‘Ties That Bind’ Was Fun, ‘Sinking Sands’ Was Stressful-Leila

Leila Djansi on Ties That Bind set

More than three years after she produced two excellent films, which shook the tenets of the African film industry, Leila Djansi has finally opened up on her fondest memories of shooting her ‘Sinking Sands’and ‘Ties That Bind’ films.

She told NEWS-ONE on Sunday morning that shooting both films was nerve-racking but it was also fun.  

Working on ‘Ties That Bind’, she revealed, was not as stressful as ‘Sinking Sands’. But besides the stress, there were fun moments too.

With ‘Sinking Sands’, her fondest memory was filming the wedding scene. It is still fresh on her mind and remembers how they made it look like a “real wedding”.

However, she thought ‘Ties That Bind’ was more fun because, she was not oblivious of her past mistakes while shooting ‘Sinking Sands’.

Sinking Sands behind the scene (Ama K & Yemi Blaq)

She learnt from her past experience on the previous set, which made things easier for her on the ‘Ties That Bind’ set.               

“Hmm ‘Sinking Sands’, honestly, I don’t know if I have any particularly fond memories of that set. I only remember the stress and disorganization. The day we shot the wedding sequence was a lot of fun though. It felt like we were preparing a real wedding and I got to keep the cake.”

Sinking Sands (Jimmy Jean Louis & Ama K)

“‘Ties that Bind’ was fun because by then I had learnt from mistakes of ‘Sinking Sands’ and had a better handle on everything. Every moment on ‘Ties that Bind’ was fun. My favorite day was the day we shot the white garment church at Shai Hills and the scene with the graves,” Leila said.

She added that her submission was not based on outcomes of the scenes in the films but the experiences they had to go through on set.

Sinking Sands (Ama K & Jimmy Jean Louis)

“No. Not the final outcome but the work day. We really felt like we were making a movie. We had over 100 extras, the crew and we had built every aspect of the church. We cleared land at Shai Hills and built a white garment church. We even bought a trip of sand to give the earth a different color. White sand. It felt like we were at camp. The shots were some of my favorites too,” she said.

Both films are doing well on the movie market in Ghana and outside including the World Wide Web.

Ties That Bind ( Ama K)

‘Sinking Sands’, which starred Ama K. Abebrese and Jimmy Jean Louis as the lead cast, produced 2011 Africa Movie Academy Awards Best Actress in lead role and won other awards.

‘Ties That Bind’, which is s story about Kimberly Elise, Omotola Jalade and Ama K. Abebrese, also did convincingly well in the cinemas and awards arena.

Ties That Bind (Ama K. Kimberly Elise & Omotola Jalade)

Credit: NEWS-ONE