Bonus footage: The Making of Patrice vs. Mulele

I always have a video camera taking footage of what happens behind the camera when we shoot a movie. Here's a clip. Congo Movie DVD clip: The making of Patrice versus Mulele

Episode 3: Patrice vs. Mulele

We shot this footage in February 2007. This scene takes place after the Maitre/Mbombo scene. I felt that this is a strong scene to come out with, so true 'Hollywood-style' we filmed this out of sequence. The music from the film GLADIATOR is temporary, and will be replaced with original music when its re-edited. The text scroll is the directors idea and refers to a scenes that takes place after the Maitre/Mbombo scene. We'll add original music when its officially released.Another addition to the "Lost Episode" collection.

Episode 2: Maitre versus Chief of Staff Mbombo

We shot this footage in May 2007 when we shot the 'Geneva vs Hatari' episode, in fact its a continuing of the 'Geneva/Hatari' episode. It features Ben Ochieng (Maitre) and Chief of Staff Mbombo (Elizabeth Ochieng). When this is officially released, we'll add some music to it. This is another addition to the "Lost Episode" collection. Enjoy. Congo Movie DVD preview 1: Maitre vs Secretary Mbombo

Episode 1: Geneva vs. Hatari

We shot this back in May 2007. It stars Kristie Latray (Geneva) and Joram Moreka (Hatari). It was a cool shoot, though the scene was written to take place in the courtyard that you see through the glass instead of inside the restaurant. I was told that the planes and helicopters flying above were causing a problem with audio. It was cool to see the words on paper come to live. This footage will soon be part of our "lost episodes" collections. More on that later. Enjoy.

Congo Movie DVD preview 2: Geneva vs. Hatari

Flashback: Lets start at the beginning

We shot some episodes from the Congo movie since I last posted here in early February 2007. So lets catch up in our conversations by posting some of the clips we shot. Enjoy the movie footage above...

Said has returned....

Gabcast! The Congo Movie #1

Gabcast! Updates and coming dates #5 - Real friends like Claudia Jordan

I talk about not underestimating your self-worth in an industry where people are phony....

June 30th! Happy Independence Day to The Democratic Republic Of The Congo!

Latest audio post from Said

Photos of me on recent Nollywood Conference panel

Hey folks, Wireimage.com (they shoot all the big Hollywood events) took photos of me speaking on the Film Finance panel that took place at the recent Nollywood Conference here in Los Angeles. The photos all appear on one sheet, their big enough to see, but you can't click them to get bigger without a subscription:

http://www.wireimage.com/GalleryListing.asp?navtyp=SRH&logsrch=1&str=dibinga&sfld=C Below are two photographs that a friend of mine took of me.. . Enjoy, Said

I attended the Nollywood Conference this past Friday and Saturday

Hello all!

How you doing?

This past Saturday I was a panelist at the Nollywood Foundation Conference that took place in Los Angeles. For those that don’t know what "Nollywood" is, it’s the Nigerian Film Industry and it’s the third biggest film production center in the world. Nollywood grosses about $200 – $300 million US dollars a year (the Nigerian currency is called as the “Naira”.

There were great panels, and I met many fellow media people, the majority Nigerians who are based in Hollywood, and they’re doing things, producing, writing, acting, and directing.

Unlike many other film festivals which tend to be filled by the lost and the desperate and the big-headed who have know money acting like they do; this was strictly a conference where ideas were shared, and relationships were either developed, or strengthened. What I noticed was that there were many people in attendence that are active in the industries both here and in Nigeria / Continental Africa. Many people from Nigeria and across the US came to LA to participate. Many didn’t come looking for handouts or begging to be in someone’s film like I see at other film festivals. Folks came to network and to acquire new strategies.

Panels were varied. I sat on an informative (for the audience and for myself) panel on Friday that talked about “Film Financing”. The Saturday panel was about reaching out and engaging the Diaspora. This was the first time I saw a panel that talked about reaching out to the African global community actually had Africans sitting on the panel.

There was a panel about women in film and Nollywood. This panel at times got heated, and the women made sure to get their point across!!!

Okay, that’s all for now, when I get my photos developed, I’ll be sure to post them here!

Later on,

Said

Thoughts from actress Carrie Fisher

"Acting engenders and harbours qualities that are best left way behind in adolesence. People-pleasing, going on those interviews and jamming your whole personality into getting the job, ingratiating yourself to people you wouldn't f***ing spit on if they were on fire." Carrie Fisher (Actress, best known as Princess Leia in STAR WARS series)

Words of Support For Your Dreams

Photograph of me on movie set.

(This picture was taken towards the end of the night, and trust me I am exhausted!)

Scene #77, reverse shoot.

This is the reverse shot of SCENE #77. The actor standing to the right is good. Actually, Liney (standing to the right) is studying to be a Computer Engineer. He was awesome; he and Trey (the man in the previous photo lying in the bed with a bandage on his head) (also a great actor) shot a powerful scene earlier in the day. The gentleman holding the camera is the cinematographer, his name is Francisco and he's from Costa Rica. It was hot on this location, HOT!!! A great team.

Scene #77 from movie I'm working on

This is Scene # 77 from my friends’ feature-length film that we started filming this past weekend. I'm not going to say to much since the director didn't say we could talk about it but I will tell you that it was a fun shoot. I served as Script Supervisor, which means that I am responsible for continuity, issues (repeating dialogue correctly, matching wardrobe. In this sceen they are setting up the scene to eb filled. The guy in the bed is one of the lead actors and he's having make-up applied to him. The guy to the left holding the camera is the Cinematographer for the film (his job is to make sure the film looks good. To the far right, you can see the feet of the writer/director. The whole team was professional. I became a part of this project after I met the producer on the set of a film I worked on earlier in the weekend.

The Untitled New Orleans Project

When a mutant come callin'. 'Nuf said.

Talking to you from North Hollywood...

The TEARS OF THE SUN mentality

Hello my blog readers!

My friend Kristie made a good point the other day, about how when people are helping other people from another culture; they think they’re doing the right thing, that their behavior and thinking is pure. But when someone from the culture that the cared for person comes tells the caretaker that hte caretaker is being racist, the caretaker doesn’t believe that.

I say that when the image of what I know the image of the Continental African to be, doesn’t match the image that non-Continental Africans have of what a Continental African should be in their mind, that person will tell me that the Continental Africans that I present aren’t realistic.

Its like a person saying they aren’t racist towards a group of people because they have friends from that group of people. The non-Mexican will say, “I’m not racist against Mexican people. I have Mexicans friends.” The non-Mexican that said that sees the statement one way, the Mexican hearing it sees that statement in a different light.

Their line of thinking is a mixture of prejudice and racism. It’s what I call the TEARS OF THE SUN SYNDROME”. People, you know me, I'm oing to mention names.

In that movie, the white female doctor that is being rescued never referred to the “Nigerian” refugees as Nigerians, or whatever ethnic group they came from, no, the white doctor kept referring to her patients as “My People.” That’s a colonial statement. Thankfully, one of the black Special Forces said to Bruce Willis, “these are my people too.” That’s a strong positive statement. That’s not colonial.

The reason we weren’t able to option the Rwandan Hutu Refugee Book was because the people we were dealing with weren’t honest with us, and they were of the colonial mind, especially the guy who I thought was sincere, Ivan Godfried. After several rounds of mis-communications, when Ivan and I finally spoke on the phone I felt that we had had a great conversation. I felt that the deal should be closed sometime soon. It would turn out people that I was wrong.

You see, I sent Ivan the Once Upon A Time In The Congo screenplay to let him know how deep that I wanted to do the Rwandan Hutu refugee book. Instead, he wrote me back saying that my portrayal of the Congolese, Rwandans, Burundians, wasn’t realistic. That I was presenting a negative image of the Rwandans, that I made false accusations against the UN and whatnot. He said that I didn’t know anything about DRCongo and that I was going to “Hollywoodize” the Rwandan Refugee Book. I was stunned. Ivan didn’t even bother to ask me any questions, nor even make suggestions about the project.

The sad thing people, is that my team and I constantly said that we wanted to produce Ivans client, Beatrice book, the way it was written. We weren’t going to change anything.

Mind you, everything that I wrote regarding Rwanda, Uganda, Congo, what-have-you, was based on fact, and that the fictional aspect was for the Western audience to better understand the story..

Ivan was being a racist, and the author of the book, Beatrice, trusted Ivan and later I would find out, a translator named Julia Emerson, to represent her. I’m not saying Ivan is a rasicet, I odn’t know him to say that.

I will say that he was racist in his criticism, he sounded like the Belgians that colonized Congo. He may not see it that way because the Africans like Beatrice allow him to act that way since they may not know better. He had the TEARS OF THE SUN mentality.

Later, the translator of the book, Julia Emerson, revealed that she was secretly involved in the negotiations, even though mind you she was only the translator on the book. She sends me an email lecturing me about Africa, and blah, blah, blah. That I wanted to use the book as a vehicle for myself. That the book “is a discussion piece.”

That’s not what Julia said when I spoke to her on the phone; she said that “the truth needs to come out.” Mind you, when Julia and I first spoke 4 months ago, I sent her the Congo script and for the 4 months since she received the script, she never said anything. Now Julia has an opinion because she didn’t like what I wrote back to Ivan and everyone else he included in his hostile email when he said they didn’t want to do business with us.

She has the TEARS OF THE SUN mentality. They think they were doing Beatrice (the writer) a favor, but in the end they did her a great disservice. Beatrice is like a lot of people who puts their trust in people instead fo first speaking for themselves.

So the issue of trying to obtain Beatrice’s Rwanda Hutu Refugee book is over. My team wasted a lot of time with Ivan and his people like Julia. They weren’t honest. The Congo script is an orange, Beatrice’ book is an apple, but Ivan shredded the Congo script thinking that we were going to do Beatrice book like the Congo script.

We asked for a teleconference with Beatrice more than once, Ivan didn’t want to do that. Ivan and his team felt it was easier to reside in their world of assumptions and prejudice, they found it easier to make judgments about me when they don’t know anything about me. They didn’t even to make the effort, and in my life when someone doesn’t want to know you, they don’t respect you. Ivan and is people didn’t respect us, so it’s good that the negotiations came to an end. Remember folks, I had walked away from this deal twice and it was Ivan that came to us wanting to make the deal happen.

Then Ivan turns around and attacks us, attacks my Congo script, makes racist comments, then his silent partner Julia comes out of the closet to give her negative opinion and not once did they make an effort to know me, ask me questions to see how I wanted to do the project.

I know that this is a blessing in disguise. Ivan Godfired and Julia Emerson prevented a great story from being told. Beatrice let it happen since Ivan and Julia represent her, so Beatrice has to shoulder much of the blame.

We did our part in good faith. They didn’t.

I was disappointed, but these are the kind of things, these are the kind of people that make producing films so difficult.

But let me tell you what I told them; I don’t need the book to tell the story. One million Rwandan Hutu refugees fled into Congo in 1996, I can find one of them to make their story into a film.

Talk to you guys later!

Said has returned to his Blog!

It has really been a long time since we’ve spoken, hasn’t it? Much to talk about. Both the Roman Emperor project and the Ethiopian Project is coming along well. The treatment has been written for both, each coming in at about 15 pages. I rarely write a treatment, I usually just write the screenplay. Its weird I know, but when I write, I hear the voices talking in my head, I see the images in my mind, it just flows. For example, the Ethiopian Project, when I finished the treatment and showed it to a few friends of mine from Ethiopia and Eritrea, they were really moved by the writing. I was deeply honored since this is part of their history. If I could draw some of the images that are in my head when I wrote the treatment, you would see a spectacular movie!!!! I’m going to start writing the scripts tomorrow, but first I need to write the treatment for The Holocaust War, about the events in Central Africa. If you like Saving Private Ryan, Thirteen Days, Oliver Stones JFK, you’ll love this project. It tells exactly what happened in Congo, Rwanda, and Burundi. This year I’m focusing on producing the projects. An audience out there thats not being served. Well, I’m going to serve them! Okay. I’ll be back later today and go into details about each project. Latter on, Said

Where have I been!?!?!?!?!?

Its been a looooong time since I last post! Let me tell you, much has been happening since my last post, so check back in a few hours and read all about it!!!!

Hi!!!! Where have I been?!?!?!?!

Whew, when was the last time I posted here? April 7th? Man, that's too long! So much has been goingon, so let me ask that you check back here in a few hours so that I can give you the full update!

Quote of The Day: Blair Underwood

[From IMDB.COM] "It's so easy to sell your soul or sell out or cop out, and what it really comes down to is choices. If you have some kind of game plan, or at least a faith in your ability, it doesn't matter if this town validates you or not because you're already validated by your gifts. I just try to stay focused on what I have to offer."

What you heard in the previous audio blog.

Audio of scene between Mulele and Patrice

On April 29th we shoot the cemetary scene.

In the next post, which is an audio post, I am reading some dialogue from the cemetery scene. I am reading both Patrice’s and Mulele’s role. I couldn't do the whole thing because the recording time wasn’t long enough. On April 29 we’re going to do a test shot of the two of them in this scene. We’re going to shoot it in Griffith Park, a park located in Los Angeles. Then later on in May, we’re going to film this scene. I’m looking forward to it. So enjoy the audio-clip, and I’ll talk to you later.

Thanks for listening,

Said