Steve Gukas: Nurturing Emerging Directors

In 2020, renowned filmmaker and director, Steve Gukas, celebrated for films like ‘93 Days’ and ‘A Place in the Stars,’ turned his lens towards nurturing emerging directors. Partnering with Dotun Olakunri, this endeavour titled ‘First Features’ has already yielded three remarkable films. Vanessa Obioha chats with Gukas on his journey of shaping young talents, pushing the boundaries of creativity, and his

 imminent  return to the director’s chair next year

The original plan was to nurture emerging filmmakers whose debut feature films would be family-friendly, slated for television in a bid to address the dearth of entertaining and quality content on terrestrial television in Nigeria. However, the prolific filmmaker and director, Steve Gukas, alongside his longtime partner, Dotun Olakunri, known for his Butterscotch Evenings event, evaluated the interest from advertisers and sponsors and found that many loved the idea but needed proof that it was viable.

As a result, the duo changed their approach and began producing feature films for cinemas, while their core focus remained the same: nurturing emerging talents to enhance storytelling and set a fresh benchmark for African cinema and beyond.

Their criterion was clear: emerging film directors who had directed short films but not feature films. In 2020, the ‘First Features’ project commenced with a nationwide call for young filmmakers, resulting in the selection of 12 directors from over 1,000 entries. Remarkably, this group featured an equal balance of both genders, with six female and six male directors.

These directors were tasked with creating a series of 12 films, in collaboration with the production companies of Gukas and Olakunri, Natives Filmworks, and Michelangelo Productions, with the founders serving as executive producers.

The project marked its launch with ‘Cake,’ a thrilling blockbuster featuring both veteran and emerging Nollywood stars, such as Patience Ozokwor, Sophie Alakija, and Big Brother Naija ex-housemate Saskay.

Gukas, famed for his advocative films such as ‘93 Days’ and ‘A Place in the Stars’ has always evinced a passion for providing building capacity for young film directors but was also careful about providing just didactic training without real practical experience.

“The idea was to then merge the training process with an output process so that the young directors who were getting the opportunity to make their first features would get training that spanned story development, the writing process, pre-visualisation storyboarding, shortlisting and all of that so that by the time they come to set to shoot their first feature, they would have told that story over and over again in their mind’s eye and be more comfortable on set working through it,” he said during a recent encounter.

The training extended beyond honing their skills; it also involved providing them with the talent to work with in front and behind the camera and uncovering promising young talents in the process.

For instance, in ‘Kill Boro’ which is currently being shot in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, Gukas was tasked with discovering two young talents to take on the lead roles. The film tells the story of a father-and-son relationship and how they resolve conflicts and build bonds. The story however is told through the eyes of a 12-year-old boy. Finding a young actor capable of carrying the weight of the film was a challenging task, even foolhardy as Gukas puts it. But after having auditions in Lagos, Abuja and Port Harcourt, Kosisochukwu Samuel Ogboruche and Beloved Osagie who both played the lead and supporting roles respectively, turned out to be the perfect fit.

“We got lucky when Kosisochukwu walked into the auditions in Lagos,” explained Gukas. “We actually did find someone else who I was quite excited about but in the end when Kosisochukwu came into the picture, with his temperament, his approach and just his determination was very, very appealing. By the time he was done auditioning, everyone was unanimous in the fact that well, this is the child that will play Elijah.

“Then there’s Beloved Osagie who plays Kosisochukwu’s best friend and these two precocious kids carry this movie. And they did it with such panache. It was just beautiful watching them work. They came to set on time, they had their lines and in their delivery, you could tell there was a clear understanding of the character that they were portraying, how they took notes from the director and exhibited that in the next take.”

He continued: “It was just such a delight to watch them and to just know that there’s that kind of talent coming through the pipeline inspires confidence in the future of Nollywood where acting talent is concerned. If you merge that with the kind of directors that are coming through as well, you can then begin to see that we have a convergence of talent that’s coming through technology that’s democratising this space. It can only get better for Nollywood.”

The ‘First Features’ project aims to empower directors not just with the skills but with a deep understanding of their stories.

“Increasingly, we had an industry where just anybody would say the word director, but very few people really understood what the director really does,” said Gukas. “And for me, it was bothersome, because we had a situation where technology was increasingly democratising the space and making it easy to achieve quality. But storytelling was falling behind. And that’s because of a lack of understanding of what was required of the director. The writing was also falling short. But I thought that a good director could elevate a piece of writing to something worth more than what it is, while a normal director would just basically regurgitate what is on the script. And therefore a basic failing on the script.”

Gukas found the hunger for storytelling in the selected directors.

“They’ve come to the training with enthusiasm and open minds. Being young, they do not come to it with any preconceived notions and because of the quality of facilitators that they have like John Demps, Cristina Aragon, Antonio Ribeiro, George Kallis, Tolulope Ajayi and others, they also come to you without any chips on their shoulders. They are very spongy. They are learning both in class and in the field. I find that they’re ready and willing to put in the work.”

He detailed the post-bootcamp sessions he held with the directors. First, the directors presented their lookbook, outlining the film’s visual concept. Once okayed, it was shared with the production design department. In the next session, they deliberated on the film’s opening and closing scenes. The final session involved Gukas guiding them to a deeper understanding of framing, shots, and actions, transcending the usual script coverage found in average directors.

“Going through this process, you can see that by the time the director is going to set, he’s actually told that story over and over again.  He’s very confident because really in the end, what the director brings to the table on set is a thorough, God-like understanding of the story world and the characters in the world that he’s telling the story for. And that’s sort of the mindset and mind shift that we intend to achieve with them. It’s really always beautiful to see the confidence that they approach shooting with when they’re on set and just see them evolve from the bleary-eyed young director to this competent person on set marshalling directions and stuff with seasoned actors and crew.”

With a career spanning several decades, encompassing everything from television, advertising, and theatre to filmmaking, Gukas—affectionately known as “Uncle Steve” in the industry—discovered that nurturing young filmmakers was an intriguing role to embrace.

“I have always been very deliberate in the content that I create. And I believe that it’s the offshoot of my experience and the training that I’ve got. It’s very easy to think that is an easy thing to direct but it is not. Just the process of visioning and creation requires a certain degree of focus for every film that you make.”

Gukas further highlighted the vital role of thorough preparation in filmmaking. He noted that achieving full alignment between the envisioned film and the actual production is challenging, a reality that applies to directors of all levels, including luminaries like Steven Spielberg. Preparation significantly impacts a director’s vision-to-screen alignment, with thorough preparation enhancing it and inadequate preparation weakening it. He also pointed out that some directors who skip scene interrogation on set tend to focus solely on script coverage, potentially missing opportunities for depth and creativity.

“My dream and aspiration for ‘First Features’ are to be able to create a cohort of directors who come at directing, knowing just how prepared they need to be, and who envision and put in the work to achieve a greater percentage of the ambition, and improving how our stories are told because that’s the only way that makes for a greater possibility of the film to travel universally.”

Looking ahead, Gukas remains optimistic about the ‘First Features’ project, anticipating the number of films produced to be six by year-end. The third film, ‘Love & Life,’ featuring prominent actors like Rita Dominic, Nse Ikpe-Etim, and Chidi Mokeme, is scheduled for a cinematic release in October 2023. The remaining six are expected to follow next year. The award-winning film director also dropped hints about his return to the director’s chair in the upcoming year. He’s already secured the rights to three books and is poised to bring to life a film set in Jos, Plateau State, fulfilling a long-cherished dream.