Can you tell us about your production company? What do you do?
In 2003, I moved to Guadeloupe, where I set up my first company. Initially, this company specialized in video equipment rental. After a few years, I moved into audiovisual media, specifically audiovisual production. That's why I created my second company, Skyprod, dedicated to production, in 2006.
In 2015, I created another production company based in Ivory Coast called GO Productions, with which I mainly produce and co-produce series, but I have also produced short films and feature films.
How are you structured?
We are currently a team of three, but as soon as I launch a project in Côte d'Ivoire, I hire a local team and start production.
We are based in Côte d'Ivoire, but if we need to collaborate with other countries in the sub-region, we do so. This often takes the form of a co-production with the network we have managed to build.
I think that being based in Côte d'Ivoire makes it fairly easy to expand into other countries. There is a lot going on in Côte d'Ivoire; it is a gateway for the development of audiovisual production in the French-speaking region.
Co-production has a "healthy" side to it, because in this type of collaboration, we pool our strengths, skills, and resources, and the project can then spread throughout its country of origin.
What types of content do you produce?
We specialize in fiction production with an emphasis on TV series. At the same time, we are developing a number of short and feature films to encourage directors and young talent on the continent, both in Africa and the Caribbean.
I have chosen to focus more on comedy projects. I started with a short series in Guadeloupe called "Domino," similar to the series "Un gars, une fille."
I then continued with the comedy project "Villa Caraïbes," produced with CANAL+ International, also broadcast on the Afrique channel and on A+.
Next, I co-produced the series Brouteurs.com – season 3, a project carried out between France and Ivory Coast.
Finally, my latest project is "Voyage de rêve," an African road trip comedy set in Ivory Coast but with a pan-African scope. Other projects are in the pipeline… This project was produced in collaboration with TV5Monde.
Voyage de rêve is the result of a co-production with TV5Monde. Can you tell us about the project?
I did indeed co-produce this project with TV5Monde. I find it interesting that channels are getting involved in co-productions in Africa today. It's a great development.
You are very active in the field of fiction. What do you think is the magic formula for a successful drama?
There is no magic formula, but there are essential ingredients that contribute greatly to the success of a series: the project itself, the writers, a good production team, skilled technicians, and good actors brought together around a project with substance. Financial resources are also essential.
A successful project is one that is surrounded by good energy.
Today, most of the work is focused on writing so that a project is current and trendy. This is especially true when it comes to comedy, since you can't make everyone laugh! You have to find the main themes that will speak to everyone.
You work on comedies that are renowned throughout Africa. How do you manage to find humorous "codes" that can be appreciated by the widest possible audience?
It's important to look at what's happening in all these countries, to look at what audiences are consuming in order to target stories that resemble them, to try to find situations that they may have already experienced. All of this must be presented in a simple way.
To do this, we draw inspiration from series from Burkina Faso, Senegal, Ivory Coast, and other countries.
When we work on comedies, we often focus on situational comedy so that it can be understood by as many people as possible without too much dialogue.
The series "Voyage de rêve" was widely acclaimed by African audiences and beyond, because travel is a universal theme.
With one foot on the continent, how do you view audiovisual production in French-speaking sub-Saharan Africa? How would you sum up your activities in 2021?
Between the time I produced the series Brouteurs.com and Voyage de rêve, I noticed exponential progress, particularly in Côte d'Ivoire, in terms of the technical resources deployed and human resources.
There has been a real increase in skills, and this is reflected in the quality of productions in the sub-region. The products being released are increasingly in line with international "standards" and can easily be broadcast on major international channels.
The market is becoming more structured and competition is growing, particularly because there is also more "demand" for African productions from major international and pan-African players and with the arrival of digital platforms. These players are looking for "products" to enrich their catalogs and are therefore investing more and more in production.
2021 is another year largely marked by Covid, but we have still managed to do well with the launch of some high-quality productions in Senegal, Côte d'Ivoire, Togo, Gabon, and Burkina Faso.
What are the prospects for 2022?
Expansion is here… The future looks bright. The number of high-quality productions is growing, thanks in particular to investors who had somewhat neglected this market but are now returning in increasing numbers, bringing more and more resources to the table.
Our talents are also growing in number and becoming better trained. A number of them are even making a name for themselves on the international stage. This is very symbolic. International visibility is a good indicator of the sector's success.
But we want to go further. On the broadcasting side, we hope that resources will continue to grow. We need resources for production, but also for distribution, because we need more visibility.