Sound Instructor Joins in Mourning the Death of Film in Kenya 

Former film cameraman Henry Bwoka is not alone in mourning the death of film in Kenya. John Wambulwa, a fellow retiree sound instructor at the Kenya Institute of Mass Communication (KIMC), who lives in Mapera village in Tongaren constituency, sings the same dirge.

He trained alongside Bwoka in the same intake from 1979-1981. The Friedrich Ebert Foundation of Germany was fronting what would be the pioneers of filmmaking in Kenya. The training had originally been set up at the then Voice of Kenya (VoK) and Mombasa House near Jevanjee Gardens, was the base used for the training. Relocation to KIMC followed thereafter.

In allowing the filmstrip to be shot down by video, Wambulwa says, “We have gone the wrong direction.” He adds, “Sound in itself was an art.” It’s perturbing for him that nowadays anybody can call himself a soundman, as long as they can record some sort of sound.

Wambulwa says during his time, a sound recordist visualized the sound and music to be incorporated into a production. He could even advise the film producer on the kind of artist to be used to record the appropriate music track.

In November 2022, Wambulwa visited his daughter who lives and works in the US. While there, he was in for a pleasant surprise. His daughter, a film enthusiast who coincidentally was trained at the Film Production Training Department (FPTD) at KIMC asked him, “Do you still enjoy watching films the way you used to?” His response paved the way for him to be taken to a movie theatre.

When the silver screen was illuminated with projection, the fond memories of his filmmaking skills back home were rekindled. It was nostalgic. As a result, when he was there, “I was a regular visitor to the film theatres,” he says. “Cinema halls there are filled!”

Watching movies at Kenya, Nairobi, and 20th Century cinemas, was marvellous for Wambulwa. “You sat there, watched and felt that you were at the real place where the action was.” He says the choice of the locations was fantastic. “When foreign crews used to come for filming in the country, we would accompany them on location,” he says. After post-production, the locations used would stand out even more.

Mobile cinema vans kept traversing the country showing movies in open-air theatres at night. “They used to start with Kenya Newsreel productions,” says Wambulwa. “You would see something interesting about say, wildlife.”

Wambulwa retired in 2016 from the Ministry of Information and Communications under which the KIMC was. He had worked as a lecturer for 37 years.

Wambulwa vividly recalls his classmates in the sound class. Jane Lusabe who is also retired and lives in Bungoma, Johnson Barasa, was formerly a cameraman at KTN and SABC and Pius Kilaiti of KTN are some of them. “We had students from the Gambia, Sudan, Zimbabwe, Zambia and Zanzibar,” he says.

LOCAL FILM TRAINERS

Production, techniques in camera, sound, editing and the laboratory were the various aspects of film production taught during the KIMC training.

Every section had its specific prerequisites for entry. Sound and camera were craved by those who had performed well in mathematics and physics, particularly at ‘A’ levels. Editing required proficiency in English and geography. For the laboratory, chemistry was crucial. “The first two-three months, we used to have general orientation where we needed to understand what went on in each section,” Wambulwa says. The orientation fostered teamwork.

When Wambulwa completed his course, the German trainers desired locals to take over from them. Students to be trained to equip them with the technical skills to serve as instructors were picked from each section. Wambulwa was selected from sound. His further training included how to teach. The training was local though foreign trainers would occasionally be invited to Kenya.

Wambulwa taught many sound classes. On average, no more than 10 students would be taken in every intake that took place after two or three years. KIMC was multisectoral. Courses were offered in television and radio production and mass communication. Each of these could admit up to 30 students.

Wambulwa took the students through their theory and practical sound lessons. “The number of students I taught is enormous because I was the key person in sound production.”

One of the trainees who came under Wambulwa’s tutelage was Danson Siminyu. He works at the Presidential Music Commission. He undertook the film sound techniques course from 1989 to 1991.  His class was composed of classmates from Kenya, Zimbabwe, Tanzania, Ethiopia and the Sudan.

“Mr. Wambulwa is one of those who belonged to a generation of well-equipped trainers,” Siminyu says. “He shaped a sizeable number of practitioners who contributed to the growth of film in Kenya.”

Film sound training infrastructure and equipment were adequate, fairly new and well-maintained. “Whether it was acoustics, sound editing, varied microphone placements, filtering, camouflaging or sound mixing, Mr. Wambulwa could deliver each of these theoretically and practically with finesse,” Siminyu says. He likens Wambulwa to a mobile sound textbook.

Wambulwa was the supervisor of Siminyu’s crew’s final project production, “Ngikaala,” a documentary film on the camel economy in Turkana. The producer of this documentary was Brutus Sirucha, whom Siminyu describes as, “A very creative mind, a go-getter and the first person to make me know what it means to think outside the box.”

SOUND RECORDING SYSTEMS

Wambulwa ensured that Siminyu captured all the desired sounds and guided him through the post-production process. “This training was so elaborate that I needed no supervision during my initial assignments upon absorption in the Film Production Department (FPD) as a soundman attached to the Kenya Newsreel,” Siminyu confidently says.

Wambulwa is still conversant with the 16 and 35mm cameras. Whereas these cameras recorded the pictures, “We had a separate sound recorder called the Nagra,” he says. “These used open reel tapes that we used to call quarter-inch tapes.”

This was the double system. The single system was designed to record sound on film using either optical or magnetic methods. In the double system, the tapes were threaded on the recorder and then linked up to the camera using a sync cable for synchronization of the sound and the rolling camera.

If the raw material shot was 16mm, upon return from the location, the sound was transferred to a similar 16mm sound tape that had some sprockets. The editor could synchronize the two and edit the film. The use of a clapper board during the shooting came in handy. It helped in the synchronization of the picture with the sound.

Siminyu, his peers and predecessors were prepared to handle video sound. Even though an obliterating shot was aimed at the film magazine, there was some solace. “The initial video cameras were detached from the recorders,” Siminyu says. “In the U-matic era, we soundmen were now entrusted with carrying the recorders while the cameramen remained with the camera.”

Further changes crept in. More devastating shots followed at film recording equipment. Instead of having a camera and recorder operated separately, the two—camera (short-form cam) and recorder (short-form corder)—were combined to produce the camcorder. The short-lived U-matic tape was a casualty. It was shot out of scenes.

The words ‘filming’ and ‘footage’ are some of the expressions that crossed over to the world of camcorders that took over the centre stage of capturing events.  The camcorders used a variety of tapes depending on the brands and models. Among the main ones are Betacam and DVCAM series. These used a variety of smaller tapes than the U-matic system.

Tape-based camcorders have also been shot down. They have been replaced by disc, Secure Digital (SD) cards and Solid-State Drive (SSD)-based camcorders, among others.   These shots have cumulatively kept confining film to a state where the hope for revival keeps dwindling.

The current generation of camcorders has forced crews to be condensed from two or three persons going out to the field to record the picture and sound to just one. A cameraman can be the producer and the soundman. He could even be the editor of his shots!

FILM QUALITY

“We luck the diversity that made us share ideas during fieldwork,” Wambulwa says. “Sound has been mutilated. The artistic part of the sound is no longer there.”

On working with Bwoka, Wambulwa says, “It was mutual understanding. If he said he was going to pan from left to right, then on which side would I stand so that my microphone does not appear in the scene?” Or, “How far was he going to move so that I don’t appear in his shots? We had a lot of understanding and respect for each other’s role.”

Siminyu bears memorable moments working at the Kenya Newsreel. “It’s here that I gained the experience that has sustained my career to date,” he says. “By interacting with senior cameramen among them Henry Bwoka, this unit taught me how to multitask.” He adds, “Bwoka trained me to love and care for all production equipment.”

The filming equipment was quite heavy and so were the sound recording tools. “The sound recorder and associated equipment I used to carry weighed around 15 kilos. I could go out to the field for a month or two,” Wambulwa says. “But once you got used to it, it became some form of a gym and an exercise.”

His sentiments about film echo Bwoka’s. 35 or 70mm (used in the US) have wider space for image registration. Upon projection, they give better pictures. The narrower 16mm film, upon projection on a bigger screen, becomes grainy. “If you project 35mm on a smaller screen, the quality is very nice and so is its sound,” Wambulwa says.

Even though Kenya never had a 35mm laboratory, the 16 mm facilities at KIMC were working quite well in 2016 when Wambulwa hung his instructive Nagra upon exiting service. Regrettably, the processing equipment at KBC was dismantled and dumped at KIMC. He doesn’t know if the one in Mombasa is still intact.

In 2006 President Mwai Kibaki desired to explore the possibility of modernizing the film facilities in Kenya and maximize their use. “Three of us were sent by the ministry to South Africa (Waterfront Studios),” Wambulwa says.

They learned that all that was needed was a film telecine.  This machine would allow the digitization of the 16 or 35mm films after processing. The separately recorded sound would be edited and synchronized later with the film footage. If duplicates were needed, it would be easier to get them from the master.

“When we came back, we gave our report. I don’t know how far it went,” Wambulwa says. He believes that the revival of the film industry lies with the policymakers and that filmmaking could keep the youth busy. “The people who used to make films are still there. They can give advice,” he says.

TO THE YOUTH

He’s concerned that most of what we watch from the archives has faded so much that it’s no longer appealing. If only the government could invest in film production! His fellow lecturer (retired) at KIMC Eston Munyi was a laboratory techniques instructor. He used to refer to pictures as, “Seeing for keeps.” If well stored, he’d tell his students, “Motion pictures can be stored for even 100 years.”

Production of food through subsistence farming of maize, bananas, small-scale sugarcane, cattle and chicken is what majorly now sustains Wambulwa. He keeps in touch sometimes face-to-face with his former film production colleagues. Most of them have also retired. Some are deceased.

Wambulwa’s message to the youth is, “As you prepare for a story, think of the future. Several films were made long ago but when you watch them, they still have a story.” He cites Charlie Chaplin’s films that have stood the test of time.

The more film is relegated to the distant past, the more video seems to thrive. Furthermore, entry of still cameras capable of shooting video has compounded the injuries inflicted on filming.

By William Inganga