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Meet Ike Nnaebue Flosmith, Director, “Under Your Skin” Meet Ike Nnaebue Flosmith, a fast rising Nigerian Movie Director and Screenwriter. He is one of the champions of the emerging new African Cinema. The second movie he directed “False” won the Golden Icon Academy Awards (GIAMA) out of the three nominations it received. He spoke recently with CN on the newest movie he directed, an Uche Jombo Movie, titled “Under Your Skin”. CN: Tell us a bit about your educational and professional background IN: I am a film director, a screenwriter, I write music and I sing too. I got my certificate from Nigeria Film Institute in Jos. I got trained by the renowned Sanni Muazu at the Lesncope Media/Academy in Jos and basically that was where I got started when it comes to training professionally. Every other thing I have learned has been a little course here and a little internet studying there. CN: Tell us about the first film you directed? IN: The first film I directed was called “A Mother’s Fight” produced by Uche Jombo. It was not the first film I directed but it was the first feature film I directed. I had previously tried my hands in directing a couple of times where directors would call me up to finish up their film and I also directed a short film before too, “A Mother’s Fight”. But with my first film, I had to take responsibility for it from start to finish so it was quite challenging in the beginning but as we filmed, it became exciting and interesting. I enjoyed working on the project.

CN: When did you consciously make the choice to be a director? IN: I think that I have always known that someday, I will be directing movies because from my teens, I have always seen, thought and imagined in pictures and loved telling stories in pictures. Even when I was writing music back then, I have always had the video in my mind’s eye even as I write the songs so It was not something I stumbled upon but it has always been there for I knew that someday, I would sit down and actually tell people how to bring to life the imaginations they have. CN: So, is that the difference between what a scriptwriter and what a director does? IN: A scriptwriter also sees in pictures but a scriptwriter does not have the technical know-how that the director has to translate the pictures he sees in his head to the pictures we see in a movie. So the difference between a director and a scriptwriter is the technical know how. So, a director knows more than the words. He knows the technical know needed for directing and successfully producing a movie. So if a director will tell the lightning man about lightning, the director needs to know about lighting to communicate with him to let him know what you want. If you are going to talk to the camera man, or the sound guy, the director needs to know in what technical terms he’ll address what he needs to them. CN: Tell us about the new movie you directed, “Under Your Skin”? IN: “Under Your Skin” is a comedy. Very funny. Hilarious comedy. It should not be taken seriously (laughs). It is the story of a guy who is confined in a wheel chair and is pissed about life, paranoid too and he moves into a new apartment and he had a neighbor, a lady who confronted him about his constant anger bursts and shouts and he was amazed because it was the first time a person confronted him like a man and not pity him. So he got interested in the lady and would usually send his cook played by Bishop Okon to borrow salt, pepper, coffee from the girl in a bid to get familiar with her. Other stuffs happened in the movie to turn the twist…Go and buy the movie! (laughs). CN: Why do a comedy movie? IN: I think Nigeria needs a lot of comedy right now. There is so much stress in the air, so much sadness…The political class and the leaders who seemingly don’t know what they are doing… Yeah, Nigerians need to just unwind and I love comedy and I love to laugh so when I was contracted for the movie, I said, Beautiful! because I have not done a comedy movie before and doing this was really nice. CN: What was the challenging part of making the movie, “Under Your Skin”? IN: One that sticks out is the location. We had issues with the location. It goes back to the challenges of working and living in Nigeria. Our location manager took us to the location before the shooting and we felt that all was sorted out and then when we started shooting, two days later, we were sent out of the location because apparently, there was an issue of logistics and we had only filmed 20 scenes and going out to another location meant starting all over again. So while I was shooting a scene and while this whole location trouble was going on, an idea popped into my head to throw in a new dialogue and have a character say something concerning moving out of this location to another which would be seen as moving from his present abode to his family house and that was how we were able to solve the issue of location.

CN: What are those scenes that would stand out to those who watch “Under Your Skin”? IN: (Laughs) There is this scene where Bishop Okon said to a character, “I like your drawing” and the lady was like, “thanks, but I have a drawing?” and Bishop Okon was like, “Yeah, the drawing on your waist, It is like tsetse fly” and it was the tattoo on the girl’s waist he was referring to. I thought that was very funny. And there was a scene where the character played by Uche Jombo, Ese was heart broken because she lost contact with the main character and the main character’s sister introduced herself to her as his fiancee and the same Bishop Okon was like, “Ha, Aunty Ese, your pepper will not be in vain!” because he remembered that they borrowed pepper from her.There will be a lot of scenes that will stand out for most people. CN: Should we be expecting more comedy from Ike Nnaebue? IN: My favorite kind of genre is the thriller. The film I directed before this one called “False” is a psychological thriller but if I get another material that is comedy that speaks to me then, I will make another comedy movie but you are most likely to get another thriller from me. CN: What would be your advice for the young person looking to be an actress/actor someday? IN: You need a lot of passion to be able to make it as an actor or an actress because it not about the money because if you do it for the money, you will get frustrated because you may not be paid but if you keep on acting because you are passionate, you will make your break. Then, they have to believe in their skills even if you are told that you are not a good actor so long as you believe that you are good, you’ll make your break. CN: What of a young director? IN: A young director has to study. If you don’t have money to go to film school, no problem. Some of the biggest directors did not go to film school. A director needs to know something about everything because some day you will be directing an actor or an actress to be a character that you need to know about. So a director needs to read. I read anything to even the paper wrapped around my akara (Laughs) Thank God for the internet. It is like the biggest library in the world. Study up on other directors and just read. CN: What more are we to expect from Ike Nnaebue in a couple of years? IN: We are working on a couple of things now but there is an international movie that is in the works because the thing is I see myself as an international scriptwriter and director so I don’t see any reason why we cannot make movies to compete with big Hollywood movies since we have the equipment, the knowledge, the skills and the talents so my next project is going to be a global project. IK Nnaebue can be found on Twitter @flosmith