LAST week, I promised ZNBC’s corporate affairs manager Masuzyo Ndhlovu and many ardent followers of this column of my opinion on the recently held Born and Bred Awards at Lusaka’s New Government Complex.
Before I comment, let me refresh your memories with an excerpt from Masuzyo’s mail which partly read: “I am supremely positive that you enjoyed watching the Born and Bred Awards Show live from the Government Complex last Thursday.
It is important to note that ZNBC is skewed towards Radio and TV productions while on the flipside we are now proving to be a force to reckon with in managing and staging events of an international standard, a clarion call to the corporate world to consider the National Broadcaster to stage their corporate events,” Wow! A force to reckon with in managing and staging of international standards events?
It’s clear to me now that ZNBC does not take time to look at the production competition around them before rating themselves.
To be honest, what I personally saw during the awards under review was disappointing more especially that last year’s edition was far much better than this particular one.
It is so disappointing in a sense that in normal circumstances using last year’s event as a measuring stick of growth by two steps ahead, this year’s edition looks to have taken ZNBC eight good steps backwards.
Even if the national broadcaster tried its level best to stage the awards, the show was below par as correctly predicted by this platform due to the changes of dates and venues by the organisers.
Two days before the event, I took a deliberate tour of the venue to see whether the rehearsals were at full throttle but I was shocked to see that nothing of such was taking place.
In normal circumstances, such events should take a minimum of five days of intensive rehearsals leaving the eve for final polishing touches.
I don’t understand why ZNBC does not want to outsource event managers if they want their events to succeed. Budgets perhaps.
On time management, ZNBC ought to know by this time that screen time-keeping especially for live shows is an integral part of such live corporate events and that any overrun in time is deemed a failure according to broadcasting rules.
It is even recommended to finish minutes before the stipulated time not otherwise as was the case with the Born and Bred Awards.
According to what was announced, the show was supposed to last for only three hours thus from 20:00 to 23:00 hours but ended up crossing over into the following day. Two hours into the time? That is huge failure by the production team.
This shows what negligence to some technological aid like the usage of the Teleprompters, Tablets or hard copy scripts would do.
No matter how good the presenter might be as was Andrew Makulu, he is supposed to be aided by a written script on a teleprompt and the same goes for the award presenters.
A script confines the host and award presenters to a specific timeframe which if put together would add up to one hour leaving the other hour for performances. The remaining hour should be allocated to the receiving of the awards and speeches by recipients.
If the teleprompt fails, backup hard copy script should then do it, all this in respect of time.  I thought ZNBC are well versed about such eventualities hence the usage of a back-up method of a hard copy when they are doing their main news.
Performances, this is where ZNBC also lamentably failed because, much of the awards ceremony was taken up by unregulated performances eating up into the time.
The man on the decks (DJ) did not do his job as he was supposed to give a winding up sound signal to those that might want to offload the entire album on the live stage.
When I saw people coming on stage without scripts but only depending on their various experiences, I foresaw disaster where time overrun was concerned.
Take Nigeria’s IK for example who has for several years hosted the Big Brother live eviction shows that had to last for only an hour, there has been no single day I saw him overrun in time. This is simply because he would rehearse and followed the script.
Coming to sound, I need not to explain because even those who don’t understand quality sound were at pains with the sound distortions.
It was simply noise to me especially having come from the Multichoice Africa’s biggest DStv content showcase in Mauritius where the best in sounds, picture, presentation time and management was exhibited.
From the look of things, ZNBC was operating on a shoestring budget that could not even allow them hire quality sound technicians. That is my opinion.
I would advise ZNBC to postpone such corporate events if they know resources and time would drag them eight steps backwards.
Away from the Born and Bred Awards, let me commend one Grevazyo Zulu for a good interview with Information and Broadcasting Minister Chishimba Kambwili.
I may not need to explain how tricky it is to host such a guest who is known for having more answers than what is asked of him.
Apparently, Grevazyo managed the one hour interview so well, making it good for viewership.
Now, before the interview, was the main news anchored by the corporate affairs manager himself and either golden Mukelabai or Samuel Manchishi.
I am confused because the two comrades have one similarity of not showing any smile when casting the news even if the item is hilarious.
I was surprised that even after last week’s critic on highlights; the same old song repeated itself of not showing real football highlights.
Having interacted with Masuzyo one-on-one before, I could read his facial expression that he was disillusioned with whoever was in charge of cutting the highlights from the MTN FAZ super division league.
I guess there might have had been a serious talk before the repeat of the same news item at 21:00 hours because at 21:00 hours, they at least showed highlights though not professionally.
Let me briefly explain how professional football highlights are supposed to be packaged as part of this platform’s mandate.
Show the referee signaling the kickoff of the game with two players shown kicking off the match which should be followed by a goal if any.
Then missed golden opportunities and others goals if any. The referee is again supposed to be shown signaling the ending the match with the actual commentator’s announcing the final score.
There is a lot in my mail box but I have reserved it for next week.
Thank you so much for the continued feedback. Text 0962215687 or 0955362470 email sampiri77@gmail.com