 Life The brand behind these postpop commercials in East Africa headlights Maybe go on and on and on for the first time, kind of reintroduce yourself. Wei, nakitiki sa ili. My name is Tosh Kitonga and I'm a filmmaker. No, come on. No, bro. My name is Tosh Kitonga and I'm a director and a producer. A producer. Yes. Low key. Low key. Now my question will go straight now. We are yet to see a new TV series dubbed Volume on Netflix. How was the journey? What about volume? For those who may be planning towards volume. What is it all in text? Okay, volume is a musical drama. But it's not a musical drama. It's a drama in music world. And it's about young adults. It's about coming of age. And it's a show that has really, I think one of the shows that has tested me to the brim. We had a lot of complications while we were making it. We started and stopped and started again. We had to redo a lot of things because of complications. So it's one of my most difficult productions and my most loved. Volume is about a young guy who wants to make it in the music world no matter what. And he is facing all the obstacles that come with being a creative in an African setting, so to speak. Where creativity has always been seen as not a serious career. And then also the relationships at that age, understanding oneself, mental health. So all these things come together in this show. And I'm hoping that a lot of young people will be able to relate either one of the characters that they see on screen and see themselves and maybe perhaps understand themselves more. So volume for me is very special. We've put our heart and soul and we hope that it's well received. From the trailer, I've seen it online. You're working with new fresh actors, new blood in the industry. Why decided to work with fresh new actors? This has always been very controversial about new faces, about old faces. I don't say anything about it because for me it's never been... I don't choose people based on new or old. I choose based on a lot of things. One, are you a good actor? I do, I always audition. There is no time I pick without auditioning. Two, are you bankable? A lot of us also don't understand that film is a business. Film is expensive. You may be upset that you're not getting picked as an actor. You're not working on yourself to improve your skills. You don't know how to drive a car. You don't know how to ride a bicycle or a bike. You know, these are things that as an actor you should be able to do. There is going to be an actor, I will be torn between two actors. But if I have a scene where the person has to drive, guess who gets the role. So there's so many factors that we use to select actors. And I think that debate should really stop and more and more actors should focus on building themselves up. And I always say, start even from the extras. As a lot of actors, never been in anything but they cannot be extras because they believe they're actors. Trust me, even your biggest actors that you know were once extras. Get yourself an opportunity to get on a set and watch and see how the main actor is doing it. What can you pick up from the way the director is directing it? Because then you have, it's a golden opportunity. So for me, I say that debate is seen in a very different light. And we should understand that there are so many factors that make people choose who they choose. Are you being a director? Of course, we've seen so many creatives having doped up TV series, short film. But they haven't made it to Netflix. You as a director, are there things where you feel like they're missing out? Are there qualities maybe Netflix are looking standards? Yes, of course, Netflix is a platform of standards. They have their parameters. It's like you have, how can I put it, everybody has their standards. When you buy a bottle of Traskar, there's something you expect when you have that sip. It cannot be mediocre, otherwise you feel your money was not well spent. Same thing for Netflix. They want to put out content that when people pay for the subscription, they feel that the money wasn't wasted. Sound cannot be bad. Your picture cannot be, you know, not good. So we need to focus on, and I think especially now, money is no longer a big factor for quality and we should, because you can teach yourself online. You can use your phone to make something quality nowadays. So you should really focus on building craft if you want to get into that level. Of course, you in the right position to tell me, you know, most of Kenyan actors, a few of Kenyan actors have pocket international labels, but only few that still, we know we believe they are the best in our own the way we see them, but they haven't hacked the other system. We haven't seen more of our own actors and actresses, maybe going, walking with other, you know, going to South Africa or Nigeria, producing work with other directors. What are we missing out? If I was to be honest, the world is huge. The competition is insane. You have to find your niche and aggressively go for it. And we do have a few of our actors who have made it out there. We have Mombi Mina, who has been on The Matrix. We have Gitaiga, who was on a big show the other day. It's a consistent, it's consistent work and a constant belief in what you want to do and where you want to get, you know. For example, you cannot start being a star or acting like a star when you've only made it in Kenya. It's going to hinder a lot of your growth because then you stop building yourself. You think you have reached. I always say Kenya is a pond when there's an ocean. You know, you can be the big fish in a small pond but out there you're nothing. So don't stop. Look at the big people, Denzel Washington. What does he do and work like him no matter where you get and that's how you start to get noticed. Most of upcoming directors always want their movie or their TV series to be featured on Netflix. I believe it was a process for you. Are they impatient? What should they learn from you that they had to wait for their time to arrive? Maybe their time to shine? For their time for the TV series to be featured on Netflix? I don't know. For example, Netflix licensing right now. What is it called? The parameters, the basic parameters are very basic. Good sound, decent picture. They don't ask for much and a good story. A story that they feel people want to watch. If you have all those things together then there's no reason for your shona to be picked for Netflix. But you cannot wake up today and this is the other thing I need to tell Kenyans. You cannot wake up today and say I have an idea and you go shoot tomorrow and you wonder how to be on Netflix. It doesn't work like that. You need to develop your story. You need to ask questions of your story back and forth until it gets to a point where it's decent and then you can go into production. That process has to be followed. There is no shortcut. Recently, three years, four years back international filmmakers used to come in Kenya should their own film. Our own story used to be short in our own country. Nowadays we see our own story being short in Kenya, Morocco. Is it that government is not working with international filmmakers? Is it that the process for one to acquire license in Kenya? What is it happening that we are missing out on these international movies being short in Kenya? I believe we have nice scenery for the movies. To answer this question, we could be here all night. There are so many things. We haven't curated. Let's look at what's the biggest industry for Kenya, agriculture. Industry, agriculture is about food. People have to eat. So that has been built from when life started. What's the other thing? Tourism. Tourism, by the way, in Kenya is big because of film. It's an industry that needs to be looked at. In my opinion, there should be a ministry for creative industry only. And then nurture it with respect and understanding. Then it will grow. Because if you look at it as by the way, it's not going to be big. So a lot of work needs to be put towards that. We have to consistently keep building so that we can gather our stories out there. Our stories are great. Our stories are perfect. But they have to be told in a way that you match what the world is used to. Otherwise they don't have the time. If we get there and we start being watched all over the world, then we will have built the industry. You will see for yourself. You don't even need to ask this question again. But the problem is that we've never paid enough attention to that industry. And we're also coming from a background where creative was never seen as a serious career. So many movies, so many African stories have been told in the Netflix. Is it that now it's our own time as film directors, as Africans to tell our own stories? What is your future for African film industry? It's always been time. It's always been time for us. I would say we're in a better space now. We're in a better time. It's much easier for any young person to make a film. You don't need. In my time, a camera alone was so expensive. Right now you can use your 10, 15,000 phone. So there's no excuse. We just need to keep practicing, keep doing until we get better. Eventually it will grow. And it's already growing. There's so much production happening. We have Showmax in town. We have Netflix in town. Soon we'll probably have the Amazons and all the other HBO Maxis coming into town. So the future is just bright if you ask me. Alright, maybe lastly questions to ask you. This may sound maybe on a personal one-on-one. How did you first become interested in directing films? You get me back. How did I become interested? I just used to love movies. I knew I wanted a job that wasn't going to be a 9-to-5. So I ended up choosing marketing in school. And when I did my first internship was in a production house. And that was it. I was introduced to the world of filmmaking and suddenly I was glued to it. So directing came later. I kept finding myself going into the department of directing more than producing, more than cinematography. And eventually one day a producer asked me to direct a TV series. I refused at first but they were insistent. They could see something in me probably that I hadn't seen. But eventually I agreed and here we are. Here we are. Maybe lastly to Malizia before you tell us your future. What inspires your creativity when making film? Life. Life inspires my creativity. What I see every day existing. I'm a very observant person. I see people. I hear conversations. And that's what inspires me. That's how I see my films. I see them through people. What is the future for Ghitosh? I just hope to crack this business to make sure that I just hope that we can be making films without a struggle. We're really struggling to make the small budgets that we have for the kind of work we want to do. The ideas that are bringing, we are not able to do some of them because of the costs. So I just hope that eventually we will get there. Alright, thank you so much for your time. Thank you so much.