YawaSkit: Peeping behind the curtains of a hit web series

Filmmaking, for those with realistic expectations is an extreme sport; you most times fail at it, but when you do win, the ovation is the loudest.

Of course, even when you are successful, you don’t come out without bruises, and this has been the story of most filmmakers, including Kassim Braimah, creator of YawaSkits, a leading web series that streams on Youtube every Friday.

In a recent chat with journalists, Braimah, who before YawaSkits had done a lot of short films, revealed that the chief mission behind the series was to mirror social issues in a comical manner.

He said, “the idea of YawaSkits came when I was just trying to make a short film. I wrote the script in 2012 and I was looking for a character to play the lead role, I was looking for someone that could bring that character to life, so I chose Sifon Okoi to play Kalistus. It was supposed to be just a short film but after I shot it, I began looking for a platform that I could put it on. Youtube seemed like the best place even though as of then people were not really into Youtube. I just hoped that somehow, maybe someone would spot us.”

When asked how he intended to make money from the web series at a time when Youtube viewers were limited, he shared that “The original intention was not for it to become a money-making venture, it was never for the sake of money, it was all with the drive to let people see that I can tell this story. I had a story and I just wanted to put it out there for people to enjoy and learn a thing or two from the story.

“It was later in 2018 that someone told us that we could make money from Youtube. But by that time, people were just watching it for free and we didn’t really care.”

He further revealed, “I raised the money to shoot the initial episodes myself. I had a small camera and a laptop then and the first YawaSkit was written without dialogues because I didn’t have a microphone so the whole story was written to match my capacity at the time.

“Most of the people I cast were my friends. My younger brother was my production manager, and we ate ‘puff puff’ on set because there was no food, so it was just basically for the fun of it. I was blessed to have friends and family that believed in me, though.”

Unlike the myriad of web series that trickle out of existence after a few episodes, YawaSkits survived to the point of bagging an AMVCA nomination, which made many take another look at the team of creatives that were making magic with their art.

Okoi in the role of Kalistus revealed that “At the point I started, I was not even an actor. My first time in front of a camera was Yawa episode one. Kazeem went to film school and has been my friend for like forever and he told me he had this story that I would fit the character and I agreed to it, I never saw it coming this far and people really did like it.

“Two years after we got our AMVCA nomination for the best short film, it got to a point where there was no endorsement coming, no money coming in, so we were putting money into it and nothing was coming out of it. We went for like three years break, but we could not handle the pressure. The pressure was more on me because I was the face of the project. People would come to my messaging platforms and say we should give them skits, when I post pictures, they would say ‘give us skits o, we don’t follow you because of pictures.’”

Braimah on his part stated that he came close to quitting Yawa absolutely. “There were so many times that I considered stopping. After 2014 and 2015, by 2016 we got an AMVCA nomination, and I thought that was it, that the big producers in Nollywood would spot us and say ‘Kazeem come, we are going to give you this money to make a movie’. None of that was coming and I was looking at myself thinking I was not doing the right thing; I began to doubt myself. Kalistus said he wanted to quit because he was becoming famous, and he was broke and it was really sad for him. I had to be begging him to shoot episodes and he would say that it was not getting him any money, that it was a waste of time.

“When this YawaSkits started, he played the role so perfectly and he was not even an actor, just a friend on my street. We didn’t even shoot a video throughout 2018 because he said he was not shooting anymore because people already knew him as the actor in the YawaSkit and he could not do any of his side hustles, yet the YawaSkits was not paying. I started other hustles; shooting wedding videos, cheap music videos, even street arguments just to make ends meet.”

Presently, the duo have revealed that they are simply taking it all one day at a time, and the aim is to get it as far as maybe Netflix depending on how things play out. For Okoi though, patience is the secret to growing with a web series.

On a final note, Braimah revealed that Yawa Skits has grown to employ a team of 13 to make the beloved skits that their fans love.

Among the major casts asides Okoi are Solomon Nwaorgu in the role of Boma; MaryGrace Ogbu playing Philo; and Anita James Oha in the role of Queen.

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