The man named Steve Olufemi Sodiya is a seasoned filmmaker with over 30 years of experience. Undoubtedly, He has worked on so many projects over the years as a producer, director, editor, consultant, and post-production supervisor. Sodiya, who doubles as the CEO of Nukoncept Studio, takes pride in working with big legends of the industry over the years. A member of the Directors guild of Nigeria (DGN) also one of the board of trustee (BOT) Association of motion picture and entertainment editors of Nigeria (AMPEEN).
Till date, he has worked on several projects including Figurine, The Wedding Party, The King of Boys (part 1 and 2), Ayinla, Ijakumo, Kofa and his latest project Malaika.
Practically, he has worked with the living legend, Tunde Kelani, fondly called TK closely over the years. TK opened his eyes to many concepts about filmmaking, and for that reason, he made a conscious decision to stay on gate-keeping of quality control (post-production) for the films in Nollywood for a while. This gave him the chance to study different approaches to telling stories and, at the same time, makes sure the final output was not devoid of excellent finishing.
Of course, there are no bad stories. It depends on who is telling the stories and how it is being presented. Nollywood is blessed with very interesting and exciting stories, for example, the Malaika story is a family story of someone seeking to have a child of her own. The story could have been approached linearly but he decided to give all the characters a chance for the whole world to see from their own point of view.
“Most times humans refuse to look inwardly when they have a challenge but rather blame external forces. Nollywood has come of age and it is time to bring a new game to the table” Steve explained.
Starting from the background of advertising agency back then, the advent of film-making in Nigeria was very interesting, the Alade Aromire, of blessed memory, attempted and became successful in home video movies, which caught the interest of a lot of us that are already into advertising and TV. That is how the quest of Sodiya into the film world started.
“Everything about film-making to me is always about the story. I remember when I took on the project Afonja in 2002, written by Adebayo Faleti, the same feeling I got before going into the project is the same feeling I had when I jumped on King of Boys by Kemi Adetiba.”
Adding that , “We had limited resources when we started Nollywood and that affected our creative process. And trying to tell our stories back then, we hardly think of going very wild with our imagination because we try to limit the stories to what we can achieve right here in Nigeria. These days, our creative process has changed drastically since the industry is now opened up to endless possibilities. “
“Netflix hand-picked some of us and gave us master classes on production and post-production, that alone says a lot about the potentials the outside world see in Nollywood”.
Speaking about the challenges, Sodiya narrated what it has been like functioning in the industry; “In recent times, the most challenging film I directed was Ijakumo. We had to merge the past and the present, cultural depth and modern-day lifestyle needed together. We did a serious balance while I worked alongside a beautiful mind and experienced Movie Director, Adebayo Tijani, to make sure we could deliver that masterpiece.”
“The fight sequence, which we shot for 3 days, was the most challenging one. It was jointly done with the awesome effort of an amazing stunt coordinator, Mr Nollywood David Ugeonyemechi, as well as Hakeem Effects on special effects. The Art Director, Tunji Afolayan, made life easy for us also, and, at the end of the day, we brought the scene to life”.
“Most of the productions I delved into either breaks the box office or brings tons of awards back home. Last year, 2023, one of the projects I co-produced (Kofa) won best film awards at Amaa awards and Afriff as well”
“I have always belonged to a school of thought that believes in reproducing oneself through training and impacting people as one moves up the ladder. Handling multiple projects is very easy when you already have trustworthy and competent hands to work with you with little or no supervision”.
“Malaika is my latest film, the most challenging part of directing this film is handling well over a hundred children in the ‘Ewe orun’ scene of the film. It has never been easy managing children on any film set. Meanwhile, it is even a vfx scene, which requires paying a lot of attention to details”, he concluded.
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