.
I had to do a lot of exploratory coding and doc reading. It drastically shaped
the way I not only learn but has helped me even today to be able to do my own
research to solve problems and write good docs.

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kayoone
Africas tech talent is on the rise, it's quite interesting to see as even 10
years ago it was still hard for them to get access to cheap computers and
internet.

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beauzero
...and this is my hope for Africa. As new ideas, unique to different regions
are allowed to fight their way to market share...this, hopefully, will improve
their quality of life in the ways they desire. This is closer to freedom, in
my opinion, than having a government, technology, and a way of life designed
on another continent then dropped in.

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abdullahkhalids
Kids making movies by remixing copyrighted content and perhaps shooting some
more is the topic of Pirate Cinema by Cory Doctorow. Pretty good book that
explores the social implications of such efforts.

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arvinsim
Whenever I come across a description of Cory Doctorow's novels, I almost
always find them compelling.

It's probably time for me to check out his books :)

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abdullahkhalids
You should. They are all on different themes and more or less equally good so
you can start with whatever issue you are interested in. In immortality, read
Down and Out in the Magical Kingdom; crypto, read Little Brother + Homeland;
maker culture, read Makers; in anarchism (the good kind), read Walkaway.

The last one is particularly good. He really drives home some important points
about our current capitalistic world.

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oluomike1
Awesome creativity! Naija no dey carry last. Proudly Naija!

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richrichardsson
So glad that they understood that the gain for the dialogue does not need to
be set to 11, something that seems to be lacking from Nigerian TV
"professionals" in my experience!

Super impressive overall!

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corybrown
Can anyone tell me what apps they're using? I'd love to play around with a
green screen, but don't have much budget either

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themodelplumber
Blender...I did some green screen work in Blender back in 2009 and it was
pretty straightforward even back then.

If you just want to play around to get the hang of it without spending
anything, last I checked you can get free-to-use, pre-made videos featuring
green screen or other chromakey elements and load them up in Blender's video
editor. BTW you can use any color you want, so if all you have is a blue bed
sheet, you can make it work.

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kashprime
Impressive! I wonder what they're using for video editing and vfx? Blender is
great for 3d assets, but what open source software can make this?

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TheCoreh
Recent versions of Blender can also do video editing and vfx. They're probably
also using Blender for that

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avhon1
Not just recent versions -- I just checked my old copy of Blender 2.49b (built
on 2009-09-01), and it has the Video Sequence Editor.

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cannedslime
A contender to Wakaliwood?

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mrob
More like Wakaliwood is a contender to Nollywood. The Nigerian film industry
is the biggest in Africa, to the point that some people in other African
countries complain about Nigeria's dominance. VJ Emmie even jokes about this
in his commentary to Who Killed Captain Alex?.

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ddmma
Posted on twitter ‘Hope that George Lucas either Disney could finance these
guys’

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TheRealPomax
I hope not - can we let them explore what film-making means to them, instead
of sending the worst offending film-colonizers after them?

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dlivingston
"Can we let them continue to create videos with old smartphones and OSS for
YouTube, instead of letting them unleash the full scale of their creativity
and massively changing their lives with one of the most well-known movie
producers of all time and the multi-million $ funding that comes with him?"

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dwild
> unleash the full scale of their creativity

What if their creativity is about making amazing stuff with limited resources?

You suggest giving essentially unlimited resources, seems like a good way to
use badly that creativity.

I remember when I wanted to do 3D on Flash before Sandy3D. I had a 500 mhz P3
processor at the time, with a a crazy 368 MB of RAM. I learned/did much more
interesting things on that machine than when I upgraded to some much more
powerful computers.

Constraints are pretty great ways to be forced to learns and move fast.

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cat199
good to see creativity beyond 'ohey check out my youtube product reviews and
live vlogging' (not that I don't benefit from those as well)

