“Directors are parasites.” Says Tope Adebayo.
Tope Adebayo, in this interview, has given an extensive lecture on the role of directors and their relationships with various artists whose contribution to the birth of production is indispensable. Objectively, he projects the plight of directors in the industry: “not being recognized well enough for their creative impacts on productions.”
An established fact that directors are parasites who feed only on the efforts of other artists who can literally show their work. Ask a director to show their work; you’ll understand better when they find it impossible to do that without calling on other artists like actors, writers, set designers, costimiers, cinematographers, etc. whose bodies serve as palettes for the director to show his creative abilities.
However, the director is an intellectual artist, as he rightly states by touching his head occasionally. Tope Adebayo goes further into the strength of directors as the overseers of productions and how the magnitude of the impact of a good director can be seen in works that are well orchestrated.
He goes further into the value of respect, that should not be traded for anything on set, especially between the director and every artist on set.
The value of research is well articulated. When an actor focuses more on themselves, the director focuses on everyone in the production. This superpower of a director is earned with extensive research. The director can see what any other person may not see.
This interview has not only shown Tope Adebayo as a director who knows what he’s doing but also gives a glimpse of what is to come from the industry where big minds awaken every day. It’s a good time to be alive.
Waheed S. Olamilekan (Orolabi)
Credit: Ayo Adams
