Óménà lÃ
Project type
Short Film
Date
May 2025
Credits
Producer
Press
Location
Lagos, Nigeria
Logline
An estranged first son must protect the legacy of his late father from his hard-headed uncle while navigating traditional Igbo burial rites.
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Written & Directed by Stephanie Byron-Ene
Pre-Production
Pre-production for Óménà là began in the fall of 2024. I had 10 weeks to tackle the logistics of traveling and filming internationally while overseeing the creative process. During this time, I worked on developing the pitch book alongside my director, Stephanie Byron-Ene. This book consisted of the script, storyboards, budget, crowdfunding plan, and more.
Budget
Budgeting for a film is no easy feat, especially when you know you can't rely on your school's resources. As the producer, my job was to make sure we kept costs down without sacrificing my director's creative vision. Since we would be filming in Nigeria, I had to keep the currency conversion from the U.S. dollar to Naira in mind. I used Movie Magic Budgeting to track expenses and get an estimated budget.
Scheduling
Fitting a 14-page script into a 3-day shoot seemed nearly impossible and almost led to us cutting what Stephanie and I call the "masquerade scene." Looking at the big picture, it was the least important for the audience's understanding of the story, but this aspect of Igbo tradition seemed too special to give up.
My first instinct was to film this scene last. Given the lack of sunlight, it wasn't ideal, but we wouldn't lose anything if we didn't get to it. Still, it broke my heart to throw it at the tail end of the last day with the hope we would have enough time and clear weather. This taught me the importance of developing multiple "what-if" schedules for outdoor shoots.
We ended up scheduling this scene for the morning of Day 2 with the end of Day 3 was our contingency plan. I'm happy to report that the "masquerade scene" made it to the final edit.
Casting
Social media was our best friend when it came to finding our talented cast. We primarily used Instagram and Twitter to spread the word about auditions. I found that the easiest way to get submissions was to have actors send in self-tapes and proceed with a table-read over Zoom. Due to the time difference, I would wake up at 3:00am to read with our actors so Stephanie could focus on their performance. For extra assurance, I recorded these auditions to refer back to as we narrowed down our favorite auditions.
Crew & Equipment
I was fortunate enough to work with a wonderful producer from Nigeria, Chioma Peters. With her help, we were able to secure an amazingly passionate crew. When it came to equipment, I learned a lot about the power of negotiation and how it differs between cultures.
Stephanie working on story structure
Me & Stephanie during a meeting
Production
When I arrived in Nigeria after a 12-hour flight, I went straight to the market with Stephanie and her father to get the final props that we needed for the first day of production. No matter how tired I was, the excitement of getting to film the short we'd been working on for two and a half months kept me going. This energy only continued as I finally got to meet the cast and crew in person.
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Oputa Emmanuel, one of the current highest-grossing cinematographers in Nigeria, was a delight to work with. Seeing how he interacted with Stephanie opened my eyes to how easy it can be to click with people who have the same vision as you. They understood one another perfectly and I'm so grateful to have worked beside him.
Post-Production
When we made the decision to work in Avid instead of Premiere Pro, I had no idea how much I would learn about the editing programs outside of the Adobe Creative Cloud. The leap to Avid and Davinci Resolve feels like a pretty big one, but as Stephanie and I like to say, you just have to learn the language.
After a rocky start to post-production back in January with less than ideal hard drive space and 4k footage, Óménà là has come such a long way. Getting to screen this film to our peers and being rewarded with a spot in SCAD's spotlight showcase makes the sleepless nights and endless rendering worth it. We're so excited to begin our festival run.
Our Editor, Farah White
