October 23, 2025 • 57 mins
The discussion with Matthew Youssef, also known as Matolight, centers on his extensive experience as a gaffer and lighting designer within the Nigerian film industry. Our conversation delves into his formative years in theater, which laid the foundation for his transition to film, and highlights the importance of preparation and experimentation in achieving visual storytelling. Matthew elucidates the intricate role of a gaffer, emphasizing collaboration with cinematographers to realize a director's vision while navigating the practical challenges of lighting design. Furthermore, he provides insights into the evolving landscape of lighting technology and the necessity for continuous learning and mentorship in nurturing the next generation of gaffers. As we explore these themes, it becomes evident that the growth of the Nigerian film industry is intrinsically linked to the skill and creativity of its lighting professionals.
In this episode, you will learn the following:
- The podcast episode provides a profound insight into the challenges faced by gaffers in the Nigerian film industry, particularly regarding lighting design.
- Matthew Yusuf, also known as Matolight, shares his transition from theatre to film lighting, emphasising the importance of preparation and adaptability.
- The discussion highlights the necessity of collaboration between the gaffer, cinematographer, and director to achieve the desired visual storytelling in film.
- Matolight reflects on the importance of mentorship and knowledge sharing in the film industry, underscoring how these elements contribute to professional growth.
Resources:
https://www.instagram.com/matolight/
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https://thenaijafilmmaker.com/episode/chiomaonyenwe
https://thenaijafilmmaker.com/episode/creativeoge
https://thenaijafilmmaker.com/episode/danieloriahi
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:03):
You're welcome to NaijaFilmmaker, a podcast about Nigerian
filmmakers, their films andhow I can build a diverse and functional
industry. I'm your host, SeleGot. On this episode, my guest is
Matthew Yusuf, also known asMatolight. He is a gaffer and lighting
designer and has worked onprojects such as Suffer the Witch,
Sugar Rush and Brotherhood. Wetalk about his formative years in
(00:26):
theatre, how he prepares for afilm shoot and the benefits of experimentation.
If you're a new listener,you're welcome and I hope you enjoy.
Hi, Matthew. Welcome to theNaija Filmmaker.
Hi, sir. Thank you for having me.
(00:48):
You're welcome. Okay, can youintroduce yourself?
All right, My name is MatthewYusuf and popularly known as Mato
Light in the industry and I ama gaffer.
Okay, you light for film andtheater, right?
Yes, I actually started fromtheater before I became a lighting
(01:14):
designer for film also.
Okay, so tell us that story.Story about, you know, how you got
into this lighting job and youknow, the transition from theater
to film.
All right, I think I've saidthis story a couple of times, but
it was also nice to stillspread it around again. The journey
(01:38):
started from when I had mytraining at Performance Studio Workshop.
And yeah, that was year 2000,2001. And it's actually a one year
course in theater where youlearn various departments in the
(02:00):
theater space from directingto stage manager to consumer to lighting
to set design and also theadministrative part of theatre. All
these were actually in thebulk of a year and they all put up
together in a year. So weactually had the opportunity to learn
(02:21):
all those in a year. During mytime at Performance Studio Workshop,
I had a lot of focus in actingand technicals.
Okay.
So towards the end of thetraining I had a conversation with
(02:42):
my, my technical directorwhich was my, who also is my mentor.
His name is Tafio Yosi. So Ihad a conversation with him and he
called me to site and said heactually sees first. I was his best
(03:03):
student in his class and wecould have, we had proper, we had
a flow of communication and hesaw that I was going to have make
prospects as a lightingdesigner and he gave me instances,
he gave me some talks and headvised me on what to do and how
(03:24):
to manage myself around it.And I actually picked up that advice
and yeah, today we could see,we can see the testimony. During
my time with him, we had theopportunity to go on different stage
production with him. It wasopportune to tour the adaptation
(03:47):
of Things Fell Apart that wentto Koja 2002 also went on some Nigerian
tour. I was opportune to alsowork on African adaptation of Macbeth
called macbutsu, directed bythe renowned Chuck Mike. Yeah. After
my training at the PerformanceStudio Workshop, I started working
(04:11):
professionally in 2003. 2003,I had my very first major production
that went on a tour onviolence Pre election with a play
directed by Basio Kohn. Then,yeah, I've been doing theater since
(04:32):
2003. So I've worked on majorproductions, major state productions
like the world tour here,World Also Dance project. Also I've
been working with Q's dancecompany since 2015. We taught Europe,
Africa. We talked differentparts of the world with Reincarnation,
(04:55):
My Exile and we almost forgot.Produced and directed by Kuduso Nikeku
and the Q Dance Company. Fastforward Till I think 20. I'm trying
to remember the year. I think2013 or 2014.
Yeah.
(05:15):
Where I. I had a stageproduction with Abion Kazim and Zainab
Kazim, a play titled MyHusband's Wife, played by Toyoshimake
and Bimbo Akintola. It was aproject that I sacrificed for after
(05:38):
the project. It was a projectthat we didn't make any money out
of. We didn't make money atthe end of the day. So we, I had
a com. I had a relationshipwith the, with the company. And after
that, after that project,Zainab got a project to work with
Jade, which was video too. Soshe recommended me to Jade and we,
(06:06):
I, I got to meet Jadi. We hada conversation and she asked me several
questions. If I've done films,if I've done this. I'm like, oh,
I've actually not worked onany film project. I've been coming
from psa and this is my veryfirst opportunity to work on a film
(06:29):
project, on a TV project. Andshe was like, okay, going to take
me for like three months. AndI'm like, yo, three months is a lot.
And it's actually going totake me away from the theater space.
And yeah, I had a good offerand I was ready to face it after
(06:50):
Giddy up too. I think the restbecame history. And that's why every
room I get into, I always tryto mention a name. I just tried.
I always try to mention JadoShibaru. Because she actually gave
me that platform and thattrust and that opportunity to break
through the space of film.
(07:11):
Yeah. Okay, so can you talkabout, you know, the, I guess, key
differences with theater andfilm? Were there things you struggle
with, like being. Being onthat set for the first time in terms
of, I guess, you know, likethe time constraint and all.
Of that things on Giddy up orfrom theater or in theater.
(07:32):
So basically working on Gidiup since it was your first foray
to film.
Yeah, yeah. So I think therewas a lot of. Lots of situations
that actually happened. It wasmy first. I was trying to give out
all my best. And coming from aspace where I know I have actually
(07:53):
had plans to do some kind ofproject in. In the future, I never
knew was going to come thatearly. So it was like an attack for
me to say, okay, yes, face itand face the reality of it. Different.
Different days. Day withdifferent challenges, different day
with different situations.First, I will start with the. The
(08:16):
work hour time. We. We hardlyhad time to rest. There were days
we worked like 24 hours aroundthe clock. There were. Period where
we worked like almost 48, ifI'm not mistaken. But at least we're
close to it because almosteverybody on that project, we're
coming from a fresh space. Notlike super, super fresh, but we were
(08:42):
not all that strong in thespace. But we're all coming with
the effort of trying todeliver a fantastic project. At the
end of the day, I would say. Iwould say we had. We had opportunities
to see equipments that. To useequipment that I was not super used
to. I was only planned to seemyself in the future to use them.
(09:03):
So I got them at thatparticular period to say, okay, yes,
this is an opportunity for meto make use of these equipment. What
I've tried to visualize interms of mode, in terms of setups,
how do I achieve all thosethings? I was able to work with the
help of the director ofphotography, Mo Ata Mohammed Atta.
(09:24):
We. We put a lot together. Itwas quite challenging because we
had days of locations that wedidn't get to see, but we had to
stumble into those locationson that very day of shoot and try
and make amends. Try and finda way to minimize time, work with
(09:44):
every availability ofequipment that we have on ground
to make things work. Yeah, itwas quite challenging. We had good
energy. Every member of thecrew came out with their positive
energy. In as much as we knewwhat the task was ahead of us, we
went for it. We went fullforce with it. And yeah, today is.
(10:07):
We can see a lot of them fromactors. I would. I would. I would
say a lot of actors that Iknow then that were just coming up
also. I can also see howthey've also grown from that space
to date.
Yeah. Okay, so I mean, for,for people that don't understand
(10:28):
the full extent of a gaffer'sjob. Can you tell us more about the
gaffer's job?
All right. Gaffer is actuallythe, the best friend to the cinematographer.
Now on a film set, thedirector has all the ideas in his
(10:50):
or her head, and the directorneeds the, the cinematographer to
help visualize it. Thecinematographer needs the lighting
designer, the gaffer to workclose with him to help actualize
those visions. And how doesthis happen? After every conversation
(11:10):
that the DP and the directormust have gotten on a project, the
very first, the closest personto the DP at that point is the gaffer.
And why is it the gaffer?Because the DP has already visualize
everything that you want interms of how he wants it in picture,
in colors, in mood, and how hewill portray the story regarding
(11:35):
to what the director wants.The gaffer himself also understands
because most cases, afterReiki, after Reiki, you've seen spaces,
ideas of how to make use ofthose lights is best known to the
gaffer. All the DP wants isthis is what I feel, this is what
(11:55):
I want, and this is how Iintend to get it. Now the conversation
now lays on the DP and thegaffer to come together and put those
plans together. Look at everypossibilities of how those, how to
achieve those, how to achievethat particular picture, that particular
mood, at every sin. Yeah. Thegaffer also is the head of the electrical
(12:21):
department on a film set. Fromthe best boy to the spark to the
runner to the assistants tothe cabler, he's practically the
head of the electricaldepartment on a film set.
Let's say you're brought on aproject. Okay, let's say three months
(12:44):
before principal photographystarts. What is your process in preparing
for that project?
All right, the very firstthing we do is get a script. Go through
the script, read andunderstand what the story is about.
In your own way. You don'tassume for the director, you don't
(13:07):
assume what the project isgoing to look like for the director.
So you are reading in termsof, okay, this is what I feel. This
is how I see this story, andthis is where, how I see this story
portrayed. Now after havingthat, after going through the script,
you have an idea of what youfeel it's going to look like. Then
during the pre production,there will be time where you all
(13:29):
are going to come together,have a script reading together with
the technical team, whereyourself, the dp, the director, the
art director, the productiondesigner, the costume department,
everybody comes together tohave technical reading. So during
that technical reading, thedirector explains the vision of that
(13:49):
project. Now, once you getthat vision, you now go back to your
script again. Try to now startseeing how you want to help bring
it to life in terms oflighting. Now, after having that
at the back of your mind,there will be Reiki. So Reki, what
we do during Reiki is we gosee those locations we intend to
(14:12):
use to film. How does it work?How does it suit those spaces? In
some cases, you have everyright as a gaffer to refuse some
spaces because it's not goingto work, because you might get to
a space, and actually what youneed in that space, you need the
headroom of that room to bevery high to achieve that mood or
that lighting setup you want.If you get to a space that's not
(14:32):
going to give you that look orthat feel, you have every right as
a gaffer to say at that point,if the director needs to make an
amendment, yes. If they don'tneed to make an amendment, then we
need to get another location.Now, after the Reiki process, already
you know what we've seen, thevision we've seen, what's the space
we intend to use? Now I goback to the DP already, the dp and
(14:57):
the director has a fullconversation of how the vision is
going to look like. So myselfand the dp, sorry, during. Directly,
also, while I was checking andwe having all those conversations,
myself and the DP are also ina closer conversation of how we intend
to do those work on thosespaces. Then after that, we now come
(15:18):
back to myself and the DPhaving a private conversation. Okay,
this, this scene, how do weintend to light this scene? How do
we work around this scene?What and what colors are we looking
at? To work with the colorpalettes of the project, myself and
the DP will have an intenseconversation. Then after that, we
now come down to equipmentbreakdown. So we break down equipment,
(15:44):
the equipment, and also thecrew list that we're going to have
on that project, we're goingto put all together. So after that,
we do a final checklist withthe dp, and once the DP is ready,
then we hit the set.
Okay, so let's say you have asetup that takes, let's say, 10 hours
(16:08):
for crew members or peoplethat don't understand why you need
10 hours, can you give us,like, maybe a practical example of
maybe scenario that neededthat much time and what went into
preparing the. Okay, the location.
Okay, a space like that, thatwould take us longer Hours to set
(16:30):
up is maybe when we're filminglike a whole street at night. So
now you can't come at thatnight because most times what we
do in some as we shoot by theday, we have a schedule. So imagine
us shooting till like maybe7pm today and we have another scene
(16:52):
to shoot tomorrow at night,that night scene. And we're shooting
a whole street at that night.We can't come at 5:36pm or 7:00pm
because we want to shoot atnight. Okay, let's start setting
up at 7. No, the fact that weneed to make it look realistic, we
need to make it look like. Wealso need to make it look cinematic
(17:15):
friendly. So there are so manydetailed things that needs to be
put together. Now I would usea. I will use a street for as an
example. Now imagine yourselfcoming to a street at night where
they usually have light. Andyou want to see details in that space.
There are ways you want torun. And in Lagos, you know, we don't
(17:38):
really have lights all thetime. So in the story we want to
believe that there was lightat that particular time. So now what
does that entail? It entailsalso. Now start prepping to make
it look real. That okay, thereis light in this place. And for us
to do that, we have to do itin a way that makes it very realistic.
There are some shops in thefront of the house that need to have
(17:59):
a yellow bulb in that house.How do you run power from that point
to that point? The generatortruck must not be on set for them
to see. So maybe you have topark like three streets away. Then
you need to run cables fromthat three streets away to bring
it down to where you have tohide your distro box. Then to light
up those pockets. Light areas.Some shops, some. Some houses that
(18:22):
have light. There's some. Youwant to take some light into some.
Some extreme corner of thehouse to throw it outside of the
building. You need to gainaccess to those spaces. You need
to run the cables, align thosecables to look very realistic. Not
for you to fly cables aroundthat they will notice that, okay,
these are film cables around.Those cables need to be well aligned.
(18:43):
Then we are also going toplant something like something we
call a light setup. We calloverhead lighting. Most times to
create like a moon lighting.Those lights are usually very big.
Now you need to run a verypowerful cable, very strong source
of light, maybe to extreme endof that street. Again, you need to
roll those very heavy lightsto that point. Then channel cables.
(19:07):
How those cables are going toget to that space without making
it. Because you're going tofilm the moments where you film the
ground. Imagine a point wherethey intend to shoot Manato running
on the ground. You want to seethe feet and you want to see the
ground. Now those cables needto be. You need to fly those cable,
make it realistic as if it'sthe normal street cable on a Lagos
(19:27):
road you get. So all thisprocess does not come in two hours,
three hours, it comes in avery long hours. So most times we,
we usually prep ahead for, forthose kind of setup. And for a case
like Christmas in Lagos, I hadlike a pre rigged scene. So once,
(19:48):
once we have the, the. Themain crew on set walking to a particular
time and we have an earlysetup, those ones will be there,
they start. I already have adesign, a map, a floor plan for them
to start ahead. So by the timewe get on set, we'll meet them up
and continue from. From. We'llall join and continue from that point
where they, where they areworking from. So most times exterior
(20:11):
shots, exterior building, toshoot at night are very, very hectic
to light. And it takes a lotof hours to set up.
Yeah. Okay. So I mean to be agaffer, you need to understand light
and darkness. For you, how didyou train your cinematic or lighting
(20:34):
eye?
Yeah, so I am. I am more of anexperimental person where. At my.
At my very free moments. Socoming from where I was I trained,
from coming from a theaterbackground that I have actually learned
to do a lot with light andplaying live with light in terms
(20:56):
of light and shadow and whatcontrast of light are from theater
and moving to film. I realizedthat most lights were being defined
in terms of how hard and howsoft those lights can come and how
detailed you want to make somedo some create some kind of light.
(21:18):
So moving to that space interms of filming, filming, I mean
in, in the film space, yourealize that there are, there are
ways you want. You want tofeel if you watch, if you watch films.
So I don't really go that I gogo to a cinema that I want to watch
a film for particular reason.I just want to watch some details
(21:40):
and if I have reference onsome pictures I've seen, I go through
it. I try to look for theprocess and see what they actually
did on that and how theywalked around it. Then I play around
most times. So everyopportunity that I have, with every
little light I have around mefrom my own free moment, I just create
(22:00):
something and look at it andlike, okay, I want to Try this. And
I share those ideas with someDPs. Most times when I get on set
with DPs I come close to themand share those ideas with them and
we put it into practice. Inmost sets that I get to. I've been
able to understand all thisbecause most times when I play with
those lights, I see thosepictures and I'm like yo, this is
(22:20):
actually looking like what Iwant to achieve. This is like actually
like what I really want toportray. And I put it into test,
I put it into action mosttimes. And yeah, I, I'm more of a
self taught person.
Yeah. Okay. All right. At thispoint, can you mention three random
(22:42):
facts about yourself?
When you say random facts.What, what, what are you.
Things that make you. Youlike, you might be. You might like
that type of music or youmight like reading books, things
like that.
So, so three, three, threerandom things about me is. First,
(23:04):
I really, I. I'm a happyperson. I like being happy. Two,
I like my. In as much as Ilove to be around where to see things.
Things happen. I try to createsome quiet moment for myself where
I go to the beach.
Yeah.
Though in a while I've notbeen able to do it because of the
(23:26):
hazardous happening around thequiet moment of those early morning
time. I drive to the beach, Ijust go to the beach and sit and
have like a quiet moment formyself. Yeah. The third one is I
love to drive. I love to drive.
And are you a Legosian?
(23:46):
Yay. This is a very strongquestion. So I am not a Legosian.
I am from the middle belt ofNigeria. I am from Kogi. Both born
and bred in Lagos. So thatmakes me a bit illegal.
Yeah. Because I mean loving todrive and then you know, with the
Lagos traffic.
(24:08):
Yeah.
I mean do you have aparticular road that allows you to
drive freely?
So, so when I tell people,okay, yes, I love driving. They're
like, ah, why do you likedriving in traffic? So, so the experience
of. I like to use the wordgrass to grace. Anyway, so the experience
from coming from that streetfood where the days of there was
(24:30):
nothing. You have to get tothis point. How do you get to this
point? Okay, you have to trek,you see. But the moment you start
trekking, you understanddifferent areas, you understand different
shortcuts. It is why you driveit. You know, when people that were
able to see passport will tellyou, okay, there's from. From Ikoyi
to. To. What's it called? ToIkeja. You just have to go through
(24:50):
Todd Milan Bridge. Do youunderstand? But I will tell you there
are different ways for you toget to Ikeja from Ikui. Then I also
tell you some faster route andshorter route to get to XYZ places.
Because I've actually,actually been in the space of, okay,
jump from this place to thisplace you want to go to. You want
(25:11):
to go see a show, you want togo. You want to go see, see an event.
I have always been intodifferent spaces and then there was,
there was no car. But you justhave to get to that point. And not
every time you have money to,to, to get a cab or to join to get
a boss. Sometimes you haveyour. Whatever amount you have on
(25:34):
you might not be able to dothe whole trip. So you have to make.
Find a way to cut it short andsay, okay, yes, I can get to this
point. Then I can get the nextbus from this point to my destination.
Okay, that's nice. So you'vebeen in the game for long and with
the advancement of lightingtechnology, how has that, you know,
(25:57):
improved your work recently?
So I, I have seen differentlights. I have seen, I've used different
light. And every day,everything. It keeps, it keeps, it
keeps. We keep having new technologies.
(26:21):
Yeah.
I will still say I don'treally want to put so people in the
box, but I would honestly sayARRI still has a lot to give us in
terms of light. But becausewe, how, like, how will I put it?
(26:42):
It's, it's. It's super expensive.
Yeah.
And it's super expensive tomaintain. We've been able to roll
around with Aputure and theNan Locks guys also. Yeah, they have
actually been doing goodbecause a lot of them actually came
in and they came with up withoptions of, okay, you can't do arri6k
(27:05):
because, you know, it's veryheavy. You have to. We have, we have
an, an advanced LED light thatlooks like that is almost like the
6K. You could use it and alsoachieve the same thing and less power
consumption. So those are the,those are the advantages that they
have. But trust me, thedurability of those lights when it
(27:27):
still goes back to arribecause RAC stays long and laster
than all these lights. Butagain, in all, every light that has
been coming out for the past,I would say for the past five years,
it's been very helpful. Sincethe invention of the Matlite, we're
able to, we've been able torun away a bit from the kino flows.
(27:48):
Like, okay, you need tosuspend the light. That is very Light
above your character. Thoseones will help you. Yeah. In all,
I would say every, everyopportunity that they've given to
themselves to bring in,bringing all different kind of competitive
light, they are very helpful,they've been useful. And yeah, it's,
it's, it's a, it's atechnology world. We keep revolving,
(28:09):
evolving in everything they bring.
Yeah. Okay, so how do youbalance creativity with practical
limitations of budget,location or equipment?
I have been, I've always.There's, okay, first, there's never
(28:29):
a project you hear that is,there's a budget. Every project here,
ah, there's no budget. Okay,how do we work around this? How do
we make this xyz? So far, inmy entire production that I've done,
I would say maybe Christmas inLagos has been the project that whatever
(28:51):
I asked for, whatever we askedfor on that project, we got like
95% of it, which for me I feelit was, was a good one. But aside
from that, every other projectcomes with the challenges. Like I
said, say in a situation whereDPs. So this, this also goes to,
goes to some DPs because someDPs would tell you they don't want
(29:14):
to bend and some DPs will tellyou, okay, we can bend to make this
work. And I, I work with a DP.
Yeah.
And DP's conversation is my, Imean DP's agreement is my last. Is
my last agreement also becausemost times when we see, okay, this
is what we intend to do andokay for us to light up a space like
this, if we can't get thisparticular feel you want, if we decide
(29:40):
to do it this way, picturewise, do you like it? Is it telling
the same story of what youwant? Once the DP approves it, it's
fine for me. But once the DPsays it's not working, trust me,
and the directors is not sohappy with it, trust me, we can't,
there's nothing we can doaround it. And some cases, like I
(30:03):
always say, director and dp,they once, once director is happy
with what the DP is giving thedirector, then we, we're good to
go. In some cases, I also havethe right to also make, make some
suggestion and tell them thispicture is not looking like what
we will get at the end of theday. And we come to terms most times.
(30:29):
Yeah. Okay. Do you think thereare enough gaffers in the Nigerian
film industry?
We have, we don't have enoughgaffer. So we have a lot of trainees
out There out there sayingthey are gaffer. But there's so many,
(30:49):
there's so many requirementsthat makes you a gaffer. Yeah, there's
so many. You need someexperiences to make you a gaffer.
But you know, most times oncethe gears are able to put up some
gears and and some productionsare like okay, unless somebody just
come with the light and yeah,we can tell them what to do and what
(31:12):
to do, what not to do andwould still achieve things. Yes,
in some cases it works. Andnumber one, downtime in that production
is very. Is very key. Numbertwo hazard under production is very
key number. Number three, thetrust me, the outcome of that project
(31:33):
will not be as the same aswhen you have a professional gaffer
on that stage. In some cases Iwould not mention name but in some
cases I've seen the productionwhere a DP is asking a gaffer to
go into the beach with an HMIlight a stand and they're going to
run the power to it. Thank Godsomebody was on that set and the
(31:58):
person insisted that. No, Ithink it was the director that insisted
that they shouldn't that the.Because the director actually called
me and said this was what wasgoing to happen and I'm like how
this is you killing a thousandpeople on the set. Now, now, now,
now, now. And yeah, becausesome deep is like okay, yes. Yeah,
this is my idea, this is whatI want. Okay, make it happen. Put
(32:19):
it there, make it happen. Youdon't go extra mile to do some things
if you don't have aprofessional. There are ways you
could actually put thoselights in that spaces and also light
those things. But as the factthat the person is not a professional
gaffer, you are going to havea problem and there's going to be
an hazard. Yeah, yeah. So aswith this, I think it actually calls
for a lot of master classwhich I know some, some. Some guys
(32:43):
are actually like Lagos lightscene. What's it called? Is it legal
Lighting master class actuallyhad a master class on lighting at
some point where they had.Yeah, I think Justin came to Nigeria
and I think they had it withina JAI studio Next Dot studio. Yeah.
(33:03):
If there is opportunity tohave master class to train some of
these guys, some of these bestboys that potential that has potential
to become gaffers tomorrow.Yeah, opportunities like that would
definitely happen. If it'sgoing to happen, I'm always happy
to teach. I. I did a masterclass with CC Hub. I also did for
(33:24):
Multi Choice Talent Factoryalso. And yeah, with that I think
some basic experience alsoAlso needs to be passed to this young
generation of gaffers. Wejust, I mean electricians or runners
or best, but we just feel. Orthey just come up one day and say,
yes, already they are gaffer.
Yeah. Okay. So like, I guessmore developed industries have this
(33:48):
whole ladder you have toclimb. So to be a gaffer, you have
to be a best boy before youmove. Like for you. What, what would
you advise is like a goodpathway for a gaffer to gain a certain
number of skills, to be wellrounded and, you know, be able to
lead that department.
(34:10):
So I feel, I feel the factthat we were not enough doesn't mean
that there won't be spaces tolearn. I could mention some names
I own myself. I own a company,one house lighting crew. Stanley
is also a gaffer. Stanley hasa company called smoothshore. Ismail
(34:32):
has a license company alsocalled Easy Film. Godwin Lawani also
has a license company calledGD Lighting. I think Femi Sway also
has a company. There's anothergaffer called Muri that also has
a lighting company. Anothergaffer I know named Daniel also has
a company. I feel that thereare opportunities in these spaces
(34:54):
where these guys can learnthrough now what are they learning?
They're learning all. Iunderstand that a lot of them would
have seen, okay, I understandhow to plug this light to this light.
But there are tends to thesethings, their process to these things,
their channels to when you geton set, how you work when you get
on set, what you do in yourown department when you get on set,
are you starting to be. Let'simagine someone that is a runner.
(35:17):
The runner comes on set and doevery bit everything they do on that
set in the lightingdepartment. So at that point, well,
after, after Leonard goesaround to see everything everybody
is doing, Elena now starts towork with the spark. From the spark,
it comes to the assistant.From the assistant, he walks up to.
(35:38):
I mean, sorry, before theassistant works with the cabler.
But here, back here we don'thave the cablers. So we just move
from the spark. We move withthis, with the assistant. Then the
best boy. Most of all, theseguys needs to work with the best
boy. The best boy is the. Isthe other eye of the gaffer. So he
knows exactly what the gaffermeans. He knows exactly what the
gaffer is trying to do. Somost times, once the gaffer finishes
(36:00):
setting up, the next in chargeis the best boy. So a lot of them
used to actually work close tothis best boy. Understand all these
lessons, all these experiment,experience that these guys are gathering
before you could push up andsay you're a gaffer. Because if you
don't, if you don't cross thatspace, you can't just jump from an
(36:20):
assistant and say you're agaffer. You can't just jump from
a spark and say you're agaffer because the spark is actually
practically running cables.Making sure you have powers in that
space, Making sure everythingis fine in that space. But again,
you can grow from that spaceto become a gaffer tomorrow. A lot
of like some gaffers, somegaffers were DPs. I mean some gaffers
became DP at some particulartime of their life. So it is a process.
(36:43):
And when there's a certainlevel of, of of that space, you will
become a gaffer. You don'tjust jump to that space.
Yeah. If you aren't a gaffer,what other rule on set would you
probably enjoy? Ah.
That would be a Steadicam operator.
(37:06):
Okay. What is it about that role?
So I, I kind of like the waythe Steadicam operators operate and
I kind of like the way the.They take their shots most times.
Honestly, if not for time'ssake and for availability of my,
of me as an individual, as aperson, I would have actually take
(37:27):
some time just to go play,have fun in that space to see what
it looks like. Because I'vealways imagined myself carrying that
rig and taking a particularshot because I could most times when
I see the dp explain what hewants to those guys and I see the
way they, they take thoseshots, like it gives me joy. It gives
(37:51):
me joy the way lighting givesme joy. Because once time, once I'm
setting up, I'm happy settingup. And once I see my picture of
what I'm, what I create, whatI create in, in a frame, I just go,
I just go feel.
Yeah. Do you have a favoritefilm or TV series that you'd like
to share with us?
They say your last job, yourlast major job is his best is as
(38:15):
your best job. So I think Ishould pick Christmas in Lagos over
any for now. And yeah, someare still in, some are still in post
still coming up. But Christmasin Lagos is the last. I think that
is, that's out there now. Andyeah, I would say for real first
is for me. Yeah. I find myselfin a situation where I asked for
(38:35):
100. I got a 95 in terms of equipment.
Yeah.
So that for me gave me lotsof, a lot of opportunities to play
with, to play with lights andto play with Every ideas myself and
the DP share together. Andyeah, it was, it was actually a fantastic
journey from the preproduction. It was one of the projects
(38:58):
I had more time to add a preproduction on. And you were engaged.
When I say engage, you likethe production engaged you, not like
okay, you're prepping theproduction. You're not engaged. The
way we live back here, youneed to focus on other things to
keep you going. So the momentswhere you all feel like, okay, you're
engaged, so why are you nowdistracting yourself too much not
(39:21):
to achieve this. So we hadmore time to prep and we had more
time to put the lots together.Like I was making example, I was
telling stories where we haveto work at times I need to make a
call for the pre rigged teamto always be on ground to rig up
while we are prepping, whilewe are trying to catch some rest
for the following day shoot.And yeah, we were doing our normal
(39:44):
12 hours and the 12 hourswe're not meeting up the 12 hours.
At times we shoot for eighthours and we're done for the day.
Sometimes seven hours are donefor the day. So those kind of projects,
a project like this will giveyou more time to be very creative,
will give you more time not topanic while trying to meet up time.
Give you more time to alsohave the ad not to come hasten you
(40:07):
and ask you what time, whattime, what time? No, everybody knows
what they want to do. You planfor it, you're on point, you have
your team on ground. And yeah,it was from the director space to
the DP space to everydepartment on that project. Everybody
came up, came up to their Agame and yeah, I was, I was happy
(40:29):
we did that. We did CIA.
Okay, that's lovely. So nowhow about a film that you have watched
that you really enjoy. It'slike Brotherhood. Brotherhood. Did
you work on that one?
Yes, I did.
What I was okay watching thefilm back. It was just like a, A
(40:50):
movie you enjoyed.
Yes, honestly, becauseBrotherhood also was a project I
hold dear to my heart. Alsolike I was trying to explain that
we had a lot of gears for, forChristmas in Lagos. Brotherhood.
We had, but it wasn't enough.It was, it wasn't enough. So we,
(41:13):
we were able to make a lot ofthings work. We were able to put
some, some difficultsituations into an easy situation.
I could remember a day workingwith a DP that his energy is more
as a soft energy. Like it'slike someone that would shoot a Christmas
(41:33):
in Lagos and be happy. Sobecause you need that less hour of
shoot brotherhood, we wereshooting to super late. Like we.
We had our. The downtime whereyou get to space and area boys are
out there disturbing you,eating out of the better part of
the day. The better part ofthe day. But you have to make things
(41:53):
work. And there are somesituation where locations were extremely
far from each other. I'll givean instance of a particular scene.
Okay, no one is. One of thescenes that gives me more joy is
where we had the. The policecars that were shot on CMS road.
(42:15):
It was. It took us, we startedsetting up from I think from around
9 in the morning till 9 or 10in the morning to like 6 in the evening
to put up that scene. It was.It was a huge setup. We had to set
up lights from that CMSpedestrian bridge. I had to go down
(42:35):
that if. You know that if youare very conversant with that road.
It's a very long road andmajor, major road. Major road to
settle. So we had time to makesure we run cables, create all the
aesthetics we're looking for.And when we shot that scene, when
I saw it during the premiere,I was like, yes, we made this come
(43:00):
to life. I was so proud. I washappy. Okay. The other one was where
we had to help. The worstsituation to make it a memorable
one was we had a mad traveltime. We shot in Lekki phase one
and we had to go to CMS toshoot the second part of that same
(43:20):
scene. We shot in Lekki phaseone. Then on that same evening which
we were going to shoot tilllike midnight, like say like 2, 3.
The DP was extremely tired.All he needed was let's go home.
We just have to just seewhat's going on. But we had to shoot
that scene because productionhas already paid for extra gears.
(43:41):
We had an extra generatorcoming. We had an extra 12k lights
coming. We need to light ourentire bridge where we have the bunny
camp and unicorn axis of thatbridge. So we have to put some light
in that place. Also with the.In the park where you have that military
park where going to the USEmbassy, we have to light up inside
that bit. Also there's someparticular parts we have to also
(44:03):
put some lights in. At thatpoint, the DP was extremely tired.
He wanted to go home. Hecouldn't do anything. So I was like,
bro, you know what? This setupis going to take us like four hours.
Yeah, why not go sit in thecab, get an ac. Lele put on ac, then
you sleep. Then we're going toset up and trust me, we, we had that
set up at the end of the day,the scene to shut up, that scene
(44:24):
within that, I'm not sure. Weused up to an hour to shoot up that,
to shoot the scene and wecalled it on that day. But again,
it was one of the mostheaviest day that we had on that
set. But what do we do? Wehave to make, we have to make things
work. We have to pull up, lookand make every, utilize every opportunity
we had to make that place soto make that scene come to life,
(44:45):
which we did. And I was happyat the end of the day because when
I watched that film, each timeI watched it, I keep remembering
every scenario that happenedon that project. But again, it was
a good one at the end of theday. And that gave my second ambca.
Yeah. Okay, let's go to themvc. Congrats on your two wins.
(45:07):
Thank you.
Thank you. So, I mean thereare not many award bodies that award
gaffers or lighting designers.Why is that recognition important?
So for me, I first, I want tokeep thanking God that he actually
came when I needed it most.The first one. We've been working
(45:33):
for it. We've been workinglike we've been working behind the
scene. And I feel like thereshould be a way for us to get recognized.
And I didn't know how ithappened, but I realized that when
AMC started seeing thecategory and the very first ambc,
I think I was actually there,but I was there to set up the, I
(45:58):
think the walkway light. And Iwas saying to myself, this should
be an award for me someday.So. And the first one actually came
on a very, on a very good day.We, I wasn't in the country. There
was a project I was working onthat was on Tour Reincarnation and
(46:19):
we were basically premierpremiering in, in, in France on that
day. And I could, I knew itwas, it was that same day they were
having the NBC. I was tryingto, I was panicking because I honestly
wanted to feel the environmentand also see what it looks like and
also experience it because Iwas, I was actually looking forward
(46:41):
to win. But again I alsodidn't want to get distracted so
I had to put up my phonebecause it started almost the same
time. We started at 8 o' clockor the show started at 8 o' clock
and the, I think the cyclingalso from 8 o' clock Nigerian time
also.
Yeah.
So we, we. I put up my phonethen after my show getting a cutting
(47:04):
call and I put on my phone thenext Thing I was saying was congratulations.
I was like, this is, this is,this is actually a blessing, a premiere
and winning the AMBCA. Thesecond one came my 20th year in the
industry, which was 2003. So Iwas like, both of them came in as
(47:25):
a blessing. And to date, Ikeep thanking God and it was history
for me. And it's something toalways write to me about.
Yeah. Okay. So you talkedabout, you know, your mentor when
you started out at theworkshop. What was some of the key
lessons you learned? What hasguided you this far in your career?
(47:51):
All right, so Tafi Oyewusi ishis name and he's popularly known
as Tafi, apparently is. Heleft lighting for his wife. He's
currently in Switzerland. Heleft lighting for his wife. Now he's
now a full time grip man. He'sone of the best grip guy in Zurich
in Switzerland. Yeah. Solearning under Taffy and seeing him
(48:15):
as a mentor was actually partof my success story. I learned a
lot, a lot from Safi. Safi isthis man that likes to pass knowledge.
And in my team, my guys, myteam guys are 16 in number. My crew
are 16 in number. And I'lltell you, I can gladly close my eyes
(48:38):
and walk away from every spaceand ask them questions about me.
And you would keep hearingeverything. Maybe out of 100, you
could learn 98 positive thingsabout me. So these are some of the
things I learned from him. Hewas a very good and trustworthy leader
that you never know is aleader when, except maybe when we're
(49:01):
done with work. That's whenyou now realize that, oh, I think
that's the boss. He's neverseen himself in that space. You see,
once we get on set, we'reworking. Everybody works like we're
here to work. Then when we'redone, the only reason or the only
way you see him as a boss ismaybe seeing someone sitting in front
of us, advising or talking tous or mentoring us and telling us
some things. That's when youknow he's a boss. Some. Those are
(49:24):
some of the steps I learnedfrom him. And some of the steps I
also learned from him is alsowhatever you learn, pass it to the
next person because you wanteverybody to grow.
Yeah.
And I've always been doingthat. Any space I get to. I always
try to. When I see what Iknow, what I really can pass at that
moment, I. I don't let it go.If it's for me to make, to advise
(49:48):
you to get to the next space.And I know you Needed my advice,
needed my own little knowledgeto, to get there I would pass it
on to you. It's like youpassing the button when you get to
certain space. I've been ableto learn that from and also try to
be happy. I'm always an happyperson and when I met him he's is
we had the same energy andthat has always been my, my saving
(50:12):
grace in my difficult times.You never know when I'm not in the
space of getting angry butagain most times when you see me,
I'm always happy. So yourather don't know where my downtime
is. So when I'm happy you justlook at this guy's a happy guy and
he keeps moving and thatactually keep him kept me moving.
Whenever I'm having any slow.But the fact that I try to keep up
(50:36):
the happy mood and happymoment of my life, I keep myself
moving. Safi has also been avery hard working person that never
lets money come before hisideas, his creative moments, his
delivery. If I, if I agree tobe on a project, I don't work on
(50:58):
a project on pt. So once I'mon the projects, maybe for XYZ reason
is a low budget project. Idon't work on the project like it's
a low budget project. Take itas my personal project. I take it
with all my art and I deliver.Because your last job is best as
good as your best job. So thatlesson has always been been part
of the things he has taughtme. And yeah I think basically those,
(51:22):
those are, those are thepoints that I learned from him. And
honestly it has actually keptme moving till tomorrow.
That's lovely.
Yeah.
So now for the Niger filmmakertradition, can you share with the
audience a film you recommendthem to watch?
(51:47):
Aside from, from the films I worked.
On or the films generallyspeaking, any film it could be what
you've worked on or totallyunrelated stuff.
I think I saw one second. Thisis you put him in a hot box right
now. I'll pick a series for now.
(52:19):
Okay.
Because right now things arescattering for my day because I,
I just saw, I just saw thatlike two weeks ago. I mean last month.
Sorry. To kill a monkey.
Yeah.
My, my friend, my friend didan amazing job. Both of them did.
I mean everybody did anamazing job. But the gaffer is also
my friend. Also Stanley.Stanley did a very good job as a
(52:40):
director of photography withmy very good guy. Also Cabello did
a very good job on the project also.
Okay, nice. Okay. So you know,as an industry we have you know,
grown in strides. But there'sstill room for improvement for you.
Like, what was that one thingthat you think should be a priority
(53:04):
in us improving as an industry?
I think one that would say.And I think some production projects
have actually started workingon it. The work time. The work hour
for projects. Yeah, becausetrust me, we. The 12 hour that we
(53:26):
give, that we try to work onnow is actually helping. Yeah, I
did a project in a BookTube, Ithink, two months ago. Yes, no, sorry,
in July. I did a project inJuly and. No, I think it was in June.
Yeah, June into July. And theday one of that shoot, we wrapped
(53:46):
at 3pm in the afternoon, whichfor me was that's a better way to
work and go relax and getyourself ready for the next day of
work. Because most times if weworked too late and we still have
early call time, trust me,we're just. We're just pushing ourselves
to work. We're not beingcreative. We're not going to be creative
to that work you get. So thoseare the. That's. That's my first.
(54:08):
That's my first challenge. Ifwe can. If we can keep to that 12
hours of work, it is. It isgoing to help us do a lot. So I feel
in as much as, yes, we havethe Netflix, the Amazon thing happening
now, and we're actually tryingto fight around budget on project.
Again, if you want a lionlook, then don't go. Don't go for
(54:33):
a cut budget. If you want alion look, then be ready to go for
a lion budget for you toreally get what you want. But again,
if you know you really want todo it well, then do it right. Most
projects want you to go extramile, kill everything, bring gears,
and they want to get a 50%discount on those gears. Yeah, getting
a 50% discount on those gearis not a problem. But again, are
(54:57):
you getting the quality gearsat that particular time? Because
some. I don't want to saythis, but again, in some cases, gaffers
have been caught out of theconversations when they're having
those. When producers arehaving conversations with Gear House
and say, okay, they say, okay,we're giving you all this equipment
and they have a negotiation.But when the negotiation happens,
(55:18):
they realize that they can'tgive you all those things, then you
are now in a trap because nowyou end up getting what the gear
else is going to give you. So.So once the gearhouse gives you that,
then they leave you to battlewith it and find a way to make it
work. Are you making magic?You have to make magic. So in most
cases, putting us into tightcorner is not the right thing to
(55:42):
do.
Okay. All right. So how canpeople keep up with, you know, projects
you're part of and justgeneral updates from you? How can
people keep up?
My Instagram is always openfor me. Yeah, I've actually not posted
(56:05):
some things in the world justfor some reason, personal reasons,
but it's actually very active.My story is always active because
I'm trying to also compilesome. Some pictures because those
projects are not out and theBTS pictures cannot be released now.
Some currently just waitingfor them. So some other things and
some other things I'm doingare actually popping on my Instagram
(56:25):
page.
Okay, what's your handle?
Mato Light. M A T O L I G H Tat Mato Light.
All right. Nice one. Thanks,Matthew, for coming on the podcast.
Thank you, sir. Thank you somuch for having me.
We have come to the end ofthis episode. Remember to rate and
(56:47):
review the podcast. You canalso follow me on Instagram, Facebook
and Xadega Film and thepodcast. You can now support the
podcast by clicking on thelink in the show notes. See you on
the next episode. Have a good one.
You're welcome to NaijaFilmmaker, a podcast about Nigerian
filmmakers, their films andhow I can build a diverse and functional
industry. I'm your host, SeleGot. On this episode, my guest is
Matthew Yusuf, also known asMatolight. He is a gaffer and lighting
designer and has worked onprojects such as Suffer the Witch,
Sugar Rush and Brotherhood. Wetalk about his formative years in
(00:26):
theatre, how he prepares for afilm shoot and the benefits of experimentation.
If you're a new listener,you're welcome and I hope you enjoy.
Hi, Matthew. Welcome to theNaija Filmmaker.
Hi, sir. Thank you for having me.
(00:48):
You're welcome. Okay, can youintroduce yourself?
All right, My name is MatthewYusuf and popularly known as Mato
Light in the industry and I ama gaffer.
Okay, you light for film andtheater, right?
Yes, I actually started fromtheater before I became a lighting
(01:14):
designer for film also.
Okay, so tell us that story.Story about, you know, how you got
into this lighting job and youknow, the transition from theater
to film.
All right, I think I've saidthis story a couple of times, but
it was also nice to stillspread it around again. The journey
(01:38):
started from when I had mytraining at Performance Studio Workshop.
And yeah, that was year 2000,2001. And it's actually a one year
course in theater where youlearn various departments in the
(02:00):
theater space from directingto stage manager to consumer to lighting
to set design and also theadministrative part of theatre. All
these were actually in thebulk of a year and they all put up
together in a year. So weactually had the opportunity to learn
(02:21):
all those in a year. During mytime at Performance Studio Workshop,
I had a lot of focus in actingand technicals.
Okay.
So towards the end of thetraining I had a conversation with
(02:42):
my, my technical directorwhich was my, who also is my mentor.
His name is Tafio Yosi. So Ihad a conversation with him and he
called me to site and said heactually sees first. I was his best
(03:03):
student in his class and wecould have, we had proper, we had
a flow of communication and hesaw that I was going to have make
prospects as a lightingdesigner and he gave me instances,
he gave me some talks and headvised me on what to do and how
(03:24):
to manage myself around it.And I actually picked up that advice
and yeah, today we could see,we can see the testimony. During
my time with him, we had theopportunity to go on different stage
production with him. It wasopportune to tour the adaptation
(03:47):
of Things Fell Apart that wentto Koja 2002 also went on some Nigerian
tour. I was opportune to alsowork on African adaptation of Macbeth
called macbutsu, directed bythe renowned Chuck Mike. Yeah. After
my training at the PerformanceStudio Workshop, I started working
(04:11):
professionally in 2003. 2003,I had my very first major production
that went on a tour onviolence Pre election with a play
directed by Basio Kohn. Then,yeah, I've been doing theater since
(04:32):
2003. So I've worked on majorproductions, major state productions
like the world tour here,World Also Dance project. Also I've
been working with Q's dancecompany since 2015. We taught Europe,
Africa. We talked differentparts of the world with Reincarnation,
(04:55):
My Exile and we almost forgot.Produced and directed by Kuduso Nikeku
and the Q Dance Company. Fastforward Till I think 20. I'm trying
to remember the year. I think2013 or 2014.
Yeah.
(05:15):
Where I. I had a stageproduction with Abion Kazim and Zainab
Kazim, a play titled MyHusband's Wife, played by Toyoshimake
and Bimbo Akintola. It was aproject that I sacrificed for after
(05:38):
the project. It was a projectthat we didn't make any money out
of. We didn't make money atthe end of the day. So we, I had
a com. I had a relationshipwith the, with the company. And after
that, after that project,Zainab got a project to work with
Jade, which was video too. Soshe recommended me to Jade and we,
(06:06):
I, I got to meet Jadi. We hada conversation and she asked me several
questions. If I've done films,if I've done this. I'm like, oh,
I've actually not worked onany film project. I've been coming
from psa and this is my veryfirst opportunity to work on a film
(06:29):
project, on a TV project. Andshe was like, okay, going to take
me for like three months. AndI'm like, yo, three months is a lot.
And it's actually going totake me away from the theater space.
And yeah, I had a good offerand I was ready to face it after
(06:50):
Giddy up too. I think the restbecame history. And that's why every
room I get into, I always tryto mention a name. I just tried.
I always try to mention JadoShibaru. Because she actually gave
me that platform and thattrust and that opportunity to break
through the space of film.
(07:11):
Yeah. Okay, so can you talkabout, you know, the, I guess, key
differences with theater andfilm? Were there things you struggle
with, like being. Being onthat set for the first time in terms
of, I guess, you know, likethe time constraint and all.
Of that things on Giddy up orfrom theater or in theater.
(07:32):
So basically working on Gidiup since it was your first foray
to film.
Yeah, yeah. So I think therewas a lot of. Lots of situations
that actually happened. It wasmy first. I was trying to give out
all my best. And coming from aspace where I know I have actually
(07:53):
had plans to do some kind ofproject in. In the future, I never
knew was going to come thatearly. So it was like an attack for
me to say, okay, yes, face itand face the reality of it. Different.
Different days. Day withdifferent challenges, different day
with different situations.First, I will start with the. The
(08:16):
work hour time. We. We hardlyhad time to rest. There were days
we worked like 24 hours aroundthe clock. There were. Period where
we worked like almost 48, ifI'm not mistaken. But at least we're
close to it because almosteverybody on that project, we're
coming from a fresh space. Notlike super, super fresh, but we were
(08:42):
not all that strong in thespace. But we're all coming with
the effort of trying todeliver a fantastic project. At the
end of the day, I would say. Iwould say we had. We had opportunities
to see equipments that. To useequipment that I was not super used
to. I was only planned to seemyself in the future to use them.
(09:03):
So I got them at thatparticular period to say, okay, yes,
this is an opportunity for meto make use of these equipment. What
I've tried to visualize interms of mode, in terms of setups,
how do I achieve all thosethings? I was able to work with the
help of the director ofphotography, Mo Ata Mohammed Atta.
(09:24):
We. We put a lot together. Itwas quite challenging because we
had days of locations that wedidn't get to see, but we had to
stumble into those locationson that very day of shoot and try
and make amends. Try and finda way to minimize time, work with
(09:44):
every availability ofequipment that we have on ground
to make things work. Yeah, itwas quite challenging. We had good
energy. Every member of thecrew came out with their positive
energy. In as much as we knewwhat the task was ahead of us, we
went for it. We went fullforce with it. And yeah, today is.
(10:07):
We can see a lot of them fromactors. I would. I would. I would
say a lot of actors that Iknow then that were just coming up
also. I can also see howthey've also grown from that space
to date.
Yeah. Okay, so I mean, for,for people that don't understand
(10:28):
the full extent of a gaffer'sjob. Can you tell us more about the
gaffer's job?
All right. Gaffer is actuallythe, the best friend to the cinematographer.
Now on a film set, thedirector has all the ideas in his
(10:50):
or her head, and the directorneeds the, the cinematographer to
help visualize it. Thecinematographer needs the lighting
designer, the gaffer to workclose with him to help actualize
those visions. And how doesthis happen? After every conversation
(11:10):
that the DP and the directormust have gotten on a project, the
very first, the closest personto the DP at that point is the gaffer.
And why is it the gaffer?Because the DP has already visualize
everything that you want interms of how he wants it in picture,
in colors, in mood, and how hewill portray the story regarding
(11:35):
to what the director wants.The gaffer himself also understands
because most cases, afterReiki, after Reiki, you've seen spaces,
ideas of how to make use ofthose lights is best known to the
gaffer. All the DP wants isthis is what I feel, this is what
(11:55):
I want, and this is how Iintend to get it. Now the conversation
now lays on the DP and thegaffer to come together and put those
plans together. Look at everypossibilities of how those, how to
achieve those, how to achievethat particular picture, that particular
mood, at every sin. Yeah. Thegaffer also is the head of the electrical
(12:21):
department on a film set. Fromthe best boy to the spark to the
runner to the assistants tothe cabler, he's practically the
head of the electricaldepartment on a film set.
Let's say you're brought on aproject. Okay, let's say three months
(12:44):
before principal photographystarts. What is your process in preparing
for that project?
All right, the very firstthing we do is get a script. Go through
the script, read andunderstand what the story is about.
In your own way. You don'tassume for the director, you don't
(13:07):
assume what the project isgoing to look like for the director.
So you are reading in termsof, okay, this is what I feel. This
is how I see this story, andthis is where, how I see this story
portrayed. Now after havingthat, after going through the script,
you have an idea of what youfeel it's going to look like. Then
during the pre production,there will be time where you all
(13:29):
are going to come together,have a script reading together with
the technical team, whereyourself, the dp, the director, the
art director, the productiondesigner, the costume department,
everybody comes together tohave technical reading. So during
that technical reading, thedirector explains the vision of that
(13:49):
project. Now, once you getthat vision, you now go back to your
script again. Try to now startseeing how you want to help bring
it to life in terms oflighting. Now, after having that
at the back of your mind,there will be Reiki. So Reki, what
we do during Reiki is we gosee those locations we intend to
(14:12):
use to film. How does it work?How does it suit those spaces? In
some cases, you have everyright as a gaffer to refuse some
spaces because it's not goingto work, because you might get to
a space, and actually what youneed in that space, you need the
headroom of that room to bevery high to achieve that mood or
that lighting setup you want.If you get to a space that's not
(14:32):
going to give you that look orthat feel, you have every right as
a gaffer to say at that point,if the director needs to make an
amendment, yes. If they don'tneed to make an amendment, then we
need to get another location.Now, after the Reiki process, already
you know what we've seen, thevision we've seen, what's the space
we intend to use? Now I goback to the DP already, the dp and
(14:57):
the director has a fullconversation of how the vision is
going to look like. So myselfand the dp, sorry, during. Directly,
also, while I was checking andwe having all those conversations,
myself and the DP are also ina closer conversation of how we intend
to do those work on thosespaces. Then after that, we now come
(15:18):
back to myself and the DPhaving a private conversation. Okay,
this, this scene, how do weintend to light this scene? How do
we work around this scene?What and what colors are we looking
at? To work with the colorpalettes of the project, myself and
the DP will have an intenseconversation. Then after that, we
now come down to equipmentbreakdown. So we break down equipment,
(15:44):
the equipment, and also thecrew list that we're going to have
on that project, we're goingto put all together. So after that,
we do a final checklist withthe dp, and once the DP is ready,
then we hit the set.
Okay, so let's say you have asetup that takes, let's say, 10 hours
(16:08):
for crew members or peoplethat don't understand why you need
10 hours, can you give us,like, maybe a practical example of
maybe scenario that neededthat much time and what went into
preparing the. Okay, the location.
Okay, a space like that, thatwould take us longer Hours to set
(16:30):
up is maybe when we're filminglike a whole street at night. So
now you can't come at thatnight because most times what we
do in some as we shoot by theday, we have a schedule. So imagine
us shooting till like maybe7pm today and we have another scene
(16:52):
to shoot tomorrow at night,that night scene. And we're shooting
a whole street at that night.We can't come at 5:36pm or 7:00pm
because we want to shoot atnight. Okay, let's start setting
up at 7. No, the fact that weneed to make it look realistic, we
need to make it look like. Wealso need to make it look cinematic
(17:15):
friendly. So there are so manydetailed things that needs to be
put together. Now I would usea. I will use a street for as an
example. Now imagine yourselfcoming to a street at night where
they usually have light. Andyou want to see details in that space.
There are ways you want torun. And in Lagos, you know, we don't
(17:38):
really have lights all thetime. So in the story we want to
believe that there was lightat that particular time. So now what
does that entail? It entailsalso. Now start prepping to make
it look real. That okay, thereis light in this place. And for us
to do that, we have to do itin a way that makes it very realistic.
There are some shops in thefront of the house that need to have
(17:59):
a yellow bulb in that house.How do you run power from that point
to that point? The generatortruck must not be on set for them
to see. So maybe you have topark like three streets away. Then
you need to run cables fromthat three streets away to bring
it down to where you have tohide your distro box. Then to light
up those pockets. Light areas.Some shops, some. Some houses that
(18:22):
have light. There's some. Youwant to take some light into some.
Some extreme corner of thehouse to throw it outside of the
building. You need to gainaccess to those spaces. You need
to run the cables, align thosecables to look very realistic. Not
for you to fly cables aroundthat they will notice that, okay,
these are film cables around.Those cables need to be well aligned.
(18:43):
Then we are also going toplant something like something we
call a light setup. We calloverhead lighting. Most times to
create like a moon lighting.Those lights are usually very big.
Now you need to run a verypowerful cable, very strong source
of light, maybe to extreme endof that street. Again, you need to
roll those very heavy lightsto that point. Then channel cables.
(19:07):
How those cables are going toget to that space without making
it. Because you're going tofilm the moments where you film the
ground. Imagine a point wherethey intend to shoot Manato running
on the ground. You want to seethe feet and you want to see the
ground. Now those cables needto be. You need to fly those cable,
make it realistic as if it'sthe normal street cable on a Lagos
(19:27):
road you get. So all thisprocess does not come in two hours,
three hours, it comes in avery long hours. So most times we,
we usually prep ahead for, forthose kind of setup. And for a case
like Christmas in Lagos, I hadlike a pre rigged scene. So once,
(19:48):
once we have the, the. Themain crew on set walking to a particular
time and we have an earlysetup, those ones will be there,
they start. I already have adesign, a map, a floor plan for them
to start ahead. So by the timewe get on set, we'll meet them up
and continue from. From. We'llall join and continue from that point
where they, where they areworking from. So most times exterior
(20:11):
shots, exterior building, toshoot at night are very, very hectic
to light. And it takes a lotof hours to set up.
Yeah. Okay. So I mean to be agaffer, you need to understand light
and darkness. For you, how didyou train your cinematic or lighting
(20:34):
eye?
Yeah, so I am. I am more of anexperimental person where. At my.
At my very free moments. Socoming from where I was I trained,
from coming from a theaterbackground that I have actually learned
to do a lot with light andplaying live with light in terms
(20:56):
of light and shadow and whatcontrast of light are from theater
and moving to film. I realizedthat most lights were being defined
in terms of how hard and howsoft those lights can come and how
detailed you want to make somedo some create some kind of light.
(21:18):
So moving to that space interms of filming, filming, I mean
in, in the film space, yourealize that there are, there are
ways you want. You want tofeel if you watch, if you watch films.
So I don't really go that I gogo to a cinema that I want to watch
a film for particular reason.I just want to watch some details
(21:40):
and if I have reference onsome pictures I've seen, I go through
it. I try to look for theprocess and see what they actually
did on that and how theywalked around it. Then I play around
most times. So everyopportunity that I have, with every
little light I have around mefrom my own free moment, I just create
(22:00):
something and look at it andlike, okay, I want to Try this. And
I share those ideas with someDPs. Most times when I get on set
with DPs I come close to themand share those ideas with them and
we put it into practice. Inmost sets that I get to. I've been
able to understand all thisbecause most times when I play with
those lights, I see thosepictures and I'm like yo, this is
(22:20):
actually looking like what Iwant to achieve. This is like actually
like what I really want toportray. And I put it into test,
I put it into action mosttimes. And yeah, I, I'm more of a
self taught person.
Yeah. Okay. All right. At thispoint, can you mention three random
(22:42):
facts about yourself?
When you say random facts.What, what, what are you.
Things that make you. Youlike, you might be. You might like
that type of music or youmight like reading books, things
like that.
So, so three, three, threerandom things about me is. First,
(23:04):
I really, I. I'm a happyperson. I like being happy. Two,
I like my. In as much as Ilove to be around where to see things.
Things happen. I try to createsome quiet moment for myself where
I go to the beach.
Yeah.
Though in a while I've notbeen able to do it because of the
(23:26):
hazardous happening around thequiet moment of those early morning
time. I drive to the beach, Ijust go to the beach and sit and
have like a quiet moment formyself. Yeah. The third one is I
love to drive. I love to drive.
And are you a Legosian?
(23:46):
Yay. This is a very strongquestion. So I am not a Legosian.
I am from the middle belt ofNigeria. I am from Kogi. Both born
and bred in Lagos. So thatmakes me a bit illegal.
Yeah. Because I mean loving todrive and then you know, with the
Lagos traffic.
(24:08):
Yeah.
I mean do you have aparticular road that allows you to
drive freely?
So, so when I tell people,okay, yes, I love driving. They're
like, ah, why do you likedriving in traffic? So, so the experience
of. I like to use the wordgrass to grace. Anyway, so the experience
from coming from that streetfood where the days of there was
(24:30):
nothing. You have to get tothis point. How do you get to this
point? Okay, you have to trek,you see. But the moment you start
trekking, you understanddifferent areas, you understand different
shortcuts. It is why you driveit. You know, when people that were
able to see passport will tellyou, okay, there's from. From Ikoyi
to. To. What's it called? ToIkeja. You just have to go through
(24:50):
Todd Milan Bridge. Do youunderstand? But I will tell you there
are different ways for you toget to Ikeja from Ikui. Then I also
tell you some faster route andshorter route to get to XYZ places.
Because I've actually,actually been in the space of, okay,
jump from this place to thisplace you want to go to. You want
(25:11):
to go see a show, you want togo. You want to go see, see an event.
I have always been intodifferent spaces and then there was,
there was no car. But you justhave to get to that point. And not
every time you have money to,to, to get a cab or to join to get
a boss. Sometimes you haveyour. Whatever amount you have on
(25:34):
you might not be able to dothe whole trip. So you have to make.
Find a way to cut it short andsay, okay, yes, I can get to this
point. Then I can get the nextbus from this point to my destination.
Okay, that's nice. So you'vebeen in the game for long and with
the advancement of lightingtechnology, how has that, you know,
(25:57):
improved your work recently?
So I, I have seen differentlights. I have seen, I've used different
light. And every day,everything. It keeps, it keeps, it
keeps. We keep having new technologies.
(26:21):
Yeah.
I will still say I don'treally want to put so people in the
box, but I would honestly sayARRI still has a lot to give us in
terms of light. But becausewe, how, like, how will I put it?
(26:42):
It's, it's. It's super expensive.
Yeah.
And it's super expensive tomaintain. We've been able to roll
around with Aputure and theNan Locks guys also. Yeah, they have
actually been doing goodbecause a lot of them actually came
in and they came with up withoptions of, okay, you can't do arri6k
(27:05):
because, you know, it's veryheavy. You have to. We have, we have
an, an advanced LED light thatlooks like that is almost like the
6K. You could use it and alsoachieve the same thing and less power
consumption. So those are the,those are the advantages that they
have. But trust me, thedurability of those lights when it
(27:27):
still goes back to arribecause RAC stays long and laster
than all these lights. Butagain, in all, every light that has
been coming out for the past,I would say for the past five years,
it's been very helpful. Sincethe invention of the Matlite, we're
able to, we've been able torun away a bit from the kino flows.
(27:48):
Like, okay, you need tosuspend the light. That is very Light
above your character. Thoseones will help you. Yeah. In all,
I would say every, everyopportunity that they've given to
themselves to bring in,bringing all different kind of competitive
light, they are very helpful,they've been useful. And yeah, it's,
it's, it's a, it's atechnology world. We keep revolving,
(28:09):
evolving in everything they bring.
Yeah. Okay, so how do youbalance creativity with practical
limitations of budget,location or equipment?
I have been, I've always.There's, okay, first, there's never
(28:29):
a project you hear that is,there's a budget. Every project here,
ah, there's no budget. Okay,how do we work around this? How do
we make this xyz? So far, inmy entire production that I've done,
I would say maybe Christmas inLagos has been the project that whatever
(28:51):
I asked for, whatever we askedfor on that project, we got like
95% of it, which for me I feelit was, was a good one. But aside
from that, every other projectcomes with the challenges. Like I
said, say in a situation whereDPs. So this, this also goes to,
goes to some DPs because someDPs would tell you they don't want
(29:14):
to bend and some DPs will tellyou, okay, we can bend to make this
work. And I, I work with a DP.
Yeah.
And DP's conversation is my, Imean DP's agreement is my last. Is
my last agreement also becausemost times when we see, okay, this
is what we intend to do andokay for us to light up a space like
this, if we can't get thisparticular feel you want, if we decide
(29:40):
to do it this way, picturewise, do you like it? Is it telling
the same story of what youwant? Once the DP approves it, it's
fine for me. But once the DPsays it's not working, trust me,
and the directors is not sohappy with it, trust me, we can't,
there's nothing we can doaround it. And some cases, like I
(30:03):
always say, director and dp,they once, once director is happy
with what the DP is giving thedirector, then we, we're good to
go. In some cases, I also havethe right to also make, make some
suggestion and tell them thispicture is not looking like what
we will get at the end of theday. And we come to terms most times.
(30:29):
Yeah. Okay. Do you think thereare enough gaffers in the Nigerian
film industry?
We have, we don't have enoughgaffer. So we have a lot of trainees
out There out there sayingthey are gaffer. But there's so many,
(30:49):
there's so many requirementsthat makes you a gaffer. Yeah, there's
so many. You need someexperiences to make you a gaffer.
But you know, most times oncethe gears are able to put up some
gears and and some productionsare like okay, unless somebody just
come with the light and yeah,we can tell them what to do and what
(31:12):
to do, what not to do andwould still achieve things. Yes,
in some cases it works. Andnumber one, downtime in that production
is very. Is very key. Numbertwo hazard under production is very
key number. Number three, thetrust me, the outcome of that project
(31:33):
will not be as the same aswhen you have a professional gaffer
on that stage. In some cases Iwould not mention name but in some
cases I've seen the productionwhere a DP is asking a gaffer to
go into the beach with an HMIlight a stand and they're going to
run the power to it. Thank Godsomebody was on that set and the
(31:58):
person insisted that. No, Ithink it was the director that insisted
that they shouldn't that the.Because the director actually called
me and said this was what wasgoing to happen and I'm like how
this is you killing a thousandpeople on the set. Now, now, now,
now, now. And yeah, becausesome deep is like okay, yes. Yeah,
this is my idea, this is whatI want. Okay, make it happen. Put
(32:19):
it there, make it happen. Youdon't go extra mile to do some things
if you don't have aprofessional. There are ways you
could actually put thoselights in that spaces and also light
those things. But as the factthat the person is not a professional
gaffer, you are going to havea problem and there's going to be
an hazard. Yeah, yeah. So aswith this, I think it actually calls
for a lot of master classwhich I know some, some. Some guys
(32:43):
are actually like Lagos lightscene. What's it called? Is it legal
Lighting master class actuallyhad a master class on lighting at
some point where they had.Yeah, I think Justin came to Nigeria
and I think they had it withina JAI studio Next Dot studio. Yeah.
(33:03):
If there is opportunity tohave master class to train some of
these guys, some of these bestboys that potential that has potential
to become gaffers tomorrow.Yeah, opportunities like that would
definitely happen. If it'sgoing to happen, I'm always happy
to teach. I. I did a masterclass with CC Hub. I also did for
(33:24):
Multi Choice Talent Factoryalso. And yeah, with that I think
some basic experience alsoAlso needs to be passed to this young
generation of gaffers. Wejust, I mean electricians or runners
or best, but we just feel. Orthey just come up one day and say,
yes, already they are gaffer.
Yeah. Okay. So like, I guessmore developed industries have this
(33:48):
whole ladder you have toclimb. So to be a gaffer, you have
to be a best boy before youmove. Like for you. What, what would
you advise is like a goodpathway for a gaffer to gain a certain
number of skills, to be wellrounded and, you know, be able to
lead that department.
(34:10):
So I feel, I feel the factthat we were not enough doesn't mean
that there won't be spaces tolearn. I could mention some names
I own myself. I own a company,one house lighting crew. Stanley
is also a gaffer. Stanley hasa company called smoothshore. Ismail
(34:32):
has a license company alsocalled Easy Film. Godwin Lawani also
has a license company calledGD Lighting. I think Femi Sway also
has a company. There's anothergaffer called Muri that also has
a lighting company. Anothergaffer I know named Daniel also has
a company. I feel that thereare opportunities in these spaces
(34:54):
where these guys can learnthrough now what are they learning?
They're learning all. Iunderstand that a lot of them would
have seen, okay, I understandhow to plug this light to this light.
But there are tends to thesethings, their process to these things,
their channels to when you geton set, how you work when you get
on set, what you do in yourown department when you get on set,
are you starting to be. Let'simagine someone that is a runner.
(35:17):
The runner comes on set and doevery bit everything they do on that
set in the lightingdepartment. So at that point, well,
after, after Leonard goesaround to see everything everybody
is doing, Elena now starts towork with the spark. From the spark,
it comes to the assistant.From the assistant, he walks up to.
(35:38):
I mean, sorry, before theassistant works with the cabler.
But here, back here we don'thave the cablers. So we just move
from the spark. We move withthis, with the assistant. Then the
best boy. Most of all, theseguys needs to work with the best
boy. The best boy is the. Isthe other eye of the gaffer. So he
knows exactly what the gaffermeans. He knows exactly what the
gaffer is trying to do. Somost times, once the gaffer finishes
(36:00):
setting up, the next in chargeis the best boy. So a lot of them
used to actually work close tothis best boy. Understand all these
lessons, all these experiment,experience that these guys are gathering
before you could push up andsay you're a gaffer. Because if you
don't, if you don't cross thatspace, you can't just jump from an
(36:20):
assistant and say you're agaffer. You can't just jump from
a spark and say you're agaffer because the spark is actually
practically running cables.Making sure you have powers in that
space, Making sure everythingis fine in that space. But again,
you can grow from that spaceto become a gaffer tomorrow. A lot
of like some gaffers, somegaffers were DPs. I mean some gaffers
became DP at some particulartime of their life. So it is a process.
(36:43):
And when there's a certainlevel of, of of that space, you will
become a gaffer. You don'tjust jump to that space.
Yeah. If you aren't a gaffer,what other rule on set would you
probably enjoy? Ah.
That would be a Steadicam operator.
(37:06):
Okay. What is it about that role?
So I, I kind of like the waythe Steadicam operators operate and
I kind of like the way the.They take their shots most times.
Honestly, if not for time'ssake and for availability of my,
of me as an individual, as aperson, I would have actually take
(37:27):
some time just to go play,have fun in that space to see what
it looks like. Because I'vealways imagined myself carrying that
rig and taking a particularshot because I could most times when
I see the dp explain what hewants to those guys and I see the
way they, they take thoseshots, like it gives me joy. It gives
(37:51):
me joy the way lighting givesme joy. Because once time, once I'm
setting up, I'm happy settingup. And once I see my picture of
what I'm, what I create, whatI create in, in a frame, I just go,
I just go feel.
Yeah. Do you have a favoritefilm or TV series that you'd like
to share with us?
They say your last job, yourlast major job is his best is as
(38:15):
your best job. So I think Ishould pick Christmas in Lagos over
any for now. And yeah, someare still in, some are still in post
still coming up. But Christmasin Lagos is the last. I think that
is, that's out there now. Andyeah, I would say for real first
is for me. Yeah. I find myselfin a situation where I asked for
(38:35):
100. I got a 95 in terms of equipment.
Yeah.
So that for me gave me lotsof, a lot of opportunities to play
with, to play with lights andto play with Every ideas myself and
the DP share together. Andyeah, it was, it was actually a fantastic
journey from the preproduction. It was one of the projects
(38:58):
I had more time to add a preproduction on. And you were engaged.
When I say engage, you likethe production engaged you, not like
okay, you're prepping theproduction. You're not engaged. The
way we live back here, youneed to focus on other things to
keep you going. So the momentswhere you all feel like, okay, you're
engaged, so why are you nowdistracting yourself too much not
(39:21):
to achieve this. So we hadmore time to prep and we had more
time to put the lots together.Like I was making example, I was
telling stories where we haveto work at times I need to make a
call for the pre rigged teamto always be on ground to rig up
while we are prepping, whilewe are trying to catch some rest
for the following day shoot.And yeah, we were doing our normal
(39:44):
12 hours and the 12 hourswe're not meeting up the 12 hours.
At times we shoot for eighthours and we're done for the day.
Sometimes seven hours are donefor the day. So those kind of projects,
a project like this will giveyou more time to be very creative,
will give you more time not topanic while trying to meet up time.
Give you more time to alsohave the ad not to come hasten you
(40:07):
and ask you what time, whattime, what time? No, everybody knows
what they want to do. You planfor it, you're on point, you have
your team on ground. And yeah,it was from the director space to
the DP space to everydepartment on that project. Everybody
came up, came up to their Agame and yeah, I was, I was happy
(40:29):
we did that. We did CIA.
Okay, that's lovely. So nowhow about a film that you have watched
that you really enjoy. It'slike Brotherhood. Brotherhood. Did
you work on that one?
Yes, I did.
What I was okay watching thefilm back. It was just like a, A
(40:50):
movie you enjoyed.
Yes, honestly, becauseBrotherhood also was a project I
hold dear to my heart. Alsolike I was trying to explain that
we had a lot of gears for, forChristmas in Lagos. Brotherhood.
We had, but it wasn't enough.It was, it wasn't enough. So we,
(41:13):
we were able to make a lot ofthings work. We were able to put
some, some difficultsituations into an easy situation.
I could remember a day workingwith a DP that his energy is more
as a soft energy. Like it'slike someone that would shoot a Christmas
(41:33):
in Lagos and be happy. Sobecause you need that less hour of
shoot brotherhood, we wereshooting to super late. Like we.
We had our. The downtime whereyou get to space and area boys are
out there disturbing you,eating out of the better part of
the day. The better part ofthe day. But you have to make things
(41:53):
work. And there are somesituation where locations were extremely
far from each other. I'll givean instance of a particular scene.
Okay, no one is. One of thescenes that gives me more joy is
where we had the. The policecars that were shot on CMS road.
(42:15):
It was. It took us, we startedsetting up from I think from around
9 in the morning till 9 or 10in the morning to like 6 in the evening
to put up that scene. It was.It was a huge setup. We had to set
up lights from that CMSpedestrian bridge. I had to go down
(42:35):
that if. You know that if youare very conversant with that road.
It's a very long road andmajor, major road. Major road to
settle. So we had time to makesure we run cables, create all the
aesthetics we're looking for.And when we shot that scene, when
I saw it during the premiere,I was like, yes, we made this come
(43:00):
to life. I was so proud. I washappy. Okay. The other one was where
we had to help. The worstsituation to make it a memorable
one was we had a mad traveltime. We shot in Lekki phase one
and we had to go to CMS toshoot the second part of that same
(43:20):
scene. We shot in Lekki phaseone. Then on that same evening which
we were going to shoot tilllike midnight, like say like 2, 3.
The DP was extremely tired.All he needed was let's go home.
We just have to just seewhat's going on. But we had to shoot
that scene because productionhas already paid for extra gears.
(43:41):
We had an extra generatorcoming. We had an extra 12k lights
coming. We need to light ourentire bridge where we have the bunny
camp and unicorn axis of thatbridge. So we have to put some light
in that place. Also with the.In the park where you have that military
park where going to the USEmbassy, we have to light up inside
that bit. Also there's someparticular parts we have to also
(44:03):
put some lights in. At thatpoint, the DP was extremely tired.
He wanted to go home. Hecouldn't do anything. So I was like,
bro, you know what? This setupis going to take us like four hours.
Yeah, why not go sit in thecab, get an ac. Lele put on ac, then
you sleep. Then we're going toset up and trust me, we, we had that
set up at the end of the day,the scene to shut up, that scene
(44:24):
within that, I'm not sure. Weused up to an hour to shoot up that,
to shoot the scene and wecalled it on that day. But again,
it was one of the mostheaviest day that we had on that
set. But what do we do? Wehave to make, we have to make things
work. We have to pull up, lookand make every, utilize every opportunity
we had to make that place soto make that scene come to life,
(44:45):
which we did. And I was happyat the end of the day because when
I watched that film, each timeI watched it, I keep remembering
every scenario that happenedon that project. But again, it was
a good one at the end of theday. And that gave my second ambca.
Yeah. Okay, let's go to themvc. Congrats on your two wins.
(45:07):
Thank you.
Thank you. So, I mean thereare not many award bodies that award
gaffers or lighting designers.Why is that recognition important?
So for me, I first, I want tokeep thanking God that he actually
came when I needed it most.The first one. We've been working
(45:33):
for it. We've been workinglike we've been working behind the
scene. And I feel like thereshould be a way for us to get recognized.
And I didn't know how ithappened, but I realized that when
AMC started seeing thecategory and the very first ambc,
I think I was actually there,but I was there to set up the, I
(45:58):
think the walkway light. And Iwas saying to myself, this should
be an award for me someday.So. And the first one actually came
on a very, on a very good day.We, I wasn't in the country. There
was a project I was working onthat was on Tour Reincarnation and
(46:19):
we were basically premierpremiering in, in, in France on that
day. And I could, I knew itwas, it was that same day they were
having the NBC. I was tryingto, I was panicking because I honestly
wanted to feel the environmentand also see what it looks like and
also experience it because Iwas, I was actually looking forward
(46:41):
to win. But again I alsodidn't want to get distracted so
I had to put up my phonebecause it started almost the same
time. We started at 8 o' clockor the show started at 8 o' clock
and the, I think the cyclingalso from 8 o' clock Nigerian time
also.
Yeah.
So we, we. I put up my phonethen after my show getting a cutting
(47:04):
call and I put on my phone thenext Thing I was saying was congratulations.
I was like, this is, this is,this is actually a blessing, a premiere
and winning the AMBCA. Thesecond one came my 20th year in the
industry, which was 2003. So Iwas like, both of them came in as
(47:25):
a blessing. And to date, Ikeep thanking God and it was history
for me. And it's something toalways write to me about.
Yeah. Okay. So you talkedabout, you know, your mentor when
you started out at theworkshop. What was some of the key
lessons you learned? What hasguided you this far in your career?
(47:51):
All right, so Tafi Oyewusi ishis name and he's popularly known
as Tafi, apparently is. Heleft lighting for his wife. He's
currently in Switzerland. Heleft lighting for his wife. Now he's
now a full time grip man. He'sone of the best grip guy in Zurich
in Switzerland. Yeah. Solearning under Taffy and seeing him
(48:15):
as a mentor was actually partof my success story. I learned a
lot, a lot from Safi. Safi isthis man that likes to pass knowledge.
And in my team, my guys, myteam guys are 16 in number. My crew
are 16 in number. And I'lltell you, I can gladly close my eyes
(48:38):
and walk away from every spaceand ask them questions about me.
And you would keep hearingeverything. Maybe out of 100, you
could learn 98 positive thingsabout me. So these are some of the
things I learned from him. Hewas a very good and trustworthy leader
that you never know is aleader when, except maybe when we're
(49:01):
done with work. That's whenyou now realize that, oh, I think
that's the boss. He's neverseen himself in that space. You see,
once we get on set, we'reworking. Everybody works like we're
here to work. Then when we'redone, the only reason or the only
way you see him as a boss ismaybe seeing someone sitting in front
of us, advising or talking tous or mentoring us and telling us
some things. That's when youknow he's a boss. Some. Those are
(49:24):
some of the steps I learnedfrom him. And some of the steps I
also learned from him is alsowhatever you learn, pass it to the
next person because you wanteverybody to grow.
Yeah.
And I've always been doingthat. Any space I get to. I always
try to. When I see what Iknow, what I really can pass at that
moment, I. I don't let it go.If it's for me to make, to advise
(49:48):
you to get to the next space.And I know you Needed my advice,
needed my own little knowledgeto, to get there I would pass it
on to you. It's like youpassing the button when you get to
certain space. I've been ableto learn that from and also try to
be happy. I'm always an happyperson and when I met him he's is
we had the same energy andthat has always been my, my saving
(50:12):
grace in my difficult times.You never know when I'm not in the
space of getting angry butagain most times when you see me,
I'm always happy. So yourather don't know where my downtime
is. So when I'm happy you justlook at this guy's a happy guy and
he keeps moving and thatactually keep him kept me moving.
Whenever I'm having any slow.But the fact that I try to keep up
(50:36):
the happy mood and happymoment of my life, I keep myself
moving. Safi has also been avery hard working person that never
lets money come before hisideas, his creative moments, his
delivery. If I, if I agree tobe on a project, I don't work on
(50:58):
a project on pt. So once I'mon the projects, maybe for XYZ reason
is a low budget project. Idon't work on the project like it's
a low budget project. Take itas my personal project. I take it
with all my art and I deliver.Because your last job is best as
good as your best job. So thatlesson has always been been part
of the things he has taughtme. And yeah I think basically those,
(51:22):
those are, those are thepoints that I learned from him. And
honestly it has actually keptme moving till tomorrow.
That's lovely.
Yeah.
So now for the Niger filmmakertradition, can you share with the
audience a film you recommendthem to watch?
(51:47):
Aside from, from the films I worked.
On or the films generallyspeaking, any film it could be what
you've worked on or totallyunrelated stuff.
I think I saw one second. Thisis you put him in a hot box right
now. I'll pick a series for now.
(52:19):
Okay.
Because right now things arescattering for my day because I,
I just saw, I just saw thatlike two weeks ago. I mean last month.
Sorry. To kill a monkey.
Yeah.
My, my friend, my friend didan amazing job. Both of them did.
I mean everybody did anamazing job. But the gaffer is also
my friend. Also Stanley.Stanley did a very good job as a
(52:40):
director of photography withmy very good guy. Also Cabello did
a very good job on the project also.
Okay, nice. Okay. So you know,as an industry we have you know,
grown in strides. But there'sstill room for improvement for you.
Like, what was that one thingthat you think should be a priority
(53:04):
in us improving as an industry?
I think one that would say.And I think some production projects
have actually started workingon it. The work time. The work hour
for projects. Yeah, becausetrust me, we. The 12 hour that we
(53:26):
give, that we try to work onnow is actually helping. Yeah, I
did a project in a BookTube, Ithink, two months ago. Yes, no, sorry,
in July. I did a project inJuly and. No, I think it was in June.
Yeah, June into July. And theday one of that shoot, we wrapped
(53:46):
at 3pm in the afternoon, whichfor me was that's a better way to
work and go relax and getyourself ready for the next day of
work. Because most times if weworked too late and we still have
early call time, trust me,we're just. We're just pushing ourselves
to work. We're not beingcreative. We're not going to be creative
to that work you get. So thoseare the. That's. That's my first.
(54:08):
That's my first challenge. Ifwe can. If we can keep to that 12
hours of work, it is. It isgoing to help us do a lot. So I feel
in as much as, yes, we havethe Netflix, the Amazon thing happening
now, and we're actually tryingto fight around budget on project.
Again, if you want a lionlook, then don't go. Don't go for
(54:33):
a cut budget. If you want alion look, then be ready to go for
a lion budget for you toreally get what you want. But again,
if you know you really want todo it well, then do it right. Most
projects want you to go extramile, kill everything, bring gears,
and they want to get a 50%discount on those gears. Yeah, getting
a 50% discount on those gearis not a problem. But again, are
(54:57):
you getting the quality gearsat that particular time? Because
some. I don't want to saythis, but again, in some cases, gaffers
have been caught out of theconversations when they're having
those. When producers arehaving conversations with Gear House
and say, okay, they say, okay,we're giving you all this equipment
and they have a negotiation.But when the negotiation happens,
(55:18):
they realize that they can'tgive you all those things, then you
are now in a trap because nowyou end up getting what the gear
else is going to give you. So.So once the gearhouse gives you that,
then they leave you to battlewith it and find a way to make it
work. Are you making magic?You have to make magic. So in most
cases, putting us into tightcorner is not the right thing to
(55:42):
do.
Okay. All right. So how canpeople keep up with, you know, projects
you're part of and justgeneral updates from you? How can
people keep up?
My Instagram is always openfor me. Yeah, I've actually not posted
(56:05):
some things in the world justfor some reason, personal reasons,
but it's actually very active.My story is always active because
I'm trying to also compilesome. Some pictures because those
projects are not out and theBTS pictures cannot be released now.
Some currently just waitingfor them. So some other things and
some other things I'm doingare actually popping on my Instagram
(56:25):
page.
Okay, what's your handle?
Mato Light. M A T O L I G H Tat Mato Light.
All right. Nice one. Thanks,Matthew, for coming on the podcast.
Thank you, sir. Thank you somuch for having me.
We have come to the end ofthis episode. Remember to rate and
(56:47):
review the podcast. You canalso follow me on Instagram, Facebook
and Xadega Film and thepodcast. You can now support the
podcast by clicking on thelink in the show notes. See you on
the next episode. Have a good one.
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