Messiah entertainment /
The Hero Proposal /
Service To Humanity /
DWOMOH /
9/30/2014 /
This documents contains a proposed package for the shooting of a Docu-Drama on the plight of the witches of Gambaga and the state of street children in Ghana /

MESSIAH ENTERTAINMENT

IN PARTNERSHIP WITH

SHOWBASE CONTENT

PRESENTS

"A Documentary Film Proposal"

TITLED

THE HERO

(SERVICE TO HUMANITY)

©2014

Documentary Film Proposal Document.

By

MESSIAH ENTERTAINMENT

Documentary Movie

30THSeptember 2014

Working Title: The Hero

Producer:Dwomoh-Doyen Benjamin

Director:Nana Yaw AkomeaSakyi

Co-Director: Emmanuel Apea

DOP: Kofi Asante

Script Writer:Dwomoh-Doyen Benjamin

Gaffer:Genevieve Evans

Scrip Consultants: Emmanuel Appiah, John AmoatengKantara, William Akuffo of Ghallywod

Associate Producers:Peter Dwomoh Junior/Paul Joegad, Nana Yaw Akomeah-Sakyi

Other Collaborators: Roger Quartey /CollonelMbawineAttintande,CollonelQuarshie,

Messiah Entertainment

PMB Osu-Accra Ghana

Email:/

Contacts: 0246877363/0262941133

  1. Executive Summary

In February 2012, acensus estimated that the number of street children in Accra, Ghana’s capital city has reached 61,492 - an astronomic rise from little over 4,000 in 1990. These street children, often migrants from rural Ghana, live in dangerous and degrading conditions and tend to lack the opportunity to improve their situation.

Streetism is a term used to describe children who are forced to spend most of their time outside their homes, engaging in menial income generating activities in order to survive. The children come from rural areas or the town, seeking refuge and survival. Sadly, they often live on the streets, struggling to find meals and a safe place to sleep each night.

There are many causes that lead to children migrating from the rural areas, especially the Northern part of Ghana;the chief causes are poverty and a broken home. It is the desire of Messiah Entertainment Pictures to bring on screen the plight of these street children, their background and challenges. Messiah Entertainment Pictures has put together a two hour Film script on the life of one such street child and to bring to the attention of the whole world some of the backward practices that leads to streetism and ways to remedy them. One such backward practice that the film seeks to bring on screen is the issue of witches camps in Ghana. A case in study for this film is the Gambaga witches camp

Forced to flee their homes and loved ones following false witchcraft accusations, the women in this story face a life of misery, desperate poverty and deplorable living conditions. They won’t see their families again, probably not for the rest of their lives. Many have no idea how many years they’ve spent in the 'witches' camps. And it’s all because of some misfortune of a family member or neighbor, or a dream that someone’s had. The women are blamed for the misfortune, such as a death in the family, economic hardship, even the death of their own child. Once the finger has been pointed and the accusation made, the lynch mobs beat and abuse the accused woman who flees for her life to one of Ghana’s ‘witches’ camps where she believes she may find some protection. The women are stigmatized and outcasts from society.

  1. Problem identification

According to the2009 Consortium for Street Children census of street children in Accra, Ghana’s capital city there were:

21,140 street children

6 000 street babies

7,170 street ‘mothers’ under the age of 20

14,050 urban poor children (most likely at high risk of coming to the street)

For the Children (Girls) in Accra it is to live daily, to eat daily, and to survive daily. The street girl is among the most vulnerable on the streets, and street boys will offer them some form of protection in return for sex. Not to mention the personal effect this has on a girl, it also means that they are at a high risk of getting pregnant. The boy will then deny all knowledge of his relationship; the girl is then left to bring up the child on their own. Street girls are also at a heightened risk of becoming infected with STD's and STI's.

Some of the girls the writer spoke to gave an account of life on the street. To be able to survive, the girl had to enter into a sexual relationship with one of the boys from the street. In exchange for having intercourse with him, he protected her from other men. Many girls living on the streets of Accra and Kumasi share this fate.

About 32 children and young adults between the ages of one and twenty five are suffering deprivation at the Gambaga Witches Camp, where their mothers and/or grandmothers are seeking refuge for allegedly being witches.

While some of the children followed their female guardians there after they were accused of being witches and banished from their respective communities, others were accused alongside their mothers and/or grandmothers and were therefore forced to also seek refuge in the camp.

The Gambaga Witches camp is one of six such facilities in the Northern Region that currently serve as a refuge for people who have been accused of Witchcraft and subsequently banished from their communities. About 76 of the women, who are mostly aged, are currently at the facility. It is made up of clustered circular huts of various sizes, thatched with woven straw.

In a semi fictitious story, the production house traced the background of one street girl to Gambaga; the young girl and her mother were both thrown in the witches’ camp of Gambaga. After the death of her father,the two were accused of being witches. The young intelligent girl; Lamisi was accused of feeding on the brains of her colleagues in school whiles her mother was accused of being behind the death of her husband.Lamisi had nothing else to do than to escape from the camp and seek refuge in Accra.

To be able to eradicate streetism, the root causes of rural urban migration must be tackled. The production house has identified certain causes and intends to prescribe solutions to them after the successful completion of this project

  1. Project Description/Concept.

Messiah Entertainment Pictures has put together a touching storyof the life of one girl who mistakenly finds herself in Accra after the death of her father and her mother taken to awitch’s camp as being the cause of her husband’s death. The film tends to show how with determination and the fear of the Lord, one can achieve anything she/she desire in life. It’s an educative piece that identifies problems of street life and one young girls resolve to change the rules and make it apply to her.

The story focuses on education and debunks certain backward cultures;it tells the story of how the young girl did not allow her environment to determine her fate but rather went through thick and thin to acquire education even as a street child and how in the end she became a national hero with her problem solving skills and ideas.

The production house intends to shoot this project from Gambaga and its environs and follow the life of the main character to the streets of Accra; it will unveil her ordeals, her disappointments and her triumphs. It will also establish the life of a foreign journalist from the US and her interest in the Gambaga witches camp story and her resolve to give the issue an international attention. It is our desire to give marginalized women a voice through film.

A percentage of the proceeds from the sale of the movie will be used in conjunction with some selected NGO’s to take care of some selected street children and help them with their education. A part of the proceeds from the film will also be used to help reintegrate the alleged witches into their communities, as well as cater for their welfare. The film will further be used to educate the public on the plight of street children and some of the causes and effects of streetism. We believe when it is seen as a real issue, it will touch people more to seek to help out at least one street child and to extend a helping hand to the witches of Gambaga and other Witches camps.

We want to use this project to launch the one street child a quarter project, where every Ghanaian will be encouraged to take care of at least one street child every quarter.

  1. Synopsis

Forced by a backward cultural practice to flee her hometown in the North to seek greener pastures, 11 year old Convicted witch,Lamisi finds life in the capital hard to cope. Separated from colleague street children she calls friends by a perennial flood in Accra, she is left at the mercy of a mad man who takes her as a protégé in his abode in an uncompleted building. Lamisi is bent on attaining education for herself at all cost. How does the mad man alter her life, Do they have any link with the president? And can the duo be National Heroes from their abode in the uncompleted building? The Hero is a story of determination and commitment and a strong relationship between two outcasts.

  1. Goals and Objectives

The Hero is an ambitious multi-platform project by Messiah Entertainment to bring relieve to some marginalized people in the society, with much focus on women and the girl child. The centerpiece of the project is a special two-hour film production on the plight and successes of these marginalized in the society, a film to be produced by Messiah Entertainment with noted crew and personalities in the Ghanaian Film industry and with assistance from international film crew and stars.

All of the project components have been carefully coordinated and scheduled to focus national and international attention on the plight of Street Children, Convicted witches in the various witches camps and the state of the mental health patients. The film is an educative piece that will address all these issues, and to deepen public understanding of several key themes, including

  • Backward cultures and ways of life
  • General effects of Broken Homes
  • The need to cherish education
  • The need to be each other’s keeper and help the needy.

Because of the project’s broad reach and scope, and its promise of bringing important humanities ideas to a large audience in new ways, we seek the support of every human being to make this project a success.

It is our desire to give back to society what society gives us; thereby we intend to give a percentage of proceeds from the sale of film right, premiers and DVD sales to educate some selected street children. It is the Plan of the Production house to put such monies into an endowment fund that will be used for the long term upkeep of such selected children. We intend to continue this arrangement even in all subsequent productions.

We hope to bring to the attention of the international communities, the real needs of this country and the need to help eliminate streetism. We also intend to bring to Government attention innovative ways of helping certain pressing problems of the state as prescribed by a young street girl in the movie.

We are also motivated by the United Nations Declaration of the Rights of the Child, to providing for one or more of the basic needs of children as set out in the Declaration:

THE RIGHT to affection, love and understanding

THE RIGHT to adequate nutrition and medical care

THE RIGHT to free education

THE RIGHT to full opportunity for play and recreation

THE RIGHT to a name and nationality

THE RIGHT to special care, if handicapped

THE RIGHT to be among the first to receive relief in times of disaster

THE RIGHT to learn to be a useful member of society and to develop individual abilities

THE RIGHT to be brought up in a spirit of peace and universal brotherhood

THE RIGHT to enjoy these rights regardless of race, color, sex, religion, national or social origin.

  1. Procedures and Methods

Various procedures have been outlined to successfully complete this project namely:

  1. Script Conferencing

Since the main casts of the movie are a mental health patient, a street child, and a condemned witch in a witch camp, the production house will want to achieve realism as much as possible. Therefore the complete script will be distributed to some selected individuals who are experts in their various fields to go through and give notes on how to correctly achieve all the scenes as outlined in the script. A day will be set aside for a special script conference with the crew of the movie and these stake holders. The script will be thoroughly audited and all contributions noted for a rewrite to insert their contributions and take out any scene they deem not relevant. The script will also be given to a humor specialist to add a bit of humor where necessary.

After the complete and final script is ready, a meeting will be organized with the marketing team of our sponsors as to where and how to put subtle advert of their product and services as a form of scene placement or character mentioning in the movie. Our directors and writers will also be present in this meeting to give their professional advice on product placement.

  1. Audition and Casting

There will be a national audition in Accra and Tamale to select both the Northern cast of the movie and the southern cast. The audition will be recorded for a playback on TV to begin promotion of the movie.

  1. Location Hunt

The Director with his crew will assess all possible locations for the movie and map possible ways of shoot. There is a quiz competition between certain schools in the film, the production team will speak to heads of some of the selected schools to arrange this shoot with them

The team will also speak to the organizers of the National Quiz and some lecturers to help with the planning and execution of the quiz scenes.

Our team has already met with the chief and people of Gambaga to organize our Gambagashoot; we will also have a talk with managers of the witch camp and some of the witches who will want to be casted to prepare them for their roles.

Our team will go to the abode of the street children (Kayayee) and talk with them about the project and their involvement; we will upon agreement with them select some of them for extras roles in the film.

  1. Rehearsals

Whiles the pre-production arrangement is ongoing, the assistant director will he rehearsing with the cast to master their lines and expressions.

  1. Production

The production of the film will last for thirty two days.

  1. Post-Production

After the completion of the entire shoot, writers, directors sound score directors and editors will take an extra one month to edit the work to have the final two hour film.

  1. Film screening

A preview copy of the work will be sent to all the stake holders involved to watch and a special day set aside for a screening conference where the final film will be shown and inputs noted for a possible reshoot of particular scenes or for re-editing.

  1. Press Screening

A special press screening will be organized at the Silver bird Cinemas for all press men in the country to watch and write their reviews in their tabloids, news papers or on their stations (FM/TV).

  1. Accounting and Auditing

In consultation with the executive Producers, the sponsors and the production house, an accounting and auditing firm will be contracted to take care of all revenues for the film. They will be part of premiers, rights sales, DVD sales and any other revenue the film will generate. They will give a final accounting of all proceeds for proper distribution and disbursement.

  1. Promotions

There will be extensive marketing promotions by the Marketing team of Messiah Entertainment Pictures to promote the nationwide premier of the Film. Interview sessions will be organized on all TV Networks and selected Radio Stations for some of the street children to voice their concerns and talk about the film. Some selected Cast and Crew as well as the Producers and some of the sponsors of the film will also honor interviews on some Selected TV stations and radio stations.

Posters, fliers Free CD’s of behind the scenes, interviews, trailers and bonus scenes will be distributed across the country for the national premier of the film.

  1. Local Premiers

There will be nationwide premiers in some selected cinemas, hotels, schools, the conference center and the National Theatre.

University Campuses: We have already been premiering our movies in the university campuses; the only difference with this arrangement will be proper planning and the zeal to target a wider audience in all the university campuses of Ghana.

Senior High Schools: The main character; Lamisi will use some mind techniques mnemonics to study in the film, the movie showed her ways of learning which can apply to every student in School. The producers want to use the film to teach students effective learning techniques; therefore there will be a general premier of the movie in selected Senior High schools for a very small gate fee. This arrangement will be made with the entertainment committee of the various schools and the head of the selected schools.