My name is Oluba Ronald and I am a filmmaker. Months ago, I was a Gulu Sisi Film Lab student. This blog is about the first time I directed a Tv series. I recall clearly, I was walking home, 6km away from school when I received a call. I had been selected for internship, and I was going to be among the directors for a Tv series!
I don’t think I’ve ever been that happy, in fact, I knelt in the middle of the road and thanked God because my journey in film has been what one would say a battled way out.
A week later we arrived in Mukono at the Dilstories studio, four of us from Gulu. And before I knew it work had begun. As a director you don’t just chill around, we were asked to plan and design a production schedule. My goodness, I didn’t know what that was. I was so green that I had to just sit back and watch. There were a series of new things I had to learn like planning for the shoot, arranging the scenes, breaking the script, generating the location, scene and characters report from the Scenarist software. For real, this was the promised land.
Pre-production got done and we had a meeting for the production to kick-start, and boom, the lead cast decided to quit. We had to extend the shooting for one more day. Luckily, we found a new cast. Friday came and real work began; to be honest I was a bit scared to be the first director to open the shooting, so I decided to be a props guy for a bit.
First forward to the second week of shooting, I stepped in to direct. I had 10 pages on my schedule to cover. For the first time, I held the director’s monitor (Oluba the Director). O my, that feeling of being in control. Before I knew it, it was 1pm and I had done only 3 pages out of 10! That’s where trouble came in, I felt I was so slow, way too slow for a tv series. I ended the day with 7 pages done, a badly framed shot which required a reshoot. I spent the night thinking of a way to get better.
First forward once again, we were now weeks into the shooting and the tension was real. Days were longer but thankfully I was faster. The executive producer would ask if there were any delays on set and it would sometimes be me to answer. At a certain point, the actors started asking me to be the director for a couple of days. We were three directors, so each directed twice a week. I spoke to them and they agreed. At first, I felt overwhelmed with the added days but later I realized I was getting better at directing.
One night the executive producer asked me what I felt wasn’t fine. I told him I still felt like I was slow and not yet good (There is a day I shot a scene with actors wearing wrong costume.) You can read about that day here. So, he gave me a magic trick; planning ahead the shot list for easy directing and having my A.D confirm costume with the costume designer before shooting.
Charlie one of the mentors gave me something I’ll carry forever, he told me, “With actors, you should mind about their emotions but don’t be too hard or harsh on them. Talk to them nicely and you’ll get what you’re looking for.”
There were hard days on set that I almost felt like backing out. There was a day Sanyu one of the directors and producer cried like half of the day. Well, I didn’t cry but felt so discouraged. That day we were shooting scenes that required a particular actor to be fully available on set, but he left during the lunch break. We got stuck. It was a terrible day. We had to end it with only four pages shot. By the way, Sanyu tends to cry, you can also read about another time she cried here.
Like Johnson one of the mentors said, I was not among the Tatu Taps on Love Tv series crew by luck. I was chosen because I am good at what I do. Now I am a completely different scriptwriter and director. I am ready to walk into every storm of film confidently. Thank you so much Sisi, that internship gave me skills and now I can proudly tell people I am a filmmaker.
Quotes from some of the crew members.
Nelly
Gaffer
“Working as a gaffer on Tatu Taps on Love was a truly rewarding experience
I’m grateful to have collaborated with such a dedicated and talented team.
Everyone brought a positive spirit to set, which made the entire process smooth and enjoyable and made a big difference in bringing the project to life.
The warmth of the entire crew, along with a team that was skilled and supportive throughout the production, made it an especially memorable experience.”
Sally
Director
“I was one of the Writers and Directors of this series. The shooting was “tight” and had a lot of lessons to take home. It was a collaborative effort from everyone who had a role to play on set. As a Director It also involved extra hours of work and improvisation to make sure that the shoot went on. Of course, just like any project, it had it’s challenges like technical issues leading to delays, butting of heads, disagreements to find agreement, ego issues among others. All in all, I’m grateful to Sisi Film lab for the opportunity to learn and to have participated in my first ever Series.”
Reagan
DP
“It was a real turbulence on ground I can say. Very many fights on set and I fighting for my shot after getting it the costume designer approaches saying it is a wrong Costume! You can imagine. But there was strong coordination both from casts and crew. I want to appreciate everyone for doing their best towards the project up to the last slate.”
Aaron
Sound operator
“I was recording sound on Tatu Taps on Love. On set, to come up with something great you need teamwork, discipline, patience and focus.”
Hasifa
Producer
“The crew exhibited exceptional organizational skills and teamwork. We turned challenges into structure and progress and handled chaos with calm and clarity.”
