The entertainment industry happens to be one of the fastest growing industries in Nigeria today as the thirst to watch and be associated with quality TV productions grows. The Spark B.O.S.S., Akinsola Muse, founder and owner of 1705 Productions prides himself in his creativity and zest to push out such quality with international standards.
A graduate of the prestigious University of Lagos, Akinsola went on to read Film directing and Cinematography in the USA as a way to professionally develop his passion. Bringing such standards back to Nigeria, it became an uphill task starting up as the terrain was different. That only lasted for a while as he has now gone on to produce and direct over 25 MTN TV commercials, among which is MTN Fortune Teller.
In this interview with Thelma Mbachu of Vanguard Spark, this entrepreneur shares his experience on starting out and delivering quality results.
Who is Akinsola Muse?
I am a filmmaker, entertainment consultant and social entrepreneur. I grew up in Lagos, studied History & International Studies at UNILAG where I set up my first company, wart Events organising rave parties, consulting for Night clubs and promoting music artists. I had the privilege of working in Ghana and South Africa after school before moving to the USA to study film directing & cinematography. Afterwards I worked in production houses in Michigan, South Dakota and Teas. I am happily married with a son.
You are the founder and owner of 1705 Production Company. Can you give us a rundown of what your production company offers?
1705 Production is a creative studio. We produce content for TV/Web; TV commercials and documentaries. Basically, we offer motion picture related services, be it animation, music video and movie production but we have been more active producing TV commercials and documentaries.
The first music video you produced, ‘You no go Know’ by Kween got an NMVA nomination, how did it feel to have that as one of your achievements?
Firstly, I will like to appreciate Kween for giving me the opportunity to produce/direct the U NO GO KNOW video; she is such a beautiful heart. That was the most challenging project in my career because it happened to be my first production in Nigeria, and I realized that the way of working here is very different from what I was used to. A lot of issues came up while shooting the video but I am glad we were able to produce a video that got nominated for the Nigeria Music Video Award.
A lot of people go abroad to study a lot of things. We’d love to know what prompted you to choose Cinematography as your course of study.
That is an interesting question. I would say that my love for the filmmaking has to do with my upbringing. I was a film buff growing up; I spent lot of time watching films and became interested in what happens behind the scenes. As a matter of fact I am a very adventurous person and filmmaking comes with a lot of adventure so that could have contributed to my decision to be a filmmaker.