Kinetik

2013-11-24T04:57:00.000-08:00

2013-11-24T04:14:00.005-08:00

Will Nigerians Love To Watch A Made-In-Nigeria Animated Video?

2013-02-17T08:37:00.000-08:00

Let me start by thanking those who have sent in their feedback regarding the e-comic. On behalf of our small team I appreciate exceedingly. I still await those who have yet to. Pending the time that I thought I'd entertain you guys with some our old briefs i sound like a lawyer don't i? i'll just stick to calling it videos. It is very possible that you might have seen some of these videos it also possible that you may have not. Either way I'll give you some back-story that you have never heard about the animated picture you are about to view.

Omofunky is still our most popular flick ever on any viewing medium you can possibly think of. We created this short in 2006 for a company called MTech Communications.

MTech was commissioned to supply MTN with wallpapers, animated GIFs, mobile games and short animated 3gp flicks..

Coincidentally, and among other VAS (value added service) companies, we walked into Mtech claiming we could do sorts of things on the mobile phone, the catch at the time was Animated Visual Ring-tunes you know, like the Crazy Frog. They believed us hook, line and sinker. We got commissioned with a 2 year agreement.

So we went back home and combed the Internet for production procedures and methods. We eventually found procedures for the other items but we hired a guy called Etok Orok to do the animations. The challenge was that we were commissioned to create 5 short flicks but we had the manpower for 3 only. Apparently Etok could create 2 out of that 3. I'll upload the ones that Etok did in some other post.

Seeing that we were nearing the deadline, I had to help Etok out and this is the one I chose to do.

I liked this because i had heard the joke at school and every time I told (on some occasions retold) it to a new chic (wide smile) she laughed and that was it ( I got her).

I was on a Bad Guy P back then...LOL!

So i had to animate it. The problem was that i didn't know how to draw let alone use flash. So i went to Etok and asked him to teach me.

Etok is a very nice guy but he, is not the best teacher, You'll kill him twice if you ask him to teach you anything. So i watched him work. After i thought i learnt a few things, by watching, i asked him for a storyboard which agreed to do.

I went back home and started working on it. The Flash software, and drawing, were so difficult for me that it took me three weeks to finish this. Luckily that fell into our deadline so along with the other contents i went to submit to the then content manger of Mtech: Seyi Famubode (she is married now so Famubode is her maiden name).

Etok's jobs were by far better that what I created. I was so scared stiff her crtisizing oOmofunky that while Seyi viewed it, I looked the other way. All she she said after viewing was "I'll get back to you guys".

Whew!

So we waited. She never got back to us,so i threatened to pull out of the agreement. After a lot of boardroom talk we settled our "wahalas" and they promised to get back to us again. They never did. We found out later that MTN's wap portal was not working: it never actually worked at the time.

Frustrated, angry and disappointed we tried to sell the content (violating the agreement) to I-Touch (Mtech's Competitor). Somehow that did not go well.

We signed an revenue sharing agreement that allowed us to earn from customers downloading the content. The agreement clearly stated that, while it was in effect, we were not to distribute the content in anyway.

But after a year of waiting with no proceeds do you think i cared?

Hell no, I let it go. A few of my friends came around and I gave it to them and the agreement was still in effect then. I'm sure i do not need to talk about how viral this video went on phones and on-line. Some T.V. stations even used it for their skits. I understand some people, schools and even offices use the line "we are in_ _ _ _ _we don't talk like that"

I originally called this video Omo-Yanaija (yankee and naija) but by the time it came back to me it was Omofunky (i liked that name better so i kept it).

Till date I'm sure Mtech Communications distributed this content as well because the ones that I saw had our names cut off ( I remember vividly Seyi requested that we edit our names off).

Anyway that's all in the past. The one thing this short flick did was to answer a very important question for us

"Will Nigerians agree to watch a made- in- Nigeria animated flick?"

The answer is a resounding YES.

This answer is what has kept our spirits very strong. Even when our purses dry up we are willing to go on.

Also one of the reasons we believe strongly in the Kinetic Project. Even the world would love to see a well told story irrespective of where it is coming from.

I mean even with the crap graphics Omomfunky was created with, I'm amazed at how viral it went. That tells me how important the substance of what we are animating is(or should be).

I have other contents that look way better than Omofunky in terms of animation and art. But when it comes to connecting with the audience Omofunky carries the day.

Even though you may have seen this video before, I assume that after reading our story you'll view it very differently.

We hope that difference will make you subscribe, follow or share our blog or at least the post.

We need at least 100,000 genuine followers growing exponentially to create a 15min-20min of Kinetic which we hope to air on Africa Magic (what's your opinion on that?)

You guys are the best. Have a nice day then and may the force be with you.

Sample Page 1 Of Kinetik

2013-02-16T10:22:00.001-08:00

Let me start by thanking all of you personally who have agreed to be our early adopters to come along to make this journey a success. If we succeed please know this: the success will belong to us all.

I had initially approached 50 persons but got only 20 repeatedly responsive persons. I'm cool with that because i believe strongly that if i can make you guys happy then we won't have trouble making the other guys(core audience members) happy.

Remember the question I asked each of you personally?

"To be sure our story is worth animating, would we be able to engage you with a series of black and white e-comic books to test it?".

You all said yes. Well, we will have to validate your answers with a sample that I have posted here. Please give me your answer by posting a comment on the blog.

If your answer is "YES" please hit the "recommend" button (on any of your preferred social media)and follow the blog (if you haven't that is) after you post your comment.

If your answer is "NO" please post a comment to let us know why.

Be exceedingly candid with your reasons please, we need very candid feedback to entertain you better: that means if what we are doing is crap kindly tell us why you think it is crap.

Here is the sample: Please click on it to view it better.If we get a very positive answer we'll post the other 17 pages by next week.

Just before I leave I have another question to ask

"Will it be more convenient for you to read the comic book on the blog or would you rather have it downloaded so that you can read on your comic reader?"

Please leave your answer in the comment box.

Thank You, you guys are the best.

Change Of Plans

2013-01-28T11:09:00.000-08:00

Hey!!! How are you doing today? We (My brothers and I) have just buried my father (on the 17th of January). Truthfully, the feeling, of the loss, is still very intense in me and that makes it very excruciating. But I have decided that I will (along with my team members) use every last bit of emotion, that I have to make this effort very successful.

While I was at the village (Oh! i'm from a place called Aro-Ndizuogu..see if you can pronounce that without biting your toungue..LOL!) we decided that we wanted to move faster to build followership, and be more interactive with you and we decided that working towards an animation or a series of animations may not help us achieve this.

So we have settled for a different plan. Here is what you should expect from us: a series of motion comics until the The Lagos Comic Con in September 13 2013 where we will showcase a 15min animated short.

So in other words the story we will be showcasing will be part motion comic and part 15min animated feature.

The unique thing about what we are offering is that we want your feedback and input for every iteration we do. This is what we expect from you as this will help us learn very fast what should go into the actual animated movie. We expect that this strategy will help us communicate with YOU faster.

Maybe KINETIK is just a waste of time, just maybe we should be intending to make an animated feature with indigenous Nigerian languages (or pidgin English) or maybe you do not like the art style or the plot of the intended animated movie, or the voicing or costume of a particular character or the costume. Even something as seemingly unimportant as the colouring style. Feel free to to say outright that what YOU are seeing in this blog is crap. Only YOU can make us realize what we are doing and if our efforts are pointing in the right direction: A highly anticipated movie.

My point is this: please feel free to tell us what you want to to see eventually and what you do not want to see. We will respect your input.

Our primary purpose right now is to build followership. Your genuinely liking (by FOLLOWING, and COMMENTING on, our blog) our intended movie at this stage is very very key to our success. So I'll keep you posted on the motion comics.

As a build up to the intended 15min animated short, we were supposed to show you a 30sec flick of Rudiki performing a fire dance (it is really him in a show of force) but because of our change in plan I'll leave you with a very short and incomplete clip of him punching fire. From time to time, before the motions comics are posted, and even as an interlude, we may just show you short inconclusive flicks like this (okay maybe a little longer than this). They are really a part of the 15min short we will be showing at the The Lagos Comic Con. Tell us what you think. Thank you.

The New Beginning

2012-12-30T10:29:00.003-08:00

Hi how are you doing then? My names are Kenway Afam Oforeh, and me and my team are on a quest to create a very compelling animated feature length movie called KINETIK. You are probably asking "Yeah, so what is the big deal? Tons of people have done that " You are right that tons of people have done what we are about to do but they have never done it in Nigeria and trust me that is a very big deal. A lot of my friends have asked me "why not T.V.?" Among many other reasons I think Nigerian T.V. is way too much trouble, too many layers of people to go through and too many asses to kiss and trust me when i say me and my team and I have kissed our own fair share of booty, or booties, if I may. We do hope to come up with a strategy in the near future to navigate our way successfully through the T.V. business though, in the meantime our focus is the big screens:Cinema.

We will be producing this movie in 2D. Even though i've heard a lot of people say that 2D is dead (for the big screens) I actually fail to see that. I personally think that if a story is good any medium can sell it. This is currently my belief. So we have chosen the 2D medium for this story. However I also understand that my belief is also a hypothesis as well. This means, like a scientist, I have to test it to validate it at least for this purpose. I like to put my feet on the ground while looking into the sky. You know what I mean. Nigeria is an unusual terrain to do anything. You have to test every, I mean every, hypothesis before you implement it. No analogs to make reference to. Speaking of hypothesis we have a lot to validate and we hope that as our early adopters, you will help us do that.

From the production point of view I'll be working with four very loyal team members . They are Nathaniel Orji, Seun Odukoya, Alex "Rudewerks" Ighoja and Olubunmi John. Nathaniel will be handling the animation of effects, Seun will be handling the script, Alex will be handling all aspects of the art, and Olubunmi will be assisting me on the animation. I'm a strong fan of lean teams and methods especially at this experimental stage. Our animating technology (Anime Studio Pro 9) helps us effect that.

Anyone who knows us well also knows that we do not take our audience members for granted which is why we have set up this blog. We would like to know what you would like to see in an animated movie without spoiling it for you. I assure you that is no easy task but hey! we've got nothing else to do.

As we actually start this journey officially on this day (30th December) I have just painfully lost my father (at 7.05am ) to cancer. When we get to the end of this journey (i'm assuming that you all go to the big screens to watch this animated feature length movie when we première it), you are likely to see this at the beginning of the end credit "In Memory Of Emmanuel Chukwuemeka Udezurumba Oforeh 5th April 1949 - 30th December 2012". I'll be dedicating this movie to my father.

Because our effort at this stage is experimental whatever you see in this blog will be a work in progress, that means we will end up using a lot of what we validate in principle but not necessarily in detail. We do not want to spoil the movie for you then.

We are very far from our goal as we are not exactly sure what to produce.Our objective right now is to answer 3 very important questions on which the success of our journey lies. One of the 3 the key question to answer is "Can we generate enough interest, with our audience members, to create a highly anticipated movie (animated feature length that is)?" We strongly hope YOU can help us answer that question by expressing to us your like or dislike about whatever you see on our blog. We will consider ourselves successful if the follower-ship of the blog is increasing exponentially: in a viral manner. That means that YOU FOLLOW and then out of excitement YOU tell your friends about the blog and they FOLLOW. We are not asking that you patronize us for the sake of it. We need GENUINE follower-ship: that is YOU make a comment and say something like "I don't like this character's hat or shoes". The next time you read the blog you might just see that we have changed his shoes or hat to what you have recommended. We might even go ahead to use it in the final movie. That will show to you that we are really catering for your needs as regards what you want to see in the final production of this animated feature length. We will even give you some credit (not cash o!....LOL!) for whatever input you make.

So, if truly you like what you see at gut level in this blog, please go ahead and FOLLOW. If the excitement is way too much for you to contain then please go ahead and recommend it to a friend to FOLLOW

Before we proceed with our experiment please let me give you a little back story here: KINETIK (formerly KINETIC) was created for EuphoRya! Animation (comics at the time) by Ifeanyi "The Hecklar" Uba in 2005. The fans of the 2 episodes comic book first published in 2006 will see that the plot, characters have changed but the essence remains the same.

We will start with the character profile

CHARACTER PROFILE

RUDIKI “INA” DINJO

5 years ago, after a frantic and futile search he was declared missing by his family and eventually dead.

Present day, he has “resurrected” and reappeared in the most mysterious of manners. Rudiki, is also a partial host of the “Entity”.

Because he is a “street graduate” of psychology, Rudiki is highly proficient and profound in the art of the human mind and how it affects human behaviour. This has enabled him to learn to use effectively the “The Entity’s” expression of his own emotions.

Fondly called “Ina” by his gang members because of his ability to exaggerate fire from a simple spark or flame, Rudiki is strongly of the impression that human race is weak because of their capacity to become emotional and get attached to, other humans and, a set way of doing things. In light of this he is seeks to be constantly detached by being emotionless and to have the quality of water (the ability to be formless especially in his thought patterns, personality and actions.). He has devoted himself to the perfection of his “cause” as he calls it.

Even though he is the real leader of a street gang called “Akan” he has disguised Baba Lado as the leader (Baba Lado actually thinks he is the leader). This way he can easily launch a contingency attack on whoever might pose a threat to the gang.

Rudiki uses as an auto suggestion “I’m not a nice or a bad guy I just understand the laws that govern human
behaviour” to strengthen his desire and belief that he is formless and not emotional but he is really trying to suppress his source of insecurity and weakness: his human nature.

BELIEF SYSTEM:
• No situation has any meaning except the one I give it.
• The end justifies the means
• I’m superior to all humans.
• Your world is a creation of your thoughts
• Life is grey and not black and white

DISLIKES
• Humans (because of their nature-their capacity to be easily attached)

LIKES
• Mixed Martial Arts
• Psychology

ARCHETYPE
• The Lord: (Into Presentation and appearances), Well educated (Especially in the areas of Psychology), has a
cold and unemotional outlook (apathetic).
• The Egotist: Self Centered and self absorbed
• The Boss: Driven
• Villain: Plays games, has a dark and sick sense of humour
• The Shark: Personality change when necessary.

WEAKNESS
• His Desire (if objectively pictured to him he would realize that one actually does get emotional when driven, but he has chosen not to believe it)

POWERS
• Ability to exaggerate fire from a spark or a small flame.

IWE DINJO

Iwe is a seemingly regular Nigerian boy with experiences and aspirations like most Nigerian teens. A football fan with a liking for hooded tops, he is shy of chicks and thinks they “form” too much. He is still battling with the dreaded JAMB exam,which he has flunked once already. Despite all these, he wants to be a successful businessman.

Since the mysterious disappearance of his father and brother, Iwe has lived with his “troublesome” and ever nagging mother and baby sister in a remote but suburban area of Lagos. The cause of his experiences and insecurities however are exclusive to him. He possesses an unusual “inheritance” which has some how stayed hidden since his conception.

Fraught with abysmal confusion, a broken home and the most enigmatic of legacies, young Iwe seeks to understand himself and reunite his family......... or so he thinks.

BELIEF SYSTEM:
• There is good in everyone.

LIKES
• Mixed Martial Arts
• His family

ARCHETYPE
• Nice Guy: thoughtful, helpful, sympathetic, empathetic, easy going.

POWERS
• Pre – recognition / Clairvoyance: Iwe can see a disjointed 10 seconds into the future.
• Empathy: Iwe has the ability to sense and control the emotions and feelings of others.
Because of this, his powers are in proportion to an individual’s perception or belief of him.

WEAKNESS
• The Entity (It uses up so much human energy, every time it manifest itself through its host)

MA-NU

(He who knows)

The mysterious old man, from a powerful lineage of The Clan of the Aro (Meaning Voice) people.
The Aros have been custodians to “The Entity” time immemorial.
Precocious as a child, he developed a profound understanding of “The Entity” and inherited it from his ancestors.

Brash and impatient as a youth, Ma-nu derailed from his pre-destined path and decided to show love to a woman outside his clan circle. But he had to pay a price; he had to strip himself off the mantle of “The Entity”. This he did, concealed in a talisman and placed in a very mysterious but remote forbidden corner of his village; in an oracle called the “long Juju”.

The Aros were well known pre-historic dispute settlers. And it is well known that the “long Juju” was what they used to strengthen the perception of their arbitrating might.
During the civil strife, young boys and men were coerced into forming an army to defend the territorial integrity of the land. During one of its expeditions, one of these young soldiers stumbled across a strange but ancient looking contraption. And his curiosity caused him to “inherit” its contents. In the aftermath of the strife “The Entity” had taken firmly root in another lineage far away from its custodians.

Ma-nu had lost his powers to man’s most misunderstood emotion; love.
Guided by occasional and vague premonitions he will stop at nothing even in his senile state to, find, retrieve and restore “The Entity” to where it belongs: his lineage from the Aro clan.

____________________________________________________________________

Our next post will be a short clip of Rudiki performing a fire "dance". If you follow the blog you will be one of the very first to see the clip. Take care then.