Screen Africa - January 2014

raries ib L & s io ud Sound St Film & TV Lighting BROADCAST, FILM, TV, COMMERCIALS, NEW MEDIA & TECHNOLOGY NEWS

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VOL 26 – January 2014 R35.00

8th annual

SOUTH AFRICAN

Film & Television Awards

4 – 5 April 2014 Gallagher Convention Centre, Midrand, South Africa

www.nfvf.co.za

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

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VOL 26 – January 2014 R35.00

Four Corners: Stories of hope in the Cape Flats Four Corners, South Africa’s submission to the 2014 Oscars in the best foreign language category is a multi-thread narative with four different family stories converging together around the coming-of-age tale of a young 13-year-old Cape Flats boy named Ricardo.

Ian Gabriel (Forgiveness) directed the movie, which is generating a lot of award buzz in the lead-up to the 86th Academy Awards in March.

“The four stories are drawn together in the climax around a single significant event for the boy, and all four versions, plus the boy’s account are themed around stories of family. The themes deal with absent fathers, the death of a family member, the search for lost relatives, the abduction of

children and the desire for revenge for harm inflicted on a family member,” says Gabriel.

“So each story thread in the film is very much around those themes. My intention in making this film was to balance the gangland story with thoughts about the struggle for families to survive in tough circumstances, made tougher by the influence of the gangs,” he comments.

The director and his team spent a lot of time researching the script. “And that was not just ‘intellectual research’, it was very much on the ground research with Hofmeyr Scholtz, the principal writer, visiting prisons, travelling with cops, meeting chess players and so forth.

“However, what was vital was that the research never had to

stop. When we looked for locations and for cast, and improvised with cast, we were still ‘researching’ in that we drew the community into all aspects of the filmmaking process,” he continues.

Gabriel decided to find all the locations himself, partly because he had a strong vision of what the film and the lives of the different characters should look like, but also because he didn’t want to end up with a ‘broken telephone’ between him and the community.

He says: “I knew we were going to be dependent entirely on the community – our plan was to shoot in the real areas of the Cape Flats, some of which were well-known ‘turf war’ areas. We could only safely go there if the – continued on next page

South Africa’s Tweetheart What does a honey badger do when he has a lot of free time on his paws? He tweets of course.

BG, the world’s first live tweeting badger was first brought to the attention of Screen African readers in our August issue.

Now, four months later, BG has achieved fame and has more than 11 000 followers on his Twitter page. As the official ‘spokesbadger’ for the Johannesburg Zoo, BG tweets about his ‘noisy neighbours’ (lions), complains about food he’d

rather not eat (slugs), does the occasional weather report, comments on visitors at the zoo and upcoming events… and even posts revealing selfies.

Although BG’s tweeting abilities (and spelling) is impressive for a honey badger, he does have a little help from techno wizards Hellocomputer and Binary Space.

Hellocomputer and a campaign developed by sister agency Draftfcb South Africa, first introduced BG to the world.

Says Kerry Friend, Hellocomputer executive creative director: “We’re exceptionally proud of BG. He gained 5 000 followers in 50 tweets during the first week of his campaign and over 11 000 to date, trending on Twitter while doing so.

“He has also has garnered a strong international following, been on many major sites and blogs including Times Live, Huffington Post, NotCot, Best Ads on TV, BuzzFeed, TED and Perez – continued on next page

IN FOR AN OSCAR?: Director Ian Gabriel and cinematographer Vicci Turpin on the set of Four Corners.

Filmmakers’ observations Select South African filmmakers comment on where they think the local industry is heading in 2014.

Chris Roland, producer, ZenHQ Films (The Forgotten Kingdom): 2013 saw an explosion of locally produced films, which looks to continue into 2014. In the long term, this is a positive trend.

In the short term, it can prove disappointing if producers do not pay attention to the current playing field. More films means stiffer competition for audiences, which translates into reduced revenue.

2014 will see a surprising change in the type of local films that resonate for SA audiences.

Heavy social dramas and over-thetop slapstick comedies will see declining audiences, while smart, well-produced and entertaining rom coms, comedies, action and

thrillers will gain momentum.

David Kau, actor (Blitz Patrollie): I think there will be lots of R2.5m budget films being made to meet the DTI minimum rebate spend, but I don’t think that necessarily means there will be many more South African films at the cinemas, that’s up to the distributors.

I believe more black filmmakers will make or start productions in 2014. They all just have to put as much effort in marketing and distributing their films to their target market, wherever that is, rather than wait for the audience to come to their films.

Hanneke Schutte, writer, director, producer and SA winner of the Jameson First Shot Competition 2013 (Jimmy in Pienk): Just as in 2013 it looks – continued on next page

Continued from page 1

Four Corners: Stories of hope in the Cape Flats community knew and understood what we were doing and gave their blessing to our project.

“And I think we earned that blessing because the filmmaking was very honest and authentic, nothing fake was set up. We tried to look at the light as well as the dark and tried to balance those two elements in the film. We wanted a story of hope.”

Community members also often told Gabriel that the Cape Flats is a ‘forgotten community’. “There was a sense that the Cape Flats stories were not being told, or would only be reported in the papers when something bad happens, which we hear quite often in news headlines. We weren’t going to pretend that those tough stories don’t happen, but we were going to balance them with honest reflections of real everyday life on the Cape Flats.”

Gabriel used a lot of non-actors in the movie and comments that the focus is really on the dynamic interplay that occurs when you put established actors, new actors, non-actors and ‘real people’ together, working on the same scenes.

“They all approach the reality of the scene in different ways. That means that you can get the best out of the actors because they’re out of their normal ‘actor to actor’ comfort zone. So they stretch themselves further,” he says.

“On the other hand, the non-actors and ‘real people’ players see the actions they are doing and the words they’re saying (usually improvising around the written text) become authentic because of the reaction and response of the trained actors.

“Sergio Leone once advised Clint Eastwood when he was a young actor: ‘Don’t just do something, stand there’.

Learning to ‘not act’, to just stand there, to be in the moment, to forget about the ‘next line’ is the most fundamental and essential acting task there is,” continues Gabriel.

“We were able to achieve that across the board in Four Corners because the environment and characters were very real.

Plus we had 60 speaking parts, so there was

HONEST AND AUTHENTIC: Ian Gabriel directs a community chess scene in the Cape Flats for Four Corners no possibility of only casting known actors for an entirely Cape Flats-based film. We made a virtue of necessity.”

Gabriel says they held castings where actors were mixed with non-actors and switched roles all the time and created controlled improvisations around real events so the two groups would learn from each other.

He comments: “The way Farakhan (Brendon Daniels) walks when he leaves the prison and hasn’t yet found his way as a father, is something I watched him adopt and make his own from watching the walk of some of the ex-prisoners and ex-gangsters we cast in the film. He absorbed the non-actors’ mannerisms and they developed faith in their ability to act by working closely with the actors and learning to listen rather than to ‘act’.”

Four Corners carries a strong message of hope. “The message of hope is firstly delivered in the focus on the importance of family and secondly in the positive influence that community activity (in this case chess) can have over the seduction of gangs,” says Gabriel.

He believes that hope can be realised in the Cape Flats. “The more people who make stories in the Flats, the more people who bring investment and training and opportunities to the Flats, the better the Flats will become. We created training and employment opportunities and told some

South Africa’s Tweetheart

#TWEETINGBADGER: BG the tweeting honey badger Hilton, and made the major press, radio and television appearances worldwide, including ABC News, Fox 2 and 6 and Good Morning America.

Randall, the mastermind behind YouTube sensation The Crazy Nastyass Honey Badger, has paid homage to BG and has created a short which documents a day in

2 | SCREENAFRICA | January 2014

BG’s life at the zoo at http://youtu. be/2Cz4uGRGVxA. To see what kind of tech assistance BG receives, visit http://www.youtube. com/watch?v=xGTptt7iwj8.

Readers can follow BG at @ zootweetslive or #tweetingbadger.

– Martie Bester

stories that come out of real Cape Flats experiences. That brings real hope to frustrated lives. More must be done.”

The team shot six days a week for five weeks, completing five minutes of finished film a day. “That was a hectic schedule but that was all the money we had. So I had a choice to shoot in five weeks or not to shoot at all. I am happy we made as it was an ambitious schedule with what is really an epic shoot,” Gabriel mentions. “But the big challenge was to tell the truth, not to create an outside fantasy impression of what was going on.”

Four Corners was shot in Mannenberg, Elsies River, Tafelsig, Eastridge, Ottery Reformatory, Pumlani, Khayelitsha,

Vatverniet and Macasar with the Alexa using Anamorphic lenses to achieve a long-lens, shallow-depth of field look.

“That was based on our desire to let the characters drive the look and feel of the film rather than the surroundings. We wanted to stay inside the characters’ lives. Sometimes when we did go wide it’s quite a shock to see the beauty of the landscape against the tough story we’re telling. But that also gives us reason to hope for the future,” the director reveals.

Commenting on the exceptional positive reactions the movie has received so far, Gabriel says: “It’s beautifully shot, has very strong believable performances, and isn’t afraid to tell a true story the way it really is.

It is a moral tale without being overmoralising or sanctimonious. The actors all believed in the value of what they were doing.”

Four Corner’s first edit was done by Ronelle Loots with additional edits by Emily Busac and then some further finesse by Karien Murray. The VFX work was done at Searle Street Post in Cape Town. Markus Wormstorm debuts as the composer of the score and Barry Donnelly mixed the track.

The movie was written by Gabriel, Terence Hammond and Hofmeyr Scholtz and produced by Cindy Gabriel and Genevieve Hofmeyr. – Martie Bester

Filmmakers’ observations like the market is going to be flooded with local films. South African audiences are becoming a bit more selective when it comes to supporting local films. I think producers and filmmakers have to become savvier in the way they market their films because the competition is tough.

We also have to challenge ourselves and constantly strive to make better films, we can’t become complacent or try and stick to recipes that have worked before.

Ian Gabriel, director (Four Corners): I think the industry is coming of age. It needs to be more than just a pretty and versatile location at cheap costs. We need to train more crew, which means we need to look after our crew and actors better; and we need to improve our production values and develop our stories more efficiently.

The end result on the screen is the measure of our work and the value of our industry. We need to keep it strong and protect it for the future. It’s the goose that can lay the golden egg.

Jahmil X.T. Qubeka, writer and director (Of Good Report): At the risk of sounding philosophical, the fate of the industry is intrinsically linked to the future of our country. One is not mutually exclusive to the other.

Our art mirrors the society in which we live; it’s informed by the social dynamic of our experience. Thus I have a feeling that 2014 will be a definitive year for our country and thus our industry too.

Raffaella Delle Donne, writer (Khumba): From my involvement in story development, I’ve been amazed at the amount of people working on ideas for

WHAT’S AHEAD: A scene from Of Good Report animated feature films, shorts and TV series that vary from kid-friendly, to ‘art-house’ to adult animation.

Khumba has done a lot to put SA animation on the global stage which, hopefully, will pave the way for other kinds of animated projects to get funded too.

Roberta Durrant, director and producer (Felix) I feel that well-made films that are exported can do very well internationally.

However, I think that locally, South Africans need to be less apathetic of supporting local movies and need to step out and support films in the cinemas. I also believe that our distributors need to allow movie audiences to grow.

This is particularly relevant of a feature film like Felix, which garnered an audience through word-of-mouth.

Also very important is that enough money is set aside for marketing and publicity. Nevertheless, with the government’s support, our industry at the moment is buoyant and we are being recognised internationally more and more as a film partner of substance, so more and more co-productions will happen.

C o n t e n ts

From the Acting editor

Great expectations This issue is testament to the fact that the South African film and broadcast industries are going through a tremendous phase of growth and development across all genres. Filmmakers are pushing boundaries and tell daring stories, delve into courageous territories, explore different genres, and as a result, are also extremely good at making plans to see their movies come to fruition.

We at Screen Africa are excited about director Ian Gabriel’s Four Corners, South Africa’s submission to the 2014 Oscars and the message of hope the film carries for communities in the Cape Flats and audiences everywhere.

In Battleground Afghanistan, Markus Davies and his team dodged bullets to tell a story of humanity and courage from the Marines’ perspective – it took brave men behind the scenes to capture never-before-seen footage, resulting in a documentary television series made by South Africans, which has screened in 155 countries to date.

Tarryn Crossman and her crew ventured into ‘Fatherland’ to investigate and report on controversial training camps for boys, probing into the documentary genre and the power of this medium of filmmaking.

With the South African landscape as one of its main characters, the first Afrikaans language romantic adventure film has been made, celebrating love but also our country’s diverse beauty from the Free State to the Karoo, through the Garden Route and to the mother of all cities, Cape Town.

In this issue, Ian Dormer juggles data, Andy Stead reports on a special project in his post-production article, lighting guru Angus C. Clarke introduces the first article in his ongoing series of features and legendary filmmaker Koos Roets is celebrated.

It has been an honour to stand in as editor this month, but working with a tremendous team has made things so much easier – it is wonderful sharing the joy of being in love with film with a group of people who are just as passionate about it as I am.

May the film force be with you.

Martie Bester

SCREENAFRICA Publisher & Managing Editor: Simon Robinson: publisher@screenafrica.com Acting Editor: Martie Bester: news@screenafrica.com Contributors: Andy Stead, Ian Dormer, Anton Crone, Carly Barnes, Carol Mohlala, Jakkie Groenewald, Martin Chemhere, Jonathan Deeb, Nick Bedford

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15

4

First Afrikaans romantic adventure film

‘Western’ 48 Hour Film Project to represent SA

21 Shoot on a shoestring – part 2

10

18

Sharing remarkable stories of SA icons

On the frontline of history

20 Juggling data

25 The art of making lighting work

Special Features Social media can assist in

SOund Studios & Libraries building a global passion brand.10 Listen up – here’s a one-stop shop.............. 22 Gallo: Leading player in music licensing space............................. 22 Many facets to highly successful Howard Music ........ 23 UPPM flourishing......................... 24 Clued up and on-key.................. 24

Film & TV Lighting The art of making lighting work.....................25 – 28

News Four Corners: Stories of hope in the Cape Flats................................. 1 Filmmakers’ observations............ 1 South Africa’s Tweetheart............. 1 NFVF Film Indaba sparks debate.................................. 4 International and local line-up for 2014 Jozi Film Festival............ 4 ‘Western’ 48 Hour Film Project to represent SA............... 4 Egg Films’ new ‘made in China’ director............................................ 6 First-time director for new Afrikaans romantic comedy ....... 6 Goedhals moves on....................... 8 Launch of only kids’ channel of African origin.................................. 8 Sharing remarkable stories of SA icons..................... 10

ADCETERA Lessons from a Malawian hero.............................. 11 Kauai serves up a tasty island Adonis...................... 12 OUTstanding new ad uses high-speed control rig...... 12 Lose out or make a plan........... 13 The TV ad is dead – long live the TV ad...................... 13

Q-Ball enters the jungle............ 30 Advanced video and audio signal analysis products.............. 31

AFrica Films about Morocco’s street children garner awards.............. 33 Boost for Zim filmmakers......... 33

WEB NEWS

On the frontline of history....... 18 Is SABC Board stability the key to broadcaster’s success?... 19 Juggling data.................................. 20

Oscar hopes for SA film........... 34 Durban Film Festival call for entries.............................. 34 Glow TV launches free-to-air channel in SA............................... 34 NFVF strengthens relationship with Cape filmmakers................ 34 NHU Africa deadline announced.................... 34 Triggerfish plans for a five-film slate............................. 34 SA actor to play Mandela in new film................... 35 Schuster candid about new movie.................................... 35 Revitalising Africa’s lost content.................................. 35

POST PRODUCTION

REGULARS

FILM

Director Speak – Koos Roets..14 First Afrikaans romantic adventure film ............................. 15

Documentary Controversial doccie shows cracks in Rainbow Nation......... 16

Television

Shoot on a shoestring – part 2 .................... 21

TRACKING TECHNOLOGY Ensuring ‘good vibrations’ for sports fans............................. 29 Jünger Audio and Audinate combine forces ............................................ 30

Production Updates........36 – 39 Events............................................. 39 Advertisers List........................... 39 Social.............................................. 40 New Appointments.................... 40

News

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NFVF Film Indaba sparks debate The 4th Film Indaba held in South Africa by the National Film and Video Foundation (NFVF) took place on 14 and 15 November 2013 at Emperors Palace Conference Centre in Boksburg, Johannesburg and sparked lively debate among delegates.

Focusing on a way forward for all stakeholders in the local film industry, the Indaba concentrated on four key features of development and sustainability, namely Transformation and Human Capital Development; Infrastructure Development; Funding and Institutional Models; and Markets for South African Content.

South African Minister of Arts and Culture Paul Mashatile addressed delegates and delivered a message of hope: “This Indaba offers us the opportunity to pause and reflect on the progress and challenges in further developing our local film industry.

We are emboldened by the reality that the cultural and creative industries, including film, are occupying centre stage in ongoing efforts to ensure social cohesion and nation-building as well as the economic empowerment of the people of our country.”

He added that the arts and culture industry opens powerful spaces for debate

about where society finds itself and where it is going. According to Mashatile, South Africa’s cultural legacy, and the creativity of its people, means that the country can offer unique stories and voices to the world.

“Film is one of the mediums through which we can tell our unique and compelling stories on a global platform. On many occasions we are seeing that the world is hungry to hear the South African story. A story of a people who have overcome adversity, and who are now heading toward a shared and prosperous future. We are encouraged that many of our local artists and films continue to receive international acclaim,” he said.

Mashitile mentioned feature films Elelwani, which won awards for Best Production Design and Best Actress (Florence Masebe) at the 2013 African Movie Academy Awards; South African co-production Layla Fourie that received a Special Jury Mention at the 63rd Berlin International Film Festival and South African producer Anant Singh’s Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom, which has attracted worldwide attention.

In the meantime, South African feature animated film Khumba, about a half-striped zebra in search of his identity, is galloping to international box-office success.

Mashatile commented on firm ties that were established at DISCOP AFRICA during which filmmakers met to strengthen collaboration and seek new markets for African film programmes within the continent and the Diaspora.

“We hope this Indaba will come up with strategies that will help us address

UNIQUE STORIES AND VOICES: Paul Mashatile

‘Western’ 48 Hour Film Project to represent SA

HEADING FOR CANNES: Five Minutes Till Noon

Winner of the Cape Town 48 Hour Film Project 2013, Five Minutes Till Noon, will represent the city in the USA at the Annual Filmpalooza this year. The top 10 films will screen at Cannes Film Festival Short Corner.

Produced by Epilogue Pictures and TH Films the movie took home 10 awards including Best Picture, Best Actor, Best Director (John de Vries) and Best Producer (Kyle St John Peters and ..).

Almost 40 team members worked on the production, which was shot in Dunoon Township.

Says St John Peters: “As one of the two producers of the film, I am so proud of what

we created. We had an amazing cast and crew who worked unbelievably hard and didn’t complain once. It was certainly a challenge, and after 22 hours of shooting I had nothing much left to give and I know the crew extended themselves far beyond what they thought possible.

“At the end of the day though it was all absolutely worth it and it paid off handsomely. I’ve already had the honour, together with director John de Vries, of representing Cape Town in the USA this year for our last short film Scapegoat, and now I’m looking forward to representing there again with this film.”

and overcome specific challenges in the industry and to further enhance this, we have begun a process to transform the NFVF into a fully-fledged South African Film Commission,” Mashatile concluded.

Zama Mkosi, CEO of the NFVF, confirmed that more than 300 delegates attended the Indaba, which also benefited from the participation of representatives from the Department of Trade and Industry,

the South African Screen Federation, the Department of Culture and the National Association for Broadcasters among others.

Mkosi added that the NFVF was excited about the establishment of the South African Film Commission and that its development was a priority. However, a specific timeline had not been established yet.

International and local line-up for 2014 Jozi Film Festival During the third annual Jozi Film Festival (JFF), which takes place in February 2014, international and local films will screen.

More than 200 movies have been submitted for this year’s JFF and the selection process is well underway.

Festival founder and organiser Lisa Henry says: “Great films really have no geographical boundaries and speak to a global audience so we took the decision to include international entries alongside South African films.“We have therefore

4 | SCREENAFRICA | January 2014

created new award categories for the international entries but remain committed to showcasing and promoting local talent first and foremost. We also feel that this addition will offer inspiration to our

filmmakers and that the films being selected will engage a Jozi audience.”

Although foreign films have screened in the past, they had to be linked to Johannesburg in one way or another.

“We have done away with that criteria and entries have been submitted from around the globe from countries like Kenya, the Philippines, Canada, Germany, the US, Australia and India and well over 100 films from South Africa itself,” comments Henry.

The Bioscope Independent Cinema in Maboneng Precinct will host the opening night film on 21 February and the theatre will again be the cornerstone of the festival. Cine Centre at the Killarney Mall is an additional venue for JFF while the third venue still had to be confirmed at the time of going to press.

JFF will also feature an increase in workshops and seminars from industry leaders.

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News

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Egg Films’ new ‘made in China’ director Egg Films has signed Johannesburg-based director Lebogang Rasethaba after he recently returned to South Africa after completing his four-year master’s degree in filmmaking at Beijing Normal University in China.

Rasethaba wanted to study in China as he felt Europe or New York felt a little obsolete and generic.

He says: “I think Europe and America are old world orders, they gave birth to the most prominent ideologies and prejudices to which we adhere, they set all the rules, everything from religion, to gender, to race to ideas around beauty.

“China is an underdog in history because they were kind of marginalised,” Rasethaba continues. “Almost 30 years without contact with the outside world? That’s insane. And now they are emerging as this super power with a whole new set of rules on culture, modern living, trade relations and what not.

They just have a lot more to offer regarding perspective of how things are going to play out in the future.”

When he arrived in China he couldn’t speak a word of Mandarin, but is now fluent in the language. “It was like being a baby again, but with high levels of consciousness.

JOINING THE NEST: A still from the Adidas commercial

A still from the Call to Vote commercial

But it got easy after a while.”

Rasethaba comments that any society that has such a strong hegemonic national identity means that the subcultures are a lot more aggressive. “So music, skateboarding, independent cinema, subversive messaging in art and all that kind of stuff really jump out at you as new and naive but really exciting.

“And because of the censorship, the people in China who are interested in these worlds really go out of their way to source references. It’s not as fleeting and fickle as it is here.”

However, he adds that on the flipside, the film industry in China is relatively old and established. “But it’s always been an extension of the Communist party; lots and lots of propaganda. Every single detail or piece of information has to fit in and edify the agenda of the party.”

Even in his student films, he couldn’t make movies that cast the Chinese in a negative light. “I was there on a scholarship and my mentor made a point to remind me at the beginning of every semester that the school was still happy with me and they were going to extend my scholarship.

“That kind of stuff teaches you how to make your point without having to overstate opinions in a heavy-handed way. You learn how to think carefully about how you represent people. People are so used to showing an image of someone in media and that process is usually unchecked. Think about portrayals of women or black men in media, it feels totally unchecked,” he concludes.

Rasethaba is currently busy with the final spot for Adidas, a commercial for SterKinekor for their Cine Prestige cinema and a commercial for Live Magazine.

First-time director for new Afrikaans romantic comedy

THE PERFECT DATE MOVIE: Nico Panagio and Lika Berning in a scene from Vrou Soek Boer “I really like the romantic comedy genre,” says first-time director Maynard Kraak who is at the helm of new Afrikaans movie Vrou Soek Boer. “Most moviegoers enjoy romantic comedies and they usually walk out of the theatre with a smile on their faces.

6 | SCREENAFRICA | January 2014

“We all need an escape from our daily routine and all the negative reports we see in the media. I believe our movie is going to make people forget, even for a moment, about life on the outside.”

Described as the perfect date movie, Vrou Soek Boer features a strong cast with

well-known actor Nico Panagio (Semi-Soet, 7de Laan), popular actress Lika Berning (Die Wonderwerker, Liefling die Movie, The Bang Bang Club) and Afrikaans singing sensation Bok van Blerk (As Jy Sing, Platteland) in the lead roles.

According to Kraak, Vrou Soek Boer is

primarily aimed at female moviegoers, but also caters to other viewers. He says, “There are enough twists in the plot and ample humour that will be enjoyed by men and the rest of the family. The structure of the film brings something new and unpredictable.”

The movie centres on a successful city career girl who, after a confrontation with her boss, decides to move to the countryside to run a bakery that she inherited from her aunt.

However, life in the small town is not quite what she expected, especially when she has to choose between Mr Handsome and Mr Right.

Vrou Soek Boer was filmed in and around Wakkerstroom in Mpumalanga and was written by Jacomien Bezuidenhout and Maynard Kraak. Justus de Jager was in charge of the cinematography while Layla Swart edited the movie.

The film also stars Marga van Rooy, Magda Beukes, Anrich Herbst, Anthony Fridjohn and Lindie Stander.

Vrou Soek Boer releases on 7 March 2014 and is distributed by Nu Metro Films.

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News

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Goedhals moves on

NEW DIRECTION: Jess Goedhals. In 1984 Faan van Tonder purchased the very first Sony Betacam cameras for his Mandalay Video rental operation.

30 years later Jess Goedhals with the incredible Sony F65 with its 8K sensor

Jess Goedhals, well-known and popular general manager of Sony Broadcast South Africa has decided to move on after 13 years of serving the Sony brand and has joined local Sony-authorised service centre, Central Engineering, founded seven years ago by Ivor Westpfahl.

Goedhals’ career in broadcasting spans about 40 years after he started as a trainee cameraman with the SABC OB Division.

After short stints at Trilion Video and John Rees’ The Box Office and a freelance period, Goedhals joined Faan van Tonder at Mandalay Video, which was ultimately sold to The Video Lab. During this period Goedhals initially founded The Camera Store and became general manager at ZSE TV after which he started in his former position at Sony Broadcast in 2000.

So what now? “I chatted to Ivor Westpfahl at Mediatech this year,” says Goedhals “and he was keen to explore opportunities on how he could expand his business at Central Engineering, which has an extremely creditable reputation, as I think Westpfahl is the best broadcast engineer in the business. Having just resigned from the corporate world I wanted a less demanding vocation and also to have some fun!”

As a result of discussions and the need to split service and sales, Westpfahl and Goedhals decided to start a new business as partners. Named Central Integration the new business will focus on sales, dealing primarily in new and occasionally used broadcast equipment.

“This is a different side of the business for

me,” observes Goedhals, “and there are a lot of new potential customers out there such as new emerging filmmakers who can’t afford the cost of new products and church groups who are surprisingly big users of AV equipment. I personally have a passion for Sony products so these will be our first choice; however we will consider other brands as the occasion demands.

“We will also be taking on agencies, and with this in mind we went to IBC this year and were successful in acquiring a couple of sole agencies as well as reselling agencies.”

Central Integration is now the sole agents for the CVS Roamer Jib, a six- to eight-metre indoor device which was shown to SuperSport with very favorable results. Another sole agency is Swedish company LGZ that manufactures a number of innovative products including an HD-SDI input USB recorder. “We have a large potential order for these units for a local broadcaster that will use them to replace their aging DVD recorders,” adds Goedhals. The device can record onto eight USB memory sticks simultaneously and also has a live watermark facility.

“We will also offer some camera accessories including CamGear tripods and Cineroid eyepiece viewfinders.

“This is just for starters,” concludes Goedhals. “With our background and passion for Sony products I believe this will help us achieve success in this new venture. After 40 years in the business, maybe it’s time to relax a bit, but then again maybe not!” – Andy Stead

Launch of only kids’ channel of African origin Zuku, the East African three-in-one pay TV service, part of the African media company Wananchi Group, has launched the Zuku Kids Channel to add to its portfolio of channels and programming.

The launch will see it become the only kids’ channel of African origin available anywhere on the continent. The programming mix includes movies and a mix of animation and live action, and the target audience for the channel is children in East Africa and across the continent aged between six and 12, and their parents.

William Brown, better known in Kenya and around East Africa for his street graffiti under the tag UhuruB, heads the graphics and animation department at DigiMonkey, the graphics and animation arm of the year-old start-up, Africa Insight Communications Brown won a design competition to develop the logo for Zuku Kids. Wananchi programming, which provides international and locally-sourced content for Zuku’s channels, liked Brown’s final logo product so much they commissioned Africa Insight to create the animated version too.

“I wanted to create a local feel but be

8 | SCREENAFRICA | January 2014

able to share it with a world audience,” explains Brown, whose own mixed ancestry allows him to move across cultural lines, understanding, communicating and sharing the experience of a mixture of influences.

Brown’s concept was to draw on his graffiti influences to create characters for each letter in the word KIDS. “The logo was originally inspired by a street art doodle book, where I got the idea of having letters with faces on them. But I wanted funky, exciting characters. So I started dreaming up characters for each of them and researching names from across the continent. Each has a history, a whole story.”

Making sure that the characters stayed edgy and at the same time appealed to a young audience was tricky. And the temptation to make them ‘African animal cute’ was also something Brown felt he had to resist. “We needed to create a whole new environment,” he says. Therefore, the planned bumpers for the channel show the KIDS characters in a modern-world environment.

With rapid urbanisation rates and

AFRICAN ORIGIN: William Brown relatively fast-growing economies (Africa’s GDP will grow at more than 4% per annum in the coming year, despite the headwinds from the rest of the world, and at more than 5% the year after), companies like Zuku are targeting a rapidly increasing middle class, much of which is urban.

Middle-class city kids in Africa have access to children’s channels from all over the world, so Zuku Kids has to compete at

the highest level. Brown and colleague Nelson Mwanyalo had their work cut out for them to ensure that the animated logo remained true to Brown’s original inspiration.

“On the animation side the development of actions and expressions was a bit tricky but we managed to crack it.

I’m glad the client loves the product,” say Brown. “I hope the kids will too.”

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Sharing remarkable stories of SA icons 21 Icons is an inspiring project aimed at sharing the remarkable stories of individuals in South Africa, who have against all odds and through countless trials, achieved their dreams of making a difference in society.

The project aired on SABC3 and photographer Adrian Steirn’s portraits of these 21 inspiring individuals became instant collectors’ items.

Steirn photographed ordinary people who have instilled extraordinary change because of their dignity, humanity, hard work and selfless struggle to transform South Africa for the greater good.

The 21 icons include international struggle hero Nelson Mandela; former president FW de Klerk; Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu; anti-apartheid activist Sophia Williams de Bruyn; human rights activist Kumi Naidoo; health care professional Lillian Cingo; writer, political activist and recipient of the 1991 Nobel Prize in Literature Nadine Gordimer; anti-apartheid activist Ahmed Kathrada; human rights lawyer George Bizos; trumpeter, composer and singer Hugh Masakela; musician Johnny Clegg; fine artist Helen Sebidi; singer Yvonne Chaka

Photos by Adrian Steirn

News

CAPTURING HEROES: Nelson Mandela

Nadine Gordimer

Phillip Tobias

Chaka; golfing legend Gary Player; world-renowned artist William Kentridge; the late palaeoanthropologist and Professor Emeritus Phillip Tobias; marathon runner and mountaineer Evelina Tshabalala; and actor, director and playwright John Kani.

What started as an idea in 2009, developed into reality for renowned Nikon photographer and filmmaker, Adrian Steir, in early 2013. Captivated by the stories told of 21 inspiring individuals, Steirn and the 21

Icons team set out to capture the heroes and heroines beliefs, ideas and perspectives through significant illustrative images that leave lasting impressions.

Stefan van der Walt, executive chairman of Premium Brand Distributors, the sole distributor of Nikon in South Africa, met Steirn seven years ago. The brand of photographic equipment used by Steirn at the time did not meet his needs and Nikon was prepared to assist.

21 Icons was sponsored with state-of the-art photographic equipment consisting of a Nikon D4, D3x, D800 bodies as well as AF-S NIKKOR 70-200mm f/4G ED VR, AF-S NIKKOR 24-70mm f/2.8G ED and AF-S NIKKOR 14-24mm f/2.8G ED lenses to capture and document the journey of each icon. The equipment was used for both still images and HD video.

– Martie Bester

Social media can assist in building a global passion brand

SOCIAL MEDIA EFFECTIVENESS: Nick Bedford

10 | SCREENAFRICA | January 2014

According to Nick Bedford, Business Director at Social@Ogilvy, the Social@ Ogilvy team has conducted the most comprehensive study of global advocacy to date. Millions of social brand mentions were analysed to help the global advertising agency better understand the value of online brand advocacy.

As millions of people converse about brands on a daily basis, the goal was to determine just how effective social media can be in promoting brand awareness and instilling passion in brands and their products. Understanding how advocacy works is critical to driving real business value.

“The data includes about seven million mentions of more than 23 brands and eight feature films in China, Brazil, the UK and the US and the study took place over six months,” says Bedford. “It has shown what people actual talk about when sharing their feelings and views about brands, what the degree of advocacy is from a simple ‘like’ to enthusiastic support as well as how advocacy differs from country to country.

Bedford emphasises that Social@Ogilvy wanted to conclude what business value online brand advocacy has. “We wanted to establish what the bottom line is. What is the true commercial value of being on social media and is it effective in creating a relationship with a consumer? Up to now this information has been very vague and it has been determined that a need for offline behaviour certainly exists,” adds Bedford.

“The study has proven that brand advocacy can occur anywhere and is not category-agnostic. We need to find ways in which to talk about absolutely everything in order to identify and amplify positive experiences and turning them into brand advocates,” he continues. Brands that do not create substantial brand advocay will need to spend more in order to guarantee a wider reach. Some of the key findings were as follows: Where advoacy is concerned, features trup emotion Adcocacy can occur anywhere – every brand has an opportunity to create advocates

China boasts the highest level of brand advocacy when comparing them to Brazil, UK and USA Few brands are driving true passion.

Brands have an enormous social advocay gap Bedford concludes: “Yes this study was conducted internationally so it would be interesting to conduct a similar study in South Africa however I am sure the principles and findings would be similar. We need to encourage conversations about brands in as many places as possible and should create favourable online and offline experiences. Effective brandbuilding requires the need to have rational conversations with our communities. Emotional benefits, customer service, costs and the marketing impact of ad campaigns all contribute to brand advocay The full communication and marketing mix needs to be taken into consideration

Opinion

Lessons from a Malawian hero Anton Crone goes to Malawi in search of ‘the boy who harnessed the wind’ and learns Kamkwamba’s greatest lesson.

In 2012 I went to find one of my heroes. He comes from a small village in Malawi called Kasungu. You might have heard of him: William Kamkwamba, “the boy who harnessed the wind.”

His story took flight on a TED Talk in June 2007. I watched on my computer screen, a nervous Kamkwamba ascending the stage where a presenter coaxed this story from him: how, as a 14-year-old, he had made a windmill to generate electricity for his home. He learned it from a library book and made the windmill from old bicycle parts, plastic pipes and wood. He even improved the power output by applying four blades A windmill made up of old bicycle parts, plastic pipes and wood, built by William Kamkwamba

The village cinema instead of three. Where there was no electricity before, the windmill lit his home and powered two radios.

His humble story and halting speech had people standing in their seats, this at TED for which luminaries prepare their speech for months. Kamkwamba could hardly speak English and he had nailed it. His story

became a worldwide sensation. He also became my hero.

A filmmaker friend, Brett Wild, and I were travelling East Africa to document stories like Kamkwamba’s. We wanted to find him but didn’t know how so we reached out on the web and eventually connected with a mentor of

his. But we were denied any access to Kamkwamba because he was under contract to a production company filming a documentary about him.

It was sad, but what upset us most that they behaved as if they had some ownership over Kamkwamba. To Wild and I, his story was something to be shared, like it

| ADCETERA

had been worldwide on the screens of TED and YouTube. So we decided to go and film him anyway.

We had visions of arriving in Kasungu to find a humble Kamkwamba only too happy to be interviewed. He would show us around his village and demonstrate his wonderful invention. We would laugh, we would be awed. We would capture it all and give the other production company a rev.

But by the time we got to Malawi we had broken down three times – we were driving a smart car after all. The idea was to prove you didn’t need a gas guzzling 4x4 to travel Africa but the car had failed on every dirt road we ventured down, and Kasungu could only be reached by dirt. We were also way behind schedule so we stuck to the tar and crept on.

But I wasn’t done. I had to meet him. So on another Malawi trip I made a pilgrimage to Kasungu. I arrived there like most people did: on the back of a 10-ton truck that acted as a taxi. I walked through the quiet village and asked the first person I saw for Kamkwamba. “I am his cousin,” said the young boy, and he lead me past a football pitch where we gathered an entourage, and there on a hill, I saw four windmills.

We reached Kamkwamba’s compound where his mother greeted me. I recognised her from a photo Kamkwamba had shown in his TED speech. She looked younger than I thought. His brother and a couple of younger cousins came by but there was no William. It turned out he was studying in the US thanks to the help of his sponsors. I was disappointed, but I had been prepared that he might not be there, and spending time there with his family was inspiration enough.

His eldest cousin, who taught at a local school, showed me William’s great experiments some which lay in a pile, others which were merrily turning in the wind. His cousin finally showed me Kamkwamba’s room where an alternator buzzed in the corner.

My curiosity satisfied I realised by then that I might come across as something of a stalker, so I made to leave. “But stay the night,” said his cousin. So I did. They gave me William’s room where the light shone brightly and I could recharge my laptop.

After a meal of nshima and beef, I flipped the laptop lid and showed the kids, at the house, images of people I had photographed in Mali and Benin. They ooe’d and aah’d. I showed them photos of kids I had taken in schools right there in Malawi, and they smiled in the glow of the screen. I said to his cousin it was a pity that William had to travel overseas to learn more. He agreed, but then he said: “Perhaps William is teaching them something about Africa.” That night I read my book by the light that Kamkwamba provided.

The next morning I stopped by the village cinema while I waited for the taxi truck. At 10:00 there were more than 30 boys in this dark room watching a KungFu video dubbed into Chichwa. I wondered what good electricity had brought them, and I wished instead that they could watch Kamkwamba on that screen to learn his greatest lesson: that we can learn so much from books.

January 2014 | SCREENAFRICA | 11

ADCETERA

| Carly Barnes reports on the South African commercials industry

Kauai serves up a tasty island Adonis Over the next few months the delicious and charming Burt Waikiki is strolling across digital platforms, with the Kauai message of how to live a full and balanced island life, a campaign made even more engaging by the free spirited, washboard ab-adorning ‘guru of goodness’.

When Ground Glass director Janette de Villiers was approached by leading global marketing firm McCann Digital to come up with various spots around the character, she had no idea she would end up with a queue of studs in Speedos at the in-house casting!

“Aidan Whytock was my favourite from the minute he walked in to cast – he just got Burt – but we had quite a bit of convincing to do with client and eventually put in hair extensions and sent him of for a Caribbean tan to really give him the island guru look!” says de Villiers, who was given an enormous amount of freedom in developing the stories and Burt’s character.

The campaign is being pushed on YouTube and social media platforms in an initiative to breathe new energy into the brand, breach crowded traditional mediums and create engaging conversations with consumers.

Burt, a personal trainer, promotes living the Kauai life, which means he finds a healthy balance between mind, body and soul, and sets aside time to exercise and relax and enjoy life to the fullest. Kauai is

also giving away a trip to Kauai, Hawaii as part of the campaign.

The video was shot on Llandudno Beach in Cape Town over two days in November and aside from having to creatively work with a small budget, which meant cleverly utilising very few props, the crew faced challenges when the region’s notoriously unpredictable weather turned nasty.

“Our first shoot day was one of the most miserable days of the year – so trying to achieve the look and feel of a tropical island in thick fog with everyone’s hair starting to frizz, was not easy! We shot five spots over two days and all the scripts were long – so we really had to move it. We also lost a good three hours on our first day due to weather,” adds de Villiers.

The clips are written by Alexis Christidolou and shot by George Loxton with music composed by Gerdus Oosthuizen and post-production done by the Stylus Group.

Says de Villiers: “We shot on the Black Magic, which is a great camera as it shoots 4k and we wanted to give these films a nice grade – but is not easy to shoot with and hard for a DP to look at what he is shooting.”

De Villiers says that the project was a great collaboration between all involved, and that the team had a lot of fun developing Burt’s character and personality throughout the process. She concludes: “The campaign will be released over the next couple of months and we’re really hoping that people like him (Burt) enough to convince the client to shoot more (ads).”

Kauai

OUTstanding new ad uses high-speed control rig

Production company, Let It Rain Films, has upped the ante in its third television commercial for OUTsurance which features multiple versions of the lead character directly addressing viewers in a number of settings.

The campaign message targets business owners, ensuring them that no matter who they are or what the nature of their business may be, OUTsurance can tailor-make a

12 | SCREENAFRICA | January 2014

package to cater to their specific insurance needs.

Director and cameraman Lee Doig along with partner and producer Sam Kelly,

lighting designer Paul Gibbon and grip Abri Stavros were briefed directly by the client, OUTsurance, unlike in the usual scenari, where an advertising agency is creatively involved in the process.

The complex shoot which took place over three days in October 2013 at various locations in Cape Town, yielded four 30-seconds and one 45-second version of the commercial.

Despite a captivating performance by actor, Matt Newman, who confidently engages with viewers in a charming UK accent, the real star of the show has to be the Bolt high-speed motion control rig, which performed with mind-blowing accuracy to deliver a slick final product.

Doig is one of the first people in South Africa to make use of the rig which typically captures slow motion effects. In this instance, the rig was used to precisely map out dynamic movements used in a number of shots that were then overlaid to create the effect of having the same character appear multiple times.

Says Doig: “Once I come up with the concept I knew I needed to make use of motion control, which can be an expensive exercise. I did some research with post production houses and figured out that we needed something that was going to be

very accurate. It looked like we were going to have to import the commonly used Milo Motion Control Camera Rig, but that didn’t suit our budget.”

When Doig heard that Chris van der Merwe, owner of FxPax, a company specializing in designing, producing and handling props and effects in food and beverage styling, had brought one of only four internationally available rigs to South Africa, he seized the opportunity.

Operating the rig, fitted with a Red Epic camera, took an extensive amount of preparation and the skills of Digital Intermediate Film Company owner Graham Austin, who had to plot and programme to the rig to repeat precise camera moves.

“We did lots of preparation and recce’d each location we were going to shoot at. It took lots of extra hands and studio rehearsals to make sure we knew exactly where to place the rig,” says Doig, who says the result came out much better than expected.

Doig concludes: “If each move hadn’t been replicated with absolute precision, we would have had a nightmare in postproduction. The project was very post intensive; Searle Street Productions and online editor Ugesh Chetty did an amazing job.”

Opinion

The TV ad is dead – long live the TV ad I will never forget the days of that colourful test pattern. six years-old, sitting cross legged on the floor waiting in keen anticipation for the clock to strike and for ‘TV time’ to begin.

One TV. No dual view, no PVR, no Box Office and no ‘On Demand.’ Just TV. For a long time our job as advertisers was fairly simple: Be the interruption between your favourite movie, soapie, news or sports broadcast, but be sure to be a welcome interruption – one that dramatises the benefit of the product and engages.

Today this principle remains but TV has developed many tentacles. It is no longer the only source of viewing. Our smart phones, tablets, computers and even gym equipment all provide access.

And we have developed multiple screen behaviour. We watch TV while on our phones, our computers or with an iPad in hand. We keenly and deftly navigate our way through the barrage of content and communication that is competing for our eyeballs and attention.

For a short while we advertisers had a

Jonathan Deeb reprieve in that these additional screens merely provided more places on which to

watch the same content and the same TV ads.

But then we started getting creative and discovered that the nature of each kind of screen allows for a different way of watching, a different reward and for huge levels of interactivity.

The ‘Coke Polar Bears’ is a great example. Through their iPads, millions of people worldwide watched the Superbowl with a set of animated characters. Reacting live to the game and the ad breaks, the bears made Coke’s proposition of ‘happiness’ come alive. It proved that the brand has a real personality and the ability to react to real life.

Another example is Intel’s ‘The Beauty Inside’ – a TV ad that was actually a film – allowed the audience to participate by contributing their own content which was included in the weekly episodes. An ‘ad’ that connected so deeply that it sparked numerous debates on personal identity on social media platforms.

And speaking of social media, many ads allow connection to it through apps like

| ADCETERA

By Jonathan Deeb – Executive creative director, DraftFCB

Layar & Shazam, gamification gives consumers a greater level of interactivity and engagement. Interactive storytelling through YouTube gives the consumer audience the choice of what path the video they are watching takes.

These links are exciting and they enrich the brand experience – from behind the scenes look-ins, to hidden rewards, to the ability to manipulate an outcome.

With the above in mind, as marketers we need to ask ourselves if that traditional ad we’re making does enough?

Consumers want individually relevant advertising which comments on or reflects their world, their identity or their aspirations. They want direct engagement. We’re moving from marketers being the sole storytellers to a world where consumers are co-producing the content that is relevant to them.

Thankfully, what will never change is the need for great storytellers, directors and production houses to bring brands to life in a beautifully crafted manner.

Lose out or make a plan

FNB As South Africans currently experience an ever tightening economic pinch and where cost of living increases are about the only thing you can bet your bottom dollar (or in this case, Rand) on, FNB celebrates those who are able to adapt and conquer financial pitfalls.

The bank’s new television commercial, developed by advertising and communications agency DDB SA and production company Bomb Commercials, features everyday people who develop simple yet genius solutions to setbacks,

where others might have given up.

Gavin Joubert, executive producer at Bomb Commercials, says: “’Inspired by everyday innovation, FNB’s latest TV commercial honours the people who ‘make a plan no matter what their situation’ was the brief given by the client, and between the agency and ourselves we were allowed a lot of latitude.”

Conceptualised by the creative team at DDB, which is made up of executive creative director Liam Wielopolski, copywriter Sanele Ngubane and agency

producer Rachel Andreotti; the ad makes use of authentic South African characters with novel problems to solve, and weaves a unique emotionally and culturally relevant fibre into the narrative. Some examples of this are young street entrepreneurs who use pantyhose to shine shoes, mothers who prop their beds on bricks so they can create extra storage space in the family home and barbers who make the shade of a street side tree, their salon.

The casting process was developed with this objective in mind and communicated to

Johannesburg-based Kevin Grey Casting.

Says Joubert: “His brief was to find real people that we work with, interact with and relate with on a daily basis. We did not encourage the casting of models or actors/ actresses that we would normally see in a banking ad as we wanted real people with real day jobs to cast for this spot. In some of the roles we were successful in achieving this and in other roles we would use characters that had not been over exposed in the television world.”

Key crew members involved in the production included director Teboho Mahlatsi, producer Mark Harrison, director of photography Werner Martiz, production designer Dimitri Repanis and stylist Trudi Barklem.

Martiz used two Arri Alexa cameras to shoot the commercial over two days in October at a number of locations in the Gauteng area: Johannesburg, Daveyton, Soweto and Braamfontein.

Joubert concludes: “We are sure that the response will resonate very well with the intended target market as the ad speaks in a very direct way without being complicated and doesn’t promise things that most of us will not understand.”

FNB’s campaign cleverly echoes a message of adaptation as referenced in the well-known George Bernard Shaw quote: “The people who get on in this world are those who get up and look for the circumstances they want and, if they can’t find them, make them.”

January 2014 | SCREENAFRICA | 13

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Compiled by Jakkie Groenewald

Director Speak Koos Roets: Living legend of the SA film industry Film director Koos Roets has been a formidable figure in South Africa’s film industry for 51 years and he still has the energy, passion and drive of which younger filmmakers dream. Recently, just after completing Faan se Trein, a film based on Afrikaans dramatist Pieter Fourie’s stage play with the same title, Roets immediately started filming a new TV series for kykNET, Pandjieswinkel, written by dramatist PG du Plessis.

During his career Koos Roets has been involved in more than 150 productions as director of photography, director, scriptwriter or producer and his name has featured 35 times among the nominees of various awards of which he’s won a total of 33.

Photos by Eunice Bauermeester

FILM

FORMIDABLE FILM FIGURE: Koos Roets on set YOUR CAREER STARTED IN 1962 AS AN ASSISTANT DoP WITH JAMIE UYS’ LORD OOM PIET. WHAT MADE YOU DECIDE ON A CAREER AS A FILMMAKER? The actor Frank Opperman’s father was in an orphanage in Bethlehem and my father was the boarding master. Frank’s father, who was a few years older than me, one day poured some water into an old electric bulb and projected various patterns on a piece of white paper. It fascinated me endlessly and I started to build my own projectors and drew comic strips on old pieces of transparent plastic.

The orphans had no choice but to look at the ’shows‘.

At first it wasn’t popular but the attendance improved later when my mother started handing out fudge. I found out quite early how fickle moviegoers can be.

At the end of standard five my Aunt Katie gave me one pound and a man who worked for us, persuaded me to bet on a horserace. The horse, Malicious Pride, won and I had enough money to buy my first Kodak Brownie 8mm camera. This led to my friend Douglas Hitchcock and I starting Bosveld Film Productions, writing short stories and making movies. I still have the camera.

We later filmed the town’s weddings and funerals and in that way made enough money to buy a 16mm sound projector and to hold shows in the town hall.

After standard five we moved to Kestell but there was no bioscope. Therefore I had no other choice than to become a filmmaker.

HOW HAS THE INDUSTRY CHANGED? The industry has changed tremendously and there is much less enthusiasm compared to when I started. For instance, we worked on Jans Rautenbach’s Jannie Totsiens for/in 18-hour shifts seven days a week. No one dared to complain. Sandra Kotze and Jaques Loots (they played the leads) were responsible for props, costumes and production!

When you weren’t busy with your own work on set, you just had to assist in set-painting or work at editing. I believe we have today undoubtedly the best film crews in the world. I worked for a long time in Australia but they are in no way in the same class as us. However, for most of the people in our local industry it is in the first place an occupation and not a passion as such.

14 | SCREENAFRICA | January 2014

WHAT HAS BEEN THE MOST CHALLENGING PROJECT IN YOUR CAREER? The time I spent is Australia. They felt threatened by this guy from South Africa and when I got the top job in the TV industry, the fat was in the fire! I at least received my ACS (Australian Cinematographers Society) accreditation. My number was 270, which means that I was only the 270th person who could write ACS behind my name. This is out of a membership of thousands dating back to the 1950s.

WHAT ARE THE SHORTCOMINGS TODAY IN THE SOUTH AFRICAN FILM AND TV INDUSTRY? There is a tremendous shortage of script writers and that is our biggest problem. Good writers DO NOT NECESSARILY make good script writers! This is the main reason why a lot of films fall flat. Jamie Uys was undoubtedly our biggest film producer after Jans Rautenbach. He could write a script and his films achieved international success even though they were technically very poor!

IF YOU HAVE TO CHOOSE, WHAT HAS BEEN YOUR BEST WORK TO DATE? I think Faan se Trein is possibly my best work because it has been a passion for more than 40 years.

ARE THERE ANY OTHER PROJECTS IN THE PIPELINE? I’ve got at least 15 scripts which are completed and waiting.

Any one of them can go into production tomorrow of which Jean Goosen’s Pawpaw vir my Darling is hopefully one.

Helena Spring also spoke to me about another possible PG du Plessis story.

WHAT IS YOUR VIEW ON THE CURRENT TREND OF AFRIKAANS MUSICALS BEING FILMED? I’m not mad about musicals. The previous lot out of the Tommie Meyer era sank the whole industry. Today’s productions are a repeat of the years of Kavalier Films! Jans Rautenbach just started making internationally acceptable films like Jannie Totsiens and Die Kandidaat when musicals flooded the market and corrupted viewers’ tastes. It pulled the industry into the mud.

It took movies like Paljas and even Roepman 20 years to educate the Afrikaans public again. Musicals do have a place, but then with good actors who can give credit to them as far as ACTING and singing is concerned!

| Film

First Afrikaans romantic adventure film

By Jakkie Groenewald Fans of the popular South African TV soapie 7de Laan can look forward to seeing two of their favourite characters in completely different roles when new Afrikaans feature film, Pad na jou Hart, is released on Valentine’s Day.

A DIFFERENT PATH – Ivan Botha and Donnalee Roberts shooting a scene for Pad na jou Hart

I

van Botha (Verraaiers, Bakgat! 1, 2 and 3) and Donnalee Roberts (Klein Karoo) respectively play the roles of Pieter and Annelie in 7de Laan. Apart from being the producers of Pad na jou Hart they also play the lead roles in the film and wrote the script.

The plot centres on the arrogant Basson Jr. van Rensburg (Botha) who is given five days to get to Cape Town after his father, portrayed by veteran actor Marius Weyers, dies. But he has to fulfil certain tasks before he can take over the family business.

On his journey he meets Amoré (Roberts), a free-spirited young woman who does not play a part in Basson’s extravagant and glittering lifestyle. She is on her way to Cape Town in her dilapidated 1968 Ford Anglia and Basson is forced to bum a lift from her.

As they travel through the country, they find that there is much more to life than they thought or believed.

The production is described as being the ’first Afrikaans romantic adventure film’.

According to Botha it is a movie which will “touch the viewer at all levels”.

He says: “In some instances you are going to burst out laughing when the couple meets very interesting characters on their journey. It’s going to make the audience cry because they will be sharing the same feelings as the characters at a deep level. There is enough romance to make you fall in love all over again and there is enough action which will make you sit on the edge of your seat – all ingredients for a lekker adventure.”

Roberts adds: “Our country also plays a role in the film. The shooting took place in winter and we travelled 3 300 kilometres

Director Jaco Smit

Marius Weyers

across South Africa. We shot scenes in the most beautiful parts of the country where the two characters’ road trip took them. As they experienced emotional changes, the landscape also changed and in time, with the growth of our characters and belief in love, the dry countryside changes into the exuberant green of the Cape’s winter season.”

Both scriptwriters are mad about travelling and they wanted to have people falling in love with South Africa. Says Roberts: “We decided that we wanted to write a story with so much heart and depth that it would basically be impossible for people not to be touched by it. There were specific themes which we wanted to incorporate to make people proud of the stories which are born in our country.”

Some of the footage was shot in Johannesburg, “to characterise Basson’s cold, steely character”. Other locations were Clarence in the Free State, the Vanderkloof Dam, De Aar in the Karoo,

various small towns and Cape Town.

Although both actors are mainly perceived as soapie stars, both believe they should challenge themselves and develop in different areas.

The process of writing the script was quite difficult. “Due to minimal time available as we were mostly on the set of 7de Laan, we wrote in-between takes and one of us would then take the scene home and email the other to further polish it. And then we would work on it again the following day,” says Botha.

Although soapie lovers have the inclination to have a specific perception of actors’ characters, the duo is not worried that their fans won’t accept their new characters. “We think a lot of people who like our soapie characters and who expect to see those characters in the film, are going to be surprised to meet two totally different characters,” explains Botha.

Pad na jou Hart is Jaco Smit’s debut as director of a feature film. His short

Buurtwag, won Best Film at the kykNET Silwerskermfees in 2012 and he has worked as assistant director on projects such as Hoofmeisie (Head Girl), Verraaiers (Traitors), as well as various music videos and short films.

Smit says it was a big challenge to get comfortable with the genre. “I’m not necessarily the greatest fan of romance; therefore I had to associate with how the genre works and the world which I chose where the story should play itself out.”

He continues: “It was also important to create remarkable characters that were unique to Pad na jou Hart in order for Ivan and Donnalee to have the opportunity to act out someone new and original.”

“I wanted Pad na jou Hart to be of world-class quality, a good story, beautifully filmed and with acting of note which would blow life into every character on screen... and I think we achieved that.”

Pad na jou Hart releases nationwide in South Africa on 14 February 2014.

January 2014 | SCREENAFRICA | 15

Documentary

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Shot over nine days at Afrikaans nationalist camp, Kommandokorps, Fatherland follows the ideological progression of young men who are taught to recognise and defend themselves against the perceived enemy – ‘blacks’.

By Carly Barnes

Photo by Graham Boonzaaier

Controversial doccie shows cracks in Rainbow Nation

AN HONEST, REPRESENTATIVE SHOOT: A gun in the face of a boy as part of his training in a scene from Fatherland

D

irector Tarryn Lee Crossman spent nine years producing and directing for television, but when an article highlighting racial indoctrination in a South African youth camp found its way onto her newsfeed, she knew she had found the gripping story she’d been looking for.

Crossman left New York, where she had been working, to make a documentary which would become a sounding board for taboos murmuring under the surface of a post-apartheid nation.

Cultural pride Cyril Ramaphosa, deputy president of the ANC, caused a stir in the media when it surfaced that he had used the word ‘boer’ while campaigning for the 2014 elections in South Africa. The offensive term strikes a nerve among South Africans and particularly members of the Afrikaans community, who have a deep sense of cultural pride.

Camp leader Colonel Franz Jooste, who served with the South African defence force, may be seen as an ignorant, hateful racist when he begins to describe ‘the enemy’ to a group of teenage boys, who have come to the nine-day camp near Thabazimbi to learn self-defence and play paintball. His comments are cuttingly uncomfortable, describing ‘blacks’ as thick-lipped, flat-nosed barbaric beings of lower intelligence.

Shocking and evocative as it may be, the film reveals that underneath this derogatory ranting is the vulnerable voice of a passionately patriotic community, plagued by the aftermath of a country fragmented.

Fatherland presents 70 minutes of conflicting emotions, leaving the viewer

16 | SCREENAFRICA | January 2014

torn between sympathy for the men who feel helpless and emasculated against the violent and disparaging crimes against them, while frustrated and angry at the imprint they are leaving on a generation, who, while desperately seeking the approval of their fathers, are forming their own views in a new and integrated era.

Vaderland “Afrikaans people believe this is their ‘Vaderland’, so Fatherland was a play on that and this idea of father and son that we explore in the film. Every child wants their father to be proud of them, but how far do you go to achieve that and when do you start becoming an adult with your own moral values of what is right and wrong for you,” says Crossman who took a huge risk when she shot the film prior to obtaining signed release forms.

She continues: “When I approached the families after shooting, they weren’t very

receptive until we were able to meet in person, where I could show them that I was open and wanted to tell the story from a neutral perspective.”

After promising to film an honest representation of the camps as opposed to embarking on an anti-racial crusade, as camp leaders felt predecessors had done, Crossman was given complete access to the boys and their activities, which allowed her to portray complexities from either perspective.

Crossman adds: “We weren’t allowed to have any black crew members or associates involved in the production, or talk to the boys about politics.

“I wanted to start an open debate that would allow people to say what they are really thinking without feeling ashamed.

“As South Africans we have to start looking at each other like human beings that don’t only relate to each other according to colour. My hope is that this film makes us look in the mirror and

Sound designer Matt Kokkin and DOP Graham Boonzaaier with teenage boys at the camp

acknowledge the fears that we harbour as a nation, so that we can reach a sense of emotional empathy and move past it,” she says.

Through the lens Director of photography, Graham Boonzaaier who has been involved in various productions including dramas, commercials and music videos, shot the film on a Canon 5D camera.

Says Boonzaaier: “I feel documentary filmmaking is a really delicate process, and requires a lot of trust-building between the characters and the filmmakers, as well as great synergy on the side of the filmmakers so as not to bulldoze characters within the film.”

Boonzaaier recalls filming scenes where guns were pointed in the boys’ faces as part of their training: “This was a very interesting scene to film; I understand the merit of training for self-defence, and the fact that in South Africa having a gun can be seen as the norm.

“I personally don’t believe in owning a gun and wouldn’t ever have one. That being said, it made me nervous watching a real gun (which was checked and verified to be empty of bullets) being pointed at anyone’s head.”

Fatherland featured at IDFA in Amsterdam in November, and hopes to attract potential buyers and achieve international distribution are high. As well as a run on the 2014 international festival circuit, plans for the documentary include being featured in a school road show, reaching audiences that would otherwise not have commercial access to screenings.

Television

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On the frontline of history A chance encounter in 2010 between two South Africans, producer Markus Davies and multiaward winning war journalist Adil Bradlow, resulted in the first production in the world to be filmed with the United States Marines during combat in the final stages of the battle in Afghanistan

B

efore production could start on what is now known as Battleground Afghanistan, a five-part, 48-minute documentary television series, Davies travelled around the world three times, pitched the programme 68 times and had to deal with extreme bureaucracy before the Pentagon would grant him and his crew permission to film the Marines in combat and at their most vulnerable.

“I lived and breathed this story for two years,” says Davies who was committed to bring the Marines’ point of view to the world.

With no income and with very little chances of breaking through endless red tape, Davies soldiered on while his core team Adil Bradlow (DOP), Hamilton ‘Tony’ Wende (story producer), J.J. van Rensburg (post supervisor), Richard Starkey (editor), Stef Albertyn (final mix) and Jahn Beukes (original score) had other projects on the go but were on standby for Battleground Afghanistan.

Bradlow says: “This was the first time combat video blended with documentary style camera work and as this was a new realm it grabbed National Geographic’s attention.”

Then things finally fell into place and production commenced with Captain Ben Middendorf (winner of the Alan Paton Award for best soldier in the USA) and his men of Golf Company, 2nd Battalion,

18 | SCREENAFRICA | January 2014

By Martie Bester

‘KINETIC’ MISSIONS – Scenes from Battleground Afghanistan 5th Marines.

Eight months later the footage was ready to be broadcast on National Geographic and the documentary series has screened worldwide to critical acclaim with record viewership.

“The chance that we would get to make this was one percent,” says Davies. “But even if you only have that, don’t give up.

We managed to capture a part of history.”

Into Hemland province The whole team met in Doha for a five-day pre-production workshop and then Bradlow, Wende, William Bonnett and Travis Ervin flew to Kabul and from there by military flight to Camp Leatherneck.

Ironically, the team was put with the 2/5 Marines, which is the same unit that is featured in Full Metal Jacket, Stanley Kubrick’s movie about the battle for Hue City in Vietnam.

On arrival, Bradlow and Wende were told that they were going out with their company of Marines into a very ‘kinetic’ (i.e. lots of shooting) operation for 17 days into Helmand province.

“This entailed two 50-year-old guys walking through some of the most dangerous and inhospitable territory in Afghanistan with a company of young, highly energetic, fit Marines,” says Wende.

“In the end it turned out to be a 15-day op because some huge dust storms made it impossible for the helicopters to take off, but still it was a very challenging experience, but very rewarding too.”

After four weeks back in South Africa, Wende and Bradlow returned to Leatherneck to film the Marines again and this time they went out on a very kinetic

three-day op, which also entailed walking all the way through parts of Helmand province, coming under fire frequently from the Taliban. As a result, these two trips gave them plenty of real action from which to make the series.

Wende continues: “My main responsibility was to keep finding the story lines and to keep focusing on what was happening, how it was unfolding and where the stories might go as the days went by, especially when we were out on operations with the Marines.

“I kept detailed, but ultimately very scruffy, sweat-stained, notebooks of what happened, so that when we came to editing the series I had a very clear chronological record of the operations.”

He also collected maps and got detailed descriptions of the operations – after they were over – from Captain Middendorf, Lieutenant Neal Jones and Lieutenant Dave Marshall. “All of this information was invaluable when we started scripting and editing in Cape Town,”says Wende.

An honest portrayal Wende says the stories developed on their own. “The trick with this kind of series is to

get loads of footage and to keep asking the Marines a very simple question on camera: ‘what’s happening now?’”

According to Wende the Marines are all incredibly articulate and willing to share their thoughts and feelings, so he and Bradlow managed to get them to tell the story mostly in their own words. Of course some narration was necessary in the end to carry the story for the audience, as they could only broadcast less than five hours of what were days and days of real time footage.

“There was no scripting, no expectations of what should or should not happen. We simply filmed what we saw and asked questions about what was taking place, so as Corporal Unis said in some interviews in the States when the series first came out, ‘The series really shows an honest portrait of the modern day infantryman, and what he goes through on a daily basis.’”

Wende says: “Our approach was very simple: to allow them to be themselves and let them get used to us as things went along. Going on kinetic missions was way beyond our comfort zone, but Adil and I have both covered numerous wars in Africa and other parts of the world, and we just did it without thinking or agonising over it

By Carol Mohlala

Is SABC Board stability the key to broadcaster’s success?

too much. The reaction from them was sceptical at first but we held our own and got the stories and I believe earned the respect of the Marines in doing it.

Extraordinary discipline and humanity “They were just amazing guys, doing an incredibly hard job with a high degree of discipline and humanity. War is war and it is awful, but the discipline and traditions of the Marine Corps is an extraordinary thing to witness.”

No one in the company got killed or seriously wounded on the operations they went on and Wende attributes this to the excellent planning and execution of the operations by Captain Middendorf and to the discipline of his officers and men.

“By way of comparison – more people were killed in 10 minutes at Marikana close to Rustenburg in August last year than were killed by 2/5 in the weeks that we went on operations in Helmand; and they were accompanied by Harrier jets, helicopters, C-130 Spectre gunships, tanks and high explosive artillery, and they were being shot at many times a day by their enemies,” comments Wende.

Discipline, adherence to the Rules of Engagement and restraint were the things that struck him most about the Marines.

The odyssey “It was very scary, very physically challenging and exhausting,” he recalls.

“Ben Middendorf said to me before we went out on the first 15-day op that it was going to be a physical, mental and spiritual odyssey and he was right.”

Wende remembers the constant state of dehydration, lack of sleep and low-level anxiety that would suddenly morph into active terror from time to time when they were attacked. “We flew into a place called Keshmeshkahn on the first op and landed in a poppy field at about 03:00 and we watched as the second wave of helicopters were shot at by the Taliban with RPGs. “Then we walked until dawn and took shelter in a compound. At daylight the Taliban started working out exactly where we were and when we stepped out we were ambushed and trapped under fire in another poppy field.”

The bullets were literally zinging over their heads and the Marines were struggling to identify where the firing was coming from.

Wende mentions, “We were at a serious and dangerous tactical disadvantage for about an hour lying trapped under hostile fire.

“The Taliban were firing at us from a bunker built during the days of the Soviet invasion and it was only when Middendorf brought in a couple of tanks that they managed to dislodge our attackers. That was only in the first 24 hours and we had 14 more days of that ahead of us!”

Wende concludes: “One of the best moments was some few days into the 15 day op when Sergeant Bryan Barrow looked at an exhausted Adil and myself and said; ‘Wow, you guys can really hang!’ That’s when I knew we had done okay, earned the guys’ respect and were going to make a great series.”

Battleground Afghanistan has been broadcast in 155 countries in 38 languages reaching 550 million households to date.

The series is still being aired globally.

When a new SABC Board was appointed in September, after a year of turbulence and mass resignations, questions and controversy over the appointment process were already fixed in South Africans’ minds.

For opposition parties, the credibility of the process was marred by what they believed to be the rubber-stamping of the ruling party’s list, while for South Africans, more broadly; it was by questions of its representativeness. Whatever the case (like with anything new) there still remains the hope for a renewal in the Board’s integrity, transparency and accountability.

Unfortunately for the SABC; when it rains it pours. In November, Noluthando Gosa who has served on four SABC Boards resigned. This was not only a surprise; it also raised a lot of internal structural issues that the SABC needs to address. She was chair of the board for just seven weeks and then realised that she had other commitments that prevented her from giving the SABC the best she could. The question then arises, why was her nomination accepted if she was clearly over committed? Shouldn’t it be principle that skilled, ready and committed individuals should be the only ones considered?

One can then easily argue that perhaps there is a need for a new appointment process, because clearly the one that is being used currently is not bringing the necessary stability the SABC needs. This argument has been made by many who believe the key to ending this cycle at the SABC is the review of all policies governing the SABC and most importantly policies around the appointment of its board and executive.

Unfortunately, Ms Gosa’s resignation has in one way or another undermined what little public confidence the SABC Board could hope to garner. For one, the reasons behind her resignation were not made public by the President who appointed her. This was a significant problem because it is the people of South Africa that the SABC Board members represent and serve, and not the President who merely appoints them on our behalf. This lack of transparency ultimately undermines the public trust in the SABC. This lack of trust translates into the public’s unwillingness to offer any type of support to the SABC, be it by paying their TV licenses or showing some level of ownership towards the SABC. With one of the biggest challenges of the SABC being public trust and public accountability, it is crucial to underscore the importance of both preserving and strengthening the integrity of the public process through which the SABC Board is appointed. Central to this is ensuring that skilled, ready and committed individuals of high integrity can be attracted to and be retained by the Board in the service of the people of South Africa. In addition it is critical that the Board is transparent and publicly accountable if it is to improve its standing among all South Africans, whom it serves.

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

January 2014 | SCREENAFRICA | 19

Television

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Juggling data When file-based recording on cameras first came to light, I was excited by the prospects. Imagine, you can take your original camera files and ingest directly into your non-linear edit suite and get cracking immediately, no digitising, no time wasting and no hassles… umm not!

A

lthough tapeless acquisition has several advantages, it is the structure of acquisition and massive amount of data that one can acquire in a single shoot that worries me. How do we deal with all that data without messing things up?

Remember the days when on a film shoot the DP had a camera operator, a grip to look after the camera and a clapper loader to look after the precious negative? Film crews developed a methodology to get the negative to the lab without mishap, it was a process. In the television environment video crews had to rethink and work out a logical way to handle tapes – set the record lock, make notes for the editor, put the tape on the shelf, simple.

With the removal of tape transports altogether from the camcorder, solid-state memory, optical disc and hard drive acquisition has led to a new way of working.

Today ‘file shooters’ are not just creative DOPs, they have the added pressure of not only looking after a number of video and multiple audio streams, they have to deal with different resolutions and proxy files, naming conventions, metadata, look up tables (LUTs), file logging and keeping track of which card is which. Then managing the

20 | SCREENAFRICA | January 2014

By Ian Dormer

process of backing up, not once but twice, to protect the integrity of the precious data.

While tapeless acquisition has numerous advantages, there can be problems. Files can be accidentally deleted or become corrupt, files could get ‘lost’ in the backup process. Much of this is a lack of established procedures and a consequence of the use of smaller crews.

Working in a file-based environment requires a shift in mind-set from all those involved throughout the process. One of the greatest fears for a production moving to tapeless acquisition is moving to a file-based workflow and away from the tangible nature of tapes. Having a production’s rushes stored on a drive / disk or card at the end of the day rather than a tape for many can seem a scary proposition.

If however this is handled correctly holding rushes in such a manner can have a number of benefits, these include the ability to log shots clearly, review shots easily and assist others further down the production process.

The careful management of this data at all times is critical and any staff involved in this must have a full understanding of the techniques required. Training of these staff is key to ensuring that the workflow benefits offered by file-based production are achieved and also to avoid the potentially disastrous situation of losing data.

A large amount of TV productions today fall into the realm of unscripted programmes such as reality shows, talk shows, or lifestyle shows. Usually utilising multiple cameras, the productions can have very high shoot ratios (30/1 to 100/1) with every hour of programming involving up to 100 hours of raw media per camera to process.

If shot in a higher resolution format such as 4k, the complexities increase, not only because of the file size but now the DOP has the option to record HD proxy files alongside the 4k file as well. Generating a proxy file not only assists the producer, giving him the option to view rushes without the need to transcode, but also the offline process where the proxy can be ingested into the edit system for quick, ‘on-the-fly’ off lines on set if necessary. The structures of these files are complex, multi-layered and prone to errors if not handled correctly.

For me, the success to file-based acquisition starts in the pre-production stage. You need to allocate time in your workflows to allow files to exit gracefully and to know where they go and what’s in them. So where to start the process?

The first step is to employ naming conventions. Clear methodology in the way you structure your collection of images all starts with a show code, a date of shooting, a camera ID and a reel number. Basically no

more files called ‘untitled 1’ sitting on your hard drive.

Secondly, create coherent folder structures that are repeatable so that you can find things through repetitive familiar

processes. In hindsight, file-based acquisition is probably the easier part of the process, the real fun begins when you need to use the raw files in the post-production process, but that’s another story!

You may recall in the April 2013 issue of Screen Africa we covered ‘A shoot on a Shoestring’, a story about two Screen Africa freelancers efforts to capture a motorcycle rally for machines manufactured before 1936, which ran from Johannesburg to Durban and commemorates a road race that began in 1913.

W

ell the shoot was relatively successful, and thanks to kind donations of two Sony HD cameras and the purchase of a helmet mounted Prestigio HD helmet cam, some 13.5 hours of footage were transferred to hard drive. Ok, so we have the footage but now what? The team was a little stumped as each capture device was different and had different file formats.

So first trick was to attempt to download each in the same format onto a single hard drive. This was the start of complications as yet unknown to the totally inexperienced post production team, however again thanks to kind assistance from various bodies, a single hard drive containing all usable footage in a singular file format was created.

We had Windows Movie Maker so let’s get going, we thought, and so commenced hours/days and weeks of fruitless attempts to be an editor. It’s not easy when you have three timelines each containing over four hours of footage. Not easy at all, and finally the decision was made to dip into the pockets and seek professional advice.

After being shown an amazing motorcycle documentary entitled The Sabi 109 TT made in an effort to make Mpumalanga the South African home to the Isle of Man TT, friendly DOP Tai Krige

recommended that we talk to Richard Muller, a multi talented cameraman and editor.

“I got a call from Krige who I have worked with for many years asking me if I would be interested in working on a motorcycle rally,” says Muller. He told me about the history and described the cool, old motorcycles and I was hooked.

“I became familiar with the footage and looked at the management. When you are dealing with documentary footage from unscripted material it follows a very similar structure. The first approach for material like this is that you go through the material, but having limited resources, I decided best was to lay everything we had. This meant everything from each camera start to finish.

Muller then watched each camera’s footage in double or even triple time and skimmed through it and deleted shots that could not be used, based mainly on technical reasons alone. “You then do this again looking for material that you know is not going to usable,” continues Muller, “and by doing this you can trim 13 hours to around five to six hours.” So in a short space of time you have halved to even quartered the amount of footage you have to deal with just by deleting the footage you can’t use.

The next step was to establish what shots are duplicated between cameras and this leaves far less of a mountain. The cameras were different and one camera was producing better pictures than the other two, so how do you decide which shots to use?

“You pick the best shots and use these as the master,” answers Muller. “You basically create as much of the story as possible from that camera.

You then look at the other cameras, and where they offer material that the best camera does not, this is used to help cut gaps between shots etc. The helmet cam is used to help add texture and journey, which the other cameras cannot easily supply.”

Also the excellent archival footage adds meat, and adds to the ‘outside feel’ as well.

The archive footage was great and gave value to the nature and history of the event.

“The edit was run mostly on Adobe Premier Pro – part of the Creative Cloud package, which meant that myself and another editor were able to work together on the same production. This helped with one of the cameras whose file format was difficult to read.

“The audio consisted of wild sound and interviews as well as music and voice over.

We were able to handle this within the editing process without going to final mix which was not allocated in the budget.

By Andy Stead

Photos by Ian Groat

Shoot on a shoestring – part 2

| POST PRODUCTION

RIDING INTO HISTORY: 91-year-old Stuart Cunningham, the oldest rider on the JD Centenary Run

First time JD rider Khaya Nkonyane

Former BAR Honda Chief F1 mechanic Alastair Gibson with Isle of Man TT legend Paddy Driver

Paris Dakar, navigator, Ralph Pitchford with his brothers

Most of the audio followed the video principals. We laid up all the good stuff and discarded the rest.”

The final product was edited to 50 minutes and this is for showing at clubs and as a memento for the competitors. A shortened 27-minute version is also planned for broadcast. The quality of the

video shots will have to be carefully selected as some perhaps are marginal for broadcasters, but the content value is high, and with some careful editing the show should receive acceptance.

Keep an eye out on your screen for this production – The JD Rally, a Centenary Event.

January 2014 | SCREENAFRICA | 21

SOund Studios & Libraries

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Listen up – here’s a one-stop shop Lalela Music (Pty) Ltd. is a high quality production music library and music publisher providing easy ‘one-stop shopping’ for film, TV and internet music licensees.

Lalela is Zulu for ‘listen’. The library is covered by the NORM blanket license for major SA networks. Lalela licenses 130 albums of unique musical content, from Mzansi House to Intense Trailers, from Ambient Minimal to Afropop. It adds about 25 albums annually.

The company was founded in 2009 and has offices in Cape Town and Los Angeles.

CEO, Alan Lazar, based in LA, is a composer with 25 years of experience, beginning with multi-platinum band Mango Groove, which led into film and TV scoring after he relocated to LA. His work includes scores for Emmy® nominated films and TV shows, including Sex and the City and Real Housewives.

Executive manager Tanya Douman is based in Cape Town. Prior to joining Lalela Music, Douman worked for broadcaster e.tv in the Music Library division. She is focused on marketing the Lalela brand to reach,

engage and inspire today’s music users and is responsible for implementing the company’s core business plans.

Lalela’s music is also distributed in 40 countries by local music licensing specialists, says Douman. While Lalela’s tracks are some of the most popular for television in South Africa, they have also received airplay around the world, including usage on the US trailers for major film releases like Gravity, with George Clooney and Sandra Bullock, Jack the Giant Slayer and Real Steel. Major international television networks like CBS, MTV, RTL and TF1 have also used Lalela’s music.

Lalela has reversed the long-standing trend of South African productions using an imported library. Fully South African-owned and operated, Lalela exports music around the world, investing heavily in South African talent. The library offers a unique blend of unique South African material and Hollywood style film and TV scores.

Composers range from South Africans jazz maestro Themba Mkhize, singer-songwriter Buhle Tonyela and kwaito master Lungelo Lubelwana, to Hollywood composers like

REACH, ENGAGE, INSPIRE MUSIC: Tanya Douman Grammy nominee Jeff Russo, Golden Globe nominee Antonio Pinto and SESAC Award winner Matt Mariano.

Looking forward, Lalela will continue to expand its library and build its international

presence and if you want to explore Lalela’s music browse their website on: www.lalela. com. You can listen and download as well as build interactive playlists when working on particular productions.

Gallo: Leading player in music licensing space Gallo Music Publishers is one of South Africa’s oldest music publishers, looking after composers’ musical rights since 1949.

Over the years Gallo has published artists such as Joseph Shabalala, Marc Rantseli, August Musarurwa, Strike Vilakazi, Alan Lazar, Solomon Linda, Danie Pretorius, Patric van Blerk, Fransua Roos, Sipho Mabuse, Caiphus Semenya, John Leyden, Anton Goosen, Bertha Egnos, Chicco Twala, Dorothy Masuka and Jeremy Taylor among others.

“We have placed many titles over the years in film, television and adverts both here and abroad,” says Tsholo Moraba, general manager of Gallo Music Publishers.

“The likes of Joseph Shabalala’s Rain, Rain Beautiful Rain has been licensed in the UK Kellogg’s Rice Krispies TVC while Inkanyezi Nezanzi featured in the iconic global Heinz Baked Beans advert. Locally, Amampondo, Mzala, Jikela Emaweni, Be My Guest and Quickly in Love have recently been commissioned for the Nelson Mandela biopic, Long Walk to Freedom.

“In 2011 we signed Bruce Retief, award-nominated composer of Adventures in Zambezia, South Africa’s 2012 hit animation movie that collected R30 million in box-office revenue worldwide, making it South Africa’s biggest selling film of all time.

More recently, Khumba had its number one box-office debut in October 2013 in South Africa, with music also composed by Bruce.

22 | SCREENAFRICA | January 2014

MAKING STRIDES: Tsholo Moraba Khumba is also set to be a major international success at the box office,” Moraba continues.

He adds: “We are launching an original South African Music Library for Bruce Retief featuring African Sounds, African Women’s Sounds and African Children’s Libraries.

These will be available generally for use in film, television and advertising. We are confident that the compositions will accompany compelling visuals both locally and abroad.”

On the international scene, Gallo Music Publishers represents two major international libraries, namely the Chicago Music Library and Strike Audio. These are general, multi-genre libraries available for broadcast film and radio use throughout Africa. Users can simply access the content either digitally or via hard drive and can use them in their edits and submit cue sheets electronically using the RECUE Cue Sheet Submission system from the comfort of their homes or studios at www.recue.biz.

“While based in Johannesburg, we service Africa,” says Moraba, “but allow online download via our website. We have brand new libraries that have never been heard before on the continent and we offer a unique music supervision service that includes the heritage of South African music.

“We are up to date with international trends. At industry level we are making strides to stream the use and licensing of production music through initiatives such as live RECUE and more recently The Harvest – an online platform from where music users can remotely download content, use it and submit electronic cue sheets straight out of their edit suits and final mixes. Both our local broadcasters and societies are working with publishers to streamline these processes and make licensing easier for users.”

Moraba concludes: “Looking forward, we will continue to be looking for new places, platforms and opportunities where we can place music for creative or commercial use. Music is an integral part of all broadcast content and we will endeavor to move with the times and explore new business models and uses of music, to share what we have to offer as Africans and South Africans to the world.

Gallo Music Publishers will continue to be a leading player in the music licensing space.”

| SOund Studios & Libraries

Many facets to highly successful Howard Music Is he a composer? Is he a sound engineer?

Is he a trumpet player? No, he’s all of these and more! Since his arrival in South Africa in 1997, Adam Howard has taken the advertising and music industry by storm, setting up a highly successful sound studio and creating some of the best jingles this side of the equator.

“I’ve always been involved in all aspects of music and audio production. I graduated at a time when electronic music was just coming onto the scene. My classical teachers found it weird that I could incorporate the digital age into my performance palette, and I have continued to fuse my musical abilities with the cutting edge of technology.”

“Composing music for commercials is the

COMPOSER, ENGINEER, TRUMPET PLAYER: Adam Howard

main focus of the business,” says Howard.

“We also do final mix for Ministry of Illusion post-production facility in Johannesburg on a wide variety of work, from TVCs to corporate videos to multilingual radio spots.”

Even as Howard prepares for the next leg of legendary South African artist William Kentridge’s Refuse the Hour as musical director, he is in the process of building a

new audio suite at the Ministry of Illusion, which will be up and running in January 2014.

“The new suite is being created for the massive amount of work that is pouring into the business. As the preferred audio supplier to Ministry of Illusion, I am delighted to be able to offer clients a brand new suite with the latest audio equipment.

“The bulk of my work is composing for

TV and radio commercials although I am very busy as a musical director for corporate events and others,” says Howard.

“We approach all our audio jobs as if they were a music mix. I believe having ‘musical ears’ really helps in our craft.

“Having many facets to Howard Music not only keeps us busy, it keeps us sane as well! No two days are ever the same – and we like it that way.”

January 2014 | SCREENAFRICA | 23

SOund Studios & Libraries

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UPPM flourishing Universal Publishing Production Music (UPPM) is a diverse and comprehensive collection of popular and respected production music labels. These include Atmosphere, Bruton, Chappell, BBC, Killer Tracks, Firstcom, Koka, Kosinus, ReverbNation, Immediate Music and many more.

UPPM’s labels are managed by Philip Jacobs. With over 16 years experience, Jacobs has been helping film, TV and radio producers find the perfect tracks for their work. His background lies mainly in television production, but also includes sales and promotional marketing.

The history of UPPM goes back as far as 1941, when Chappell Recorded Music Library, the oldest in the family, was launched. Many other production music labels saw the light of day, including Jim Long’s label FirstCom, and Atmosphere Music, founded by John Lee. In 1985, pop legend Michael Jackson, then owner of ATV Music, sold Bruton Music to Zomba Music Publishing, an independent music publisher founded in South Africa 10 years earlier.

Over the decades the labels that form the UPPM heritage evolved and changed ownership many times, until 2007 when BMG Music Publishing was acquired by

24 | SCREENAFRICA | January 2014

Universal Music Publishing. This was the birth of UPPM as it is today.

The delivery platforms for production music have had to adapt, going from the vinyl of yesteryear, to the compact disc revolution of the 80s. In more recent times, advances in the digital domain saw a shift from CD to DVD. The new millennium saw UPPM embrace the internet, by making its entire production music repertoire available online. UPPM’s website (www.unippm.co.za) allows clients to browse, search, listen and download full length tracks conveniently from anywhere in the world.

In 2012 the UPPM online offering was bolstered by the introduction of a mobile version of the popular website which continues to play a vital role in the distribution and delivery of UPPM’s production music.

At the end of 2012 production of the reliable, but outdated, UNIPPM-DVD ceased. This paved the way for UPPM’s entry into the world of disc-less delivery of production music. To reinforce this trend, U-Drive was launched in November 2013, offering a new hard drive platform. It reflects the comprehensive search functionality and convenience of the

Clued up and on-key On-Key Sound owns three sound studios – one in Linden and two in Auckland Park, Johannesburg.

“We offer a complete audio post service that goes beyond merely mixing sound,” says On-Key Sound Studios BUSY GUYS – John owner Janno Müller.

“We do extensive sound design, Foley, ADR, Sound FX and ambient location recordings dependent on each project. Since 2001, we have worked on a wide range of local and international film, television, radio, sound design and multimedia projects.

“Permanent staff members include me and John Chaka while part time members are Tiny du Preez and Marc Bentel. We also collaborate with Origin Audio in Cape Town.”

The studios consist of two 5.1 surround suites and a stereo suite, each running the latest Nuendo 6 software. Each suite is EBU R128 loudness compliant.

“Alongside many other projects in 2013,” adds Müller, “we completed work on four feature films, namely iNumber Number, website, coupled with the lightning speed and stability that offline hard drive technology offers.

“With the high level of production, creativity and expertise being invested in

Chaka and Janno Müller Musiek vir die Agtergrond (Background Music), Stuur Groete aan Mannetjies Roux (Regards to Mannetjies Roux) and Between Friends.” iNumber Number, an action heist movie directed by Donovan Marsh (Spud 1 and 2), which screened at the Toronto International Film Festival, was picked up by Universal Studios for a remake – a first ever for a South African movie.

“Müller and his team had minimal time and budget to complete the movie, yet went all out on the sound design and mix.

We were blown away by the end result,” says Marsh. iNumber Number is set for local release in March 2014 and will also be released in the US in its original format. production music today, we expect to see it flourish even more,” says Jacobs. “New technologies, as well as new players in the arena, will continue to push us to do and be the best we can be.”

| Film & TV Lighting

The art of making lighting work

By Angus M. Clarke – TV lighting design and studio consultant

TV lighting design and studio consultant Angus M. Clarke sheds some light on the South African and African TV lighting design industries, and touches on what we’re doing right and what we lack.

As a lighting designer and consultant with more than 40 years’ experience in the television industry, I can say that I have seen an amazing amount of change in the multitude of working environments I have been exposed to in this field.

I have seen all the TV technologies change around about me, and the most interesting thing of all is that in the lighting arena, we still make use of the oldest technology of all. In fact our technology, the use of the visible light spectrum to enable others to see things, dates back thousands, some would believe millions, of years. Don’t believe me?

Well, of all the technologies in TV who can lay claim to the fact that theirs is mentioned in the Bible?

Remember: “And God said, let there be… light!” And the best part of it? “And He saw that it was good.” Well, it’s certainly been good for me.

So this statement set us up on a long path; a realisation that without light, life (and TV) we can and could not exist.

Television is the same: without light, it’s just radio.

Remember: “And God said, let there be… light!” And the best part of it? “And He saw that it was good.” Well, it’s certainly been good for me.

TV lighting in South Africa

Twilight phase

The South African lighting industry, covering film, TV (studios and OBs) and events, tends to be very up-to-date with all parties using the latest technology, be it on a limited scale.

Visiting the overseas trade shows, you are sure to bump into familiar faces from South Africa, all endeavouring to be at the forefront of new technology when it hits the market place. Besides the suppliers, many of the events and broadcast people are to be found browsing through the myriads of brand new technological offerings that the clever chaps in the laboratories have been dreaming up for years, and now are finding a place in the studio or on the truss at a big event at Soccer City, the Dome or Ellis Park, all in Johannesburg.

The hire companies looking after big events are forced by both the artists as well as the public who see big budget specials overseas on TV, to have the latest and best stage and effects lighting as well as video walls and computer generated special effects technology included in all the productions they cover.

So the trade shows are our shopping centres to browse, test and of course to network. It’s amazing how many long-term friends you make visiting such events, as you all have one thing in common: a serious love of the art of making light work, whatever the medium you work in.

The South African film environment, while in a twilight phase, as more and more big feature stuff moves across to be recorded (not FILMED) in a VIDEO (electronic) environment, mostly makes use of existing lighting stock from hire companies. They are able to use a whole raft of highpowered lighting gear across all technologies, from Kine-flos to smaller Tungsten and HMI luminaires of two, five and six Kilowatts; via 10W and 12kW units to massive 20kW Tungsten and 18kW HMIs (that turn night into day on a location shoot). When a mega-hectare location is your stage, size does not matter.

Due to the way the feature movie is shot – set-up by set-up; shot-by-shot, it allows the lighting director or DOP to meticulously light, shot-by-shot, to get the best and most beautifully composed shots possible.

So, by their nature, the film equipment hire industry only really invests more money in product, when a big feature comes up that makes it worthwhile, especially when Euros, Dollars and Pounds are involved.

They will obviously top up with small items and more so now with the LED lights coming onto the scene.

The television recording environment is by its nature almost immediate from manufacture to transmission, considering the live and direct nature of the medium. By using a multi-camera set-up to produce programmes, with shots immediately

January 2014 | SCREENAFRICA | 25

Film & TV Lighting screened as camera angles, giving no chance for specific lighting for each and every camera angle, means that many lighting composition elements are compromised.

It obviously costs a fortune to set up a TV station, so by implication it costs a small fortune to upgrade the equipment as well, when technology changes. This inhibits their ability to quickly acquire funding to upgrade the equipment unless there are very compelling reasons.

Compounding this is the fact that there is very little expertise in the TV lighting environment to construct the right arguments that enunciate the problems in a convincing way, to persuade cash-strapped managements to spend money on more modern and efficient lighting upgrades.

Most of the current staff members employed in these realms in all branches of broadcasting, are pure users at a basic level. They do not actually get into the design of new productions, or research of more suitable equipment to constructively motivate the reasons for acquiring the new products.

One-eyed monster appetite In the 80s and 90s we had so many challenging dramas, variety and music shows, that it kept us on the edge of

26 | SCREENAFRICA | January 2014

| innovations as each one tried to learn from, but also out-do his colleague on every demanding show that came our way. The research and innovation, of trying out different effects on your off day to be sure that the next show would be better has disappeared from the TV environment today. Once-off set-ups of soapie dramas become very boring for lighting designers, as production needs to churn out episode after episode day after day to ensure that the broadcaster renews the contract to feed a voracious one-eyed monsters appetite.

This lack of challenge to innovate by LDs on the ground presses their engineers and management to increase the quantity of equipment or even change the technology for more efficient and versatile equipment that assists in climbing to higher creative levels, and is borne out in the way which many studio lighting tenders are issued.

Currently, non-descript, technology information is bereft and lacks detail as tenders are put into the public domain in pursuit of merely conducting a facility upgrade. It’s obvious that the actual people working in the environment are not consulted on what would work for the environment.

When information to stop them making fools of themselves in the industry, opening ways of misusing the tender for self-gain in publishing such useless tender data, is fed to them, it is obviously not understood, not

acted upon and subsequently ignored.

An example is the recent request put out by a high profile company for new monopoles, pantographs and lights with 20m cables for a studio upgrade. The first issue was that they had done no research before issuing the tender or they would have known that new generation monopoles and pantographs are equipped with in-built power cables. This obviates the need for 20m cables on the lights as all that would happen is that the excess would be coiled up, hooked on the light and with 20 to 30 of these magnetic resonators across the studio, life would become hell for the studio audio operators.

Lighting in the SA studio environment In the TV studio environment, the main players such as M-Net / SuperSport and e.tv tend to keep pace with the changing environment. While the SABC-TV division has attempted to do so, they do not have the expertise or finances available to quickly update to the latest available technology.

Over the years they have updated some of the equipment, such as the lighting consoles and the dimmers in some of the studios, but not in others. Most of their equipment dates back to the 70s when it was first installed.

There also seems to be some reluctance

on their part to request outside advice; when they do it’s from product suppliers who tend to convince them to buy a product instead of offering expertise that identifies equipment fit for their purpose.

Of all the studios in Africa, the SABC-TV studios are still the best laid out and most functional, especially from a lighting planning, rig, set-up, execution and an acoustic point of view. Today no-one could afford to build a new complex as efficiently built as theirs was. It’s such a pity that they lost one due to a fire and they will now be forced to introduce new lighting suspension technology when they re-build it, as the old lighting grid system will cost a fortune to reproduce.

In Africa: general However in greater Africa in general, especially for big concert events, all technology such as lighting, audio and TV equipment, is usually brought into the country, lock-stock-and-barrel, along with the artists and their back-up crews and removed after use. The local hire companies in most African countries do not have the available finances to afford modern equipment for these new technologies.

| Film & TV Lighting In Africa: TV shortcomings

TV studio maintenance

Most TV stations in Africa are part of the communications and broadcasting departments of their governments and to this end, most are hamstrung by masses of red tape and bureaucracy both in maintenance spend as well as new capital acquisition. This inhibits the broadcaster firstly from maintaining their equipment, as all items being very expensive, are tied into tenders for the simplest repair job. In addition, the expertise available locally to offer advice on what the real problems are and how to solve them is non-existent.

So it’s very frustrating for staff as, with limited knowledge and expertise, they always invent and work around problems. Unfortunately, these temporary fixes become institutionalised and as a result, they stop complaining and management think the problem is fixed.

Meanwhile the work-around is, in effect, a dangerous practise as they are opening hi-voltage power areas and by-passing safety measures to get the system to work. Only when someone has a serious injury will questions be raised, but often, to protect those higher up in the organisation the mishap is blamed on something else and covered up.

It’s an indictment that some studios I have visited in Africa already look more than 35 years old, despite only being built 15 years ago. This is due to poor housekeeping and not having a functioning, fault reporting and maintenance routine. Some studios floors are highly dangerous, as often only one functioning light is working in one corner of the studio and who knows what lurks in the darkness waiting to trip you upwith others one can see they are old, but the staff take care of them and small faults are repaired quickly.

In another studio, lighting hoists taken out for repair were not returned for two years. In the same one, the dimmer’s blown fuses were bypassed with pieces of wire because no-one would order new ones.

The management would then wonder why they experienced fires and dimmer coil blow-ups.

The experience of not reporting faults come about because it made them lose face with superiors and were often told that there was no money available for the repairs. When talking to officials in management, they indicate that maintenance finance is budgeted for, but that the staff never request any for maintenance purposes. In most instances there is not a culture of maintenance

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Film & TV Lighting

reporting in place. Some serious communication issues need to be addressed here.

In a few studios I have also experienced instances of 5kW spotlights being rigged, but having no plug-tops. When queried, the operator happily produced a pencil and proceeded to push the bare wires into the socket.

In other instances, in a TV studio this time, the lighting console failed and instead of simply replacing it, because it would have to go out on tender, they overcame the ‘problem’ by simply pulling the fuses out to switch lights off. The scariest thing was that they would often be barefoot or only be wearing beach thongs when effecting these changes! This while removing the fuses of hi powered 5kW dimmers!

Events lighting for TV One of the areas which I notice has been causing many problems for TV in the vision control and camera area is the realm of the events lighting brigade. They are often brought in to cover major outdoor events that are televised, but have not been trained on lighting for television with all the limitations in the systems. Many of the habits used for lighting non-TV events, are evident in the lighting of broadcast TV events.

The area where many of the events companies, who do not employ TV lighting design specialists, fall down is that a lack of

28 | SCREENAFRICA | January 2014

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understanding of the basic lighting requirements for lighting the a correctly for TV. Their comprehension is limited by the fact that the generalised, wide-vista lighting they employ for the majority of big arena productions, while looking spectacular in the stadium, overlook the fact that they are not only lighting for the 2 000 people in the auditorium or the 90 000 in the sports stadium. When televised, their work is possibly being seen by one to two million people and more, worldwide.

What they tend to forget is that the face is a critical element in any TV production, and the artist’s close-up interaction with his or her fans is as important to the TV audience, as it is with the stadium audience.

Somehow the thought seems to be that

the TV camera and its control systems are magic boxes and it does not matter what rubbish is put in front of it, all will be alright on the night, because the vision controller will take care of it. This is totally untrue. We have a saying in TV that applies to the computer world. It’s applying the GIGO principle: Garbage in – garbage out. The camera reproduces exactly what it sees, warts and all. It’s not a magic box to cover all lighting blemishes and shortfalls.

Where are we lacking?

Besides the broadcasters being unable to keep up with maintaining and modernising their equipment, we have a major problem in lighting training. At present there is no proper lighting training being conducted

that I’m aware of. Most of the trainers are in the industry, kept busy by lighting variety productions or magazine programmes. None have reported doing training for a long time.

The SABC Training Division and M-Net Studio Operations ran some training events a few years ago, but nowhere else is actively involved in the art of lighting training for TV. This is seen by the flat, miscoloured and misdirected, unbalanced lighting that is often put on air, across all channels. Actually it cannot be considered as lighting. It should be rather seen as illumination – the same as what is found at sport stadia.

Check out next month’s issue for part two of Angus M Clarke’s feature.

| Tracking Technology

Ensuring ‘good vibrations’ for sports fans

A fundamental design requirement for every camera support product is its ability to complement the performance of the camera and allow the operator to feel as if the camera is suspended, weightless in space. The support needs to remain stationary at whatever height or angle it is set, until the operator needs to move it, in which case it should respond smoothly with a consistent resistance.

I

t sounds simple enough, however ensuring the camera remains static yet ready for action is the biggest challenge for camera support manufacturers, and R&D teams have gone to great lengths to produce the steadiest platform for television and film cameras.

Stability is one of the most crucial elements of camera supports, particularly when the zoom lenses on some of today’s modern cameras have focal lengths in excess of 1 500mm.

One application that will test even the most stable support product to its limits is live sports productions. The demand from sports viewers who expect increasingly dynamic and creative shots on their screens, combined with the growth in virtual and augmented reality applications in this sector, has placed a greater emphasis on the need for the ultimate stable platform to support the camera in an environment often exposed to disturbances.

In large sports stadiums, filled with tens of thousands of boisterous and enthusiastic

fans, there is bound to be an impact on the most stable support products. The consequence of all movement in the stands means it is not unusual for the platform the camera support equipment is set up on to be unsteady enough to affect the camera’s performance. Some viewers may be forgiving and willing to tolerate this kind of vibration as it reflects the sporting atmosphere and the frenzy of the crowd.

However, when applications require complete precision, such as augmented reality, any vibration will ruin the final effect.

For augmented reality applications to work, the graphics will appear as part of a real scene being captured by the camera, and any movement will see the background vibrate while the composited graphic remains stationary. Subsequently, this may shatter the viewer’s belief that the graphic is actually part of the live scene.

There are several solutions that could tackle these vibration problems and prevent them from having such a dramatic impact on augmented reality compositing.

Before these are addressed, it is important to examine the difference between low frequency and high frequency instability.

When low frequency instability occurs, it happens so slowly that it is not possible to detect it by the second, or when it is actually taking place. However during periods of low frequency instability errors are introduced in the initial calibration of the augmented reality system.

At a major sporting event, for example, the crew are likely to set up well ahead of the match and perform the high precision calibration process, which involves calibrating the camera position and graphics rendering engine in order to lock the graphics down to whatever view they are supposed to be composited to.

However, just before the game begins, several factors could cause the camera to be displaced from its original position, whether it is heat resulting in thermal expansion or the thousands of fans distorting the structure of the stadium.

There are two types of displacement errors: linear and angular. A linear displacement of a few millimetres would barely be noticeable. However, in the case of rotational displacement, where the camera position rolls or pitches half a degree in any direction, the error would be visible as a displacement. The end result would show a poorly positioned graphic on the real element in the composited video, so the graphic would not look like a natural feature of the background.

In the case of high frequency disturbances, these are much more obvious to the naked eye such as vibrations caused by the crowd jumping around or wind buffeting the camera position. In an augmented reality application, the video will shake from the vibration while the graphic element stays still on the screen.

Again, this will differentiate the real picture

and the composited graphic to the viewer.

There are technologies available on the market to specifically address these issues. In low frequency distortion for example, at Vinten, an instrument called an inclinometer measures the changes to the tilt and roll axis of the head mounting system and describes the pan plane of the mounted camera. The reports will go to the augmented reality rendering engine, which then takes the counts from the pan and tilt encoders, with reference to the plane’s relative horizontal position. The operator is then given the option to reposition the graphics to compensate for any positional change of the camera.

Says a representative from Vinten: “For high frequency instability we are currently developing a system designed to measure the entire motion of the camera assembly – whether the movement is caused by the operator panning and tilting the head or from outside disturbances such as wind buffeting.

“The new technology that we have developed is a sensor package that very accurately records the motion of the camera and calculates the amount of vibration that is caused by outside disturbances. The magnitude and direction of these can then be supplied to the graphics rendering equipment, which will reorganise the graphic to perfectly synchronise with the video.”

As the competition in the sports broadcast sector intensifies, the demand for augmented reality applications looks set to escalate to meet the expectations of millions of global sporting viewers and the brands that advertise to them. This growth will inevitably spur further innovation in camera support systems, as manufacturers continue to work hard to ensure that every virtual and real element is picture perfect.

January 2014 | SCREENAFRICA | 29

Tracking Technology

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Jünger Audio and Audinate combine forces Jünger Audio has announced a partnership with Audinate that will allow the company to incorporate Audinate’s Dante digital media networking solution into its award-winning range of audio processing solutions.

Built on existing networking protocols and standards, Audinate’s Dante technology is a plug-and-play networking solution which delivers ultra-low latency, tightly synchronised media, while simplifying installation and configuration of digital media networks.

Dante is the leading digital media networking solution and has been adopted by more than 120 OEMs to date, with hundreds of partners’ products to choose from. Applications using Dante can be found across broadcast, pro AV, commercial

installation and live sound entertainment markets.

Jünger Audio’s first device to feature Audinate’s Dante technology will be the V*AP two-channel voice processor. With its high-end algorithms and simple to use interface, it is specifically designed to make life easier for engineers working in radio stations and TV production voice-over studios.

Adding audio network capabilities to the V*AP complements its consequent network approach on control, measurement and administration. In combination with a Dante computer interface or the DVS Dante Virtual Soundcard software, the V*AP can act as a sophisticated frontend for any

digital audio workstation (DAW) or video editing system.

The Dante interface solution will be released for the V*AP in the first quarter of 2014 and subsequently become available for all other Jünger Audio boxed products.

Peter Poers, CEO of Jünger Audio says: “We looked at all the audio over IP network solutions and found that the efficiency, ease of use, seamless integration and growing range of manufacturers supporting Dante made it the ideal choice for Jünger Audio.

As customers continue to demand and expect interoperability between devices, we believe that the adoption of Dante will allow us to provide all the functionality and flexibility that the Pro Audio community

needs now, and positions us well for developing and introducing next generation audio products.”

“Jünger Audio is known for their unique range of digital processors which are designed to meet the precise needs of the professional audio broadcast market,” Lee Ellison, CEO of Audinate adds.

“Dante is already the leading interoperable network solution for the professional audio and broadcast markets.

Jünger Audio’s V*AP voice processor with Dante networking simplifies how audio can be distributed for TV broadcasters, IPTV providers, music recording studios and audio post production facilities,” he concludes.

alongside the Gearhouse Broadcast production team to install, operate and reposition the robotic systems throughout the show.

“The cameras are operated from remote pan / tilt / zoom joystick panels located in the control room,” Sisson adds. “Camera Corps’ ‘Simply SMPTE’ electro-optical and single-mode fibre links were also installed, which allow HD-SDI from the camera heads to be carried much greater distances than can be achieved over standard copper cable. A popular element of the series is the bushtucker trial, which invites contestants to

reach out one way or another to the wildlife of New South Wales. One of our tasks is to ensure the local insects and snakes don’t set up home inside our camera housings.

The Q-Ball is very effectively sealed against incursions of that kind.”

Developed and produced by Camera Corps both for rental and for sale, the Q-Ball has delivered close-up video from many high-profile broadcast events in recent years, including the BBC Proms, Summer and Winter Olympics, international football, motor racing, water sports, tennis, football and rugby.

Housed in a robust and weatherproof cast-aluminum sphere of similar diameter to a standard Compact Disc or DVD, the Q-Ball head comprises a 1080i camera with 10:1 zoom optics plus a fully rotatable pan and tilt head. High-precision motors enable the operator to adjust the camera angle from practically any location, including smooth adjustment of vertical and lateral tracking speeds.

I’m a Celebrity...Get Me out of Here! is produced by ITV Studios and licensed globally. Viewers vote in the first week for bushtucker trials and in the second week for which celebrity they want to stay in the camp.

Money is raised for charity with a donation being made from every call. The last remaining celebrity, after others have been evicted, is crowned ‘King’ or ‘Queen’ of the Jungle.

Q-Ball enters the jungle Q-Ball remotely controlled pan /tilt /zoom equipment from Camera Corps, a Vitec Group company with extensive experience in designing specialty camera systems, enters the jungle to capture the action for the 13th season of I’m a Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here!

Available to audiences in the UK and North America through ITV1, with technical infrastructure supplied by Gearhouse Broadcast, the popular reality TV programme seeks to crown a new ‘King’ or ‘Queen’ of the jungle each year by injecting stars into an elaborate survival competition in the wilds of Australia.

Camera Corps Q-Ball cameras unobtrusively provide full 1080i HD images from vantage points throughout the jungle compound, delivering the excitement of star interactions without ‘camera awareness,’ while also weathering the extreme elements of the production environment.

“This is one of the largest shows in the world, with more than 600 staff working in shifts round the clock for three weeks,” comments Gearhouse Broadcast COO Kevin Moorhouse. “The show is transmitted from one of the hottest and wettest locations on the planet, in the tropical rainforest of New South Wales.

“Camera Corps has worked with us very efficiently and effectively over many years to ensure that we capture consistently high-quality video, indoors or out, with full 30 | SCREENAFRICA | January 2014

Camera Corps Q-Ball

protection against rain, high humidity, high ambient temperature or low light. We consistently get high picture quality from the Q-Ball systems, including all the detail viewers expect when watching in HD.” Camera Corps integrated more than 90 remotely controlled cameras, including its Q-Ball robotic pan / tilt / zoom heads and its HD-MiniZoom and MiniShot cameras, among others, to follow the action inside and around the camp. The cameras were placed at strategic locations to ensure full coverage. Technicians David Sisson and James Todd from Camera Corps work

| Tracking Technology

Advanced video and audio signal analysis products Leader Instruments demonstrated a range of advanced video and audio signal analysis products at Content & Communications World in New York.

Centre of interest was the LV5490 4K-capable multi-standard multi-waveform monitor. First deliveries are expected in Q1 2014.

“The LV5490 conforms fully to the Leader strategy of designing products for easy operation during live content creation as well as in post-production, presentation and engineering management,” explains Leader Instruments Corporation’s president, George Gonos.

“It supports the full range of standard video production and transmission resolutions from 525 and 625 standard definition up to 3840 x 2160 and 4096 x 2160 4K. Equipped with four 3G-SDI/ HD-SDI/SD-SDI input channels plus a high-quality wide-viewing-angle 1920 x 1080 9 inch flat-panel display, the LV5490

allows precise matching of studio or outside broadcast cameras. It also doubles as a picture monitor for production crews working on location,” Gonos adds.

Leader’s S-LOG2 option for the LV5490 enables digital cinematographers to make the fullest use of the Sony F65 camera’s 4K imager, extended chroma gamut and 16-bit linear dynamic range. It gives creatives immediate visual information such a precise zoom-in monitoring of focus across user-selected areas of a video source.

User-adjustable exposure/luminancereferenced chroma scale can be applied over the image, allowing operators to match the White Clip indication on a Sony F65, False Color on an ARRI Alexa or Video Check on a RED Epic.

Also demonstrated were Leader’s LV5770 compact broadcast signal analyser and LV7770 rasterising multi-SDI monitor. The LV5770 supports 3G, HD dual link, HD-SDI and SD-SDI formats. Its modular design allows easy customisation.

Signal amplitudes, vector, data, chroma bars and picture can be monitored individually or in quad-split mode on the instrument’s integral 6.3 inch XGA LCD screen. Video frames can be captured manually or on an automated error-detection basis. Video display options include eye pattern and jitter waveform.

Eye pattern rise time, amplitude, fall time, timing jitter, current jitter, rising-edge overshoot and falling-edge overshoot can be measured automatically.

Leader’s LV7770 rasterising multi-SDI monitor allows video and audio content to be checked on a much larger screen than can be accommodated in a portable instrument. It has two auto-sensing 3G-SDI/ HD-SDI/SD-SDI inputs and can perform tests on a total of 17 video signal formats ranging from standard-definition up to 720p, 1080i and 1080p high-definition.

Tri-level sync or NTSC or PAL black burst are accepted for external reference.

The selected input is reclocked and can

4 Camera SD OB Van (Triax)

be fed downstream. Capabilities include waveform, vectorscope, peak video level display, SDI / external-sync phase difference, audio, picture and data monitoring functions. Displays can be viewed at full screen size or in assignable combinations. Extensive error detection and error logging facilities are incorporated, including gamut detection and adjustable error thresholds. Digital analysis screens Include data dump as well as equivalent cable length readings.

Leader displayed and demonstrated the SxA handheld video test signal generator, analyser and monitor plus the SxE and Rx2000. Model SxE incorporates the functions of the SxA plus physical layer analysis. Eye and jitter diagrams can be viewed on the SxA’s integral 4.3 inch 16:9 display screen.

The Rx2000 is a rack-mountable test generator and analyser employing the same graphic control interface as the Phabrix Sx range. Two rack units high and occupying just six inches from front to back, it can be tilted upwards or downwards within the rack bay, providing optimal viewing angles at various eye levels.

The Rx2000 also provides monitoring via a 1920 x 1080 HDMI or HD-SDI output, allowing the user to create a multi-viewer display of waveform, vector, picture, audio, loudness, eye pattern which can be output to HDMI monitors or routed through broadcast infrastructures via SDI.

8 Camera HD OB Van (Triax)

HD DSNG Vehicle

Various Multi Cam Mix Kits

4 Camera SD Flyaway Kit

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January 2014 | SCREENAFRICA | 31

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Networking function prize giving:

CMR Clubhouse

Sponsorship:

R7 000 ex vat (Hole 1)

R5 500 ex vat (all other holes)

Green Fees:

R275 per player – (includes VAT, cocktail snacks and prize giving)

Halfway house:

For your own account

Bookings for 4 ball and sponsorship:

Ellen Oosthuizen

Competition format:

Better Ball Stableford

Start time:

Shotgun start @ 11:30am

Contact:

Ellen Oosthuizen

Cell:

+27 (0)83 268 6868

Fax:

+86 (0)86 670 6809

E-mail:

ellen@screenafrica.com or ellen.oosthuizen@pixie.co.za

| Morocco | Zimbabwe | AFrica

Films about Morocco’s street children garner awards

By Martin Chemhere

INTERNATIONAL SUCCESS God’s Horses, directed by Moroccan filmmaker Nabil Ayouch, has been selected as Morocco’s entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 86th Academy Awards in 2014.

The movie premiered at the 2012 Cannes International Film Festival and screened at

the 2013 Panafrican Film and Television Festival of Ouagadougou (FESPACO).

Inspired by the true story of a terrorist attack in Casablanca in 2003, the film is based on the book The Stars of Sidi Moumen by Moroccan novelist and painter Mahi Binebine.

The story takes place over a decade and follows two brothers who live in Sidi Moumen, a poor neighbourhood in Casablanca. Initially they strive for adventure and excitement and dream of a better future. However, in the end, they adopt extremist views and are lured into the world of terrorism.

Ayouch filmed the movie in a neighbourhood which is similar to Sidi Moumen and worked with non-professional actors from the area to capture a haunting realist feel.

After directing Moroccan feature film Ali Zaoua: Prince of the Streets in 2000, which became one of the leading local box office hits, Ayouch is now among the leading filmmakers in his country.

The highly celebrated Ali Zaoua: Prince of the Streets had a hugely successful box office life when it was released, with more than 500 000 moviegoers watching it in Morocco.

“Ali Zaoua: Prince of the Streets is not only our production company’s most successful film, it’s one of Morocco’s most successful features to date,” states Jawad Lahlou, head of Communications and Distribution at Ali n’ Productions and Zaza Films Distribution, the producers of the film.

A movie about street children, Ali Zaoua:

Prince of the Streets, tells the story of Ali, Kwita, Omar and Boubker. The daily practice of sniffing glue represents their only escape from reality. The homeless boys were once part of a gang run by Dib, but under Ali’s guidance decided to survive on their own, often straying into petty crime for food, clothing and shelter.

Ali tells his friends that he is going to sail away to a better life, but his friends don’t believe him. When Ali is killed by Dib’s goons, the four surviving friends discover Ali had been hired as a cabin boy on a ship. Omar, Boubker and Kouka hide Ali’s body, wanting to give him a proper burial, which proves to be an expensive endeavor.

The film was Morocco’s official selection at the Academy Awards in 2000 has won more than 44 awards at international festivals worldwide and was sold in 28 countries.

Since then, Ayouch’s other films, Whatever Lola Wants (2007) and God’s Horses (2013) have both been well received with the latter winning 15 awards, including the Francais Chalais Award at the Cannes International Film Festival and the Golden Space Needle Award for Best Director at the 39th Seattle International Film Festival (SIFF) in 2013.

Boost for Zim filmmakers

By Martin Chemhere

Film Support Initiative, a project by the Film Makers Guild of Zimbabwe (FMGoZ), has received a $10 000 funding grant from the Zimbabwe Culture Fund Trust towards the purchase of film production equipment.

The aim is to develop local filmmaking and to support filmmakers with low budgets.

“In Harare, we have decided to buy an editing suite with Final Cut 10 locally and plan to buy an HD camera and accessories from South Africa before the end of the year,” explained Nocks Chatiza, founder of the FMGoZ and a filmmaker who was trained at the South African Medium AFDA in Johannesburg.

He said that from January 2014, the equipment will be available to fully subscribed members at a nominal fee; while non-members will be able to rent the new equipment at full standard rates.

The FSI’s aim to assist with and decrease production budgets and costs for Zimbabwean filmmakers. It will provide production equipment at the lowest rate or for free for those filmmakers who do not have funding but have a good project.

Hiring production equipment is

becoming one of the major obstacles to making films as three quarters of the budget is allocated to this aspect.

With the FSI in place, Zimbabwe is poised to see more films being produced at lower costs, as filmmakers will access the equipment at the lowest and most affordable rate and sometimes in exchange of a percentage of the commercial rights or a profit-sharing agreement if the film is sold.

FMGoZ’s vision is to cultivate an environment that allows the film and television industry to play a meaningful role in the socio-economic development of Zimbabwe. Its mission includes the mobilisation of filmmakers, advocacy, research, development, promotion, coordination and facilitation of film and television productions, attracting local and international investments in the film and television industry, benefiting the people and contributing to socio-economic growth in Zimbabwe.

The Harare-based organisation believes that it is of national importance to create facilities for ordinary Zimbabweans, thereby deepening democracy and creating prosperity. It also aims to be a leader in the

DEVELOPING LOCAL FILM: Nocks Chatiza film and television industry through harnessing the industry’s infrastructural needs, recognising technical and creative expertise while promoting unique and wide-ranging locations.

According to Chatiza, it took more than two years to receive the funding and he has extended his gratitude to the Culture Fund of Zimbabwe Trust for their support and partnership.

Meanwhile, the Zimbabwe Film and Television School of Southern Africa

(ZIFTESSA) is calling for applications from qualified young men and women who wish to train as filmmakers. The twoand-a-half year course to obtain a Diploma in Filmmaking starts in February 2014.

Full-time courses at ZIFTESSA are offered in Scriptwriting, Producing, Cinematography, Production Design, Directing, Sound and Editing Special Effects, among others. The deadline for applications is 30 January 2014.

January 2014 | SCREENAFRICA | 33

WEB NEWS

|

www.screenafrica.com

Oscar hopes for SA film Set in the Cape ganglands, this coming-ofage story centres on Ricardo Galam, a 13-yearold chess champion who is drawn into the infamous gang culture in the Cape Flats.

Director of Four Corners, Ian Gabriel, said he was Ian Gabriel directs Turner Adams in a secret prison ritual of the Number Gang optimistic about the film’s chances, adding that Gavin Four Corners, South Africa’s submission to Hood, South African director of the 2014 Oscars in the best foreign Tsotsi, loved the movie. language category, has attracted a lot of The film releases on 7 February 2014 in positive attention after its screening in Los South Africa through Indigenous Film Angeles.

Distribution.

NFVF strengthens relationship with Cape filmmakers In an initiative to strengthen relationships with the film industry in the Western Cape, the National Film and Video Foundation (NFVF) hosted a stakeholder engagement session, meetings with various investors and filmmaking workshops, with relevant contacts in the region.

During a meeting with the Cape Film Commission (CFC), the establishment of a South African Film Commission was discussed.

Zama Mkosi, CEO of the NFVF said: “We advised the CFC at the meeting that we hold a different view regarding their ability and authority to establish a national body of

this nature. We agreed to disagree and the understanding was that each entity will proceed on this matter as it deems fit.”

Two-day workshops on directing, producing, scriptwriting and distribution were held by the NFVF, as well as sessions on performance, animation and how to approach international markets and festivals.

Durban Film Festival call for entries NHU Africa deadline announced

The deadline for short film, documentary and feature fiction film entries for the 2014 Durban International Film Festival (DIFF), including delivery of screeners, is 28 March 2014.

All submissions must have been completed in 2013 or 2014 and entered via the Eventival online system, where first-time entrants will need to create a visitor account.

The 35th DIFF takes place from 17 to 27

July 2014 and will have a focus on 20 years of democracy in South Africa as a theme for specific streams of programming.

Highlights include 250 screenings of films and a film competition as well as a seminar and workshop programme which features the 7th Durban Talent Campus in collaboration with Berlinale Talent Campus, and the 5th Durban FilmMart in partnership with the Durban Film Office, as well as various other streams of programming including Durban Wild Talk Africa and Wavescape.

Peter Machen, festival manager says: “We look forward to once again receiving a wealth of top quality films from around the globe.”

Glow TV launches free-to-air channel in SA Kagiso Media, a major player in radio and internet media in South Africa, has added television to its portfolio with the launch of Glow TV, a new free-to-air channel on the OpenView HD AB Moosa and Paulina Theologou at the official launch of Glow TV satellite bouquet.

Glow TV curates Says Mzi Malunga, the CEO of Urban the best ‘eastern-inspired’ content from Brew Malunga: “We’re excited to be a key around the world in English and other partner of Glow TV. We are collaborating to languages. If programming is in any produce local content in the new year and language other than English, the we’re excited with the concepts that are programme is either dubbed into English or currently in the pipeline.” has English subtitles.

Glow TV is the first channel in the country Urban Brew Studios, Kagiso Media’s to offer ‘eastern-inspired’ content for all majority-owned subsidiary, will be South Africans on a free-to-air platform producing original local content for the where viewers pay once and watch free, channel. forever.

34 | SCREENAFRICA | January 2014

The final deadline for this year’s submissions to the Natural History Unit of Africa (NHU Africa) is 31 January 2014.

Every submission must include a one-page synopsis, a two- to four-page treatment, a fully itemised budget in ZAR and US dollars, biographies of key creatives, a showreel of the presenter or main character, a screener (if any) and a list of co-production, distribution or finance

partners, if any are already attached.

The productions should display global appeal and align with the themes: Human and Animal Interaction; Adventure, Exploration or Journey of Discovery; The Natural World and Pure Animal; and Investigation of the Natural World.

Vyv Simson, commissioning editor at NHU Africa, says: “A successful pitch will contain some or all of the following: a strong story intriguingly told; engaging human and animal characters; a dramatic visual style; a sense of something we have not seen before; and a fresh insight or approach to something we thought we’d seen before.”

Triggerfish plans for a five-film slate Cape Town-based Triggerfish Animation has secured funding that will be used to develop the first phase of five new animated feature films, expansion of the studio’s digital department and exploration of new concepts, apps and games.

Jean-Michel Koenig, CFO of Triggerfish, secured the deal with Business Partners’ Venture Fund, a specialist risk finance company for formal small to medium enterprises in South Africa and select African countries.

Still from Here Be Monsters

Based on the success of previous films, Adventures in Zambezia (Sony International Acquisitions) and Khumba (Millennium Entertainment) work on two films selected to go into development, Here Be Monsters and Seal Team (working titles), has already begun.

Triggerfish aims to release one film a year starting in 2016, with a focus on producing movies with universal messages for all ages.

| WEB NEWS SA actor to play Mandela in new film South African actor Tumisho Masha (Isidingo, Drum) has been cast as Nelson Mandela in the upcoming film, Mandela’s Gun), which is expected to screen at the

Tumisho Masha

Cannes International Film Festival in May 2014.

British filmmaker John Irvin is directing and producing the movie in collaboration with DV8 Films in Johannesburg and the Department of Arts and Culture.

The movie will feature an all-South African cast and crew and will include unseen interviews, rare archives and testimonies while using different cinematic styles and techniques to highlight its periodic relevance.

A combination of a documentary and a feature film, the story is based on the eight months Mandela spent travelling Africa prior to his arrest in 1962, and follows his military training which was later used to found uMkhonto we Sizwe, the military wing of the African National Congress.

Revitalising Africa’s lost content Côte Ouest, Africa’s leader in the distribution of content, announces a special partnership with L’Organisation de la Francophonie (OIF), which will see the two parties collaborate in a major operation aimed at reviving more than 3 000 audiovisual programmes.

As part of the project, these documentaries and archive content, which were originally

backed by the OIF Film Fund and constitute an important part of the African cultural heritage, will be fully digitalised. The project’s goal is ‘to select the finest gems, to retrace the identity of the rights’ holders, and to ultimately distribute and promote the content’.

Côte Ouest will be responsible for the marketing, distribution and rights

Schuster candid about new movie Leon Schuster’s latest candid camera style movie, Schuks! Your Country Needs You, starring comedian Rob Van Vuuren and new talent Laré Birk, releases in South Africa in November and promises to deliver the side-splitting pranks and celebrity set- ups that audiences have come to love.

Schuster admits that this movie was his most difficult to execute, as so many people recognised the veteran prankster despite elaborate costumes and convincing accents. Says Schuster: “Unless I get new disguises, practise different accents, change my voice to go lower… it’s going to be very difficult to do another candid camera movie.”

Schuster comments on casting newcomer Laré Brink: “We needed a fresh

Gray Hofmeyr (director), Rob van Vuuren (Wayne), Leon Schuster (Schuks), Laré Birk (Sammy) and André Scholtz (producer) young actress with a spontaneous personality who we believed would be good enough to pull off the pranks and she was perfect for the part.

“Rob was mainly brought in for the sake of me not having to take all the punches and he was very brave, I must say.”

Both actors said they were honoured to work with Schuster and had learnt a lot while making the film.

management of the newly digitised archives.

Mike Dearham, senior vice president of Côte Ouest, comments: “In the face of a serious African content deficit, the advancement of this project will provide much-needed relief to the pan-African audiovisual sector.”

Mike Dearham

Q-Gear

TM

Te l e p r o m p t e r S y s t e m s

Get ready for a big change

In life, change is inevitable for growth WWW.PRO-SALES.CO.ZA TEL: +27 (0)11 462 0000 FAX: +27 (0)11 706 7140 E-MAIL: INFO@PRO-SALES.CO.ZA ARNE SACK 082 576 1366 | JASON SPROAT 082 576 1367 | JONATHAN SACK 083 695 9656

January 2014 | SCREENAFRICA | 35

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

HOTEL SONGOLOLO The Media Workshop Dir: Benito Carelsen Comedy Series

1. Title 2. Production Company 3. Director 4. Genre

IIQ Sukuma Media Dir: Bonginhlanhla Ncube Feature

IN DEVELOPMENT 80 MINUTES Periphery Films Dir: Simon Taylor / Julia Taal Feature Drama

Unit 3, Harbour Place, 1061 Schooner Road, Laser Park, Honeydew

A LION IN THE BEDROOM Two Oceans Production Prod: Giselher Venzke / Bertha Spieker Feature AMABHUBESI Inkwasi Television Prod: Bell Curle TV Magazine

LEADERS OF AFRICA The expeditionary force Dirs: nicholas schofield / alexis schofield Documentary

AT THE CREEK WITHOUT A PADDLE Zen Crew Exec Prod: Laura Tarling Documentary

LEKKERKAMPPLEKKE Grey Cloud Productions Dir: Jacques Brand Prod: Jarrod de Jong Actuality/ Variety programming

BREAD AND WATER Periphery Films Dir: Simon Taylor / Julia Taal Feature Documentary

the finest freelance post-production & creative crew editors * researchers * animators * visual effects artists storyboard artists * directors * sound engineers * writers post-production producers & supervisors

ALSO offering flexible, cost-effective post-production solutions for the commercials industry tel: 0860 111 553 fax: +27 11 706 7949 bookings@generalpost.co.za www.generalpost.co.za after hours emergency number: 076 225 9173

OUR OB FLEET

Camping Two Oceans Productions Prod: Giselher Venzke & Bertha Spieker Feature CAPE OF GOOD HOPE Two Oceans Production Prods: Giselher Venzke / Bertha Spieker Feature CHILDREN OF FAMOUS ACTIVISTS Current Affairs Films Prod: Jane Thandi Lipman Feature CINDERELLA Two Oceans Productions Prod: Giselher Venzke & Bertha Spieker Feature CONSERVATION & BEYOND Suite People TVP Prod: Bell Curle Documentary DAISY Bamboo Media (PTY) LTD Dir: Marguelette Louw Feature DIE VERHAAL VAN RACHELTJIE DE BEER Nostalgia Productions Prod: Brett Michael Innes Historical Feature Die Vervoerder Grey Cloud Productions Dir: Jacques Brand Prod: Jarrod de Jong Action Comedy Feature

MUTI DOT MOBI Vuleka Productions.

Prod / Dir: Julie Frederikse / Madoda Ncayiyana .

Feature NEW BEGINNINGZ Sukuma Media Dir: Bonginhanhla Ncube Documentary NONGOLOZA Current Affairs Prod: Jane Thandi Lipman Feature PALACE OF THE FAITHLESS White Heron Pictures Dir: Themba Sibeko Feature PASSARES (BIRDISH) White Heron Pictures / Casa De Criacao Cinema Prod: Themba Sibeko Feature PIETER CILLIERS PRODUCTIONS Pieter Cilliers Productions Prod / Dir: Pieter Cilliers TV Magazine Pippie se Towerkombuis Grey Cloud Productions Dir: Jacques Brand Prod: Jarrod de Jong Actuality/ Variety programming

ESCAPE Current Affairs Films Prod: Jane Thandi Lipman / Beata Lipman Feature

Rachel Weeping Nostalgia Productions Prod: Johan Kruger & Brett Michael Innes Drama

EX PATS Current Affrairs Films / French Connection Prod: Jane Thandi Lipman Drama series

SARAH GRAHAM: BITTEN 2 Okuhle Media Director: Chris Lotz Lifestyle/cooking series

FOR THE NEW CITY – DANCE ON FILM Switch / Resonance Bazar Prods: James Tayler / Julia Raynham Film

SEBOKENG MPA (Motswako) Dir: Charls Khuele / Zuko Nodada Feature

FORSAKEN DO Productions Prods: Marlow de Mardt / Brigid Olën Feature

SHORT BUSINESS FEATURE WITH BBC / ABC Current Affairs Films Prod: Jane Thandi Lipman Short Business Features

HEAVEN – AFRICA 2 Two Oceans Production Prods: Giselher Venzke / Bertha Spieker Feature

36 | SCREENAFRICA | January 2014

MOM’S CHOICE Sukuma Media Dir: Bonginhlanhla Ncube Feature

Ponte Nostalgia Productions & Black Irish Productions Prod: Jamie Ramsay & Brett Michael Innes Horror

GRIZMEK Two Oceans Production Prods: Giselher Venzke / Bertha Spieker Feature

You can reach us at:

MANCHE, THE AFRICAN SAINT Get the Picture Prod / Dir: Jacky Lourens/Fiona Summers Documentary

DO GOOD DESIGN SOUTH AFRICA Concept Interaction Prod: Karl Fedderke Educational

GOUE STERRE Suite People TVP Prod: Bell Curle TV Series

Tel: +27 (0) 11 431 3053 Fax: +27 (0) 86 689 9233 Cell: +27 (0) 83 426 6634 Email: mojapelepe@gmail.com www.mojapeleproductions.co.za

JAN SMUTS: AN INTERNATIONAL ICON AHEAD OF HIS TIME Tekweni TV production Prod / Dir: Sandra Herrington / Neville Herrington Documentary KING SEKHUKHUNE Sukuma Media Prod: Leonard Sekhukhune / Bonginhlanhla Ncube Feature

BODA BODA THIEVES Yes That’s Us Prod: James Tayler Feature

general post

IYEZA THEATRE & TV LIGHTING (PTY) LTD Iyeza Theatre & TV Lighting (Pty) Ltd Prod / Dir: Cal Morris Corporate

HHOLA HHOLA Vuleka Productions Prod: Julie Frederikse/Madoda Ncayiyana Feature

SUPERMAMA GoogelPlex Productions Dir: Karen van Schalkwyk Feature THE BLOOD KING AND THE RED DRAGON Current Affairs Prod: Jane Thandi Lipman / Mtutuzeli Matshoba Feature THE DREADED EVIL EYE FROM PAST TO PRESENT AND ACROSS CULTURES Blue Marble Entertainment Dir: Eugene Botha Independent Documentary

THE FLAWED GENIUS OF JAN SMUTS Tekweni TV Productions Prod / Dir: Sandra Herrington/Neville Herrington Dir Of Photo: Anton Herrington Documentary THE HITCHERS: A GHOST STORY Blue Marble Entertainment Dir: Eugene Botha Short Film The Mountain of the Night Nostalgia Productions Prod: Herman Mabizela & Brett Michael Innes Historical Epic The Reggies Rush Nostalgia Productions Prod: Brett Michael Innes Comedy TIENERWERELD Grey Cloud Productions Dir: Jacques Brand Prod: Jarrod de Jong Actuality/ Variety programming THE SCORES ARE IN Current Affairs Films Prod: Jane Thandi Lipman Game Show / Entertainment Series VULTURE KILLING FIELDS Suite People TVP Bell Curle Documentary WEER DEBRA Khaki Productions Prod / Dir: Christelle Parrott , Wynand Dreyer Actuality Series – kykNET WHIPLASH Get the Picture Prod / Dir: Jacky Lourens / Meg Rickards Other Crew: Tracey Farren, Jenny Hicks Feature Zakouma Two Oceans Productions Prod: Giselher Venzke & Bertha Spieker Feature ZEN FILM CREW MANAGEMENT ZEN Film Crew Management Prod / Dir: Laura Tarling Commercial

IN PRE-PRODUCTION ABLAND PROPERTY DEVELOPERS FC Hamman Films Director: FC Hamman Marketing Video ATTACHMENT PARENTING Blue Marble Entertainment Dir: Eugene Botha Carte Blanche Story Die Laaste Ure: Inconnu French Film Festival Grey Cloud Productions Dir: Jacques Brand Producer: Jarrod de Jong Afrikaans Shortfilm Domestic Bliss 2 Blonds and a Redhead Filming Prod: Anne Myers Advertising Funder Project EL ELJON PROJECTS FC Hamman Films Director: FC Hamman Marketing Video ELEGY: FORSAKEN IN SOUTH AFRICA Market Street Productions Prod: Paul Van Zyl Short film ESPAFRIKA PRESENTS THE CAPE TOWN INTERNATIONAL JAZZ FESTIVAL 2013 Espafrika Prods / Dirs: Rashid Lombard / Yana Lombard / John Bright Documentary FACE OF GEMINI Footprint Media TV Prod: Cheryl Delport DJ Reality show GENERATION FREE Okuhle Media Dir: Jemima Spring Documentary Series HIDDEN HOLOCAUST IN THE DUNES: GENOCIDE IN NAMIBIA Blue Marble Entertainment Dir: Eugene Botha Series JUB JUB DOCUMENTARY (working title) Baxopath Media Dir: Nolitha Tshinavha Documentary LOVE MORE: POLYAMORY IN SOUTH AFRICA Blue Marble Entertainment Dir: Eugene Botha Series

PRODUCTION MARRY ME IN MZANZI Blue Marble Entertainment Dir: Eugene Botha Documentary for SABC2 in Made in Africa Series

CARTE BLANCHE (INSERTS) Modern Times Prods: Sophia Phirippides News/actuality

MANDELA Synergy Films Drama / Documentary

CHILD GENIUSES Talent Attack TV / Fuel Media Productions Prod: Paul Llewellyn Documentary Series

PSALTED Engage Entertainment Exec Prod: Vusi Zion (previously Twala) Variety

COCA-COLA ROCKCORPS Tia Productions Prod / Dir: Tarryn Crossman Viral Documentary

SAFE IN THE CITY Imani Media.

Comedy

CODESIGN – COMMERCIAL SPOT FOR FURNITURE DESIGNERS Switch Dir: James Tayler Commercial

SEATBELT MEDIC FC Hamman Films Director: FC Hamman TV Commercial SLENDER WONDER INFORMATION VIDEO Grey Cloud Productions Dir: Jacques Brand Information Video STICKS+STONES (Working Title) Fireworx Media and Tunc Prodcutions Prod: Bridget Pickering Telenovela TALK OF THE TOWN Suite People TV Productions Bell Curle TV Series TO CARE FOR YOU ALWAYS Noble Pictures Prod: Claudia Noble Short Film THE MASC Footprint Media TV Prod: Cheryl Delport Short film THE MESSENGER Spirit Word Ministries/Footprint Media Academy Exec Prod: Annalise Van Rensburg Series WORKERSLIFE NETWORK MARKETING FC Hamman Films Director: FC Hamman Marketing Video

IN PRODUCTION 3 TALK Urban Brew Talk Show 3RD DEGREE e.tv Investigative TV series 20 and Free X CON Films Dir: Munier Parker Documentary 50/50 Clive Morris Productions Current Affairs ABC AMERICA NEWS SPECIAL ON MANDELA Current Affairs Films Prod: Jane Thandi Lipman Feature News Special AFRICA FACTS SEASON 3 Lebapi Productions Dir: Daniel Moleabatsi TV Magazine AFRICA 360 eNews News Head: Patrick Conroy Current affairs AFRO CAFÉ SEASON 7 Bonngoe Productions Exec Prod: Pepsi Pokane Music Show ALEX: A HISTORY FROM BELOW Uhuru Productions Dir: Rehad Desai Documentary ALL ACCESS Homebrew Films Prod: Paul Venter/ Hannes van Wyk / Tammy Anne Fortuin Magazine Show

COOL CATS Red Pepper Exec Prod: Cecil Berry Children’s Show

HOUSE CALL Izwe Multimedia / Urban Brew Series Prod: Annalie Potgieter Live Medical Talk Show IGNITE Footprint Media TV Prod: Cheryl Delport Presenter Reality show IMIZWILILI Ukhamba Communications Music

COME DINE WITH ME SOUTH AFRICA Rapid Blue Prod: Kee-Leen Irvine Reality

INSIDE STORY Curious Pictures / Discovery Channel Dir: Rolie Nikiwe Feature

CUTTING EDGE SABC News Current Affairs

ISEDALE Golden Effects Pictures Dir: Kunle Afolayan Documentary Series

DINNER DIVAS 2 Blonds and a Redhead Filming Exec Prod: Anne Myers Cookery Series Ditokelo tsa Medupi LMOL Production Dir: Lizzy Moloto Comedy flighting on Mzansi Magic, M-Net DIY MET RIAAN Prod: Riaan Venter-Garforth Magazine DONKERLAND Donkerland Drama TV Reeks Prod / Dir: Deon Opperman/ Joz Malherbe TV Drama EM PETROCHEMICALS TOP END Betta Beta Communications Prod / Dir:Tommy Doig Training Program END GAME Fireworx Media and Tunc Productions Prod: Bridget Pickering Dir: by Akin Omotoso, Thandie Brewer, Thabang Moleya Political Thriller EXPRESSO 2 Cordover Trading Prod: Paul van Deventer Lifestyle EASTERN MOSAIC Red Carpet Productions Magazine Programme Facility Management Lectures (A4FM) Panache Video Productions Dir / Prod: Liesel Eiselen Educational FORMIDABELE VROUE: ANNEKIE THERON Khaki Productions Prod / Dir: Christelle Parrott, Wynand Dreyer Documentary – kykNET FORMIDABELE VROUE: CISSY GOOL Khaki Productions Prod / Dir: Christelle Parrott, Wynand Dreyer Documentary – kykNET FOX NEWS CHANNEL Betta Beta Communications Prod / Dir: Tommy Doig News Current Affairs FREEWAY FROG Firefly Animation Prod: Ant Steel Animation Short FRENZY Red Pepper Pictures Prod: Palesa Mopeli Variety

BARBOUR AND THORNE: 60 YEARS STRONG Our Time Productions Dir: Juan de Meilon Corporate Video

GENERATIONS Morula Pictures Exec Prod: Mfundi Vundla Soapie GOOD MORNING AFRICA Planet Image Productions SA Prod / Dir: Wale Akinlabi TV Magazine

BIG BROTHER THE CHASE Endemol South Africa Reality TV

GOSPEL GOLD Engage Entertainment Exec Prod: Vusi Zion (previously Twala) Music Show

BINNELAND Stark Films Prod / Dir: Friedrich / Elsje Stark Daily Soap / Tv Series

GROEN Homebrew Films Prod: Jaco Loubser Wildlife

BONISANANI Kagiso TV Talk Show

Hear Me Move Coal Stove Pictures / FiX Post Production Dir: Scottnes L.Smith Feature

BOPSY BUNNY Firefly Animation Studio Exec Prod: Antony Steel Short Films

HOPE Triosphere Executive Producer – Vyv Simson / Donfrey Meyer Wildlife Documentary

INKABA Urban Brew Studios Prod: John Kani Telenovela

AWESOME AFRICA Steplite Films Dir: Jacqui Logie TV Series

BBC PLANET EARTH LIVE Wild Images Dir: James Smith, Tim Scoones, Roger Webb Documentary

HITACHI POWER AFRICA MEDUPI & KUSILE Betta Beta Communications Prod / Dir: Tommy Doig Documentary

CORTEX MINING FC Hamman Films Prod Man: Odette van Jaarsveld Corporate Video

DADDY’S MESS Dzunde Productions Prod: Thandiwe Mashiyane TV Sitcom

HECTIC 99 Okuhle Media Prod: Wilna van Schalkwyk Magazine Show

U PDAT ES

ISIDINGO Endemol South Africa Dirs: Raymond Sargent / Johnny Barbazano Daily TV Drama KALAHARI MEERKATS 3D Wildearth TV Executive Producer – Vyv Simson / Donfrey Meyer Wildlife Documentary KONA The Directors Team (Pty) Ltd Prod / Dir: Laurence Lurie / Cathy Sykes Series KOOLCON CORPORATE VIDEO FiX Post Production/ Marketing AV Marketing Video

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

www.atlasstudios.co.za

KWELA Pieter Cilliers Productions Prod / Dir: Pieter Cilliers TV Magazine LATE NITE NEWS ON E.TV Diprente Productions Prod: Tamsin Andersson Satire Legacy 2 Generations Grey Cloud Productions Dir: Jacques Brand Discovery Documentary LIVE Urban Brew Music Show LIVE LOTTO SHOW Urban Brew Game Show MASHELENG1 LMOL Production Dir: Lizzy Moloto Comedy MASHELENG 2 LMOL Production Dir: Jonny Muteba Comedy MASSMART CSI REPORT SummerTime Productions Prod / Dir: Roxanne Rolando / Sean Gardiner Corporate Video MATRICS UPLOADED Educational Improvement and Study Help Exec Prod: Lisa Blakeway Educational MGONGO BY SONY Sony Prod / Dir: James Lennox Lifestyle & Entertainment MILLIONAIRES Two Oceans Production Prod: Giselher Venzke & Bertha Spieker Feature MK CAMPUS Homebrew Films Prods: Jaco Loubser / Ben Heyns Student Show MOFEREFERE LENYALONG Moja Movie Factory Sitcom MONTANA 2 Penguin Films Exec Prods: Roberta Durrant Series MOTSWAKO Carol Bouwer Productions Prod: Vesko Mrdjen Talk Show MUVHANGO Word of Mouth Prod: Pieter Grobbelaar Feature MZANSI INSIDER Bonngoe Productions Exec Prod: Pepsi Pokane TV Magazine

MUSIC MOVES ME Engage Entertainment Exec Prod: Vusi Zion (previously Twala) Music Show NET1 – SASSA Betta Beta Communications Prod: Tommy Doig Corporate NEWS NIGHT eNews Prods: Nikiwe Bikitsha Current Affairs

NIGCOMSAT – TELEVISION COMMERCIAL SERIES SWiTCH Prod: Sarah Wanjiku Muhoho Commercial NOMZAMO Tom Pictures / Authentic Images Comedy ONS MENSE Homebrew Films Prod: Jaco Loubser Current Affairs

January 2014 | SCREENAFRICA | 37

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UPDATES

OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS Plexus Films Prod: Miki Redelinghuys Corporate Video

RIVONINGO Asi-B Films Exec Prod: Asivhanzi ‘Asi’ Mathaba Kids

SELIMATUNZI Sikhoyana Productions Prod: Baby Joe Correira Variety Series

TSHIPE BORWA MANGANESE MINE Betta Beta Communications Prod / Dir: Tommy Doig Documentary

PASELLA Tswelopele Productions Insert Dirs: Liani Maasdorp / Werner Hefer TV Magazine Programme

ROCKING FUTURE SummerTime Productions Prod: Sean Gardiner / Tanya Vandenberg Educational Video

SES’KHONA Tswelopele Productions Prod: Phuthi Ngwenya Magazine

TURN IT OUT 2 Fuel Media Productions Dir: Marvin Raftopoulos Dance Reality show

PHOENIX RISING...THE BUSINESS OF STYLE Phoenix Entertainment and Production Prod / Dir: Koketso Sefanyetso Reality Docutainment

ROER Homebrew Films Prod: Jaco Loubser Cooking Show

SHIZ NIZ Red Pepper Pictures Prod: Allen Makhubele Variety

Unfriend Two Oceans Production Prod: Giselher Venzke & Bertha Spieker Feature

ROOTS Ukhamba Communications Music Show

SHIFT Urban Brew Talk show

SAINT & FREEDOM FIGHTER Blue Marble Entertainment Dir: Eugene Botha Independent Documentary

SHORELINE 2 Homebrew films Documentary series

VILLA ROSA Spectro Productions Dirs: Luhann Jansen / Andries van der Merwe/ Leroux Botha/ Isabel Smit TV Drama

POWER COMBAT ZONE Mixed Motion Entertainment Dir: Dieter Gottert Sport Programme PROJECT MV Zen Crew Prod: Laura Tarling Music Video Rands with Sense 2 Blonds and a Redhead Filming Prod: Anne Myers Adult education reality RETROBOUCHON Tunnelvizion Productions Prod / Dir: Ruan Lotter/Hein Ungerer Short Film ROLLING WITH KELLY KHUMALO Red Pepper Prod: Cecil Barry Reality Series RHYTHM CITY Curious Pictures Prod: Yula Quinn Soapie RHYTHM CITY INTERACTIVE Curious Pictures / e.tv Prod: Viva Liles-Wilkin Interactive Platform Media

SAKEGESPREK MET THEO VORSTER SEASON 4 Dirk Mostert Camera Production Prod / Dir / Ed: Dirk Mostert / Rudi Ahlstrom TV Magazine SANPARKS YOUTH & PARKS Francois Odendaal Productions Prod / Dir: Francois Odendaal Natural History TV Series SA’S GOT TALENT Rapid Blue Prod / Dir: Kee-Leen Irvine Reality SCANDAL Ochre Moving Pictures Series Prod: Romano Gorlei Soapie SCHOEMAN BOERDERY – MOOSRIVIER Khaki Productions Prod / Dir: Christelle Parrott / Wynand Dreyer Documentary

S.I.E.S (SOCIAL IMPACT AND EMPOWERMENT STRATEGY) Penguin Films Dirs: Roberta Durrant / James Ngcobo Sitcom SISTERHOOD Red Pepper Pictures Prod: Vuyo Sokupa Variety SIYAKHOLWA – WE BELIEVE X CON Films Dir: Munier Parker Edutainment Slender Wonder Doctors Conference Grey Cloud Productions Director: Jacques Brand Producer: Slender Wonder Corporate Video Slender Wonder Patient Testimonial Videos Grey Cloud Productions Dir: Jacques Brand Corporate Videos SOCCER 411 Engage Entertainment Exec Prod: Vusi Zion (previously Twala) Magazine SOCCER ZONE SABC Sports Head: Sizwe Nzimande Magazine STUDIO 53 M-Net Inhouse Productions Insert Dir: Navan Chetty Mag Programme STUDY MATE Educational Improvement and Study Help Exec Prod: Lisa Blakeway Educational THE B-BALL SHOW SABC Commissioning Ed: Dinah Mahlabegoane Variety THE CHAT ROOM Eclipse Prod: Thokozani Nkosi Talk Show THE CODE BREAKER Goddunit Productions Executive Producer – Vyv Simson / Donfrey Meyer Wildlife Documentary THE COMMUNIST REPUBLIC OF SOUTH AFRICA Jam TV, Creative South Africa, Nkhanyeti Production Prod: Barthelemy Ngwessam Documentary

Unit C5 RobeRtville Mini FaCtoRies 255 nadine stReet RobeRtville RoodepooRt 1709

WARD 22 Tia Productions Prod / Dir: Tarryn Crossman Documentary

HONG KONG Media Village Prod: Diane Vermooten Documentary

WHY ARE WE SO ANGRY? Fuel Media Productions Dir: Scott Smith, Shaft Moropane Documentary Series

JULIUS HAS A DREAM Creative South Africa, Nkanyethi Productions,Jam TV Prod: Bathelemy Ngwessam Documentary

WHY POVERTY? STEPS International Exec Prod: Don Edkins Documentary Series WORLDSOUTH Leago Afrikan Arts Foundation Dir: Sakhile Gumbi Documentary XJ-1 Eternal Film Productions Producer: Marius Swanepoel, Dana Pretorius Sci-fi Feature YILENGELO LAKHO Prod: Nndanganeni Mudau Current Affairs ZOOM IN Footprint Media TV Prod: Cheryl Delport Youth Talk show

IN POST-PRODUCTION 4LIFE NETWORK Bragge Film& TV Dir: Guy Bragge Infomercials A BUSHMAN ODYSSEY Onetime Films Prod: Richard Wicksteed Documentary A Love Letter to Luxor Shadow Films Prod/Dir/Cam: David Forbes Short Film AFROX CO2 PLANT FC Hamman Films Prod Man: Odette van Jaarsveld Corporate Video

THE REAL GOBOZA 7 Urban Brew Entertainment

AFROX SHEQ INDUCTION FC Hamman Films Prod Man: Odette van Jaarsveld Commercial

The Revolution Betrayed Shadow Films Prod/Dir: David Forbes Documentary

BUA NNETE Owami Entertainment Dir: Charles Khuele Short Film

THE RUDIMENTALS Periphery Films Prod: Simon Taylor Feature Documentary

CALAFORNIA: VALLEY CHRISTIAN SCHOOL TRANSFORMATION Media Village Prod: Diane Vermooten Documentary

TOP BILLING Tswelopele Productions Prod: Patience Stevens TV Magazine

HOME OF THE LEGENDS L. Dukashe Productions Prod / Dir: Lumko Dukashe / Lulu Dukashe Documentary

JAM SANDWICH Meerkat Media Dir: MQ Ngubane Music Reality TV series

AFROX RAU INSIGHT FC Hamman Films Prod Man: Odette van Jaarsveld Corporate Video

THERE ARE NO HEROES AFDA Cape Town Dir: Kyle Stevenson Science Fiction

HALF OF A YELLOW SUN British Film Institute Dir: Biyi Bandele Feature

WHEN THE WORLD WAS HERE Fuel Media Productions Dir: Mzilikazi Kumalo Documentary Series

The Lighthouse Run – 42 Marathons, 42 Days SummerTime Productions Dir: Tanya Vandenberg Documentary

TRANSFORMATION STORIES Media Village Productions Dir: Diane Vermooten Documentary

GETROUD MET RUGBY SEASON 4 Bottom Line Productions Dir: Jozua Malherbe Series

IQILI Impucuzeko Prod: Sharon Kakora Feature

AFROX FINANCIAL RESULTS FC Hamman Films Prod Man: Odette van Jaarsveld Script: Hulette Pretorius Corporate Video

THE TECH REPORT Greenwall Productions Exec Prod: Nicky Greenwall Magazine

FORMIDABELE VROUE: INA DE VILLIERS Khaki Productions Prod / Dir: Christelle Parrott, Wynand Dreyer Documentary

WEEKEND LIVE SABC News Current Affairs

THE JUSTICE FACTOR eNews Exec Prod: Debbie Meyer Current Affairs

THE STORY OF LITTLE FOOT Paul Myburgh Film Prod: Paul Myburgh Documentary

38 | SCREENAFRICA | January 2014

Volkspele South Africa Grey Cloud Productions Dir:Jacques Brand Prod: Bertie Brink Documentary

FORMIDABELE VROUE: UNA VAN DER SPUY Khaki Productions Prod / Dir: Christelle Parrott, Wynand Dreyer Documentary

Challenge SOS 2 Blonds and a Redhead Filming Prod: Anne Myers Youth reality Class Act Profile Summertime Productions Prod: Sean Gardiner Corporate (NGO) Profile DEAR SISTER Media Village Prod: Debbie Matthee Short Film ERFSONDES Imani Media Dir: Peter Heaney TV Drama FORM 36 Sukuma Media Dir: Bonginhlanhla Ncube Documentary

LIFE UNDER THE FLAG Lifeundertheflag.Com Prod: Prince Angelo Doyle Documentary NORTHMEN Two Oceans Productions Prod: Giselher Venzke & Bertha Spieker Feature Nyaope Gangsters LMOL Production Dir: Lizzy Moloto Feature PAD NA JOU HART The Film Factory Prod: Danie Bester, Ivan Botha, Donna Lee Roberts Director: Jaco Smit Romance Feature PERFECT SHISHEBO Curious Pictures Prod: Nthabiseng Mokoena Cooking Show PLAY MORE GOLF FC Hamman Films Prod Man: Odette van Jaarsveld Script: Hulette Pretorius Commercials Pushi- Passion LMOL Production Dir: Lizzy Moloto Drama Qualcomm Smartphone series Summertime Productions Dir: Sean Gardiner Corporate RUUT EXTRA Tia Productions Prod / Dir: Tarryn Crossman Commercial/Documentary The calling LMOL Production Dir: Lizzy Moloto Drama The Lighthouse Run Summertime Productions Dir: Tanya Vandenberg Documentary SA JUNIOR MASTERS Our Time Productions Dir: Jaun de Meillon Sport Programme SAFE BET Sukuma Media Dir: Bonginhlanhla Ncube Feature SCHOOL E-WASTE INITIATIVE/ DESCO/ INCREDIBLE CONNECTION Philip Schedler Productions Prod: Philip Schedler Corporate SLENDER WONDER FC Hamman Films Prod Man: Odette van Jaarsveld Corporate Video SLENDER WONDER MJ LABS FC Hamman Films Prod Man: Odette van Jaarsveld Script: Hulette Pretorius Corporate Video Solo Flight Two Oceans Production Prod: Giselher Venzke & Bertha Spieker Feature SOUTH AFRICAN FIELD BAND FOUNDATION CHAMPIONSHIPS Panache Video Productions Prod: Liesel Eiselen Documentary

PRODUCTION STUUR GROETE AAN MANNETJIES ROUX Bosbok Ses Films Produced by: Piet de Jager Directed by: Paul Eilers Feature STETSON HATS Fourth Dimension Films / Creative Photo Services Dir: Neil Hermann Corporate Video TANZANIAN INVESTMENT OPPORTUNITIES Benchmark Productions Dir: Dermod Judge Corporate Video TECHNORATI Talent Attack TV / Fuel Media Productions Dir: Maxine Nel Technology Magazine Show THE AFRIKANER BROEDERBOND It’s a Wrap Productions Dir: Eugene Botha Documentary THE CHEETAH DIARIES SERIES 4 NHU Africa Exec Prod: Vyv Simson / Donfrey Meyer Wildlife Documentary THE TRANSPORTERS Sukuma Media/ Reality Motion Pictures Dir: Bonginhlanhla Ncube Documentary TO THE POWER OF ANNE FiX Productions Prod / Dir: Robert Haynes TV Series VALLEJO TRANSFORMATION Media Village Prod: Diane Vermooten Corporate VERITAS Media Village Prod: Debbie Matthee Documentary VKB LANDBOU BEPERK FC Hamman Films Prod Man: Odette van Jaarsveld Script: Anton Dekker Corporate Video VROU SOEK BOER West Five Films Dir/ Prods: Maynard Kraak / Johan Kruger Feature WALKING IN VICTOR’S SHOES Current Affairs Films SA Prod: Jane Thandi Lipman Feature Documentary When I Was Water Shadow Films Dir: David Forbes Documentary

IN COMPLETE A 400 YEAR OLD BESTSELLER – THE KING JAMES VERSION OF THE BIBLE Eugene Botha Productions / Blue Marble Entertainment Prod: Eugene Botha Documentary AFRICA – ASTRONOMY FRONTIER, THE SKA Khaki Productions Prod / Dir: Christelle Parrott , Wynand Dreyer Documentary AFROX LPG RESTAURANT TRAINING FC Hamman Films Director: FC Hamman Training Video ALLES WAT MAL IS The Karoo Film Company Directed by: Darrell Roodt Written by: Deon Mayer Romantic Comedy Feature

CHABELA DAY SPA: CORPORATE INFORMATION VIDEO Grey Cloud Productions Director: Jacques Brand Producer: Chabela Day Spa Information Videos DIE BALLADE VAN ROBBIE DE WEE Welela Studios Director: Darrell Roodt Drama Feature DIE BELEEFNIS Khaki Productions Prod / Dir: Christelle Parrott , Wynand Dreyer Short Film ERNST & YOUNG FiX Post Production Prod: Ernst & Young Western Cape Department Of Health Video FATHERLAND TIA productions Prod / Dir: Tarryn Lee Crossman Documentary FORENSICS RE-INVESTIGATED, TALL SHIPS, FIGHTING CYBER CRIME Blue Marble Entertainment Prod: Eugene Botha Carte Blanche Stories FROZEN TIME Prod: Eric Myeni Feature GNLD FC Hamman Films Director: FC Hamman Opening Video GUN TO TAPE Content House/Shadow Films Prod / Dir: Jackie Lebo / David Forbes Documentary HERMANUS SOCIAL UPLIFTMENT VIDEO FC Hamman Films Director: Fc Hamman Marketing Video Historical Kimberley Spike Productions Prod: Steve Mueller Documentary + Magazine.

IPCC CHURCH CHOIR FC Hamman Films Director: Pierre Smith Music Video ISRAEL INSIDE Imagination Productions / Wayne Kopping Films Dir: Wayne Kopping Documentary LAUNCH OF THE ACADEMY OF YOUNG SA SCIENTISTS Panache Video Productions Prod: Liesel Eiselen Documentary Legacy 2 Generations Grey Cloud Productions Director: Jacques Brand Corporate Information Video LION GIRL DO Productions Prod: Marlow de Mardt / Brigid Olën TV Feature MISTIFY Gleam studios / Wilddogs productions Prod / Dir: Sonja Ter Horst / Johnny Swanepoel Short film Masters of Dreams Current Affairs Films Produced by: Jane Thandi Lipman TV Series MUSIEK VIR DIE AGTERGROND Bosbok Ses Films Directed by: Salmon de Jager Produced by: Danie Bester Drama Feature

ANGLO GOLD ASHANTI SAFETY SERIES SummerTime Productions Prod / Dir: Sean Gardiner Corporate Video

NATIONAL HERITAGE COUNCIL EDUCATIONAL OUTREACH PROGRAMME Panache Video Productions Dir: Liesel Eiselen Corporate Video

As Jy Sing Johan Vorster Songs/ FiX Post Production Dir: Andre Odendaal Feature

NATIONAL LIBRARY OF SOUTH AFRICA Panache Video Productions Prod / Dir: Liesel Eiselen Corporate video

AURECON STAFF INSERTS Panache Video Productions Dir: Liesel Eiselen Marketing

NOTHING FOR MAHALA Production Companies: Heartlines; Quizzical Pictures Director: Roli Nikiwe Feature

BALLY CULLEN GUESTHOUSE AD Panache Video Productions Prod: Liesel Eiselen Corporate BAKGAT! 3 The Film Factory Producers: Danie Bester, Pierre Boezaart Director: Stefan Nieuwoudt Feature

NUPRO VOERE FC Hamman Films Director: FC Hamman Marketing Video RAF INDUCTION VIDEO Panache Video Productions Prod: Liesel Eiselen Corporate

BLITZ PATROLLIE Diprente Films Prod: Kagiso Lediga Feature

ROAD ACCIDENT FUND INDUCTION Panache Video Productions Dir: Liesel Eiselen Corporate

Brief Moments in Time Spike Productions Prod: Steve Mueller Documentary + Magazine

PGC FC Hamman Films Director: FC Hamman Marketing Video

CDII Grey Cloud Productions Director: Jacques Brand Corporate Information Video

PRINSES Life In A Bulb/ FiX Post Production Director: Morne Du Toit Short Film

PREDATORS’ PLAYGROUND NHU Africa Exec Prods: Vyv Simson / Sophie Vartan Wildlife Documentary Series Reference Pro Grey Cloud Productions Dir: Jacques Brand Corporate Information Video

U PDAT ES

UPCOMING EVENTS

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NOVEMBER 2013 19 – 15 Dec The African Diaspora International Film Festival

New York

www.nyadiff.org

RELIGION AND THE ANC Eugene Botha Productions / Blue Marble Entertainment Prod: Eugene Botha Documentary Series

20 – 01 Dec International Documentary Film Festival

RESTYLE MY STYLE Curious Pictures Prod: Anita van Hemert Children’s Programming

Cairo

27 – 16 Dec

Wavescape Film Festival

RIVER OF STONES Prod: Wiseman Mabusela Documentary RISKCON SECURITY FC Hamman Films Producer: Neels Smit Corporate Video Sisters LMOL Production Dir: Lizzy Moloto Feature

Amsterdam

www.idfa.nl

26 – 05 Dec Cairo International Film Festival

www.ciff.org.eg

Cape Town

www.wavescapefilmfestival.co.za

29 – 07 Dec Marrakech International Film Festival

Marrakech en.festivalmarrakech.info

DECEMBER 2013 06 – 14 Dubai International Film Festival

Dubai

www.dubaifilmfest.com

08 – 10 The International Film Festival Summit

Austin

www.filmfestivalsummit.com

10 Digital Bootcamp Workshop

Cape Town

SCAREDYKAT Dirty Soul Productions Dir: Kyle Lewis Horror Feature

17 – 21

Performing Arts Management Today

SHARK STORIES Talking Pictures Prod / Dir: Garth Lucas/ Ann Strimling Documentary

January 2014

SLENDER MED Grey Cloud Productions Dir: Jacques Brand Corporate Information Video

www.digitalbootcamp.co.za

Austria www.iugte.com/projects/performingartsmanagement 16 – 26 Sundance Film Festival

Utah

www.sundance.org/festival

FEBRUARY 2014 05 – 09 Colours of the Nile International Film Festival

Slender Wonder Glam Guru KykNet Grey Cloud Productions Dir: Jacques Brand Television Commercials

Tanzania

3x Slender Wonder KykNET Grey Cloud Productions Dir: Jacques Brand Television Commercial

16 – 17

Pan African Film Festival

21 – 28

FESPACO

21 – 23

Jozi Film Festival

SPACE ALIENS, UFO’S AND RELIGIOUS TRADITIONS Eugene Botha Productions / Blue Marble Entertainment Prod: Eugene Botha Documentary TECHNOLOGY INNOVATION AGENCY CEO ADDRESS Panache Video Productions Prod: Liesel Eiselen Corporate Video THAILAND, KITCHEN OF THE WORLD Khaki Productions Prod / Dir: Christelle Parrott , Wynand Dreyer Documentary THE 7P’S TO PROPEL CHANGE Panache video productions Prod / Dir: Liesel Eiselen Script: Dr Caren Scheepers THE AFRIKANER BROEDERBOND Eugene Botha Productions / Blue Marble Entertainment Dir: Eugene Botha Documentary SABC2 The Battle of Paardeberg Spike Productions Prod: Steve Mueller Documentary + Magazine.

The Belgravia Walk Spike Productions Prod: Steve Mueller Documentary + Magazine.

The Boer War Spike Productions Prod: Steve Mueller Documentary + Magazine.

The Siege of Kimberley Spike Productions Prod: Steve Mueller Documentary + Magazine.

THE TRAPPER NHU Africa Exec Prod: Vyv Simson / Donfrey Meyer Wildlife Documentary THOSE WHO CAN’T Quizzical Pictures SABC Comedy Series THROUGH THE VALLEY OF THE SHADOW OF DEATH Eugene Botha Productions / Blue Marble Entertainment Prod: Eugene Botha Documentary Totiusdal Primary School Grey Cloud Productions Director: Jacques Brand Tribute Video TREASURE GUARDS Tandem Communications Exec Prod: Jonas Bauer / Rola Bauer Feature TRIPLE O Monarchy Prod: Mosibudi Pheeha Feature TRUE DREAM ( Revised Version) South African Great Movies Production Dir: John Wani Feature

Addis Ababa

www.coloursofthenile.net

10 – 12 Digital Broadcasting Switchover Forum

www.cto.int/events/upcoming-events

Los angeles, usa Burkina Faso

www.paff.org

www.fespaco-bf.net

Johannesburg

www.jozifilmfestival.co.za

MARCH 2014 06 – 16 The Cape Town Film Mart

Cape Town

www.films-for-africa.co.za

28 – 29 Showbiz, Entertainment and Arts (sea) Expo

Johannesburg

www.seaexpo.co.za

ADVERTISERS LIST AJA Video Systems.......................27 Atlas Studios ...............................37 Blackginger.......................................1 Blackmagic Design..........................5 Cam-A-Lot.....................................38 Case Connection, The.................36 Gallo Music Publishers. IBC General Post .................................36 Howard Music...............................23 Jaycor...............................................31 Lalela Music......................FC LaserNet.........................................17 Mojapele Productions..................36

| Obeco..............................................31 On Key............................................24 Panasonic..........................................7 Pro-Sales.........................................35 Puma Video.......................................9 SAFTAS............................IFC Screen Africa Golf Day................32 Sony............................... OBC SOS..................................................19 Tempest Car Hire .......................37 Universal Music Publishers.........24 Vision Cases .................................38

TWK AGRI FC Hamman Films Prod: Odette van Jaarsveld Corporate Video

WELLBODI BIZNES Plexus Films / Four Corners Media Prod: Miki Redelinghuys Documentary

UASA CONGRESS FC Hamman Films Prod: Odette van Jaarsveld Corporate Video

WORKERSLIFE FUNERAL PLAN FC Hamman Films Director: FC Hamman Marketing Video

UASA GOLF DAY FC Hamman Films Producer: Odette van Jaarsveld Corporate Video

WORKERSLIFE INSURANCE FC Hamman Films Prod: Odette van Jaarsveld Marketing Video

VEHICLE 19 Forefront Media Group / Picture Tree / The Safran Company Exec Prod: Paul Walker Feature

WW1 (The Centenary) Spike Productions Prod: Steve Mueller Documentary + Magazine.

WAY TO FREEDOM Two Oceans Production Prods: Giselher Venzke / Bertha Spieker Feature

ZION Letcosmart Prod: Zibusiso Nkomo Feature

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

January 2014 | SCREENAFRICA | 39

Social

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Mandela Long Walk to Freedom premiére

Cast members with Winnie Madikizela-Mandela and Zinzi Mandela

Deon Lotz (Kobie Coetzee), Tony Kgoroge (Walter Sisulu), Sthandiwe Msomi and Atandwa Kani (Teenage Mandela)

Anant Singh and Winnie Madikizela-Mandela

Gys de Villiers (FW de Klerk) and his spouse

Riaad Moosa (Ahmed Kathrada) and partner

Stuur Groete aan Mannetjies Roux premiére

Anant Singh and Ahmed Kathrada

Terry Pheto (Evelyn Mandela)

Schuks! Your Country Needs You premiére

Idris Elba (Nelson Mandela)

Naomie Harris (Winnie Mandela)

Glow TV official launch

AB Moosa and Paulina Theologou

Rolanda Marais and Jozua Malherbe

Laré Brink, Leon Schuster and Alfred Ntombela

Lizelle de Klerk and Deon Lotz

Geraamtes in die Kas launch

Helene Lombard and Kim Engelbrecht

Laurika Rauch and her husband Chris Torr

Anna-Mart van der Merwe

Actor and comedian Riaad Moosa, CEO of Kagiso Media Mark Harris, ENCA anchor Uveka Rangappa and CEO of Kagiso Broadcasting Omar Essack

John-Henry Opperman and his fiancee Beate Olwagen MC Paul Rothman

N e w A pp o i n t m e n ts

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André Steenekamp, a media veteran with more than a dozen years of digital experience, has been appointed as the new CEO of strategic digital media consultancy, Acceleration Media.

This follows the acquisition of a 50%-stake in the business by Times Media Limited subsidiary, Amorphous New Media.

Steenekamp, accompanied by his 25 years of experience, aims to provide attractive opportunities to customers wanting to maximise their returns on media spend.

40 | SCREENAFRICA | January 2014

Johannesburg-based creative content studio, Spitfire Films, is proud to announce that Peter Heaney has joined the team as director.

Heaney, whose career began in front of the camera, graduated with a BA (Hons) in Theatre and Performance from the University of Cape Town.

He soon found his passion behind the camera and since then has received much acclaim as a director, the most recent being an ATKV Mediaveertjie for Best Director for the award-winning SABC2 drama, Erfsondes.

“Directing commercials was the next logical step in my career,” he says. “The attention to detail and creative as well as technical resources have long been something I’ve been keen to tap into. Spitfire is an exciting new collective playing in that space. They’ve been putting out great work and the team excites me with their wealth of talent and experience.”

Comedian Sans Moonsamy from Those Indian Guys

Gerry Rantseli Elsdon and her daughter