The entertainment industry is no stranger to family ties, but the collaboration between Blessing Amidu and her daughter Emmanuella on the upcoming animation series “Secrets of the Multiverse” is a truly remarkable story.
As a seasoned producer with a background in geology and over two decades of experience in Nigeria’s oil and gas industry, Blessing has made a historic leap in Nigerian cinema with her award-winning animated film “Lady Buckit & the Motley Mopsters.” Now, she’s teaming up with her talented daughter Emmanuella, a final-year student at Carleton University, Canada, pursuing a Bachelor’s degree in Economics, to create something entirely new and exciting.
This mother-daughter duo is breaking barriers and pushing boundaries in the entertainment industry, showcasing the power of family bonds and mentorship. By working together on “Secrets of the Multiverse,” Blessing and Emmanuella are not only creating a unique and captivating story but also paving the way for future generations of young creatives. Their collaboration is a testament to the impact that parental guidance and support can have on a child’s development and success.
As a mother-daughter team, Blessing and Emmanuella bring a unique perspective to the table, blending experience and youthful energy to create something truly innovative. Their partnership is a shining example of how students can leverage the expertise of their parents to achieve great things, and how family ties can be a source of strength and inspiration in the entertainment industry.
With “Secrets of the Multiverse,” Blessing and Emmanuella are set to make a significant impact on the animation industry, showcasing Nigerian talent and creativity to a global audience. Their collaboration is a pace-setter for the industry, demonstrating the potential for intergenerational partnerships and the importance of nurturing young talent. As we look forward to the release of “Secrets of the Multiverse,” we can’t help but feel excited about the possibilities that this mother-daughter duo will unlock.
It’s interesting to know that this is not the first time she has been working with her daughters. Her other daughter inspired the first animation, Lady Buckit and the Motley Mopsters.
In this interview with IFEOMA OKEKE-KORIEOCHA, Blessing Amidu and Emmanuella speak on what necessitated the decision to produce the ‘Secrets of the Multiverse’ and the impact these series will have on young African audiences, especially girls.
What is your upcoming project, ‘Secrets of the Multiverse,’ all about?
Blessing Amidu
The ‘Secrets Of The Multiverse’ (SOTM) is a spin-off of ‘Lady Buckit and the Motley Mopsters’ (LBMM), which is the original title from 2020. This particular story is about leadership and all the sides to it, depending on how one wants to look at it in different situations. It can be mostly fear, a threat to life, maybe scarcity and aggravation. It basically looks at how far a leader is willing to go to protect his people and the choices that may stare him in the face. The series also explores the reasons behind the actions of leaders of society, basically the length a leader would go – and in this case, it is a futuristic world – to protect his people. It also weighs on the morality of these people; their actions, their choices, and the benefits of their citizens. And then it also bears to play critical thinking to determine the value of life and the extent of morality necessary to justify a wrong. Is it good to commit a crime as long as you know it benefits your people? Is that said crime justifiable? Is it unpunishable? So that’s pretty much a summary of what ‘Secrets of a Multiverse’ is all about.
You said earlier in your introduction that you consume a lot of story content, and you like to read a lot of stories and watch a lot of movies, and that goes into content creation. So how come you chose to have your niche in the stories of animation, not necessarily regular feature films? Why did you choose animation as your niche?
Blessing Amidu
That’s fine. I know I answered this question several times five years ago. Animation was just a genre I fell in love with, especially because I spent a lot of time with my kids watching cartoons during their growing-up years. And I was enticed or influenced by the characters on TV. And I could see that we didn’t really have African stories to showcase in Nigeria. So that was how animation came to be. I started thinking, brooding over it. And then, just like a light bulb, we realised that there’s no feature-length film in Nigeria, so we started from there with LBMM. My first daughter, who’s a film studies graduate, just began to sketch those characters. She’s quite artistic. By the time we slept in through the night and woke up the next morning, we had names for the first five characters. So that’s how you know this whole thing started. I love animation so much. Who knows? Like I often say, I may branch off into the regular live-action someday. So I’m not just limiting myself, but right now, this is where we have started, and this is where we are.
What necessitated the decision to produce your daughter’s story?
Blessing Amidu
First of all, after the premiere of LBMM, we knew we were going to have a sequel to that movie; we hadn’t just found the right story. And I began looking for writers, talking to writers to get us a story. And the feelers I was getting, apart from the fact that it was quite expensive, I wasn’t getting what I thought would be a good story. One of the things that set me off, actually, was when somebody told me that to write an episode of an animated series would be about $3,000 per episode. This was about three years ago. I was shocked. I began to look inwards. I could write it, but I’ve been quite busy. I know my daughter writes stories, short stories.
Actually, I stumbled on my daughter’s talents. I had asked her to write a few short stories, and as God would have it, one of the short stories she wrote added so much potential for expansion that I just asked her to write six episodes. The first episode she wrote was something else. It kind of blew me out of my mind. I sent that episode to Adebisi Adetayo, who was the director for LBMM in 2020 and who’s also the current director for SOTM. Adebisi was surprised, and he asked me if this was AI, and I was like ‘What do you mean?’ He was really surprised, and then he asked my daughter to write another episode, which she did. To tell you how unserious I was about it, I made her use a free version of the writing software. Just write, and let’s see how it goes. She wrote the first episode, the second episode. I couldn’t comprehend. Adebisi himself was so surprised. We figured that this (her daughter’s story) could really work. The more she wrote, the more blown away we were, and our confidence grew. After that, the rest is history.
Like I mentioned earlier, she already had some short stories which are yet unpublished. We’re going to publish them quite shortly. I’m just so grateful to God. I asked her to increase the number of episodes to 13, and she did, effortlessly, too, I might add. Being creative just flows so easily out of her. I’m grateful to God that I have a daughter. I have a daughter like her. So, whose story would I publish or produce other than my daughter’s? It has so much potential to do well in a market, and you will be so surprised at the depth of the story. For someone of her age, you’ll be so surprised at the depth of the story. All the people I gave the story to read came back with the same feedback. I was sure, definitely sure, that this was something we could produce, and I could beat my chest for it.
Emmanuella, what inspired this story, and how was the creative process?
Emmanuella
I just wanted something different. I wanted something new. I wanted something that kids wouldn’t be able to forget about, something that would blow their minds away, something that would go viral. Touch the hearts of children all over the world, and not just children, but also adults. Because let’s be honest, adults watch our shows, and they enjoy them way more than their own shows. So I like to write from my heart. I like to write things that I’ve experienced in my life. I like writing about friendship, about love, about leadership, about strength and courage. So those are just some of the things that really inspired the story.
How was it balancing writing the screenplay and your studies?
Emmanuella
It was a lot, honestly. In university, there are lots of assignments, lots of tests, lots of exams. There were so many times when I had to put the script down and focus on school, because schooling abroad is expensive. It’s much easier to focus on that. I always have time to come back to the script, which is why it also took so long. So a lot of times I had to put it on the back burner. It was a lot, but I persevered because this is something I’m really passionate about. I like writing. I like telling my stories. I like connecting with people. I like it when people are blown away, when people are really interested in my work.
What impact do you hope this series will have on young African audiences, especially girls?
Blessing Amidu
The aim of this project, actually, is to remind teenagers and young adults that they can go on to do or to achieve anything they set their minds to. You will always achieve more with a little bit more determination and resilience. For the girl child, I think we need to focus a lot more on the girl child. Although this animation is not particularly about the girl child, per se, our protagonist is a girl.
SOTM will show them that they can do a lot more than they have set their minds to achieve, and also, with collaboration and relationships, with teamwork, they can always exceed their limits. So that’s the impact I think this should have on young audiences.
I understand that you’re working with a Nigerian director, Adebisi Adetayo and a Hollywood director, Robert Sledge. What inspired your decision to work with both Nigerian and international talents on this project, and what is the creative synergy like behind the scenes?
Blessing Amidu
I think collaboration is the way to go. It is about forging relationships and partnerships and expanding new frontiers, and getting to do more than plan. When you work together in partnerships, relationships or collaborations, it often tends to take you farther than expected. You tend to achieve much more than if you had journeyed alone originally. So I see it as an opportunity for both sides to learn from each other; knowledge sharing, technology sharing, so the creative synergy overflows easily.
We’re already in pre-production, so we’ve already had the opportunity to share ideas, to exchange knowledge, so there’s really an overflow, and we’re working quite well. It’s actually a win for everybody. We’re learning from each other. They’re learning from us while we’re learning from them. And we hope that SOTM will go global. That’s the intention: to go beyond our limits, to push beyond the continents, go global and gain new ground.
Emmanuella, as an African woman studying abroad, how important is it for you to tell stories that are rooted in African history or identity? And also, is writing stories what you want to do full-time, maybe after school, and what other stories should we be expecting?
Emmanuella
When children move abroad or people my age move abroad for a little while, it’s easy to lose that connection with yourself, with your family, with your culture. So that’s part of the reason I wrote ‘Secrets of the Multiverse.’ It was to remind me of who I am back home, all the things I’ve experienced, all the things I’ve learned, and it’s also for people my age, both men and women, to remember what makes us proud Africans. And yes, definitely, I plan to be a writer full-time. It’s my passion. I love it more than anything. If I get to do it for the rest of my life, I will honestly be so grateful.
I’d like to know your thoughts on the future of animation in Nigeria, and how your new series, ‘Secrets of the Multiverse,’ fits into that landscape?
Blessing Amidu
So before 2020, when we had ‘Lady Buckit and the Motley Mopsters,’ we had shorts, a few minutes of animation here and there. Nobody had really come out to do something that big. Quite frankly, we had a lot of issues in the industry. From technical challenges to funding, to the right kinds of persons on board for the project and of course, the environment. Was the Nigerian environment ready for animation? For foreign animation, we probably were. But prior to that time, we weren’t sure if Nigerians could produce something of great quality, such as we did with LBMM. So I would say that animation has come a long way. It’s still growing. It’s still a growing industry. It’s still a green space. But if you want to check from 2020 up until now, we’ve had a few more releases. We’ve had ‘Iwaju’ and ‘Mikolo.’ So the industry is growing, and it’s growing at a fast pace as well.
Another area where I think that something could be done is funding. The Creative Fund has been raised to cater for the industry as well, but you discover that it’s not so easy to access. So animation has come a long way. It’s still going to get better. It’s going to go larger in the next five years, even before five years, and especially with the release of SOTM, I dare to say, by 2026 when we are going to release, the first six episodes of SOTM, you will know that the Nigerian animation space, has come to bear, you know, has come to maturity. Because I dare tell you that this script is explosive up to the extent that we have Robert Sledge from Hollywood. I mean, he has a lot of confidence. If they didn’t think it was a good script, they wouldn’t come on board. A lot of things are going to happen when we release these first six episodes next year. It’s going to take the whole animation space by storm.
From a tech point of view, so animation across the world is going at lightning speed. We’re having animation in 7D, shot or produced in 8k resolution and all of that. I just want to know the production quality and aspects of technology advancements deployed to make this particular production fit global standards.
The quality for LBMM was 4k resolution at a time when a lot of studios were not producing in 4k. Even Disney didn’t release most of their animations in 4k at the time. Disney saw the production, and they testified yes via email that it was of good quality. So 4k is still a very good quality. Not all productions have been produced in 4k; you still have them in 2k and less. We’re still going to do 4k again with SOTM. 4k is good; it’s standard, and marketable. We’re not going to go below 4k.
You mentioned earlier that animation is very big in Nigeria, but do we have a big pool of talent who work behind the scenes?
Blessing Amidu
Oh, believe me, we have so much talent in the animation industry. I can even speak right from 32AD animation studio to Magic Carpet to Spoof Animation. I’ve interacted with these guys, and I know there’s a bundle of talent. We just need to be heard. We just need the government to do more for our industry to make it easy for people, for us to express ourselves. I know a lot of people who have come to me in the animation space, and why they haven’t come out is because of funding. But I can tell you that there’s a lot of talent in the industry. And it’s growing; before you know it, we’re going to have studios coming from outside the country, or rather, companies from outside the country coming here to produce their own stories.
So funding is still a major challenge for the animation industry, right?
Blessing Amidu
Funding is still a challenge, except you’re going to get the grants. Otherwise, you still need to meet the minimum requirements to raise funding for animation. Even with the Bank of Industry (BOI), you still need to meet a certain requirement to get the funding. Animation is very expensive when compared to regular live action. So you go to a bank like BOI, and they tell you that they are going to make the funds available but first you need a local commercial to send them a letter of intent, and then that local bank, we need you to have maybe a cashback guarantee to access that funding from BOI, because they need to collateralize, you know, collateralize it. That’s just the way it works. So, how many people can actually meet up to those standards? It’s a problem because I know we have lots of talents, and people can’t just find a way to express themselves, because funding is a major challenge.
In what particular way do you want the government to help your industry?
Blessing Amidu
Well, for instance, I know the government has been doing a lot quite recently. You hear a lot of announcements in the media, and when certain persons go there to try to access this funding, it’s either that the websites are not working, or you have to fill out those forms, and then they never get back to you, or something of the sort. I think they need to try to make it a lot easier for people to access these funds. We don’t really have investment banking, or rather, investment banks in Nigeria that would want to put their weight behind the industry. It’s not the same thing outside the country. We have people, organisations that could do these things very easily. Of course, I’m not. I’m not trying to compare both societies. But I feel the government should do more; go to the grassroots, call the creatives together. I know they’ve done that to an extent. But animation, for instance, needs special attention. I know there’s the creative fund for movies, for the creative industry, but usually the other guys tend to access it a lot easier because the funding requirements are probably not as much as you require, for animation. That’s just the way it is. And of course, they tend to think that they haven’t seen the profitability or viability of the industry. Perhaps, when they begin to see it, then maybe they’ll give animation a lot of backing.
Can you give us a rough estimation of an animation budget?
Blessing Amidu
It will depend on the inputs. First of all, no two animated movies are the same, and this automatically translates to the budget.
Differences would come from criticalities such as production length, number and quality of cast, quality of technical crew, types of software for modelling, the story environments, special effects, and a lot more.
Animation could range from anywhere between maybe N500 million and above, depending on what you’re putting in it or what you want to put in there. And when I say N500 million, that’s a small budget. Outside of the country, animation can cost as much as $10 million, $20 million, or even $1 billion. We know the budget that Disney brings to play in their animation movies, you know. You can also have animation for $3 million to $5 million.
Apart from funding, are there other challenges you faced in creating a project of this scale?
Blessing Amidu
I can only speak for myself. The main challenge I encountered initially for LBMM was the funding and the right kind of technical crew, because nobody felt they could get it done. I approached a lot of studios in Nigeria and abroad. Even the ones in Nigeria were asking me to go to Morocco, but I felt we could get it done, until Adebisi came along and we gave him a test, a proof of concept, and he passed with flying colours. We knew then that there were talents because I’d gone to every nook and cranny, and it wasn’t looking like we were going to make headway. I’d spent money, about $40,000, and not made headway until Adebisi came along. So animation is getting to that stage where we must be noticed. It’s difficult not to notice us. That’s where we are right now, especially with what SOTM is about to do. I can tell you that we’re about to break barriers. That’s what’s going to happen with this story. I’m not saying it because it’s Emmanuella’s story. No, not at all. I will do it. I will do the same thing if it’s another writer’s story. The story is amazing. And we ask God for His help to help us interpret it properly.
How profitable is animation in Nigeria?
Blessing Amidu
Most of the things that certain persons have done are to use animation for, maybe advertisements, all those sorts of things, short stories. A major challenge has been a medium for distribution. With a good medium for distribution, will come good quality. You have to have good content quality, because Netflix, for instance, has a minimum quality for animation. LBMM far exceeded that criteria, and that was why we could feature LBMM on Netflix. So a lot of people have produced stuff. They still have them in their studio, and they can’t release them. There’s a problem. They don’t know where to sell it, who’s ready to buy, or who’s ready to pay for it. So it’s a problem. If we had more access to distribution channels, which could really help. It’s something we need to invest in, the distribution angle, and with distribution gradually, our stories will go global. Without access to distribution, you don’t have good profitability. I have seen studios that sell to some small platforms, and they pay them peanuts. So it’s still something that we need to look at. Other than that, we know the big platforms are Netflix, Amazon Prime, Hulu, and Disney+ channels. Those are the major players. And if you can get on board the major players, if they are willing to pay good money for it, then it’s viable.
And another thing is the bias that they have against the kind of productions that come out of Africa. Sorry to say this, but I think the way they look at an animation production that is coming out of Nigeria is different. It’s coming out of Africa, so they don’t pay much attention to it.
Distribution is key. We need to work on distribution a lot more, then there’ll be viability and profitability. People can tell their stories, they can sell their scripts, and they can bring in more foreign exchange. It’s easy to put your live-action movies on YouTube, but it’s not always the same for animation. So, distribution for animated content needs to be looked into.
What distribution platform will SOTM be on?
Blessing Amidu
SOTM is a series. It’s a 13-episode animated series. It’s going straight to streaming platforms.
