Screen Africa - August 2013

IBC n System Integratio BROADCAST, FILM, TV, COMMERCIALS, NEW MEDIA & TECHNOLOGY NEWS

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VOL 25 – August 2013 R35.00

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BROADCAST, FILM, TV, COMMERCIALS, NEW MEDIA & TECHNOLOGY NEWS

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VOL 25 – August 2013 R35.00

Top tech for 24/7 news channel The South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) has built a multi-million rand infrastructure for its new 24-hour news channel, which launched on 1 August this year, and has invested in the recruitment and training of additional news staff.

Preparations for the channel began five years ago. The news channel is being broadcast on MultiChoice’s pay-TV platform, DStv (channel 404) and will be also air on digital terrestrial television, once it is rolled out in South Africa.

Said SABC’s head of News Jimi Matthews: “The channel is not positioned as a replacement to the now defunct SABC International, a 24-hour channel which had a limited launch on signal distributor Sentech’s satellite platform, Vivid, in March 2008.

“Unlike SABC International, our

new channel is a multi-platform operation that will utilise all new media platforms. The new channel is motivated by today’s information-rich world.

Consumers’ viewing patterns and behavior has changed – they no longer wait for scheduled bulletins, they go out and find the news for themselves. So we are responding to their needs.

“While content remains queen (the consumer is the king), it will be technologically-driven. Our mandate is to provide the latest news but we need the technology tools to be able to do so,” added Matthews.

To this end the SABC’s New Technology department has replaced the current Vortex Pinnacle (news production system) with a sQ Server system from Quantel. Additionally, the Newsroom computer system has migrated from the existing

Newstar system to the Associate Press ENPS newsroom computer system.

Technology manager of News Facilities Roedean Kok explained that the automation and integration between the systems is done using the MOS protocol and with Miranda Omnibus ingest control.

“The system allows ENPS desktop shot-list editing for 140 journalists and 21 Cut-Cut editors all accessing the same Quantel server at any one time. Questek has supplied the equipment for the above system with the assistance of their system integrator, ATG. “Replacing the above system has allowed us to build a Greenfields Line Record and Server Room to accommodate the equipment and roll out new workflows, while enabling us to – continued on next page

TeleLovela – a world first South African pay-TV broadcaster M-Net’s Format Development Unit has introduced an original television format called the TeleLovela, described as ‘the escapism of romance that meets the appointment viewing of a mini-series’.

The first edition of this planned long-running series is called Ligte, Kamera… Liefde (Lights, Camera… Love) and debuts on M-Net’s Afrikaans-language channel kykNET on 2 September this year.

The format has been designed in such a way that half-hour episodes on a Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday tell the love story in daily doses while the whole romance is then edited into a stand-alone feature referred to as a Lovela.

Creators and producers Kristen Broberg and Merran Ann Williamson, who work in format development at M-Net, follow international trends and noticed a massive surge in romance novels.

Broberg says: “As romance novels have never really crossed over to television in the short format, we decided to look at the structure of a weekly romance novel to see how we could adapt that to the screen, which we have done with this new scripted formula which is called the TeleLovela.”

“I am so excited about this project,” comments Williamson. “I have always been passionate about format development in – continued on next page

TRIUMPHANT: The IDFA Award presented at Durban FilmMart: Mélanie de Vocht (IDFA Bertha Fund) with winners Jean Meeran and Sarah Ping Nie Jones. See below

Winners at DFM The South African documentary project, Kom Haal My (Come Get Me), produced by Jean Meeran and directed by Sarah Ping Nie Jones, scooped two awards at the Finance Forum of the Durban FilmMart (DFM), which took place in mid-July.

Kom Haal My, which follows the stories of three blind South Africans trying to make sense of the society around them, won the IDFA award for Most Promising Documentary Project and the Paris Cinema Paris Project Award.

Says Meeran: “We are absolutely delighted to have won these awards. It gives the project great momentum going forward.”

He believes the project appealed to IDFA and Paris Project because of the strength of the film’s main character, Reinette

Popplestone.

“Blinded as a baby, Reinette had to make sense of South Africa and race and racism without the privilege of sight. Even as a young child, Reinette questioned the society in which she was living.

Because of our history, South Africa has plenty to teach the world but has been stuck in apartheid ways of thinking. “ As a result of their wins, Meeran and Jones will attend both IDFA and Paris Project.

“Events like these put projects on the map, and, for better or worse, are also a legitimation process in the long chain from conceptualisation to exhibition,” continues Meeran. “Projects hop from forum to forum, getting more visibility and funding along – continued on next page

Continued from page 1 Top tech for 24/7 news channel

AROUND THE CLOCK: In the control room stay live without any on-air interruptions.

The Line Record facility has an eight-screen multiviewer video wall that allows all contribution feeds, whether live or file-based, to arrive for ingest into the servers. Furthermore, this area allows the flexibility of media transfers to different formats, tape or file, to enable ease of operations and media transfers as required.”

A new Final Control Centre (FCC) playout is equipped with Miranda Colossus automation to ensure full automation and integration with the TVBMS programming and scheduling system. It has a full video wall with a standard Miranda

PresMaster switcher.

“We have built a new studio (Studio 9) for the channel that will allow almost all the productions to be switched live to the FCC for playout. Studio 9 is equipped with a Barco Video Wall display consisting of 18 LCD displays on the studio floor and which is controlled by a panel in the control room.

The studio is further equipped with three cameras, a crane camera, a Snell Kahuna production switcher and a Yamaha audio mixer. We launched in 16:9 SD but all systems are HD capable,” noted Kok. The channel is predominantly English but will carry news in the other official languages as well.

TeleLovela – a world first South Africa and Kristen and I can’t wait to see one of our original formats on air.

“Trying something new is only possible with a passionate and committed crew and cast, so we were lucky to have the chance to work with some of the most talented people in the industry.”

In order to achieve NEW FORMAT: Filming Kamera, Ligte… Liefde optimum results, the experienced core crew while still delivering quality. consisted of director LeRoux “We shot a minimum of 20 minutes Botha, assistant director Cindy Nuttall, screen time a day which resulted in 84 commissioning editor and screenwriting minutes over five days,” says Broberg. expert Henriëtta Greyffenberg, scriptwriter “When you see the quality it speaks Handrie Basson, director of photography volumes for experienced, good actors and Chris Vermaak and second cameraman a skilled director.”

Divan Rossouw.

However, the team put in a huge amount The cast of Kamera, Ligte… Liefde of preparation as well. Broberg remarks: consists of a mix of experienced actors and “We were able to maintain quality under new talent. such immense pressure as we were all in “We worked with established actors such communication for a long time before as Heidi Mollentze and Chris de Clerq who shooting. Everyone was aware of the were both wonderful. Jenna Dunster, who restrictions we would be under, so we were plays the female lead, is a young actress all prepared for those challenges.” who is making her mark and everyone’s Greyffenberg says that although the eyes are on lead actor Jacques Bessenger TeleLovela is light entertainment, it is at the moment. Bouwer Bosch, comedian rooted in strong dramatic principles. “We and musician, was fabulous on set and had to be careful to avoid clichéd excellent at improvisation,” says Broberg. storytelling despite it being light and The rest of the cast consists of Marlee entertaining and wanted to give viewers van der Merwe and Danie Putter who rounded and identifiable characters. The brought their own unique skills to set. minute the clock started ticking on this Quality project we all got involved and made it work.”

The biggest challenge was shooting the Botha did a lot of performance directing TeleLovela under extreme time constraints prior to the shoot. “I am sold on the idea of

2 | SCREENAFRICA | August 2013

Winners at DFM the way and are moulded to current industry trends and needs.“ Kom Haal My is in the development phase with several pre-interviews completed. The filmmakers aim to go into production later this year.

Sean Drummond and Michael Matthews received Videovision Entertainment’s award for Best South African Film Project, valued at R75 000, for their fiction project, Five Fingers for Marseilles.

Says Drummond: “It’s a great honour to have won the award, especially considering there were a number of amazing projects at Durban FilmMart this year. Michael and I have developed this film over a long period of time, and poured a lot of ourselves into it, so this sort of endorsement is obviously huge for us. There was a very positive response to the project at DFM and a real feeling of anticipation, which is very encouraging now that we’re close to taking the film into production.”

Drummond reports that the script is undergoing ‘minor tweaks’ but is otherwise shoot-ready after three years of development in South Africa and cooperation with readers and editors in the US. American company Game 7 Films came on board early on after Drummond and Matthews pitched the project in New York.

“They’ve developed the last few drafts of the script with us and bring a wealth of experience and international networks to the film,” notes Drummond.

Five Fingers for Marseilles has been created as a new genre. Billed as ‘An Original African Western’, the film draws on the archetypes, conventions and themes of the Western, but is set in a modern South African context.

ARTE France’s ARTE International Award to the value of E6 000 was presented to Akosua Adoma Owusu, Julio Chavezmontes and Angele Diabang for their fiction project, Black Sunshine, about the conflict between a black mother and her albino child.

Says Owusu: “We attended DFM with the purpose of developing partnerships with established co-producers. Julio

(Chavezmontes) came all the way from Mexico City for this opportunity. With so many projects with rich stories participating, we never gave much thought to awards, so winning one was truly an amazing experience!”

Owusu and Diabang had previously pitched the project to ARTE at Locarno Open Doors last year. In Durban, Chavezmontes joined the project as producer, making the film a Mexico-Ghana co-production.

Chavezmontes believes that the project appealed to ARTE because all the information about the project was laid out as clearly as possible during the DFM pitch.

“We had a business plan, a distribution strategy, and a congruent production plan in place. In fact, we were completely honest with them and it was something they found appealing.”

The filmmakers plan to go into production next year and have finance partners attached.

Yves Montand Niyongabo from Rwanda is the recipient of the Organisation Internationale de la Francophone (OIF) prize of E5 000 for his documentary project GIT I – Paradise in Hell, about the Rwandan Genocide.

Says Niyongabo: “It always feels good to win an award, especially in such a competitive section. I think I was successful because my project tackles the subject of the Rwandan genocide from a different and positive point of view, which I believe has never been done before. Plus the project is at an advanced stage of production in that I have already shot some interviews.

“When I first set out to make the film, people felt that I was telling the story from the Hutu perspective, the Hutus being the ethnic group that exterminated the Tutsis.

However, the film is actually about a Hutu leader who opposed the genocide.”

DFM is a joint programme between the Durban Film Office and the Durban International Film Festival.

To see the full list of DFM winners visit www.screenafrica.com or www.durbanfilmmart.com

a table read after this experience. One of the reasons we were able to work so quickly was because the actors were so well prepared. During the table read we went through all the processes and who the characters were and would go.”

The director says that, “During the table read the actors got the whole picture and really knew what they were doing, what their function in the story was and that led to us working on an ensemble feeling already. As a result, everyone felt more at ease and confident and knew what to expect from their fellow actors.”

Botha stresses: “I also enjoy being part of the post-production process. Johan Oelsen of Presto Post Production is genial and I love the look and feel of the show.”

In terms of a scriptwriter, Broberg, Williamson and Greyffenberg had to find someone who understands format and drama. “We realised that Handrie Basson knows the kykNET audience very well. He

used to be the head of marketing and publicity so has walked a long road with the audience.”

Long-term project The TeleLovela has been designed to be a long-term project with a weekly story.

“Because it has such a spin-off with the movie it lends itself to long term. With romance everyone is pretty sure how it is going to end, but there is so much joy in watching how things develop,” Broberg says.

“We hope TeleLovelas help give South Africa’s scripted format industry the kick-start it needs to compete on an international level,” remarks Williamson.

“I think it is wonderful and exciting that kykNET saw the opportunity of an original product, which is built to last. We definitely have big plans for it,” concludes Broberg.

– Martie Bester

From the editor

Contents

Good ‘News’ It’s always gratifying to be able to report good news and the front page of this issue of Screen Africa comprises three positive stories.

Our lead article focuses on the technology that went into building the infrastructure of the South African Broadcasting Corporation’s (SABC’s) 24-hour news channel, which launched on 1 August this year. While the channel has long been a contentious issue, with its launch delayed by nearly two years, the fact is that from a technology perspective, the channel is world class. How its content will measure up remains to be seen.

Other positive front page news is about the development of a brand new and totally original television format, the TeleLovela, which tells romantic stories in daily doses, and then fuses these stories into stand-alone features. Kristen Broberg and Merran Ann Willliamson of the Format Development Unit of pay-TV broadcaster M-Net are the brains behind the new format, which will debut on M-Net’s Afrikaans channel, kykNET, in early September.

Our front page also reports on some of the winners of the awards at the Durban FilmMart Finance Forum and their fascinating projects.

These winners are clearly elated about their triumphs and the prizes move their projects one precious step further down the long road to completion.

As is fitting for Women’s Month, the subject of Director Speak in this issue is Hanneke Schutte, who directed the Afrikaans movie Jimmy in Pienk and won the Jameson First Shot 2 short movie competition. Schutte’s advice to other female directors? “Raise your hand. Put yourself forward. Speak up.”

A particularly intriguing read is Ian Dormer’s story about the world’s smallest movie, which features a character made up of microscopic atoms.

From small to big – South African filmmaker Neill Blomkamp, who hit the big time (and received Oscar nominations) with his debut feature, District 9, talks about his new film Elysium, in this issue. This article was offered to Screen Africa by Sony Pictures Releasing International as a South African exclusive.

In the past we have run innumerable stories on digital television so it’s refreshing to have a story about digital radio for a change. DAB+ is the latest digital audio broadcasting standard and is poised to take root in South Africa.

Companies specialising in system integration are essential technology partners to any studio, post-production company and broadcaster wanting to build and equip its facility. This issue of Screen Africa looks at big international system integration projects, as well as focusing on the local perspective.

Still on the subject of technology, we provide an in-depth preview of some of the latest technologies that will be on display at the IBC Exhibition in Amsterdam.

Enjoy the read!

Joanna Sterkowicz

SCREENAFRICA Publisher & Managing Editor: Simon Robinson: publisher@screenafrica.com Editor: Joanna Sterkowicz: editor@screenafrica.com Journalist: Martie Bester: news@screenafrica.com Contributors: Andy Stead, Ian Dormer, Anton Crone, Carol Mohlala, Leon Jacobs

Advertisement Sales: Marianne Schafer: marianne@screenafrica.com Accounts: Natasha Glavovic: accounts@sun-circle.co.za

Sun Circle Publishers (Pty) Ltd Tel: 011 025-3180

Sub-Editor: Tina Heron Design: Trevor Ou Tim: design@sun-circle.co.za Website & Production Updates: online@sun-circle.co.za

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Physical address: First Floor, Process House Epsom Downs Office Park 13 Sloane Street Bryanston, Johannesburg South Africa Postal address: PO Box 559, Fourways North, 2086

8

12

Preservation – a historical must

Anything but a snail’s pace

16 Elysium has landed!

19

18 DIRECTOR SPEAK

24

When big is really small!

40

Integrating systems on a global tight budget

Weaving that ‘Blackmagic’ across Africa

SPECIAL FEATURES SYSTEM INTEGRATION

SA co options Victoria Falls

Director Speak – Hanneke

script; Bustin’ Chops set to go

Schutte........................................... 18

Integrating systems on a

international; Mediatech Africa

When BIG is really small!......... 19

global tight budget............ 24 / 25

on the up......................................... 4

Concilium strides ahead;

New date and venue for

TELEVISION

The complete picture................ 26

PromaxBDA Africa; New VOD

Authentic stories hit

Telemedia – pilot of the

streaming service........................... 6

home run...................................... 20

airwaves; Harambe installs

Preservation –

High rolling psychological drama;

first Xsync / ProSet in Africa.... 28

a historical must;

Four ministers in four years..... 21

NBC upgrade; Market-savvy..... 30

Final instalment of hit franchise.. 8 Silwerskermfees celebrates

RADIO

IBC PREVIEW

local film industry; Workshop

The long road to DAB+............ 22

Technology shows off................ 31

on excellence in television

Blackmagic Design; Autocue..... 32 Avid................................................ 33

writing............................................ 10

Weaving that ‘Blackmagic’

AJA Video Systems; Harris

ADCETERA

Broadcast; Crystal Vision........... 34

Anything but a snail’s pace;

Investing in African stories........ 41

Ross Video; Front Porch

BG resonates in the Twittersphere............................... 12

iROKO Partners enters

Datavideo...................................... 35 Digital; Quantel............................ 36

‘Driving’ into the foyer;

Volicon........................................... 37

Advertising in reverse................ 13

Canon; NewTek; AmberFin;

A bothersome ad........................ 14

Pebble Beach Systems................ 38

How the changing advertising world impacts

NEWS

the film industry.......................... 15

Top tech for 24/7 news

www.screenafrica.com

AFRICA

channel; Winners at DFM;

FILM

TeleLovela – a world first.... 1 / 2

Elysium has landed!............ 16 / 17 The big budget experience....... 17

across Africa................................. 40

SA DVD market.......................... 42 Big Brother is watching… ....... 43

REGULARS Production Updates......... 44 / 45 / 46 / 47 Events............................................. 47 Social.............................................. 48

News

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SA co options Victoria Falls script

HIGHLIGHTING INJUSTICE: Delon Bakker

Bustin’ Chops set to go international

BATTLE-SCARRED, BUT SATISFIED: Eugene Koekemoer, Jonathan Pienaar and Danie Barnard South African stunt movie Bustin’ Chops has been pre-selected for distribution by sales agents in Belgium and Holland. The go-to-the-extremes film directed and produced by Danie Barnard and Eugene Koekemoer, who is also the lead actor, proves that these former stunt men are no strangers to pain.

Barnard and Koekemoer had been in the stunt business for more than nine years and conceptualised the idea for their comedy / stunt movie Bustin’ Chops, based on the popular Jackass franchise in America, in which actors and stunt men go to great lengths for laughs and often risk their lives to perfect a stunt or prank.

Before Bustin’ Chops, Koekemoer did a ‘shock’ reality television show on MK on pay-channel DStv called AF followed by Mullets, another series of a similar nature.

The South African boys did more of the same in their first feature-length movie and emerged battle-scarred, but satisfied that

4 | SCREENAFRICA | August 2013

their movie should be screened internationally.

Hopefully this won’t involve Barnard and Koekemoer enjoying a traditional Belgian meal of mussels and pommes frittes with the molluscs still in their shells…

Barnard says they had a close call on set while shooting Bustin’ Chops: “Don Cobra of the band L.A. Cobra had to be rushed to hospital after too much pepper spray led to collapsed lungs.”

Koekemoer and Barnard comment: “The biggest challenge of filming the movie was basically just staying alive. And being fearless. There were no second takes.

Everything on the shoot happened very fast and in real time. We didn’t have the luxury of taking another shot so we had to get it right the first time.”

Travelling to Holland and Belgium in mid-August the two are currently recuperating and plan to release Bustin’ Chops 2 late next year. – Martie Bester

directors but nothing has been locked in yet.

He reports that the service division of Mannequin Films recently facilitated the Indian feature film Mountain of the Moon (Chander Pahar), produced by Shree Venkatesh Films. The film stars South African actor Gerard Rudolf and India’s Dev (Deepak Adhikari).

“With its wild landscapes and variety of animals, South Africa offered the perfect location solution for this action-packed film, which includes horse riding, elephant stampedes, lion attacks, mountain climbing and a face-to-face encounter with a black mamba,” notes Bakker who is supervising producer on the film.

Mediatech Africa on the up The 2013 edition of the biennial Mediatech Africa advanced technology trade show, which ran from 17 to 19 July at The Coca-Cola Dome in Johannesburg, saw an impressive growth in the number of both visitors and exhibitors.

More than 6 900 visitors passed through the doors, as compared to 6 395 in 2011, with 130 exhibiting companies this year, as opposed to 120 at the previous edition.

Well over 800 brands in the broadcasting, pro AV, live events, audio and lighting sectors were represented at the show.

Says Mediatech Africa’s Carly Barnes: “This year the show attracted an increased amount of international manufacturers who were all very impressed with the professional execution of the event.”

Visitors from all over South Africa and Africa were given the opportunity to discover international trends and developments through a variety of industry events, workshops and seminars held at the exhibition.

Barnes continues: “Our presentation zones were very well attended and served as a platform for expert advice and product knowledge from local and international speakers.

“The African Loudness Summit, which was presented by Asikhule, made its debut at Mediatech Africa and proved successful, affording Asikhule the opportunity to meet all the Summit objectives. These included initiating a conversation among engineers around the prickly topic of loudness fluctuations in broadcast material.

“A large number of African delegates attended the Southern African Broadcasting Association’s (SABA’s) Digital Broadcasting Infrastructure and Platforms Seminar. Key industry decision makers generated crucial discussions around the impending implementation of digital terrestrial television.”

Barnes notes that other popular attractions at the show included several highly anticipated outdoor sound demonstrations of the latest audio equipment, an assortment of product specific workshops, and a charming display of vintage film and television equipment dating back to the start of the South African industry.

A detailed report of Mediatech Africa will appear in the September issue of Screen Africa.

Photo by KOBUS LOUBSER

Johannesburg-based Mannequin Pictures has optioned Matt Ackley’s screenplay, Victoria Falls, and plans to go into pre-production in South Africa in spring 2014.

Ackley, who was the recipient of the Academy of Motion Arts & Sciences’ Nicholl Fellowship in 2009, is an American who has spent time in Kenya.

Says Mannequin Pictures producer Delon

Bakker: “Matt’s screenplay is now in its final draft. We are looking at a budget of US$5m and are collaborating with Los Angelesbased company, Parke Afia Films, on the project.

“Victoria Falls is set during the 2001 Zimbabwean elections, when land reform is rife. The story focuses on a young black Zimbabwean farmhand born into the white African world, and how his loyalties are tested as the farm is pillaged and Zimbabwe is ripped apart. The story is not only a fantastic drama, but highlights the injustices that took place.

“We plan to shoot in South Africa, with a few days in Zimbabwe. If it is not possible to film in Zimbabwe then we will look to shoot in Zambia.”

Bakker is in talks with several actors and

EXPECTATIONS SURPASSED: Mediatech Africa 2013

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News

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New date and venue for PromaxBDA Africa The 2013 edition of the continent’s only awards and conference event devoted to the art of on-air marketing and broadcast design, PromaxBDA Africa, will now take place in November at The Maslow in Sandton, Johannesburg.

Previously held in October, the move to 22 November was motivated by a desire to turn the event into a summer conference, according to PromaxBDA Africa director, Vanessa Sheldrick.

Commenting on the new venue, Sheldrick says: “The Maslow is the newest hotel in the Sun International chain. This is the old Southern Sun Grayston that has been refurbished into a more hip-modern version and is fast coming the number one conference venue in the area.”

Tim Horwood, the creative director of MTV Base Africa, VIMN Africa, was selected to be chairman for PromaxBDA Africa 2013.

NEW CHAIRPERSON: Tim Horwood Sheldrick continues: “Tim’s enthusiasm and passion will up the ante. He is assisting us in bringing more of the rest of Africa to the conference, as well as looking to the future with the creation of the Student Award (see below). Tim has amazing energy

as a MC on stage, having been a TV presenter when he was 10.

“He has also spoken for us internationally at PromaxBDA events in Paris and Sydney and hopefully will join us in Asia later this year.”

This year’s theme is The Art of Storytelling. “Storytelling is a fundamental part of our craft and should always be revisited. In fact, it’s even more important to tell good stories and stand out in the fractured media world we are now navigating,” says Sheldrick.

The call for entries into the 2013 PromaxBDA Africa Awards competition is now open.

Five new award categories have been added: Something For A Little Something (any highly creative on-air promo that was produced for under R50 000); Best Outdoor Poster (any outdoor poster promoting a programme, channel or platform including transit, billboard, adshell); Best Print Ad (any print or press advertising for a programme, channel, platform or service); and Best CSI. “The Best CSI category is different from Best PSA as it must communicate the 360 degree conception and delivery of a CSI that has proven to both change lives as well as uphold the brand values of the broadcaster behind it,” explains Sheldrick.

“The marketing objective should both explain what the objective of the CSI was

and how it was obtained, with figures explaining the projected and actual amount of people reached. The overall creativity of the CSI will be judged on what devices were used to obtain the objective and their creativity.”

The 5th new award is the Future Award proudly sponsored by Thackwell and Whittaker. This award has been introduced to recognise outstanding creative work by a student in a tertiary institution in Africa. Entries must not exceed two minutes and are open to design, print, digital, film, video and motion graphics and can include music videos and short films. The winner will attend the PromaxBDA Africa 2013 Conference and be presented with a Gold Muse at the Award Show.

Two existing awards have been updated. Most Outstanding Promo Of The Year (any on-air promo from any genre, which is considered to be ground breaking, innovative and / or outstanding and which has been entirely made in Africa); and Most Outstanding Design In Promotion (graphic design excellence in any on-air promotion made entirely in Africa).

Entries close on 6 September.

For more information visit: www.promaxafrica.tv.

VOD streaming service first for SA

LOW BANDWIDTH: The StreamSAmovies VOD site In what is believed to be a first in South Africa, a new local video on demand (VOD) service is able to stream its library of films, TV series and documentaries at extremely low bandwidths.

Pay-per-view users can watch standard definition (SD) content (DVD quality at bitrates ranging from 1mbps to 250kpbs from StreamSAmovies on a 1MB ADSL line, with high definition (HD) content (at 2.5 – 1.5mpbs) requiring a 4MB ADSL line. The bandwidth needed for mobile streaming is 250kbps.

Says StreamSAmovies MD Johan van der Colff: “Our service works on multiple end user platforms including Android (mobile and tablet), IOS (iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch) and Windows Mobile and PC. It also 6 | SCREENAFRICA | August 2013

works over all networks, ADSL, ADSL2, Wifi, Wimax, 3G, 4G and LTE. “We use a direct streaming technology as opposed to progressive/standard download like some of our competitors.

Within 10 to 60 seconds of clicking on a movie on one of our players downloaded from www.streamsamovies.co.za, it will start streaming. Once the movie starts you can forward and rewind at will without waiting or buffering.

“A lot of IT people have said that what we’re doing is impossible because they can only stream HD1080p video at 10MB on fibre where we are doing it at 2.5mbps.

StreamSAmovies uses MatrixCast™ multi bitrate streaming technology and our headend is powered by MMX|IPTV, the

sales partner office for MatrixStream Technologies (USA) in Africa.”

He notes that the system has very secure Digital Right Management (DRM) system in the form of 128-bit SSL encryption and two-way online authentication. Because content is streamed and not downloaded, it can’t be copied and shared.

Launched at the recent Mediatech Africa advanced technology trade show in Johannesburg, StreamSAmovies is positioned as a viable distribution platform for local content producers.

“At Mediatech Africa we were approached by several local content providers looking for distribution.

StreamSAmovies operates on a revenue share basis – 70% of the rental charge of the

movie goes back to the content owner / distributor (Ts & Cs apply).

So we are empowering the local industry by providing it with a distribution platform where they can actually make money,” explains Van der Colff.

To date the StreamSAmovies library comprises 50 local titles, including the likes of high profile movies such as Otelo Burning, How To Steal 2 Million, Paradise Stop, Liefling, Klein Karoo and Pretville.

There is also an Indian bouquet with plans to cater for other minority audiences in the future and new titles are being added weekly.

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Preservation – a historical must

P

reserving the history of the South African film and television industry is important and a necessary part of the education and training of young students. Without knowing the origins of the technology we employ it is almost impossible to go back to first principles and to fully understand how the developments into the modern era came about.

The Science Museum in London, founded in 1857, is today one of the city’s major tourist attractions, attracting 2.7 million visitors annually. This shows that not only does a museum of this nature serve a preservation role, but is also a major tourist attraction. Regrettably Johannesburg does not offer a museum of this nature... and yet, perhaps it does.

Enter the South African Institute of Electrical Engineers (SAIEE), established in November 1909 and nestled in the quiet and picturesque Johannesburg suburb of Observatory. The institute aims to ‘promote the general advancement of the science of electrical engineering’.

SAIEE’s Historical Section has been in existence since 1979 and was formed inter alia to ensure the preservation of items of electrical equipment of importance to the development of electrical engineering in South Africa, and to create a library of books relating to the science.

The institute is home to a vast array of equipment covering virtually all facets of

‘DINO-TECH’ – Some of the exhibits at the SAIEE the electronic age. Most of the artefacts and books have been donated by members, companies and related institutions. Some items, the Tellurometer and Wadley radios as examples, are original fundamental developments by South Africans and, in their commercial form, were sold worldwide.

There are also innumerable items related

to the advent of radio and television, some also unique. Early examples of vacuum tubes, including a De Forest triode, television sets, cameras, recorders and the like abound, as well as microphones and test equipment. Several members of the SAIEE are busy on an almost daily basis preparing and cataloguing equipment for eventual display purposes.

In July 2003, with the growing desire to create a SAIEE museum of the history of electrical engineering and to preserve the achievements made by South Africans, the SAIEE council decided to elevate the status of the Historical Interest Group HIG (formed in 1979) with its main objective to preserve items of historical interest and importance to electrical engineering in South Africa to that of a ‘section’ and so it became the Historical Section (HS).

Max Clarke, well known in Municipal Electrical Undertakings, had been the chairman of the HIG since February 1994 and still continues to lead the HS towards the reality of the creation of the SAIEE Museum.

Clark comments: “The building known as Innes House (the original home of the Union Observer, Dr Innes) has now been renovated and restored and will house displays of the main artefacts in the form of a museum of electrical engineering. It is expected to be set up by the end of 2014 but a formal date has not been determined for the opening.”

Right now there is a need for new HS members. If you want to join fellow engineers on the HS challenge, or would simply like further information, send an email to Max Clarke at mppc@mweb.co.za. – Andy Stead

Final instalment of hit franchise The third and final instalment of popular South African teen romantic comedy Bakgat! will be released nationwide on 6 September by Ster-Kinekor with between 45 and 50 prints.

While the first two films, which centre around rugby, three best friends, their nemeses, romances and growing up, were filmed in South Africa, the filmmakers ventured to London to shoot part of Bakgat! 3.

Actor Andrew Thompson featured prominently in Bakgat! and Bakgat! 2 in the role of Fanie Voster, but his sudden death in 2012 was a tragedy for the team and crew who had formed close bonds since the first movie screened in 2008.

“His death was a big shock and it was difficult to get motivated again to work on Bakgat! 3,” says one of the executive producers, Danie Bester. “Director Stefan Niewoudt also went through a tough time during the pre-production and filming of the movie with the premature birth and eventual death of his baby.

“I know it sounds esoteric but I think all the tragedy and loss motivated us all to give more to the movie and make it a success. In the end we had a great team and the quality of the movie is an indication

8 | SCREENAFRICA | August 2013

of the strength of the crew who worked on the project.”

The majority of the interiors were shot in South Africa while the exteriors were shot in London. Continues Bester: “However, all the rugby scenes were shot in South Africa.

To camouflage that world we shot at night under spotlights.”

He says the movie’s most powerful message is that the grass isn’t always greener on the other side as it portrays South Africans who are disillusioned with the lure of foreign shores and who yearn to return home. “The movie is also similar to Bakgat! in the sense that it is a hero to zero story with a strong romantic feel. And it’s about making choices in life that are not always easy but which define us as human beings. But then there is also lots of comedy!”

Bester says he is proud of the fact that this is the first trilogy in Afrikaans. “I’m also pleased to see how the careers of the actors and technical personnel have developed since the first movie five years ago. It feels like Bakgat! was the beginning of something great and special. I also feel proud when people tell me that Bakgat! inspired them to make a movie on their own, as it was entirely self-funded.”

SCORING A TRI: Ivan Botha and Altus Theart in a scene from Bakgat! 3 The filmmakers worked with a budget of R1m for Bakgat!. “It was a tremendous amount of money to put together at the time but with a lot of help from director and scriptwriter Henk Pretorius, Lucia MeyerMarais, and family and friends we managed to raise the money and produce the movie.

However, the minute we announced that we were going to produce Bakgat 3! the movie was immediately financed.”

Benjamin Willem again composed the score for Bakgat 3!.

“It’s interesting that 60% of the music in the movies is classically composed. I think a big factor that contributes to the success of the movies is C.A. van Aswegen’s choice of contemporary music,” concludes Bester.

Bakgat! 3 also screens at the Silwerskermfees at the end of August.

News

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Silwerskermfees celebrates local film industry Five Afrikaans movies have their world premières at the 2013 kykNET Silwerskermfees in August 2013.

They are Bakgat! 3, Die Ballade van Robbie de Wee, Faan se Trein (special director’s first cut), Molly en Wors and Musiek vir die Agtergrond.

Durban Poison, which won Best South African Feature Film at the Durban International Film Festival in July this year, will have a special screening at the festival.

According to the organisers of the kykNET Silwerskermfees, one of the most dynamic aspects of this year’s festival has been the development of 13 short films that will be showcased at the event. These short films were selected from 150 entries and comprise a smorgasbord of different genres ranging from black comedy to drama, horror to thriller and more.

As part of the development phase the scripts underwent an intensive three-week development process under the mentorship of experienced and well-known scriptwriters Henriëtta Gryffenberg, Saartjie Botha, Hélène Truter

and Anneke Villet.

Thereafter the movies went into production under the mentorship of highly

regarded filmmakers Regardt van den Bergh, Gerrit Schoonhoven, Zaheer Goodman-Bhyat and Danie Bester.

Another exciting initiative this year marks the introduction of the open section, which includes the screening of English shortand full-length features. This initiative is supported by DStv’s M-Net Movies Channel, headed by Pierre Cloete.

Karen Meiring, director of M-Net Afrikaans channels, regards this initiative as a constructive effort to encourage the making of quality local films and television programmes. “This is a conscious effort to develop and grow the industry in a constructive and supportive way.

Creating a platform for young filmmakers to showcase their work and develop their creative voice is what this is all about. Honoring established filmmakers and encouraging mentorship programmes also form an integral part of this process.”

Afrikaans channel kykNET, owned by

pay-TV operator M-Net, has audiovisual media, the arts and television entertainment at its core. kykNET presents the fourth Silwerskermfees to celebrate Afrikaans filmmaking talent, while providing a platform for other South African productions as well.

The idea of an Afrikaans festival was conceived three years ago when screenwriter, director and producer Jans Rautenbach and Meiring conceived the notion of an Afrikaans Boere Riviera which led to the beginning of the kykNET Silwerskermfees.

From humble origins the festival is now a four-day event from 28 to 31 August in Camps Bay in Cape Town.

The programme comprises the screening of feature and short films as well as documentaries, while 12 discussion panels will be held with topics ranging from script development to the latest modern technology available to South African filmmakers.

The festival culminates when 15 Silwerskermfees Awards will be handed to 35 entrants.

Tickets are available to the public to attend the screenings of the six full-length features, 13 short films or the open section consisting of 10 entries ranging from full-length features to short films. – Martie Bester

Workshop on excellence in television writing

GUIDANCE TO THE WRITE PATH – Pamela Douglas

10 | SCREENAFRICA | August 2013

Award-winning and Emmy-nominated writer Pamela Douglas presents a three-day masterclass on writing the television drama series from 16 to 18 August 2013 in Johannesburg.

Douglas has numerous credits in television drama and has won multiple awards from the American Women in Radio and Television organisation. She is also the author of Writing the TV Drama Series, a definitive book on the craft.

“Since my book Writing the TV Drama Series has been translated into several languages and sold around the world, I’ve been fortunate enough to be invited to meet writers from many countries. I am delighted at the prospect of connecting with creative people in South Africa who are emerging onto the global electronic stage and look forward to sharing insights from successful US television shows with talented local writers,” says Douglas.

“In the South African workshop I will guide aspiring (and professional) writers through what makes some outstanding American shows great. I’ll do this through a combination of screenings, scene analysis, lectures and discussions. Then I will apply the principles and examples to the work of individuals in the workshop,” she continues.

Extensive time will be available for feedback, including information on how the industry works, and how it can be applied globally, as well as direct personal advice on writing by the attendees.

“We may work through pitches and even outline development of pilots, depending on the interests of those attending and time,” notes Douglas.

Though she will not read and mentor individual scripts,

Douglas will set out guidelines and encourage paths forward for those who are pursuing careers in this field.

According to Douglas, the biggest challenges of writing for TV drama series is honest writing, the truth of understanding human motivations and relationships. “On TV drama series, this is amplified because of needing enough depth of character to generate as many as 100 hours of story.

“Without resorting to contrivance or lack of credibility, this entails layers and secrets that may be uncovered as the main characters go through their experiences. In some arenas, the creation of a large enough world to sustain extensive story arcs (‘the long narrative’) is also a challenge.”

Besides insight, talent and skill, Douglas recommends perseverance for television drama series writers. “TV drama series are far longer than movies, and being able to continue spinning out stories for a long time requires focus and dedication. The industry itself is sometimes fickle, so perseverance in the face of career and technology changes is needed too.”

Douglas concludes: “Television benefits from immediacy and intimacy since it is viewed in the home.

It is also writer-driven (as opposed to director-driven) and thus benefits from emphasis on character and story as opposed to special effects and spectacles of any kind seen in theatrical movies.”

According to Natasje van Niekerk, organiser of the workshop, 30 South African industry professionals, among them members from the National Film and Video Foundation (NFVF) and commissioning editors from M-Net and the SABC, will attend the workshop.

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ADCETERA

| Report on the South African commercials industry

Anything but a snail’s pace In the new Danone Yogi Sip ad, a humansize snail puppet is a visual metaphor for the plummeting energy levels experienced during the mid-afternoon slump.

South African animation studio Luma was tasked by Johannesburg-based production house, Riverstone Films, on behalf of Y&R advertising agency, to create 3D animation to complete the snail illusion by showing it sipping on a Yogi Sip, which gives the creature a much needed energy boost.

Luma was given three weeks to complete the job.

While master model maker Roger Titley built the animatronic snail puppet, Luma had to create believable and lifelike CGI antennae.

“This meant recreating the entire head, so as to provide a seamless blend between the CGI and the puppet,” explains Luma’s Paul Meyer.

First off the Luma team had to model a high resolution digital sculpt of the snail, matched up to the physical puppet in terms of geometric structure as well as fine texture detail. Then they matched the colour, wetness, reflectivity and translucency to the director’s vision for the level of realism and visual style for the character.

Once that was done the model was rigged to move in a natural way so as to give the animators a level of control that would not limit them creatively in any way.

“Then our animators breathed believable life into the snail’s antennae, closing the loop for the suspension of disbelief and completing the illusion,” comments Meyer.

“It was important that we not only create a realistic visual, but that the snail’s performance serves the narrative above all, and had as much inherent humour as possible.

“If you watch the performance repeatedly you’ll see what the snail is thinking by how he moves. The performance is ultimately what we are most proud of, when one is no longer concerned about whether it ‘looks real’ or not.”

Once the animation was complete, Luma had to match the live action camera perspective and movement of the snail (referred to as match-moving), as well as the on-set lighting to fully integrate the CGI render into the environment.

Meyer continues: “The final touches of seamless integration happened when we composited the live action plate and CGI render together matching the subtleties of colour, light and shade, softness and film

Danone Yogi Sip grain. We also created the entire product demo sequence and pack shot entirely in CGI.” The Luma team comprised: Ruaan Grobler (modelling, texturing, rigging and animation of the end tag); Werner Ziemerink (modelling, texturing, rigging and

animation of the snail); Chris Wieffering (compositing); Nono Mofokeng (producer); and Meyer (creative director).

The commercial was directed by Riverstone’s Jeremy Holden for Y&R Johannesburg creative director, Bibi Lötter.

BG resonates in the Twittersphere

BG Everyone loves cute and fluffy animals, and when they tweet (yes, tweet!), they become even more adorable.

In just 50 tweets posted since 14 June this year, BG, Johannesburg Zoo’s Twitter-active Honey Badger, has gained over 5 000 followers from America, the

12 | SCREENAFRICA | August 2013

Netherlands, Spain, France, Russia and China. BG has also made television and radio appearances worldwide.

How is it possible for an animal to live tweet you may well ask? The BG tweeting phenomenon is the brainchild of advertising agency Draftfcb, who together

with digital ground-breaker Hellocomputer and techno wizards BinarySpace, came up with an ingenious way to expand the Johannesburg Zoo’s digital presence.

BG is now not only the Zoo’s mascot but its social media manager and / or spokesanimal.

Says Draftfcb chief creative officer, Brett Morris: “It’s spine-tingling how quickly BG has taken the world’s stage by storm. We’re obviously monitoring mentions for BG globally and, in less than a week, he has amassed some 15 pages of search results on international blogs. BG’s story has been aired by the likes of ABC News, Fox2 and 6, and Good Morning America as well as local national news and television back home.

“He’s also been on the Timeslive website and Twitter feed, been mentioned by Huffington Post, NotCot, Buzzfeed and been the topic of a Perez Hilton’s blog.”

BG is able to tweet live due to his high-tech enclosure, which was devised by the Draftfcb group and Hellocomputer and constructed by tech wizard at BinarySpace, Tom van den Bon. The social media phenomenon was selected for the job because he is active during the day and at night, has a definite personality and loves being with people.

Hellocomputer creatives who worked on the communication elements of the project included Candice Hellens, Moira-Gene Sephton Gous, Eras Gous and Rory Macrobert.

The system developed and installed by

Hellocomputer comprises motiontriggered, animal-friendly sensors installed at several places in the spacious enclosure and connected wirelessly to an on-site base station located outside the enclosure.

This base station is itself connected to the agency’s server, which hosts a database of pre-written tweets. As BG moves around his camp, he trips the sensors which then send relevant tweets. If he is munching at his food bowl, he’ll be sure to trigger a food-related tweet, for example.

“The techno-wizards at Hellocomputer are thrilled by the project and the team at the Zoo are amped to have turned BG into – in record time – what they believe is the world’s first tweeting zoo ‘spokes animal’,” says Kerry Friend, executive creative director of Hellocomputer. “The Zoo does a wonderful job connecting with animal fans using many different traditional media, but it has steered away from the digital realm until now. Having acknowledged the many benefits of engaging with its target base using social media, it wanted an especially appealing way of doing so.

“Hellocomputer’s logic was that, since the thing that people love about the Zoo is its animals, it makes sense for an animal to tweet.”

Follow BG (or ‘South Africa’s Tweetheart’ – as international blogs are referring to him) at @zootweetslive or #tweetingbadger.

| ADCETERA

‘Driving’ into the foyer A cinema foyer activation expedited in conjunction with cinema advertising broker Cinemark formed part of the recent Mercedes-Benz A-Class ad campaign conceived by Nota Bene.

The activation took the form of an expansive ‘Activate-A Explore Your City Challenge’ campaign which in turn drove consumers to the cinemas where they could log into a specific location and collect points.

Says Katharine Liese, head of strategy at Nota Bene: “We were tasked with making the jump into a broader audience and building brand association within a younger audience. This was achieved using cinema and displaying our television material on the big screen.

“In addition the placement of the Activate-A boxes in cinema foyers was a great way to capitalise on dwell time and activate the brand within the younger target we were aiming at.”

Cinemark marketing manager Yvonne Diogo notes that there has been a rise in cinema activations in the past 12 months.

“Advertisers are pursuing cinema advertising campaigns which call for more consumer engagement and activations in the cinema foyer allow for this. The benefit to advertisers is twofold: the on-screen advertising is reinforced and the activation extends the campaign reach to a secondary

audience, out of the cinema.”

According to Diogo, the campaign featured across a total of 27 films, including Oscar-winning blockbusters, during the six-week period.

“Movies selected were skewed towards the youth market between the ages of 25 and 34, with a propensity to purchase this type of product based on LSM. Movies selected ranged from The Great Gatsby and Les Miserables to Identity Thieves and Tyler Perry’s Temptations.

“As per the activation, consumers were invited to download the Activate-A app from Apple and Android stores. Once downloaded, the players were given challenges each week that asked them to explore their city and uncover the new A-Class. Augmented Reality (AR) was utilised to activate elements of the vehicle.

For example, when placing the AR over a poster in a coffee shop, the car would come out through the wall or would appear in front of you,” she explains.

The campaign ran in Johannesburg, Cape Town and Durban and there were numerous check points across each city over the period.

Postcards were handed out at key locations to drive engagement and download and to alert consumers to the activation.

Diogo continues: “The 3D box was

Cinemark’s marketing manager Yvonne Diogo placed at selected Ster-Kinekor cinemas as an endpoint where consumers could use the AR to explore the A-Class completely as a life size 3D model. When placing the AR device over the box, it revealed the A-Class vehicle and specs and a full 3D model.

“There were around 10 000 downloads of the App and the engagement rate was above industry norm. About 1% of downloads completed the six-week challenge (with 24 log ins), which is considered a great success.”

skylines into the parking lots, as well as road signs and subtle subliminal dirt and dust to enhance the overall pieces.

Wilson continues: “All the effects were done on Autodesk Smoke 2013, which is

our tool of choice as it integrates the power of Autodesk Flame compositing software and utilises a timeline workflow and node-based compositing.”

Advertising in Reverse About 40 locations, all over the Western Cape, were used for the new Hyundai ix35 Reverse commercial, conceptualised by The Jupiter Drawing Room.

In the ad, which is shot from the driver’s perspective, the iX35 starts up in a parkade and makes its way smoothly through a city.

The journey continues on a highway, then through a suburb, on a bridge, through a tunnel, and over several dirt tracks. At the end of this mini-road movie, the vehicle reverses into shot with the pay-off line: ‘The new iX35, standard with rear view camera.

Drive anywhere, any way’.

Produced by Herman Le Roux, the ad was directed by Porteous Xandau for Golden Planes. Director of photography (DOP) Shaun Lees shot the ad in one week on the RED Epic camera. A specialised rig was created in order to mount the camera on the car for its journey from Cape Town to Stellenbosch, Fish Hoek and up the coast.

The Stylus Group, based at the Old

Castle Brewery in Woodstock, Cape Town, was given two days to complete postproduction. Amy Daneel cut the commercial on a Final Cut Pro. Says The Stylus Group founder Stuart Wilson: “The Hyundai ix35 Reverse ad involved a fair bit of post-production, but all made to seem as if nothing was done. Every single shot had something changed, added, cleaned up and finessed, especially the last shot of the car reversing. The camera team shot one take of the car reversing at great speed, spinning round and stopping to wait for the dust to clear.

We had to clean the car up and ‘combine’ the dusty and clean shots together to create an agency’s dream pack shot.”

Among the effects that had to be created

by The Stylus Group were: adding new lights on the highway; removing cities in the distance; extending the road to vanishing points; adding birds; enhancing all the skies; adding windmills; inserting city

Hyundai ix35

August 2013 | SCREENAFRICA | 13

ADCETERA

|

OPINION

Nedgroup Investment

A bothersome ad

By Anton Crone It feels a little strange to watch American news coverage of a local event, namely Nelson Mandela’s hospital vigil. But it’s tempered by the reporting of CNN’s Robyn Curnow whose polished Sefrican accent is a welcome respite from the Atlanta newsroom twang.

Then there are the African commercials from the likes of MTN and Zenith Bank to remind you of where you are. Of course, there are international ads too, so it isn’t a surprise to see a swooping shot over New York’s high-rises followed by mustachioed

14 | SCREENAFRICA | August 2013

American pilot, Captain Sullenberger, standing in front of the Manhattan skyline.

His narration begins: “It was an ordinary winter’s day…” and goes on to describe how 30 years of training and experience helped him land US Airways Flight 1549 safely in the Hudson River after both engines were destroyed by bird-strike. You can’t help but be drawn in by the moody, symbolic scenes.

While Sullenberger narrates, we see a flock of Canadian Geese flying in formation; a group of people calmly performing Tai Chi in a riverside park; a kid looking up to see the jetliner streaming above; and a pair of ballerinas practicing in a glass fronted hall while the crippled jet descends silently towards the river behind them. The only hints of drama are scenes of smoke streaming from the plane’s two engines; a red flash on the radar in the control room and a controller turning to a colleague and saying: “He said he was going into the Hudson.”

When the plane lands in the river Sullenberger rounds the ad off by saying: “I’m not a hero. I’m just a pilot who used 30 years of experience to do my job,” followed by the pay-off: “In the right hands, anything is possible,” and the Nedgroup Investments logo.

Something about the ad bothered me. I wondered if it was that a South African

institution had chosen an American story instead of a local one. Surely there must be local analogies that fit the bill, I thought, stories about people whose vast experience saves the day. If it were literally about saving your investment from crashing then we had Nationwide Captain, Trevor Arnold, who safely landed a jetliner after one of the engines dropped to the ground at Cape Town International Airport. But perhaps it was a weak analogy compared to Sullenberger’s. It was one engine, not two, and I recalled that Nationwide was grounded after the incident due to poor maintenance – not a good thing for Nedbank to associate themselves with.

I thought of other South African heroes who relied on decades of experience to save the day. Perhaps the bank shied away from South African sports figures because it’s become such a cliché to use them.

Political figures would be polarising and, let’s be honest, the only one worthy of admiration is beyond the reaches of a corporate slogan. The deeper I thought, the more I wondered if there were any South African heroes that fit the bill. It depressed me a little.

On a psychological level, Sullenberger’s story is fitting because it’s a human story that we can relate to – almost everyone has had their doubts about boarding a plane and putting our lives in someone else’s hands. The Hudson incident fires our imagination and fears. Was it gratuitous in some way then – was that what bothered me? No. It was expressed humbly; it

captured the calming personality of Sullenberger; a man with intelligent eyes, a winning smile and a voice made for motivational speeches and airplane intercoms. He wasn’t made up – he existed.

You wanted him at the controls.

In terms of advertising trickery, it revived the type of momentous event we store in our minds. Who hasn’t watched CNN and learned about that 2009 feat? The ‘Miracle on the Hudson’ they called it.

But was it a miracle? Was Nedbank associating their expertise with a lucky break? I had to find out. I Googled the shit out of it. I listened to interviews with Sully. I watched similar water landings. Ultimately I watched many people die. I realised Sully was an absolute pro and, more than ever, I wanted someone like him handling the important stuff. I would be knocking on cockpit doors from then on asking for resumés. Most significantly, I started wondering who was handling my somewhat meagre, yet important, investment portfolio. I had never met them. They were hidden behind the door. For all I knew they could be bouncing their secretary on their knee while stocks plummeted.

But this ad had a face, and I finally realised what bothered me: the ad was good. It was in the right media. It was on the right channel. It stood out from the rest.

That it was American was significant because the markets rise and fall with that country. What bothered me was that I hadn’t made it; that I hadn’t met the guy behind the door.

OPINION | ADCETERA

How the changing advertising world impacts the film industry agencies have the luxury to create films that are minutes, or even hours, in length.

However, the fact of the Web is that brevity of thought is in even higher demand now than what it has been in the traditional broadcast world. There are hours of content being uploaded to the Web every second. For viewers, there is so much content competing for their attention that you really need to get your story across rapidly, succinctly and memorably.

It is therefore the traditional commercial producers and directors who are skilled in creating an engaging drama or a side-splitting comedy in 30 seconds whose skills will remain in demand.

The biggest storm ahead lies in the shifting perceptions around production values in this new, interactive world.

In general, agencies and clients believe that because something will live online, it needn’t be polished. Of course, in the long run, they will continue to believe

By Leon Jacobs

– executive creative director and co-founder of Joe Public in Cape Town The late, great visionary, Douglas Adams, equated the changing media landscape as transitioning from rivers to oceans. River rules don’t apply, and those who want to survive need to learn to navigate a world of currents and storms and waves that did not exist in the days when we were sailing on rivers.

The swells of social sharing, the tides of digital have indeed had the advertising industry clinging onto the decks of our river rafts. We have struggled to adapt. Very few agencies have fully understood the tectonic shift in the way people now consume media.

A little further down the delivery chain, the film industry should be anticipating the long-term effects on its business model.

As with the advent of the PVR (Personal Video Recorder), the coming of the Web also prompted the prophets of doom to toll the bell for the 30-second TV commercial.

Now that we don’t have to fit our stories into neat broadcast-ready chunks, creative

Leon Jacobs

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this at their peril. But production companies need to adapt to this shift.

And, let’s be honest. The advancements in technology have meant that cheaper gear can achieve very good results. It has also put the tools of filmmaking in the hands of more agency creatives. The curtain of mystique around filmmaking is lifting and most creative people, especially the incoming generation, have a good, working knowledge of prosumer cameras and desktop production facilities.

This means that production companies need to figure out that the value they add to filmmaking lies in the time they spend applying their specialist skills, not in the mark-ups made out of gear rentals.

The commercial producers who will successfully make the transition from the past to the future are the ones who can persuade their clients of the following: any mug can pick up a camera, or drag some video clips around a timeline, but it is years of experience that gives a frame a visual edge and a virtuoso who gets the timing of a cut just right.

There is a perfect storm brewing, but those who know how the winds will blow will sail into a brighter future.

FILM

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Elysium has landed!

EARTH’S BLEAK FUTURE?: Matt Damon and Sharlto Copley in a scene from Elysium

South African filmmaker Neill Blomkamp shot to world prominence in 2009 when his debut feature film, District 9, became a critical and box office success and received four Oscar nominations, including best film and best screenplay. Blomkamp’s eagerly awaited second film, Elysium, releases in South Africa on 30 August.

16 | SCREENAFRICA | August 2013

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ike District 9, Elysium is a sci-fi action thriller but of far bigger scope. With a budget estimated to be around $120m* (compared to District 9’s $30m), Elysium stars Hollywood heavyweights Matt Damon and Jodie Foster. They are joined by Latin American stars Diego Luna, Wagner Moura and Alice Braga. South African Sharlto Copley, who played the lead in District 9, also has a key role in Elysium.

A self-confessed ‘one-time geek-jock’, 33-year-old writer and director Neill Blomkamp says he was always a dedicated sci-fi enthusiast, although also very into sport when he was younger. When his parents emigrated from Johannesburg to Vancouver, Blomkamp’s love of sci-fi travelled with him.

Elysium is set in the year 2154, where two classes of people exist. There are the very wealthy who live on a pristine man-made space station called Elysium, while there rest are left to scratch a living on an overpopulated, resource-drained planet below.

“On earth everything is dilapidated,” Blomkamp explains. “Literally, every dollar resource has been extracted and pulled away so that it’s like the most impoverished parts of Africa today.

“For me, my version of the future is dark.

Elysium verbalises my version of where I think the human race is going.”

He notes that films he likes – whether 1980s science fiction, action films or films from the 1970s – tend to be quite violent.

“Some of my favourite films are from Paul

Verhoeven, like RoboCop. I love the satire in RoboCop. But in Elysium there is definitely no concept of violence as a solution, or violence as a message. There is none of that. It is just popcorn violence, things exploding, gunfire and what have you.”

Minimal CGI Elysium contains only about 900 computergenerated shots, as the director chose to shoot live action wherever possible, opting for some particularly memorable locations in Mexico, including a sprawling and sewage-infested garbage dump.

“Shooting green screen is terrible,” he says. “You always want to get it more real and try to get it as close to what the actor believes as you can. We specifically looked for some of the worst areas in Mexico City to shoot and we actively stayed away from the really nice-looking areas.

“The worst thing you can do is to shoot an actor over a green screen. It is just a terrible result. But then I come from the world of visual effects.”

Blomkamp started his career as a visual effects artist, working in film and television and earning an Emmy Award nomination for outstanding visual effects at the age of just 21.

Similar territory While Elysium explores similar territory as District 9, Blomkamp stresses that he wasn’t actually trying to do anything with exactly

the same themes as the first film.

“The themes in Elysium are about the haves and the have-nots and wealth discrepancy, which is, I guess, in the same vein as District 9, but a little bit different.

There is no real race and xenophobia stuff in this film, like in District 9.

“This film is set in future, broken North America, so I wanted to have this thing where you could have this migration of the Americas,” Blomkamp says. “You could have Latin America moving up into North America – almost like all the borders have been erased. The entire film is an allegory.”

Blomkamp goes on to note that actors Copley, Luna, Moura and Braga all have experience of living first hand in countries with enormous wealth discrepancy.

He regards the movie as a different way of looking at living on earth in the year 2013. “There is mass poverty, the rich seem to call all of the shots and there is no outcome, no resolution. No one knows how to solve the problems that earth has today.

If there is no way to solve it, then there is no message in the film.”

Many major action and sci-fi blockbusters are based on a franchise, which is not the case with Elysium.

“One thing I should say, in terms of the rest of Hollywood, is that I am very disconnected,” states Blomkamp. “I just work on my own stuff and I don’t really know what Hollywood is thinking or what they are doing.

“Fortunately Elysium wasn’t actually that difficult to get made because the financier believed in it; the fact that District 9

| FILM generated over $200m in worldwide box office revenue also helped. I gave the financier a treatment of what I thought Elysium was and he really liked it. He got it to Sony Pictures and they also believed in me. I’ve been very lucky.”

Star power Played by Jodie Foster, the role of Secretary Delacourt, the hardline official determined to protect the Elysium space station for the wealthy, wasn’t originally written for a woman.

Says Blomkamp: “All of a sudden one night I woke up and thought that if Delacourt was a woman, the film would be more interesting. So I started going through a list of who could play Delacourt and then I thought of Jodie, who I thought would be the coolest person ever to play that role, assuming she would be interested. I spoke to her and she came on board. It all happened very easily.

“Jodie is one of the most talented and professional people you could ever dream of working with. She arrives on set at the exact time, does exactly what you ask her to do, no problems, very cool.”

DEDICATED SCI-FI ENTHUSIAST: Director Neill Blomkamp

Garbage dump Shooting in the gigantic garbage dump in Mexico had its challenges.

“The hard part was the Canadian unions because 50% of the crew was Canadian and there were a bunch of Americans also,” explains Blomkamp. “Those unions

The big budget experience

involved required us to do toxicology tests on the ground at the dump as they didn’t want their union members in any kind of bacterial danger. When they ran the tests the results were terrible. So then we had to bring in fake dirt and cover all of the other earth with it, but it looked kind of the same.

Matt Damon, who plays the hero Max in the film, was a pro, but it was difficult work.”

Blomkamp did a lot of visual preparation for the film. “If you do that and you have a good argument, or position, on why this is a good idea, and you can back it up with actual imagery and concepts, people will go along with it. That applied to shooting in the garbage dump. When you drive into that dump before dawn it smells terrible; something about the sun coming up kind of burns this layer of humidity out of the sewerage.”

Elysium was shot in 90 days in Mexico and Canada.

Presented by TriStar Pictures in association with Media Rights Capital, Elysium is a QED International / Alphacore Studios / Kinberg Genre production. The film was produced by Bill Block, Blomkamp and Simon Kinberg and executive produced by Sue Baden-Powell. *Source: www.imdb.com

By Joanna Sterkowicz

In the new sci-fi action film Elysium, well-known South African actor Brandon Auret (Catch a Fire, Isidingo) spends much of his time hunting down the film’s hero, Hollywood star Matt Damon.

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ritten and directed by South African Neill Blomkamp, Elysium, like his Oscar-nominated first film, District 9, has a fair share of social commentary. There are only two classes of people in Elysium – the very wealthy, who live in luxury on a protected space station, and the poor, who live in squalor on a crime-ridden, ruined earth.

Brandon Auret, cast as Drake in Elysium, previously worked with Blomkamp in District 9.

“Neill has a lot of political views and manages to intertwine social issues into gripping storylines. Unlike Neill, a lot of people who make science fiction films these days forget to put any meaning into them.

“One of the great qualities Neill has a director is that he listens to actors, while knowing exactly what he wants. And, he’s very calm, not temperamental at all. Neill really has fun on his films and likes to blow things up,” says Auret.

One of the reasons Auret accepted the Elysium role was to experience a big budget production with major stars. Matt Damon (Invictus, The Bourne Franchise) stars in the film with Hollywood legend Jodie Foster (Silence of the Lambs, The

Accused), supported by Diego Luna (Milk), Alice Braga (City of God) and Wagner Moura (Elite Squad).

“I think that every actor deserves to work on a big production like this,” continues Auret. “At the beginning it was nerveracking for me because South African actors are so used to being told that we’re not good enough compared to overseas actors. But on set I was treated exactly the same as the stars.”

Auret’s character Drake is part of a black ops team led by Kruger, played by Sharlto Copley, the South African star of District 9.

“The black ops team is employed by the wealthy elite to keep the people on earth in order,” explains Auret. “Matt Damon’s character, Max, is on a mission to bring equality to the two polarised worlds so the black ops team has to pursue him. In fact, my first few days on set were spent beating Matt up!

“I filmed in Canada for two months with a further two weeks in Mexico. There were lots of action scenes and I worked with this amazing stuntman, Lars Grant, who is a past winner of the Taurus Award for stunts.”

He describes himself as a characterbased actor. “For me the most important

GEARED UP FOR ACTION: Brandon Auret and Sharlto Copely in a scene from Elysium thing is to be as true to the character as possible. I do lots of preparation for my roles and Neill put me on a strict training regimen to play Drake.”

Commenting on Elysium’s stars, Auret describes Damon as a true professional.

“Matt is an amazing person – there’s absolutely no arrogance about him at all. As for Jodie Foster, I was really star-struck as I’ve been a huge fan of hers ever since

Bugsy Malone. Like Matt, Jodie is a supreme professional.”

Auret has been cast in Blomkamp’s new film Chappie, which starts shooting in South Africa this September.

In other exciting news, The Shadow Boxer, the first film to come out of Auret’s production company, A Breed Apart Pictures, which he formed with James Read, has been green lit for early 2014.

August 2013 | SCREENAFRICA | 17

FILM

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Compiled by Martie Bester

Director Speak Girl power Hanneke Schutte is an Afrikaans girl who was born in the Kalahari. She is also one of South Africa’s most promising scriptwriters and directors, carving a niche for herself in a male-dominated professional environment. Schutte wrote and directed new Afrikaans movie Jimmy in Pienk, which releases this month and earlier this year she won the Jameson’s First Shot 2 short movie competition, established by American actor Kevin Spacey. Her win resulted in Schutte writing and directing the film Saving Norman, and shooting the production in Hollywood with Willem Dafoe in the starring role.

WHY DID YOU DECIDE TO BECOME A FILMMAKER? I stumbled onto it. It was never part of the grand plan. I was a copywriter, then a lecturer and then I decided to do some film courses. I entered competitions and got the chance to make my first short film, Superhero, in 2009.

HOW DID YOU DISCOVER YOU HAD A TALENT FOR SCRIPTWRITING? I went on the very first National Film and Video Foundation (NFVF) Sediba scriptwriting course and I realised that it was the most difficult and the most exciting thing I’d ever done. And it’s still just as difficult and as exciting.

HOW DID YOUR FORAY INTO DIRECTING COME ABOUT? That first competition I won was run by the NFVF and the idea was to train female writers / directors. I didn’t really want to direct, but I was given the opportunity so I grabbed it.

WHAT AND WHOM ARE THE GREATEST INFLUENCES IN YOUR WORK? I’m influenced by everything. Photographers, artists, memories, friends. I think Chuck Palahniuk said: “I’m the combined effort of everyone I’ve ever known”.

ARE THERE ANY FEMALE SCRIPTWRITERS / DIRECTORS WHO HAVE SPECIFICALLY INFLUENCED YOUR WORK? I don’t think they’ve (consciously) influenced my work, but I really admire Jane Campion, Sofia Coppola, Andrea Arnold, Lisa Cholodenko, Agnes Varda and many more.

WHAT MESSAGE CAN YOU GIVE TO WOMEN WHO ARE INTERESTED IN BECOMING FILM DIRECTORS? Raise your hand. Put yourself forward. Speak up. We tend to keep quiet and avoid rocking the boat. I wasn’t on the list of directors put forward to direct Jimmy in Pienk, but I sat down with the powers that be and I said:”Hey, I’m over here. What about me? I can do this.” To be honest I wasn’t really sure that I could do it, but I had to put myself out there and face my fears.

18 | SCREENAFRICA | August 2013

“HEY, I’M OVER HERE!”: Hanneke Schutte

JIMMY IN PIENK IS YOUR FIRST FEATURE FILM. WHAT EXPECTATIONS DID HAVE WHILE SHOOTING THE MOVIE? I think it was Darren Aronofsky who said that with your first feature film you just want to survive and get to the end of the shoot alive. That’s pretty much how I felt. I didn’t have any expectations; I just wanted to get to the end of it without succumbing to exhaustion / shame / embarrassment / frostbite / Portaloo cooties.

HOW DO WINNING THE JAMESON FIRST SHOT 2 COMPETITION AND DIRECTING JIMMY IN PIENK COMPARE IN TERMS OF PROFESSIONAL ACCOMPLISHMENT? They were both very special experiences and I learned a great deal. As a writer / filmmaker / creator you put yourself out there and you close your eyes and hope that someone somewhere is going to say yes. We get so used to people saying no, so when the yes comes through you celebrate it – whether the yes comes from Kevin Spacey or someone who’s willing to put your poem on their blog.

WHAT WAS IT LIKE WORKING WITH KEVIN SPACEY AND WILLEM DAFOE? They’re surprisingly down to earth, kind and wise. I don’t think you would sign up for this sort of project if you didn’t buy into the spirit of the whole thing. They were both enthusiastic about ‘sending the elevator back down’ as Kevin puts it.

WHAT KIND OF GUIDANCE AND SUPPORT DID YOU GET FROM THEM? They were both happy to help at any point during the process. Kevin wasn’t around much, but we could reach him via email. Willem didn’t for a second make us feel like he wasn’t interested. He treated it as a real job and he was there to help us create a character and ultimately a story.

WHAT WAS THE BIGGEST HIGHLIGHT OF FILMING SAVING NORMAN? I played ping pong with Willem between takes. That was pretty cool. The première was also a highlight, especially spending the day leading up to it with Kevin Spacey. When you’re in the room with him you realise what star power or charisma is and it’s not something big or ostentatious, it’s in the small details.

HOW DID THE FILMING PROCESS DIFFER FROM JIMMY IN PIENK? The surprising part is that it was so similar. We think Hollywood is this mythical place where everything is bigger and better, but the reality is our crews are just as good as theirs. We may have had more equipment, but the people doing the work were equally talented.

WHAT DID YOU LEARN FROM THE FIRST SHOT 2 PROCESS? I wish I could say that I learned a new technical skill that I can pass on, but everything I learned has been bigger life lessons. It’s scary knowing you have to direct someone who has worked with Martin Scorsese, Wes Anderson, Oliver Stone, Anthony Minghella, etc.

But when it comes down to it you just have to trust that you can do it.

WHAT ADVICE CAN YOU OFFER FILMMAKERS IN TERMS OF SCRIPTWRITING AND SCRIPT DEVELOPMENT? Learn about the craft of storytelling, and never stop learning. I’m a voracious reader. I devour scriptwriting and psychology books and I attend as many workshops as I can. Scriptwriting is lifelong learning. It never stops.

WHICH OTHER PROJECTS ARE YOU WORKING ON? I’m working on an adaptation of an Afrikaans novel.

| Film

As the television and production industry continues to steer towards a totally filebased data world and big data gets bigger, moves faster and becomes more unmanageable, dramatic increases in storage density are needed.

By Ian Dormer

Photos courtesy IBM Research

When BIG is really small!

ATOMIC WONDERBOY: The scanning tunnelling microscope

A single frame from the animation

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he requirement for greater storage capacity has propelled researchers into a mad frenzy to find the most efficient way to develop new methods of storing data. Scientists are now delving into atomic memory research with huge success, but even Nano physicists need to have a little fun.

In that spirit, the scientists moved atoms by using their scanning tunnelling microscope to make … a movie, which has been verified by Guinness World Records™ as The World’s Smallest Stop-Motion Film ever made!

Anyone who has studied electronics will be aware of Moore’s Law, an observation that silicon transistors shrink half their size every two years. So every two years you can fit more than twice the transistors on a smaller chip and store twice as much data while computers, electronic gadgets, phones and storage devices are getting smaller and smaller. Today we are at a point

that we can fit one billion transistors on a chip like the ones that are in your smartphone and tablet and at a low cost.

The question remains, how long will it be before Moore’s Law ends? Scientists are predicting that with atomic memory research it may well happen in the next year or two!

The ability to move single atoms is crucial to IBM’s research in the field of atomic-scale memory. Recently, IBM researchers announced the creation of the world’s smallest magnetic memory bit. This breakthrough could transform computing by providing the world with devices that have access to unprecedented levels of data storage.

It currently takes roughly one million atoms to store a single bit of data on a computer or electronic device. A bit is the basic unit of information in computing that can have only one of two values, one or zero. Eight bits form a byte.

Recently, IBM Research announced it can now store that same bit of information in just 12 atoms. From 1 million to 12 – that’s a dramatic breakthrough that not only has the potential to make our computers and devices smaller and more powerful, but also holds enormous implications for the way entire industries operate and the way that we store data.

The first magnetic hard disk, RAMAC, was developed by IBM in the late 1950s – the drive consisted of large drums full of magnetic platters that allowed for random read and write access and stored 5 to 10 MB of data. Today’s atomic memory breakthrough builds upon some of the

same concepts used in RAMAC, but allows for much denser storage at the atomic level that can carry entire libraries of music and movies on a miniature device. In the course of their atomic memory research, IBM scientists Gerd Binning and Heinrich Rohrer developed the scanning tunnelling microscope (STM), which effectively allows the dragging of atoms across a surface using a magnetic needle. It was while testing the STM that the idea of making an animated movie came up and A Boy and His Atom was born.

The world’s smallest movie set This animated movie won’t win any awards but it is a remarkable technological achievement. It took 10 days of 18-hour sessions to manage to move carbon monoxide molecules into the correct positions to create the images that are used in the movie. There are 242 individual frames in the animation.

A Boy and His Atom depicts a character (the boy) that befriends a single atom and goes on a playful journey that includes dancing, playing catch and bouncing on a trampoline. Set to a playful musical track,

the movie represents a unique way to convey science outside the research community.

“Capturing, positioning and shaping atoms to create an original motion picture on the atomic-level is a precise science and entirely novel,” says Andreas Heinrich, principle investigator, IBM Research. “At IBM, researchers don’t just read about science, we do it. This movie is a fun way to share the atomic-scale world while opening up a dialogue with students and others on the new frontiers of math and science.”

The scientists used copper 111 as the surface of the animation which was a frame measuring 45 by 25 nanometres (a nanometre is a billionth of a metre). The scanning tunnelling microscope weighs two tons and operates at – 268 degrees Celsius, that’s just above absolute zero.

So what is the point of all this? According to IBM, the ability to move the smallest particles of any element in the universe, the atom – can only lead to bigger things and hey – how many people can say they have made a movie so small it can be seen only when you magnify it 100 million times!

You can see the IBM movie at: http:// www.youtube.com/watch?v=oSCX78-8q0&feature=player_embedded.

August 2013 | SCREENAFRICA | 19

TELEVISION

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Authentic stories hit home run

GOOD LUCK POTION: A scene from Imbeza

In October 2009 eKasi: Our Stories premièred on freeto-air channel e.tv on Monday nights with five one-off dramas set in Soweto in Gauteng. Less than four years later, the new season now consists of 52 individual stories and is one of the greatest successes in the local television industry. Martie Bester examines why eKasi has proven to be such a firm favourite.

20 | SCREENAFRICA | August 2013

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Kasi: Our Stories started with one production company and as the series gained popularity with weekly audience ratings of between two and three million viewers per episode each week, seven production companies are now involved in filming the series based on township life in many provinces across South Africa.

The growing viewership is testament to the fact that social issues which mirror the lives of ordinary South Africans are in demand on the small screen.

Before eKasi: Our Stories, little was known about the real perceptions of people living in townships such as Alexandra, Diepsloot, Khayelitsha or Ga-Rankuwa, apart from images portraying unrest or discord. But nothing was said about residents’ loves, personal loss, their individual joys and tragedies, their successes and celebrations. Through eKasi, South African township inhabitants have finally found a way to ‘voice’ their experiences through the powerful tool of television.

Authentic Each year e.tv has an open call for scripts which allow people who haven’t had any formal experience in television production to tell their stories. An internal selection process follows after all the scripts have been received. The best scripts are then allocated to individual production companies that are commissioned to produce the stories.

Scriptwriters go through a workshop process lead by a head writer during which the story is drafted to be reflective of what happens around the authors.

“Viewers want to see themselves or somebody like them in a drama and want a story that resonates with them. The growth of eKasi is due to authentic storytelling from the audience’s perspective,” says Thokozani Nkosi, one of the executive producers and scriptwriter of the story Imbeza starring music star Dr Malinga.

“In Imbeza, which airs on 23 September, a man who is down on his luck responds to a pamphlet that is handed to him and decides to see a herbalist who sells a good luck potion. What lies in store for him? All kinds of trouble…”

Pay it forward Nkosi comments that the purpose of eKasi is to pay it forward. “We want to develop new opportunities for actors and crew who have never been involved in television.

Therefore we use well-known actors but also undiscovered township talent.”

Lilly Msimang, first-time producer on eKasi says: “The enduring popularity of the series can be attributed to the fact that the audience sees a reflection of their lives and what they go through on a day-to-day basis, based on a story that is not far-fetched or unrealistic.”

“I think eKasi is proof of the fact that people want to see more of these stories.

This is a different kind of storytelling and kudos to e.tv for taking the chance to break the mould and allowing us to make our own, which has worked out for the best,” adds Nkosi.

“The beauty of this is that it has grown our industry a lot because of the number of shows being produced and although it is very much in its growing phase, many industry jobs are being created,”

comments Msimang.

Continues Nkosi: “It has become very expensive to make television and eKasi has made it affordable again by producing low-cost, high-volume content. Producing a series of 52, 48-minute stories enables us to have economies of scale.”

Developmental Sasani Studios handles the postproduction on eKasi at no extra cost and all the cameras used in the series are supplied for free.

“This deal really is progressive and with the partners we have that makes a big difference. Similar to Nollywood, it is about working together for developmental purposes.”

Each story goes through a week of pre-production, a week of shooting and between two and three weeks of post-production. “There is always something different, interesting and unique about every story we tell,” comments Msimang.

First-time director on eKasi, Uvelapi Bangani, started in the industry in 2000 and has gone through the developmental channels as a sound engineer and floor manager to director and script editor.

“If we are going to tell stories, we had better tell stories that people can relate to,” he says. “For me as a director it has been an advantage to tell a story from my perspective as I understand the lifestyle.

The fact that we shoot on real locations leads to community involvement. People watch the show because they are part of the experience.”

| Television

High rolling psychological drama

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ollowing shortly after their SABC3 drama series High Rollers, brothers Luke and Joshua Rous of Rous House Productions’ new television series Geraamtes in die Kas (Skeletons in the Closet) starts airing on SABC2 on 29 October 2013 at 19h30.

The 13 x 48-minute drama series is written and directed by Joshua and produced by Luke and is shot on location in Waterkloof in Pretoria.

Set in the world of psychology, the mind games are on as psychiatrist Adriaan Vermaak (Gys de Villiers) undergoes a change of heart in his relentless pursuit of making money. He employs Rudi Abrahams (Wayne van Rooyen), a music therapist who has been working pro bono with children on the Cape Flats in an attempt to redeem himself and go back to his true calling of helping people for the right reasons.

However, his high paid partners, sexologist Palesa Ramaposa (Vuyelwa Booi) and forensic psychologist Susan Brink (Anel Alexander) are reluctant to allow Rudi into the private practice. Adriaan starts to descend into schizophrenia after he learns of the death of his estranged father, a world-renowned child psychologist, who he hadn’t spoken to for 15 years.

Joshua and Luke Rous worked with and consulted Dr Katherine Bain, a lecturer of psychology at the University of the Witwatersrand, who advised them about the world they wanted to explore. She helped them delve deeper into the psyche of people suffering with mental disorders such as frotteurism (the urge to rub the penis or pelvis against someone, usually in a public place such as a crowded train or concert), Munchausen by Proxy Syndrome (a relatively rare form of child abuse that involves the exaggeration or fabrication of illnesses or symptoms by a primary caretaker) and paedophilia.

“I wrote the series about five years ago in response to a brief for a show based in the workplace. It was commissioned by SABC3 at the time with the working title Borderline,” says Joshua. “There hadn’t really been any shows about psychologists. We thought the profession would be interesting to portray with the premise that sometimes the people who treat us for being crazy aren’t so sane themselves. It also gave us an opportunity to really delve into interesting psychological disorders.”

Luke says: “The original script was translated and reworked by Sandra Vaughn and Corine du Toit from the company @Lettergreep. They’ve brought the Afrikaner sensitivity and the female mind to what was originally quite a male-dominated process.”

Geraamtes in die Kas also stars, among others, James Alexander, Vuyelwa Booi, Kim Engelbrecht, Helene Lombard and Duke Motlanthe.

Apart from their success with television series, the brothers plan to start shooting feature movie Bruid van die Jaar (Bride of the Year) at the end of this year. Written by Vaughn, this magical realism romantic comedy has already received development funding from the National Film and Video Foundation (NFVF).

“The movie already has a built-in market and tremendous sponsorship opportunities. Our industry needs to learn how to make money so this film has been specifically tailored to be both as artistic and commercially viable as possible,” concludes Luke. – Martie Bester

Four ministers in four years:

By Carol Mohlala

a necessary cabinet reshuffle but will it bring stability to the communications sector?

Communications in South Africa was once seen as a crucial right; this right was recognised by all South Africans and guaranteed by the Constitution. It was seen as an enabling tool that could be used to promote diversity and uniformity. Over the years, communication has fallen off the agenda. It is no longer the necessity it used to be. Central to this is the appalling state of our national broadcaster (the SABC).

The problems at the SABC can easily be linked to the instability of the Department of Communication (DoC). This particular department has been entrusted with the responsibility of ensuring that communication in South Africa facilitates and promotes democracy.

However, the DoC has failed to bring stability in its own camp and in all other parastatals that are under its wing.

For over four years the DoC has experienced lack of leadership and the loss of institutional memory. Four ministers in four years! This is a clear indication of how unstable the DoC is. Having a new minister every year is a problem in itself. It is only natural for every new leader to bring new strategies and tactics. Without consistent and accountable political leadership from the top, the SABC and all other ICT institutions cannot hope to be rescued from the mire of mediocrity and underperformance that they have been trapped in for years, or stand even a fighting chance at delivering on and exceeding their respective mandates.

The most worrying failure of the DoC is the delay in the country’s digital migration. The DoC had promised South Africans that they were going to launch Digital Terrestrial Television (DTT) just before the 2010 FIFA World Cup. We are three years down the line and have not seen a launch.

It is important to remember that the new minister is inheriting a very problematic and unstable department. With that said, it is also important that he understands that South Africa cannot afford any further delays in the migration from analogue to DTT, nor can we see any delays in the long awaited and now underway ICT policy review process which promise to create a progressive, inclusive and enabling policy framework from which all South Africans will be able to derive maximum benefit.

It is also very important for the Presidency to remember the importance of communication in this democracy. Communication should not be used to benefit only an explicit part of society; it should be for public good. Failure to embrace communication as a right not only segregates society (to ‘the haves and have nots’) but also breaks the communication line between citizens and those entrusted to lead the citizens. Key to the realisation of communication as a right is a stable DoC that develops policies that are in the interests of all South Africans.

Carol Mohlala is the coordinator of the SOS: Support Public Broadcasting Coalition. Follow them on Twitter @soscoalition and on Facebook. Visit: www.soscoalition.org.za.

IN YOUR HEAD: Joshua Rous viewing a scene from Geraamtes in die Kas (Skeletons in the Closet)

August 2013 | SCREENAFRICA | 21

RADIO

|

The long road to DAB+

By Joanna Sterkowicz

Jørn Jensen, president of the WorldDMB organisation, was in Johannesburg recently to conduct a workshop on DAB+, a digital audio broadcasting standard.

DIGITAL PATH: Jørn Jensen

D

AB+ is the second generation of the DAB (Digital Audio Broadcasting) standard, which was initiated as a research project in Europe in the 1980s. Now widely used in Europe and increasingly in South East Asia and Indonesia, DAB+ has been selected for South Africa with 18 slots allocated in the VHF band as part of the country’s migration to digital radio.

The DAB+ workshop held in Johannesburg in July was organised in conjunction with the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC), the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) and the Southern African Digital

22 | SCREENAFRICA | August 2013

Broadcasting Association (SADIBA).

In an exclusive interview with Screen Africa, Jørn Jensen explained that DAB and DAB+ are now governed by the WorldDMB (World Digital Multimedia Broadcasting) organisation, as both standards incorporate visual elements.

“DAB and DAB+ are hosted in Band 3 of the radio frequency spectrum, where VHF is situated. Band 1 is allocated to AM radio, Band 2 is FM radio, and Bands 4 and 5 are for digital television.

“In the late 1980s the European Union (EU) assigned a group of experts to create standards for radio and TV. The outcome was DVB (Digital Video Broadcasting) for television and DAB for radio.

“In 1995 I created the first DAB station in Norway and it went on air on 1 June that year. This was the first fully digital radio station in the world. The Nordic countries adopted the DAB standard early on but the movement couldn’t gain momentum elsewhere because DAB receivers were so expensive. At the beginning of 2000 there was a launch in London for the first DAB radios priced at under £99. Today you can get DAB radios for £25,” said Jensen.

Small but big difference As to the difference between DAB and DAB+, Jensen said: “There is really only a small difference between the two standards. To use a simple analogy – if DAB is a standard pizza, then DAB+ is a pizza with pepperoni added to it.

“However, in practice there is a big difference between the two standards for broadcasters. DAB is mostly about how the broadcasters transmit the signals into cars.

You need a specific technology to ensure

you don’t lose the binary code when transmitting the signal through the airwaves.

“While the core of the two standards is the same, DAB+ is a more modern and efficient codec than DAB. With the former you can compress the audio signal much more and put 30 radio stations onto one multiplex. Currently DAB/DAB+ reaches about 500 million people around the world.”

SA context According to Jensen, DAB was launched in 1999 in South Africa but only as a test project due to the high cost of the receivers. South Africa’s DAB project then lay dormant for several years until it was tested again, this time with IP. Jensen continues: “DAB/DAB+ offers broadcasters a way of staying competitive in the market. For instance, you can do slide shows and carousels and display sponsorships on the receiver’s screen.

Some receivers even have colour screens.

DAB allows broadcasters to provide better traffic and travel information.

“Broadcasters have been questioning whether radio will go IP. The answer is yes, but in addition to IP radio we must have a broadcast backbone and a DAB+ backbone. Many radio stations are already on apps,” comments Jensen.

He described the Johannesburg workshop as ‘very well organised’ as in addition to representatives from NAB, SABC and SADIBA, the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA), which regulates the broadcasting sector, was in attendance.

Experts were brought in from Europe

and Australia for the workshop which covered the following topics: transmission methods; an international market update of DAB/DAB+ around the world; an overview of regulatory frameworks from territories that have rolled out DAB+; an overview on multi-channeling and adding value for listeners, advertisers and broadcasters; DAB+ digital radio receivers available for use on DAB+ network for table top, car, handheld, visual traffic and travel information in-vehicle; lessons learned from real-world planning; deployment and operation of digital radio networks; why DAB+ is more green and cost effective than analogue; and multiplex network design considerations and antenna systems for DAB+.

In conclusion Jensen stressed that the most important thing for DAB+ roll out in South Africa is to create a local organisation that would pull the whole project together. This industry body should include shops that sell DAB+ receivers, as well as the manufacturers thereof.

“DAB+ is particularly suitable for South Africa as you could broadcast all 11 languages, and you could cater for people with disability and use the medium for educational purposes. Another reason why DAB+ is ideal for South Africa is because there are no FM frequencies left. If South Africa has one DAB+ multiplex you could run 18 radio stations off it.

“At WorldDMB, we always advise private and public stations to work together. Our motto is: ‘Operate on the platform, compete on the content’. Broadcasters should welcome competition because it makes them produce better content,” stated Jensen.

SYSTEM INTEGRATION

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Integrating systems on a global tight budget

By Ian Dormer

The key to any successful system integration (SI) project is to be exceptionally diligent in determining the precise requirements for the customer. With modern file-based infrastructures, the technical scenarios are almost endless, so getting the scope of the system right first off is critical to the success of the entire project. Getting it right on a tight budget is even more important.

A

s modern technology advances, it continues to provide multiple solutions within the field of systems integration, and broadcasters and post-production houses are finding themselves faced with seemingly endless possibilities. Customers of system integrators (SIs) face a significant challenge right now, along with most businesses – the economy!

Sony Professional Solutions Europe recently announced that it is in discussion with an undisclosed number of employees as the company prepares for restructuring and redundancies.

Says Katsunori Yamanouchi, vice president of Sony Professional Solutions Europe: “Our customers are changing and Sony must too, to ensure the value we offer is relevant and differentiated.”

The company plans to restructure its core AV Media and Solutions for an increased emphasis on IT and cloud-based solutions.

It reported that its Digital Cinema, Video Security, Presentation and Communications businesses had shown strong growth and would receive increased investment and that the company would ‘streamline in some areas to strengthen its operations’.

This includes the closure of its System Integration business.

Rate of change Global economic times are tough, yet the rate of change of technology and the way in which consumers are now demanding and using content, is accelerating at an ever increasing rate. With this in mind, if broadcasters fail to invest in new systems, they run the real risk of being overtaken by their competitors.

The need to deliver the most advanced and innovative solutions must be tempered

24 | SCREENAFRICA | August 2013

by the ultimate goal of delivering a project to a defined timeline and budget, so all targets set must be attainable. With independence from the SI comes the ability to work with clients to develop bespoke solutions, often comprising of sub-systems from a selection of suppliers, to meet the project’s needs and expectations.

C2S Systems, the SI arm of the WTS Group, was faced with and met this challenge recently with the completion of a new studio and post-production complex in Kenya for pay-TV broadcasters M-Net and SuperSport.

The four-studio complex positioned over two buildings in Nairobi is supported by two control rooms, nine post-production suites, two QC suites and ICR distribution.

These facilities were pre-built and tested in C2S’s Leeds workshop in the UK, while the buildings were refurbished. With completely file-based production workflows, there were considerable technical challenges in the integration.

Good prep essential Whether upgrading or building a new production system, preparation and planning are key to ensuring the project can be completed on budget and on time. This was demonstrated with a unique requirement from maverick Canadian company theScore Inc., a digital media company which specialises in website and mobile content delivery. theScore is the ultimate, personalised mobile experience which serves a new generation of sports fans. By providing an insanely addictive combination of real-time engagement and shared experiences, theScore connects sports fans to what they love, dispensing real-time sports news, scores, fantasy information and alerts, while

Wiring loom

Mixing desk creating and curating content which is compelling, relevant and seamlessly shareable.

As a result of a divergence from parent company Score Media, theScore Inc. needed to build a new state-of-the-art digital media facility to service its web and mobile customers. Applied Electronics Limited, a Canadian SI, was engaged to design and build the new facility. As a company that is entirely turned-on and tuned-in to new media, theScore Inc.’s new facility needed to be designed with a completely ‘plugged in’ generation in mind.

As such, many monitors were placed at optimal viewing angles throughout the facility to ensure all live sports games could be viewed during their live broadcasts.

It was determined early on in the project that a simple multi-viewer setup would not be adequate for routing the many signals to over 40 monitor destinations. As such, a professional routing system was brought in and joined with robust broadcast infrastructure and conversion gear to ensure steadfast signal delivery. Due to limited time from design to move-in date, Applied Electronics worked efficiently in order to purchase the equipment, do the cabling, install the equipment and configure and test the system within a month. theScore Inc. is considered one of the most advanced digital media facilities in the world.

The right solution If not enough time and effort is made in analysing the broadcaster’s specific

operations and future business needs, the project may well not succeed, a strong reason why consulting with one’s integrator at the early stages of the project will ensure the right solution can be found easily, and within budget.

But sometimes time is not on the SI’s side. SporTV is Brazil’s most popular sports channel and covers more than 4 000 events, transmitting more than 30 live sports categories each year. They approached the internationally renowned systems integrator TSL to deliver a full-spec temporary outside broadcast (OB facility) for SporTV’s Olympic coverage into the 19th floor of Lund Point, a block of 1960s council flats, just outside the Olympic Park.

Following a pre-build of the facility at TSL’s headquarters in Maidenhead (UK), they had just six weeks to install the facility on location, which included a full-spec HD/ SD gallery and control room housing nine operators, three Final Cut Pro edit suites and a three-camera ‘glass’ studio.

Constructed at such a highly unusual location, Globosat and TSL met with some unique challenges.

“Physical limitations, asbestos, structural floor loading, fire proofing, power and zero tolerance deadlines were just some of the issues we had to overcome,” explains Nigel England, TSL project manager.

But they did it, on time and on budget.

The SporTV hub received 56 incoming video feeds from Olympic Broadcasting Services (OBS). Four SD/HD channels were fed back to SporTV’s base in Rio de Janeiro, with each showing some 15+ hours of unique content per day.

| SYSTEM INTEGRATION

Broadcast integrated solution

Circuit boards

Data cables Bruce MacGregor, director of solutions at TSL Systems points out: “A solution is required for the client’s actual workflow and not simply one that is based solely on technical needs. In order to achieve this aim, we recommend that a reasonable period is spent on defining the detailed workflows and full operational requirements. From this work, an appropriate system design can be designed, noting the balance between essential and ‘nice-to have’ functionality.

“The best advice is to devote the appropriate amount of time in the design and choice of technology, as this will have a crucial impact on the operating costs and future flexibility of the system. Never forget, a large playout and media asset management (MAM) system is likely to be in place for many years, so it’s best to spend quality time to get it right in the first place.”

African market Sub-Saharan Africa represents a vast underdeveloped media and telecommunications industry. With a population of more than 525 million viewers

BNC connectors it constitutes a great opportunity for growth; indeed industry experts and SIs project a continued growth in demand for broadcast systems and equipment into African broadcast media.

The problem that has been witnessed in Africa is cost. Most SIs design systems for Africa are no different to those of wealthier Western countries, despite the fact that smaller systems may be required in Africa.

Other problems include skill sets, infrastructure, high maintenance costs and electrical energy. Installation of equipment is very expensive and follows a very old convention of analogue broadcast systems and it also fails to cater to the smaller broadcasters who are struggling to secure funds.

A number of projects have been aborted before they are finished due to high costs.

For example TV Zimbo in Angola, a multimillion dollar project, was aborted along the way because they ran out of money. These problems limit the growth of the broadcast industry and the local SIs that serve this market.

Fortune Engineering PLC, a leading broadcast and AV SI based in Ethiopia,

recently selected an experienced solution design and project management provider based in the UK, MJO Broadcast, to design and build a new file-based production and play-out centre for client TV South – a regional TV channel managed by the Ethiopian SNNPR Mass Media Organisation.

The new facilities in Hawassa will enable TV South to deploy efficient file-based workflows to create, manage, distribute and archive locally produced content, in both SD and HD. The project involves the provision and integration of playout automation, video servers and workflow from Pebble Beach, an Octopus newsroom system, Avid editing and NetApp storage; archiving from DiskArchive, Pixel Power graphics and Ross Video broadcast infrastructure.

MJO Broadcast will manage the overall system design and project delivery on behalf of Fortune Engineering PLC, including off-site pre-fabrication and testing, installation, commissioning and training. This contract follows recent assignments to define, design and deliver new MAM and file-based workflow

solutions for national broadcasters such as RTE in Dublin, BBC in Manchester and DMI in Dubai.

“MJO Broadcast’s in-depth understanding of workflows and file-based solutions combined with practical experience of deploying technology in emerging markets has proved invaluable,” says Abdul Duri, CEO Fortune Engineering PLC. “Their proven track-record of project managing and delivering complex systems has made them the ideal integration partner for this project.”

Therefore, consulting with an SI who is a specialist in their field is the most effective course of action for those companies faced with multiple choices and limited budgets.

Investing a lot of time talking to all the leading vendors to understand their strengths and weaknesses will lead to the best solutions to create seamless integration.

Integrating different brands and functionality allows end users to achieve a total end-to-end solution using equipment that is either best suited for their purpose and more importantly, fits the available budget.

August 2013 | SCREENAFRICA | 25

SYSTEM INTEGRATION

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Concilium strides ahead System integration (SI) is an essential part of any broadcaster or production facility. As every broadcaster has unique requirements in order to stay ahead of the game, SI provides solutions that meet current needs, and can typically be expanded to cater for future ones.

Concilium Technologies provides those very solutions, meeting the customer’s unique requirements. This could be anything from a standalone piece of test equipment to a complete broadcast infrastructure requiring ingest, storage, editing, asset management, signal conversion or transcoding, distribution and transmission, along with system design, installation, commissioning and ongoing local support.

Recent SI projects undertaken by Concilium Technologies include: • A multi-million rand upgrade to the Vizrt Ardome MAM system at SuperSport. All media flowing through the facility is now stored within the MAM environment, which manages the process from ingest to archive to playout.

• One of the world’s biggest and most complex Harris D-Series automation systems that manages in excess of 25 000 transactions per day across 130 channels.

•

A media processing system based around the Telestream Vantage solution, allowing preparation for broadcast of all incoming files from international production studios.

Processes include creation of unique media for certain markets, removal of profanity for family tracks, manipulation of the audio tracks and insertion of sub-titling.

• Integration of the new Harris Platinum IP3 router with built-in multiviewers and Harris D-Series to allow custom information from the automation to appear on the multiviewers outputs. This project also included the ability to simulcast HD and SD, each signal with a full set of audios, irrespective of the incoming feed and associated audios.

“The key approach to system integration in today’s economic climate is understanding what the customer is trying to achieve and then working to put together the most effective solution to meet those needs,” says Andrew Cole, systems sales manager at Concilium Technologies. “It is vitally important that the scope of work is agreed on and understood by both parties before the project commences. There also needs to be

MEETING CHANGING DEMANDS: Andrew Cole provision to allow quick changes to the scope of work during the deployment of the project.”

Any system implementation will have its challenges, but with good project management and committed teamwork with the customer, these can be overcome.

It will also require updating, expanding,

modifying and maintaining through its lifecycle, so local expertise is essential to address these requirements timeously. So it is not uncommon for Concilium to have locally skilled application engineers on site almost full time to assist customers meet the challenges of ever changing demands on broadcasters.

The complete picture With its origins dating way back to 1986 as a supplier of good quality used equipment in the professional, broadcast video, audio and lighting industry, Pro-Sales has over the years evolved into a company that includes the offerings of sales and service, repair, design and complete installation of electronic news gathering (ENG), outside broadcast (OB) and studios for the broadcast and post-production markets in South Africa. ​Pro-Sales imports, distributes and supplies most products needed for system integration (SI). These include Panasonic, Canon, V.I.O. POV, Ruige, Beyerdynamic, Yamaha, Telos, Altair, NewTek live production systems and many more.

On the subject of SI, Arne Sack, CEO of Pro-Sales, comments: “I think that irrespective of the state of the economy, we hold the firm belief never to oversell, and to sell only the right product for the job. We are in a very fortunate position because although we are distributors for a wide range of products, we are restricted to selling only these. This gives us the opportunity to choose the most suitable product in the market place, even if the agency is handled by someone else.

“With the event of computerisation so much of the old type of equipment has become redundant. Our biggest challenge today is to convert traditional mind-sets to simpler and less expensive solutions. For instance, an OB that cost R90m in the past can now be put together for a substantially lower price with the new technology that we prescribe and supply.”

With a combined experience of 47 years behind the company, Pro-Sales offers a high-class service combining knowledge, understanding, enthusiasm, passion and motivation.

HIGH-CLASS SERVICE: Arne Sack

26 | SCREENAFRICA | August 2013

SYSTEM INTEGRATION

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Telemedia – pilot of the airwaves Telemedia is a proudly South African company and a leading provider of a range of dynamic media broadcasting services with a proven track record in supplying tailor made quality products. Its portfolio of services, among others, includes satellite telecommunications and teleport services, SNG and flyaway kits, broadcast equipment sales and the provisioning of broadcast studios and facilities.

The company has been involved in a number of system integration (SI) projects of late, including a studio telephone hybrid system for Radio Botswana based in the capital city, Gaborone.

Telemedia also recently established an outside broadcast (OB) contribution microwave system for Lesotho Television.

An interesting collaboration with Cassidian Optronics saw Telemedia installing airborne microwave video downlinks for the Malaysia Fire Department, Airwing.

“SI usually refers to a solution that involves more than just ‘plug n play’,” explains Telemedia’s national sales manager Quentin Barkhuizen. “Some of the major aspects that we take into consideration when having to design an SI solution include a simple and cost effective answer to meet the requirements / specifications, as well as upgrade path considerations. In

Africa this always has to be considered because not everybody is HD, so SD is still required, yet most equipment will do both whether it’s a flick of a switch or the purchasing of a licence key to enable a feature. The cost implications have to be considered especially if the client is cash strapped.”

Barkhuizen notes that if you are integrating into an existing system, you need to ensure that the solution complements the existing workflow and ascertain if there is a trade-off from one problem to a new one.

“Really complex and difficult to understand systems require that the operators have to be sufficiently trained on the system for it to be successful,” continues Barkhuizen. “After sales service is a very important aspect for any system that has components which were manufactured outside of South Africa. This requires that the solution provider stock spares or has sufficiently trained personnel to service / fault find any problem which may arise.”

With over two decades experience in the radio and television broadcasting industry, Telemedia’s consistency in quality, attention to detail and pro-active approach has seen its services being retained by all of their clients around the African continent.

PROVEN TRACK RECORD: Quentin Barkhuizen

Harambe installs first Xync / ProSet in Africa

VIRTUAL STUDIO: Adriaan Shipalana

28 | SCREENAFRICA | August 2013

South African system integrator Harambe Technologies has installed Africa’s first ever Orad Xsync infrared camera tracking system and Orad ProSet virtual studio at Johannesburg-based production / broadcast facility, Red Pepper Pictures.

Orad virtual studio engineer Tomer Salakoff visited Red Pepper at the end of July to train staff on the two systems.

Said Salakoff: “There are nearly a hundred Xync installations around the world, including TV Globo in Brazil, RTBF in Belgium and HBO in New York. The real bonus of Xynch is that it allows complete freedom of movement of the camera. It can track a handheld camera as well as a studio camera mounted on a pedestal. I’m not aware of any other system that can do this.

“In addition, the accuracy of Xync is incredible; everything is processed within a time frame of 60 milliseconds.”

Xync is installed in Studio 2 at Red Pepper and comprises 56 infrared cameras.

The system allows seven degrees of camera motion, including the X, Y, Z position of the studio camera, as well as pan, tilt, zoom and focus. The X, Y and Z position of each of the studio cameras (in Red Pepper’s instance six Ikegami cameras, also supplied by Harambe Technologies) is determined in

real-time, based on tracking infraredsensitive targets that are mounted to the studio’s cameras. In the case of pedestal cameras, a ring type of target is used, while a special lightweight star target is mounted onto handheld or crane cameras, both allowing free camera movement.

These targets are tracked by an array of fixed surveillance cameras attached to the studio walls, ceiling or lighting grid. The cameras are sensitive to infrared light and can detect the X, Y and Z position of the targets as well as the pan, tilt and roll.

Additionally, special sensors constantly extract the zoom and focus information from the lens. Tracking information from all the camera parameters is gathered into the Xync Main Unit, which using a series of sophisticated algorithms, analyses the data, determines the value of each variable and feeds the tracking data to Orad’s ProSet system in real time.

Powered by the underlying Orad HDVG+ 64-bit rendering platform, ProSet provides a realistic, lifelike virtual studio environment with rich textures, depth and perspective.

Ideal for all types of productions, ProSet enables flexibility for both graphic design modifications as well as for operation.

During the design and operation stages,

graphics rundowns are created by simply dragging and dropping the graphic items into a playlist. A local preview including both graphics and animation from the relevant studio camera’s perspective is available prior to going on air.

ProSet includes a set of tools that address the specific needs of virtual studio production, such as positioning the virtual set graphics in the studio, masking and more.

Says Harambe Technologies Adriaan Shipalana: “Red Pepper also has the interact solution as part of the virtual set, allowing them interactivity via iPad or touchscreen from this same studio.

“In addition they have two Orad Maestro high end character generators.

These will allow 3D graphics to be brought into the virtual environment, while the other will handle the playout graphics.”

Lastly Red Pepper has purchased an eight-channel video server from Orad called the VJ. “This suite of Orad solutions make this one of the most complex and exciting virtual set environments worldwide,” concludes Shipalana.

| SYSTEM INTEGRATION

The leading edge Inala Broadcast represents a number of leading international suppliers to the broadcast and professional ProHD technology markets. Its partnership approach with these world leaders and innovators gives the company access to the products and technical expertise and enables it to share this knowledge with customers.

The company has the experience of providing integrated turnkey solutions to the broadcast and professional television markets. These include play-out systems, production and news studios and headend solutions.

Inala Broadcast represents and is the manufacturer accredited to install, integrate and support Apple, Cisco, Dolby, ENPS, Miranda Technologies, Harmonic, Tektronix and TSL. The company represents, installs, integrates and supports Alpermann & Velte, Argosy, Aviwest, Bluebell Opticom, Broadpeak, DTL, Ericsson, Gigasat, Minnetonka, MOG Technologies, Pebble Beach Systems, Rascular, Riedel, Starfish Technologies, TE Connectivity, Tedial, Telescript, TV Logic, Videssence and Weather One, and is the authorised system integrator for Sony and Grass Valley.

Says Antony Bijsters, project manager

and consulting engineer: “System integration (SI) at some level or another has become necessary with the high degree of interconnection that goes with broadcasting systems. By including automation, media asset management or any file-based workflow, you get a system that is going to require some integration.

“We invest a lot of time and energy to ensure that our engineers are up to date with the latest in broadcast technology. By incorporating project management skills we can ensure that a multi-disciplined project is delivered on time and on budget. ”Budget has always been a feature with any broadcast system; the key is innovative designs using the latest technology to help achieve more functionality for less money.

We make use of locally sourced skills and materials wherever possible to help keep costs down.”

According to Bijsters, much more design and planning goes into Ethernet networks today. “Consequently we need to work very closely with the network engineers if we are not building the networks as part of the system. I think the overall complexity is much the same, although perhaps the physical cabling might be a little simpler, but the network configuration is not.”

Inala Broadcast regularly consults with its

PARTNERSHIP APPROACH: Antony Bijsters customers to discuss improvements in technology and workflows for all aspects of programme making, play-out and transmission. The company’s efficient team

of sales consultants and project engineers are able to offer customers expert advice, assistance, and engineering support.

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7/2/13 2:19 PM

August 2013 | SCREENAFRICA | 29

SYSTEM INTEGRATION

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NBC upgrade

Market-savvy

A significant project that required the system integration (SI) skills of Jasco Broadcast Solutions was for the Namibian Broadcasting Corporation (NBC).

The broadcaster had been making use of an Avid iNEWS system supplied by Jasco for the past nine years but when the hardware on this legacy system became obsolete, they turned to Jasco to deliver an upgraded system.

Jasco supplied NBC with a new iNEWS central server core that delivers enhanced functionality from editing to player control and distribution.

The latest ISIS 5000 centralised storage solution delivers real-time, media optimised shared storage for NBC’s news and production departments. This solution also incorporates Avid Interplay Production Asset Management (PAM), which enables integrated management and control of all media assets on the system.

“In addition we supplied a new Front Porch Digital archive tape storage solution that is going to be incorporated as part of a new extension to NBC’s current Avid Media Asset Management (MAM) system,” says Rupert Dalton, sales executive for Jasco ICT Solutions.

Dalton stresses that an understanding of how the client’s entire eco-system works is imperative, and gaining an in-depth insight

Representing a host of products and suppliers including video content manager Amberfin and technologies from the Snell Group, among others, Zimele Broadcasting Services has fulfilled a large number of system integration (SI) projects in South Africa and around the African continent.

On the current SI economic climate, Zimele’s Jacques Welthagen comments: “The merging of IT, design, maintenance, broadcast, outside broadcast (OB), media asset management (MAM) and networks, has challenged the SI engineer with many potential pitfalls.

“Open communication in the early days is crucial to a SI project. The end result of any major integration job lies in the first 1% of the project’s approach and mythology.

Selecting a partner with no ambiguities regarding the desired outcome and expectations of the project is essential.

Simply stringing cables and connectors together are no longer the only criteria as solutions need to be engineered and if possible, Beta-tested. Jobs are just too specialised for a blanket approach and horizontally allocating responsibilities is crucial for the longevity of SI operators.”

Welthagen believes that with software playing an increasingly dominant part in the integrator’s world, it’s essential to make

UNDERSTANDING THE CLIENT’S ECO-SYSTEM: Rupert Dalton into the client’s environment is the foundation of SI. “Broadcast environments incorporate many components that all come together to deliver the outcome, but there are many other components involved.

There are a multitude of solutions available from a variety of vendors and it is crucial to ensure that the integration of these products is seamless,” comments Dalton.

TRULY ENGINEERED SOLUTIONS: Jacques Welthagen

sure that ‘codes’ and ‘protocols’ are tested upstream from the project to ensure that workflows can and will work with each other.

He adds: “The luxury of doing an upgrade off-site and then plugging in the solution usually does not exist. In the file-based world, media files are big and here to stay so we need to ensure the integrity and preservation of those files.

Eliminating the movement of these files is challenging and that alone is a major consideration for systems designers. A total use of the mathematical equation needs to be adopted to provide truly engineered solutions.”

Cause & Effect

When one EVENT causes another to happen...

Mediatech Africa happened. Why do you think we met?

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30 | SCREENAFRICA | August 2013

IBC

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PREVIEW

Technology at IBC The acronym IBC is synonymous with September and Amsterdam. It is also synonymous with a mindboggling array of new technologies used in the creation, management and delivery of entertainment and media content.

O

ver 50 000 visitors – creative, technical and business professionals from more than 160 countries – around the world are expected to converge on the Amsterdam RAI for the IBC (International Broadcasting Convention) Exhibition, which runs from 13 to 17 September.

Some 1 400+ companies will vigorously punt and demonstrate their latest technologies as IBC has become one of the most effective platforms to launch new products.

The exhibition is spread across 14 halls and includes innovative areas such as The IBC Connected World, IBC Workflow Solutions and The IBC Big Screen, which showcases technology at the cutting edge.

In addition, the IBC Conference (12 to 17 September) is the premier location worldwide for debate and analysis of the current state of the industry and detailed discussion about the future paths it may take.

The much-hyped Ultra HD format will be the hot topic at the Conference as already questions are being about the sanity of pushing beyond HD so quickly. After all, what’s wrong with high-definition anyway?

Because Ultra HD has been a hit demonstration-wise, consumer technology suppliers are rapidly moving to promote 4K as the next new format. However, some may question whether it is really necessary.

It may have four times the resolution of HDTV television, but is it four times better?

William Cooper, founder and chief executive of Informitv is chairing a debate on the topic at IBC and says there are strong arguments on both sides.

“On one hand there is the technical

PRODUCT SMORGASBORD: IBC 2012 imperative to improve quality, which is a focus for many of those attending IBC,” he says. “There is a lot of room for improvement on high definition television, which compromises quality in many respects. UltraHD or 4K promises the next big thing in television.

“On the other hand, beyond a few enthusiasts, most people seem happy enough with the television they have. If you ask people what could be improved about television not many would say the resolution. There are many ways in which the quality of television could be improved without adding more pixels. There is a diminishing return on investment in technical quality for the average viewer.”

The problem is that this is being driven

by a technology push and marketing hype rather than any substantial evidence of consumer demand.

“There may be opportunities for pay-television operators but what are the prospects for free-to-air broadcasters?” he asks.

Others are voicing caution against the prevailing mood of UltraHD inevitability. Broadcasters are wary of getting bitten, as ESPN appears to have had done with launching and then shuttering a 3D channel, by leaping wholesale into a format that has next to no consumer base.

For more information about the IBC Exhibition and Conference log on to www.ibc.org.

August 2013 | SCREENAFRICA | 31

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PREVIEW

Blackmagic Design At IBC Blackmagic Design will showcase the latest UltraHD live production solutions.

Blackmagic Design is one of the world’s leading innovators and manufacturers of creative technology for the feature film, post-production, television broadcast and live event industries.

The company’s DeckLink capture cards launched a revolution in quality and affordability, and are now the world’s most popular video capture and playback solutions.

Blackmagic Design’s DeckLink 4K Extreme features 6G-SDI technology for high bandwidth video standards, including UltraHD 4K. The company’s new range of digital film cameras are defining the future of filmmaking, combining the benefits of wide dynamic range image capture with the Emmy Award-winning DaVinci colour correction tools.

Blackmagic Design’s ATEM production switchers have radically changed live production, with a range of switchers offering hardware and software control for live production up to UltraHD 4K resolution.

With converters, routers, monitors, disk recorders and more, Blackmagic Design provides end-to-end solutions that meet the demands for the highest technical quality.

Autocue Take your newsroom anywhere.

Imagine

Achieve

Learn more at avid.com/sphere © 2013 Avid Technology, Inc. All rights reserved. Product features, specifications, system requirements, and availability are subject to change without notice. Avid, the Avid logo, and Interplay are trademarks or registered trademarks of Avid Technology, Inc. in the U.S. and other countries. The Interplay name is used with the permission of the Interplay Entertainment Corp, which bears no responsibility for Avid products. All other trademarks contained herein are the property of their respective owners.

32 | SCREENAFRICA | August 2013

Leading teleprompter manufacturer Autocue will launch the first prompter designed specifically for a DSLR at IBC. The use of DSLRs in video shoots has increased significantly over the last few years, resulting in increased demand for a prompter that is fit for this purpose. While various existing teleprompter solutions can accommodate DSLR cameras, they are far from a perfect fit.

Autocue’s DSLR prompter has been designed with extensive feedback from DSLR users. As a result it offers significant benefits over any other solution available today.

The prompter mounts in front of the DSLR, directly to a standard set of 15mm DSLR rails, making the prompter extremely lightweight. This means that DSLR users can mount a range of accessories onto the rails as normal. Autocue sells its own 15mm rail camera mounting kit.

There is also be an optional bar at the top of the hood with a number of ¼-width threads to allow further accessories like

on-camera lights and microphones to be deployed.

The DSLR prompter is available in two variants – the first uses a universal iPad mount including the iPad Mini and other tablets) and the second an 8” monitor.

Both variants provide two solutions in one – a traditional set-up or a detachable straight-read mount for simple magic-arm applications. Software will be included and the packages will be very competitively priced.

Autocue is launching a brand new prompting app at IBC, called iAutocue.

The new app really is a game changer, particularly for short pieces to camera outside the studio.

Also to debut at IBC is Autocue’s new folding hood for ultimate portability of its Professional and Master Series prompters. Together with the new app, this folding hood significantly reduces the (weight of the) kit required for outside broadcast (OB) shoots and rental jobs.

IBC

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PREVIEW

Avid

Introducing

At IBC Avid will advance the next phase of its strategic vision, building on its ‘Avid Everywhere’ vision that was revealed at NAB 2013.

In addition Avid will announce enhancements to its industry leading creative tools and management solutions.

Avid will present its range of professional industry-leading production asset management, media asset management, storage, graphics, video editing and audio mixing solutions that enable creative professionals to deliver higher quality, inspiring content.

The company will also outline its ongoing commitment to creating the most fluid end-to-end, distributed media production environment in the industry.

At IBC Avid will reveal major enhancements to its line of Media Enterprise solutions with announcements for on-air graphics; ingest and playback; and shared storage.

Avid’s creative toolset will also be showcased, including the latest versions of the industry-standard pro audio and pro video editing solutions, Avid Pro Tools 11 and Avid Media Composer 7, that were released at the end of June. Visitors to the Avid stand will hear from leading audio and video editors about how they’re using these tools to deliver their creative vision.

Positioned as the new standard for audio production, Pro Tools 11 redefines professional music and audio production for today’s workflows. From all-new audio and video engines and turbocharged 64-bit performance, to expanded metering and new HD video workflows, Pro Tools 11 enables you to take on the most demanding sessions and maximise your creativity – without holding anything back.

Media Composer is the most widely used NLE for professional film and video editing.

With Media Composer 7, you gain accelerated high-res-to-HD workflows, automated media management, and Interplay Sphere for Mac support, extending real-time production everywhere. Users will be exposed to the fastest file-based media workflows, ACE-certified tools, and the most trusted media management in the industry.

Avid Interplay Sphere opens the new frontier of universal connectivity for news, sports, and video production, letting you craft better stories from where they’re actually happening with a full range of media access and collaborative capabilities. Whether working on a news story across town or a sporting event across the world, Sphere gives editors, reporters, and videographers the ability to ingest, edit, and move media fluidly between story site and production facility.

Requiring only a NewsCutter or Media Composer editor and an internet connection to an Interplay Production workgroup, Interplay Sphere connects multiple remote editors simultaneously, letting them combine footage from the scene with material on the Interplay Production system. For quick turnaround, proxies of finished edits can precede upload of full resolution media, all becoming available to everyone in the facility or the field in one simple, transparent process.

Finally at IBC, Avid will highlight how its global media enterprise customers are experiencing increased ROI and productivity by implementing integrated workflows that enable seamless and faster collaboration and transparent visibility of their assets.

The audio workstation that redefined the industry just got more powerful.

• Plug into epic processing power with

the all new Avid® audio engine.

• Turbocharge sessions with

64-bit performance.

• Deliver mixes 150x faster with

offline bounce.

Welcome to the new standard.

See Pro Tools in action at IBC 2013!

13-17 Sept 2013 - Hall 7/J20 - RAI Amsterdam Please contact our partner at sales@segma.co.za © 2013 Avid Technology, Inc. All rights reserved. Product features, specifications, system requirements, and availability are subject to change without notice. Avid, the Avid logo, and Pro Tools are trademarks or registered trademarks of Avid Technology, Inc. in the U.S. and other countries. All other trademarks contained herein are the property of their respective owners.

August 2013 | SCREENAFRICA | 33

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PREVIEW

AJA Video Systems

AJA Video Systems continues to advance camera-to-editorial workflow efficiency with its complementary line of products that together facilitate high-quality recording, automation, 4K acquisition and playback, and manageable 4K editorial.

At IBC, visitors to the AJA stand will be able to check out the company’s latest solutions for motion picture professionals and television engineers – as well as the recently released AJA Ki Pro Quad digital video recorder and AJA’s recently released

Crystal Vision Crystal Vision will be showcase a keyer for every application at IBC. Designed for virtual studios and sports graphics, the Safire 3 real-time chroma keyer uses a sophisticated algorithm and numerous key processing options, including built-in colour correction and video delay, to produce the best possible chroma key – with easy operation from the dedicated touch screen control panel.

Designed for station branding with storage for up to 500 graphics, the new MultiLogo logo keyer’s audio capabilities make it ideal for applications where both graphics and audio need to be added to a video signal, with partial presets additionally facilitating live operation.

Completing the trio is the LKEY 3 linear keyer which is designed for the simple keying of any graphics. Crystal Vision has also improved the ways to access the audio

34 | SCREENAFRICA | August 2013

Hi5-4K and ROI MiniConverters.

A solid-state portable video recorder, AJA Ki Pro Quad, is capable of capturing high-quality edit-ready files in 4K, 2K, Quad HD and HD – for the fastest path from camerato-editorial with 10-bit 4:4:4 and 10-bit 4:2:2 support. It helps facilitate powerful 4K workflows, accepting RAW camera output via SDI simultaneously outputting that data via Thunderbolt.

The recorder, which can be easily mounted directly onto a variety of cameras, also includes an uncompressed and debayered 4K monitoring output and enables HD monitoring via SDI and HDMI. AJA’s Hi5-4K MiniConverter provides a simple monitoring connection from professional 4K devices using four 3G-SDI outputs to new and upcoming consumer 4K displays equipped with 4K-capable 1.4a HDMI inputs.

Compatible with HD workflows, the Hi5-4K is also a flexible Mini-Converter for HD workflows requiring 3G/HD-SDI to HDMI conversion.

ROI is a mini-converter that enables high quality conversion and realtime scaling of computer DVI-D and HDMI outputs to baseband video over SDI. With extensive audio functionality, incredible image scaling, an elegant user interface (UI), as well as aspect and frame rate conversion, ROI seamlessly incorporates computer signals into any video production.

metadata when encoding and decoding Dolby E using the TANDEM 310 embedder/ de-embedder and SYNNER 310 synchroniser, including SMPTE 2020 embedding and deembedding.

The Safire 3 real-time chroma keyer works with 3Gb/s, HD and SD sources and is ideal for all live virtual productions from studio to sport. Safire 3 makes it easy to quickly set up a chroma key using multi-point sampling to automatically get the best possible default settings, and features an extensive range of fine-tuning tools to optimise the picture including various filters, edge shaping, colour correction, colour spill processing and lighting compensation.

Harris Broadcast At IBC, Harris Broadcast, a leader in delivering advanced, content-rich media experiences to consumers worldwide, will introduce a new and sophisticated graphical user interface (GUI) for the latest version of its market-leading Landmark broadcast ad sales, traffic and billing system.

The highly improved and evolved GUI adds a new look and feel to the platform alongside new functionality, without losing any of the core strengths that define Landmark. These strengths include inherent operator flexibility, instant graphical reporting and powerful live data analytics.

Landmark differentiates itself from other broadcast sales and scheduling systems in the wealth of vital sales data it provides.

With the new GUI, staff can see more of this data with ease, and be instructed when key information changes.

One of the most widely deployed media software sales platforms worldwide, Landmark users deliver vast and complex airtime campaigns. This leads to millions of commercial spots each month, and automatically balances station efficiency with the delivery of quality campaigns for the end customer.

With so much of the underlying

A frame synchroniser on each input will automatically correct any timing errors, while up to 10 frames of video delay adjustment can be used to offset the delay caused by the graphics generators.

Including relay bypass protection, Safire 3 forms part of a space-saving modular system, with this 100mm x 266mm module

allowing up to 12 chroma keyers or other boards in 2U. IBC visitors will get the chance to operate Safire 3 using the Safire 3 Controller, with this stylish 3U Ethernet control panel shipping for the first time in September and with the large 8”- touch screen and physical controls perfect for live use.

IBC processing being handled automatically by the system, it is important that the system architecture can highlight key operational information when required. Landmark’s new ‘Active Tile’ architecture enables operational staff to extract important management data instantaneously, with information on campaign performance, log delivery confirmation and other tasks displayed on workstation desktops in real time without requiring time-consuming interrogation of the system.

“Landmark occupies a critical position with broadcasters’ commercial operations on every continent,” says Mike Oldham, senior vice president, global media sales, Harris Broadcast. “With this level of success comes great responsibility as the system’s developer, and we need to make sure that Landmark remains clearly differentiated from rival systems. This new user interface adds function and operability to the platform. It has been developed with our customers in mind and incorporates a great deal of direct customer feedback.”

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PREVIEW

Datavideo Datavideo engineers, designs and manufactures a wide range of innovative technologies for use in broadcast, AV, live event and production environments.

The company’s Mobile Video Studios are fully integrated ‘one box’ solutions designed around Datavideo’s acclaimed switcher range, which were created to meet the needs of users on the move.

Datavideo’s HS-2800 is a cost effective eight-channel 10-bit broadcast-quality hand-carry mobile switcher, which accepts 1920x1080i resolution.

Featuring eight digital inputs, it is designed for live events and TV programmes that need to mix a variety of video and audio sources. The HS-2800 is a lightweight, portable and powerfully featured mobile studio solution.

As a complete AV package, the HS-2800 HD mobile studio enables users to switch seamlessly between video and audio sources and blend high-quality digital content on the fly.

Advanced features include a 17.3-inch video monitor, which displays the multiview. The Multi-view includes all the input sources, as well as preview and programme.

The system is equipped with an eight way intercom system and is supplied with four belt packs, headsets, and tally lights for effective communication among the whole production crew.

This mobile studio is ideal for TV and video professionals working in outside broadcast or on-the-go video studios, such as theatres or conference centres. The HS-2800 is also a great value solution for the worship, education and AV market.

Datavideo’s DBV-2800 mobile video studio is a 12-channel HD/SD-SDI and

HDMI inputs switcher. Perfect for indoor and outdoor use, it requires zero modification with your car.

Offering full functionality, the DBV-2800 comprises switcher, monitor, intercom system, recorder, audio mixer, power centre, vector scope and multi-camera control unit.

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August 2013 | SCREENAFRICA | 35

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PREVIEW

Ross Video

Ross Video has grown dramatically over the past year with an expanded EMEA (Europe Middle East Africa) team. At IBC, Ross will show a complete range of new products and solutions, including Version 6.0 of DashBoard, which has matured into an open control platform enabling users to quickly build unique, tailored CustomPanels designed to make complex operations simple.

DashBoard now provides control and monitoring to hundreds of products from over 50 partners within the openGear Connect ecosystem, and of course, most Ross Video products. Version 6.0 is available as a free download.

At IBC Ross will introduce Vision Tritium, 3 MLE production switchers with Vision Octane production power. Tritium combines the stunning Vision Octane feature set within an incredibly budget sensitive new package. A full 3 MLE modular production switcher with 48 x 32 Multi-Definition inputs and outputs, Tritium has six real 3D DVEs, 16 channels of internal MediaStores, 16 keyers, UltraChrome chroma keys, built-in dual head

Quantel

36 | SCREENAFRICA | August 2013

Front Porch Digital

MultiViewers, massive external device control and much more.

New 1080p (3G) processing technology has been added to Ross’ flagship Vision Octane series of production switchers.

Vision Octane 3G not only accommodates 1080p/50 or 60 production but also adds dual 2D DVE resizers with combiner to every MLE key as well as two more DVE channels for transitions. This makes it possible to create eight box shots on every MLE in the system and transition them dynamically. In addition, Vision Octane 3G has significantly expanded MLE MediaStores, each MLE now has 8Gb of storage for still and animated graphic playout.

The Carbonite C2S is a new 24 button 2 ME panel for Carbonite incorporating individual ME Effects Memory keypads. The C2S has all of the features of the very popular C2M panel and adds ME effects memory controls in addition to the standard global controls. This new panel brings the number of Carbonite panel choices to 7, continuing the expansion of this rapidly evolving product line.

LYNX from Front Porch Digital is the industry’s first enterprise-scale cloud implementation of content storage management (CSM). The company will show LYNXdr and LYNXlocal at IBC2013.

LYNXdr is a hosted disaster recovery service that allows global media enterprises to centralise critical assets and consolidate operations, and LYNXlocal is a simple extension to LYNX that operates locally as an appliance, caching cloud content and providing integration to specialised systems if needed.

DIVAdirector V5.2 is the latest version of Front Porch Digital’s DIVAdirector media asset management (MAM) system, a permission-based web application that enables complete access to file-based content stored by DIVArchive content storage management (CSM) systems. New enhancements make the system’s MAM

more stable and versatile than ever before. With support for multiple audio channels for different language tracks, users can provide multiple language options for a given video file. Behind the scenes, the change from a Linter to PostgreSQL database offers increased stability.

Users of DIVAdirector V5.2 will have more quality control options in the form of graphical metadata charts from Front Porch Digital’s SAMMA ingest system. The charts show graphical representations of metadata for video files in order to illustrate visual information such as colour, brightness, and luminance. The charts are a good way to uncover imbalances and undesirable effects in video files to ensure quality. In addition, a new QC import and analysis feature allows users to import and analyse third-party quality-control metadata.

At IBC Quantel will demonstrate its full range of software solutions for fastturnaround production and high-end colour and finishing, as well as unveiling major new developments across its product range.

For broadcasters, Quantel will show streamlined, file-based and creative workflows for news and sports. Visitors can see the latest developments for Enterprise sQ fast-turnaround production systems and in QTube connected workflows. Also on show will be revolutionQ – software services that deliver efficient production workflows from generic storage. Based on the visionary Internet of Frames, it’s a revolution in the making – eliminating the management and complexity of today’s file-based architectures and fundamentally changing the way broadcasters create and version content.

At IBC Quantel will also show QTube connected workflows. QTube is about far more than remote operations and has grown into a technology that connects different geographies and different systems together. Enterprise sQ, QTube and

revolutionQ combine to give broadcasters a global production ecosystem, enabling them to make compelling content more quickly, easily and efficiently than ever before.

For quality colour and finishing applications across post and broadcast, Quantel will highlight Pablo Rio, the ultimate software colour correction and finishing system. Running on highperformance PC hardware and delivering fantastic interactivity and throughput, Pablo Rio handles everything demanded of a modern post session. Handling 4K 60fps production with ease, and delivering over 20 layers of colour correction at 4K at full resolution in realtime, Pablo Rio’s performance is unique in the market today.

On show will be new tools, enhanced workflows and 8K. Says Quantel CEO, Ray Cross: “This year you will see a step change from Quantel at IBC – across the board software solutions for post and broadcast that complement perfectly customers’ existing investments in Quantel.”

IBC

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PREVIEW

Volicon During IBC2013, version 7.1 of Volicon’s Observer TS MPEG transport stream logging and monitoring system will make its European debut. Enhanced to accommodate an even broader array of inputs, the Observer line boasts support for ASI, QAM, 8-VSB, DVB-T/T2, and DVB-T MPEG TS interfaces. Available on all Observer TS systems – including Enterprise, Pro, and Scout systems – the new interface simplifies deployment and configuration for receiving off-air channels.

Volicon will also feature expandable Observer TS systems that provide a clear path for cost-effective growth of a facility’s monitoring systems. Users can purchase an Observer platform that meets current needs, knowing that as their operations grow, their monitoring system can easily keep pace with expanding monitoring applications and requirements. Volicon’s growing array of software modules also facilitates incremental growth by supplying broadcasters with specific monitoring tools and capabilities as needed.

With commercial and programme loudness being legislated worldwide, broadcasters, networks, and video service providers must be able to monitor loudness in real time, as well as provide an affidavit of compliance for regulators and advertisers.

As growing attention is paid to the stereo

downmix of the 5.1 channel HD programme track, Volicon’s loudness module makes it easy for broadcasters to confirm that no matter how their customers watch and listen to programming, loudness levels will remain within acceptable parameters. The Observer loudness module meets this challenge for broadcasters worldwide, enabling users to measure AC3 dialnorm levels and ensure compliance with ITU BS.1770-1 and ITU BS.1770-2, ATSC A/85 RP 2011, CALM Act (FCC Report 11-182A1), EBU R128 (Tech 3341/2/3/4), and ARIB TR-B32.

Observer 7.1 is available with a new reporting engine that provides data correlation and display for programme and

channel metadata and performance.

Leveraging this reporting engine, the Reporter module allows operators to automate and accelerate the generation of detailed high-quality reports (in PDF form) for analysis and verification that is tailored to the broadcaster’s operations. The data supplied by the Reporter includes Observer’s extensive and continually growing array of monitoring parameters. As a result, Reporter produces the rich detail necessary to isolate specific issues in the broadcast signal. To add further efficiency to monitoring operations, Observer users can configure the Reporter module for automatic report generation and email distribution. All Volicon customers using an

4 Camera SD OB Van (Triax)

Observer system with central servers and a reporting licence receive this new reporting capability as a standard feature.

Volicon’s Clientless GUI enables operation of the Observer system without requiring the installation of a local player.

For the many broadcasters and other media facilities that leverage Observer throughout their operations, the Clientless GUI enables widespread use with minimal maintenance and support requirements. Upgrades and updates to the Observer interface are reflected automatically in the GUI, giving users throughout the enterprise the immediate benefit of new features and functionality without any intervention from IT staff.

8 Camera HD OB Van (Triax)

HD DSNG Vehicle

Various Multi Cam Mix Kits

4 Camera SD Flyaway Kit

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August 2013 | SCREENAFRICA | 37

IBC

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PREVIEW

Canon

NewTek

Visitors to the Canon stand at IBC will be able to explore the creative possibilities that the company’s cameras and lenses can bring to videographers, broadcasters and cinematographers alike. Among the products and services on display will be Canon’s groundbreaking Cinema EOS system.

The Cinema EOS system is a revolutionary, professional cine camera system that fuses Canon’s proven video technology and lens heritage with EOS creativity to deliver unparalleled creative options for professional filmmakers, cinematographers and videographers.

It spans digital cinema cameras, EF and PL mount lenses and DSLR cameras, merging several of Canon’s existing technologies to produce a superb filmmaking system.

Canon’s latest 4K cameras – the EOS C500 and EOS 1D-C will also be on display at IBC2013, alongside the EOS C300 and EOS C100 camcorders and the full range of more than 60 Canon EF lenses and cinema lenses.

From 8mm ultra wide angle to 800mm super telephoto, the 60+ lenses in the EF series cover all possible shooting requirements.

New Canon lenses to be launched at IBC are the CN-E135mm T2.2 LF and the CN-E14mm T3.1LF. Intended for the working professional, the Cinema prime CN-E135mm T2.2 L F lens has markings on angled surfaces on both sides of the barrel, making it easy to read focus and aperture settings from behind or from either side of

At IBC NewTek will showcase the latest advancements to its TriCaster family of complete multi-camera production systems, and its 3Play line of instant replay and slow motion solutions.

Attendees will experience how TriCaster and 3Play are driving new, unmatched price-performance standards in live video production by dramatically reducing the amount of equipment and staff required to produce and share video content with the look of network-style

the camera. Focus markings can even be switched from standard labeling to metric.

The control rings are engineered to maintain the proper amount of resistance with consistent operating torque.

Designed to fulfill contemporary 4K production standards, it features a full-frame imaging circle in a lightweight, compact design. This phenomenal lens is also perfect for any number of applications.

It also features an 11-blade aperture diaphragm for beautiful background blur and innovative glass construction that counteracts barrel expansion and contraction to avoid temperature induced marking discrepancies.

The CN-E14mm T3.1 L F is a lightweight, compact fixed focal length lens designed for EF mounts. It offers spectacular 4K image quality and a full frame image circle plus great low light performance and fine creative control over focusing and depth of field.

Other IBC highlights include a live 4K studio demonstration – showcasing live 4K production workflow using Canon’s latest 4K cameras and lenses, and ‘Touch & Try’ – where visitors will be able to get their hands on the Cinema EOS system.

television.

The company will also showcase advanced solutions from its NewTek Developer Network, a rapidly growing ecosystem of companies that create compelling production workflows for NewTek customers.

AmberFin

Pebble Beach Systems

Leading supplier of automation, channel in a box and integrated channel technology Pebble Beach Systems will be demonstrating important new user enhancements at IBC this year. The company will show an MPEG2 transport stream delivered over IP (TSoIP) on both the Dolphin integrated channel device and the award-winning Stingray channel in a box solution, adding full resolution IP functionality to the range, and complementing the IP monitoring output capability which was first demonstrated at

38 | SCREENAFRICA | August 2013

NAB earlier this year.

New for Marina automation is the SmartPanel. This user-configurable feature gives customers the ability to design their own control panels within the Marina user-interface, giving the operator, for example, a custom-designed panel to take manual control of both Marina and external devices, or perhaps to have a panel dedicated for controlling live graphics. In addition to the tangible operational advantage of a single operator having this level of device control within the

AmberFin, a leading developer of file-based media ingest, transcoding and quality control solutions for content owners, broadcasters, sports organisations and post-production houses, will use IBC to highlight the importance of scaling versatility, high calibre quality control resources and cost efficient media transformation platforms in the rapidly growing file-based workflow market space.

The company will debut a strategic extension to its iCR (intelligent content repurposing) family of modular software products. The new iCR Transcode Farm Controller functionality builds on AmberFin’s market leading multi-format

transcode capabilities. It significantly increases the flexibility and versatility of a multi-node transcode environment, bringing improved resilience and robustness while simultaneously generating cost savings through more versatile network licensing capabilities.

AmberFin will also showcase an enhanced version of its Unified Quality Control (UQC) platform. This major new release extends the UQC ecosystem to support best-of-breed third-party tools and fixes in areas such as loudness control and multiple language support for media files.

automation client, the Smart Panel brings system management benefits by improving reporting and traceability, as commands made via the SmartPanel are incorporated into Marina’s AsRun log.

By the end of 2013, Marina automation will be controlling over 300 channels worldwide.

Managing director Peter Hajittofi confirms: “Pebble Beach Systems focuses on delivering automation and channel delivery solutions which enable customers

to exploit legacy and best of breed technologies while offering a migration path to new technologies such as IP delivery. With the introduction of new features such as the SmartPanel for Marina we continue to deliver innovative and adaptable tools which enable more efficient operations, and we have further announcements planned for IBC regarding significant developments in graphics functionality for the Stingray and Dolphin.”

Africa

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Weaving that ‘Blackmagic’ across Africa

Pastor Matt Ludick leading the congregation in the Emmanuel Pentecostal church

Products from Blackmagic Design are making in-roads into Ghana and Namibia.

W

hen international footballer Michael Essien wanted to broadcast his charity football match from his home country Ghana earlier this year, the natural choice was In5 Broadcast, a UK-based company known for cost effective outside broadcasts.

However, with no high definition (HD) broadcast equipment hire in Accra, it was necessary for the In5 Broadcast crew to take a complete fly-away studio on the plane. It made an interesting sight at London’s Gatwick Airport seeing the six-man crew arrive with 17 flight cases, including a particularly heavy EVS. The original plan was a day trip to Ghana, but fortunately the crew was permitted to fly with the footballers one day early, giving them an evening to pre-rig the studio before the game.

As the stadium is very large, the only option was to use fibre to the cameras, not just in terms of the cable lengths, but also to keep the shipping weight down.

Says In5 Broadcast owner Carl Owen: “The Blackmagic ATEM Camera Converter was the obvious choice due to its size, weight and having tally and intercom built in. It is also ideal for real time scores, leader boards and on-screen graphics. I was also very pleased with the ATEM 1/ME Production Switcher as a compact and lightweight character generator.

“Not everything goes well on live broadcasts, and one locally sourced camera needed urgent attention just five minutes before kick-off so we dispatched someone to run around the pitch perimeter 40 | SCREENAFRICA | August 2013

BROADCAST IS ON THE BALL: Michael Essien’s charity soccer match to adjust the camera. That seemed to amuse the locals who cheered his valiant effort and giggled rather a lot.”

Ninety seconds before the OB crew went live on the satellite feed to London a young local boy from the satellite truck entered the control room and said: ”Everybody looks very tall and very thin”.

Owen continues: “The boy was describing Anamorphic 16:9 stretch. It was clear we needed to send 4:3 images, not 16:9 widescreen. The standard conversion from HD to SD was handled by Blackmagic Design’s Teranex 2D, so with literally just seconds to go, we pressed the aspect ratio button and the picture was re-scaled. The local lad had clearly never seen a Teranex, and could not believe that one touch of the button could instantly fix what he imagined was an insurmountable problem.

“For the next 75 minutes all went as planned, until suddenly one camera went to black without warning. We dispatched one team member to investigate. A few minutes later the camera came back on line. The problem? Unbelievably, a security guard saw a mains socket under the camera and, realising his mobile phone battery was flat, unplugged the camera and plugged in his phone charger. The joys of the outside broadcast!”

House of worship Production values on television are higher than ever and in order to remain relevant houses of worship (HoW) have to adapt.

Based in the Namibian capital Windhoek, the Emmanuel Pentecostal church is a single campus ministry affiliated with the Apostolic Faith Mission (AFM). Led by Pastor Matt Ludick the sermons are offered in English and Afrikaans.

Wanting to create a more engaging experience for parishioners the in-house AV team approached Event Technology to help build a multi-display, multi-camera and multi-video source system that could stream content live online. Being a volunteer-run organisation, simplicity and functionality were two major considerations.

Pastor Ludick specified a full HD system.

Emmanuel’s AV team chose a Blackmagic Design ATEM 1 M/E Production Switcher to handle mixing of all of the video sources.

“With its array of digital inputs, multiple SDI outputs, powerful video processing and a software control panel, while providing professional broadcast switching at a fraction of the price of full hardware units, the 1 M/E was the ideal solution for our client,” said Joppie Maritz of Event Technology.

Multiple Blackmagic Design SDI to HDMI Mini Converters take care of delivering an SDI signal to three Christie Projectors, while two Audio to SDI Mini Converters take care of embedding eight channels of analogue audio to SDI for multi-track capability. The output is shown on three Da-Lite screens and two 46-inch Samsung LED television screens.

Multi screen media is delivered every to the congregation every Wednesday and Sunday, while recording services and streaming live video over the internet.

“Three HD-SDI cameras are connected to the ATEM 1 M/E, whose multiview output makes mixing the footage much simpler,” reveals Maritz. “The ATEM’s downstream keyer is then used to overlay lyrics and messages while various picture in picture (PIP) and transitions are used to keep the on screen content dynamic and exciting.”

A HyperDeck Studio broadcast deck records a master mix from the ATEM along with embedded audio onto solid state drivers (SSD), after which material from those drives is transferred to an archiving system for offline editing.

To stream sermons the AV team uses an UltraStudio Express and third party streaming software. A live video output from the ATEM with embedded audio is captured via the UltraStudio and volunteers upload the content to Ustream, a video-ondemand platform, for storage and streaming.

The latest news is that Blackmagic Design has appointed Stage Audio Works as its distributor for sub-Saharan Africa.

| AFrica

Investing in African stories Winner of the Audience Award at the recent Durban International Film Festival, Felix is the first feature film to have been fully funded by Sabido Productions, a South African company that aims that tell African stories from the local perspective.

YOUNG AMBITION: A scene from Felix ultimately to speak to Nelson Mandela in prison. Produced in the style of a spy thriller, the documentary features innovative filming and special effect techniques,” says Mthembu.

Another documentary project is 1994 – Then and Now. This is a chilling look at how the people who were responsible for countless deaths and widespread mayhem in an effort to thwart the advent of democracy in South Africa, view the country as it is today.

D

irected by Cape Town-based filmmaker Roberta Durrant, Felix stars Oscar-nominated Dame Janet Suzman and tells the story of a young township boy who wins a scholarship to study music at an elite school.

“What I really liked about Felix when I read Shirley Johnson’s script was that it could be about any young person who wants to pursue their dream,” says Zanele Mthembu, Sabido Productions’ Group Head: Content Production Division. “The script had the ingredients to resonate with all South Africans who have ambitions. I felt it was a very strong story, not only for young people but also their parents, as it could inform them how to support their children’s unusual career choices.”

Mthembu notes that another factor which motivated interest in the film was the involvement of Roberta Durrant, who has produced high quality programming for Sabido Productions’ sister company, e.tv, South Africa’s sole commercial free-to-air broadcaster.

“I actually worked with Roberta on Shooting Stars, the soccer drama series she made for e.tv. Roberta really understands directing and manages to bring out the best in actors,” comments Mthembu.

She maintains that the fact that Felix won the Audience Award win in Durban proves that the film has cross-over appeal.

“I was present at one of the festival screenings and not only was the theatre nearly full, but a five-year old boy stood up at the end of the film and said that it had made him cry. So Felix resonated with someone from an age group that usually only watches animation,” comments Mthembu.

The film will be released by Crystal Brook Distribution in South Africa on 13 September.

By Joanna Sterkowicz

Zanele Mthembu

Projects Felix is not the first feature film to enjoy the support of Sabido Productions. The company became part financiers of the 2011 feature film, Otelo Burning, when they were approached by director Sara Blecher and producer Kevin Fleischer. The company provided funding for the film’s postproduction and music.

“We also invested in Riaan Hendricks’ documentary feature, The Devil’s Lair, which was pitched at last year’s Durban FilmMart (DFM),” continues Mthembu. “Producer Neil Brandt was looking for gap financing to complete post-production and we got involved as this is a local story with international appeal. The Devil’s Lair goes inside the cycle of crime on the Cape Flats and balances it with someone who, apart from being a gangster, is also a devoted family man. It’s a very strong story.”

Sabido Productions is looking forward to the completion, at the end of this August, of a new documentary called Message for Mandela.

“The film tells the intriguing story of how ANC operatives set up a sophisticated international network, when computer technology was still in its infancy, to communicate with each other in the final years of the struggle against apartheid, and

Imperatives According to Mthembu, Sabido Productions’ first objective is to get its stories about Africans screened internationally.

“We currently have a library of about 50 hours of documentaries, some of them crime and investigation films that were originally produced for e.tv and which have now been re-packaged. Our aim is to find more broadcaster slots for our films, both locally and internationally. To this end we have made sales to the Fox Crime channel.

Hopefully when digital terrestrial television is launched in Africa we will be able to sell

our content to some of the many new digital channels,” states Mthembu.

Sabido Productions’ second objective is to recoup money so that the company can invest in new content.

Mthembu explains: “As much as we do finance some projects that are more art films or projects that deal with subjects that are not necessarily commercial, projects need to make money to allow us to achieve our objective of contributing to the growth and development of the industry.

“We do in-house productions, as well as commission and co-produce African projects. And, we are always on the look-out not only for South African stories, but stories from the rest of Africa. That’s why we attend markets such as DFM. At this year’s DFM there were a few projects that caught our interest but we only really get involved in projects that are quite far down the line as we don’t fund script development.”

Sabido Productions picked up two ROSCAR awards at the recent Durban Wild Talk Africa Film Festival for its production, Two Wings Many Prayers. It won the Best African Production and Best Expedition / Adventure awards.

A still from Message for Mandela August 2013 | SCREENAFRICA | 41

Africa

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iROKO Partners enters SA DVD market

By Martie Bester Earlier this year, iROKO Partners, Africa’s largest source of Nigerian entertainment with its platforms iROKOtv and iROKING, announced a major strategic development via its entry into the South African DVD market and the launch of 10 000 new Nigerian movie DVDs.

follow and get really emotionally invested in.”

Entering the South African market was ‘a bit of a no brainer’ as it is one of iROKO’s core markets. “This year we decided to focus on Africa and bring amazing content to Africans. The entertainment and tech scene in South Africa is mature, dynamic and exciting and we are thrilled not only to see what we can learn from it, but also what we can contribute to it with iROKOtv and iROKING,” comments Njoku.

In terms of what kind of content would be desirable in the South African market, iROKO surveyed the market to see what current fans wanted and extrapolated on new things African markets can discover.

“Nollywood is tremendously popular in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Africa is one of the continent’s dominant cultural forces,” says Njoku. “We also have a lot of data available to us through the website, so we could see what was most popular with our South African audience on www.irokotv. com and that in turn informed our DVD publishing decisions.”

“W

e’ve only been in South Africa since the beginning of the year and already our DVDs are found in more than 300 outlets across Johannesburg, and we’re adding to this number every day. It’s a big market to crack, but we’re progressing steadily and accumulating an expanding fan base,” says Jason Njoku, founder and CEO of Lagos-based iROKO. The company has an online library that contains more than 5 000 films with over 250 million views a year which delivers, on average, 207 000 000 minutes of content every month.

DVD market Nigeria’s movie industry, known as Nollywood, is the second largest film industry in the world, producing around 2 000 movies a year. The launch represents the first venture for iROKOtv, Africa’s version of Netflix, into the sizeable South African DVD market and is responding to demand for even more Nollywood content in South Africa.

It is also a brand new distribution channel for iROKOtv as historically the company’s content has been available online only. “iROKOtv revolutionised the video-ondemand (VOD) industry for African entertainment when we launched, bringing thousands of movies online to Nollywood lovers around the world. In a short space of time, we were able to connect with the

42 | SCREENAFRICA | August 2013

High demand

NIGERIA RISING: Jason Njoku online African community but, in reality, the majority of Nollywood fans are offline and watch Nollywood on DVDs,” continues Njoku.

He says: “Access is the immediate challenge for VOD companies here. Until Africa comes online, DVDs will continue to be the primary platform to consume content, which is why iROKOtv has now entered the DVD market.”

According to Njoku, Nollywood is incredibly popular in South Africa. “We opened an office in Johannesburg so that we could better manage our operations there and do more to bring more Nollywood content to more people. When we launched our DVDs in June the reception we got was just crazy. We took Nollywood star Mama G with us to launch our new line at a screening of her film Airline

Babes, and took her around the spazas and markets signing DVDs. People went nuts when they saw her. It was an awesome experience.”

African stories Njoku comments that he believes it’s easy to understand why Nollywood movies are so popular in South Africa. “Nollywood is all about telling African stories, by Africans, for Africans. Our audiences, in Nigeria, in South Africa and across the continent recognise and appreciate the narratives dominant in Nigerian movies.

“The stories reflect and celebrate the nuances, loves, passions and idiosyncrasies that are ignored by mainstream Western entertainment industries. The films come in instalments which is something you can

Njoku continues: “Also, satellite TV is another indication of what is in demand.

There are multiple Nollywood / Nigerian movie channels for a reason in South Africa because people demand it. But in all honesty, we’re taking it a step further to give the audience the latest movies.”

He says iROKO’s products are superior because the company is committed to only distributing content of the highest quality.

“Owning the licences to the films enables us to digitally master our content to give our viewers the best experience possible. With the launch of the DVD business, we have taken exactly the same approach, producing top quality discs in beautifully designed boxes that really stand out from anything else on the market. It’s an extremely exciting time and we have high expectations for growing this part of the business.” iROKO tries to cover all major aspects of digital African entertainment and determines demand on traffic and items sold. Anyone can access content on iROKOtv online, but the newly launched DVDs can be found in markets in Johannesburg including Soweto, Kempton Park, Rosettenville and Randburg.

| AFrica

Big Brother is watching…

In 1949 a ground-breaking, futuristic novel was published containing far-fetched notions of constant surveillance undertaken by a system headed by a party leader named Big Brother. Now, almost 64 years later, George Orwell’s dystopian novel 1984 rings true as the eighth season of Big Brother Africa, a reality television show in which contestants’ every move is followed, continues to take the continent by storm.

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ay-TV broadcaster M-Net and format owner, the global entertainment company Endemol, introduced the concept of reality television to South African audiences in 2001 with the very first 24/7 Big Brother broadcasts in the southern hemisphere.

Big Brother and the inhabitants of the specially-built Big Brother House immediately grabbed the imagination of the nation, and inspired newspaper headlines and constant discussions. Then after a second South African season in 2002, Big Brother ventured into the entire continent, where it continues to create excitement and viewer participation season after season.

The buzz Big Brother Africa The Chase, an M-Net AfricaMagic property, is currently

captivating viewers across Africa with just under one million unique website visitors; more than 1.5 million video views (online); over 30 million page views (online); and more than one million messages to TV in just two weeks.

Big Brother Africa also boasts more than one million likes on Facebook and generates approximately 300 000 tweets per week.

“It is always rewarding to work on a project that delivers viewers, and this season of Big Brother has delivered just that. As the African market becomes more and more social media savvy, the online interaction with the brand grows. There has been a noticeable growth in the interaction between viewers and Big Brother on these platforms, and the challenge moving forward is to keep feeding that appetite and growing these platforms,” says the team at Endemol South Africa who produce

A NOVEL IDEA: The Big Brother housemates the show for M-Net AfricaMagic.

Commenting on the choice of the theme the team comments: “We have done a variety of themes throughout the years, except for a special love theme. So, The Chase became a natural choice.”

The team attributes the success of Big Brother Africa in principle to human behaviour. “People are naturally voyeuristic, and it’s this inquisitive nature that keeps viewers glued to their television screens and social media platforms abuzz. However, changes to Big Brother Africa The Chase, most notably the limited interactions between the two houses and the dynamics between housemates make for a compelling offering to viewers.”

Big Brother Africa 8 has housemates from 14 countries in the house and with the series being broadcast in 50 countries on the continent, there is bound to be controversy due to different takes on morality, lifestyles, tradition and culture.

Non-stop action Production on the 24/7 series is a constant process. Storylines that emerge during the day are handed over from the content teams to the editing teams. The team starts structuring the episode from early evening, working through the night to ensure the episode is ready for the relevant approvals the next morning. The show is then delivered in the afternoon for broadcast 24 hours after it started the assemble process.

Since no one involved in production knows which housemate will leave on any one particular show, production and edit teams prep for the possibility of any one of

the nominees leaving. Highlights packs, voting packs and questions are prepared for all nominees.

To make sure the show runs as smoothly as possible, Endemol South Africa employs approximately 150 people on a contract basis and also contract the services of various companies that supply services and staff to the project. Over and above there are also the M-Net and MultiChoice teams that support and contribute to the project.

Behind the scenes Endemol South Africa’s Big Brother Africa team is made up of a large central production group that manages and supports all departments; the content teams responsible for telling the stories; post-production handles all the daily edits; the task team create and implement tasks and challenges; the art department responsible for the house interior; and technical teams dedicated to producing and executing the daily and live shows.

The house is equipped with nine handheld cameras. Forty-seven cameras are installed in the house: these are a combination of hotheads, cue balls and infrared cameras. There are 137 microphones, which include a radio mic for each housemate.

Terja Beney is the executive producer on Big Brother Africa 8 and is supported by Marie Rosholt (ESA consultant), Liza Kleitman (series producer), Japhta Mohlabane (series director), Brad D’Arcy (assistant series director), Katleho Khabele (live show producer) and Ryan Deacon (line producer).

August 2013 | SCREENAFRICA | 43

P R O D U C T I O N U P D A T E S FOR FURTHER DETAILS VISIT www.screenafrica.com

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80 MINUTES Periphery Films Dirs: Simon Taylor / Julia Taal Feature Drama AFRICAN NIGHTS Two Oceans Production Prods: Giselher Venzke / Bertha Spieker A LION IN THE BEDROOM Two Oceans Production Prods: Giselher Venzke / Bertha Spieker Feature AMABHUBESI Inkwasi Television Prod: Bell Curle TV Magazine At The Creek Without A Paddle Zen Crew Exec Prod: Laura Tarling Documentary BAD MEDICINE Tin Rage TV Production Dir: Enver Samuel Documentary Bagged Izithulu Productions Exec Prods: Donovan Mulligan / Mike Westcott Short Film BLAST FROM THE PAST Sirius Films Prod: Ian Manly Documentary BODA BODA THIEVES Yes That’s Us Prod: James Tayler Feature BREAD AND WATER Periphery Films Dirs: Simon Taylor / Julia Taal Feature Documentary BREAKDOWN Bollysamo Pictures / Apeiro Productions Prod Man: Carolyn Gregorowski Feature CAPE OF GOOD HOPE Two Oceans Production Prods: Giselher Venzke / Bertha Spieker Feature CHILDREN OF FAMOUS ACTIVISTS Current Affairs Films Prod: Jane Thandi Lipman Feature Film CHILLI CHICKS International Radio Pictures, Inc Kit Reynolds TV series COILED DO Productions Prods: Marlow de Mardt / Brigid Olën Feature CONSERVATION & BEYOND SuitePeople TVP Prod: Bell Curle Documentary DAISY Bamboo Media (PTY) LTD Dir: Marguelette Louw do good design south africa Concept Interaction Prod: Karl Fedderke Educational ECONOMIC TRANSFORMATION Gaonakgang Film Productions and Publications Writ: George Phuthiyagae Documentary ESCAPE Current Affairs Films Prods: Jane Thandi Lipman / Beata Lipman Feature Film espAFRIKA presents the Cape Town International Jazz Festival 2013 Espafrika Prods / Dirs: Rashid Lombard / Yana Lombard / John Bright Documentary Ex Pats Current Affrairs Films / French Connection Prod: Jane Thandi Lipman Drama series FOR THE NEW CITY – DANCE ON FILM SWiTCH / Resonance Bazar Prods: James Tayler / Julia Raynham Film FORSAKEN DO Productions Prods: Marlow de Mardt / Brigid Olën Feature Genius Inhlakanipo Films Dir: Dumisani Vusi Nhlapo Short Film

GOUE STERRE Suite People TVP Prod: Bell Curle TV Series GRIZMEK Two Oceans Production Prods: Giselher Venzke / Bertha Spieker Feature HISTORICAL KIMBERLEY Spike Productions Prod: Steve Mueller Bsc. Documentary HOTEL SONGOLOLO The Media Workshop Dir: Benito Carelsen Comedy Series IIQ Sukuma Media Dir: Bonginhlanhla Ncube Feature IK1 – TOURISTS IN DANGER Two Oceans Production Prods: Giselher Venzke / Bertha Spieker Feature Indla lifa P.I.M.P Dir / Prod: Daniel P Nxumalo Drama series Insila yenkosi P.I.M.P Dir / Prod: Daniel P Nxumalo Feature (Zulu) Inventing Africa Imageworks Prod: Anthony Irving Documentary IYEZA THEATRE & TV LIGHTING (PTY) LTD Iyeza Theatre & TV Lighting (Pty) Ltd Prod / Dir: Cal Morris Corporate JAM SANDWICH Meerkat Media Prod / Dir: Pauli van Dyk / “MQ”, Alvine Darboux Music reality show JAN SMUTS: AN INTERNATIONAL ICON AHEAD OF HIS TIME Tekweni TV production Prod / Dir: Sandra Herrington / Neville Herrington Documentary KADU’S JOURNEY DO Productions Prods: Marlow de Mardt / Brigid Olën Feature DYINGCRACY Sabstance Productions Prod: Edmund Mhlongo Documentary LEADERS of AFRICA The expeditionary force Dirs: nicholas schofield / alexis schofield Documentary LION GIRL DO Productions Prod: Marlow de Mardt / Brigid Olën TV Feature Lonely Planet Two Oceans Production Prods: Giselher Venzke / Bertha Spieker Feature MANCHE, THE AFRICAN SAINT Get the Picture Prod / Dir: Jacky Lourens / Karin Slater Documentary MHLONGO Inhlakanipho Films Dir / Writer: Dumisani Vusi Nnhlapo Feature Money in the bag P.I.M.P Dir / Prod: Daniel P Nxumalo Reality TV show MUTI DOT MOBI Vuleka Productions.

Prod / Dir: Julie Frederikse / Madoda Ncayiyana Feature Film NEW BEGINNINGZ Sukuma Media Dir: Bonginhanhla Ncube Documentary Nongoloza Current Affairs Prod: Jane Thandi Lipman Feature Palace of the Faithless White Heron Pictures Dir: Themba Sibeko Feature PASSARES (BIRDISH) White Heron Pictures / Casa De Criacao Cinema Prod: Themba Sibeko Feature PIETER CILLIERS PRODUCTIONS Pieter Cilliers Productions Prod / Dir: Pieter Cilliers TV Magazine RAF INDUCTION VIDEO Panache Video Productions Prod: Liesel Eiselen Corporate ROAD ACCIDENT FUND INDUCTION Panache Video Productions Dir: Liesel Eiselen Corporate SEBOKENG MPA (Motswako) Dirs: Charls Khuele / Zuko Nodada Feature

SHORT BUSINESS FEATURE WITH BBC / ABC Current Affairs Films Prod: Jane Thandi Lipman Short Business Features Sirens P.I.M.P Dir / Prod: Daniel P Nxumalo Drama series SUPERMAMA GoogelPlex Productions Dir: Karen van Schalkwyk Feature SWANK! International Radio Pictures Prod: D Gillard Musical The 7P’s to propel change Panache video productions Prod / Dir: Liesel Eiselen Script: Dr Caren scheepers The Black Blonde Steve Radebe Post Productions Prod: Steve Radebe Feature Film tHE blood kIng and the red dragon Current Affairs Prods: Jane Thandi Lipman / Mtutuzeli Matshoba Feature the book shop P.I.M.P Dir / Prod: Daniel P Nxumalo Drama series THE CONSEQUENCE DO Productions Prods: Marlow de Mardt / Brigid Olën Feature The Dreaded Evil Eye from Past to Present and Across Cultures It’s a Wrap Productions Dir: Eugene Botha Documentary THE EDGE International Radio Pictures Kit Reynolds TV Series THE FILM MAKER Elle Bolt Productions Prod: Elle Bolt Reality Series The Flawed Genius of Jan Smuts Tekweni TV Productions Prod / Dir: Sandra Herrington / Neville Herrington Documentary The Scores Are In Current Affairs Films Prod: Jane Thandi Lipman Game Show / Entertainment Series VULTURE KILLING FIELDS SuitePeople TVP Bell Curle Documentary WAY TO ROLL Blue Ice Productions Dir: Freddie Strauss Feature WARD 22 AKA SPECIAL OPS DO Productions Prod: Marlow de Mardt / Brigid Olën Documentary Welcome To The Club Two Oceans Production Prods: Giselher Venzke / Bertha Spieker Feature WHIPLASH Get the Picture Prod / Dir: Jacky Lourens / Meg Rickards Other Crew: Tracey Farren, Jenny Hicks Feature Film ZERO DIET Two Oceans Production Prods: Giselher Venzke / Bertha Spieker Feature ZEBRAS DO Productions Dir: Bruce Beresford Feature ZEN FILM CREW MANAGEMENT ZEN Film Crew Management Prod / Dir: Laura Tarling Commercial

PRE-PRODUCTION Chabela Day Spa Grey Cloud Production Dir: Jacques Brand Information Video Die Verhaal van Racheltjie de Beer Brett Michael Innes Films Prod: Brett Michael Innes Historical feature film Elegy: forsaken in South Africa Market Street Productions Prod: Paul Van Zyl Short film Hermanus Social Upliftment Video Fc Hamman Films Dir: FC Hamman Marketing Video

P R O D U C T I O N U P D A T E S Holidays for Madmen Imageworks Prod: Anthony Irving TV Series IPCC CHURCH CHOIR FC Hamman Films Dir: Pierre Smith Music Video JUB JUB DOCUMENTARY (working title) Baxopath Media Dir: Nolitha Tshinavha Documentary LET HEAVEN WAIT Revolution real entertainment Prod / Dir: Deon Potgieter Sitcom Mandela Synergy Films Drama / Documentary MISTIFY Gleam studios / Wilddogs productions Prod / Dir: Sonja Ter Horst / Johnny Swanepoel Short film NATIONAL LIBRARY OF SOUTH AFRICA Panache Video Productions Prod / Dir: Liesel Eiselen Corporate video NUPRO VOERE FC Hamman Films Dir: FC Hamman Marketing Video PSALTED Engage Entertainment Exec Prod: Vusi Zion (previously Twala) Variety RATE MY PLATE International Radio Pictures Exec Prod: Kit Reynolds Community Project SAFE IN THE CITY Imani Media.

Comedy SAINT & FREEDOM FIGHTER It’s a Wrap Productions Dir: Eugene Botha Documentary Si-solutions International Radio Pictures Exec Prod: Kit Reynolds Community Project SHAKESPEARE IN MZANSI: A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM Fireworx Media Prod: Bridget Pickering Mini Series SLENDER WONDER INFORMATION VIDEO Grey Cloud Productions Dir: Jacques Brand Information Video TALK OF THE TOWN SuitePeople TV Productions Bell Curle TV Series The Black Out Dithakeng Projects and Flms Exec Prod: Thabang Nkunyane Short Film THE LOST ANGEL Inhlakanipho Films Dir: Vusi Dumisani Nhlapo Feature Film TO CARE FOR YOU ALWAYS Noble Pictures Prod: Claudia Noble Short Film TRUE DREAM South African Great Movies Production Dir: John Wani Feature THE MESSENGER Spirit Word Ministries/Footprint Media Academy Exec Prod: Annalise Van Rensburg Series UASA GOLF DAY FC Hamman Films Prod: Odette van Jaarsveld Corporate Video VROU SOEK BOER West Five Films Dir/ Prods: Maynard Kraak / Johan Kruger Feature Film WAY TO FREEDOM Two Oceans Production Prods: Giselher Venzke / Bertha Spieker Feature Film WORKERSLIFE FUNERAL PLAN FC Hamman Films Dir: FC Hamman Marketing Video

IN PRODUCTION 3 Talk Urban Brew Talk Show 3RD DEGREE e.tv Investigative TV series 50/50 Clive Morris Productions Current Affairs A 400 year old bestseller – The King James Version of the Bible Eugene Botha Productions / It’s a Wrap Productions Prod: Eugene Botha Documentary AFROX LPG RESTAURANT TRAINING FC Hamman Films Dir: FC Hamman Training Video ALL YOU NEED IS LOVE 5 Endemol South Africa Reality

ANGLO GOLD ASHANTI SAFETY SERIES SummerTime Productions Prod / Dir: Sean Gardiner Corporate Video ABC AMERICA NEWS SPECIAL ON MANDELA Current Affairs Films Prod: Jane Thandi Lipman Feature News Special AFRICA FACTS SEASON 3 Lebapi Productions Dir: Daniel Moleabatsi TV Magazine AFRICA 360 eNews News Head: Patrick Conroy Current affairs AFRO CAFÉ SEASON 7 Bonngoe Productions Exec Prod: Pepsi Pokane Music Show AFRO SHOWBIZ NEWS SABC News International Exec Prod: Jody-Layne Surtie TVMagazine Agape Gabaza Productions Prod: Sarah Ngubeni Magazine Alex: A history from below Uhuru Productions Dir: Rehad Desai Documentary ALL ACCESS Homebrew Films Prod: Paul Venter/ Hannes van Wyk / Tammy Anne Fortuin Magazine Show Awesome Africa Steplite Films Dir: Jacqui Logie TV Series barbour and thorne: 60 years strong Our Time Productions Dir: Juan de Meilon Corporate Video BBC PLANET EARTH LIVE Wild Images Dirs: James Smith / Tim Scoones / Roger Webb Documentary BIG BROTHER THE CHASE Endemol South Africa Reality TV Binneland Stark Films Prod / Dir: Friedrich / Elsje Stark Daily Soap / Tv Series Bonisanani Kagiso TV Talk Show BOPSY BUNNY Firefly Animation Studio Exec Prod: Antony Steel Short Films BORDER MARAUDERS NHU Africa Exec Prods: Vyv Simson / Donfrey Meyer Wildlife Documentary Carte Blanche (inserts) Modern Times Prods: Sofia Phirippides / Jon Pienaar Documentary Child Geniuses Talent Attack TV / Fuel Media Productions Prod: Paul Llewellyn Documentary Series Codesign – commercial spot for furniture designers SWITCH Dir: James Tayler Commercial Cool Cats Red Pepper Exec Prod: Cecil Berry Children’s Show CORTEX MINING FC Hamman Films Prod Man: Odette van Jaarsveld Corporate Video Come Dine with Me South Africa Rapid Blue Prod: Kee-Leen Irvine Reality Cutting Edge SABC News Current Affairs DADDY’S MESS Dzunde Productions Prod: Thandiwe Mashiyane TV Sitcom DIE VIERDE KABINET Jan Scholtz Productions Prod: Jan Scholtz Series DINNER DIVAS 2 Blonds and a Redhead Filming Exec Prod: Anne Myers Cookery Series DIY Met Riaan Prod: Riaan Venter-Garforth Magazine EM PETROCHEMICALS TOP END Betta Beta Communications Prod / Dir:Tommy Doig Training Program EXPRESSO 2 Cordover Trading Prod: Paul van Deventer Lifestyle EASTERN MOSAIC Red Carpet Productions Magazine Programme FORMIDABELE VROUE: ANNEKIE THERON Khaki Productions Prod / Dir: Christelle Parrott / Wynand Dreyer Documentary – kykNET

FORMIDABELE VROUE: CISSY GOOL Khaki Productions Prod / Dir: Christelle Parrott / Wynand Dreyer Documentary – kykNET FORMIDABELE VROUE: INA DE VILLIERS Khaki Productions Prod / Dir: Christelle Parrott / Wynand Dreyer Documentary – kykNET FORMIDABELE VROUE: UNA VAN DER SPUY Khaki Productions Prod / Dir: Christelle Parrott / Wynand Dreyer Documentary – kykNET FOX NEWS CHANNEL Betta Beta Communications Prod / Dir: Tommy Doig News Current Affairs Freeway Frog Firefly Animation Prod: Ant Steel Animation Short FRENZY Red Pepper Pictures Prod: Palesa Mopeli Variety GENERATIONS Morula Pictures Exec Prod: Mfundi Vundla Soapie GNLD FC Hamman Films Dir: FC Hamman Opening Video GOOD MORNING AFRICA Planet Image Productions SA Prod / Dir: Wale Akinlabi TV Magazine Gospel GOLD Engage Entertainment Exec Prod: Vusi Zion (previously Twala) Music Show GROEN Homebrew Films Prod: Jaco Loubser Wildlife HEADLINE 5 Bitch Films TV Magazine HEAVEN – Africa Two Oceans Production Prods: Giselher Venzke / Bertha Spieker Feature Hectic 99 Okuhle Media Prod: Wilna van Schalkwyk Magazine Show HITACHI POWER AFRICA MEDUPI & KUSILE Betta Beta Communications Prod / Dir: Tommy Doig Documentary HOUSE CALL Izwe Multimedia / Urban Brew Series Prod: Annalie Potgieter Live Medical Talk Show Imizwilili Ukhamba Communications Music Inkaba Urban Brew Studios Prod: John Kani Telenovela INSIDE STORY Curious Pictures / Discovery Channel Dir: Rolie Nikiwe Feature ISEDALE Golden Effects Pictures Dir: Kunle Afolayan Documentary Series ISIDINGO Endemol South Africa Dirs: Raymond Sargent / Johnny Barbazano Daily TV Drama IT’S MY BIZ Urban Brew Studios Reality business makeover series JAM SANDWICH Meerkat Media Prod / Dir: Pauli van Dyk / Deon Maas Key Crew: Cam / Sound: Jaques Marais / Mzukisi Mtishiselo TV Series / Reality Music show JAM SANDWICH IV Meerkat Media Prod / Dir: Pauli van Dyk / Deon Maas TV series Jim Iyke: Unscripted!

Ifactory Live, Greyology Inc. & Oh Africa Exec Prod: Michael Djaba Reality TV series (AfricaMagic) JOU SHOW MET EMO en Wickus Homebrew Films Prod: Jaco Loubser Variety Show Judge For You Self eNews Current Affairs Laugh out Loud Exec Prod: Rapulana Seiphemo Comedy Khumbul’ekhaya Urban Brew Prod: Enel Viljoen Reality KONA The Directors Team (Pty) Ltd Prod / Dir: Laurence Lurie / Cathy Sykes TV Series – M-Net East Africa KWELA Pieter Cilliers Productions Prod / Dir: Pieter Cilliers TV Magazine LATE NITE NEWS ON E.TV Diprente Productions Prod: Tamsin Andersson Satire Live Urban Brew Music Show

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Live Lotto Show Urban Brew Game Show Maggs on Media eNews Prod: Jeremy Maggs Current Affairs MASSMART CSI REPORT SummerTime Productions Prod / Dir: Roxanne Rolando / Sean Gardiner Corporate Video MATRICS UPLOADED Educational Improvement and Study Help Exec Prod: Lisa Blakeway Educational MGONGO BY SONY Sony Prod / Dir: James Lennox Lifestyle & Entertainment Million Dollar Race Two Oceans Production Prods: Giselher Venzke / Bertha Spieker Feature MK Campus Homebrew Films Prods: Jaco Loubser / Ben Heyns Student Show

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August 2013 | SCREENAFRICA | 45

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46 | SCREENAFRICA | August 2013

NIGCOMSAT – TELEVISION COMMERCIAL SERIES SWiTCH Prod: Sarah Wanjiku Muhoho Commercial Nomzamo Tom Pictures / Authentic Images Comedy ONS MENSE Homebrew Films Prod: Jaco Loubser Current Affairs OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS Plexus Films Prod: Miki Redelinghuys Corporate Video PASELLA Tswelopele Productions Insert Dirs: Liani Maasdorp / Werner Hefer TV Magazine Programme PGC FC Hamman Films Director: FC Hamman Marketing Video Phoenix Rising...The Business of Style Phoenix Entertainment and Production Prod / Dir: Koketso Sefanyetso Reality Docutainment POWER COMBAT ZONE Mixed Motion Entertainment Dir: Dieter Gottert Sport Programme Project MV Zen Crew Prod: Laura Tarling Music Video Religion and the ANC Eugene Botha Productions / It’s a Wrap Productions Prod: Eugene Botha Documentary RETROBOUCHON Tunnelvizion Productions Prod / Dir: Ruan Lotter/Hein Ungerer Short Film RISKCON SECURITY FC Hamman Films Prod: Neels Smit Corporate Video ROLLING WITH KELLY KHUMALO Red Pepper Prod: Cecil Barry Reality Series RHYTHM CITY Curious Pictures Prod: Yula Quinn Soapie RHYTHM CITY INTERACTIVE Curious Pictures / e.tv Prod: Viva Liles-Wilkin Interactive Platform Media Rivoningo Asi-B Films Exec Prod: Asivhanzi ‘Asi’ Mathaba Kids ROCKING FUTURE Summertime Productions Prods: Sean Gardiner / Tanya Vandenberg Educational Video ROER Homebrew Films Prod: Jaco Loubser Cooking Show Roots Ukhamba Communications Music Show SAKEGESPREK MET THEO VORSTER SEASON 4 Dirk Mostert Camera Production Prod / Dir / Ed: Dirk Mostert / Rudi Ahlstrom TV Magazine SANPARKS YOUTH & PARKS Francois Odendaal Productions Prod / Dir: Francois Odendaal Natural History TV Series SA’S GOT TALENT Rapid Blue Prod / Dir: Kee-Leen Irvine Reality SCANDAL Ochre Moving Pictures Series Prod: Romano Gorlei Soapie SCHOEMAN BOERDERY – MOOSRIVIER Khaki Productions Prod / Dir: Christelle Parrott / Wynand Dreyer Documentary SELIMATUNZI Sikhoyana Productions Prod: Baby Joe Correira Variety Series Ses’khona Tswelopele Productions Prod: Phuthi Ngwenya Magazine SHARK STORIES NHU Africa Exec Prod: Vyv Simson / Donfrey Meyer Wildlife Documentary SHIZ NIZ Red Pepper Pictures Prod: Allen Makhubele Variety Shift Urban Brew Talk show SHORELINE 2 Homebrew films Documentary series S.I.E.S (SOCIAL IMPACT AND EMPOWERMENT STRATEGY) Penguin Films Dirs: Roberta Durrant / James Ngcobo Sitcom SKWIZAS 2 Lillian Dube Productions Prod: Lillian Dube Sitcom

SISTERHOOD Red Pepper Pictures Prod: Vuyo Sokupa Variety Siyakholwa – We Believe X CON Films Dir: Munier Parker Edutainment SKETCH U LATER Chris Morris Productions Dir: Genna Lewis Comedy series Soccer 411 Engage Entertainment Exec Prod: Vusi Zion (previously Twala) Magazine Soccer zone SABCSports Head: Sizwe Nzimande Magazine Sony Presents Mgongo Sony Variety Spirit Sundae New Wave Productions Prod: Mishkah Roman-Cassiem Spiritual STUDIO 53 M-Net Inhouse Productions Insert Dir: Navan Chetty Mag Programme STUDY MATE Educational Improvement and Study Help Exec Prod: Lisa Blakeway Educational TASOL “Old Geezer” Bragge Film & TV Dir: Guy Bragge Commercial The B-Ball Show SABC Commissioning Ed: Dinah Mahlabegoane Variety The Chat Room Eclipse Prod: Thokozani Nkosi Talk Show THE CHEETAH DIARIES SERIES 4 NHU Africa Exec Prod: Vyv Simson / Donfrey Meyer Wildlife Documentary The Communist Republic of South Africa Jam TV, Creative South Africa, Nkhanyeti Production Prod: Barthelemy Ngwessam Documentary The Cypher Spoon Fed Generation Lerato Letebele Talk show THE DR MOL SHOW Prod: Michael Mol Magazine THE GREAT PENGUIN RESCUE NHU Africa Exec Prod: Vyv Simson / Donfrey Meyer Wildlife Documentary The Justice Factor eNews Exec Prod: Debbie Meyer Current Affairs The Lighthouse Run – 42 Marathons, 42 Days SummerTime Productions Dir: Tanya Vandenberg Documentary THE REAL GOBOZA 7 Urban Brew Entertainment THE RUDIMENTALS Periphery Films Prod: Simon Taylor Feature Documentary THE STORY OF LITTLE FOOT Paul Myburgh Film Prod: Paul Myburgh Documentary The Tech Report Greenwall Productions Exec Prod: Nicky Greenwall Magazine THE WILD Magic Factory Exec Prod: Bobby Heaney Daily TV Soap TRANSFORMATION STORIES Media Village Productions Dir: Diane Vermooten Documentary THE TRANSPORTERS Sukuma Media/ Reality Motion Pictures Dir: Bonginhlanhla Ncube Documentary THERE ARE NO HEROES AFDA Cape Town Dir: Kyle Stevenson Science Fiction TOP BILLING Tswelopele Productions Prod: Patience Stevens TV Magazine Top 10 at 10 Don’t Look Down Radio / TV Simulcast TRAPPER IN AFRICA NHU Africa Exec Prod: Vyv Simson / Donfrey Meyer Wildlife Documentary TSHIPE BORWA MANGANESE MINE Betta Beta Communications Prod / Dir: Tommy Doig Documentary Turn It Out 2 Fuel Media Productions Dir: Marvin Raftopoulos Dance Reality show TWK AGRI FC Hamman Films Prod: Odette van Jaarsveld Corporate Video

UASA CONGRESS FC Hamman Films Prod: Odette van Jaarsveld Corporate Video VKB LANDBOU BEPERK FC Hamman Films Prod Man: Odette van Jaarsveld Script: Anton Dekker Corporate Video VILLA ROSA Spectro Productions Dirs: Luhann Jansen / Andries van der Merwe/ Leroux Botha/ Isabel Smit TV Drama WEEKEND LIVE SABC News Current Affairs When The World Was Here Fuel Media Productions Dir: Mzilikazi Kumalo Documentary Series Why are We so Angry?

Fuel Media Productions Dirs: Scott Smith / Shaft Moropane Documentary Series Why Poverty?

STEPS International Exec Prod: Don Edkins Documentary Series Wicket to Wicket SABC3 Lefa Afrika Magazine WORKERSLIFE INSURANCE FC Hamman Films Prod: Odette van Jaarsveld Marketing Video Workers World Series Cape Town Television Prod: Sharon McKinnon TV Series WORLDSOUTH Leago Afrikan Arts Foundation Dir: Sakhile Gumbi Documentary Xihlovo Grace Bible Church Religion Yilengelo Lakho Prod: Nndanganeni Mudau Current Affairs Zone 14 The Bomb Shelter Prod: Angus Gibson Drama

POST-PRODUCTION 4LIFE NETWORK Bragge Film& TV Dir: Guy Bragge Infomercials A BUSHMAN ODYSSEY Onetime Films Prod: Richard Wicksteed Documentary AFRICA CALLING Two Oceans Production Prods: Giselher Venzke / Bertha Spieker Feature AFROX CO2 PLANT FC Hamman Films Prod Man: Odette van Jaarsveld Corporate Video AFROX FINANCIAL RESULTS FC Hamman Films Prod Man: Odette van Jaarsveld Script: Hulette Pretorius Corporate Video AFROX RAU INSIGHT FC Hamman Films Prod Man: Odette van Jaarsveld Corporate Video AFROX SHEQ INDUCTION FC Hamman Films Prod Man: Odette van Jaarsveld Commercial ALL’S FAIR PianoJ Productions Prod: Pia van Rensburg Short Film AMBASSADOR II Two Oceans Production Prods: Giselher Venzke / Bertha Spieker Feature Animal Doctor (Working Title) Animal Doctor cc.

Prods: Greg Simpson / Jonty Acton TV Series AURECON STAFF INSERTS Panache Video Productions Dir: Liesel Eiselen Marketing BABALAS FC Hamman Films Exec Prod: Peter Scott Feature Film Bally Cullen Guesthouse Ad Panache Video Productions Prod: Liesel Eiselen Corporate Bitter Root Imageworks Dir: Kerry Negara Documentary BLITZ PATROLLIE Diprente Films Prod: Kagiso Lediga Feature BUA NNETE Owami Entertainment Dir: Charles Khuele Short Film

P R O D U C T I O N U P D A T E S Calafornia: Valley Christian School Transformation Media Village Prod: Diane Vermooten Documentary DEAR SISTER Media Village Prod: Debbie Matthee Short Film DRAGON’S FEAST 3D NHU Africa Exec Prods: Vyv Simson / Sophie Vartan Wildlife Documentary ERFSONDES Imani Media Dir: Peter Heaney TV Drama Freedom Park Installations Kevin Harris productions / Fix Post production Prod / Dir: Nadiva Schraibman Documentary FROM GUN TO TAPE Content House/Shadow Films Prod / Dir: Jackie Lebo / David Forbes Documentary GETROUD MET RUGBY SEASON 4 Bottom Line Productions Dir: Jozua Malherbe Series HALF OF A YELLOW SUN British Film Institute Dir: Biyi Bandele Feature Film HOME OF THE LEGENDS L. Dukashe Productions Prod / Dir: Lumko Dukashe / Lulu Dukashe Documentary Hong Kong Media Village Prod: Diane Vermooten Documentary INTEL HISTORY Bragge Film & TV Dir: Guy Bragge Corporate IQILI Impucuzeko Prod: Sharon Kakora Feature Israel Inside (Working Title) Imagination Productions / Wayne Kopping Films Dir: Wayne Kopping Documentary JACK UP YOUR SHACK Let It Rain Films Prod / Dir: Lee Doig TV Series JAM SANDWICH Meerkat Media Dir: MQ Ngubane Music Reality TV series JULIUS HAS A DREAM Creative South Africa, Nkanyethi Productions,Jam TV Prod: Bathelemy Ngwessam Documentary Kemang? lmol Production Dir: Lizzy Moloto Feature Film Launch of the Academy of Young SA Scientists Panache Video Productions Prod: Liesel Eiselen Documentary LIFE UNDER THE FLAG Lifeundertheflag.Com Prod: Prince Angelo Doyle Documentary LION’S TRACK Two Oceans Production Prods: Giselher Venzke / Bertha Spieker Feature LOVE ABOVE ALL Firstfruits media Dir: Nthabiseng Gamede Feature Film MARRY – ANN Shadow Films Dir: David Forbes Documentary Melodi Jazz Festival 2011 L. Dukashe Productions Dir: Lumko Dukashe Live Concert DvD MICROSOFT 365 Bragge film & TV Dir: Guy Bragge Corporate Video National Heritage Council Educational Outreach Programme Panache Video Productions Dir: Liesel Eiselen Corporate Video PEACE PARKS NHU Africa Exec Prods: Vyv Simson / Sophie Vartan Wildlife Documentary Series PERFECT SHISHEBO Curious Pictures Prod: Nthabiseng Mokoena Cooking Show PLAY MORE GOLF FC Hamman Films Prod Man: Odette van Jaarsveld Script: Hulette Pretorius Commercials PREDATORS’ PLAYGROUND NHU Africa Exec Prods: Vyv Simson / Sophie Vartan Wildlife Documentary Series PURPLE TOWN Sukuma Media Dir: Bonginhlanhla Ncube Documentary RESTYLE MY STYLE Curious Pictures Prod: Anita van Hemert Children’s Programming

River of Stones Prod: Wiseman Mabusela Documentary SA JUNIOR MASTERS Our Time Productions Dir: Jaun de Meillon Sport Programme SCAREDYKAT Dirty Soul Productions Dir: Kyle Lewis Horror Feature Film SCHOOL E-WASTE INITIATIVE/ DESCO/ INCREDIBLE CONNECTION Philip Schedler Productions Prod: Philip Schedler Corporate Shark Stories Talking Pictures Prod / Dir: Garth Lucas/ Ann Strimling Documentary SLENDER WONDER FC Hamman Films Prod Man: Odette van Jaarsveld Corporate Video SLENDER WONDER MJ LABS FC Hamman Films Prod Man: Odette van Jaarsveld Script: Hulette Pretorius Corporate Video South african Field Band Foundation Championships Panache Video Productions Prod: Liesel Eiselen Documentary STETSON HATS Fourth Dimension Films / Creative Photo Services Dir: Neil Hermann Corporate Video Stolen Time Prod: Eric Myeni Feature Tanzanian Investment Opportunities Benchmark Productions Dir: Dermod Judge Corporate Video Technology Innovation Agency CEO Address Panache Video Productions Prod: Liesel Eiselen Corporate Video Technorati Talent Attack TV / Fuel Media Productions Dir: Maxine Nel Technology Magazine Show THE AFRIKANER BROEDERBOND It’s a Wrap Productions Dir: Eugene Botha Documentary THE CHEETAH DIARIES SERIES 3 NHU Africa Exec Prods: Vyv Simson/ Sophie Vartan Wildlife Documentary Series THOSE WHO CAN’T Quizzical Pictures SABC Comedy Series TO THE POWER OF ANNE FX Productions Prod / Dir: Robert Haynes TV Series TOUCHING LIVES SEASON 3 GHANA Launch Factory Dir: Spero Patricios TV Series TREASURE GUARDS Tandem Communications Exec Prods: Jonas Bauer / Rola Bauer Feature Triple O Monarchy Prod: Mosibudi Pheeha Feature TRUE DREAM ( Revised Version) South African Great Movies Production Dir: John Wani Feature Vallejo Transformation Media Village Prod: Diane Vermooten Corporate Vehicle 19 Forefront Media Group / Picture Tree / The Safran Company Exec Prod: Paul Walker Feature VERITAS Media Village Prod: Debbie Matthee Documentary VKB LANDBOU BEPERK FC Hamman Films Prod Man: Odette van Jaarsveld Script: Anton Dekker Camera: Dirk Steyn/ Simeon Hamman Corporate Video WALKING IN VICTOR’S SHOES Current Affairs Films SA Prod: Jane Thandi Lipman Feature Documentary WELLBODI BIZNES Plexus Films / Four Corners Media Prod: Miki Redelinghuys Documentary ZION Letcosmart Prod: Zibusiso Nkomo Feature

COMPLETE AFROX AFRICA INSIGHT EPS 4 FC Hamman Films Prod Man: Odette van Jaarsveld Corporate Video AFROX YEAREND RESULT FC Hamman Films Prod Man: Odette van Jaarsveld Corporate Video

Club Culture Bonngoe Productions Prod: Tumi Rabanye Variety Cooking With Siba Prod: Siba Mtongana Variety DINEO’S DIARY: A MOGUL IN THE MAKING New Vision Pictures and S2 Multimedia Exec prod: Dineo Ranaka Reality DRAGON’S FEAST 3D NHU Africa Exec Prods: Vyv Simson / Sophie Vartan Wildlife Documentary Series DURBAN/REEF FUEL PIPELINE Betta Beta Communications Prod / Dir: Tommy Doig Documentary FORMIDABELE VROUE: PETRONELLA Khaki Productions Prod / Dir: Christelle Parrott / Wynand Dreyer Documentary – kykNET FORMIDABELE VROUE: LEONORA VD HEEVER Khaki Productions Prod / Dir: Christelle Parrott / Wynand Dreyer Documentary – kykNET GNLD AFRICA CONVENTION FC Hamman Films Prod: FC Hamman Corporate Video HARTLAND Bottomline Entertainment / Fix Post Production Michael Modena TV Drama IMATU UNION VIDEO FC Hamman Films Prod Man: Odette van Jaarsveld Script: Bob Brown Camera: Dirk Steyn Editor: Neels Smit Corporate Video IMPACT CHRISTIAN MEDIA Impact Christian Media Prod / Dir: Carl Schultz TV Series JAM ALLEY CREW VS CREW SEASON 2 Red Pepper Pictures Prod: Melody Xaba Music Reality Competition JERUSALEM, JERUSALEM Khaki Productions Prod / Dir: Christelle Parrott / Wynand Dreyer Documentary – kykNET MASTERS OF DREAMS Current Affairs Hambrook Prod / Dir: Jane Thandi Lipman TV Series MENTALIST MARTIAL ARTS Panache Video Productions Dir: Ryan Blumenthal Training MZANSI LOVE Fireworx Media Dirs: Myrto Makrides / Mmabatho Montsho / Neo Ntlantleng / Zamo Mkhwanazi Anthology series OSCAR PISTORIUS ABC America Documentary POPCRU 7TH CONGRESS FC Hamman Films Prod Man: Odette van Jaarsveld Corporate Event SHORELINE REVISITED Homebrew films Documentary series SING YOUR SONG Dir: Susanne Rostock Documentary SLENDER WONDER GLAM GURU FC Hamman Films Prod Man: Odette van Jaarsveld Script: Hulette Pretorius Commercial SPACE, ALIENS, UFO’S AND RELIGIOUS TRADITIONS Eugene Botha Productions / It’s Wrap Productions Exec prods: Eugene Botha / Anna Teichert Documentary STAND UP AFRICA On Air Media Dir / Story Ed: Mike Bardsley / Lex Dominguez Documentary THE 7 P’S OF LEADERSHIP COACHING Panache Video Productions Prod / Dir: Liesel Eiselen Educational (MBA students) THE BLACK JEWS AND THE LOST ARK OF THE COVENANT Eugene Botha Productions / It’s a Wrap Productions Prod: Eugene Botha Documentary VIENNA BOYS’ CHOIR MUSIC STUDY TOUR SummerTime Productions Prod / Dir: Tanya Vandenberg Corporate

Screen Africa relies on accuracy of information received and cannot be held responsible for any errors or omissions which may occur. E-mail production updates to: online@screenafrica.com

AUGUST 27 – 29

SA INNOVATION SUMMIT

IDC, Johannesburg, South Africa http://innovationsummit.co.za/2013

17 – 19

FILMAID FILM FESTIVAL 2013

Kakuma and Dadaab Refugee Camps and Nairobi www.filmaid.org

23 – 31 ZIMBABWE INTERNATIONAL IMAGES FILM

FESTIVAL FOR WOMEN

Harare, Zimbabwe

28 – 7 Sep VENICE INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL

Venice, Italy www.labiennale.org/en/cinema/

SEPTEMBER 5 – 15

TORONTO INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL

Toronto http://tiff.net 6 – 8

THE 48-HOUR FILM PROJECT

Johannesburg, South Africa www.48hourfilm.com

13 – 17

IBC EXHIBITION

Amsterdam RAI, Netherlands www.ibc.org 12 – 17

IBC CONFERENCE

Amsterdam RAI, Netherlands www.ibc.org 16 – 22

LOERIES CREATIVE WEEK CAPE TOWN

Cape Town International Convention Centre, South Africa www.loeries.com 18 – 28

NOLLYWOOD & AFRICAN FILM CRITICS’ AWARDS

Warner Theatre, Washington DC www.nollywoodcritics.com

20

PENDORING AWARDS

Cape Town International Convention Centre www.pendoring.co.za 13 – 29

TRI CONTINENTAL FILM FESTIVAL

Johannesburg, Pretoria & Soweto, South Africa www.tcff.org.za

16 – 18

PEOPLE TO PEOPLE INTERNATIONAL DOCUMENTARY CONFERENCE

Johannesburg, South Africa

OCTOBER 4 – 6

THE 48-HOUR FILM PROJECT

Johannesburg, South Africa www.48hourfilm.com

NOVEMBER 1 – 10

Cape Town & Winelands International Film Festival

Cape Town, South Africa http://films-for-africa.co.za

TBC

Cape Town Film Mart

Cape Town, South Africa http://films-for-africa.co.za

6 – 8

DISCOP AFRICA

Sandton Convention Centre, Johannesburg, South Africa www.discop.com 22

PROMAXBDA AFRICA CONFERENCE & AWARDS

The Mazlow, Johannesburg South Africa www.promaxafrica.tv

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August 2013 | SCREENAFRICA | 47

Social

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Durban FilmMart Awards

ARTE France Award winners: Akosua Adoma Owusu and Julio Chavezmontes (producer)

Independent Filmmaker Project Award: International Film Festival Rotterdam Award: Iwana Chronis of Hubert DIFF’s Tiny Mungwe with winners Juliette Grandmont and Rungano Nyoni Bals Fund (HBF) with winner Nyanzi Robert

WorldView Award 1: Dylan Voogt (producer), Amy Richardson (WorldView), Jolynn Minnaar (director / producer) and Himesh Kar of WorldView

Produire Au Sud Award: Denis Vaslin representing Festival des 3 Continents presents the awards to Jacky Lourens, Nozipho Dumisa and Madoda Ncayiyana

Videovision Entertainment Award: winners Sean Drummond and Michael Matthews with Videovision’s Sanjeev Singh (centre)

WorldView Award 2: Himesh Kar and Amy Richardson of WorldView with winner Maanda Ntfandeni

Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie Award: Souad Hossein (OIF) with winner Yves Montand Niyongabo)

Paris Project Award: Winners Sarah Ping Nie Jones and Jean Meeran with Mona Pilane (Durban FilmMart)

Durban International Film Festival

DIFF representative Nomfundo Xolo with Wavescape director Steven Pike receiving the award of Audience Choice Best Wavescapes Film, Stand

International jury members: renowned festival programmer Paolo Bertolin, SA filmmaker Sara Blecher, film curator June Givanni, Egyptian curator and festival programmer Sherif Awad and SA actress and DIFF Ambassador Hlubi Mboya

Recipient of the DIFF Award for Artistic Bravery, Jahmil XT Qubeka (left) for his film Of Good Report, and lead actor Mothusi Mogano

SABA Conference

Abchai Uane (Televisiao Miramar) and Nazario Muchanga (Radio Mozambique)

Maurice Mate (Channel Africa)

New Appointments

SABC’s Sibongile Tanya Mpanza, Benny Molefe and Rachel Bomponge

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Steven Vorster (MultiChoice), Ntima Molete (Lesotho National Broadcasting Services)

Swazi TV’s Petros Nkambule and Wandile Muzi Matosa

Tumelo Aubrey Zulu (SABA Secretariat)

Scandal & Club 808 Launch

SuperSport’s new marketing boss Nomsa Chabeli-Mazibuko has been appointed SuperSport’s new marketing director.

Chabeli-Mazibuko arrives with a wealth of experience, having been involved in top-level marketing for the past 15 years.

Most recently she was chief marketing officer of Brand SA, and prior to that she worked at SAB as marketing manager for Castle Lager.

Chabeli-Mazibuko was also head of Marketing for the 2010 World Cup Bid, working under Danny Jordaan, and was marketing director of the Cricket World Cup in 2003, under Dr Ali Bacher’s stewardship. She won wide acclaim for both roles.

She is a football fanatic and also has a passion for limited-overs cricket.

48 | SCREENAFRICA | August 2013

Mo Flava and Thando Thabethe

Natalie Prinsloo

Brighton Ngoma, Sello Maake Ka-Ncube and Kagiso Modupe

Gabisile Tshabalala, Getmore Sithole and Mapaseka Koetle

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