US based Ghanaian movie producer Leila Djansi has shared a story of how actor turned politician John Dumelo was almost stabbed on a movie set due to negligence.
According to her, during the shooting of a movie, the production manager passed on a real knife to be used to stab John Dumelo, adding that it was dicovered early otherwise the actor would have been stabbed.
She posted: “Should I talk about the production designer who passed a real knife to an actor for a stabbing scene? My God. If it wasn’t for divine intervention, Vanessa Williams would have stabbed John Dumelo with a real knife that day. How is this not a joke?”.
While working in Ghana, Djansi also described a number of other startling incidents.
“Try an AD telling you he’s going to sleep for a few minutes in the middle of a shoot. Try a crew demanding you stop filming, bring a TV so they can watch football, and then return to set after the match.
“Look for what Cary Fukunaga said about working in Ghana. Try wardrobe telling an actor they don’t have an outfit for them because their role is not big enough,” she added.
She contrasted these occurrences with her international experiences, where she observed a great degree of professionalism and meticulousness.
“Compare that to my production in the Dominican Republic, where the props guy showed me eight different watches, properly arranged, for me to choose JUST ONE, for the scene. Eight options. I cried tears of joy,” Djansi wrote.
In order for industry participants to advance, the director advised them to “stop defending mediocrity” and instead welcome constructive criticism.
