"Drama For Life" Initiative

PROJECT DESCRIPTION:

“Drama for Life” initiative is a Television Drama-based initiative involving the employment or use of a series of television dramas to empower the youths by featuring talents (actors and actresses) that will be drawn from a pool of actors and actresses created by the “Drama for Life” (DfL) initiative. This “Drama for Life” project is aimed mainly at empowering for life, youths talented in acting, through television drama by training them in the arts and techniques of drama acting and subsequently offering them paying roles in the series of television dramas that will be produced for both local and international broadcast. This pool of actors and actresses that will be created by DfL for the television dramas will be comprised of talents (prospective actors and actresses) who would have successfully scaled through the various stages of auditions and screen tests.

AIMS AND OBJECTIVES:

The initiative, “Drama for Life” is a television drama-based project aimed at identifying youths with drama acting talents, equipping them with training in the arts, craft and techniques of acting and featuring them in the series of Thirteen (13) television dramas, comprised of Series, Serials, Mini-Series, Telenovellas, Shorts, Docu-Features and Feature length movies, in paying roles so as to empower them for life, since the experience gathered by them will be of immense benefit to them in subsequent and future acting endeavours.
Furthermore, the D4L initiative will provide a skill acquisition / Training workshops to hone the raw talents of creative youths not only in acting but also in the crew and technical department of television/movie drama production, so as to also equip them with skills in the technical area of television drama production from which they would earn a living.

PRODUCTION:

These various television dramas will be produced by tested and proven television drama content producers whose experience, spans both the fields of film and television content production, and will be brought to bear on the television dramas. Furthermore, the selected artistes and crewmen would be further groomed by professionals as part of the “Drama for Life” initiative which basically aims to apply in practical terms, the use of drama in empowering talented youths by training and mentoring them in the art, craft and techniques of drama acting and television drama production, thus equipping them with the skills and experience that will empower them for life.

MODE OF SELECTION/SELECTION CRITERIA:

Successful participants (prospective actors/actresses and crewmen) will be selected through a series of rigorous and transparent interviews, auditions and screen tests. Yardsticks such as: Comportment, Television or Television Presence, Character Interpretation, Diction, Speech Modulation, Carriage, etc will be used in the final selection of successful talents.

MODE OF PARTICIPATION:

To participate in the “Drama for Life” project, prospective talents (actors/actresses and crewmen) will be required to pick up a registration form from designated Points Of Sale (POS) on the payment, of the sum of Two Thousand, Naira (N2,000) only, at the bank and presentation of the payment slip/teller.
Prospective artistes and crewmen should however note that payment and collection of the registration forms DOES NOT guarantee a place in any or all of the various television dramas and movies for production, as selection will be based strictly on merit and performance during the interviews, auditions and screen tests.

INTERVIEWS, AUDITIONS AND SCREEN TESTS:

The interviews, auditions and screen tests leading to the final selection of successful talents or participants will be held in the six(6) Geo-political zones of the nation. The geo-political zones and venues are as follows: South East (Enugu); South South (Port Harcourt); South West (Lagos); North East (Bauchi); North West (Minna) and North Central (Abuja). However, for the purpose of centrality, the interviews, auditions and screen tests for all the states of the Northern region may be held in Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory.

PROJECT BROADCAST:

These series of Thirteen(13) television dramas that would be produced will be broadcast on major television networks in Nigeria such as: the Nigerian Television Authority (N.T.A.); Silverbird Television (STV); Africa Independent Television (A.I.T); Minaj Broadcast International (MBI) and Cable/Satellite Television channels such as: Africa Magic (DSTV); Hinolly (HITV) and DAAR –SAT and syndicated to other television stations such as : TV Continental (Nigeria);Super Screen (Nigeria); Lagos Television (Nigeria); TV3 (Ghana); Galaxy TV (Nigeria), SABC (South Africa); Nigerian Movies Channel, Sky 333 (UK); OBE TV, Sky 208 (U.K); Comcast (U.S.A).

TERMS AND CONDITIONS:

The following are the terms and conditions of the “Drama for Life” initiative:
9.0.1- Talents (prospective actors / actresses) must be eighteen (18) years and above. Talents younger than Eighteen(18) years must have their Registration/Participation authenticated by their parent(s)/Guardian(s).
9.0.2- Talents must be physically present at the venues of the series of interviews, auditions and screen tests.
9.0.3- Preference will be accorded talents with no previous acting experience or portfolio.
9.0.4- Payment for and collection of registration forms does not guarantee a talent, a space in any of or all of the series of television dramas/movies.
9.0.5- Final selection of talents will strictly be based on merit and talent’s overall performance during the various stages of interviews,auditions and screen tests.
9.0.6- The DfL is an equal opportunity initiative. The female gender are especially encouraged to participate.
9.0.7- The DfL absolutely reserve the right, as regards which of the Television dramas to feature a particular talent.
9.0.8- As regards final selection of talents, the Judges’ decisions are final.
9.0.9- Forms DFL1/1 AND DFL1/2 must be returned with a most recent head shot (5” x 7” portrait picture).
9.0.10- The DfL initiative is open to all persons irrespective of sex, tribe, language, religion, ethnic or cultural background.
9.0.11- The official language of the DfL initiative is English. (even though there will be productions in major Nigerian languages)
9.0.12- Terms and conditions apply.

CONCLUSION:

In conclusion, the “Drama for Life” initiative is a very laudable project that seeks to empower the youths by training them in acting, equipping them with experience that will serve them for rest of their lives and thereafter employ their talents in paying roles.
It is an initiative that will unleash capable artiste on Nollywood as a way of capacity building, for the film and television industry (Nollywood), which is reputed to be the third largest film making nation after U.S.A (Hollywood) and India (Bollywood)and which generates Five Hundred and Twenty Two Billion Naira (N522 billion) in Nigeria (“THIS DAY” VOL NO. 4321, Monday February 2007) and over Forty Eight Billion Dollars (48 billion) in the West Africa sub-region (“The Guardian”, Wed., February 21, 2007, P. 68) thereby making it, one of the fastest growing Economic sectors in recent times!

Isaac Obinna Nnaji III
Project Director, DfL
+2348055356729, +2348029099562
+2348098710307,+2348039446583
drama4life@live.com,
drama.for.life.tv@gmail.com
www.dramaforlifetv.blogspot.com