11 minute read
Film Tourism: Leveraging Opportunities
OPPORTUNITIES IN
FILM TOURISM
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Musawenkosi Gebuza speaks to major South African stakeholders to find out if and where opportunities exist to capitalise on film tourism in the region.
Black Sails was shot in South Africa predominantly at Cape Town Film Studios © Starz Entertainment
Film tourism is recognised as one of the drivers for the development and growth of international tourism industries for a number of destinations. Film-induced tourism comes in many shapes and forms, from studio and locations that fans can visit, to exploring the various places made famous by any particular film or television production.
Film tourism is a growing phenomenon worldwide, fuelled by both the growth of the entertainment industry and the increase in international travel. Marketing opportunities are generated when the film is being premiered and distributed as well as during each release window. Additional businesses and services can be created through film tourism that, in turn, can encourage the extension and strengthening of the visitor season.
NEW ZEALAND: A SUCCESSFUL INTERNATIONAL CASE
New Zealand, after the launch of The Lord of the Rings in 2001, the country’s tourism industry has shown impressive growth. The release of the Tolkien trilogy and subsequent films have made New Zealand a place to be thanks to the incredible vistas found in each film instalment. Tourism New Zealand has itself stated that, “research shows us that film can influence travel choices.”
New Zealand now has its own fully-fledged set of organisations – Tourism New Zealand, the New Zealand Film Commission and Film New Zealand. All of these bodies actively work to promote New Zealand as a travel destination for fans of films made there, including The Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit and The Piano, to name just a few.
Another great and growing example is Ireland, which has recently capitalised on hosting the majority of the production of Game of Thrones in country. As revealed in their behindthe-scenes documentary on the show, film tours of the region and sets used have created new income options for extras and other film industry service providers who have worked on the GOT set.
CREATE TOURISM OPPORTUNITIES BY ATTRACTING MORE PRODUCTIONS
Tourism is a milestone for job creation and economic stimulation, a big boost for many hot spots due to the influence of pop culture and luxurious lifestyle filtered through movies and TV shows that bring forgotten and unknown corners of the world to the attention of the media-consuming masses. And tourism boards are increasingly using the passion of fandoms to promote their countries and regions.
South Africa has thousands of beautiful, and diverse locations with vast potential. Lisa Mini, Wesgro’s Film and Media Promotion Officer, explains: “Over the last few years, our country has been dressed and redressed to masquerade as America, Europe, Hong Kong or the Island of Corfu. We have everything from forests and oceans to mountains, deserts and cityscapes alongside fabulous beaches. As highly a soughtafter film destination, many international films and TV series have been shot on location in Cape Town and the Western Cape – like Warrior, Black Sails, Dr Who, Black Mirror and Love Island, to name a few. Hosting productions like these entice tourists to visit our country to see the locations where these films were shot. Research has shown that after a successful
series or movie, tourism can increase by up to 54%.”
Ultimately, the driving force behind film tourism is the ability to attract big budget productions to our shores. The compilation of databases of the resources available such as hotel companies, transport companies, catering companies, etc. that are easily accessible for producers who need them is a crucial part of this process. There needs to be a focus on the promotion of film service companies and skilled labour so as to reassure international productions of the country’s ability to fulfil their needs, says Nokuthula Shongwe, Acting Marketing and Communications Specialist at KwaZulu Natal Film Commission. “In order to successfully position South Africa as a film destination, we need to ensure that local municipalities have the necessary skills and knowledge to package and showcase their locations to the film industry.”
OBSTACLES AND CHALLENGES TO IMPLEMENTING FILM TOURISM
There are a few major challenges that South Africa faces ahead if it truly wants to leverage this multiplier for the tourism sector. One of these is lack of ownership. Although there are a number of massive productions that were shot in South Africa, locations may not have been properly credited. Examples of these have been Maze Runner: The Death Cure, and Tomb Raider (2018).
Founding is also a major obstacle for film production in South Africa because very few companies can dedicate fulltime resources to development, therefore there are insufficient development of concepts and scripts, leading to many South African stories being told by foreign producer/director teams.
Shongwe explains further: “The biggest challenge right now is lack of film industry knowledge, especially from service providers and land owners. The inability to create film-friendly rates and the slow turn-around times when it comes to requests for permits has also posed a major challenge for big producers.”
Another challenge that needs to be addressed is how to market a destination that can replicate basically any other country across the world. Tourists would naturally rather flock to the actual landmark where a production was supposedly filmed than visit the actual production destination. This is a dialogue that needs to be explored more, or alternatively, our country has to wait for a chance when South Africa is shot as itself rather than another destination to capitalise on this tourism opportunity.
WHAT LIES AHEAD FOR THE BRAVE
“The fourth industrial revolution opportunities lie in creative
Cape Town streets set against the foot of Table Mountain © Matt Halls (via Unsplash)
industries. Having a vibrant film and media industry – VFX, AR/ VR, Gaming and Edutainment as well as locations and studios will help drive growth from the creative producers and crew working in this industry,” says Mini, adding that, “We don’t know what the jobs of the future will be, but we do know that some of the most cutting-edge products are discovered on the job so the more work the country attracts the more opportunities will be uncovered.” 4IR has already and will continue to change the travel industry and as such, this will filter into film tourism as well. And with the COVID-19 pandemic forcing us to rethink the way we do business in film and travel, we’re likely to see some new and exciting film tourism marketing opportunities arise in the very near future, too.
Wesgro has and will continue to promote and support the film and media industries in Cape Town and the Western Cape despite COVID-19 setbacks.
BERLINALE / EUROPEAN FILM MARKET
In February, Monica Rorvik, Head of Film and Media Promotion at Wesgro attended the 70 th edition of the Berlinale International Film Festival with its expansive European Film Market where she spoke on the inaugural Landmark platform about the opportunities that the Western Cape has to offer.
Over 50 South Africans took part in meetings and attended panels at the European Film Market’s Africa Film Hub. Five South Africans attended the 350-person cohort of Berlinale Talents where MasterCard fellowship awarded Western Cape’s Sydelle Willow Smith of Sunshine Cinema. Four of the five South Africans that attended were from the Western Cape, including Nozuko Poni, a distributor; Pierre De Villiers, a cinematographer; and editors Jacques De Villiers and Matthew Swanepoel. Wesgro was also part of the side meeting programmes such as WEP Film’s Junior Entertainment Talent Supported (JETS) supported by seven co-production countries including three National Film and Video Foundation (NFVF) projects from South Africa.
As always, the cutting edge of the future was present, including Artificial Intelligence (AI) filmmaking and wildly fantastic Pan-African Virtual Reality (VR) projects – with South African Electric South projects as well as a VR experience which required a trip on an African Space Makers bus to the Zeiss Planetarium. www.berlinale.de
SXSW CANCELLATION
Unfortunately, due to the rapid spread of COVID-19 (the Coronavirus), South by South West (SXSW), among many other global festivals and events, has been cancelled. Wesgro’s Film and Media Officer, Lisa Mini along with Chief Business Officer, Yaw Peprah and Leisure Tourism Content Creator and Curator, Robert Peters, planned to attend the event in Austin, Texas, but remained home to reduce the risk of contracting and spreading the virus. For more information: www.sxsw.com
The ninth Cape Town International Animation Festival (CTIAF) has been postponed to 24-27 April 2021. The event will take place at the Cape Town Stadium and will be co-located with Comic Con Cape Town. Both events were scheduled to take place in May this year, but have been postponed following the spread of the COVID-19 virus, and the South African Government’s ban on public events over 100 people as one of its responses to manage the pandemic. “We are obviously saddened not to be able to bring you the incredible programme we had lined up,
Head of Wesgro Film and Media Promotion unit, Monica Rorvik(left) and Canadian Producer, Natasha Vassell(right) at the 70 th Annual Berlin International Film Festival
but we are committed to being socially responsible and doing whatever we can to prevent the spread of the Coronavirus,” says Festival Director Dianne Makings. “The health and safety of our delegates, sponsors, staff and the population at large is and will remain our highest priority. The good news is that next year CTIAF will be even bigger with an epic four days of events!” Delegates will have a choice between refunding their ticket or rolling it over to the new dates in 2021. This process will be managed hand-in-hand with ticketing partner Howler. Visit www.ctiaf.com for updates
COVID-19 CONTENT CENTRE
The Department of Economic Development and Tourism , together with Wesgro, the City of Cape Town and industry partners, have activated the official virtual COVID-19 Content Centre which consists of sector specialists and communications experts, set up to develop reliable content to assist industry, and manage daily queries and business concerns. These FAQ’s, including film can be found on www.supportbusiness.com.
If you have any questions or queries, please send them through to supportbusiness@wesgro.co.za.
RAND-AIR’S TWINPOWER GENERATORS AND LED LIGHTING DO THE FILM INDUSTRY A ‘POWER’ OF GOOD
Twinpower generators
Fundamental to Rand-Air is the ethos of ultimate customer convenience, and this is especially relevant when supplying deadline-driven, high-profile sectors such as the film industry. To this end, RandAir has purchased four Atlas Copco TwinPower generators, the benefit of this arrangement being that there are two 550 kVA generators in each container.
This containerised generator solution gives a very compact footprint, unrivalled versatility, optimised performance and excellent fuel economy. In addition, the two modules inside the container can be synchronised so that it is possible to supply either 1 100 kVA or 550 kVA – a versatile and portable cost- and fuel-saving option for the customer.
“Many of our customers prefer to have one self-contained unit on site, as opposed to two individual 550 kVA generators in sync,” explains Rand-Air Fleet Manager Craig Swart. The footprint of the container is smaller than two individual 550 kVA generators; and having the generators in containers protects them against extreme weather conditions. The
company is able to supply the TwinPower solution to a wide geographic area.
“We are able to suppy and service South Africa and our neighbouring subSaharan African countries,” continues Swart.
The units are delivered to site and Rand-Air technicians make sure they are working to the customer’s complete satisfaction. “All the customer needs to do is switch the power on, and continue uninterrupted with their core business,” he continues.
Rand-Air also has another very relevant solution for the film sector, in its portable LED lighting units.
“Because these units are fitted with LED bulbs, they are remarkably economical and will run for days without requiring refuelling or any other attention. In addition, modern LED bulbs last longer
and fail less often than their earlier filament counterparts, and can handle harsh mining conditions without burning out prematurely,” Swart explains.
There are no trailing cables to either get cut, damaged or trip over, because the diesel engine, generator and lighting tower are all contained on a single trailer. Furthermore, as they are mounted on a robust trailer, moving them to new positions as filming angles change, takes a matter of minutes.
In addition, Rand-Air lighting units are all manufactured by world leader Atlas Copco and, as such, these units deliver the most cost-effective, lowest maintenance service.
