Akinola Davies

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0:08I didn't expect so many people to be here but okay. So haven't done one of these before.

0:16So I'm just going to talk you through if you can look like holiday photos but I'll talk you through how the idea sort of came about.

0:23So I assisted a bunch of filmmakers and photographers for about five years and basically watched them like freak out and panic about all of their ideas not getting made so when I sort of like went on my own I basically like continued that same process and finally enough I wasn't getting anything made so I decided to like use like my knowledge and use everything I'd done working for them to try and figure out how I'd be able to I don't know like hacker system law but basically most of my days again rejected because they didn't necessarily fit into what people thought would be like a story that was like valued or a story that was relevant and most of my days they probably thought they weren't people who care so much about them.

1:11But I kind of was pretty steadfast what I was wanting wanting to do and what sort of stories I wanted to tell I grew up in Nigeria and also here.

1:23So in both places in Nigeria I'm a bit of a alien and here likewise so I figured I wanted to tell those stories in the middle so I basically took jobs that I hated for other people in order to save money I worked for a company called dailymotion which are like the second biggest company off the YouTube and just kind of like figured out how the internet works in regards to like ad revenue and like video editorials and stuff like that just kind of like amassing information the whole time so what I did is I made a bunch of savings my mom hates this story.

2:04But I basically spent my savings shooting videos for people I really liked tonight I really like I just call them up they send me music home and be like I want to make you a video obviously they didn't have money to make it.

2:15So they'd be like yeah cool whenever like the only thing is you can't tell me anything to do like just that's just going to be the trade-off which isn't actually what happened we basically work together on most things.

2:25But I would see the same thing reflected in my friends a lot of them stylists makeup artists graphic designers they would you know not really be enjoying what they're doing so I would be like look. I have a little bit of money I'll pay you probably like way less than you're actually worth but at least we'd get we'd all have ownership of this project.

2:46So yeah I would commission myself so this allows footage is the second Commission I ever did for myself which is going to know the Nigeria to film this festival in the north that the final product isn't actually out yet but I thought it'd be nice to show you because no one else is going to see it. So yeah.

3:06So I would go to Nigeria and at that point I was doing what I was doing here just like acquiring a team I was acquiring DOP s producer photographers set designers and just meeting people the whole time like with no real inclination of like when we'd ever do something that I could like pay people properly from but it was just like continuing the conversation of Larry like your work.

3:32So yeah at the back end of this I got after my first commission I got a bunch of work which I was like really happy about.

3:42But it kind of was catch-22 because I got this work. And I would just say yes to everything because I'd be like come with money I'm going to do it.

3:50But actually a lot of the time I didn't really enjoy it and they weren't necessarily investing in me they just wanted someone who could just film something like you know and not make it look like I came out with toaster and so basically I didn't have time to actually edit this I've had so much footage so I after doing a lot of work I went to I booked myself a trip or a vacation to go to Los Angeles for like two months because I knew a few people there enough so I wouldn't be distracted and drunk all the time.

4:20And then whilst out there. I just sort of hung out with a few people I know and luckily enough met the image directors at kinder so I'm meeting not a meeting I mean like a dinner party and they're like asking me about my work. And I'm like stop talking to me I'm not very good at what I'm doing at this point but they really press and had really good friends who also really pressed the agenda so they basically told me to submit a treatment for something they had it's pretty terrified I was like they're just going to think this was a bit of a joke and then send it out to them.

4:57But it's part of it they insisted that have photographer and video so it's 5050 so as part of my process as well I just I just write to people on Instagram like if I like your work I just contact you straight away and be like really like your work love ya I really like to work with you someday not really knowing when that might ever happen if it will ever happen but I like to like slow recede that's what I call it just sort of seed in people's minds so that they know who I am and they're aware of my work if something were to ever come in rotation.

5:35So yeah.

5:40So basically for the Kenzo thing I pitched a couple of music videos for an artist and they funnily enough rejected my ideas again so I just recycled one idea because I thought it really fit in the theme of what Kenzo were looking for changed a few images around change a few words around and just to make it more seamless and yeah they email me back saying asking one question because it was about a beauty pageant and they're like beauty pageants are quite problematic and say yeah I know.

6:10But I'm kind of not I'm doing like an anti beauty pageant so they were really cool about it.

6:17So yeah this was the this is a treatment that. Actually got rejected and you'll see how like some of this feeds into like the final work okay. So okay. So at this point I'd like shot in Nigeria a couple of times I built a team I actually planned to do the Kendall thing in London.

6:37But the photographer this wonderful photographer called Rufus I she encouraged me Qi asked where I'd love to do it. And I was like Nigeria so she said in sister Kenzo that's where we shoot it I thought they wouldn't go for it and they kind of didn't believe like you can do it.

6:53But we can't come with you at which point I was that sounds great yeah let's do it so my brother's a director and producer in Nigeria as well so he produced it on the Nigerian end I have a friend of mine who produces here and she helped me with the post-production and flights and all that stuff I knew knowledge of the landscape because I grew up there for a period of time.

7:18And I go back quite regularly so nothing was really daunting and at the same time I know just how Nigeria is unfortunately we have like loads of power cuts it's really hot everyone's like very very chilled about like working so I was just kind of like ready for it I knew that we need a certain amount of time everyone would need to be like really relaxed and just not panic at any point other than myself who was internally panicking the whole time speaking to Ruth I really loved her work because she she she's very conscious of how she like captures the subjects she's very conscious of the work she creates be very sustainable and that's something I admire and tried to integrate in my work as well so once we planned it she she really took the lead on a lot of it when we got there we we flower on a Saturday and on the Sunday morning she was like we need to speak to all the elders in the village of like about what we're going to do I just thought she was like yeah we're just going to invite them round give him some food and like it'll be cute forever.

8:24So we went to church the next morning you'll see some pictures in a minute and she in the middle of a church service got up and was like here's the filmmaker he's going to talk to all of you needless to say I wasn't really prepared and no one really understood like that much English so kind of a bit of a thoughtless exercise but just doing that process help them realize that we were trying to include them in what we were doing we went to like a local secondary school it's all the headmistress what we were doing went to the markets we told everyone we were doing we actually hired a few local people as well to be our assistants and fixes we ensured everyone get paid so we negotiated rate that's what we did in the first week we were there.

9:07And then the rest of the crew came a few days later once yes so we just like made sure that it was like as sustainable as possible ensuring everyone sign releases and everyone has understood what those releases were about and also we did like a lot of research and spoke to people there in regards to how best to show their community as opposed to just coming and being like oh this is what we want to do because it would look cool we just sort of reacted and Sokka where we shot is the only place in Nigeria where like women can like ride these like motorbikes for us part of business I mean they can ride it.

9:51Anyways but the trade is there like a really mixed and open so we just sort of like factored that into the video as well maybe we should run through these a little quicker as loads of images so yeah this was kind of like it's like the first date he was one of our systems in the end and that is worth getting mobbed by a bunch of schoolgirls that's me like posing as I tend to do and then just like location scouting and stuff like that yeah humans yeah that was my brother and the team when they all arrived and then yeah this is us trying to do like camera tests in pitch black basically because there's no electricity then my wonderful models okay.

10:44So yeah I guess it gets to the outcome so Ken's had not really seen any images of what we've done I heard at the end was like the first time they've ever. Actually done that which was quite cool but obviously like equally terrifying to them but because I had loads of experience and I pretty much knew I was doing and trusted everyone I was with everyone like went above and beyond because they felt like a sense of ownership in regards what we were doing I guess it's probably quite rare that a brand will give you that much creative freedom and just necessarily trust you.

11:28But the moral of the story is the fact that I commissioned myself and wasn't be able to produce work in the in a manner in which I thought I'm fully capable of doing kind of gave them the trust to know that.

11:42Actually yet there's like a lot of research and a lot of process has gone into this and actually I produced effectively produced the video myself so they didn't really have to take on a lot of risk in doing that yeah and I guess initially it was the video was just to be like one of this smaller add like advertorials to go out on their YouTube but when we when they received it I guess it kind of overwhelmed them I'm gonna go back a second because the video is going to play kind of overwhelm them.

12:15So they decided to make a big song and dance that I'm gonna keep going back a big hug and dance about it.

12:18But yeah. So moral of the story is just like trust yourself trust the people around you utilize them as best as possible don't talk too long on stage and yet here's the video ♪

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