There are many award events in the country and they keep increasing by the day. Some people have criticized the mushrooming of awards while others have also applauded them.
I will not like to make a judgment on the increasing awards events in the country now. The most important thing for me is the quality and criteria of the awards. Winners must know why they are adjudged the best and those who do not win must know what they must do to win. The quality of both the event and award procedure is critically important.
Last Friday’s Television Awards took place after the industry award, which was held a week earlier.
Having attended similar awards like the Radio and Television Awards (RTP), I was eager to see what this one had to offer. The attendance was better than I personally expected though. Although I didn’t attend the maiden event last year, I understand this year’s event was an improvement over the first.
The event took place a day before the Ghana Journalists Awards but surprisingly they managed to attract a lot of interest.
As we got ushered in I braced myself to have a good time. The ushers, who looked good in the black dresses, seemed to know what to do and generally protocol arrangements worked better than some other events I had attended.
The show started around 9:30pm although the advertised time was 7pm. Starting a television award two and half hours late is not acceptable.
The band could have been playing whilst the guests were waiting.
The idea of running live interviews with guests as they come in is becoming popular but didn’t work in this case. It was quiet boring and not many people paid attention to it. In television, time cannot be compromised and when a programme is scheduled to run it must start at the scheduled time unless there is a major technical hitch in which case an apology must be rendered.
I was therefore surprised that although the event started late there was no apology. The welcome and intro also did not state clearly the objective of the event. I thought this was very important. Maybe they thought they had already done that a week earlier during the industry awards but I believe many more people attended the final award night who were not at the industry awards and therefore would not know the objectives of the awards. For such a new programme it was important to highlight the objectives a bit more.
When the event started, it run smoothly though. The musical performances from No Tribe, Kwabena Kwabena and Gasmilla were all good choices and the guests were excited.
However Gasmilla’s performance could have come a bit earlier; I think his performance came in rather later. The backing vocals and supporting band were very good.
A spice of humour from Akrobetu and Kyeiwaa, both local film actors, brought a lot of excitement to the programme. Though their act was brief, I really enjoyed it. That for me was the funniest part of the event.
In terms of programme flow I believe the organizers did a good job. The sound was generally okay and the programme didn’t suffer a lot of technical hitches except an initial challenge with the microphones. The main technical challenge was the rolling of the nominee’s tape which didn’t pass the survival text. It started well but got messed up somehow. Some of the tapes were also mislabeled.
The idea of using comedians or humorous people to MC programmes may be good, however I believe a little scripting would have been great. For example there should have been scripts for the names of the events -it changed from Ghana Television Awards to Television Awards Ghana and Prime Time awards – it was a bit confusing for me.
In addition, personalities, ice breakers, guests who will be presenting awards should have been scripted for the MCs to ensure names are pronounced correctly.
Scripting will also guide the MCs to stay focused on the purpose of the event and what it is seeking to achieve.
It would also have helped MCs to transit without any difficulties. Most importantly scripting means preparing and guiding the event and ensuring that the sensibilities of people are not insulted. MCs even with their best intentions may run out of words or jokes and may not readily have something in mind. MCs should not be allowed to say things anyhow and at any time in the name of humor.
A better coordination and careful preparation will have made the MC’s job excellent.
Most importantly the awards presentation itself needs to follow a clear pattern so that the event can keep its tempo running from beginning to end.
For example which awards are the top awards and which ones are the medium ones so we move from honorary, standard and top awards. I was really happy to see Kofi Laign (Kowhɛ) and Kwabena Yeboah winning honorary awards. They really deserve it.
Just like the Emmy’s and the Golden Globes of the US which also recognizes excellence in the television industry the event must work hard to carve a niche for itself.
An excellent programme doesn’t just happen, it takes a lot of hard work and creativity and once people know what to expect they will start taking the program seriously.
I believe the event has the potential to grow bigger if the organizers keep their focus on the rationale for the event and work on improving the flaws. All in all it was worth attending and I will like to see what they come up with next year.
Congratulations to all the award-winners and the sponsors including Frytol, MTN, Best Premium Hotel, Indomie Noodles, Verna Water.