Tuesday, February 16, 2010

Movie Making on an Accra Street: The Gawker's Paradise

 
Movie-making on a dusty street in Accra

Being a curious, nosy gawker, when I see a crowd of people gathered I instinctively stop and stare.  You would be appalled to see the effect a street brawl has on me! So when traffic was held up on a dusty road in my 'hood  2 weeks ago, I just had to pull to the side of the road  to satisfy my curiosity. There was a small crowd gathered and all I could see up ahead were some people making strange bodily motions on the side of the road near a parked car. They appeared to be expressing elements of surprise at the car's contents. As traffic was waved on, my eyes fell on a camera, an overhead microphone and an actor I have seen in that Ghanaian TV series Sun City. A movie was in motion! I was excited since I think this is the first time I have stumbled onto a set anywhere in the world. People I know always seem to be in some fast-food restaurants when one Nigeria-Ghana film collaboration or another is being made but never me. In other parts of the world they use paid extras to decorate the scene while in our neck of the woods we use real people! Do you have any experiences walking in on a movie or television series set?

4 comments:

Juanita said...

Yep..I can't evn remember the title of the film..I was 8 or 9. It was shot in the fitting yard beside my house(hehe not really mine). Duno whether it got aired though..hmmm.
Truly a gawker's paradise. :-)

Emmanuel.K.Bensah II said...

Abena, it no be easy o! Did u see this one? Right at the gates of our workplace in East Legon, a movie was being shot last November. Here u go: http://accradailyphoto.blogspot.com/2009/11/when-east-legon-becomes-bonfire-of.html

Abena Serwaa said...

@Juanita must have been fun watching the film in the making..right next door! There's a house round the corner from us that featured in another film I've watched I forget the name...

Abena Serwaa said...

@EKB nice post! You really got some great shots!