Thursday, October 29, 2009

SAVE ME….

SAVE ME….
"written to Her……"

AHMAD, Abubakar Dr

Let this be my story
For I gone one day

To the home behind skies
Where we dream to visit

Let this be me in words
That you read as writing

Let you read my tears
That soaked this writing

I bury thy face in hands
For my eyes are blind

To the world that surrounds me
Which beget blankness?

Like desert full of sands
In the need for wetness

Let me strive to touch star
For the journey seem too long

But I hold you my target
In my eyes you are here

You are the oasis of that desert
You inject life to the died

I here come emptiness
Full of hope to fill the pit

Lend me your embrace
Like a child in suckling

You alone can bail me
From this island on to land

With tears I look on you
Don’t let me face darkness

"I have friends in overalls whose friendship I would not swap for the favor of the kings of the world. "
Thomas A. Edison
AHMAD Abubakar

Runaway Queen

Runaway Queen
"Dedicated to runaway Soldiers in my war zone

In my sleep she comes Queen
Handing me throne to rule her kingdom
Taking me to moon alone we talk

In the morning her ghost haunts me
Like a mirage-she tempted my words
For a diver that looks on water


She talks to me like the Night
walking to me as a cat
With her dress like a butterfly

Her smile blinded my eyes
Behold…only her they see.
She alone that exist in me

In her eyes she sleeps with me
Drawing me in to that sea
I sink like a falling dust

Watching her run and left me crying
She blinked me out On a fire
And set me on to that hurt
Am on fire…. Feeling that nasty heat

Let me roost on that nest
For sleep will soon catch mine
In dream I will watch mine
With tear I will hold thee

I swim inside sea of my tears
Hand me a hand that will cross me out
With your hug that embrace me as sky…
.Ahmad Abubakar-Dr

Friday, July 17, 2009

clumsy word-unarrange poem---=Reverse style

I dance to the tune of words that ripe me naked,
and slitted my throat
with a slick of awesome letters that uproot my teeth
.... upon the clumsy floor with my bare hands that lift my body..
.I clung to the handy hand with soft clod...
that feed me a dream....
the ghost hunted me down from near door to the dark alley..........
Die..die
then flow it started to wet me...
and strange shadows walk in front guiding the droopy body

Wednesday, July 15, 2009

I FALL SICK--a poem

I FALL SICK

June,2009
By Ahmad Abubakar Dr
and trembles in despair
to talk to you
tell me the secret that makes me still
think you I am not your Bed
that bequeath your rights
there was a time when you planted a seed
thy never know seed
that perishable encounter is now a rock
a mountain fixed to our world
I should not need you,If you were gentle
within the Jurisdiction encapsulated you
Being so fathered,and so husbanded ?
why say the words ?
why the time...why it revolves ?
I am on my knee and weep
"thy heart is big,get thee apart and weep
Passion.I see is catching for mine eyes
seeing those beads of sorrow stand in thine
Began to water
is thy dear coming?
...lend me your hand
..and tell me what hath chanced.

Thursday, February 26, 2009

FILMING THE FILMS !!

FILMING THE FILMS !!
NIGERIAN MOVIES ON ANALYSIS ........'FIRST DISCOURSE'
February 2005
Ahmad Abubakar is a professional scriptwriter base in Kano
+234 8039 666 036

Films or movies are more than what we takes them to be,they are made with attributes of skills and sequential arrangement of logics,that results in a strong desire by audience to watch it from the first scene down to the penultimate scene,and eager to find the resulatant end.
Creating a story for a film is not an easy job,it perhaps looks simple and many think that they can just write a story and shoot it directly in to a film,as simple as that;some even have the audacity to transformed books(novels)directly in to what they called a 'movie'.
But is that a movie?
Or an adaptation of its kind?
So what are the rules of the game?
To make a story convenient for a film script be it a creative idea,myth,poem or adaptation of a book,there is need for one to recall this "A film is a debate,that rays a problem,and rise a Question(will,wishes e.t.c)to keep the audience want to know the answer and interest in it"
Titanic is one of the world's most famous film ever produced,which economically got an unexpected well turn over beyond expectation of the producers.In the movie, this story is presented to the audience as a flashback. The narrator is Rose, 101 years old, with the last name Dawson. She tells the story to a treasure hunter (Bill Paxton), who is looking for the famous (and valuable) Heart of the Ocean, a diamond that was given to Rose by her fiance, Hockley.The fact that the writer (Cameron) takes his time in telling the story makes it all the more tense. Cameron could have skimped in any of these areas (dialogue, cinematography, effects, authenticity) and still come out with a great movie, but he doesn't. He sticks to the formula that has worked in other great epic movies, and he pulls it off one hundred percent.
The producers of this film has endured alot of critics prior to the production of the film.Because the critics believed that the basic of the script will not attract audience need,nevertheless,the writer intellectually stick to the style.
A film may not necessary be a continues narration,a three acts structure which skilfully and tactically be set-up.with protagonist and antagonist in a conflicts,then follows the obstruction,solution,point of no return,resolution,climax and end,including other narrative devices.
Movies are not just a descriptive imagination of the director,been layed on screen as we see it.Most films now are understandable as we watches them,but lacks tactics of hooking audience.The audience do watch it only for some reasons mean by them,but in it there is no hooking phenomenon.The cultural or traditional line of a film as it is carried along the film is what triger the audience to watch it,no more no less of any logics.
One film Director JOHN FORD use to say"a film is a great film when it's long on action and short on dialogues"
Really,a film is supposed to be rich with visualise means of satisfying the audience not just a mere long dialogue,which makes one bored.Audience need to follow the film step-by-step with out the film telling them,they need to see and identify for themselves.Here,a movie film is not like a novel,where one can flip forward or backward easily to recall what he had read,or connect a character with a particular happening.In film,there is no need for that,the audience are carried with the story elaborately.Books are reflective,while films are layed on present tense,even if the story is in past,it is been shown as though the audience are there watching it alive.
Nigerian movies have a high demand in the local market,and more market is there hanging there out in the abroad for them,because other parts of the world are thirsty and in need to watch how Africa is,they are tired of watching themselves.Hausa Home Videos which are produced in the northern part Nigeria,and other movies been produced in Nigeria commonly known as Nigerian films have alot of challenges ahead of them.

Wednesday, August 27, 2008

POSERS ON FILM PRODUCTION

WHAT MAKES A FILM GREAT!!!

PEDANTICAL APPROACHES TO EFFECTIVE CONSTRUCTION OF STORY FOR A FILM

Ahmad Abubakar is a professional scriptwriter based in Kano , Nigeria .

drahsak@yahoo.com

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/writersforumkano



Story is the key basic element of any movie; when the story of a film is professionally designed with elaborated set-ups, the resultant end of the product (the movie) will be one amongst hundreds. The major problem encountered in Nigerian movies (both Nigerian films-as they are been called, and Hausa home videos, and including the soap-operas in our television) is the lack of setting the story on pedantically theories of three acts structures.

Most of our films now are just a mere plain drama, though they make sense, but professionally it does not communicate effectively. Take in cognisance some of this soap-operas that are been targeted as educative-piece, the writers do not use a comprehensive approach to impart the message, they do a little-but the audience may interpretate the manners at which the message is been conveyed as a dictatorial formula of transforming them to some thing new, something they may emotionally dislike not because it is good or bad for them, but they just don’t want enforcement. Here a writer should have use the conventional methods of sending messages consciously or unconsciously with out the audience been recognising it as a way of forcing them to change. The same methods also fell to other genres of a film with different archetype. They said you can not force Donkey to drink water, but there are many ways that fool him to drink

Story is a series of events, with a beginning, middle and end. It has a main character who tries to achieve a goal, confronting obstacles along the way. It’s about development process and journeys. One may have a story in his mind, may even be a good story teller, a novelist or just somebody with willingness to write for a film, how can he set his story pedantically to be suitable for screen? I always emphasized that writers are born to be writers, they write with instincts and intuition, but that is writers, when it comes to scriptwriting a writer needs to be guided, he need to know the rules, the way of transforming his imaginations into a visualise form, he need a talent worth for manoeuvring story in to a moulded script that focused and original and leaps off the pages. A script that gives a great actor something to works with. It’s about creating stories that touch and intrigue an audience and perhaps transform lives in the process. A good writer is always on training and researching in order to reinvent himself and explore his potentials.

The craft of writing involves how the writer is able to communicate with his audience, how he can create problem and solve it. He clearly communicates his ideas in ways that will excite, enthral, and engage an audience. He develops a sense of how the audience feels at various points in his story.

A story may flow this way about a competition of football game, and the resultant end of the match. This story easily falls in to a three acts structure: the preparation of the play, the match and the climactic event when the match is finished and the resultant result after the match. In it there are many narrative elements which include conflict, action, tension and momentum.

Here, we may see that the story goes on linear line, about a character with definite goal, and then this happened, then he takes action, then obstruction, then reaction, then insurmountable conflicts, and obstacles, a point of no return then finally a resolution. This kind of set-up is what hooked audience gloomed with the film and carries their emotions altogether.

A lay man may see it ridiculous, he had assumed a story just flow as happenings in the past.Perhaps, it tells events, but in a chronological settings, it contains a visualise ways of satisfying audience.

One problem again commonly associated with our film is unconventional used of dialogue. Audience learnt their character by the actions he did, not merely by what he say. Dialogue in our film is too much. “We must kill the dialogue” (Noelle smith-one of my instructors says) audience need to see not to be told. The solution of this entire problem is by employing professionals that will work on the script and guide the writer for a successful great film. Again the writer should bear in his mind that a good script is about writing, rewriting, and rewritings.

The professional may not work on the basic of creativity; this will be the work and right of the writer. Their job is to polish the script, analyse and be critique its content for making it a good piece.

Logically and dramaturgically, there is a writer who is the master craft-man that make the script; then a mentor(coach or teacher)that helps and guide in facilitating the writer for a good job; then a script-editor or in other name a critic, that helps the writer in identifying any lapses, mistakes and loose threads in the script; then the other important one a “Reader”(as called by Rothy Cullen-my lecturer)and I called it a Surgeon, this is because he looks at the script as a patient,diagonised any disease in it, and treats it some how surgically by removing any unwanted piece(weeding-especially with the dialogues).Of course some professional writers and consultant like Antoine Jaccoud from Switzerland called it a Script-Doctor, but I prepare a Script-Surgeon, even though I like the idea of calling him a ‘Doctor’.

Nevertheless, ‘writers’ we are not late, we have time ahead of us, we are still moving, developing and one day our Nigerian movies will dominate the Oscar and other international and local awards. We just need to create a link of interaction and sharing ideas where we can concatenate our ideas together, marry them and set back or let me say set forth our style of films. To academics, let us encourage our dear writers by organising workshops and training so as to enhance the vocational approach to film production. I see it as a means of poverty eradication and job opportunity. We should never down grade our potentials in this time of development. We know that our films represent us any where in the world, let us enrich it with limpid and original setting. The world should know that we too are not only good in corruption and 419, but with a lot of creativity.

THE UNFORGIVABLE MISTAKE(Short Story)

THE UNFORGIVABLE MISTAKE

BY: AHMAD ABUBAKAR



http://groups.yahoo.com/group/writersforumkano



He ran to me with opened hands, smiling cunningly,"APPA-APPA-APPA"He said, his mother standing by the door looking at us admiringly. I opened my hands and held him by shoulders, rising him up so that we face each other’s. I kissed his fore head"Hm-mts my young freind, how you doing today?". He opened his small beautiful lips"pine".I laugh always when he pronounced 'fine' as 'pine' with that speed like the word pine is the only word he knows. I put him down, opened my briefcase brought out something confined in my palms,streched my hand to the boy “take this" I said, as he stretched his hand, I held mine “what is your name?”. He drew, stepping back alittle,turning his head left and right, his face changed, he twisted his mouth,"uhm-uhm-uhm my chocolate Appa".I opened my mouth wide in amazement, “who told you it is a chocolate?”. He just stayed starring at me, with that searching gaze of kids, that send a person asking himself questions he never knew the answer. I opened my palms, there is a chocolate on it, he took it and ran back to his mother.

I went directly to my room, I was very tired my wife came in to the room, she handed me a chilled glass of juice,sincerely,I was very thirsty and it took a strong force within me that prevented me from buying the so called 'pure water' along the road side, to me they should have honestly named it table water, as there is nothing pure about it hygienically. I drank it in gulped, I sat at the edge of my bed, she switched-on the room's fan, and directed it towards me. I felt relieved after long hours of work.It was really hectic for me in the office. As I lied on my bed my wife started to massage my feet,"thank you very much my dear, they really hurt painfully” she just smiled. The boy licking his chocolate came to the bed side with his ever ready smile.He climbed on the bed."Appa-Appa",he lied beside me facing me face to face, his nose touching mine. I felt his respiration, and it smelts me. I look at him thinking in my mind” the boy looks like his mother, I like him, this is the most important treasure I have in this world, I will use all what I have to see that this boy get the most qualitative available education, I will train him to be a medical Doctor, he looks caring and gentle and very intelligent.So he can be a good Doctor. I drew him to my chest “sleep boy let have our siesta now".

Suddenly it came to my mind, I left my car wrongly parked outside. I rose up from the bed telling my wife “let me drive my car in to the garage, I parked it wrongly outside”. I went out holding the car keys. I entered the car, turned-on the ignition and stepped my feet on the gas pedal, it came to life again. I drove frontally at least two metres and moved to the left, so as to give enough space for me to drove back in to the garage. I held the gear lever, drew it in to reverse, I stepped on the gas pedal the car moved back abruptly with a high speed, and I felt the tyres are prevented to move by an obstruction along the line, I said to my self “it is a stone”. I shifted the gear and drove forward three yards, I steered the steering wheel a little to swap the imaginable stone and back the car moved. It stepped again on something and this time I pushed hard on the gas pedal, aiming at the garage door, I drove straight in to the garage.

As the car entered the garage, I look through the windshield to see the sort of stone that was there,"Ah h h h! What I saw transformed my whole life, my heart was in my mouth, my eyes widely opened in search of what was there lying smashed flatly by my car's tires, because of my careless driving. I rushed out and quickly on my kneels, I looked at the mess down there,ofcourse, this is unmistakable'Farhan' my lovely child, who was lying lifeless, he has gone with all my dreams. Tears rushed on my cheeks like a flowing river, I wept bitterly, how can I forget this ‘unforgivable mistake'