Wearing many hats pays off on journey to filmmaking success

Emily Wanja on the set of ‘‘Know Zone’’ as a presenter. PHOTO | COURTESY 

By Mwikali Lati

In Summary

• As an independent producer and also the face behind Docubox —the East African Documentary Film Fund,—she has seen how effective collaborations can be especially now that production budgets have gotten smaller.

Emily Wanja wears two hats really well; that of a film producer and an actress. With the many years of experience that she has gained in the film industry, she has turned herself into a visionary entrepreneur who goes beyond making profit.

For Ms Wanja, the digital migration has set the stage for filmmakers to earn more and strike partnerships to meet the demand for local content.

“A film producer is an entrepreneur. Digital migration is here and it means more platforms for content. Collaboration with broadcasters, distributors and producers can only make things better. There is an opportunity now for investors in the industry,” she says.

As an independent producer and also the face behind Docubox —the East African Documentary Film Fund,—she has seen how effective collaborations can be especially now that production budgets have gotten smaller.

“Collaboration on all levels, whether between production houses, continental or on an international level is key. The output ends up being of better quality and the ever shrinking budgets get used better,” she says.

Defining a producer as being about audience, content, story, putting a team together and understanding the market, Ms Wanja has managed to produce numerous TV shows like ‘‘Pika Delights’’ and ‘‘Sugar and Spice’’ on Ebru TV, ‘‘My City My Swag’’, short films like ‘‘Burnt Forest’’, a co-­production between the USA and Singapore as well documentaries like ‘‘A fork, A Spoon, A night’’ by Mira Nair.

She says to succeed and thrive in the film industry, a producer must be dynamic and not even think outside the box instead has to think of no box.

‘‘The stories are no longer linear, the audience’s appetite for more complex plots and characters with depth is ripe, which reflects who we are as a people. Dialogue that goes beyond the screen,” she says.

Ms Wanja says she would not be as good a producer, if she did not have the background as an editor. Describing the similarity of the jobs is, knowing the story you are telling.

“The truth of a film is told on the bench. Editing is an art of storytelling and a creative process that is beyond pressing buttons. People ask me why I do not direct as most editors end up being directors. But that is not really my calling,” she says.

Between shoots at ‘‘Makutano Junction’’, she would go sit with the editor and got interested. She then got the opportunity to train as an editor and the production house of the popular TV show gave her two roles as an actress and editor. Then the time in-between seasons, she would be a full-time editor.

“I studied TV production in college and in the second year I got an internship. It was a real struggle balancing acting, school and internship which meant being in the field a lot,” she says.

Still, she found time to go to many auditions which is how she got the role of Red, a character in ‘‘Makutano Junction’’ that lasted 10 seasons. Being a producer takes up most of her time now, but every year she says she has do a screen gig; that’s where she started.

She has since acted the M-Net soap dramas ‘‘Kona’’ and done four M-Net’s Africa Magic movies.

“Every now and then I audition. Sometimes I get called because they know it’s a role I can do. Sometimes the director wants to see how you play off other characters to make the final decision,” says Ms Wanja.