The couple, popularly known as Adeva and Tegan, has upped the ante by shooting a movie under their stage name, which will be launched before the end of September
Damiete Braide
Due to their love for the arts, Wole Oluwafemi and Jane Wole-Oluwafemi established a film academy, Adeva and Tegan Talent Academy, where youthful talents are harnessed in music, dance and drama.
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The couple, popularly known as Adeva and Tegan by their fans, has upped the ante by shooting a movie under their stage name, which will be launched before the end of September, 2018.
Daily Sun caught up with them during the shooting of the movie in Lekki, Lagos, recently, and they spoke on their challenges, why their production outfit is different from others, what awards mean to them and their modus operandi.
Asked what inspired them to set up Adeva and Tegan Talent Academy, the couple responded, “It has always been a dream for both of us to set up a foundation that will help youths horn their skills in the arts. We both started as teenagers and where our talents will be utilised. We believe we would be able to replicate such to youths and help harness their talents in dance, music and acting.
“We also have the passion to influence youths positively by contributing our quota to reorientate them in positive values. We believe in the young ones, because, if you are going to affect any change in future, it is best that you start with the young ones. Talent is easily recognized, which can make them famous and for them to be able to manage their success.
“The academy has been in existence for some years now, and we have organised marriage counselling, conferences, seminar for youths. And when we observed that youths are going into one form of relationship or the other, we thought it wise to catch them through their talents and divert their attention towards the arts.”
On the new release, Adeva and Tegan, the couple said, “We wrote the script, and it is about the activities of the academy. The battle we faced for nurturing talents for positive influence and the pressure from parents in entrusting their wards into our hands. The movie is exciting, because it is based on real life situations. In the production, we also acted as couples, and we are have affected their lives positively, and they have been working with us, and we want to affect the lives of youths positively.
“Right now, we believe in making a statement through our films that will be well received in the society. We also intend to embark on our second production very soon and we believe corporate organisations will collaborate with us. We believe parents will be happy with it, and they can watch the movie with their children because it is educative, entertaining and informative.”
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Above all, the duo is consistent in enforcing the role of arts in the society, “It is very important, because the necessary information can be passed through arts. The need to retell our stories is important. Information can be passed out through dance, poetry and we want to use our academy to speak the right message to the society.
“We want to pass positive influence through the arts to the society. Arts can used to project moral values through various forms and people will imbibe these values positively. Art is the foundation by which societies live on and they are forms of entertainment that will help to bring joy and happiness in people.”
Their debut production mixes music and dance, performed by students in the academy, which enables them hone their skills. “We improvised the songs, and it is a display of what the academy is noted for. Most of the artistes are from the academy and it is about promoting positive influence in the society and not doing a movie for the sake of it,” they said.
Although artistes, like Hakeem Raman, Jenny Uzoma, Onyeka Emecheba played the roles of some of the parents in the movie, dance is infused into the movie, because they want to showcase the talents of the youths through positive ways, and not the way in which some musical video project their own form of dance, which they consider offensive to children and youths.
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Working together as a couple has also helped them have double impact with achieving the set goals and challenges during the production of the film. Having been on set for months, the film is due for release before the end of the quarter. They have done stage performances and hope to continue to use that a preparatory ground for the young who are expected to leave for greener pastures at the right time.