Music video project for Africa

The two brands have joined forces to develop the continent's music video industry, improving creative and technical skills among up-and-coming music video directors and moviemakers.

The two are rolling out a series of five music video workshops under the title MTV Making the Video with Shell. The workshops are designed to bring together the world's hottest and most critically acclaimed music video directors and artists with talented African music video directors throughout the continent. The campaign has already visited South Africa and Gabon. The next stops include Kenya, Nigeria and Ghana. In Nairobi, the workshop will be held on 26 November.

Each workshop will be conducted by an internationally acclaimed director, covering modules such as scripting, storyboarding, sound-mixing, editing and production. At the culmination of the workshop, the local directors and movie makers will be assigned specific roles with the international director to shoot the music video for the Kenyan artist nominated by MTV viewers.

At the end of the workshop road show, MTV base will produce a series of 5 half-hour TV ‘rockumentaries', also entitled MTV Making the Video with Shell, which will chart the progress of the five separate music video shoots and feature the premiere of the African artist videos. The shows will subsequently air across sub-Saharan Africa on MTV base (DStv Channel 322) and terrestrial partners in Kenya (NTV), Ghana (TV3), Nigeria (STV) and Uganda (WBS).

Featuring high profile international contemporary musicians and artists, the series puts young African film makers and music video directors in direct contact with their peers from the international music scene, allowing them to gain new skills and insights while engaged in the creation of a state-of-the-art music video.

“African musicians need to be able to compete against the rest of the world in terms of the skills they harness to market and promote their music repertoire … raising the bar in terms of skills and knowledge, so that African artists can access - locally - skills and expertise that truly complements the vibrant music that they make,” said Alex Okosi, Senior Vice President and Managing Director, MTV Networks Africa,

“Shell has always been in the business of finding innovative solutions to bring the energy that the world requires to develop and progress. We believe that this partnership with MTV base beautifully illustrates what we do by linking together the power of music and the energy of the African youth,” said Eng. Patrick Obath, Country Chairman and Managing Director, Kenya Shell Ltd.