I’m slowly building an audience for the studio — as planned. It’s a healthy mix of serendipity and being less afraid to put myself out. Very curious to see what this looks like by year-end.
Album Cover Bank
We completed the website for the archive (albumcoverbank.com) in July and organised a Show & Tell at 16/16. It was incredible. Yinka Bernie (Egwu Records) opened with a vinyl set of older Afrobeat, Fuji, Funk, Highlife and Juju music, Immaculata read her published essay Face the Music, a commentary on how 1970s covers reflected individual and national identities, and I closed with a retrospective of Niyi Okeowo’s album cover work. Tomiwa recently published an essay on the making of the archive, and I’ve reached out to one of my favourite publications for press.
Hanky Panky
We screened Hanky Panky in London earlier this month. Princess and Jade organised — chose the venue, planned the show, and invited a lot of the guests. We screened alongside Dawta (Jessica Ashman) and Pass the Meerkat (9ine Degrees). Princess interviewed Chuks and I, and I interviewed Jessica and Deji. The conversation was largely about animation production and distribution, and it was really a great time.
The screening was staged to show the film to a new audience and expand the studio’s network, both of which we achieved. Everyone thought the film was great, which was really flattering given the amount of talent in that room. I also met people in media who I’m now speaking to about distribution. Looking to show the film at two more London festivals and figure out what the online premiere should be.
LUDO
LUDO is now sold out! We started talking about it in July (last year), kicked off production in October, put it up for sale in February and sold out this month. This is the first studio project that has made any money (20% profit) and it has been an education in running a creative business. Not sure what comes next, but we’ll see.
PS: We got featured in Contemporary And. Exciting times.
Feel Good
Issac and Seyi (Studio Null) are making amazing progress with Feel Good. We’re branding the stories individually and Ife Aminu has created fantastic illustrations to match. Ikaay has also just joined the team to help with social media in preparation for an October launch.
Also
- Still working on the Friends of 16 app
- We’re planning for a season of E Dey Happen
