Storytelling in Nollywood Industry and the Complementary Role of a Set Designer

Student: Peter Fayowole Omosele (Project, 2025)
Department of Performing and Media Arts
Elizade University, Ilara-Mokin, Ondo State

Abstract

This project aims to underscore the importance of a set designer and the complementary role they play in the art of storytelling in Nollywood generally, and in the films under review specifically. The study analysed two films Seven Doors (2024 and A Naija Christmas (2021) to determine how the production designer used set as a build up for the story.
Both primary and secondary means of data collection were used; the primary data was gathered from two selected movies Seven Doors (2024), and A Naija Christmas (2021), while the secondary data was sourced from books, journal articles, the Internet and an unstructured interview.
This study shows that both set designers, Late Pat Nebo and Tunji Afolayan used the set as an important tool to help drive meaning to the art of storytelling. The complementary role that a production designer plays in giving meaning and purpose to the story cannot be underestimated. The visual aesthetics of a story cannot be complete without the office of the art director or the set designer.
This essay concludes that set design in film is not just for aesthetics, but an important tool that helps to give meaning, a drive, and a propeller that moves the art or storytelling. Hence, the role of the set designer in storytelling is equally important as the story itself.

Keywords
storytelling nollywood industry complementary Set designer
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