Ayo J. Sanusi

It all started when...

I was sat one night just reminiscing about when I was young. My family and I  are very religious and I remember hearing the story of the prodigal son which is about a boy leaving home against his father’s wishes. This got me thinking about how different people from different settings still provide common issues. In the case of Tribe this issue is a disobedient young man going against his fathers wishes to do what he feels is right.

The setting was very important to this film as it could of taken place anywhere because the story allows for this. I decided to go with the route of a fantasy tribe as this allowed more creative freedom and meant I didn’t have to base the tribes on any pre-existing tribes, which took away from the creativity and added far more restrictions to be accurate.

Tribe has been a very valuable learning experience for me as I got to challenge issues that I was not necessarily aware of at the time such as having to think carefully how to get the best for my film despite a tight budget and knowing what to compromise on and what not to. 

When first coming up with an idea, I was obsessed with making something that I haven't made before, something that was unique and relatable and something that I could have fun with. 

One of my favourite experiences working on the film has to be the early writing stages. I was able to create this whole world, the characters and their lives and challenges and triumphs, There was no limit on my imagination as it was a fantasy and although it took a lot of re-drafts to make it the story I wanted it to be it became all worth it to see it come alive on set and on the screen. 

When writing Tribe I especially enjoyed getting the chance to watch films that could help with the creative process such as Apocolypto as well as read stories with similar themes like the bible story of the parable son. I drew inspiration from them and started to think how i could interpret these and make them my own. Being able to see other work really did help me move the script a long.

We spent almost 6 months planning and preparing for the shoot
and I was very happy with the hard work everyone had put in and on screen it just shows that the cast and crew of this film gave it everything they could. Im proud of the film and excited to see where it will go and how it will grow, also hopefully being able to start planning on making a second film!