Screen Africa August 2015

DIFF / DFM

Zanzibar IFF Mediatech Africa Report

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

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| IN THIS ISSUE

11 Pictures in her mind

34

19 Waves and visions of hope

Mediatech 2015 at a glance

22

26

All that glitters is green

Special Features DURBAN FILMMART REPORT

Elements of Cinema: an eruption of violence

DTT budget breakdown.................... 31

ADCETERA

Broadcast TECHNOLOGY

Red & Yellow launches

IBC 2015............................................... 37

Africa is bursting with stories.......... 14

Re-evaluating radio............................. 32 Metadata a vital tool in the digital era.................................. 32

DIFF REPORT

Learning from leaders........................ 33

Pictures in her mind........................... 11 PromaxBDA honours

Africa’s lost classics............................ 16 Tunisia: modernity and tradition...... 16 DIFF 2015 focuses on Brazil............ 18 Durban International Film Festival Awards........................... 18

ZANZIBAR INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL Waves and visions of hope............... 19

StarTimes 5th African Digital Television Development Seminar Building local content......................... 30 Optimising reach................................. 30 Futureproofing DTT

Mediatech Africa REPORT Mediatech 2015 at a glance.............. 34

News The ATFT partners with Marché du Film and CineMart............ 3 Avid finalises acquisition of Orad....... 3 Nommer 37 takes lion’s share of awards at IMSFF................................ 4 Questek shows a complete chain...... 6 Zimbabwean actor Tongayi Chirisa stars

Joburg campus..................................... 10

Prepare for the IP revolution........... 38

AERIAL CINEMATOGRAPHY

‘the Creatorshakers’.......................... 12

New drone regulations –

Someone stirred my trifle................. 12

what you need to know.................... 40

FILM

OUTSIDE BROADCAST

All that glitters is green..................... 22

SilverCam Broadcast

The rise to recognition..................... 24 Elements of Cinema: an eruption of violence..................... 26

ANIMATION

at Mediatech......................................... 41

NEW MEDIA APP-titude............................................. 42

Regulars

Animation – the state of the art 2015.................. 28

Box Office................................................... 43 Production Updates..................... 44 – 47 Events........................................................... 47

in ‘The Jim Gaffigan Show’................... 8

Social............................................................ 48

Story Lab is triggered........................... 8

encoding technology.......................... 31

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From the editor

The Team

The Screen Africa team is still in the midst of taking stock after a hectic month that saw us visit one technology trade show and two international film festivals. We faced a steady stream of technological trends, new films and discussions about various topics currently relevant to our industries. Many of these are discussed in these pages and many of them will no doubt still be topics of conversation for the next year at least.

I would like to single out just one: motion picture storytelling in Africa. The Durban International Film Festival (DIFF) and the Zanzibar International Film Festival (ZIFF) brought to light a number of questions around this topic. First of all, it is apparent that great stories abound on this continent – our store of subject matter is a resource that never needs replenishing. And many great stories are now finding their way into good African films. On the other hand, many bad stories are getting made into films of high technical quality and many great stories are turning into films that are not very impressive – no names mentioned; my opinion on individual films is not really important.

While the quality of films being produced is improving steadily, scriptwriting seems to be the weakest link right now. The stories are there but scripts go into production before they are ready. Also, some of the films I watched this month raised serious questions about substance and authenticity. I saw a number of films by African filmmakers who were clearly immersed in the worlds they were creating and the product was engaging even if it was technically flawed. I saw films by storytellers who were dealing with cultures foreign to them – and still creating films that were compelling and which felt authentic. On the other hand, I also saw work by filmmakers who were dealing with their own culture and coming up short, lacking authenticity and feeling forced.

What makes the difference between strong films and weak ones? I recall the words of one of my favourite filmmakers, Werner Herzog: “Everyone who makes films has to be an athlete to a certain degree because cinema does not come from abstract, academic thinking. It comes from your knees and thighs.”

Anyone who has experienced the physical exertions of even a short and relatively unproblematic film shoot will know what he means. Put simply, the motion picture medium is the domain of the doer, not the thinker. Thinking up a good idea is not enough – it’s necessary to work that idea through innumerable script drafts before even considering rolling cameras. Then once production starts, it’s little more than a test of stamina.

On the topic of foreign filmmakers that make films about African stories, debate continues to rage and the subject came up a number of times at both festivals. ZIFF CEO Martin Mhando, arguing against the common objection that African stories are ‘stolen’ by foreigners, said to me: “How can anyone tell your stories? They don’t have your experience, your point of view. They can only tell their stories. Even if you and I walk down the same street, the story each of us tells about that walk will be completely different.”

In this statement lies a distinction that many people who decry the apparent ‘stealing’ of African stories by overseas filmmakers should be aware of. This is the distinction between stories and subjects. Subjects are public goods. Anyone may take a subject and create a story from it. Stories, on the other hand, are highly idiosyncratic things, created by filtering subjects through the personal ideas and viewpoints of the individual storyteller. There is therefore no reason why several different storytellers may not tell stories on the same subject. Why should African filmmakers feel dejected when they see a film by an outsider on a subject from their homeland, when they could just go and make their own film on the same subject – one that expresses their own, insider’s point of view? As Herzog might say, this industry is all about who starts running first and who can keep running the longest. The subjects are there, the stories are yours – all you have to do is get in the race.

– Warren Holden

SCREENAFRICA

Editor Warren Holden is a writer and journalist whose lifelong love of film and television prompted him to study for his BA in Motion Picture Medium at AFDA Johannesburg, specialising in writing and directing.

After graduating, he worked for three years in the television industry before following his aptitude for writing into the world of publishing. He then worked for five years as assistant editor on the arts and culture publication Classicfeel, before taking the helm of Screen Africa, where his experiences in the separate streams of motion picture and publishing have finally come together. In addition to his work on Screen Africa, he is also hard at work developing stories for film and television and studying for a second degree in economics and African politics.

Deputy Editor Carly Barnes is a writer, journalist and self-professed documentary geek. Before joining Screen Africa, Carly completed a BA honours degree in Live Performance at AFDA Johannesburg, was named one of Mail & Guardian’s Top 200 Young South Africans (2011) and wrote and performed a one woman show at the Grahamstown National Arts Festival. She ran a small entertainment and production company for more than six years before she began a professional writing career – as a contributor to Oprah Magazine. When she isn’t blogging, exploring the local festival scene or dreaming about travelling abroad, Carly is connecting with creative leaders and filmmakers who are shaping the future of content creation on the continent.

IN-HOUSE JOURNALIST Chanelle Ellaya is a writer and a journalist. She completed her BA Journalism degree at the University of Johannesburg in 2011. While writing is her passion, she has a keen interest in the media in various capacities: In 2012 she copresented the entertainment and lifestyle show Top Entertainment on TopTV and later that year she was handpicked as part of a panel of five dynamic young Africans to interview Winnie Madikizela-Mandela on a youth focused television show called MTV Meets.

Chanelle is an avid social networker and a firm believer in the power of social and online networking. Between writing and tweeting, she finds time to feed her love for live music.

Sub-Editor: Tina Heron

Publisher & Managing Editor: Simon Robinson: publisher@screenafrica.com

Design: Trevor Ou Tim: design@sun-circle.co.za

Editor: Warren Holden: editor@screenafrica.com

Website & Production Updates: Carina Vermooten: web@sun-circle.co.za

DEputy Editor: Carly Barnes: carly@screenafrica.com

Subscriptions: Tina Tserere: tina@sun-circle.co.za Delight Ngwenya: admin@sun-circle.co.za

Journalist: Chanelle Ellaya: news@screenafrica.com Contributors: Claire Diao, Louise Marsland Ian Dormer, Andy Stead Ifeoma ‘Oma Areh

CONTRIBUTORS

Accounts: Natasha Glavovic: accounts@sun-circle.co.za Advertisement Sales: Marianne Schafer: marianne@screenafrica.com Graham Grier: graham@sun-circle.co.za Ruan Brand: ruan@sun-circle.co.za

Ifeoma ‘Oma Areh runs WildFlower PR and Company, a Nigerian based entertainment and digital PR company. She has worked on some of the biggest campaigns in Africa with brands such as Coca-cola, One.org and Glo. She is also the convener of Africa’s first ever ‘Digital Entertainment Conference’ #DECAFRICA which took place in May. A public speaker and Aiki mentor, Oma is also a member of the planning committee of The Future Awards Africa.

She lives in Lagos with her husband and children.

Claire Diao is a French and Burkinabe cinema journalist. A member of the Burkinabe Film Critic Organisation, she covers the African film industry for various international media and moderates the Afrikamera Festival in Berlin each year. Since 2013, she has curated a short film touring programme, Quartiers Lointains, which is held in both Europe and Africa. In 2015, she, together with various African film critics, launched Awotele, a digital magazine that focuses on African cinema.

Ian Dormer – ‘Technophile (n) – a person who loves or is enthusiastic about advanced technology.’ Born in Zimbabwe, Ian has been in the TV business since the 1980s, having served in various positions at the SABC, M-Net and SuperSport. He has carved his career path by embracing technology, breaking it and fixing it again… just better than it was!

Ian currently works and resides in New Zealand.

Louise Marsland is a veteran editor and journalist with over 20 years experience in the advertising, media, marketing and communications industries. Based in Cape Town, South Africa, she worked as the editor of AdVantage and Marketing Mix magazines, as well as industry portal Bizcommunity.com. She is currently publishing editor of TRENDAFRiCA.co.za, and is an industry columnist, speaker and content specialist.

Andy Stead is a broadcast industry professional with over 40 years’ experience in both South Africa and the United Kingdom, having applied his trade at a number of leading industry organisations including the BBC and Chroma Television. Now retired, he remains an active contributor to technical publications in the fields of film, television, broadcast, motoring and travel. He is based in Cape Town.

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South Africa

| News

The ATFT partners with Marché du Film and CineMart The Association for Transformation in Film and Television (ATFT) held a press conference at the Durban International Film Festival (DIFF) 2015 to announce a strategic partnership between the Marché du Film of Cannes Film Festival, CineMart – part of the International Film Festival Rotterdam – and the ATFT. The partnership gives rise to a development programme which allows five black South African producers to attend the Rotterdam Lab and the Marché du Film’s Producers Network 2016. The call for entries for the programme went out on 22 July with the deadline for entries falling on 7 August. Preference will be given to producers who already have had a film theatrically released in South Africa or have had their project recognised at an international film festival.

Mayenzeke Baza, director for international relations at the ATFT, says that the concept for the programme originated from an attempt by the ATFT to deepen their current involvement at the Marché du Film’s Producers Network, with a goal to uplift emerging South African producers, “We met with the director of the Marché du Film and the coordinator of the Producers Network to discuss how we can further the programme that we are currently doing…

Our focus is on emerging producers and we discussed what we could do beyond bringing the producer’s to Cannes and enrolling them in the Producers Network and the Producers Workshop.”

From that meeting came the development of a specialised programme where five producers and their projects will be handpicked by the ATFT, in collaboration with the Marché du Film and the Rotterdam CineMart, to be prepped thoroughly for the Producers Network at the Marché du Film. Projects will be selected in line with their potential to receive international financing, co-production partners and distributors.

The programme comprises three stages. First, selected producers will partake in the Rotterdam Lab – which takes place during the CineMart – in January 2016. The Rotterdam Lab is a five-day training workshop aimed at emerging producers, designed to build their international network by equipping them with the skills to effectively navigate the global festival circuit. In addition to the panel discussions taking place at the Lab, producers will benefit from supposed ‘speed dating’ sessions where they will meet with industry delegates and receive feedback regarding their projects.

DEEPER INVOLVEMENT: Mayenzeke Baza Following the Rotterdam Lab, the producers will return to South Africa and attend a series of workshops, two months prior to the Marché du Film, aimed at fine-tuning their projects for the international market in terms of pitching and packaging. The workshops will take place over three days with two mentors – selected by the Marché du Film – sharing their expertise on international co-production and distribution with the producers. In the time leading up to the Marché du Film, these mentors will liaise with the producers to ensure that they are well-prepared for their participation in the

Producers Network.

Lastly, the producers will go to Cannes where they will participate in the Producers Network. The Producers Network hosts more than 500 international producers for a series of meetings and unique events designed to stimulate international co-production and optimise networking. Additionally, the selected producers and their projects will be highlighted at an official Producers Network Breakfast Meeting. Furthermore, the programme will facilitate the arrangement of meetings with distributors and financiers at Cannes to support further development of the projects. The five producers will also be introduced to a selection of key international guests during a luncheon organised by the Marché du Film and the ATFT. The ATFT’s main goal is to assist filmmakers in producing content that can travel. Baza explains that having the Cannes Film Festival’s brand behind this initiative is sure to open doors in international markets for the selected producers, “Cannes is a big brand, leveraging of the experience that Cannes has will surely draw attention to our filmmakers and better their projects on a global scale.” – Chanelle Ellaya

Avid finalises acquisition of Orad In yet another demonstration of the consolidation and vertical integration that has become commonplace in the broadcast technology industry over the past few years, Avid recently completed its acquisition of Orad Hi-Tec Systems.

The deal had been in the making since the end of 2014 and was finally sealed in June, with Avid reportedly paying US$65 million. At the broadcast technology trade show Mediatech Africa, held at the TicketPro Dome in Johannesburg from 14 to 16 July, the acquisition was a fairly popular topic.

Avid is one of the foremost creators of post-production workflows for the film

and television industries worldwide, while Orad is famed for its graphics and video server solutions.

In a statement issued to the press at the time of the announcement, Louis Hernandez, Chairman, President and CEO of Avid, said: “Orad has built an incredibly talented team of visionaries and product experts as well as a culture of customer success, and we are thrilled to have them as part of the Avid family.

Many of Avid’s and Orad’s solutions are already well integrated and widely used together by the world’s top media organizations, and we are working aggressively to bring all of Orad’s

product lines into the Avid MediaCentral platform quickly. We look forward to keeping the community updated on our progress in the coming weeks and months.”

From the standpoint of the user, it appears that Orad is a perfect fit for Avid.

Orad 3D real-time graphics and video servers, as well as related workflow solutions, are already routinely integrated into Avid workflows and Orad’s products complement the Avid MediaCentral platform. Clients of both brands can expect to receive additional benefits from the merger, including greater efficiency and enhanced integration between Avid

and Orad solutions.

The merging and renaming of brands in the broadcast technology industries has happened fairly regularly in the recent past and often results in a period of instability among African resellers and agents and their clients, followed by a reshuffle. Last year’s merger of Grass Valley and Miranda, by parent company Belden, is a case in point. With two separate resellers currently handling sales for Avid and Orad respectively in African territories, it remains to be seen what effect the acquisition will have on the distribution of these brands in this market.

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SOUTH AFRICA

Nommer 37 takes lion’s share of awards at IMSFF The acclaimed thriller Nommer 37 won a total of seven awards at the second International Mzansi Short Film Festival (IMSFF), held at the Asbos Theatre in Pretoria from 2 to 5 July. The awards claimed by the production, an ingenious, Cape Flats-based reinvention of the premise of Alfred Hitchcock’s Rear Window, included Best Director and Best Short Film.

Bradley Joshua of Gambit Films, the executive producer of the film, said of the many industry nods his team has been getting: “We are proud of the recognition that Nommer 37 has received, first at Silwerskermfees last year and now with the seven awards won at IMSFF. The film is a result of hard work and collaboration.

We had a team that gave their very best and collaborative partners who trusted that we as Gambit Films would deliver on what was promised.”

Nommer 37’s IMSFF awards were as follows: Best Makeup and Hairstyling (Sade Barrows and Sadeeqa Martin); Best Editing of a Short Film (Simon Beesley); Best Original Screenplay (Daryne Joshua, Nosipho Dumisa and Travis Taute); Best Actress (Shamilla Miller); Best Director (Travis Taute and Nosipho Dumisa), Best

HARD WORK AND COLLABORATION WINS: A scene from Nommer 37 Short Film and the VIDI Choice Award.

Jarrod de Jong, IMSFF Festival director said of this year’s edition: “Entries this year quadrupled and we showcased 78 films out of 833 entries. Preference was given to local filmmakers but we also had the privilege to showcase top international shorts like the Oscar winner Feast; Danny and the Wild Bunch, which won at the Las Vegas Film Festival; The Gunfighter, which won at the LA Film Festival; and World of Tomorrow, which won at this year’s Sundance Film Festival. We had over 3 000 feet through

the festival and the award ceremony was attended not only by directors and producers, but by influential people in the film industry. The support has been overwhelming mainly because we recognised filmmakers in categories that other festivals and award ceremonies don’t usually do.”

Winners of the other 12 categories were as follows: • Best Animated Short Film – Burgeon (The Animation School – Produced and directed by: Frankie Scholtz and M.W.

Guldenpfennig) • Best Costume Design – André Pretorius (Operasie E.N.G.E.L.) • Best Sound Editing and Mixing – Gareth Wharton (Recovery) • Best Production Design – André Pretorius (Operasie E.N.G.E.L.) • Best Use of Music – Riaan Smit (Lina and Leo) • Best Original Score – Celeste Monteith (Die Laaste Ure) • Best Documentary Short Subject – The Pixie Lowe Story (St Stithians College – Produced and directed by: Cameron Scott, Robert Fields and Felipe Kirsten) • Best Student Short Film – Happy Earth Co. (AFDA – Produced and directed by: Henrik Tjore and Hylton Jandrell) • Best Cinematography – Jacques Brand (Die Laaste Ure) • Best Actor in a Short Film – Daniel Buys (Honesty Pays) • Best Director of a Short Film – Travis Taute and Nosipho Dumisa (Nommer 37) • Best International Short Film – The Gunfighter (Six Shooter Films – Produced and directed by: Sarah Platt and Eric Kissack)

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TechnologY | Advertorial

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Questek shows a complete chain Questek Advanced Technologies is a major supplier of visualisation products for diverse markets which include digital cinema, corporate audio visual, digital signage, control rooms, rental and staging and broadcast. Their presence at Mediatech 2015 was focused on broadcast, rental and staging.

“For both of these markets we tried to give a complete chain of innovative equipment providing a total solution,” says director George van Gils. “On the broadcast side we first started with the virtual set then moved on to the Vidigo automatic production switcher and then for post production we had the Quantel Pablo Rio. “For rental and staging we start with d3 providing the pre-production tools as well as the media servers. From here this gets routed to the Barco E2, which is a router, and DVE and then is finally displayed on a variety of Barco projectors.

We had several principals on the stand.”

The big crowd puller was undoubtedly the Brainstorm Virtual set represented by Borja Chirivella, sales director LATAM, Middle East & China. The demonstration with a presenter against a green screen with a huge variety of virtual sets in the

6 | SCREENAFRICA | August 2015

A TOTAL SOLUTION: Sarah Cox of d3 with George van Gils of Questek background was astonishing.

Another interesting demonstration was that of d3, whose sales manager Sarah Cox was highly enthusiastic regarding the variety of products on show. “d3 is the world’s first integrated production suite,” claims Cox. ”It combines a real time 3D stage visualiser, timeline sequencer and a powerful media playback engine all in one consistent package. The system is used for musicals and theatre, live events,

TV broadcasts and concert touring.”

Other products on display included Barco E2, the Barco projector HDF W30 Flex, the Barco projector RLM W14 and the Barco projector PGWU-62 L all represented by Marc Geldhof, Sales Manager MEA. Vidigo was represented by sales manager Remco van Kuilenburg, who demonstrated the Vidigo Visual Radio and automation. VidiGo Visual Radio is a

fully automated software solution that automatically switches cameras and plays graphics by analysing audio signals and XML data from the radio station’s automation system.

“There was huge interest in the stand,” concluded van Gils; “the Brainstorm Virtual Set in particular had huge interest from all the major broadcasters.”

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Zimbabwe | SOUTH AFRICA

Zimbabwean actor Tongayi Chirisa stars in

The Jim Gaffigan Show

INSPIRATION FOR AFRICA: The cast: (L-R) Tongayi Chirisa, Adam Goldberg, Jim Gaffigan, Ashley Williams and Michael Ian Black Zimbabwean-born Tongayi Chirisa says that he has always known that acting was his calling. At the tender age of nine, he excelled in what he refers to as his first acting gig, where he played the role of a king in his school play.

“We had to present to the rest of the school during a Friday morning assembly; I was so good in the role that the teachers

came to commend me on my performance,” he laughs.

Chirisa started his professional acting career in 2002, playing the role of detective Trevor Davies in Zimbabwean soap opera Studio 263. He later moved to South Africa to study acting at The South African School of Motion Picture Medium and Live Performance (AFDA). Having

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featured in a string of successful local and international movies including Mr Bones 2: Back from the Past, Zimbabwe, Skin and Mrs Mandela, Chirisa landed his first major role playing Man Friday on the NBC International television series Crusoe, based on Daniel Defoe’s classic novel.

Most recently, the charismatic young Zimbabwean landed his most prominent role yet as catholic priest Father Nicholas Ngugumbane, in TV Land’s The Jim Gaffigan Show.

“My character on The Jim Gaffigan Show is a very jubilant catholic priest from a remote area in Zimbabwe called Nkalange,” explains Chirisa. “He is a constant positive, affirming force in Jim’s life that encourages him to come to church more often. This was one of those roles that was literally tailored for me, because I am Zimbabwean, which made the building process of this character fun because of the endless material to glean from the people of Zimbabwe. I would always find new quirky things to do within the realm I created for the character by remembering a memory of a person and how that individual ate or spoke or moved.”

Written primarily by comedian Jim Gaffigan, executive producer Peter Tolan and Jim’s wife Jeannie Gaffigan, The Jim Gaffigan Show is a semi-autobiographical series inspired by the comedian’s real life struggle to find a balance between fatherhood, being a husband, stand-up

comedy and his ravenous appetite. Set in New York City, the single-cam, 30-minute sitcom premiered to American audiences on 15 July, receiving mixed reviews. Critics praised the series for its honest humour and strong cast, but took less of liking to its format, built around a comedian playing a somewhat tweaked version of himself.

Other characters include Jim’s eccentric wife, Jeannie (Ashley Williams); Jim’s single friend, Dave (Adam Goldberg); and Jeannie’s gay ex-boyfriend and confidante, Daniel (Michael Ian Black). Season one also features a number of celebrity and media cameos including Chris Rock, Jon Stewart, Steve Buscemi and Hannibal Buress.

Chirisa is back on African soil for the moment to shoot a romantic comedy in South Africa titled Happiness is a Four Letter Word. “It centres on three best friends who have everything going for them, except in the area of relationships with men and how they resolve those problems,” he says.

Commenting on the highlight of his acting career to date, Chirisa says that being an inspiration to his fellow African people has been the biggest achievement for him: “I want them to see that it is possible to start from your backyard and grace the sets in Hollywood.” – Chanelle Ellaya

Story Lab is triggered The River Club in Observatory, Cape Town was the venue for the launch of the Triggerfish Animation Studios’ Story Lab initiative. At this well-attended affair, Triggerfish were joined by representatives of The Department of Trade and Industry (dti) as well as the Walt Disney Company, both of whom are highly supportive of the initiative.

Essentially Triggerfish, which was established in 1996 and has produced two internationally acclaimed animated feature films, Adventures in Zambezia and Khumba, intends to conduct a search for African storytellers. Entries will be carefully selected based on certain criteria while a panel of experts, both local and international, including high profile names from the United Kingdom and the USA, will do the evaluations.

Local evaluation will be done by Gcina Mhlope, David Kau and the development team of Triggerfish including Anthony Silverston, Raffaela Delle Donne and Wayne Thornley.

The call is for skilled writers aged 21 and older who are citizens or permanent residents of any African country, to submit a synopsis of their stories – maximum four 8 | SCREENAFRICA | August 2015

THE SEARCH FOR AFRICAN STORYTELLERS: Triggerfish Story Lab panel at the launch pages in length – in English, together with a one pager explaining why the story should be told. Applications must be made online at www.triggerfishstudios. com to reach them by 31 August 2015.

The stories must be universal, character driven with a fresh voice and be primed for humour, heart and action.

Successful applicants will attend a two-week workshop with Hollywood script consultants as well as two weeks of mentoring with key execs at Disney in California. The fine-tuned idea will then be pitched. The six finalists will get paid and undergo personal mentorship and work immersion at Disney, and will pass through two nine-month stages up to final script, guided by industry professionals.

The selected top story will be made into a theatrical feature or television show for international release. At this stage the

successful applicant will have been paid a total of R1 million.

Triggerfish will be investing up to R44 million over the next three years and is heavily supported by the dti. Nelly Molokoane of the dti confirmed their willingness to partner with private companies. “The dti will make a contribution of 36 million over a period of three years. We are looking forward to this project and we are committed to developing this pool of talent,” she said.

Molokoane also mentioned the benefit of creating employment opportunities and the great contribution the animation industry makes to the economy of the country. “Triggerfish will need to look at transforming the industry and look at young and up-coming animators, including women,” she added. “I would also like to commend a small company like Triggerfish for their initiatives.”

Christine Service, senior vice president and country manager of the Walt Disney Company Africa, showed some of the Disney animation productions, and went on to advise what programmes are scheduled for shooting in Africa.

She commended the quality of African animation. “We are looking for African stories for a global audience and we are excited that we will have the winners of this programme at our office in Burbank, Los Angeles to spend a couple of weeks with our film and television experts and to see how we do things at Disney. We really could not be more excited.”

“The Story Lab aims to be a great catalyst for African creativity,” says Stuart Forrest, Triggerfish CEO. “We are really looking forward to extending the Triggerfish production platform to Africa and the top creative talent that exists there”. – Andy Stead

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Red & Yellow launches Joburg campus

Red & Yellow CEO, Lynette Oelschig

The Red & Yellow School of Magic and Logic has appointed Lynette Oelschig as its CEO to drive strategic expansion of the business into Africa through eLearning courses, additional qualifications and a new campus in Johannesburg.

The new CEO will oversee the ‘ambitious growth strategy’ for the marketing and advertising school, which has set a target of recruiting 100 000 students by 2020.

Her first task was to launch the new Johannesburg campus in the heart of the CBD this month.

Oelschig has more than 24 years of pan-African marketing, strategic communications and management experience with brands such as M-Net, MWeb, Brand South Africa and Accenture, living on the continent, outside of South Africa, for a large part of her career.

“We are positioning the Red & Yellow to be the leading school of advertising 10 | SCREENAFRICA | August 2015

and marketing in Africa. We aim to have 100 000 students in Africa by 2020, both fulltime and online. 10% of those will be studying for free through our bursary fund or SETA-funded courses,” Oelschig says.

Of course the challenge is to stay relevant to global trends and what the industry wants. This is why the Joburg campus has been situated in the Johannesburg CBD. “The position of the new campus is relevant to where we are going in contributing to transforming the industry. We have to play a big role in advertising.”

It is also why the school established a National Certificate at NQF Level 5,

SETA-accredited, as an opportunity for students without university exemption, to do a one-year certificate to bridge the gap and give them a springboard into the industry.

Red & Yellow, which was seen as a boutique creative advertising school in Cape Town for many years, was originally started two decades ago by legendary ad men, Brian Searle-Tripp and Bob Rightford. It was bought by Quirk Education, part of Quirk digital agency, two years ago and rebranded and integrated with Quirk’s popular online digital marketing courses.

Red & Yellow’s stated aim is “to deliver cutting-edge learning for the marketing, advertising and communications industry for young people looking to enter the industry as well as professionals who need to improve their existing knowledge and experience.” The educational institution will be doing this by launching new degree courses, partnering with other schools on the continent, and expanding courses online to reach more students in the marketing communications field; as well as professionals needing to upskill in their careers.

This focus on professional development is a major thrust as much of tertiary and post-graduate education in the future will be online. Oelschig sees major growth happening in the following subjects: MAP (marketing, advertising, communications); art direction and design; and copywriting. They are currently also waiting for accreditation for a BA degree in visual communications.

On the full time side they have four new advanced diplomas launching for 2017 in copywriting, digital design, digital marketing and brand journalism.

“Brand storytelling is where the industry is,” she reiterates. “And our online digital marketing course in partnership with Stellenbosch Business School is one of our biggest.”

Red & Yellow is also targeting companies for enterprise skills development, running courses and creating ‘academies’ within corporates in the financial and communications sectors predominantly.

The school is proud of its famous alumni who have headed up the creative departments at top agencies, launched their own businesses and won many of the top industry awards on offer.

“For the past 20 years, Red & Yellow has been creating the country’s best marketers and creatives, and they’ve been building the world’s biggest brands. Our strategy for the next five years will be built on three pillars: growth, relevance and worldclass standards. Our growth strategy is not just about recruiting students, but also about growing our menu of courses and expanding into new geographies,” Oelschig explains.

Relevance is key is to aiding students and professionals to keep up with the specialist skills required of a rapidly evolving marketing environment.

Red & Yellow is the only advertising school in South Africa to launch an advertising learnership programme with a fully funded National Certificate in Advertising as part of the Red & Yellow Springboard Marketing Institute for disadvantaged students.

“As always, we will remain a training provider that offers agencies, brands and students’ practical training and education that is aligned with the needs of the working world. Red & Yellow still stands for logic and magic – a place where students learn to apply strategic thinking and unleash their creativity to meet the business needs of African brands and agencies,” says Oelschig.

– Louise Marsland

Music Videos | Nigeria

| ADCETERA

Pictures in her mind “I always say to students, you are the master of the equipment. You call the shots,” says Nigerian filmmaker Kemi Adetiba. “You might have gadgets worth a million dollars, but a million-dollar final product is a result of how well you are able to direct the different variables (technical and creative) towards your final vision.”

This quote has proven true to the award winning director’s career. Adetiba has directed some of Nigeria’s most critically acclaimed music videos. Her body of work includes videos for Nigeria’s biggest music stars from Wizkid, Tiwa Savage and Olamide to Waje and Bez among others.

How did a law graduate end up as one of Nigeria’s most celebrated filmmakers in a cutthroat, male-dominated field? A lot of curiosity and hard work, it appears; as a student at the University of Lagos, she was already a radio presenter with two nationally syndicated shows at Rhythm FM. Her résumé also boasts producer and presenter credits on several shows on M-Net, including Studio 53 and Temptation Nigeria.

An alumnus of the New York Film Academy, Adetiba is a highly sought-after director of commercials and documentaries, and has a short film under her belt. However her most celebrated work is in music videos, where her unique and often unexpected interpretations have become the stuff of social media lore. “I really don’t think about the ideas for music videos first,” she explains. “ I open myself to it. It’s a very raw and vulnerable process.

Sometimes it comes quick, sometimes it takes weeks, but suddenly I see pictures in my mind. It’s a truly weird experience, but it hasn’t failed me yet!” she says with a cheeky laugh.

She takes a more serious tone when explaining her role as CEO of Kemi Adetiba Visuals. Acknowledging her

Kemi Adetiba

initial struggle as a creative, Adetiba clarifies; “Organisation and business was definitely a weak point for me, I had to pay extra attention to it.” When hiring, I look for people that are dedicated to the craft and have a genuine love for the business. It’s not a conventional industry.

We don’t have regular hours. Sometimes, we shoot for 24 hours, on public holidays, or in the worst of terrains. What gets you through it all is the love of the craft.”

In Nigeria’s booming industry, which churns out scores of music videos every month, Adetiba admits that it is a good time to be in the business. She points out a few contemporaries she admires.

“Clarence Peters, Mex, Moe Musa, Adasa Cookey, Aje, Unlimited LA and a few others. I’m honoured to be called in the same breath as them.” Even with all her awards, she maintains a pragmatic view; “I try not to qualify my work with them.

Without sounding cliché, my rewards come from the response of the audience.

When someone tells you your work inspired them to pick up a camera, it’s greater than any award you could ever get.”

For a few weeks every year, she is a lecturer at the Frontline Media Academy, which is based in Nigeria’s capital, Abuja.

“I am worried about the infrastructure available for this industry,” she notes. “It has definitely improved over the years, we can see that with the content being birthed daily. However, I feel more improvement is welcome and more strength is needed at the foundation.”

Adetiba admits to an earlier fixation on purchasing the latest equipment, a fad that would prove very expensive. “One of the biggest lessons I learnt in film school is that it is not about the machine, but about the person operating the machine.” These days, she is more practical and confident about her choices and says, “Right now I tend to use the RED camera more. It is able to deliver the quality I need at an affordable day rent rate, I also shoot on the Sony F5 and Alexa.”

As one of Nigeria’s most vibrant and entertaining social media personalities, Adetiba is the first person to tell you that social media works for her line of business. “If they had respect for my work before, with social media it’s even bigger because they understand a lot of my creative choices and they see a connection to my personality,” she says Adetiba is deft with her social media engagement, playing a masterful hand at

give and take. Though she often takes turns at sharing some of her most vulnerable experiences and asking her followers to do the same, she frequently tones it down with her infectious sense of humour. Juggling her presence predominantly on Twitter and Instagram, she enjoys a combined following of over 120 000.

A regular visitor to her social media pages would discover her love for the NBA, pictures and cooking, the latter for which she uses the hashtag #ThingsKemiCooks. This love would give birth to her newest baby, a cooking vlog where she shares her recipes with her audience.

Adetiba is passionate about passing a positive message to young girls aspiring to work in her field. “Of course there are challenges, however, I don’t want a little girl with even the tiniest spark of interest in my industry to hear how difficult it is, how I probably have to work twice as hard as the opposite sex or how you sometimes get ignored when it comes to awards and accolades. Instead, I’d love her to read about how I am here without compromising myself. It CAN be done.

That’s all she needs to know.”

– Ifeoma ‘Oma’ Areh August 2015 | SCREENAFRICA | 11

ADCETERA | Opinion

PromaxBDA honours ‘the Creatorshakers’ The only event of its kind on the continent dedicated to promotions in broadcast television, PromaxBDA Africa is now in its tenth year. This anniversary edition of the conference and awards is dedicated to what Tim Horwood, PromaxBDA chairman calls, ‘Creatorshakers’.

These are the people, he says in his chairman’s letter, who have driven the promo industry over the past decade, “the imaginers, doers and makers. Those who ignite imaginations and speak in HD. The ones who give up their lazy mornings and sanity to give their love to their work.”

Horwood recalls how, only 10 years ago, creatives worked without the many technological advances that now facilitate our work and which we take for granted.

“Ten years ago, there was no poop face emoji.

How were we expressing ourselves back then, without it? I don’t even want to remember.

There was no WiFi, either. I think we still had dial-up, which was marginally faster than carrier pigeons. In 2005 I had to flirt with air hostesses to convince them to carry Betacam tapes to deliver them in London for me. Now I PromaxBDA chairman Tim Horwood can send content anywhere in the world, in a matter of minutes, without leaving is also number one on the list for my desk.” overseas speakers to present at. They No matter what level of technology get a real buzz from the enthusiasm and creatives are working with, the standard eagerness to learn shown by the local remains high and the ‘Creatorshakers’ of delegates. The African PromaxBDA today and ten years ago put the same entries are also very popular with the level of passion and creativity into their overseas judges, who love the fresh, work, regardless of what tools they may unique, Afrocentric twist on global TV have at their disposal. For this reason, “in shows, as well as innovative broadcast 2015 Promax BDA celebrates its 10th design which continues to come out of anniversary in Africa, and we dedicate this the region.” year to the brilliant, sleep-deprived, Call for entries are now open for the budget-stretching individuals who create, annual PromaxBDA Awards sponsored and do it so beautifully,” Horwood says.

by M-Net and DStv. The awards follow Vanessa Sheldrick, event director for the one day conference which will be PromaxBDA, says, “The PromaxBDA held in Sandton at The Maslow on 20 Africa event is highly anticipated by the November. The SABC will once again be local television broadcast community and the Platinum Sponsor .

12 | SCREENAFRICA | August 2015

Someone stirred my trifle

By Mariana O’Kelly,

executive creative director at Ogilvy & Mather South Africa We open on a wide shot of a kitchen. A woman is sitting at a table, she looks into camera as she starts talking: “Inspiration for me usually comes in neat layers of bright colours, kind of like how my mom’s trifle mesmerised me on Sundays when I was a little girl.

Looking at great work still has that effect on me. It makes me believe I can capture that colour and make something equally mesmerising and beautiful. With a little Nike swoosh cherry on top. Yes, I can do this too. Yes, the many talented people in our industry can help me do this.

But this year, Cannes stirred my trifle and I found all the jelly colours mixed up making up some new colour that I couldn’t find in the big book of Pantone.

Judging by the multiple online articles that did the rounds after Cannes, it seemed like I wasn’t the only one who had their pudding shaken and stirred.

Media channels didn’t just take over the Croisette beach front at Cannes. They also took up most of the conversations.

Topics revolved around fast Mariana O’Kelly consumed content and a generation that curates and dictates and how brands, little girl from the #likeagirl Always production companies and agencies commercial. I can recall the knitted jersey are battling to keep up. Is a YouTube, the Old Spice mom under the ice was Snapchat, Vimeo generation still wearing. And I want to pause on these interested in a cinematic opening shot? scenes and call someone over to share Or do they literally just want a cheap in my joy. And by sharing in my joy, I laugh and to move on to the next piece make them share in the brand of content? effortlessly. No hard work or big logos If I listen to people retelling their required. dreams, and I listen to their ability to The hard work is making sure these recount every colour, smell, every moments we are creating for our dramatic pause, every cinematic shot, brands stick and they become every bizarre detail, I can’t help but sharable. As an industry, we have to think that they are recalling the define our story making ability by our production elements of an expensive passion to want to make something film, not a quickly produced Vimeo new, not to win something. Our desire upload. It is always the detail they to tell stories that haven’t been told remember for days afterwards. So before. And the only way to tell a new surely if we want our stories or brands story, is to change the detail. And for to be remembered, we have to be all that we need our finest writers, art about the detail too. directors, directors, cinematographers, If I think about my favourite films set designers, builders, musicians and from Cannes this year, it’s also the producers to create it. detail I remember. I remember the After all, who wants to create stories exact way the woman from the Geico that are discarded after being watched ad looked at her husband when the when one can mesmerise.” dog started eating the salad, how Cut to our woman taking out a stack impressed I was with the little boy for of dessert spoons from the drawer. A not moving at all. I remember the perfectly layered trifle is sitting on the soundtrack from the Nike ad, the table with a bright red cherry on top. resolute serious look on the face of the We fade to black.

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FESTIVALS AND MARKETS | DURBAN FILMMART REPORT

Africa is BURSTING with STORIES AfricA’s LeAding fiLmmAking event The energy at Durban FilmMart (DFM) this year was one of cross-continental vibrancy. Walking through the hallways at the Elangeni Hotel, it was impossible to pass a group of engaged filmmakers without hearing the delightful twangs of foreign accents intertwining with local banter. Throughout various workshops, sessions and in discussion with delegates and experts, a subject which kept cropping up was the African narrative – its untapped potential, its unique appeal to the international community and the struggles which African filmmakers have in delivering these stories in a way that really resonates with audiences.

Pan-Africanism

Co-production

Closely related to discussions around ‘the African narrative’ was the topic of pan-Africanism. In a panel discussion titled ‘Connecting with African Festivals and Markets’, facilitated by Durban International Film Festival director Pedro Pimento, speakers from numerous African festivals including FESPACO, Carthage, Luxor, Encounters and AFRIFF, stressed the importance of forming a pan-African partnership between these festivals.

Pimento commented: “DIFF will be looking at working to establish very special relationships with these festivals; we are not sure to what extent at this stage but we are planning meetings to establish a minimum plan of action so that the film industry in Africa can benefit from this partnership.”

In another panel discussion relating to the importance of pan-African collaboration with regard to policymaking, panel members from the ATFT, P2P International Documentary Conference, WGSA and Docubox discussed the concept of ‘voice’ in depth and what it takes for African filmmakers to be heard in society. Judy Kibinge, organiser of Docubox – the East African documentary film fund – concluded the session titled ‘Removing the Frame: Perspectives from the next generation of African cinema’ with a powerful statement, “If you’re actually going to get anywhere, you better get together with some other people.”

This year there were a number of forums on co-production, one of which was a ‘Co-Producing with Canada’ session.

When asked what excited him most about being at DFM, panel member Anthony Sherwood, an award-winning Canadian actor, producer and director commented, “For me it’s hearing the stories Africans want to tell – there is such an amazingly diverse array of stories.”

With the imminent signing of a co-production treaty between South Africa and Brazil, the South Africa’s National Film and Video Foundation (NFVF) and its Brazilian counterpart Ancine held a session to discuss the benefits of this agreement for both countries. The general consensus is that when co-production is done right, filmmakers on both sides are able to produce better quality work, reach a larger audience and make a bigger profit.

Speaking at the ‘Co-producing with Brazil’ session, filmmaker Carla Osorio shared that Brazilians are largely consumers of Hollywood content but she hopes to see a change in this consumer behaviour once the SA/Brazil coproduction treaty has been signed.

In a similar discussion on co-production titled ‘Co-producing with Reunion’, a representative from the Agence Film Réunion shared the numerous ways in which South African filmmakers can benefit from co-producing with Reunion Island. The most noteworthy benefit he

14 | SCREENAFRICA | August 2015

6th

Durban FilmMart at the Durban Interna

tional Film Festival 201

5

story pitch, something filmmakers still cited was that the Agence Film Réunion struggle to execute successfully. “One of has access to French, African and Reunion four dAys one venue unLimited opportunities the things I am trying to get filmmakers to financing, providing a far larger funding understand is that pitching is not a matter pool. Randresy explained that what is of preparing for a pitch on Monday considered to be crucial in a coafternoon. It’s a way of life; it’s something production project for them is content, is now open. Find out more on are… www.durbanfilmmart.com you you are pitching constantly,” “We are willing Delegate to tell registration the same stories, said Zwana. from a different point of view,” he said.

In his masterclass titled ‘Pitching Your Way into the International Film Business’, Story development Italian filmmaker Stefano Tealdi shared his own pitching ideas and experiences with In her masterclass on story development, attendees. Tealdi said that the most French scriptwriting consultant Sari valuable tip he has to offer to filmmakers Turgeman said that filmmakers in pitching their concepts is to simply be attendance had responded well to her yourself. “Don’t be afraid to show method – which focusses on a more passion… you are a professional and so is natural way of writing, drawing on life your listener, they need you just as much around you. “What was really interesting as you need them.” for African filmmakers was the way this Platforms like DFM give filmmakers an helps scriptwriters to find their own opportunity to clamber through unique voice,” remarked Turgeman. stumbling blocks on the way to finding This is another example of the their cinematic voice. In a session titled eagerness which filmmakers on the ‘Shifting Perspectives on Short continent have expressed in sharing their Filmmaking’ University of the stories through film. Though judging by Witwatersrand film and scriptwriting the discussion generated in a session lecturer Kenneth Kaplan expressed his titled ‘Panic at the box office’ in which the hopes for this journey: “If there’s one NFVF gave feedback on their 2014 Box thing African filmmakers should be Office Report, the majority of filmmakers doing it’s agreeing not to be the same have a long way to go in fine-tuning as everyone else, not to find easy concepts and scripts to appeal to ideological solutions to what films we local audiences. should be making. I think they should Perfect pitch fight hard to win back the ground that some African filmmakers believe they A subject which Thandeka Zwana of need to own.” – Carly Barnes, Restless Global tackled in ‘How to Pitch’ Chanelle Ellaya and ‘The Restless Pitch’ at DFM was the

17–20 JuLy 2015

FESTIVALS AND MARKETS | DIFF REPORT

and Badou Boy) because these films are icons of African cinema and filmmakers and scholars talk about them all the time, but my experience at Durban showed that a lot of young South African filmmakers have not seen the films.

Although Touki Bouki is available on DVD, Badou Boy is very hard to find, so this is a great opportunity to raise awareness of the film and give DIFF audiences a chance to see them. Then I also included The Blue Eyes of Yonta (Flora Gomes from Guinea Bissau) because it is an equally important but unknown film. I included a lusophone film to add to the variety and diversity of the selection.

Africa’s lost classics What happened to the African movies made in the ‘60s and ‘70s? Where can we see them? In an attempt to answer this question, the Durban International Film Festival (DIFF), with the support of M-Net, invited a selection of ‘Lost Classics’ from Africa. The curator Lizelle Bischoff, a South African scholar from the University of Glasgow and founder of the Africa in Motion Film Festival in Edinburgh, talked to Screen Africa.

DIFF’s Lost Classics selection is linked to a book, Africa’s Lost Classics, New Histories of African Cinema (Legenda, 2015) which you co-edited with David Murphy. What was the starting point of this research?

The idea grew out of our work during the early years of the Africa in Motion Film Festival. In 2006 and 2007, we held two programmes of ‘Lost African Classics’ at the festival. In the first year, we selected films from Francophone directors that were very little known at the time, and not seen in cinemas or festivals any longer, especially in the English-speaking world.

These films were: Badou Boy and Contras City by Djibril Diop Mambety (Senegal), The Return of the Adventurer by

Moustapha Alassane (Niger) and Concerto for an Exile by Desire Ecare (Ivory Coast).

Then in the second year we screened a programme of films by female directors: Sambizanga by Sarah Maldoror (Angola), Selbe by Safi Faye (Senegal) and La Nouba by Assia Djebar (Algeria). We were interested in what these films tell us about the historical development of African cinema, how they expand our understanding of African cinema, beyond the ‘canon’ of Sembene’s social realist, political cinema, for example. For the book, we expanded the selection of films to include little known and neglected films from all over the continent. The book is chronologically and regionally structured and includes films from the very beginnings of African cinema (1920s – Egypt and South Africa) to the early 2000s.

Five movies were showcased at DIFF: Mambety’s Badou Boy and Touki Bouki (Senegal), Lionel Rogosin’s Come Back Africa, Oliver Schmitz’s Mapantsula (South Africa) and Flora Gomes’The Blue Eyes of Yonta (Guinea

BACK ON SCREEN: A scene from The Blue Eyes of Yonta (Guinea Bissau 1992) Bissau). Why these ones?

For DIFF, I wanted a small selection that is representative of our understanding of ‘lost’ classics. It being a South African festival, it made sense to include Come Back Africa and Mapantsula, two of the most important anti-apartheid films ever made, both of which were banned at the time of their production. We held the screening of Come Back Africa at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, in the exact same theatre where the film was screened for the first time in South Africa in 1982!

(Many years after it was made in 1959, because it was banned at first). I also included two Mambety films (Touki Bouki

Tunisia: modernity and tradition Launched in 1966 by Tunisian film critic Tahar Cheriaa, the Carthage International Film Festival aimed to link North African content to sub-Saharan content. It was followed, in 1969, by the Pan African Film Festival of Ouagadougou (Burkina Faso), another important film festival on the continent that, every second year, promotes films from Africa and the liaspora.

It is a great pleasure to discover that the counterpart of these two festivals from the south of the continent – the Durban International Film Festival (DIFF) – launched in 1979 at the University of Natal by Ros and Teddy Sarkin – is now part of this intercontinental network.

This year, the newly appointed DIFF director Pedro Pimenta invited his fellows from Fespaco (Ardiouma Soma) and Carthage (Dora Bouchoucha) to screen some of their best movies to the South African audience.

Dora Bouchoucha, producer and previous director of the Carthage International Film Festival, decided to screen some features and short films from the period post after the so-called ‘Jasmin Revolution’: Raja Amari’s Tunisian Spring (Main Competition), Néjib Belkhadi’s Bastardo, Kaouther Ben 16 | SCREENAFRICA | August 2015

INTERCONTINENTAL NETWORK: A scene from Raj Amari’s Tunisian Spring Hania’s Le Challat of Tunis, Hinde Boujemaa’s It Was BetterTomorrow, Sami Tlili’s Curse of the Phosphate, Hamza Ouni’s El Gort, Mohamed Challouf’s Tahar Cheriaa under the Shadow of the Baobab and Mohamed Ben Attia’Selma.

“It was an opportunity for the South African audience to discover Tunisia, a country with both African and Arab heritage and culture. A young society swept by contradictory trends mingling with modernity, tradition and a thirst for other horizons and a strong attachment to their millenary history – a society where women are the most audible in defending their acquired rights and fighting endlessly against retrograde forces,” wrote Bouchoucha.

Her choice of male and female directors, young and older, focusing on

the past and present History of Tunisia, was thus interesting. Because this country, the first on the continent in recent years to eject its president, setting an example for Libya, Egypt, Senegal and Burkina Faso, has a traditional link to cinema through various cine-clubs, non-professional filmmakers organisations, and a Golden Palm, thanks to the French and Tunisian filmmaker Abdellatif Kechiche (Blue is the Warmest Color in 2013).

In her selection, Bouchoucha focused on various aspects of the society. With Mohamed Challouf’s Tahar Cheriaa under the Shadow of the Baobab, the idea was to remind people how African cinema was promoted in the 1970s and to recall the struggle to create a different cinematic perspective on the continent.

Where did you find the copies? How do we get access to these films?

M-Net has bought the rights of a large number of old African films, for their African film library. The plan was to digitise these films and make them available to watch online. This was possible for a short time, but now the African Film Library is not online any more. As they still hold the rights, one could only hope that they will make these films more widely available. A small number of older African films can be purchased on DVD, and beyond that, it is the work of festivals such as DIFF to organise retrospectives such as this one. – Claire Diao

Focusing on women’s issues, Kaouther Ben Hania’s mockumentary Le Challat of Tunis satirises misogynistic attitudes by referring, in a humorous way, to the urban legend that once circulated in Tunis about a man who rode around the city on a motorbike, slashing the buttocks of women he felt were too revealingly dressed.

Mohamed Ben Attia’short film Selma describes how a widow has to fight against her husband’s family to survive and raise her daughter. Hinde Boujemaa’s documentary It Was Better Tomorrow presents a different perspective on the Revolution. A social outsider, Aida, is looking for a place to stay with her son but is put in jail for stealing. For her, before or after the Revolution, nothing has really changed.

The aim of the 2011 Revolution is also well depicted in Raja Amari’s feature Tunisian Spring, a TV drama for ARTE channel, where three musicians struggling to survive in a corrupt and oppressive society, find their lives forever changed by the events of the revolution.

Awarded at the 2014 Carthage International Film Festival, Hamza Ouni’s El Gort (Bronze Documentary Award) and Néjib Belkhadi’s Bastardo (TV5 Monde Award), among with Sami Tlili’s Curse of the Phosphate complete this new wave of emerging Tunisian filmmakers ‘armed with cameras to give voice to their points of view on the new society’, a society looking for freedom and political stability.

In August 2015, three Tunisian feature projects will be presented at Locarno Open Doors. – Claire Diao

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FESTIVALS AND MARKETS | DIFF REPORT

DIFF 2015 focuses on Brazil The 36th Durban International Film Festival (DIFF) – which took place from 16 to 26 July – shone a light on Brazilian cinema with a dedicated ‘Focus Brazil’ section in its 2015 screening programme.

The introduction to the Brazilian film selection read: “What comes to mind when we think of Brazil? Football?

Postcards? Samba? Economic development or the ‘favela’ (township)?”

If one looks closely at the aforementioned cultural traits associated with Brazil, it’s impossible not to notice the inherent similarities between the South American country and South Africa, as well as Africa as a whole – similarities, which have directly contributed to the imminent signing of a co-production treaty between South Africa and Brazil.

Co-production At the 6th Durban FilmMart, which ran alongside DIFF 2015, the National Film and Video Foundation (NFVF) and Ancine – the Brazilian National Cinema Agency – held a panel discussion to discuss the

Focus Brazil film selection

INHERENT SIMILARITIES: Still from The History of Eternity impending agreement.

Eduardo Novellie Valente, head of international affairs at Ancine, explained that it is the abovementioned commonalities between the two countries that make South Africa a ‘natural’ co-production partner for Brazil: “The similarities between South Africa and Brazil are many, not only culturally, ethnically and in terms of physical landscapes, but in terms of both countries’ historical struggles,” said Valente.

The benefits of this South-South collaboration will include increased financial aid for filmmakers, more locations, a larger skills pool as well as more creative resources, but most importantly, films from both countries will have a far wider market reach.

Speaking at the discussion, NFVF representative Terence Khumalo

explained that South Africa sees Brazil as a strategic partner that could open doors to markets in other Portuguese-speaking countries and in the same way Brazil could use South Africa as a gateway into the rest of the continent. “We view this relationship very seriously and we see it working for both of us because of the similarities between the two countries,” said Khumalo.

According to Elias Ribeiro – producer, director and founder of the production company Urucu Media – the coproduction treaty was announced originally in Cannes three years ago. As it stands, the treaty is ready to be signed, all agreements have been concluded and the text is ready. “It is a very technical thing that is holding back the signing,” explains Ribeiro. “For the signatures to be on paper, the two ministers or presidents need to be in the same space.”

The ‘Focus Brazil’ film selection – curated

by Brazilian producer and distributor Carla Osorio – presented four feature films, two documentaries and three shorts, all released between 2013 and 2014.

Two feature films from the north-east State of Pernambuco were screened: Camilo Cavalcanti’s story of love and desire, The History of Eternity, and director Marcelo Pedroso’s Brazilian Dream, an opera film that portrays Brazilian economical circles.

From central Brazil and around the capital Brasília: director Adirley Queiroz’s film White Out, Black In provides social criticism of a divided country longing for transformation. Casa Grande or The Ballad of Poor Jean, directed by Felipe Barbosa, focuses on the widening gap between rich and poor in Brazil.

From Rio de Janeiro, the documentary City of God – 10 Years Later, directed by Cavi Borges and Luciano Vidigal was shown. The film investigates the lives of the cast of Fernando Meirelles’s 2002 box office hit City of God following its worldwide success. Also from Rio, director Joel Pizzini’s Naked Eye deals with Brazilian musician, Ney Mato Grosso.

Short films are hugely popular in Brazil.

Shorts screened as part of the Brazilian Focus were: The Club by Allan Ribeiro, Heartless by Nara Normande and Xirê by Marcelo Pinheiro. – Chanelle Ellaya

Durban International Film Festival Awards The winners of this year’s Durban International Film Festival awards are: • Best Feature Film Sunrise: Partho Sen-Gupta – Special Mention for Best Film Tunisian Spring: Raja Amari • Best South African Feature Film Necktie Youth: Sibs Shongwe-La Mer • Best Direction Necktie Youth: Sibs Shongwe-La Mer – Special Mention for Direction Things of the Aimless Wanderer: Kivu Ruhorahoza • Best Documentary Beats of the Antonov: Hajooj Kuka • Best South African Documentary The Dream of the Shahrazad: Francois Verster – Special Mention for a Documentary Democrats: Camilla Nielsson • Best Actor Fevers: Didier Michon • Best Actress Tunisian Spring: Anissa Daoud • Best African Short Film The Aftermath of the Inauguration of the Public Toilet at Kilometre 375: Omar el Zohairy 18 | SCREENAFRICA | August 2015

• Best South African Short Film Unomalanga and The Witch: Palesa Shongwe • Production Merit Award Rights of Passage: Ntombizodwa Magagula, Mapula Sibanda, Lerato Moloi, Valencia Joshua, Zandile Angeline Wardle, Tony Miyambo, Rethabile Mothobi, Yashvir Bagwandeen • Best Screenplay Sugar Cane Shadows: Sabrina Compeyron and David Constantin • Best Cinematography Sunrise: Jean-Marc Ferriere • Durban International Film Festival Audience Award The Shore Break: Ryley Grunenwald • Amnesty International Durban Human Rights Award The Shore Break: Ryley Grunenwald • Amnesty International Durban Human Rights Honorary Award The Look of Silence: Joshua Oppenheimer • Arterial Network’s Artwatch Africa Award Beats of the Antonov: Hajooj Kuka HIGHLY COVETED: The Durban International Film Festival Awards

TANZANIA | ZANZIBAR INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL

| FESTIVALS AND MARKETS

Waves and visions of hope

PUSHING THE CRAFT OF FILMMAKING: The Old Fort, the historic monument that houses the ZIFF headquarters

The 18th edition of the Zanzibar International Film Festival was held from 18 to 26 July 2015 under the theme Mawimbi na Njozi za Tumaini – ‘Waves and Visions of Hope’.

A

ppropriately, the two films that were awarded the ZIFF Golden and Silver Dhow Awards – for Best Film and Runner-up respectively – offer the best summing up of the manner in which the year’s chosen theme was treated in the festival programme.

Both tackle fairly heavy subject matter that reflects very real and pressing humanitarian problems.

The Golden Dhow winner was the Kenyan production, Wazi?FM, directed by Faras Cavallo. Its story addresses the challenges faced by Somali refugees in the Kenyan capital as the government clamped down on their communities in the wake of attacks by Somali militants.

The Silver Dhow winner was Simshar, a Maltese film that puts the transMediterranean migrant crisis under the spotlight.

Potential in adversity The cultural and historical backgrounds against which these two very different stories are set could not be more weighty, more serious, more frankly discouraging.

But the filmmakers treat their subject matter in such a way as to offer strong glimmers of hope.

In Wazi?FM, the bonds of friendship, Kenyans and Somalis working together, sheer human ingenuity and the ability to

turn the conditions of an adverse situation on itself, are woven together to bring about the story’s resolution. In Simshar, the solution to the problem at the narrative’s core lies in the heartfelt humanity that underscores every frame of the film: it uses the commonality of family bonds as its primary device in its bid to demonstrate that humanitarian problems only worsen when people are regarded as mere numbers. When they are seen as individuals, the possible solutions to the problem become a lot clearer. These films do not claim to answer the questions they raise but they do present fairly bleak situations in which possible solutions are at least visible – and that is as good a definition of hope as any.

This could be seen in many of the other films on display as well – adversity that is either overcome, or shows potential to be overcome. The South African Day featured a screening of Darryl Roodt’s Sarafina, a film that relates the story of young South Africans in the 1970s, who find hope in their struggle against a

draconian state that dominates almost every aspect of their lives. Even in Hicham Ayouch’s relentlessly downbeat Fievres, hope and redemption present themselves – albeit in a barely recognisable form. The festival itself, taking its entire programme into account, offered many hopeful signs for Africa’s film industries.

‘The other half of the story…’

According to Prof. Martin Mhando, Festival CEO and Director, the 2015 edition of ZIFF showed promise for the women filmmakers of Africa, the cinematic efforts of the host nation and the meaningful contemporary revival of the pan-African ideal. More films by women were screened at ZIFF this year than ever before and several of these stood out as highlights of the festival.

Cremona’s Simshar is one example. “We are starting to hear these voices now that have been absent from our cinematic August 2015 | SCREENAFRICA | 19

FESTIVALS AND MARKETS

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ZANZIBAR INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL | TANZANIA and DRC’s Patrice Lumumba argued for an African continent united culturally, politically and economically. In the years that followed – as exploitative governments, structural adjustment programmes, civil wars and increasing western cultural influence took their toll, the high ideals of pan-Africanism took a serious beating. The latest generation of youths on the continent, who now make up a majority of the population, can barely relate to the post-colonial thinking of their parents and grandparents. This forum started from the premise that, if pan-Africanism is to succeed as an ideal, it needs to change with the times, it needs to adapt to the Zeitgeist of today’s Africa and the attitudes of today’s young Africans. The young creatives that attended the forum were invited to use their talents to express new, revised ideas around a modern pan-Africanism.

18 years on

A GRAND OPENING: A packed Old Fort amphitheatre on opening night

discourse for far too long,” Mhando says.

“You see a major difference in the way subjects are treated and you realise that this is the other half of the story that we have been missing.”

Going ‘bongo’ Mainland Tanzania – particularly the country’s largest city and commercial centre, Dar es Salaam – is home to a small but burgeoning film industry. In many ways, it follows Nigeria’s Nollywood model, churning out low budget, independently produced work. The style and genre of these films has come to be described as ‘bongo’, which is somehow both a term of disparagement and endearment – depending on who says it.

It is becoming a relatively lucrative industry and has developed a strong ‘star system’ with a high celebrity factor. The industry has drawn criticism for its adherence to the Nigerian mode of filmmaking (as opposed to developing something uniquely Tanzanian from the

start), and what cinema purists see as a low level of craft.

ZIFF has always offered support for bongo filmmakers and, courtesy of the festival’s main sponsor, Zuku, also hosts workshops every year to help strengthen the output of the industry. This year was no different and Mhando felt that a number of breakthroughs occurred during the workshops.

“What came across very strongly this year was the idea that you can’t just put on a doctor’s coat and call yourself a doctor. So why do we think we can just pick up a camera and call ourselves filmmakers? You have to study, you have to learn the craft,” he says.

There were hopeful signs in the Tanzanian work that was included in the festival programme. “This year we included more Tanzanian films than in previous years and several of these stood out over international films in their categories. This is a very encouraging sign,” Mhando says.

Faras Cavallo with his Golden Dhow Award for Wazi?FM

20 | SCREENAFRICA | August 2015

Towards a new pan-Africanism The ZIFF programme includes a number of cultural activities apart from the film screenings. The Mambo Club, an open air venue at the Old Fort, adjacent to the amphitheatre which serves as the main screening venue, played host to a number of musical performances during the nine-day event. The annual dhow race is also a central part of the festival, with scores of Zanzibari locals, tourists and festival-goers gathering on the shore to shout for their favourites. A number of workshops and conferences also take place alongside the screenings – some of them directly related to the film and television industry and others pertaining to the creative industries in general.

One workshop of the latter category this year was ‘Difficult Dialogues’, a forum on pan-Africanism. The ideal of panAfricanism harks back to the post-colonial era, when leaders such as Tanzania’s Julius Nyerere, Ghana’s Kwame Nkrumah

This year, the ZIFF Lifetime Achievement Awards were presented to Fatma Alloo and Hassan Mitawi, two of the festival’s founders. Alloo related how, when the festival first started, it was a small affair run in the organisers’ homes. While the festival as it now stands 18 years later is not on the same scale as Cannes or Toronto, it certainly has grown exponentially since those early days.

Like all such events, it faces its own combination of organisational challenges, but even a first-time visitor will see in it a cinematic celebration of international repute, one that draws many international visitors and income to the island – during its tourism off season too – and plays host to a programme of films that showcases the ever growing, ever improving motion picture output of the African continent.

And all of this in the unique, enchanting setting of the UNESCO World Heritage Site that is Stone Town. As British filmmaker Andy Jones (whose documentary feature, I Shot Bi Kidude, closed the festival) says, while you may have to convince a person in the international film industry to come to Zanzibar the first time, it never takes much effort to get them back there.

– Warren Holden The complete list of ZIFF award winners can be seen at www.screenafrica.com.

Rebecca Cremona with her Silver Dhow for Simshar

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FILM

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Jameson First Shot

All that glitters is W

alking down Sunset Boulevard, it was hard to get past the ‘pinch-me’ factor.

This just couldn’t be real. I can’t actually be here – sashaying along a street where celebrities lunch; cafés hum with the ferocious ticker tack of scriptwriting keystrokes; industry guilds and elite agencies pull rank among legendary bars and live music venues; and every waiter is an Adonis standing in line to be Tinsel Town’s next darling.

And then I saw it… the somewhat underwhelming white letters far up on a heat-hazed hill, which made it undeniable – I was in Hollywood, the movie making capital of the world and an apt playground for the winning 2015 Jameson First Shot filmmakers.

I can only imagine how South African winner Mark Middlewick must have felt; being for a short while a part of the energy and life force that fuels the city.

With a seasoned crew at his disposal, guidance from respected actor and filmmaker Kevin Spacey and Trigger Street Productions producer Dana Brunetti; as well as a committed performance from (ahem) award winning actor Adrien Brody; I suspect he may have had a few ‘pinch-me’ moments of his own.

Before the ‘green carpet’ was rolled out at Paramount Studios for the screening of this year’s films on Saturday 27 June, Jameson hosted a Weekender event at Siren Studios on the Friday night which stimulated discussion between industry pros and filmmakers around a number of aspects

22 | SCREENAFRICA | August 2015

of the movie business.

A captivated audience listened as Hollywood big wigs offered up experience and advice to help burgeoning directors get smart, creative and noticed in an industry swarming with competition. Here are some of my favourite pieces of advice: “In no other business can you be so far away and yet so close to success.”

– VP of Trigger Street Productions, Carter Swan.

“How to get your movie in front of the right distributor? Relationships.

That’s how this eco-system operates.”

– Kevin Iwashina, founder of Preferred Content.

“As a filmmaker if you have an understanding of my business, my company and what my needs are... I’m listening.” – Eben Davidson, head of acquisitions at Paramount Pictures.

“If you are trying to get people to watch your content, really think about the world you live in and don’t be afraid to explore your offline options. Be disruptive and creative and you’ll succeed.” – Dashiell Driscoll, senior content producer at Funny or Die. When it came to the Jameson First Shot premiere I was enamoured by each one of the three winning shorts but of course I was biased – Middlewick’s film The Mascot, was my favourite. Sitting in the Paramount Studios cinema listening to Laurence Fishburne roar with laughter while members of the international film community give a hearty round of applause to a film produced by a South

African made me prickly with pride.

“They’re all a little wacky – the South Africans,” said Spacey when I asked him if he’d noticed a particular approach or style from the South African winners over the past four years. “The thing that’s been really great is that they just are good storytellers. Mark has been talking about going back and actually making movies in South Africa which I think is incredibly encouraging. We haven’t targeted South Africa other than it being part of the contest, we just tried to pick the best scripts and directors that we felt were the right ones for each of our starring talent as well. South Africa has just come up aces every year.

You’ve got something going on down there.”

In all my conversations with Middlewick while in Los Angeles, this drive to create home-grown movies was palpable. It was clear he couldn’t wait to get back home and apply his new skills, experience and outlook to characters and places that resonate with his own sensibilities. And I got the sense that at its core, this is really what Jameson First Shot is about.

Awakening in filmmakers a chutzpah to trust their instincts and boldly back their ideas.

Spacey explains: “It’s also about what that does to somebody in terms of their self-confidence. You know sometimes it can be a teacher, it can be someone you are working with or a mentor, it can even be a friend or a parent, who just says the right thing at

the right moment in just the right way.

It can completely change your perspective. I grew up in so many environments where I was given that kind of encouragement – I know what that feels like and no matter what happens to me I don’t ever want to get too far away from that.”

When speaking with Brody about his big break in the industry, he recalled advice which his father had offered him when he was up for a lead role in a feature film at just 14 years old. “My dad gave me the best advice when I went into the audition. He said ‘go in there like you already have it. You already have the job you’re just showing them. You’re just proving it to them’ and I think you need a degree of self-confidence in that sense and in the ability to take the risk and take the chance,” said Brody.

Though my trip was short, the experience got me thinking about breaking through boundaries – those that are physical, and those which we erect within ourselves. Emerging filmmakers are constantly met with challenges and doubts about their ability which, much like my 33-hour journey back home, can make getting to where you want to feel like a lifetime.

But if you have the resilience to withstand all of that and if initiatives like the Jameson First Shot continue to offer those with promising talent a leg up along the way, the brave and the bold are sure to prosper.

As Brody put it: “Do the preparation.

But then… own it.” – Carly Barnes

Jameson First Shot

| Film

Screen Africa deputy editor Carly Barnes reports on her recent visit to Los Angeles to attend the screening of this year’s Jameson First Shot short films, including the work of South African writer-director, Mark Middlewick.

green

August 2015 | SCREENAFRICA | 23

INDUSTRY REPORT

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The rise to recognition In the last year or two female filmmakers in Hollywood have been vocal about their will to disband the ‘old boys club’ which they feel exists in their industry.

This is not a problem that is unique to the industry in the US. Women filmmakers in Africa face a number of challenges, but there are some encouraging signs that transformation is happening.

R

WOMEN WITH A VOICE: Bongiwe Selane and Matrid Nyagah

esearch and statistics seem to support the notion that the film industry is traditionally – and still remains – a sector dominated by

men.

A number of prolific starlets such as Geena Davis and Meryl Streep are publicly campaigning for awareness and action against the US industry’s biases – equal job opportunity, award consideration and pay being some of the main concerns raised.

In reaction to this outcry, concrete steps are being taken to address these concerns. In May the American Civil Liberties Union filed complaints with a number of US agencies and requested investigations into the lack of female directors hired at all levels of the film and television industry. In June the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences added 322 new members in a drive to diversify the membership, which is still composed predominantly of older white males.

In Africa, women haven’t proportionately benefitted from the economic growth being experienced across all industries, including the film and production sector. With 2015 being declared the year of women’s empowerment and development by the African Union, I wondered what the state of women in film was on the continent and if any steps were being taken to shift the long-established male domination.

Unlike in the US, there isn’t a lot of

24 | SCREENAFRICA | August 2015

Gaze Regimes, a book on the experiences of women working in the film industry.

research available on the current stake African female filmmakers have in the industry. Perhaps a good litmus test would be to look at those garnering recognition at the continent’s prestigious festivals and awards. From 2006 to 2015 only one of the Best Film winners at the South African Film and Television Awards was directed by a women. At FESPACO (2005 to 2015) and the Durban International Film Festival (2010 to 2015) all the Best Film winners were directed by men.

Between 2010 and 2015 the Zanzibar International Film Festival (ZIFF) and African International Film Festival (AFRIFF) awarded only one female directed film in the Best Film category.

That being said, awards in the Best Documentary and Television categories are a lot more balanced and have featured a number of women in recent years, though still not nearly as many as their male counterparts. An encouraging shift was seen this year at the latest edition of ZIFF, held from 18 to 26 July.

The programme this year boasted a high number of films by female directors, with the split sitting somewhere around the

50-50 mark.

While there is clear unanimity among African woman filmmakers on some fundamental concerns, there appears to be quite a few contradicting opinions and experiences on these issues. One which has no disparity is the need for more female driven film initiatives and training platforms. Another relates to sexism in job hiring and hierarchy. Filmmaker and director of the Udada Female Film Festival in Kenya, Matrid Nyagah says that traditionally, women are often only able to participate in the industry as actresses, assistant directors or production designers.

“If it’s a woman at the forefront trying to get funding for a project or to sell a programme, it’s usually very difficult. And even if you do achieve some success, men believe if you’ve climbed up the ladder, it’s because you got favours along the way,” says Nyagah. Bongiwe Selane, a South African filmmaker, previous M-Net commissioning editor and producer of the Blingola/National Film and Video Foundation Female Filmmaker Project, adds: “I think traditionally women were considered for film administration roles/ positions – at least that’s where you find most women working. Women also run film festivals and work as actors but there are far fewer working as film directors or writers, especially in Africa.”

So what are the stereotypical perceptions that women filmmakers face?

According to Nyagah there is a perception that women are only drawn to creating love stories, that they lack the skill and expertise which men have and that they are unable to keep up with the physical demands of a film set. Some female filmmakers would rather not be viewed and evaluated according to gender, as is represented in Gaze Regimes, a newly released book on the multiple and diverse voices and experiences of women working in film, written by Jyoti Mistry and Antje Schuhmann.

“Some women feel this positioning requires a collective political response.

Other contributors reject this

understanding and the implicit political and behavioural consequences and feel it is not necessarily a political responsibility, to claim a gendered position. They are more inclined to believe in individualistic action rather than collective action,” comments Mistry and Schuhmann.

Audiences around the world have been somewhat conditioned to the male gaze, a concept derived by film critic Laura Mulvey, which refers to the way women and the world are shown from a male point of view in cinema. Male-driven stories have historically dominated film and there is a clear need to better share with society a plurality of experiences on screen.

“It’s like you want to correct what society thinks of a particular character and to show that we can actually have a heroine in a film, even if it’s not a dominant role – she can still have a voice,” says Nyagah. Selane adds, “It’s important to represent the real, the now, the complication and constant ‘negotiation’ of self with what is expected of you. To represent the African woman of today as defined by women – not by men or society, or the elder at home.”

According to Mistry and Schuhmann, the potential for this point of view to evolve is encouraging: “It is clear from films like Ntshaveni Wa Luruli’s Elelwani that male directors are quite capable of reflecting intimately and with authenticity the experiences of women. Similarly women directors are able to explore masculinities; like in Shannon Walsh and Arya Lalloo’s Jeppe on a Friday.”

Shifting perceptions and unboxing stereotypes isn’t as easy as flipping a switch, and in order to close these chasms of inequality, female filmmakers need to overcome insecurities and claim their place in the African filmmaking landscape. A new and inspiring generation of female filmmakers and promising talent is emerging, but as Mistry and Schuhmann put it: “In Africa as a society and industry – it is a long way still from women having a fair share at the visionary stewardship of filmmaking.”

– Carly Barnes

| FILM

Director Speak Yaba Badoe is a filmmaker determined to use the medium as a catalyst for social change.

Here she shares a little bit about what moves her as a filmmaker…

Why did you decide to become a director?

After obtaining a second degree at the Institute of Development Studies at Sussex University, I got a job as a general trainee with the BBC, which means that I was trained in radio and television production. I then started working on television documentaries as a researcher and assistant producer before I began to direct documentaries. In 1988, after completing a series of four documentaries I directed about race and racism in the city of Bristol – Black and White for BBC1 – I decided to leave the BBC and go freelance. In 2010 with the support of like-minded friends, I set up an NGO, Fadoa Films, which aims to make films by African women about African women.

What drew you towards documentary filmmaking?

I work in film because it’s a fantastic medium to stimulate debate and convey the emotional landscape of peoples’ inner lives through the use of sound and images. I try to use film as tool for social change. It has the power to capture peoples’ thoughts and feelings and can be used effectively for advocacy.

Which character from a film you have made has impacted you the most?

My documentary film, The Witches of Gambaga (www. witchesofgambaga.com), is dedicated to the memory of one of the so called ‘witches’ featured in the film, Asara Azindow. Asara was a phenomenally successful entrepreneur who was expelled from the town of Gushiegu in the northern region of Ghana with two other women entrepreneurs during an outbreak of meningitis in 1997. The local community believed that because Asara and the other women headed their own households and lived independently of men, they were somehow to blame for the epidemic. Exiled from her family, Asara lost her property and livelihood and was forced to live at the witches’ camp in Gambaga until she returned home to die in 2010. She never saw the completed film but I learnt a lot from her testimony and our many conversations. She was dear to my heart.

What are your three favourite documentaries and why?

I remember watching Cathy Come Home – a heartrending play shot in a documentary style – when I was at boarding school in North Devon. The play, about homelessness, unemployment and the rights of mothers to keep their own children, was watched by 12 million people – a quarter of the British population at the time – on its first broadcast in 1966. Its hard-hitting subject matter and highly realistic documentary style, new to British television, created a huge impact on its audience.

One commentator called it “an ice-pick in the brain of all who saw it”. I can honestly say that watching Cathy Come Home made me identify wholeheartedly with the

DOCUMENTARY A TOOL FOR SOCIAL CHANGE: Yaba Badoe predicament of the main protagonist – Cathy. The film encouraged me to question the status quo and appreciate the difficult challenges facing people less privileged than myself. Indeed, Cathy Come Home changed my life.

Seven Up is a series of documentary films produced by Granada Television that has followed the lives of 14 British children since 1964, when they were seven years old. So far the documentary has had nine episodes spanning 56 years. The children were selected to represent the range of socio-economic backgrounds in Britain at that time, with the explicit assumption that each child’s social class predetermines their future. Every seven years, the director, Michael Apted, films material from those of the 14 who choose to participate. The series is spell-binding and very revealing about the impact class still has on British society.

Al’Leesi…An African Actress (2004) is a documentary film by Rahmatou Keita, a filmmaker from Niger I met and interviewed during my first visit to FESPACO in February 2005. In French with English subtitles, the film tells the story of the actress Zalika Souley, one of the first African women film stars. Known for her ‘bad girl’ roles in films from the 1960s, she was a scandalous figure in that Muslim region before her career imploded. I love this documentary because it gives the viewer a strong sense of Africa’s film history and lovingly details the life of a rebellious woman.

What has been the highlight of your career?

I’ve been fortunate in enjoying many highlights in my career. Among my favourite is the screening of The Witches of Gambaga at FESPACO in 2011. The audience loved the film and applauded the pre-title sequence. The documentary won second prize at FESPACO and first prize at the Black International Film festival in Birmingham in 2010. But the best compliment by far that has ever been made to me was a message Ama Ata Aidoo passed on to my father through an uncle who attended the premiere of The Art of Ama Aidoo in Accra last September. The message went as follows: ‘When Yaba came into the world, God gave our country a gift.’

Praise doesn’t come much better than that, I reckon.

Are there any filmmakers who have inspired you or influenced your work?

I’m a huge fan of award winning British documentary filmmaker Kim Longinotto’s work. Her films focus largely on women: professional Japanese wrestlers in Gaea Girls; a Cameroonian judge and prosecutor in Sisters in Law; women in Tehran trying to leave their marriages in Divorce Iranian Style. She says that she empathises with “the outsiders, the people struggling. If women have no rights, if they are completely powerless, then they’re the ones that you’re going to want to make films about.”

Do you feel documentaries have the power to catalyse social change?

Yes. In the same way that Cathy Come Home opened my heart and made me question the status quo, I’m told that The Witches of Gambaga has made some Ghanaians question superstitions that force women to live as ‘witches’ in the Northern Region. Unfortunately, the government of Ghana’s response to the film has been knee-jerk and badly thought out. They’d like to abolish camps for witches when what’s needed is: education, education and yet more education.

What are you working on at the moment?

I’m currently working hard to complete my latest novel which tackles the themes of migration and homelessness through the story of teenager, Sante Williams. Sante was thrown overboard when the trawler her parents were travelling in to start a new life in Europe, was scuttled by people traffickers.

Although a baby at the time, Sante is haunted by the loss of her Ghanaian parents and tries to seek justice for the restless dead of the drowned. The working title of the novel, which is aimed at young adults, is Sante, the Dreamcatcher.

– Compiled by Chanelle Ellaya August 2015 | SCREENAFRICA | 25

FILM

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Elements of Cinema: an eruption of violence

A HIGHLY CHARGED SHOOT: Alex McGregor in a scene from Impunity

Jyoti Mistry on directing: Often for a director, directing a scene is always about the same process whether it’s a dramatic emotional scene or a scene with physical and technical coordination where actors are required to perform stunts. My experience on Impunity was an extraordinary one because it was my first time as a director working with armorers, stunts, car sequences, and the technical aspects of special effects on set.

Given that this film poses a vast range of demands on the actors: the physical stunts, the emotional rollercoaster in various scenes and the series of plot-points that form the investigation of the story, the rehearsal process was about the actors really developing a trust and rhythm of working with me as a director and working with each other. In the final shoot-out scene I required a similar process of rehearsal, blocking and ensuring that the timing with the technical rigging of the armorer, squibs and performance came together.

26 | SCREENAFRICA | August 2015

Alex McGregor on acting: I was a little bit nervous handling the gun in this sequence because there were so many different things to think about.

Firstly, the gun was bloody heavy! I had to think about holding and firing the gun and getting shot (twice) and falling backwards. I had two blood squibs on and when they go off they push you backwards, so I had to move with the momentum of the squibs. I was introduced to the armourer about half an hour before we shot the scene. He explained how the gun works, which parts are what, what fingers go where, etc. I also had a few practice rounds firing the gun with blanks which is still a scary experience. We shot this scene at around 8pm and it was incredibly cold and the fake blood was sticky and made everything even colder. There was a lot going on. It was tough.

Khalid Shamis (second editor) on editing: When editing a shooting scene one needs a strong sense of fast action, while drawing attention to key emotions and props (usually a gun) in the scene. At the same time one needs to almost stretch time in order hold the drama. In this case Melissa Parry (first editor) had built the scene very well and I trimmed here and there just to keep the momentum going.

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Audiences cannot help but be captivated by a pressure-packed, bullet-blasting shoot-out scene. In this highly charged scene from Impunity, main character Echo confronts the police with a gun and a shoot-out ensues. Impunity tells a story, riddled with twists of a murdered cabinet minister’s daughter, a couple on a rampage, political corruption and conspiracy.

Florian Schattauer on producing: Eran Tahor on cinematography:

Melissa Parry (first editor) on editing: This scene was difficult because of the limited coverage with which it was shot and because of the number of characters involved in the scene. It was important to maintain the geographical orientation of the characters so that the audience would not become confused or disorientated by the unfolding action. The ‘gunshot’ shot was a special effects shot with squibs – it was not an effect created in postproduction and I recall there were only two takes. Some of the muzzle flares were added in post, maybe some blood too.

I shot Impunity on ARRI Alexa with Primo lenses. In order to create the sense of anxiety and develop the notion that nothing is predictable we decided to keep the camera moving, on the shoulder like in documentary filming, and let the actors run the show according to Jyoti’s planning of it. We did several complete takes of the scene, and I focused on a different character each time. I had to respond quickly and intuitively to what the actors were doing as if I were filming a live event. It liberated the actors from the constraints often imposed on them in terms of movement and expression so that instead of the actors responding to predetermined shot sizes, I responded to their performance in real-time during action.

This was the last scene of the day and we were running late. We were chasing the light and had to move quickly. We did the first take and the squibs didn’t go off; we had to re-wire the actress, reload the gun, etc. By then we had to relight the scene rather unorthodoxly ‘night for day’ which meant I had to convince the lighting crew that even if the shot would not match in camera we would be able to match it in post-production. We did a second take and all went beautifully according to plan.

With a scene like this one needs to make sure that you have the relevant qualified personnel (armorers and special effects crew) on set and you need to plan for more time between takes. We did a lot of the scenes involving guns with fake guns and without squibs, which made it much easier because we could move faster and there was no security protocol involved which you would need to follow when using working guns and explosives.

– Compiled by Carly Barnes

August 2015 | SCREENAFRICA | 27

ANIMATION

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Animation – the state of the art 2015 Ian Dormer reports on current trends in animation both internationally and in South Africa’s thriving industry, which recently saw a number of projects perform very well at the Annecy International Animated Film Festival.

T

he highest grossing animated feature of all time, Disney’s Frozen, is about to have a sequel. A few months back Walt Disney Animation Studios announced that Frozen 2 is in development. With directors Chris Buck and Jennifer Lee and producer Peter Del Vecho back at the helm, the Oscarwinning filmmaking team have a huge task ahead of them to equal or better their predecessor in a highly competitive world market – a market that is forecast to steadily grow by 18% per annum over the next five years.

IMDb – the authoritative source for movie, TV and celebrity content – has a whopping 302 animation feature films indexed thus far for 2015. Universal Pictures’ Minions tops the list in gross earnings, while the Disney/Pixar epic Inside Out follows not too far behind.

Combined, these features have earned close to a billion US dollars, a clear indicator that the animation industry is in a good spot and growing.

It’s not only the US market that is thriving. In Europe, French and Spanish animation studios are enjoying a market upswing, mostly thanks to new tax breaks implemented by their respective governments, but the strong demand for TV animation content on the continent has boosted the market with sales up 55% this year. The average budget for European animated feature films is around €6 million and only a few have exceeded €10 million, which is about one-tenth of the budget of Hollywood blockbusters. But there is plenty of demand out there for smaller lower budget productions and studios in the UK and Germany have seen sales growth of nearly 60% in the past 24 months.

When the Asian animation industry kicked off in the 1940s it was heavily influenced by the needs of Western studios, Disney in particular. Exposure to

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HEADING FOR ANNECY: The poster for the South African animation feature The Crash foreign production, training abroad, and foreign assistance were important factors behind the emergence of an animation tradition in countries such as China, Japan, Korea, and India. Take Japan’s anime as an example. An emerging trend in the Asian animation industry is the increasing focus towards production of local animation content for television as well as production of animated movies and a number of Asian animation studios are wising up to the importance of owning and protecting animation content by investing in intellectual property protection mechanisms. Over the past decade, countries such as Taiwan, South Korea, the Philippines and Thailand, as well as China, have acted as major offshore production plants for North American and European studios, to the extent that today, about 90% of all American television animation is produced in Asia.

Asian collaboration has extended to the Pacific region with partnership co-productions announced recently between China Animation Studios, a subsidiary of China’s largest state-run film

enterprise China Film Group Corp, and New Zealand’s award winning Huhu Studios, starting with a multi-million dollar animated 3D movie deal.

Film New Zealand, a government agency, has put a priority on helping producers forge links with China and take advantage of the co-production agreements that allow Chinese film makers to access New Zealand incentives and kiwi producers to get around foreign quotas. The industry is New Zealand’s third largest export earner after tourism and food and beverages, generating over NZ$7 billion in revenue annually. On the domestic front, it contributes nearly NZ$20 billion to New Zealand’s economy thus the government agency invests heavily on showcasing the industry through international festivals and events.

One of the biggest events on the global animation industry calendar is Annecy which provides an excellent opportunity for animators to network and showcase their work with their with international counterparts. This year the South African contingent had every reason to show face: two local projects

were selected through the prestigious Marché international du film d’animation (MIFA) International Call for Projects and were pitched to an open room at the festival’s market. One was a 2D series titled Anansi developed by Isaac Mogajane (Diprente Films). The other was The Crash, a 3D feature developed by Julia Smuts Louw (Sparks Flew Development Studio). Following on the heels of Golden Planes’ Hillbrow and Triggerfish’s Sea Monster, this is the third year in a row in which a South African feature concept was accepted into the international pitch sessions.

With support from the Department of Trade and Industry, the Gauteng Film Commission, IFAS (Institut Francais), the National Film and Video Foundation (NFVF) and Wesgro, 37 South African delegates attended the festival and of the 37 unique projects (in various phases of development) that were on offer, 32 were brought to market.

“This is a watershed moment for South African animation, and not just because of our reception at Annecy,” said recently elected Animation South Africa chair, Nick Cloete. “We are reaching critical mass as producers of original IP and content. We’ve outgrown our beginnings as a commercials-driven service industry and we’re showing the world that we’re ready to tell our own stories.”

It’s great to see South African animators competing on the international stage, but one of the problems that face the South African market is that the broadcasters aren’t really buying locally made animated content – it’s cheaper to syndicate American or European content added to which it seems that local audiences are more likely to watch the more recognised international stuff over locally produced content.

Animation SA seems pretty determined to remedy this and by acting as a collaborative force, they have managed to get the NFVF to introduce slate funding for animation projects – on an industry-wide, rather than companyby-company basis. Hopefully it won’t be too long before our local broadcasters start purchasing homegrown product via the international distributor networks.

For a relatively young but fast growing industry in South Africa, lecturers and trainers in tertiary institutions are interacting very closely with the industry in order to assess its needs. The result is some really well trained and talented animators – and some really fine student work – coming out of these institutions.

The good news for all animators though is that animated feature films are a robust and thriving part of the entertainment industry and are expected to continue to provide great family entertainment for many years to come. – Ian Dormer

5 TH AFRICAN DIGITAL TELEVISION DEVELOPMENT SEMINAR

Building local content

A recurring theme at the 5th African Digital TV Development Seminar, among countries which have completed digital migration, was the need to advance local content production so that it could be included in the newly available spectrum space. “We are now in a position to have a wide spectrum of channels,” said Francois Wangusi, director general of the Communications Authority of Kenya.

“What we need now is the capacity to produce high quality relevant content.”

While a lack of financing may hinder the quantity and quality of local content being produced, there are further issues at play.

Wangeci Murage, managing partner at Media Pros Africa, facilitated a forum on the subject at the recent Zanzibar International Film Festival. Wangeci said that unlike a lot of content generated in international territories, African content often targets a specific demographic therefore lowering its exportability. “If the content cannot be monetised through distribution, chances of its survival or the development of new concepts is minimal,” Murage explained. In addition, most African countries are inclined to favour international content such as Mexican telenovelas, which have proven highly successful with Kenyan audiences. “It could be argued that international content has more prominence due to its frequency/ high volumes that the audience can easily get accustomed to,” said Murage.

According to Murage, a lack of skills is another challenge: “We do not have a sufficient number of film/media schools in Africa. And the few that are available

cannot guarantee job placements upon completion, as the industry is not well developed. Hence the few that are trained in production end up falling by the wayside as there are fewer job opportunities available.”

Communications authorities have prescribed local content quotas – Kenya has set out to achieve 60% local programming by 2015; and Uganda is aiming to feature 70% local content by 2018 while Tanzanian channels provide for 80% of local programming. Murage believes this is a good start: “If broadcasters can allocate more airtime for local productions, then content developers will be in a better position to produce more content at relatively low prices. The higher the demand, the more the supply. Producers at the moment are not able to develop as much content if the need is not available. Financially it also costs more to produce one program than five for example because there are better chances of monetising.”

A content exchange between African countries was one of the potential solutions mentioned at the 5th African Digital TV Development Seminar and Murage believes this is a very viable solution which has already begun to take shape. “It is important that content developers think of distribution at the initial stages of production. Developing content that has the ability to cross borders and can possibly be used on different media platforms, increases the chances of distribution,” she concluded.

Optimising reach Many countries in Africa contain highly populated urban areas; however a large number of Africans live in sparsely populated rural areas, some of which contain very challenging terrains. To achieve effective digital signal distribution, countries need to adopt a strategy for providing and delivering digital television services to 100% of the population.

In his keynote speech at the 5th African Digital TV Development Seminar, StarTimes’ chairman Pang Xinxing recommended that African countries combine terrestrial signals and Direct to Home (DTH) services in order to reach all areas of the population. Christoph Limmer, vice president of Global Sales and Commercial Development for broadcast services at Eutelsat, agrees that a combination of terrestrial and satellite infrastructure would be the most effective and cost-efficient way to achieve an inclusive digital broadcasting environment.

“A lot of countries around the world have wasted time and money trying to achieve analogue switch-off using solely terrestrial infrastructure. African countries can learn from the costly errors of other countries. Combining terrestrial and satellite infrastructure as early as possible will help save time as well as significant public investment, and will also allow broadcasters to optimise their reach, and governments to build inclusive digital broadcasting environments,” he explained.

According to Limmer, satellite signals are immediately available and don’t

require a physical network roll-out on the ground, leading to reduced time and costs when providing services to consumers. Similarly, the price difference between terrestrial and satellite boxes from a consumer point of view is insignificant. The only additional cost for satellite consumers relates to dish and installation which costs approximately $30 across Africa.

Eutelsat has worked with governments and broadcasters around the world on digital transition, and Limmer said decisions relating to signal and distribution could have significant financial repercussions. “We have seen costs from $200 million up to $600 million on terrestrial build-out depending on the size of the country and network availability, bearing in mind that 100% terrestrial network coverage is not possible in most countries, principally because of interference issues with neighbouring countries,” Limmer explained. “In addition to roll-out costs, regular maintenance costs of terrestrial infrastructure need to be taken into account, making terrestrial even more expensive.”

Internationally, the combination of terrestrial and satellite signals and infrastructure to provide total coverage has been a method successfully implemented by the majority of European countries. “Over eight million homes in France, Germany, Italy and the UK receive DTT channels by satellite and the first countries in Africa have also successfully followed this path,” said Limmer.

5 TH AFRICAN DIGITAL TELEVISION DEVELOPMENT SEMINAR

Futureproofing DTT encoding technology

Pang Xinxing Video encoding is a core technology in digital transmission and plays an important role in determining cost efficiency. As digital migration requires extensive finance and funding, areas where costs can be cut or further revenues generated merit significant consideration.

In his keynote speech at the 5th African Digital TV Development Seminar, StarTimes’ chairman Pang Xinxing explained: “Moving forward we need to apply the right video encoding standard. Currently H.264 is the main encoding scheme, but the new H.265 encoding standard is about to be commercialised and it’s 200% more effective.”

Though still in development, the new H.265 encoding standard, which is often referred to as High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC), is able to squeeze bit rates down so that available broadband can be managed more efficiently, allowing broadcasters to offer additional services on their bouquet. Chris Vermaak, application support engineer at Concilium Technologies, explained: “From a transmission point of view, that reduces a lot of costs. It costs a lot to send services up to a satellite so if you can squeeze additional services into your transmission bites going up to satellite, you can save quite a bit of money.”

Andrew Cole, sales director at Concilium Technologies adds: “And you’ll be able to make additional, better quality channels available to consumers.

The whole objective is to reduce the amount of data required to deliver a

television channel.”

Pang added that the H.265 codec would utilise less electricity – a big expense in a broadcast system. “Transmission utilises 60% of the electricity on a network. If you choose a good encoding system, you will save on bandwidth as well as transmission resources,” said Pang.

According to Cole, consumers wouldn’t be too affected by changing to the new encoding standard. However, they would need to have set-topboxes (STBs) with compatible software to receive the coding. “The chips inside the STBs would need to be capable of receiving the H.265 standard in the future. This is where manufacturers and broadcasters get involved.

STB’s could be upgradable with firmware, or if not older boxes would have to be replaced.”

Should the new video compression standard be considered, consideration would also have to go towards future proofing STB technology, which may increase the cost for consumers.

“There are a lot of new features with HEVC, which offer extra benefits and value to consumers and end users,” said Vermaak. “Most of the costs associated with changing standards will be on the broadcast and transmission side – getting compatible equipment as well as processing and encoding content to HEVC.”

DTT budget breakdown Only a handful of African countries met the digital migration deadline on 17 June 2015, set by the International Telecommunications Union (ITU).

Repeatedly, funding has been cited as the biggest challenge for African countries in the move to digitisation. “It is unfortunate that most African countries were unable to meet the ITU’s deadline largely due to lack of funding. Most African governments made the digital migration the least of their priorities as they contend with dwindling revenue and numerous socio-political challenges. Until governments get very involved, total digital switch over will remain a mirage,” said Maxwell Loko, managing director of TV Enterprises at the Nigerian Television Authority.

During his keynote speech at the StarTimes African TV Development seminar, StarTimes president Pang Xinxing stated: “Digitisation in Africa is not a simple process; it requires complicated technical and communication solutions, training and skills development, extensive finance and funding as well as full acceptance and engagement from stakeholders. It is a complex and systematic process.”

Pang outlined the estimated costs associated with migrating to digital as follows: • Radio and television digitisation project: $35 million • Development of a national DTT transmission network: $35 million • Backup play-out control, satellite relay system and DTH satellite system: $10 million

• Custom service centre and operations system: $10 million • Terminal digitisation system: $90 million (1.5 million STBs) • Headquarters: $12 million • Total project investment: $192 million This offers a good idea of the multifaceted structure needed to implement effective digitisation – from staffing and technology to end user support.

Pang proposed that governments take out a concessional loan covering $162 million of these costs, while the additional $30 million would be invested by StarTimes as part of a joint venture. A number of conference attendees stated that more collaboration was needed between government and the private sector to make digitisation a reality.

Loko commented: “Nigeria’s budget according to the regulatory body (National Broadcasting Commission) is put at approximately N60 billion (N200 to $1). I am not sure how this figure came about but that’s the budget being proposed for now.”

Loko shares his opinion on the matter: “The best and easiest way for African countries to finance this, is by auctioning the UHF spectrum up-front and using a percentage of the proceeds to finance the digital migration. That way, the governments’ lean resources are not tasked and they (government) would ultimately be the better beneficiaries, with extra revenue in their kitties.”

5 TH AFRICAN DIGITAL TELEVISION DEVELOPMENT SEMINAR

Re-evaluating radio “Radio continues to be at the forefront of media for my people. Radio gives them an opportunity to understand what is happening in their country,” said Elvis Gbanabom Hallowell, director general of the Sierra Leone Broadcasting Corporation, during the StarTimes Digital TV Development Seminar.

For a number of African countries, radio is still considered the most effective mass communications medium. However, amid the slow and complicated progression towards digitising television on the continent, little mention has been given to radio with regards to its digital evolution.

In South Africa the National Association of Broadcasters and the Southern African Digital Broadcasting Association (Sadiba), are busy with DAB+ and DRM digital radio technology trials, which are being headed by Dave Cherry. Cherry said broadcast regulator ICASA still needs to formulate a Digital Radio Broadcasting Policy before it can licence broadcasters; networks need to be established; and various signal receivers need to be made available for the public to buy, in order for digital radio to be introduced.

However radio is not the same beast as television and countries have taken different approaches to its digitisation. “There have been a number of European countries that have indicated an eventual switch off of analogue radio (FM),” said

Cherry. “Norway, Denmark, Switzerland and possibly the Netherlands have indicated a switch-off sometime in 2027. Australia, which has had a very successful rollout of digital radio, will not be switching off FM.” Cherry explained that South Africa will not see a switch-off deadline for analogue radio for a very long time and that initially it will run alongside analogue in major cities where there is an immediate need for it. “The introduction of digital radio will not be a migration as is the case with digital TV. The two technologies can reside alongside each other,” explained Cherry.

At the seminar, Alex Shimuafeni, chief commercial officer at the Namibian Broadcasting Corporation pointed out: “People often forget about radio. We have 11 different languages in Namibia and with the digital migration of radio; people will be able to listen to any radio station in the country.”

Cherry also believes that there are numerous benefits which digital radio could offer. “Because digital radio offers so much more by providing multimedia services in addition to audio it has the potential to offer exciting features to listeners. It will also allow more entrants to the broadcasting industry and thereby offer more choice to listeners – and choice will be a major draw card for African listeners.”

Metadata a vital tool in the digital era

Slide on original production from a presentation on Content Building, presented by StarTimes Group Vice President, Mike Dearham

According to a 2015 study by Frost & Sullivan, mobile phone penetration will rise to 79% in sub-Saharan Africa by 2020, while mobile broadband connections are predicted to reach 160 million in 2016. This presents media companies, broadcasters and distributers with an opportunity to maximise the potential of content in the digital era.

As people increasingly access content via internet and mobile platforms using a multitude of devices, it is now more important than ever for content to be compatible with these varying mediums and screens. Speaking about content building at the African Digital TV Development Seminar, Michael Dearham, vice president of StarTimes Group, stated that metadata would play a key role in reviving and effectively delivering locally produced content.

Metadata, often referred to as ‘data about data’ is the information pertaining to content, from its title and description to its file structure, genre, time and date.

Dearham explained that metadata makes content findable and understandable to both man and machine. By structuring and organising content information, it can be transformed to suit multiple screens and devices, therefore reaching and being discoverable to a much wider audience. Through the television production process and IT based systems; content can be customised to each device’s specific requirement. In this way, broadcasters are able to create or expand on

revenue generating distribution channels using digital platforms.

Dearham terms the process ‘shoot once for many’ and explained: “A producer will shoot the content, add the relevant metadata to it and then place it in a MXF wrapper which adds codec so that it can be streamed to different devices.” A Material Exchange Format (MFX) wrapper not only creates content interoperability between applications in the TV production chain, but is also responsible for the transporting of metadata.

In preparing for digital transformation, a major concern for African countries is the generation of local content to fill newly available spectrum space. Dearham believes that digitising and adding metadata to archived footage could give it new life and a new audience, as well as provide these countries with a possible solution. “In Africa today we have archives bending shelves. In the preparation for the digital era, content building requires us to preserve DTT content – and metadata is the way to do it. Using the right technology, content can be placed in repository and used. Preserving is critical and in the quest to preserve, metadata will rule.”

“There are thousands of movies produced in Africa that are unlisted and have had very little exposure to the market,” said Dearham. “These are treasures which could work and allow countries to prepare for the digital era.”

5 TH AFRICAN DIGITAL TELEVISION DEVELOPMENT SEMINAR

Learning from leaders Ongoing

Completed

Image from ITU on the Status of the transition to Digital Terrestrial Television Broadcasting

The onward march of progress towards a fully digitised society is a slow one for many African countries. According to the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), the status of a vast majority of countries on the continent is listed as ‘ongoing’ in this process. Mozambique, Tanzania, Rwanda, Mauritius, Malawi; and more recently Namibia and Kenya (though not yet officially listed on the ITU website); are among a handful of countries which have successfully migrated to digital broadcasting. Representatives from Tanzania and Kenya were present at the 5th African Digital TV Development Seminar to share with delegates some of their key learnings in this experience.

Tanzania Fenella Mukangara, minister of information, culture and sports in Tanzania said that in 2006 after the decision was made by the ITU to begin the process of digital migration, most African countries found themselves unprepared and severely lacking in resources. “Tanzania took to this challenge early on,” said Mukangara.

“There were some initial struggles but we made sure we moved forward at the necessary pace. We gave ourselves two years before the deadline to roll out the process, which was smooth and successful.” The country began its Analogue Switch Off (ASO) on 31 December 2012 and completed it on 30 April 2015.

To encourage a fast uptake of digital services from the public and to educate consumers, Tanzanian government initiated a nationwide public awareness campaign on the benefits of digital television. In addition, in order to lighten the costs of the transition Mukangara explained, “The government of the United Republic of Tanzania decided to provide tax relief to investors for importation of digital equipment to make it more affordable to our people. This has ensured many Tanzanians continue enjoy their favourite television programmes.”

With this accomplished, an increase in broadcast channels presented a new challenge for Tanzania – a lack of local content with which to fill it. Mukangara said government was exploring ways to involve the youth in producing local programming and added that the National Broadcaster, Tanzania Broadcasting Corporation (TBC) as well as other television stations, were increasing their efforts to increase their local content offering substantially. “This is a step in the right direction that needs to be encouraged in other countries,” remarked Mukangara.

Kenya In order to implement digital migration in line with ITU recommendations, Francois Wangusi, director general of the Communications Authority of Kenya; said a dedicated task force was set up to tackle the transition. In his address to delegates at the summit, Wangusi outlined three major areas of challenge for Kenya: delays due to litigation; slow roll-out by broadcast signal distributers (BSD); and affordability of set-top-boxes (STBs).

While a ruling was awarded in favour of the regulator in December 2014, Kenya’s migration had been challenged in court since 2012. This interference caused uncertainty and delays in a number of facets of migration. Along with various financial constraints, Wangusi sites this as the reason for sluggish BSD roll-out.

Consumer education, one of the key requirements for successful digital migration, was also delayed when mainstream TV broadcasters refused to air any communication on the subject due to ongoing legal battles; blocking communication channels between government and the public.

“Education was our biggest challenge – not just to consumers but to stakeholders, broadcasters and even the judicial system,” said Wangusi.

“We had packages to let consumers know about the benefits of digital migration; which STBs to buy; the different services available to them (Pay TV/ Free to Air); as well as communication to inform them on how to make the right STB purchase. We were challenged by mainstream media in conveying these messages.”

In sharing these experiences, Tanzania and Kenya offer African countries an opportunity to forecast challenges and enhance their ability to complete digital migration. According to both representatives: education on digital migration needs to be prioritised and activated within all levels of the digital eco system; more consideration and planning needs to go towards increased local content production; and interference from broadcasters and members of the private sector could mean further delays, for which the consumer will suffer.

Broadcast Technology

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MEDIATECH REPORT

Mediatech 2015 at a glance

The Mediatech 2015 Advanced Technology Trade show has come and gone. Once again based in the Ticketpro Dome in Johannesburg, Mediatech remains the premier show of its type on the African continent.

M

ediatech can be described as the local version of the American National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) show in Las Vegas and the International Broadcasting Convention (IBC) in Amsterdam – all rolled into one.

I have been attending Mediatech for years both as an exhibitor and as a visitor.

In the heydays of large facility postproduction my company set up a full post-production suite when Mediatech was at the Sandton Convention Centre and demonstrated our latest two channel ADO and a fancy Grass Valley mixing desk – those were the days!

34 | SCREENAFRICA | August 2015

Mediatech has now become a showcase for most of the major industry suppliers – both local and international – and their products. It affords an opportunity for industry people from across Africa to browse the latest technology, talk to the professionals and rub shoulders with other players – networking I think it is called.

The main body of exhibitors includes major broadcast equipment suppliers such as Protea Electronics, Jasco, Sony, Inala, Questek and Concilium to name but a few.

Camera suppliers are also right up there with Panasonic, ORMS, Cine Photo Tools and the like. Rental companies, equipment

sales of new and used gear, lighting companies, audio and lens suppliers are there and, just outside the Dome, OB units are set up for demonstration. Most of the larger local agents are visited by their overseas principals for the duration of the show, which further enhances its international pedigree.

Over a period of three days Mediatech opened its doors to visitors and they were there in their thousands. The attendance figures were not available at the time of writing, but according to my own observations and those of exhibitors, the figures were as good if not better than the previous show.

The overriding comment though was that the quality of visitor was better. Most if not all the local broadcasting companies were there in abundance, as well as a large contingent from across Africa. The enquiries were real and at a high technical level and made by the decision makers.

Cameras What then was new and interesting? Well the big buzz was 4K with several camera suppliers demonstrating their latest products. Grass Valley, through their agent Protea, had a variety of cameras on show including the LDX 80, the Focus 70

Broadcast Technology

|

MEDIATECH REPORT luminaires even including the old reliable Reds, Blonds and HMIs. The LEDs are just so controllable in terms of their intensity, colour, temperature and flexibility, and by this I mean their variety of uses, and the fact that the latest generation in their flat form can be bent, folded and moulded to fit into any dark aperture in need of a bit of glim. They are also waterproof which opens up a whole new gamut of applications.

Lenses

and the upgradeable LDX 86.

Blackmagic was there, as was Panasonic with the yet to be released DVX 200 4K handheld enclosed in its Perspex case.

Sony was all over showcasing a wide range of their products including the FS-7 and the amazing new Sony X70, a 20 megapixel one-inch image sensor XD Cam palmcorder which can even be upgraded to 4K – unbelievable! The carbon fibre RED Epic Dragon ultra lightweight 6K was also highly impressive as demonstrated on the Cine Photo Tools stand.

Interestingly what did not make any appearance on the show were any 3D cameras – quite a reversal from Mediatech 2013, where 3D was all the rage. Seems that better picture quality, 36 | SCREENAFRICA | August 2015

higher resolution and image quality have overtaken the somewhat complex and dubious benefit of 3D. Whilst the focus was on 4K both Canon and Sony were showing their SLR cameras, which are extremely popular still, and with the vast range of accessories available for this type of camera, including monitors, matte box, etc, it would seem that they will be around for some time to come.

confusion resulting from the recent SACAA deliberations on the future of drones, there is a ready market for these devices and the dramatic images they are able to achieve.

In addition to the drones themselves, some vendors were showing cameras, accessories and even wireless camera links such as Amimon’s Connex 5GHz systems, which can be used in conjunction with drones.

Drones

LED Lighting

Drones were everywhere. Not flying overhead, thank goodness, but predominant on many stands and ranging from small, lightweight examples to large multi engine units with dual control able to carry several kilos. Even among all the

Many stands offered the latest in LED lighting (did I see one bent double, immersed in a fishbowl and working perfectly?) There have been major advances in this technology and LEDs are now mimicking all the well-known

There were lenses and then there were LENSES – most tailored for the 4K world.

Visual Impact had the 4K Canon, which they claim is the longest existing 4K lens.

For wildlife this 50-1 000mm PL mount monster is a must, and with its 1.5 extender it can in fact go to 1 500mm.

While it is expensive, if you are shooting wildlife for say Discovery Channel then this lens would be well worth having.

Other lenses on display included a 30-300mm and a 17-120mm. Schneider lenses were also on display, as were a range of Fuji lenses on the Camera Platform stand. Most impressive was the Fuji Cabrio PL mount 75-400mm zoom lens featuring fast T-stops and exceeding 4K optical performance. It was interesting to see that a couple of stands were offering re-glassed lens sets at a fraction of the price of new lenses. Seems these are big sellers.

There was not a lot to see in the monitoring field. As more and more cameras offer 4K and indeed above this, there must be a lot of interest in being able to monitor at higher resolutions, but from what I saw at the show they are not yet ready for full production use. They are either hugely expensive or a bit limited in the features they have to offer. Mediatech 2017 perhaps?

What else to report on? A lot of interest in fibre and IT connectivity, some exciting products on the audio, loudspeaker and microphone technology and a lot in between. It is just amazing to see the advances in technology over the period since the last Mediatech a mere two years ago. It makes one wonder whether the purchase of equipment – in particular in the camera field, is still a worthwhile proposition and whether rental is not a wiser answer.

For me it was a great show. There is no question that it was well attended by both exhibitors and visitors alike. Only one question – where were the students?

In previous years they were an integral part of the show even though their pamphlet grabbing style is a bit disturbing for the exhibitors. Mediatech is a great source of education regarding what equipment is out there in the marketplace and what the latest trends are and I believe students should take advantage of this.

I must say I felt proud to be part of the industry while doing my stint at Mediatech 2015. I will certainly be back in 2017 and I am sure most of you will be too. See you there! – Andy Stead

IBC PREVIEW

| Broadcast TECHNOLOGY

IBC 2015 It used to be called the International Broadcast Convention but in recent years the focus has shifted from ‘broadcast’ towards ‘media and entertainment’ and so the annual trade show in Amsterdam is now just known purely by its acronym IBC. Organisers of the mammoth show, to be held this year from 10 to 15 September, expect it to draw another record crowd of more than 55 000 attendees from 170 countries.

IBC brings together all the ideas and key indicators for the broadcast and media industry and what happens at this year’s event inevitably shapes the future of the media and broadcast industries for the next year at least.

Ranging from mobile TV, cloud production and OTT delivery to the economics of Ultra HD, digital cinema innovation and the rise of social television, IBC sits at the forefront of all the recent major changes in the industry. Rapid changes in technology and production techniques as well as viewer demand drive the need for such an annual event.

IBC unites the technologies and business models powering the creation, management and delivery of all forms of electronic media content to consumers in a world where content is everywhere.

The IBC Conference Programme takes place across five days and hosts over 300 speakers. Themed by day and anchored by keynote sessions, it’s easy to plan your conference sessions to integrate with your overall IBC experience.

This years conference theme is ‘The Future of Media in an Age of Disruption’, and the sessions are as wide ranging as ever offering discussion and debate

TECHNOLOGY SHAPING THE FUTURE: IBC trade show in Amsterdam about the many different challenges facing the electronic media and entertainment industry. Featuring some of the foremost thought-leaders, innovators and policy makers in their fields and covering a wide breadth of topics, it is the place to explore new strategies, understand business disruptors, chart future technological progress and uncover the future roadmap of the industry.

Always a popular feature is the IBC Big Screen Experience. Designed to IBC’s specifications and featuring the very latest in cinema technology, this state-of-the-art auditorium is a centerpiece of IBC. With capacity for 1,700 people, the IBC Big Screen is equipped with the very latest cuttingedge cinema technology including Christie 6P 2D and 3D laser projection and Dolby Atmos immersive audio. It hosts a series of free-to-attend, editorially led sessions and complimentary world-first exclusive movie screenings.

The IBC2015 Innovation Awards shortlist reflects some of the key issues affecting everyone in broadcasting and electronic media today. What makes the IBC Innovation Awards unique is that its winners are using the latest technology in real-world applications. The ten finalists who will appear on stage in September are the end users of collaborative projects: broadcasters, media enterprises and service providers who had a defined goal, brought together the best technology partners and now benefit

from the innovative thinking.

The International Olympic Committee will receive an award at IBC2015 for its work on conserving and managing its audiovisual archives through its Patrimonial Assets Management programme (PAM). The award recognises the IOC’s positive approach both to conservation and to making the archives available to broadcasters, researchers and other professionals.

Dating back to the first Olympic Games in modern times, in 1896, the audiovisual archives of the Olympic Movement include 2 000 hours of film, 33 000 hours of video, 8 500 hours of audio and more than 500 000 photographs, as well as 2 000 archive documents and 22 000 pictures of Olympic Museum artefacts.

New trends This year, one of the most discussed and exhibited topics will be IP-based broadcast technology – indeed the 2015 Innovation Awards are dominated by IP technologies. Two thirds of the shortlisted projects commend achievements in remote production or networking using virtualised systems. IP in the core will also be a major focus for Sony at IBC 2015.

There are over 30 industry-leading companies now working with Sony to develop the next generation of standards based on Networked Media Interface. At IBC, Sony will showcase how IP-based technologies are opening up new possibilities for broadcasters, and how IP

helps customers create, secure and distribute their content over a range of platforms.

New camera technology is always a big topic at IBC and no doubt this year’s event will highlight new innovations from Panasonic, Sony, Red and Blackmagic Designs as well as the much-anticipated Super-High Vision 8k production cameras from Hitachi.

One of the most dramatic innovations of the last few years is the ready-to-fly quadcopter and its larger cousin the flying platform. Affordable and easily controlled miniature flying machines and the new breed of small camera have come together in a new creative tool capable of delivering a stunning new viewpoint of the highest quality in video technology. This year at IBC you will see and get your hands on a large range of flying video platforms, some of which have never been exhibited before, from the world’s leading manufacturers in IBC’s brand new Feature Area, the IBC Drone Zone. Exhibitors will have access to the flight cage to demonstrate their products in a real, outdoor environment in what is set to be a spectacular demonstration area.

An important destination for all African broadcast and production role players, IBC sits at the global crossroads of the electronic media and entertainment industry and provides a full and vibrant experience, from students to CEOs, to innovative start-ups or media superpowers. – Ian Dormer August 2015 | SCREENAFRICA | 37

BROADCAST TECHNOLOGY

|

SYSTEM INTEGRATION

Prepare for the

IP revolution

For South Africa’s broadcast system integrators and technology vendors, little has changed in the methods of system integration (SI) in the past year but what has changed is the market.

Currently there is little call for large-scale system integration.

However, one of the major topics of the moment – media over IP – is just about to transform the way that broadcasters work and will likely require some rethinking of broadcast systems in the near future.

38 | SCREENAFRICA | August 2015

S

peaking to technology suppliers at Mediatech Africa and after, what became clear was that Africa’s broadcasters are not commissioning major new systems that require the integration of large numbers of components. There has not been much call for the design, supply and installation of complete end-to-end, turnkey solutions. Rather, broadcasters have been buying particular components to replace or upgrade sections of their existing systems.

Colin Wainer of Inala Broadcast says: “At the moment we aren’t doing any system integration work but we have sold a lot specific products to broadcasters for various projects. One example would be etv’s move to new premises. They purchased more servers from us, increasing their storage and playout capacity at the new location. Another one is Multichoice, to whom we also supplied servers for their Samrand site, to make space for another 18 channels. They increased their ingest facilities at the Randburg site for another 20 channels.”

Many other suppliers seem to have had similar experiences in the recent past.

Andrew Cole of Concilium Technologies says: “We may be asked by a client to supply a media asset management (MAM) system for example. We would establish what the client wants to achieve and then implement that specific requirement within the MAM environment. Although we would be integrating with a number of different products or systems, it’s not system integration as we have traditionally known it, where a complete turnkey solution

would be delivered. You’re delivering a single product that can be integrated within the existing environment.”

Looking at SI as the building of a complete broadcast architecture from scratch, end to end, it is evident that there is very little of it going on. That means that existing systems are evidently satisfactory – or just too costly to redesign. While existing broadcasters are expanding capacity in specific areas of their systems – playout, ingest or media asset management, say, the need does not exist for entire new facilities. It should also be remembered that many small-scale broadcast operators opt for simple, channel-in-a-box solutions, rather than the kind of complex, multicomponent systems employed by the major players.

An important point for system integrators is the broadcast market’s diminishing tolerance for proprietary components. Broadcasters want brands that can be integrated with all (or most) other brands, allowing for greater choice and flexibility, and lower costs. From the integrator’s point of view, this makes the job slightly easier but by giving the client more choice, it means that integrators need to be open to making way for products that may not be included among their agencies.

The trend that seems likely to have the biggest impact on broadcast system building in the near future is the shift from baseband broadcast to transmission via internet protocol (IP). This move is expected to make broadcast less labour intensive and to save broadcasters considerable amounts of money in both

capital and operational expenditure.

“There is a big shift towards IP at the moment,” says Andrew Cole of Concilium Technologies. “The information technology world has finally caught up with the demands of the broadcast industry. Available processing power and bandwidth in the IP domain is now sufficient for the requirements of the broadcast facility, such as the processing and transmission of multiple HD signals.”

The IP move would essentially combine the operations of broadcast operatives with those of certain sectors of the IT industry. While this may be attractive to broadcast companies, it poses a potential threat to labour in the broadcast industry.

“The problem that I foresee,” says Wainer, “is that you’re collapsing the jobs of broadcasters from a studio domain and the jobs of those in the multiplex uplink domain into one – because it becomes a single platform. So imagine that you work in a studio environment, up to where you hand over your signal to the multiplexers. They take over your signal and transmit it. Now we would be taking those two steps and collapsing them into one. What would you do? You’d safeguard your job – so operatives on both sides of this process are likely push against the new technology coming in.”

Employees at the broadcasters would not be the only people affected by the change. System integrators and broadcast engineers would have to adapt as well. “As we move more into IP, our skillsets need to move as well,” explains Concilium’s Steve Alves, “because you now need to understand how to work with IP workflows and how they coexist with baseband. So from an SI point of view, it’s about acquiring those skills, about becoming more familiar with IT and telecoms networking to complement the traditional broadcast technology skills.

Fortunately for us, we have had IP skills in house for years. ” It appears that the IP shift will be a fundamental one for the industry. “We’ve been doing television broadcast in this country for nearly 40 years,” Wainer says, “and the workflows have remained essentially the same in that time. This is a major change. Previously we moved from tape-based broadcast to tapeless. That was a big shift. This is a different mind shift all the way through the broadcast workflow – and quite a radical one.”

The transition will not be a fast one however. Most broadcasters around the world are still operating with existing baseband broadcast infrastructure in which they have invested millions of dollars. Many system integrators now engineer hybrid systems that will ease the changeover while allowing broadcasters to keep their legacy equipment for many years to come. – Warren Holden

AERIAL CINEMATOGRAPHY

|

New drone regulations – what you need to know The new regulations for commercial use of RPAS – Remotely Piloted Aircraft Systems (commonly called drones), came into effect from 1 July 2015. What do they mean to drone operators?

Basic drones regulations in South Africa: • Up to 20kg systems (commercial only).

• Do not fly more than 400 feet above the ground (about a 40-storey building).

• Do not fly more than 500 metres away (line of sight).

• Do not fly closer than 10km from an aerodrome (airport, airstrip, helipad, etc).

• Do not fly closer than 50m from people, buildings or roads (unless part of the operation).

• Commercial drone operators require a number of licences (for the pilot and the business).

• More detailed info and simplified description of each of the requirements can be found at www.safedrone.co. za (a free public service website dedicated to helping all understand the new regulations).

Who can fly drones legally right now in SA? At the time of writing this article, nobody has yet been given permission by the SACAA to operate drones (including RC helicopters or airplanes) for commercial purposes in South Africa. Anyone flying a drone for any purpose other than private use is doing so illegally, until they meet all the requirements (including RPL, RLA, radio licence, ROC and ASL).

Private operations purely for recreational purpose (hobby) are allowed already, provided the drone is below 7kg, is operated more than 50m from people, buildings and roads and is a distance of 10km from airports.

When will we be able to employ drone operators legally?

The application process takes time; even 40 | SCREENAFRICA | August 2015

if the operator has every single one of the required documents and other requirements, the process is likely to take three to six months. The very first legal operators should begin operating in October 2015 or soon after.

Is the process working? (progress in the first three weeks): • First few RPL (remote pilot licences) have been issued.

• First few RPAS instructor ratings (for instructors at RPAS schools) have been approved.

• First 15 drone business applications are being processed.

• First 19 RPAS (drones) have completed registration process.

• A series of workshops will run in each province over the next few weeks.

• Many drone operators have already worked hard ahead of time to comply with most of the requirements and are going through the application process as quickly as possible.

Can we fly drones near people, buildings and roads for filming purposes?

Yes, provided all of the people are part of the operation. Flying over general public who are not part of the operation (film shoot) is not allowed. However, certain commercial operations may obtain special permission from the SACAA in their ops spec that gives them specific permission to fly over public (for example, for the survey of a public square). The company in question would need to present a very strong safety case to the SACAA for this to be considered.

Is insurance available for drones?

Yes, insurance is available for licensed drone operators, as well as private operators. Of course the insurance will only cover the system if it is used within the legal framework.

How much does the drone licence cost?

There is more than one licence. The actual pilot licence (RLA) issued to the person costs R500 (to SACAA) plus the pilot will pay training school fees depending on the school used.

Each commercial drone must also be registered at a cost of R600 per drone.

The Restricted Radio Licence is about R900.

But the biggest costs will be the time involved in generating all the manuals required (including the Operations Manual, Safety Management System, Quality Management System, Flight Manual, Maintenance Manual, etc).

The total amount payable to SACAA per drone business will be on average around R10 000 to R20 000. Additional costs include training at an RPL school, the time required to generate manuals and the cost of an aviation consultant (optional).

Where can I find drone pilot schools?

At the time of writing this article, no training schools had yet been approved by the SACAA because the schools may only start to apply after 1 July 2015, when the new regulations became effective.

SACAA has been hard at work processing

applications for RPAS schools (ATOs), and has already approved some instructor staff ratings at certain schools (a handful who have international training and substantial aviation experience where considered).

How will production companies know which drone operators are legal?

Simply call the SACAA RPAS department or check the SACAA website.

As standard procedure ask all drone operators for a copy of their RPL licence and ROC certificate. It is also wise to ask for the operation specifications (Ops Spec) from the operator before confirming the shoot, to ensure they have all permissions required for the shoot.

How Does the SACAA plan to enforce the new regulations?

The aviation industry works on compliance, and not on enforcement.

Regular audits and inspections are done to assist operators to remain compliant with regulations.

What is the risk if someone operates drones illegally?

Most likely the SACAA will not ‘catch out’ that operator directly on the day. But if complaints are sent to the SACAA about a certain illegal / unsafe operator, they may choose to investigate further.

Possibly the biggest risk is if there is an incident, crash or injury to a person or property, and it is found that the operation was illegal. In that case all involved in the operation could be held responsible, including production crew, the operator, and so on.

Insurance will not honour a claim if the operation is found to be illegal.

– John Gore (Drone Crew)

ADVERTORIAL

| Outside Broadcast

SilverCam Broadcast at Mediatech SilverCam Broadcast may be a new name to some, but their offering provides a new and refreshing option to those requiring an Outside Broadcast vehicle and fly-away kits. With passion and experience, Silvercam are able to provide a multitude of services to the local industry and this was amply demonstrated with their presence at Mediatech 2015.

The SilverCam Broadcast OB van was a popular exhibit at the trade show. SilverCam boss Lynton Allsopp was enthusiastic about the show and the van.

“We built it ourselves over the past year,” he says. “It was designed by me and my team and we are well qualified with many years of experience in this field”.

Allsopp took a Sprinter sized vehicle and equipped it to run six Grass Valley LDX80 cameras with four robotic cameras. “We run through a Ross Carbonite desk and use Riedel comms recording to AJA KiPros. The big advantage (apart from the brilliant LDXs)

REFRESHING OPTIONS: Lynton Allsopp (second from right) and the SilverCam crew is our digital comms. They offer great flexibility with a 32-channel system with wireless flexibility. We also have a range of lenses from a 14x4.5 to a 72x.

“We have been operational now for the past six months and our client base is varied. We also offer fly-away units which

WE COVER THE WORLD OF SPORTS

SPORTS STATISTICS AND REAL-TIME GRAPHICS COVERAGE wtvision.com

means we are able to do a six-camera OB as well as a four-camera fly-way. We have the ability to mix and match and we can provide exactly what our clients want.”

Allsopp points out that SilverCam is a facility. “We are not a production company, we are out there in the

marketplace and we just enjoy working for a lot of different clients. Mediatech has been our first advertising exposure and it’s been fantastic – we have opened ourselves up to a variety of new clients.

The quality of foot traffic has been far more than I expected”.

Authorised Dealer and Service Centre for:

Neil White Sales Consultant Cell: +27 (0)82 8000 217 Email: neil@sbss.tv

James Macpherson Sales Consultant Cell: +27 (0)82 569 4136 Email: james@sbss.tv

Dexter Forbes Engineer / Workshop Cell: +27 (0)72 743 9262 Email: Dexter@sbss.tv

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Tel: +27 (0)21 425 6337

Fax +27 (0)21 421 1178

1 Port Road | V&A Waterfront | Cape Town | South Africa

BEE Level 1 August 2015 | SCREENAFRICA | 41

NEW MEDIA

|

APP-titude

We take a look at the apps which are simplifying workflows in pre-, post- and production.

Periscope Publisher: Twitter, Inc Compatible devices: iOS, Android Price: Free

How it works: Society’s fascination with self-publishing has extended to the broadcast arena too. Now, filmmakers and journalists are able to self-broadcast using apps like this one. Periscope allows users to broadcast videos live online – whether to a select group of friends and followers or to entire communities of viewers. Each video is integrated with a number of social features which allow users to see who has joined the broadcast, left a heart or a comment in real time, and more.

Why this is awesome: For journalists and content creators, immediacy and portability can be crucial factors in delivering current and exclusive video footage. An array of available screens has also increased the demand for content mobility – audiences can consume content on-the-go and are therefore hungry for on-the-go delivery. The app gives users the ability to offer anyone in the world a new perspective based on their own experience. The result is a global community which shares and generates rich and authentic content.

Straight 8 Publisher: Widebeam Digital Compatible devices: iOS Price: Free

How it works: Create a three-minute film on the go? With mobile apps like Straight 8, yes you can. You might just want to have a little fun, or maybe you are looking to create the next award winning short – either way, there are no excuses not to get creative and bring your content to life. The app allows users to shoot and edit their work, add filters and effects and finish a film with music. It also allows users to share their videos to Vimeo and YouTube or via email, Twitter and Facebook. Vloggers and filmmakers alike are able to use the app to complete a film or video entirely on mobile.

Why this is awesome: Storytelling is no longer confined to one platform, or a tried and tested technique. Being able to share stores with the world, or within our own social circles and communities, has become part of our culture and the nature of contemporary content creation. Straight 8 makes it super easy to make a short movie (with all the production frills) which allows users to cut costs as well as practise and showcase their art.

Using a filmmaking app you think we should know about? Tell us why you think it’s awesome by emailing: carly@screenafrica.com.

42 | SCREENAFRICA | August 2015

| Box Office

Figures supplied by SAFACT

July Hollywood blockbuster season at the SA box office Minions

Entourage

Universal’s lovable, gibberish-speaking Minions come in at number one at the South African box office this July. The prequel to the Despicable Me franchise boasts voices by Sandra Bullock, Steve Carell and Michael Keaton. The 3D computer-animated flick holds onto the top spot for the third week running with R4 202 486, a 45% drop on the previous weekend’s earnings, bringing total local box office revenue to R32 885 428.

The highly-anticipated big-screen debut of the award-winning HBO series Entourage scoops the fourth spot in its opening weekend at the local box office with R798 409.

Produced by Mark Wahlberg, the Warner Bros. comedy reunites the show’s original cast with celebrity cameos by Pharrell Williams, Mike Tyson, Liam Neeson and Jessica Alba to name a few.

Pixels

Terminator Genisys

Directed by Chris Columbus and produced

by Adam Sandler, the sci-fi action comedy Pixels tells the story of an alien attack on earth in the form of video games. A co-production between Columbia Pictures, 1492 Pictures and Happy Madison Productions, the film debuts at number two on homegrown soil, with an uninspiring R3 030 462 considering it’s mega production budget of US$88 million.

Paramount Pictures released the fifth installment in the Terminator franchise on 1 July 2015. The big budget, sci-fi, action picture has received largely negative reviews, with critics expressing their disappointment in its convoluted storyline but praising Arnold Schwarzenegger’s return to the franchise.

Terminator Genisys brought in R756 506 in its fourth week running, bringing total local box office revenue to R11 714 116.

Jurassic World It seems local audiences can’t get enough of director Colin Trevorrow’s installment in the Jurassic Park franchise, Jurassic World. Starring Chris Pratt and Bryce Dallas, the film comes in at number three at the South African box office in its seventh week running with R813 224, bringing total gross national earnings to an impressive R39 738 836.

Inside Out Dropping four places to number six this July is Disney’s Inside Out. Animation guru Pete Doctor’s quirky comedy has received positive reviews globally. With voiceovers by Mindy Kaling, Amy Poehler and Bill Hader, the frivolous flick brought in R625 601 in its sixth week running, a 39% drop on the previous weekend’s earnings, bringing its cumulative South African box office income to R19 563 064.

– Compiled by Chanelle Ellaya

August 2015 | SCREENAFRICA | 43

PR ODU CT IO N

UPDATES FOR FURTHER DETAILS VISIT www.screenafrica.com

Those productions in red are newly listed this month Production Updates Order of Information 1. Title 2. Production Company 3. Director 4. Genre

IN PRODUCTION

Cnr. Frost avenue & owl street | Milpark | Jo’burg t +27 [11] 482 7111

44 | SCREENAFRICA | August 2015

www.atlasstudios.co.za

3 TALK Urban Brew Talk Show 20 and Free X CON Films Dir: Munier Parker Documentary 50/50 Clive Morris Productions Current Affairs 53 EXTRA M-Net Inhouse Productions Dir: Navan Chetty Magazine A BROTHER’S LOVE 1300 Pictures (Pty) Ltd Dir: Elvis Nkosi Feature A CALENDAR OF EVENTS – MEDUPI & KUSILE Betta Beta Communications Prod: Tommy Doig Documentary A MAN OF HIS OWN PRINCIPALS Sekgopha Productions Prod: Buhle Mofulatsi / Thapelo Hlagala TV movie AQUELLE’ MIDMAR MILE 2015 Media Ventures Prod/Dir: Chris Moolman Documentary AFRICA 360 eNews News Head: Patrick Conroy Current affairs AFRO CAFÉ SEASON 7 Bonngoe Productions Prod: Pepsi Pokane Music ArtsCulturex Talent 1000 Championships Michics Global Communications Exec Prod: Mishack Motshweni Series Auditor General Global Access Creative Agency Dir: Brad Montgomery/Natalie Varoy Corporate BACKBONE PROJECT Global Access Creative Agency Prod: GA Creative Agency Documentary BIG BROTHER MZANSI Endemol South Africa Prod: Terja Beney, Liza Kleitman Reality BINNELAND Stark Films Prod/Dir: Friedrich / Elsje Stark Series BRAVO! Homebrew Films Prod: Jaco Loubser Magazine BONISANANI Grounded Media Talk Show Bugatti Together Lucky Fish Productions Dir: Raphaël Crombez Commercial CAINE’S LEGACY Media Navigation Prod/Dir: Dan Akinlolu Short Film CARTE BLANCHE (INSERTS) Modern Times Prod: Sophia Phirippides News Carte Blanche shorts TIA productions Prod / Dir: Tarryn Lee Crossman News CLAASENS DESIGNS MARKETING VIDEOS Panache Video Productions Prod/Dir: Liesel Eiselen Marketing videos CLASH OF THE CHOIRS Endemol South Africa Prod: Josh Feldman Talent / Reality COOL CATS Red Pepper Pictures 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 Debra Deel Khaki Productions Prod/Dir: Christelle Parrott, Wynand Dreyer Series DIAMOND BROKER OF CONGO Bendimir Productions PTY LTD Prod: Dede Tshibangu Documentary DIMENSION DATA Global Access Creative Agency Dir: Natalie Varoy Corporate DINNER DIVAS 2 Blonds and a Redhead Filming Prod: Anne Myers Series DISHONEST Inhlakanipho Films Dir: Vusi Nhlapo Feature Film Ditokelo tsa Medupi LMOL Production Dir: Lizzy Moloto Feature DIY MET RIAAN Prod: Riaan Venter-Garforth Magazine EARTH BEAT Tekweni TV Productions Prod: Sandra Herrington Series EASTERN MOSAIC Red Carpet Productions Prod: Saira Essa / Mark Corlett Magazine END GAME Fireworx Media/ Tunc Productions Prod: Bridget Pickering Dir: Akin Omotoso/ Thandie Brewer/ Thabang Moleya Feature EXPRESSO (Season 2) Cardova Prod: Paul van Deventer Series FACE OF GEMINI Footprint Media TV Prod: Cheryl Delport Series Facility Management Lectures (A4FM) Panache Video Productions Dir/ Prod: Liesel Eiselen Educational Faith Today Impact Christian Media Prod: Carl Schultz TV Series FOX NEWS CHANNEL Betta Beta Communications Prod/Dir: Tommy Doig News Free State Toursim Indaba Our Time Productions Dir: Jaun de Meillon Corporate FRENZY Red Pepper Pictures Prod: Morena Sefatsa Variety GENERATIONS Morula Pictures Prod: Mfundi Vundla Series GOOD MORNING AFRICA Planet Image Productions SA Prod/Dir: Wale Akinlabi Magazine GOSPEL GOLD Engage Entertainment Prod: Sthembile Mhlongu Music Got It Global Access Creative Agency Dir: Guy Sclanders Corporate GROEN Homebrew Films Prod: Jaco Loubser Wildlife HEAT WAVE Ruby Rocket Media Dir: Eddie Edwards TV Series HECTIC 99 Okuhle Media Prod: Wilna van Schalkwyk Magazine

HITACHI POWER AFRICA MEDUPI AND KUSILE Betta Beta Communications Prod/Dir: Tommy Doig Documentary HOUSE CALL Izwe Multimedia / Urban Brew Prod: Annalie Potgieter Talk Show IGNITE Footprint Media TV Prod: Cheryl Delport Reality IHAWU LE SISWE Provoke Entertainment Dir: Sechaba Morojele TV Series iParent training clips Global Access Creative Agency Dir: Guy Sclanders Corporate IMIZWILILI Ukhamba Productions Prod: Alfred Mpofu Music INKABA Urban Brew Studios Prod: John Kani Telenovela In search of our own Open Window school of film arts Prod: Adriaan De la Rey Documentary ISIDINGO Endemol South Africa Prod: Pumla Hoppa, Leo Phiri Soap JOBURG TAXI Xcut Studios Prod: Dave Kaminer Documentary JOU SHOW Homebrew Films Prod: Jaco Loubser Talkshow comedy KOKKEDOOR 2 Homebrew films Prod: Jaco Loubser and Paul Venter Cooking reality series KOLLIG Homebrew Films Prod: Jaco Loubser Magazine KONA The Directors Team (Pty) Ltd Prod/Dir: Laurence Lurie / Cathy Sykes Series KOOLCON CORPORATE VIDEO FiX Post Production/ Marketing AV Marketing Video LATE NITE NEWS ON E.TV Diprente Productions Prod: Tamsin Andersson Series Light Girls South African Unit White Heron Pictures Prod: Themba Sibeko Documentary LIVE Urban Brew Music LIVE LOTTO SHOW Urban Brew Game Show Mandela’s Gun DV8 films Dir: John Irvin Feature Marang Estate: Mixed Used Development Nov/ Dec Our Time Productions Dir: Jaun de Meillon Documentary MASHELENG1 LMOL Production Dir: Lizzy Moloto Feature MASHELENG 2 LMOL Production Dir: Jonny Muteba Feature MassTalk Global Access Creative Agency Prod: Brad Montgomery Corporate MATRICS UPLOADED Educational Improvement and Study Help (EISH) Prod: Lisa Blakeway Educational MOTSWAKO Carol Bouwer Productions Prod: Grant Paul Roy Talk Show MCA Training Global Access Creative Agency Dir: Guy Sclanders Corporate M-NET SHORT FILMS Current Affairs Films Prod/ Dir: Jane Thandi Lipman Film

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UPDATES MURDER OF A FORMER FIRST LADY Sabido Productions Dir/Prod: Catherine Rice Documentary MUVHANGO Word of Mouth Prod: Pieter Grobbelaar Feature MY GENERATION Current Affairs Films Dir: Jane Lipman TV Series My name is Funeka Sabido Productions Dir/Prod: Catherine Rice Documentary MZANSI INSIDER Bonngoe Productions Prod: Pepsi Pokane Magazine NEILL ANTHONY – THE PRIVATE CHEF Okuhle Media Prod: Grant Flynn Cooking Show NET1 – SASSA Betta Beta Communications Prod: Tommy Doig Corporate NEWS NIGHT eNews Prod: Nikiwe Bikitsha Current Affairs Oscar Pistorius Documentary Inserts TIA Productions Dir/ Prod: Tarryn Crossman Documentary PASELLA Tswelopele Productions Dir: Liani Maasdorp / Werner Hefer Magazine PAWN STARS SOUTH AFRICA Rapid Blue Prod: Kee-Leen Irvine, Ed Worster, Johan Naude and Kat Weatherall Reality PHUNDEKA READING PROGRAMME SummerTime Productions Exec Prod: Phundeka (NGO) Documentary POWER COMBAT ZONE Mixed Motion Entertainment Dir: Dieter Gottert Sport PROJECT MV Zen Crew Prod: Laura Tarling Music Rands with Sense 2 Blonds and a Redhead Filming Prod: Anne Myersin Education RHYTHM CITY Quizzical Pictures Prod: Yula Quinn Soapie RHYTHM CITY INTERACTIVE Quizzical Pictures / e.tv Prod: Viva Liles-Wilkin Interactive Platform Media RIVONINGO Asi-B Films Prod: Asivhanzi ‘Asi’ Mathaba Children’s Show ROLLING WITH KELLY KHUMALO Red Pepper Prod: Cecil Barry Reality ROOTS Ukhamba Communications Prod: Alfred Mpofu Music

SAINT AND FREEDOM FIGHTER Blue Marble Entertainment Dir: Eugene Botha Documentary SA Top Model for a Day Michics Global Communications Exec Prod: Mishack Motshweni TV Series SAKEGESPREK MET THEO VORSTER SEASON 5 Dirk Mostert Camera Production Prod/ Dir: Dirk Mostert Series SAUBA IMAGOFILM Prod: Tam de Vries Reality TV Series Shreds and Dreams Penguin Films Prod: Roberta Durrant TV Series SOUTH AFRICAN TOURISM Rapid Blue Prod: Kee-Leen Irvine Global TV Commercial SA’S GOT TALENT Rapid Blue Prod/Dir: Kee-Leen Irvine Talent show SCANDAL Ochre Moving Pictures Prod: Romano Gorlei Soapie SCHOEMAN BOERDERY – MOOSRIVIER Khaki Productions Prod/Dir: Christelle Parrott / Wynand Dreyer Documentary SELIMATHUNZI Sikhoyana Productions Prod: Baby Joe Correira Variety SHIZ NIZ Red Pepper Pictures Prod: Allen Makhubele Variety SHIFT Urban Brew Talk show SISTERHOOD Red Pepper Pictures Prod: Andy Leze Variety SIYAKHOLWA – WE BELIEVE X CON Films Dir: Munier Parker Edutainment Slender Wonder Doctors Conference Grey Cloud Productions Dir: Jacques Brand Prod: Slender Wonder Corporate Video Slender Wonder Patient Testimonial Videos Grey Cloud Productions Dir: Jacques Brand Corporate Videos SOCCER ZONE SABC Sports Head: Sizwe Nzimande Magazine SODA AND Mayoral Awards Global Access Creative Agency Guy Sclanders Corporate SPRINGBOK STORIES Angel Music Studio Productions Dir: Chrissie Rossouw TV Series

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STUDY MATE Educational Improvement and Study Help (EISH) Exec Prod: Lisa Blakeway Educational SUPERSWIMMER Media Ventures Prod/Dir: Chris Moolman TV Series THE CHAT ROOM Eclipse Prod: Thokozani Nkosi Talk Show THE COMMUNIST REPUBLIC OF SOUTH AFRICA Jam TV, Creative South Africa, Nkhanyeti Production Prod: Barthelemy Ngwessam Documentary THE JUSTICE FACTOR eNews Prod: Debbie Meyer Current Affairs THE REAL GOBOZA 7 Urban Brew Entertainment The Revolution Betrayed Shadow Films Prod/Dir: David Forbes Documentary THE RUDIMENTALS Periphery Films Prod: Simon Taylor Feature THE TECH REPORT Homebrew Films Prod: Jaco Loubser Technology Magazine TOP BILLING Tswelopele Productions Prod: Patience Stevens Magazine TOP TRAVEL (Season 3) Cardova Prod: Bradley van den Berg Series Transnet Financial Results Global Access Creative Agency Dir: Brad Montgomery Corporate Troopship Tragedy (Working Title) Sabido Productions Prod/Dir: Marion Edmunds Documentary TSHIPE BORWA MANGANESE MINE Betta Beta Communications Prod / Dir: Tommy Doig Documentary Vaseline Experience Xcut Studios Dir: Lee Anne Theron 4D AV production VELDKINDERS Kilroy Was Here! Productions Prod: Gideon Breytenbach Documentary Series VILLA ROSA Spectro Productions Dir: Luhann Jansen / Andries van der Merwe/ Leroux Botha/ Isabel Smit Series Volkspele South Africa Grey Cloud Productions Dir:Jacques Brand Prod: Bertie Brink Documentary WARD 22 TIA Productions Prod/Dir: Tarryn Crossman Documentary WEEKEND AM LIVE SABC News Current Affairs WIZARD OF ZIM Away From Keyboard Dir: Samora Sekhukhune Documentary YILENGELO LAKHO Prod: Nndanganeni Mudau Current Affairs ZOOM IN Footprint Media TV Prod: Cheryl Delport Talk show

IN POST-PRODUCTION A BUSHMAN ODYSSEY Onetime Films Prod: Richard Wicksteed Documentary A DIFFERENT COUNTRY Sabido Productions Dir: Lisa Henry Documentary series A Love Letter to Luxor Shadow Films Prod/Dir: David Forbes Short Film A MOTHER’S MADNESS Sabido Productions Prod/Dir: Ayesha Ismail Documentary AFROX CO2 PLANT FC Hamman Films Prod: Odette van Jaarsveld Corporate Video

PRODUCTION AFROX FINANCIAL RESULTS FC Hamman Films Prod: Odette van Jaarsveld Corporate Video AFROX RAU INSIGHT FC Hamman Films Prod: Odette van Jaarsveld Corporate Video AFROX SHEQ INDUCTION FC Hamman Films Prod: Odette van Jaarsveld Commercial BEAUTY CONTEST Phoenix TV Productions Prod/Dir: Koketso Sefanyetso Short Film CAESAREAN COMPLICATIONS SummerTime Productions Exec Prod: Professor Eckhart Buchmann Documentary Challenge SOS 2 Blonds and a Redhead Filming Prod: Anne Myers Reality Collide Media Village Productions Prod: Ardeen Munnik TV Series CROSSBOW KILLER Sabido Productions Prod/Dir: Barbara Friedman Documentary DEBRA DEEL Khaki Productions Prod: Christelle Parrott TV Series DIE WASGOEDLYN Kilroy Was Here! Productions Prod: Gideon Breytenbach TV Series FASHION GURU SA Pro Media & Spider – Co Productions Prod/Dir: Dee Vanzyl Reality FORMIDABELE VROUE: CISSY GOOL Khaki Productions Prod/Dir: Christelle Parrott/ Wynand Dreyer Documentary HAD BETTER DAYS Uniquely Novel Productions Prod/Dir: Deon VD Merwe Feature Film THE HOCKEY STICK KILLER Sabido Productions Prod/Dir: Melanie Rice Documentary HOPE NHU Africa Prod: Vyv Simson / Donfrey Meyer Documentary HOUSE OF ENCOURAGEMENT Panache Video Productions Dir/Prod: Liesel Eiselen Corporate I AM…CRAIG Away From Keyboard Dir: Samora Sekhukhune Documentary IQILI Impucuzeko Prod: Sharon Kakora Feature Joyous 18 RM Recording Prod: Lindelani Mkhize Other JULIUS HAS A DREAM Creative South Africa, Nkanyethi Productions,Jam TV Prod: Bathelemy Ngwessam Documentary KADARA Media Navigation Prod: Dan Akinlolu/ Biola Karonwi TV Drama Kerels wat Kook Penguin Films Prod: Roberta Durrant Reality TV Series

KNYSNA West Five Films Prod/ Dir: Maynard Kraak; Andre Velts Feature Film LINCOLN CLAN Total Recall Media Ltd Dir: Adebanjo Oluseyi TV Series THE MIME ARTIST Phoenix TV Productions Prod: Koketso Sefanyetso Short Film MURDER ON MILLIONAIRE’S MILE Sabido Productions Prod/Dir: Barbara Friedman Documentary MY SIGHT FOR SORE EYES Enigma Ace Films Prod/Dir: Ryan Kruger Feature Film NIGHT OF THE MASSACRE Tshepo Lesedi Projects, Mathope & Izibuko Films Dir: Charles Khuele Documentary NEW LAND Plexus Films/ Four Corners Media Dir: Kyle O’ Donoghue TV Series NIGHTCLUB KILLER Sabido Productions Prod/Dir: Nobathembu Stefane Documentary Nyaope Gangsters LMOL Production Dir: Lizzy Moloto Feature PERFECT SHISHEBO Quizzical Pictures Prod: Nthabiseng Mokoena Series PLAY MORE GOLF FC Hamman Films Prod: Odette van Jaarsveld Commercials Pushi- Passion LMOL Production Dir: Lizzy Moloto Series ROSA 3 Two Oceans Productions Prod: Giselher Venzke & Bertha Spieker TV Feature SAFE BET Sukuma Media Producer: Nokuthula Sakhile Mguni / Bonginhlanhla Ncube Feature Film SAMURAI KILLER Sabido Productions Dir: Catherine Rice Corporate SHALLOW GRAVE Sabido Productions Prod/Dir: Meggan Raubenheimer Documentary SLENDER WONDER FC Hamman Films Prod: Odette van Jaarsveld Corporate Video SLENDER WONDER MJ LABS FC Hamman Films Prod: Odette van Jaarsveld Corporate Video SWARTWATER Quizzical Pictures Prod: Bianca Isaac Dir: John Trengove/ Jozua Malherbe/ Denny Y Miller Series SUPERDAD Two Oceans Productions Prod: Giselher Venzke & Bertha Spieker TV Feature SURVIVOR Endemol South Africa Prod: Anton Burggraaf, Josh Feldman Reality

TELKOM: BUSINESS INSIGHTS WEBSERIES UZI Films Prod/Dir: Steven Hall Corporate The calling LMOL Production Dir: Lizzy Moloto Feature THE CODE BREAKER NHU Africa Prod: Vyv Simson / Donfrey Meyer Documentary THE FAMILY PUZZLE Site et Sons media productions Prod/Dir : Zamo Missie Feature THE LAST GREAT TUSKERS NHU Africa Prod: Vyv Simson / Donfrey Meyer Documentary The Message Reel Edge Studios Dir: David Golden TV Drama Series THE STORY OF LITTLE FOOT Paul Myburgh Film Prod: Paul Myburgh Documentary THE TRANSPORTERS Sukuma Media/ Reality Motion Pictures Dir: Bonginhlanhla Ncube Documentary TROOPSHIP TRAGEDY Sabido Productions Prod/Dir: Marion Edmunds Documentary Traffic Penguin Films Prod: Roberta Durrant TV Series UNDER THE MOUNTAIN Plexus Films Prod: Miki Redelinghuys,/ Lauren Groenewald Short film UNSOLVED – THE STORY OF THE CAPE RIPPER Sabido Productions Prod/Dir: Johann Abrahams Documentary VKB LANDBOU BEPERK FC Hamman Films Prod: Odette van Jaarsveld Corporate Video When I Was Water Shadow Films Dir: David Forbes Documentary XJ-1 Eternal Film Productions Prod: Marius Swanepoel/ Dana Pretorius Feature You Deserve It Penguin Films Prod: Roberta Durrant TV Game Show

U PDAT ES

UPCOMING EVENTS

|

AUGUST 30 Jul – 16 Melbourne International

Film Festival

Australia www.miff.com.au

5 – 15 LOCARNO FILM FESTIVAL

Switzerland www.pardolive.ch

9 – 13 SIGGRAPH 2015: Xroads of Discovery

Los Angeles www.s2015.siggraph.org

10 – 11

BROADCAST, FILM & MUSIC AFRICA 2015

Kenya www.aitecafrica.com

27 – 7 SEPT

WORLD FILM FESTIVAL MONTREAL

Montreal www.ffm-montreal.org

28 – 30 TV & Entertainment Summit

Los Angeles www.laulyp.com/entsummit/

SEPTEMBER 4 – 5 SEAexpo

Johannesburg www.seaexpoafrica.com

10 – 15 IBC 2015: IBC Conference

Amsterdam www.ibc.org

13 – 14 OMDC International Financing Forum

Toronto www.omdc.on.ca

Screen Africa relies on the 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

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August 2015 | SCREENAFRICA | 47

Social

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Mediatech Africa 2015, The Dome, Johannesburg

George Durant (Red Pepper Pictures), Ben Murphy (WTS Broadcast) and Collette Corthouts (WTS Broadcast)

GIT’s Jullian Jacobs and Cindo Alves

Glen Theron (Cam-a-Lot Rentals) and Marianne Schafer (Screen Africa)

Ivan Bridgens (LaserNet) and Neil White (SPSS)

Leonard Matjila (Tru-fi Electronics) and Jim Bakker (Lectrosonics)

Russel Jones (Harambe Technologies), Charl Urquhart (Harambe Technologies) and Gerald Meiring (Protea Electronics)

Sabido eAcademy’s Jeniffer Maako, Phaki Fokane, Natalie Delport and Itumeleng Swartz

Sally Wallington (Grass Valley), Ian Peacock (MultiChoice), Shaun Kerr (Protea Electronics) and Vincent Eade (Grass Valley)

SeaChange’s Philippe Tommasi and Mark Snyman

Simon Sabela Awards

Thobani Mwebase, Nomusa Mvelase, Zama Mthembi and Zeph Mthembu

Nonhlanhla Msibi and Innocent Thanjekwayo

Jenkosi Maphumulo and Zamandayi Kunene

Mhlonishwa Lakai

Nonkukhanya Mseleku, Mpume Mseleku, Musa Mseleku, Mbali Mseleku and Thobile Mseleku

Noluthando Khawulo and Londy Thabethe

48 | SCREENAFRICA | August 2015

Clive Gumede and Tha Simelane

Alex Hodges and Franco Human

Linda Mashishi, Norma Mzimila, Judith Msami and Siphamandla Ngcobo