Instinct Empire Changing Entertainment Narrative In Cross River State-Apostle

Over the years, Lagos is been reputed to be Nigeria and Africa’s entertainment hub. From reputed Moviemakers, to Music Executive, celebrated Comedy Icons, Fashion Enthusiasts among other Theatrics, their success stories are attributive to Lagos influence.

However, Cross River State has taken a strong footage in this ever growing entertainment industry in view of her tourism potentials and rich historiography in the Nigerian traditional and political setting. This adventures has given right to the proliferation of creatives who are harnessing their potentials with a view to change the narrative. In this exclusive interview with parliamentvanguard.com, Apostle Kelvin Unor, CEO of Instinct Empire shares his thoughts on prospects and challenges of young entrepreneurs including lineup of events for Instinct Empire. Excerpt

Who is Instinct Empire and what are her recent project?

“Instinct Empire is a novelty brand that is taking over the entertainment space in Nigeria with Calabar as her base. We have carried out lots of activities which has given our talent the platform for expressivity and income earning. Famous among them is Calypso the movie. We started the project with zero budget excerpt our creativity. As young entrepreneurs, funding is often a challenge. But we are grateful to the fact that there is a paradigm shift in Cross River state as regards accommodating young entrepreneurs. This is because Calabar sponsors now sees the big picture of not depending solely from an overburdened government for sponsorship like it’s applicable in Lagos. With this understanding, we were able to harmonize our intellectual capital with funding from brands to put up a project that is on top streaming platforms.

“The risk from our sponsors was high, but in solidarity to developing young talented Cross Riverians, they gave us massive supports which has birthed success of this project. We used both conventional and non-conventional approaches to publicize Calypso including a soccer fiesta at a secondary school in Calabar with another Calypso picnic at the stadium which attracted over 10,000 viewers who saw clips of the project. In a nutshell, Calypso has become a movement in Cross River State with her annual picnic and other activities.

One of the basic elements for a good movie is the storyline. What inspired Calypso script?

“The story is motivated by the skepticism of some parents concerning their wards as on-campus or boarding students due to some negative narrative of bully and other character assassinations. As a product of boarding school, I felt the need to correct the impression. This is predicated on the fact that boarding students build independent mindset very early with other underline positive attributes. I and crew felt the need to furnish parents with what a boarding school entails.”

What are the dominant themes of Calypso, the movie?

“One of the themes associated with the movie is the positive side of boarding students. Again, this movie is a pacesetter for moviemakers as our standards are very high. We intentionally did not bring A-list artistes onboard for the singular reason of making legends from mere mortals. The highlight of it all is the intellectualism and dramatization embedded in this movie of reference.

When are you premiering Calypso as expectations are high?

“We shot in a very high resolution with very large files to meet international best practices which occasioned the initial delays. We are dawned editing the project. Therefore, in September or November we will premiere the movie for our viewer’s pleasure. This project is going to be in one of the biggest streaming platform in Africa.”

How is Instinct Empire changing entertainment narrative in Cross River State?

“We bring out creativity in the highest form. Instinct Empire is not limited to moviemaking even though it’s our core area, we are also involved in talent grooming using Promise Effiong who finished top runner from De9jaspirit Talent Hunt (DTH), as well as Pastor Dickson of David Dance Crooner, Dora Osuji among others as reference to how we are changing the entertainment narrative in Cross River State. We also manage event, do branding as well as capacity building trainings for Cooperate Organizations. These names mentioned are all products of Cross River State. For Instinct Empire, this is the least we can do in giving the state a place of pride in the Nation’s entertainment industry.”

What value is Calypso adding to Nollywood in terms of professionalism?

“First, I want to appreciate our elders in the industry who sacrificed so much to bring Nollywood this far. However, with technological advancement and further research on filmmaking, we are better positioned to enhance our productions. This cut across, storyline, state of the arts equipments and interpretation. All of these variables put together makes a quality movie. Above all, working with Calabar based crew has been awesome. Going forward, they will be plenty of collaborations as other projects are in the pipeline.

How can Instinct Empire solve some social problems in the society?

“Instinct Empire has created jobs for many creatives ranging from mentorship to exposure through our platform. Again, Instinct Empire as marketing the tourism potentials of Cross River and much more. By engaging these talents meaningfully, we are able to rehabilitate their minds towards productivity. It is for this reason we seek for supports to keep the trail ablaze. We have the passion, creativity, platform and energy to steer the state to greater pedestal if given the enabling environment.”

What are the challenges confronting Instinct Empire?

Basically, funding is the major obstacle for us like many neophytes brands. We came up with the idea of Wedding in Kwa-falls, a project that would have projected the tourism potentials of the state. Ironically, this noble project cannot fly because of funding. This project is estimated to cost 200million with return on investment should the state government or spirited investors delve into it. If we had the resources, we would have embarked on this project without necessarily depending on external sponsors. In a nutshell, our major challenge is finance.