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In 2020, when almost all activities across the world were brought to a halt due to the Covid-19 pandemic, creatives had to find new and more flexible ways to tell stories and keep the world entertained while more than 3.9 billion people were locked in their homes. With the help of technology, the entertainment space floated, and during that time, filmmakers solidified their hold on people across the world as they maximised their art and embraced new opportunities that came with the challenging time. For Adeoye Adetunji, the period also brought an opportunity to create a stop motion animated film that could stand toe to toe with big-budget films at the year-end awards.
It is not surprising to see him take home the award for Best Short Film at the AMVCA in May 2023 with his stop motion animation film ‘Pa Aromire’. For many, the AMVCA win was their first introduction to the Art Director, but for others who have followed his journey as 2thpick Art, they knew the brilliance he is capable of.
Stop motion animation is gradually making an inroad into the Nigerian entertainment space and with Adeoye’s work becoming the first Nigerian stop motion animation film to win an AMVCA, it won’t take long before many other filmmakers start telling more stories with the technique.
Stop motion is a filmmaking technique in which objects are physically manipulated in small increments between individually photographed frames so that they appear to exhibit independent motion or change when the series of frames is played back. With this, he was able to create ‘Pa Aromire’ the first Nigerian stop motion animation film to win an Africa Magic Viewers Choice Award (AMVCA).
“Personally, there will be no Pa Aromire without the AMVCA,” He told Netng. “Stop motion animation was supposed to be a lockdown project. Any time I know there is going to be a lockdown, I’d work on it, but last year I got nominated for Best Art Director because that was the only film I did in three years, ‘Introducing the Kuju’s’ and I did not win, but I loved the ambiance. I told myself, ‘I want to be back next year.”
In between the ambition to create something groundbreaking as a filmmaker and trying to get accolades for his 17 years of experience as an art director, Adeoye embarked on the journey after initially failing with a test project on a stop motion animation film on Lagos Traffic.
“Maybe I thought I was ready for the emotional stress, but I was not ready,” he said as he revealed why he could not complete that project and eventually went on to create his first stop motion animation film ‘Pa Aromire.’
Born to a family filled with creatives with a flair for science, Adeoye had always wanted to be an Engineer. His love for creating art that had scientific details was one thing he excelled at. As soon as he started drawing comics and painting, he immediately entered into the role of art director as even he didn’t know what the job description was then.
“Back in those times. I just ask questions, scientific questions. I just wanted to be a scientist. I just wanted to be an engineer, but my family, the guys, we were all gifted with the scope of art. We could draw, we could paint, we could do stuff with art, you know, but because it’s everybody that can be in my family, it was not a big deal.”
Like most creative people who started getting opportunities to explore their talent with the departments available at their place of worship. Adeoye, through the drama group in his church, officially started his work as an art director. “I started up building the props, costumes, fields, and swords. I remember I was doing a drama called Queen Esther, then I designed the set, and I did that for quite some time.”
However, when he wanted to pick a course of study, he chose Engineering but eventually studied Mathematics at the University of Ilorin, Kwara State. But at 200 level, he finally gave up his dream of studying Engineering and started reading and learning about filmmaking.
“I was reading everything possible about film. I didn’t just read about Art Directing, but I was actively reading about DOPs and lighting – Which I have a keen interest in. So, I was reading abroad, that has really affected my scope of things to date.”
“I get on set despite the fact that I’m gonna be the Art Director on set, but there are details here and there that I could improve on. I always asked questions. So I was really updating the knowledge all through the filming process, and it was always free. That’s why I can sit in the comfort of my house and tell myself that I want to do a film. I’ll be the light guy, the DP, I’ll create all the gear, I’ll be the gaffer, and that’s what Pa Aromire is all about.”
For Adeoye, Pa Aromire was a DIY project – where he used his iPhone 13 pro to answer what he calls a stupid question. “Can I tell the story of gender inclusion using Yoruba gods as a case study, talking about how we should treat women’s rights?” That was the question he was hoping to answer with his film. However, considering how worshippers can be sensitive about their religion, it is only right to seek external knowledge.
“It’s not a great idea because Yoruba gods will always be the villain because they don’t have perfect stories to illustrate that this God did this, then this is how we should do this. I felt like it was a sensitive thing to do because imagine me painting other people’s gods in the wrong light. But what I did was I had a conversation with a practitioner, and I was shocked because he was like, go ahead. He said, you know what? This scope of vulnerability with Yoruba gods is open to discussion. We all know Sango was quick to anger, and that made him Sango. We know Esu is the God of Mischief, that’s why he is Esu, so what?”
With a DIY film produced on the dining table of his home with his non-filmmaking neighbours as his Assistant Director, Production Coordinator, and another welfare, they made a film that followed the life of the wisest man in the world looking for the formula to cracking the code to understanding women.
However, the project was not without its challenges, whether it was a lack of inspiration or the process itself, where it took Adeoye four months to sequence a 13 minutes short film, a lot was going on.
“Sometimes stock motion productions take a year even with studios because it’s about manipulation, you move the objects. By the time you sequence all of those things together, it’s as though the object is moving. It’s just about that manipulation. So for you to do that, depending on the frame rate you’re using, for a minute video, you might have as many as 2000 pictures to sequence.”
‘Pa Aromire’ was more than a film for Adeoye, it was a call, a call that taught him a lesson that he didn’t initially know he needed to learn. In retrospect, getting two jobs as a filmmaker is not a bad thing, but it was particularly difficult for Adeoye because he was not just making a regular film, he was working on a stop motion animation film, with a danger of him losing inspiration as soon as he left the project for a while for another.
Fortunately, the project he got was for a commercial, but as soon as he came back from the job he lost inspiration. After a week of finding inspiration and finally finding it, he got a call from one of Nigeria’s biggest music video directors, TG Omori.
“I got a text from TG Omori and in my head, no, I’m not going out again. Then the project was ‘Bandana,’ he knew I would love the idea. It was an interesting one.” At that time, he left his ‘Pa Aromire’ project and became the Art Director for Fireboy DML’s ‘Bandana’ music video featuring Asake.
“I built the set, and I also made the costume. The class of costume is something we call cosplay. I think that’s the first video in Nigeria that I will be tasked with cosplay. Of course, we didn’t go too elaborate with the cosplay design – that’s what all those soldiers were wearing but because of the timeframe, I know I designed for ten days – the whole set and costume, because of timeframe, we didn’t go too elaborate with it, but we just tried all we could to make some definitions.”
Aside from his work on Fireboy’s Bandana ft Asake, he was also the Art Director for music videos like Fireboy’s New York City Girl, Boy Spyce’s Folake, Olamide’s Hate Me, and many more. For ‘Hate Me,’ he had to create a spaceship.
“I’ve never seen a spaceship interior, but then there was a reference that, let’s build this, you know, and I created references, and the next moment on the day of the shoot, there was an interior standing in front of me, I had never experienced it before, and three days before then it was in my head, and right now, it’s right in front of me. It feels like a magic wand is in your hands.”
The same thing happened as he created the miniature set for Fireboy’s ‘New York City Girl.’ “I created the city. We shot that and shot Fireboy against it. It was the first time we were doing that kind of scaling in a music video,” he said. However, the brilliance and excitement that came from working on Bandana, soon faded as soon as he got back from the ten-day shoot because he lost inspiration again.
“Pa Aromire was just there, and at that point, when I was gonna pack it up my spirit told me something, and that has changed my life. Consistency is greater than inspiration. Continue Pa Aromire, It might not be the best you can do, but at least you’ll still have Pa Aromire. And guess what? There are times that you’ll continue just based on consistency, but inspiration will not meet you along the way. So even when I did not feel like doing it, I just kept at it, and inspiration came when I just continued.”
Challenge one surmounted, but there was still so much more to come considering the fact that he is a creative living in Lagos, Nigeria. “I had to create everything,” he said. Every material needed for the production of Pa Aromire had to be manipulated because there was no store in Nigeria that sold materials for stop motion animation productions.
“We don’t have anything for stock motion animation in Nigeria. So it meant that I had to create everything. I had to make the costume, and it was indigenous. I needed Aso Oke, I had to find a way to make Aso Oke with Polo collars.”
As a result of this valuable time that should have been spent focusing on the project was spent sourcing and manipulating existing materials. Not only was time taken, more money than necessary was spent because none of these things could be bought here, even if the materials were to be imported, the price of dollars was and is not the best.
“Let’s say I want to buy a wallpaper for a miniature because scaling has to do a lot with these things. Even when you find something that can work one way or the other, you still have to manipulate it to work for the film. It’s a lot of detailing, and you can spend weeks buying and trying to make it into a film scope.”
Although the process of creation is exciting for creatives like Adeoye, there is a major challenge, there is no go-to place for stop motion animators. Yes, a stop motion animation film has won the AMVCA, but what does that translate to for the industry? Who is looking after these creatives committed to telling untold stories in the most unconventional way possible?
Corporations like MTN are leading in this area as they provided Adeoye with a year’s worth of free data subscription and a million naira cash price, but beyond that, is this sustainable? Beyond fundamental Nigerian issues, the Art Director famously referred to as the DIY King, has always had a way of making things possible out of the impossible.
Growing up as an orphan, whose mom passed at two and his father barely before he graduated, he has always had to make informed decisions based on the funding available to him – which was barely available.
“I had a terrible childhood. Everything you see of me now is a product of engineering those emotions, those moments. Everything I do today was purely survival back in those days. I remember for me to earn money or possibly draw people’s pictures, portraits of people, create awards – I was doing departmental awards, it was for me to make extra cash.”
Between being 2thpick art at the University of Ilorin to earning enough not to miss exams due to the outrageous distance the school gate is from the main school and eventually achieving his dreams, there was barely any time for him. All he knew was art and he explored every form of it to the lengths he could as a musician, actor who was featured on a reality TV show, Next Movie Star, Art Director, and artist.
Seventeen years after, he has produced over 100 music videos, worked on set with highly acclaimed productions like ‘Introducing the Kuju’s 1&2,’ created three short films with his recent short film, Pa Aromire getting numerous awards, including the Paris Film Award for Best Animated Film, Kings Film Award for Best Production Design and many more.
“Not too long before I joined Nollywood, someone came to me and told me about joining, and I was like, no, because I had so much criticism, and the person told me that, you know what, the reason you have seen all of these problems could be that you are the solution to them.”
With his unique expression as an art director and a stop motion animator he has been able to have such feats. When we asked him, what’s next for 2thpick Arts, he mentioned Melon Street, a project that tells a story of going back in time to the lives of victims of an accident, and in the usual Adeoye Adetunji style, we know it’s going to be a hit.
– Nigerian Entertainment Today.
