Effective Prosthetics Artistry and Character Costuming in Nollywood Films: Challenges of the Nollywood Designers

Abstract

Over the years, studies in prosthetic artistry and costuming in Nollywood films have been used to strike the right balance between visual  spectacle and narrative impact. Being that narrative coherence is essential in Nollywood's storytelling thus, these effects have helped to  create a major impact on the characters’ appearance and believability. Although one of the essential parts of the visual aspect of modern  cinema, but the inability of the Nollywood designers to seamlessly integrate prosthetic artistry and character costuming that improves on  the visual elements of Nollywood films forms the major drawback to this research study. Based on this outlook, the paper investigates  prosthetics and character costuming in Nollywood video films and seeks to determine the challenges faced by Nollywood  designers in achieving effective prosthetic artistry and character costuming. The paper through a critical analysis and two randomly  selected Nigerian Video films- Biyi Bandele’s Blood Sisters (2022), and Inawadolu Greg’s Egwonga - the deadly god (2013) explores how  Nollywood designers integrate prosthetics artistry and costume design within the vibrant landscape of Nollywood narratives. However,  the paper discovers that Nollywood designers are faced with myriad problems such as striking a balance between spectacle and  authenticity in historically informed films, budget and time constraints, lack of technical advancements and innovations, limited  resources, etc. The paper therefore concludes that achieving effective prosthetics artistry and character costuming in Nollywood films will  set the stage for an intriguing analysis, creativity, resourcefulness, and impacts on extravagant cultural expression and authenticity.