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| IN THIS ISSUE
32 DRONE TECHNOLOGY ADVANCES
3 THE AFRICAN ACADEMY OF CINEMATIC ARTS PRESENTS ITS FIRST GRADUATES
17
27
FIRST CO-PRODUCTION BETWEEN SOUTH AFRICA AND CHINA CURRENTLY IN DEVELOPMENT
THE MOSAIEK TEATRO TAKES ON THE WORLD
NEWS |
TELEVISION |
FESTIVALS & EVENTS |
CINEMATOGRAPHY
Johannesburg film school, the African Academy of Cinematic Arts, presents its first graduates......................... 3
Netflix releases new South African original series, Shadow.............................. 12
Africa needs superheroes for its own stories..................................... 24
“Shaping theatrical cinema”: Q&A with Chris Vermaak, Die Seemeeu DoP......... 33
Introducing Cinemagic Scoring.................. 4
FILM
What makes a Sundance-winning short film?.................. 26
NAB SHOW 2019 |
MultiChoice Talent Factory launches pan-African networking portal.................. 4
Director Speak: Daniel Snaddon ........... 16
FACILITIES |
The NAB show – every story starts here......................... 34
Die Stropers (The Harvesters).............. 14
The FPB hosts first ever think tank for African content regulators.......................... 6
BUSINESS & LEGISLATION |
Cape Town International Animation Festival and Comic Con to partner in 2020........................................ 7
First co-production between South Africa and China currently in development........................................... 17
ADCETERA |
The Durban Film Office celebrates 15 years of moving the local film industry forward................................ 18
Ogilvy launches social media performance division, Social.Lab South Africa................................. 8 Women in the driving seat: A closer look at Seriti Films’ new CI campaign, A Seat at the Table.................. 10
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MOBILE CONTENT | Mobile Money & Mobile Content.......... 22
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The Mosaiek Teatro takes on the world: World-class in-house technical infrastructure for the home of M-Net’s The Voice South Africa.............. 27
CAMERAS & ACCESSORIES |. “The exact moment the magic happens”: Behind the scenes with ZAP Speed......................................... 30 Drone technology advances: an aerial view of where things stand in 2019...... 32
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POST-PRODUCTION | Meet the Editor: Haiko Boldt.................. 36
MEDIA ASSET MANAGEMENT | Strangler Application Pattern approach to Media Asset Management................... 38
REGULARS Marketplace................................................... 40 Upcoming Events......................................... 40
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FROM THE EDITOR
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It’s hard to believe that we’re into the second quarter of the year, with so much to look back on and so much to look forward to already. On that note, last month saw another successful edition of the South African Film & Television Awards which took place at Sun City in the North West Province. Huge congratulations to the National Film & Video Foundation for pulling off an exceptional event, yet again, and of course, the biggest congratulations go out to this year’s winners. Let’s get into the issue… This month we delve into the making of the much-talked about directorial debut from South African director Etienne Kallos, The Harvesters. Premiered under the Un Certain Regard banner at Cannes Film Festival 2018 – where it received a standing ovation – Die Stropers (The Harvesters), an Afrikaans and English language feature length film, has been applauded by critics, internationally, for its exploration of toxic masculinity, sexuality and cultural identity. Read all about how the film came to be on pages 14 and 15. The 2019 Cape Town International Animation Festival took place from March 8 to 10 at the River Club in Observatory, Cape Town. For this issue we spoke to founding director of the festival, Daniel Snaddon, about his latest directorial project – Zog – as well the state of the African animation industry. Get to know him on page 16. This month, the much-anticipated NAB Show 2019 takes place from 6 to 11 April in Las Vegas and we’ve put together a show preview on pages 36 to 37. For those of you attending this year’s event, please don’t hesitate to get in touch with any post-show news and/or leads you may have regarding your time at NAB. We’re always happy to hear from our readers and are always looking for new contributors. Other noteworthy reads in this issue include a closer look at the ‘Glambot’, a high speed camera robot, as well the team behind the technology – Johannesburg-based ZAP Speed (pages 30 to 31). We close out the issue with a Q&A on drone technology with Timeslice Cinematography director Jono O’Connell – not to be missed on page 32. Until next month! – Chanelle Ellaya
THE TEAM EDITOR
Chanelle Ellaya is a writer and a journalist. She completed her BA Journalism degree at the University of Johannesburg in 2011. While writing is her passion, she has a keen interest in the media in various capacities. Chanelle is an avid social networker and a firm believer in the power of social and online networking. Between writing and tweeting, she finds time to feed her love for live music.
SUB-EDITOR & FEATURES WRITER David Cornwell writes fiction, films and features for a variety of publications. His debut novel, Like It Matters (Umuzi, 2016), was long-listed for the 2017 Sunday Times Fiction Award and the 9mobile Prize for Best African Debut.
JOURNALISTS
Lara Preston is a passionately committed marketer and strategist with a focus in promoting African content and events. Two decades of working across Africa have provided her with insights and experience that she puts to work for the projects she manages. In 2006, Lara founded, and still personally manages, Red Flag Content Relations, a full service below-the-line agency that also focuses on African entertainment and lifestyle brand marketing, strategy, and publicity.
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Louise Marsland is a veteran editor and journalist with over 20 years experience in the advertising, media, marketing and communications industries. Based in Cape Town, South Africa, she worked as the editor of AdVantage magazine, as well as Bizcommunity. com. She is currently publishing editor of TRENDAFRiCA.co.za.
Ian Dormer was born in Zimbabwe and has been in the TV business since the 1980s, having served in various positions at the SABC, M-Net and SuperSport. Ian currently works and resides in New Zealand.
Gezzy S Sibisi is a journalist and photographer with experience in print, broadcast and digital media. Her portfolio of work includes working as a lifestyle reporter as well as contributing business and education articles to The Times, Sowetan and Daily Despatch publications. As a freelancer she has worked on content development for corporate newsletters, community newspapers, blogs and educational websites.
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JOHANNESBURG FILM SCHOOL, THE AFRICAN ACADEMY OF CINEMATIC ARTS, PRESENTS ITS FIRST GRADUATES Film professionals and entrepreneurs Frank and Alisha Orji, Robert Bocking and Maumela Mahuwa believed that their unique approach to teaching would greatly benefit upcoming African actors and filmmakers. Together with other industry professionals from across the African continent, they developed what they call Africa’s premier academy for film and television training and screen acting – the African Academy of Cinematic Arts (AACA).
“W
hat makes AACA different is the philosophy behind the way we train our students. We believe you can only learn filmmaking and acting by making films and acting in them,” says the CEO of AACA, Frank Orji. Besides being the academy’s chief executive officer, Orji also manages the cinematography department, while his partner Alisha is the chief financial officer. Renowned actress Maumela Mahuwa heads up the acting and performance course, while Bocking is the academy’s dean. 2019 marks two years since the academy opened its doors within Johannesburg’s metropolitan creative hub of the Maboneng Precinct. “The decision to put AACA in Maboneng was quite easy. Maboneng’s vibe and texture
Students doing a film shoot
A student getting to grips with a boom mic is the dream of every filmmaker or creative. I believe it has added value to our students as they are constantly in a creative space. The energy at AACA is very refreshing and stimulating at the same time,” shares Orji. AACA offers MICT SETA-accredited courses that include a one-year acting course and a two-year filmmaking qualification. Both courses include 30 per cent theory and 70 per cent practical work, which allows students sufficient time to explore different work environments and advance their skills on set or while working on different film projects. As part of the school’s rigorous approach to acting and filmmaking, students are expected to produce a minimum of four to six films during the duration of the course. Furthermore, the academy works with television and film experts including Darrell Roodt, Leon Garber, Tshepo Bioshelo, Penelope Flascas, Vanessa Jansen, Kgosana Monchusi, Juvais Dunn and Jedi Mulovhedzi, all of whom offer workshops, mentorship and practical work experience to the learners.
AACA’s mission is to offer training and skills programmes that will mould young actors and film students into industry professionals – and on 5 April 2019, AACA will be honouring its first set of filmmakers who are ready to conquer the industry. “This will be our first graduation and we are confident in our students because some of them are already doing well for themselves, working in the industry,” says Orji. These film students will be concluding their journey with the academy in a ‘Wakanda Glam’-themed event, set to take place at the glamorous Hyde Park Corner venue. The 45 graduates will be presenting their film projects at the Nu-Metro VIP cinema in Hyde Park Mall to industry professionals and their families. This will be followed by an awards ceremony, where top students will be awarded in various categories including Best Actor/Actress, Best Supporting Role, Best Scriptwriter, Best Producer, Best Director, Best Production Designer, Best Editor and Best Cinematographer. In addition to working on their school
projects, the students are already tapping into the film industry by working as assistant crew members for various production companies via the school’s book-a-student work page. Orji expands: “Our students start working with companies while they are still studying. This is made possible through our website where we make it easy for production companies to book our students and alumni… This works quite well, as it gives the students the opportunity to gain experience; it also works well for production companies as they don’t have to pay industry rates.” Orji adds that the AACA students are also currently working on two productions commissioned for MTN Shortz and assisting on the NFVF commissioned film Opus, which is currently in post-production. “The vision of AACA is to train the next generation of filmmakers with a passion for telling authentic African stories that are visually dynamic. We hope to raise the next generation of film industry giants,” he concludes. – Gezzy S Sibisi
“What makes AACA different is the philosophy behind the way we train our students. We believe you can only learn filmmaking and acting by making films and acting in them.” – Frank Orji
Acting students at AACA
Actress and acting lecturer at AACA, Maumela Mahuwa, conducting a lesson
APRIL 2019
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NEWS
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WWW.SCREENAFRICA.COM
Two experienced South African music professionals have created Cinemagic Scoring – an innovative business model allowing filmmakers, composers, music students and performers access to a professional 52-piece orchestra to record the music of their choice, but on an affordable “timeshare” basis.
J
ohn Walton and Gavin Potter have adapted the familiar concept of timeshare, where multiple users share the costs of (typically) one property to all enjoy maximum benefit and financial affordability over a pre-allocated period of time, to hiring an orchestra. “We have been inspired by this tried-and-tested marketing and business model to introduce the coveted concept of ‘shared sessions’ to ‘hiring’ the expertise, experience, resources and time of the acclaimed full-time, highly professional 52-piece Cape Town Philharmonic Orchestra,” explains Walton. “This template allows record labels, publishing companies, composers, film studios, animators, advertising agencies, videographers – even students – to get their music recorded by a superb orchestra at affordable rates with minimal administration,” he adds.
PHOTO CREDIT: VAL ADAMSON
INTRODUCING CINEMAGIC SCORING
John Walton and Gavin Potter It is possible to hire the orchestra for any length of time, from a short sevenminute session, which equates to approximately one minute of finished music, up to a three-hour session, which equates to about 25 minutes of finished music. There are currently two options on the cards: the first is the Cape Town Philharmonic working together with Milestone Studios, a state-of-the-art professional recording studio in the heart of Cape Town. Benefits include multiple mic positions and section recording for more mix control and Hollywood-level production quality. Alternatively, it is possible to record the orchestra in the acoustically-appropriate rehearsal room at the Artscape Theatre in Cape Town, utilising mobile recording devices. This package is designed for maximum quality with minimal financial outlay and is perfect for pilot episodes, pitch sessions, production sampling and
exam composition work capturing the live, real-time concert experience – on a budget. Walton is a hugely-respected independent arranger, composer, conductor, music administrator, producer and educator working between Durban and Cape Town, who specialises in arranging popular music for full symphony orchestras. Potter, meanwhile, is a composer of music for film, TV and the gaming industry, having written music for many online games, commercials and award-winning short films internationally. He is signed up to score three upcoming international feature films. Says Potter: “A professional orchestra with good in-demand musicians is really expensive to hire. By hiring smaller units of time, it becomes affordable. “Similar initiatives exist elsewhere in the world,” he continues, “but with the
exchange rate of the weak rand working in South Africa’s favour, we are hoping to attract both emerging and major players in the global film market to our shores, which would be a huge plus for the movie industry and the promotion of orchestral music, and in particular the skills, flexibility, professionalism and tenacity of the Cape Town Philharmonic.” Says Louis Heyneman, CEO of the Cape Town Philharmonic, “Our international reputation as an acclaimed multi-functional orchestra with several award-winning commercial CDs to our name makes us the ideal recording partner. We are delighted to join two such experienced professionals to put South Africa on the recording map.” Potter and Walton can extend their services to include musical arranging, composition and orchestration in an array of musical genres. They are familiar with the orchestral textures used in today’s world of advertising, animation and film, and between them have worked with every conceivable style of orchestral music, including Baroque, Classical, romantic contemporary, big band, pop, rock and jazz. “We are enormously excited by the huge potential which the Cape Philharmonic and Milestone Studios have afforded us, and we sincerely look forward to working with proactive creatives to make wonderful music,” concludes Walton. – Sharlene Versfeld
MULTICHOICE TALENT FACTORY LAUNCHES PAN-AFRICAN NETWORKING PORTAL MultiChoice Talent Factory (MTF), MultiChoice Africa’s flagship Pan-African shared-value initiative, has announced the launch of the MTF Portal.
T
he portal is the third touchpoint of the initiative, following the launch of the MTF Academies, a 12-month regional film training programme aimed at upskilling the next generation of passionate young film creatives (launched in October 2018), and the MTF Masterclasses, launched in January this year and aimed at upskilling industry professionals.
The interactive online portal is aimed at profiling and connecting Africa’s industry creatives and bringing pan-African talent and opportunities together in one place. The digital portal will allow filmmakers across the continent to network, find talent and showcase their work. Access to the portal is through registration on the MTF website, which will serve as an authoritative source of industry news, supported by MultiChoice’s longstanding position as Africa’s leading storyteller. Users of the portal – including both up-and-coming talent and industry professionals – can also network with each other, connect and collaborate. The MTF Portal will, furthermore, provide information about the MTF Academies and Masterclasses. The MTF Portal forms part of the investment MultiChoice has made into improving the quality and supporting the
production of local content and storytelling across the continent. The MTF Portal will serve both seasoned professionals and aspiring talent in Africa’s film and TV industries. “With increasing cross-continental coverage, filmmakers are looking for networks beyond their own borders. As a producer in Nigeria it is exciting to know it is possible to co-produce in Angola, for example, with access to local talent and
production partners. The portal is made for mobile and is therefore accessible to any filmmaker anywhere in the world,” says Cheryl Uys-Allie, director of the MultiChoice Talent Factory. MultiChoice Group Executive for Corporate Affairs, Joe Heshu, believes that launching an online destination to connect Africa’s creative industries is a natural progression for the Group: “As Africa’s leading storyteller, we play a significant role in bringing the local television and film production industry to life across the continent, and the portal is an important extension of our commitment to igniting Africa’s creative industries to find each other and continue making great content.”
“With increasing cross-continental coverage, filmmakers are looking for networks beyond their own borders. As a producer in Nigeria it is exciting to know it is possible to co-produce in Angola, for example, with access to local talent and production
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partners. The portal is made for mobile and is therefore accessible to any filmmaker anywhere in the world. – Cheryl Uys-Allie
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NEWS
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THE FPB HOSTS FIRST EVER THINK TANK FOR AFRICAN CONTENT REGULATORS The protection of the African child, the sanctity of African culture and the rights of African citizens emerged as the top three common factors when content regulators from across the continent gathered in Johannesburg from 18 to 20 March 2019.
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he gathering was spearheaded by South Africa’s Film and Publication Board (FPB) as a first step towards the harmonisation of content classification, which puts the priorities of Africa at the centre for the protection of African citizens. Regulators from South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya, Lesotho, Malawi and Eswatini attended. Messages of support for the concept were received widely from other invited African regulators. While many country regulators participate in African Union (AU) and regional economic block deliberations on issues of Communication and Information Communication Technology, this was the
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first time that regulators have met to interrogate common challenges and to propose solutions. “The information highway and the speed of information dissemination across an ever-increasing number of content platforms is a common concern across the continent,” says FPB Acting Chief Executive Officer, Dr Maria Motebang. The rapid rise of digital technology and the World Wide Web has given rise to an unintended paradox: unprecedented access shared on a global scale and flourishing new platforms for individual and group expression, on the one hand, but increased visibility of polarising views and opinions, as well as cybercrime, on the other. The digital realm has become an anonymous haven for syndicates of people exploiting children for economic gain with access to a global network of paedophiles. The most recent digital incident to make international waves – the gruesome filming of the New Zealand mosque massacre – is an example of how extremists abuse online platforms if left unregulated. New Zealand Prime Minister, Jacinda Ardern, commented after the incident: “We cannot simply sit back and accept that these platforms just exist and what is said is not the responsibility of the place where they are published. They are
the publisher, not just the postman. There cannot be a case of all profit and no responsibility. It is unacceptable to treat the internet as an ungoverned space”. Data consumption in Africa is on the increase, especially with the competition between device manufacturers and digital service providers to deliver ever-cheaper hardware and connectivity solutions. For the first time in history, the poorest in society, even in developing and underdeveloped countries, have the potential to access information through global digital networks once only available to the rich elite. According to a recent PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) study, South Africa’s data consumption will reach eight billion gigabytes (GB) in 2022, while in Nigeria data consumption will reach 6.2 billion GB over the same period, with Kenya trailing behind at 984 million GB data consumption. It is estimated that by 2025, three-quarters of Africa’s population – the youngest in the world – will have access to the internet. Social media has given rise to “user-generated content.” No longer are citizens dependent on the media or their governments as gatekeepers of information and news. This user-generated content can be produced and distributed anywhere in the world, and it is generated 24 hours a day, every day of the year. To date, more
than five billion videos have been shared on Youtube; 300 hours of video content is uploaded per minute. While the educational benefits of the internet cannot be underestimated, the potential to do harm and to disrupt the social fabric of communities and countries cannot be taken lightly or miscalculated, either. “This poses a very real and urgent concern for governments who have to set laws and policies in place to protect its citizenry from potentially harmful content, not to mention the damage that can be done to the social cohesion within countries through the spread of things like hate speech,” Motebang says. The think tank debated another critical matter: the diversity of cultures within Africa and its varied legal frameworks pose an obstacle to complete harmonisation of content regulation. Additionally, content regulation even within a single country is a delicate balancing-act of various rights and priorities, not to mention attempting to do this on a continental scale. Adedayo Thomas, Executive Director of Nigeria’s National Film and Video Censorship Board (NFVCB), made a presentation on ‘Harmonisation of Content Regulation in Africa: A Case for The Movie Industry.’ He identified harmonised capacity-building programs across Africa, proper management of
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content ‘travelability’, a well-defined classification system and cyber safety as factors that needed adequate attention in movie content harmonisation. Representing the Kenya Film and Publication Board (KFPB), Dr Ezekiel Mutua summarised the case for harmonisation on the continent: “Content regulation is key to national development, the stability of the African continent and the projection of African narratives. Africa must begin to tell her story. The story of Africa has been told by others from their own lens, now it’s the time to use our own lens to tell our story and film is the most important tool to do this.” FPB Council Chairperson, Thoko Mpumlwana, added: “The responsibility to protect the rights of children in the digital space lies with law enforcement agencies, policy-makers and regulators as much as it does with their caregivers.” A rights-respecting approach to content regulation on all existing, new
and future converged media platforms is a necessity for countries to balance freedom of expression, access to information and protection of consumers. “Given the travelability of content over the internet and social networks, countries cannot operate in isolation when it comes to content regulation anymore. The borderless digital space opens up a common interest in finding lasting solutions that are flexible enough to remain responsive to the rapid progress of technology,” Mpumlwana told delegates at the event. Following two days of discussions, a set of recommendations will be taken forward within the various economic blocks in Africa by an Interim Steering Committee. The FPB was elected as the first Chairperson of this committee in acknowledgement of the sterling job done in initiating the think tank. Some of these recommendations include:
• Creating a framework for the harmonisation of content regulation across the continent • Establishing closer co-operation between regulators and content creators • Prioritising joint advocacy campaigns related to cyber safety • Ensuring that online service providers and Over-The-Top (OTT) services recognise the standards of Africa • A Centre of Excellence for skills development and scenario planning • A mechanism to ensure closer operational co-operation and benchmarking “We are encouraged to have made such good progress with this first round of discussions and will be setting concrete action plans in place to move the topic forward,” concludes Motebang. – Lynette Kamineth
CAPE TOWN INTERNATIONAL ANIMATION FESTIVAL AND COMIC CON TO PARTNER IN 2020 At the eighth edition of the overwhelmingly successful Cape Town International Animation Festival (CTIAF), which took place from 8 to 10 March, the exciting announcement was made that the CTIAF will partner with Comic Con from 2020, thus creating a Comic Con Cape Town.
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he CTIAF, which sold out by the first afternoon, this year hosted distinguished speakers including Academy Award-winning producer Aron Warner and Academy Awardwinning director Peter Ramsey, who picked up his Oscar for Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse just days before flying to the festival. Speaking at one of his sessions, Warner commented that the South African animation industry has huge potential and is like a “boiling pot waiting to explode into something major.” Other keynote international speakers included Tomoya Imai and David Prescott of Skydance Animation, Archita Ghosh, Marc Moynihan, Furio Tedeschi and Isaac Mogajane, as well as guests from Canada, Japan, France, Germany, Uganda, Ghana, Zimabawe, Zambia, Nigeria and many
Academy Award-winning director Peter Ramsey speaking at the CTIAF 2019.
who travelled from other parts of South Africa. Festival director Dianne Makings said, “The year-on-year growth of the festival has happened thanks to the loyal support
of our sponsors, partners and the industry. The news of the partnership with Comic Con is immensely exciting as we take the next step of growth into the future. The presence of Comic Con in Cape Town will have a huge impact on pop-culture enthusiasts in the City.” Speaking at the opening event of CTIAF, Carol Weaving of Comic Con said that she is delighted that Reed Exhibitions Africa and ReedPOP, which runs Comic Con events globally, will be hosting Comic Con Cape Town in partnership with the CTIAF, and that they are looking forward to this collaboration to show off local talent through their international networks. The CTIAF has become renowned for presenting world-class content, from animated films to insightful workshops and masterclasses, as well as providing a unique platform through which to engage with global industry leaders. The festival also hosts business-to-business sessions, producer events, networking opportunities and government panel discussions, in addition to student competitions, a family programme and an outreach programme.
“The year-on-year growth of the festival has happened thanks to the loyal support of our sponsors, partners and the industry. The news of the partnership with Comic Con is immensely exciting as we take the next step of growth into the future. The presence of Comic Con in Cape Town will have a huge impact on pop-culture enthusiasts in the City.
” – Dianne Makings
This year, learners had the phenomenal opportunity to take part in workshops hosted by Peter Ramsey and Tomoya Imai. Imai attended the festival thanks to the support of the Japanese Embassy and Consulate in Cape Town. The weekend kicked off with the popular annual Student Awards on Thursday evening, an event that has become the cornerstone of the festival’s commitment to developing the next generation of animators. The initiative recognises student works across a variety of categories, including both team and individual projects. There were an incredible 107 entries this year and the judging panel was comprised of 21 industry leaders. Long-standing supporter Nickelodeon, in addition to generously sponsoring full festival passes for all of the Student Awards nominees, announced the main prize – the chance for two students to attend Annecy, one of the world’s leading animation festivals – which this year was awarded to the extremely talented James Kock and Sinenhlanhla Shozi. The CTIAF is proudly presented by Animation SA and is made possible thanks to generous support from the following sponsors: the Department of Arts and Culture, the City of Cape Town, Wesgro, Nickelodeon, the High Commission of Canada, the Japanese Embassy and Consulate in Cape Town and the French Institute of South Africa. CTIAF has also partnered with Annecy International Animated Film Festival and Animate Africa. – Christine Skinner
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ADCETERA
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OGILV Y L AUNCHES SOCIAL MEDIA PERFORMANCE DIVISION, SOCIAL.L AB SOUTH AFRICA In 2013, award-winning advertising, marketing, and public relations agency, Ogilvy, envisioned the promising future of social media marketing – and as a result, bought an 80% stake in social media agency Social.Lab. Social.Lab operates in numerous major cities around the world including New York, London, Paris, Amsterdam, Brussels, Singapore, Dubai and Amsterdam.
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ince then, Social.Lab has become the fastest-growing company in Ogilvy’s international network. With Social.Lab’s focused approach to the strategic use of social media as a business tool, Ogilvy has been able to enhance its offering to further support clients in their digital transformations. “There have been many highlights in the partnership between Ogilvy and Social.Lab over the past few years,” says managing director of Social.Lab SA, Christophe Chantraine. “Perhaps some of the most memorable are the global account wins that have been achieved with Social.Lab. Some of these include the Nespresso global social account as well as the BMW global social work. Another key milestone has been the set-up of the Real Time Marketing Centre for Philips, which is a unique internal social performance marketing centre at the Philips headquarters in Amsterdam. “More recently, the development of new propositions around e-commerce and influencer marketing has been very exciting. These are initiatives we soon hope to bring to South Africa,” Chantraine adds. On 22 February 2019, Ogilvy’s Social. Lab established its very first African office in South Africa: a social media performance division specifically focused on helping African businesses make the most of the digital revolution. The launch of Social.Lab SA was held in conjunction with a two-hour conference at the Ogilvy offices in Bryanston, titled ‘How social media is fuelling the e-commerce economy.’ “We observed globally that social platforms are delivering double the volume to e-commerce sites compared to what they did two years ago, and that they accounted for 76 per cent of direct and indirect (influenced) online sales,” says Chantraine. Speakers at the conference expanded
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on how social platforms, like Facebook and Instagram, have capitalised on this substantial increase in online viewership and social selling by rolling out advertising formats that encourage online commerce conversion. According to Chantraine, South Africa’s online spend is predicted to reach R60 billion by the end of this year, with a projected annual growth rate of 15% by 2021. “This represents only a fraction of the value of the country’s retail sector as a whole, and indicates immense potential for growth and opportunity.” Chantraine says that the launch of Social.Lab SA has been on the cards for quite some time. Just last year, Ogilvy SA sent several of its staff members to train at the Social.Lab head offices in Brussels. These staff members now form part of the eighteen social media experts – composed of SEO and SEA, programmatic and display experts – working under Chantraine for Social.Lab SA. Chantraine, who previously had led the social media team at Social.Lab’s Brussels headquarters, now heads up Social.Lab SA. As a result, he has spent ample time familiarising himself with the African market and its online potential. He shared some of his findings on Africa’s digital status:
E-COMMERCE IS ON THE RISE According to Chantraine, social media platforms are becoming leading marketing tools in South Africa – and as a result, they are increasingly being employed to build brands and drive sales. “From Facebook or Instagram with their Collection and Dynamic ads, to Snapchat and its recent Amazon partnership, or even Pinterest’s ‘Shop the Look’ feature, social selling is slowly taking over and it’s here to stay.”
MD of Social.Lab SA, Christophe Chantraine
“Launching Social.Lab in South Africa answers a need for agencies to consolidate advertising, activations, direct marketing, digital, PR and social media.
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– Christophe Chantraine, managing director of Social.Lab SA
AFRICA VERSUS THE REST OF THE WORLD While high data prices still remain a challenge to South Africa’s online trade, millennials are finding creative ways to help solve these connectivity hurdles, says Chantraine. ‘Journeys to Connectivity’, a Facebook-commissioned study done by D3 Systems which looked into the online patterns of young people in Kenya, Nigeria and South Africa, identified these as some of the creative workarounds used to stay online and continue to make use of the social market: • Unreliable network: Over 86% of users have complained about experiencing spotty network coverage – as a result, 38% combat this problem by having multiple SIM cards; • Load-shedding: About 31% of users have reported unreliable electricity supply – this has motivated over 34% of mobile users to turn their phones off until they are needed; • High data cost: High data costs have led to more than 67% of users needing to recharge each week – to
save on data, consumers have opted to turn off their mobile data connection off until it is needed.
CONTENT + SOCIAL MEDIA EXPERTISE = CAMPAIGN SUCCESS With Social.Lab being a social-first marketing organisation powered by Ogilvy’s strategic and creative muscles, the new social performance division will help Ogilvy SA combine top-drawer creative content with extensive paidsocial media expertise. “Launching Social.Lab in South Africa answers a need for agencies to consolidate advertising, activations, direct marketing, digital, PR and social media. We bring these capabilities together – fittingly per client and brief – to develop integrated, dynamic content strategies that make brands, sales and customer value grow. Our conviction is that social has a transformative power for business when you combine creative content and sophisticated distribution,” Chantraine concludes. – Gezzy S Sibisi
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WOMEN IN THE DRIVING SEAT A CLOSER LOOK AT SERITI FILMS’ NEW CI CAMPAIGN, A SEAT AT THE TABLE
Johannesburgbased television and commercial production company Seriti Films recently launched an internal corporate identity campaign, meant solely for social media, that foregrounds the plight of women in contemporary society and highlights their intrinsic strength as individuals. Titled A Seat at the Table, the commercial uses striking imagery and bold textual overlays to emphasise the uplifment of woman’s voices. BOLD AND FEARLESS As Paul Ramaema, commercials director at Seriti Films, explains: “The intention was to create an internal online PSA around highlighting the struggles, injustices and inequities faced by women on a daily basis, with the intention of portraying woman who felt most marginalised in our society. We wanted to amplify and give credit to those who are bold and fearless in standing up for what they believe in, by using a female-written piece told by a strong female voice and seen through the eyes of strong women.” Ramaema explains how the team executed the look and feel of the ad – which is notable for its frank, no-nonsense imagery and provocative rhetoric. 10 | SCREENAFRICA | APRIL 2019
TECH CHECK EQUIPMENT • Camera: Arri Alexa Mini • Lenses: Sigma Cinema Primes Seriti’s new CI campaign, A Seat at the Table
“The key idea was simplicity juxtaposed with the striking and almost-emotionless facial expressions from the different women, who would only move for the words in the voiceover – with the idea of making it seem like they are challenging the male narratives contained in some of the words,” he says.
• Lighting 20x20 soft box
as we were granted a free day from Panalux Gold Island Studios because of an on-going shoot we had at the time. So I had to street cast and use cast members that were involved in the other current project, as well as bring in crew that were preparing to shoot the following day. So we owe a huge thank you to everyone who made it possible so quickly.”
MAGAZINE-COVER AESTHETIC He continues: “The 4:3 aspect ratio and portrait framing style was to illicit the idea of still images, and this was reinforced by the simple art direction of the single chair – a representation of the seat at the table. White borders were used to contrast the dark and infinite background in the space, as well as play into the notion of Instagram filters, where a lot of the time, white borders give the effect of a ‘portrait look’.” As Ramaena points out, the textual overlays – which underscore important lines in the narrative, such as “Our Place to Speak” and “Stand Out and Be Seen” – do more than simply echo the speaking voice. “The titles are another play on the theme of ‘still images’, enhancing the effect of creating a magazine cover-like shoot, and giving off a sensual, dynamic touch to the visuals, which play against the heavy and hard-hitting words being delivered by the voice over.” Shot on an ARRI Alexa Mini, with Sigma Cinema Prime lenses, Ramaema says that “it was an extremely quick turnaround time in terms of shooting the commercial,
SENSITIVE MATERIAL With the overtly political nature of the advert, as well as its explicit treatment of the themes of identity and representation, Ramaema explains that the post-production period presented some unique challenges. “Post was the most exciting aspect, as we had to be considerate of words we highlighted so as not to offend anyone, nor have it come back on us and be received negatively. I had to consult with some serious feminists and I’m glad that the process happened so naturally and worked out in our favour.” Elaborating on this idea, Ramaema reflects that “this was a rather exciting and simple piece that I had to approach with sensitivity, considering the subject matter. Specifically, I needed to demonstrate sensitivity, not on the basis of it being about women, but because of the type of piece it is and the fact it is being told through the eyes of a man,” he concludes. – David Cornwell
KEY CREW Director: Paul Ramaema Production House: Seriti Films Producers: Jhadi Quinn & Yolanda Hlakula DoP: Brendan Barnes Editor: Jade Bowyer Post-production: Post Modern post production
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TELEVISION
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Netflix
releases new South African original series,
Shadow TECH CHECK EQUIPMENT • Camera: Sony FS7 • Lenses: Sigma Cinema Lenses
“Shadow was shot on the Sony FS7 camera with Sigma Cinema lenses.”
KEY CREW Producer: Phillip Wolmarans Writer: Gareth Crocker Director: Gareth Crocker and Fred Wolmarans DOP/head of special effects: Nick Keulemans Editor/technical director: Fred Wolmarans
12 | SCREENAFRICA | APRIL 2019
Amanda Du-Pont and Pallance Dladla star in new Netflix Original series, Shadow
Last year, American entertainment streaming service, Netflix, announced that it will be investing in original African content. The year 2018 saw the release of its first African original series, Queen Sono, executive-produced by Kagiso Lediga (Catching Feelings, Matwetwe). On 8 March 2019, a second original South African series – the action-drama Shadow – was launched on the global streaming service.
“T
he African continent presents opportunities both for Netflix and filmmakers and we are actively searching for fresh differentiated stories from the African continent. We are committed to giving passionate local content creators a worldwide platform to share their vision, and offering consumers around the world unique and diverse stories they can discover and enjoy anywhere, anytime and at the same time. This is just the beginning of our investment in Africa,” said Netflix in a statement. Shot in Johannesburg, Shadow is a proudly South African production, written by Gareth Crocker and co-directed by Crocker and Fred Wolmarans. The eight-part action-drama series follows a crime-fighting, supernatural vigilante named Shadrach ‘Shadow’ Khumalo, played by rising South African star Pallance Dladla (Isibaya, Hard to Get). In addition to Dladla, the show’s cast includes Amanda Du-Pont, Khathu Ramabulana and Tumie Ngumla. The series is the latest production from Johannesburg-based independent film and television studio Motion Story. “Shadow is inspired by the sense of helplessness we all feel when faced with injustice in our lives. While we may not be able to defend the vulnerable or take on the criminals that plague our communities, Shadow can. He’s a kind of avatar for our primal brains. Someone unafraid to take action regardless of the consequences,” says Crocker. The series follows Shadow, a former task force specialist and detective. Having been struck by lightning as a child,
Shadow is now, as a result, resistant to physical pain. Initially he uses his condition to his advantage, in order to thrive in his career. However, after a devastating personal tragedy, Shadow takes on the darker role, as he travels deep into the underworld of killers and mercenaries. In this dark world he is forced to face his past, and soon discovers that feeling no pain is the most painful thing of all. “In so many respects, Pallance’s character is the person we all wish we could be. He doesn’t stand on ceremony, cares little of what others think and has the courage to do what is right – regardless of the ramifications. And yet, even though his character seems cold and reckless on the surface, beneath that veneer is someone who cares intensely about his country, his friends and his family,” shares Crocker. The series was cast and shot in Johannesburg last year with at least 80 per cent of the show filmed on location. “From the roofs of buildings, basements
and bars to places like the Soweto Cooling Towers, penthouses and street scenes, we took great care in trying to move our characters through the city as much as possible. Johannesburg is, in fact, one of the show’s main characters,” comments Crocker. Writing and pre-production of the series spanned roughly six months each, while post-production took almost an entire year. “My partners Chris and Colleen Lawrance, Phillip and Fred Wolmarans and Nick Keulemans are all equally responsible for Shadow. We’re very fortunate in that by and large our studio handles all aspects of the show: from breaking the story, writing and pre-production, right through to filming, post-production and final material delivery – virtually everything is done in-house,” says Crocker. Shadow was shot on the Sony FS7 camera with Sigma cinema lenses. Most of the series was shot using a shoulder rig and gimbal stabiliser, with select scenes shot with camera cranes and dollies and
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Pallance Dladla as Shadrach ‘Shadow’ Khumalo in a scene from the series
“We hope that audiences will be moved by Shadow and inspired by what we’ve tried to create. Not just in terms of the show itself, but from a business perspective as well. We’ve proven that with desire, belief and hard work, it’s possible for an independent production to be picked up by a major global player like Netflix. very little work based on the tripod. Drones were also used for aerial shots throughout the production. Crocker expands: “Camera choices and lighting were made according to the pacing of the scene and its dramatic needs. For scenes that required a voyeuristic or dream-like feeling, the
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– Gareth Crocker
camera would be mounted on a three-axle gimbal stabiliser, and for the more visceral fight scenes it would be mounted on a shoulder rig and harness. Various drone shots of the city were critical to establish and ground the show in Johannesburg.” He adds, “From cross-cuts and fades
to J-cuts and L-cuts, all editing decisions were always made in service of the story, its mood and tone and the pacing of the scene in question. There were several creative montages and a number of visual effects used to help heighten the tension.” On Key Sound Studios was responsible
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25-Mar-19 3:46:35 PM
APRIL 2019
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Die Stropers
FILM
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Premiered under the Un Certain Regard banner at Cannes Film Festival 2018, Die Stropers (The Harvesters) is the directorial debut of Etienne Kallos, set in the flat farmlands of the central Free State province…
A
tale of two foster brothers – enormously different – in a silent fight for power, The Harvesters is a moody, moving, brilliantly-shot Afrikaans and English language drama reminiscent of the Biblical story of Cain and Abel. It’s a coming-of-age story of masculinity, explored within the realms of the Free State’s conservative Christian white-Afrikaner community. “Director Etienne Kallos had the seeds of the idea for many years,” producer Thembisa Cochrane comments. “As a South African director, he had worked with some Afrikaans actors who came from a farming background and saw resonances of his own experience. Etienne got into his car and simply drove out to farms to explore further. He was warmly welcomed by Afrikaans farmers and the story emerged organically from there.” While developing the story, Kallos – who also wrote the film – began to unpack ideas of masculinity in a heavily patriarchal culture “and the fractures in identity that can come from being a product of post-colonial South Africa,” says Cochrane. “It emerged as a Cain and Abel-type story, in which the spiritual and cultural fractures manifest as a fracture between two characters: two young men who are mirrors for and of each other.” The film follows Janno (15), a young Afrikaner who feels out of place in his fiercely religious community, where young men are defined solely by their
strength and masculinity. Though his body is well-developed due to working in the fields from a young age, Janno is different – he is guarded and emotionally frail, partially due to his emerging homosexual desires. One day his mother, Marie, takes in a boy named Pieter – a tough street orphan; the son of a prostitute and a drug addict. Marie asks Janno to bond with Pieter as his brother, but the two boys, different in every aspect, begin an on-going fight for power, heritage and parental love.
CASTING Brent Vermeulen (Janno) and Alex van Dyk (Pieter) were cast as the leads, delivering nuanced, tempered, vivid performances in their very first film roles. “Alex had never even been in a play,” explains Cochrane, who says that casting the two lead roles was one of the biggest challenges. “We couldn’t start too far in advance because the boys had to be in exactly the right physical and emotional space between childhood and adulthood. Then when we were finally greenlit, we faced the massive challenge of finding enough boys to audition, since it’s still a conservative culture and there are themes of sexuality in our film. The good news is that times are changing – a few years ago it would have been much harder to get Afrikaans boys in high school to sign up for this material, but we found many of them didn’t mind,” she comments.
Cochrane adds that the real challenge was getting into schools and getting permission from parents and principals to have the boys on the shoot: “It was always clear we wanted these roles to be played by authentically Afrikaans boys, and – on top of this – it was critical that the chemistry between them worked. We only found Alex two weeks before the shoot, which you can imagine was very stressful for everyone. Luckily, it worked and the performances are incredible and have been widely applauded.” Vermeulen and van Dyk were supported in their preparation and on screen by the talents of seasoned local actors Juliana Venter (as Marie) and Morné Visser, who plays their father (named Jan).
PRODUCTION The Harvesters was shot in June 2017 in KwaZulu-Natal and the Free State by Polish cinematographer Michal Englert, who – together with Kallos and production designer Barri Parvess – developed and flawlessly delivered the earthy yet hostile look and feel of the film, which – according to Cochrane – was inspired largely by the land itself. “The physical presence of the land was always an important driver for Etienne
and so the style he developed with cinematographer Michał Englert emerged from their preparation time together on our shoot locations,” Cochrane expands. “That landscape, in KwaZulu-Natal and the Free State, with its koppies and striking flat-topped mountains, was the starting point. Etienne wanted to create the feeling that the landscape was more important, or more powerful, than the characters. In the film there is also a strong sense that God is watching. God, in many ways, is the land – and in the film questions are raised around duty to the land, and what duty means in order to be good. In some ways, Etienne wanted the camera and the music to be part of ‘God’s judgement’.”
GEAR With a very small budget and a very complex international financial setup, the crew were forced to make some innovative decisions when it came to gear. This included shooting a lot of the outdoor scenes in natural light. “We were lucky to have an extremely skilled South African gaffer and dedicated grips and lighting teams who were very small, but managed to make it work,” Cochrane explains. The film was shot on the Arri Alexa XT, “as we felt it was a flexible and robust camera which could deliver the quality of
Behind the scenes of Die Stropers (The Harvesters)
14 | SCREENAFRICA | APRIL 2019
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FILM
TECH CHECK EQUIPMENT • Camera: Arri Alexa XT • Lenses: Zeiss Super Speed
A still from Die Stropers (The Harvesters)
image our cinematographer wanted and perform well in the remote conditions of our shoot,” she adds. The Alexa XT was paired with Zeiss Super Speed lenses, which were selected for their maximum flexibility with exposure conditions. The aim was to be as small and mobile a unit as possible, shooting mainly handheld and using a tripod only when necessary. This meant that for a long time Kallos and his team tried to resist the use of a dolly, “but it became clear that some of the smooth, carefully composed and moving shots Etienne wanted would need heavier grips equipment,” says Cochrane. In the end they used both a Filmair Squirrel and Fisher 10 dolly.
POST-PRODUCTION The Harvesters is an official co-production between four countries – South Africa (Spier Films), Greece (Heretic), France (Cinema Defacto) and Poland (Lava Films) – and thanks to its international partners, image and sound post-production were carried out in France and Greece. “On the shoot we had crew from Poland, France, Greece – these were very flexible artistic people who were used to the independent sector in their own countries and it was great to see them work with our South African crew, who get fewer opportunities to work in a less hierarchical way on smaller films for international film festivals,” Cochrane comments. The film’s score – percussion-heavy, utilising a traditional Japanese instrument to create sounds that mirrored the landscape – was
composed by celebrated French composers Evgueni and Sacha Galperine, who were nominated for the Cannes Soundtrack Award for their work on The Harvesters.
FINANCING AND FESTIVALS Conceived as an art house film, financing the project took a few years: “We had a lot of European financial support, mainly the CNC in France, other public French funds, the Greek Film Centre, the Polish Film Institute and Eurimages,” says Cochrane. In South Africa, the KwaZuluNatal Film Commission supported the film, “which we were incredibly grateful for and this really gave the film its home base,” she adds. Pyramide International also supported from the very beginning and subsequently handled international sales of the film and distribution in France – where it has already achieved great success, going on to win the Grand Prix at the much-lauded Chéries-Chéris Film Festival. In South Africa, Indigenous Film Distribution released Die Stropers in local cinemas on 15 March. The film has enjoyed a successful run on the international festival circuit, starting with its world premiere in the Cannes: Un Certain Regard section – where it received a standing ovation – and going on to play at festivals in Melbourne, São Paulo, Mumbai, Taipei and Morocco, to name a few. It also won the Rome Film Festival’s jury prize for Best First Film and has just had its North
American premiere at the Miami Film Festival on 8 March.
RESONANCE Applauded for its exploration of toxic masculinity, sexuality and cultural identity, Cochrane says that there is enough space in the film for viewers to generate their own meaning, and she hopes that local audiences will find resonance in the questions the film poses about masculinity, religion, sexuality, ownership of land and cultural identity. “The themes in the film have a lot of universal relevance for both South African and international audiences. Questions of identity and culture are very much at the forefront of the conversation worldwide, so on the most basic level for South Africans this opens up a hard and nuanced question about the place of the white Afrikaner. But that question can be expanded more broadly for anyone who experiences fractured identity, anyone who feels they do not belong firmly to any place or people. There are other very universal themes in the film, too: the critical view of religion as a fortifying force in a loveless and unforgiving world; sexual confusion as a part of adolescence. We hope audiences will appreciate being challenged to respond to the film, and so far the experience has been that mostly people do have an emotional response and ask questions. That’s what we want,” she concludes. – Chanelle Ellaya
“The themes in the film have a lot of universal relevance for both South African and international audiences. Questions of identity and culture are very much at the forefront of the conversation worldwide, so on the most basic level for South Africans this opens up a hard and nuanced question about the place of the white Afrikaner. But that question can be expanded more broadly for anyone who experiences fractured identity, anyone who feels they do not belong firmly to any place or people. – Thembisa Cochrane
Die Stropers was shot on the Arri Alexa XT, selected because it is a flexible and robust camera which could deliver the quality of image desired by DoP Michal Englert and perform well in remote conditions.
The Alexa XT was paired with Zeiss Super Speed lenses which were selected for their maximum flexibility with exposure conditions.
KEY CREW Writer/ Director: Etienne Kallos Producer: Etienne Kallos (Kallos Films), Thembisa Cochrane & Michael Auret (Spier Films), Konstantinos Kontovrakis & Giorgos Karnavas (Heretic), Mariusz Wlodarski (Lava Films), Tom Dercourt & Sophie Erbs (Cinema Defacto) DoP: Michal Englert Editor: Muriel Breton Original Score: Evgueni & Sacha Galperine Sound: Leandros Ntounis, Thomas Robert, Jean-Guy Veran
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FILM
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DIRECTOR SPEAK
L DANIDEON SNAD
DANIEL SNADDON This month Screen Africa chatted to Daniel Snaddon, founding director of the Cape Town International Animation Festival and director of Zog, Triggerfish’s latest BBC Christmas special with Magic Light Pictures…
HOW HAS THE LANDSCAPE CHANGED IN THE AFRICAN ANIMATION INDUSTRY OVER THE PAST FIVE YEARS? Africa is currently being looked to as a source of inspiration. It’s still hard to do things in Africa, but we finally have the ear of the big studios and networks – and they want to see what our animation studios can do.
WHAT IS YOUR BACKGROUND AND HOW HAS THIS SHAPED YOU AS A DIRECTOR? Growing up in the transition era has made me an optimist and a believer in people. As a director, I like to be collaborative and to challenge my teams to come up with creative solutions on both the artistic and technical sides of our films. So far, they’ve only fuelled my belief!
WHY DO YOU THINK AFRICAN ANIMATION IS CURRENTLY BOOMING AND TRAVELLING LIKE IT IS? TO WHAT DO YOU ATTRIBUTE THIS SUCCESS? The current interest in African animation has been fuelled by a thirst for unique stories and voices. Whether this turns into a genuine boom or not will depend on us and whether we can create characters and stories that connect with world audiences.
WHY ANIMATION? WAS IT ALWAYS THE PLAN? In his book Starting Point, Hayao Miyazaki describes all animators as being nostalgic for a world that doesn’t exist, which really resonates with me. Plan-wise: I’ve always drawn, made little comics, films and video games, and when I was looking at what to study, I became really jealous of my friend when he told me he was going to do animation... so I followed the envy.
AS THE FOUNDING DIRECTOR OF THE CTIAF, HOW DID YOU FIND THIS YEAR’S EVENT? I was completely blown away! The quality of the talks, the meetings and conversations was world-class. Di and her team did an amazing job.
APART FROM ANIMATION, WHAT KIND OF CONTENT DO YOU ENJOY CREATING? My wife, Julia, and I are working on a kid’s book together. It’s about a young boy trying to figure out how to be a ‘manly-man.’ YOU RECENTLY DIRECTED ZOG – BASED ON THE BESTSELLING JULIA DONALDSON AND AXEL SCHEFFLER PICTURE BOOK – WHAT WAS THAT PROCESS LIKE? WHAT DREW YOU TO THIS STORY? Directing Zog was great fun, and surprisingly straightforward for Max (Lang) and myself. We are both story-board artists and managed to get a first pass of the film out in a couple of weeks, and then just built on that with the team, iteration by iteration. At the heart of the book, there is a lovely and surprising relationship between the dragon and the girl, which I found charming. It also has a great message about being true to yourself in the face of the expectations of others, which I think is a great take-away for kids and adults alike. WHAT ELEMENTS ARE CRUCIAL IN DEVELOPING A SUCCESSFUL ANIMATED FILM/SERIES FOR YOUNGER VIEWERS? Young audiences can be quite brutal, and can smell condescension or someone who thinks they’re funny a mile away. To get something to connect, you need to be just as brutal with your film, and if the story is unclear, a joke isn’t getting a laugh or an emotional moment isn’t landing, you need to fix it.
16 | SCREENAFRICA | APRIL 2019
WHAT IS THE IMPORTANCE OF EVENTS LIKE THE CTIAF TO THE AFRICAN ANIMATION INDUSTRY? It connects us to the world and to each other and that, alone, makes it super important. We’re a collaborative medium; we can’t really thrive in isolation.
“Africa is currently being looked to as a source of inspiration. It’s still hard to do things in Africa, but we finally have the ear of the big studios and networks – and they want to see what our animation studios can do.
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WHAT HAS BEEN THE HIGHLIGHT OF YOUR CAREER THUS FAR? Watching Zog with my nine-month-old, my wife and our parents at the UK premiere was pretty special. ANY ADVICE FOR YOUNG PEOPLE WANTING TO PURSUE A CAREER IN ANIMATION? Young people! Listen to me!!! Figure out what you WANT, and then figure out how to get it! Otherwise other people will tell you what they want from you, and you’ll spend your life giving it to them (because they have all the money). WHAT NEXT FOR DANIEL SNADDON AS A DIRECTOR? I’m currently directing another Christmas special for Magic Light Pictures and the BBC, based on Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler’s book, The Snail and the Whale. I’m also developing the feature film Kariba with Triggerfish, based on the graphic novel by Daniel and James Clarke. – Chanelle Ellaya
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BUSINESS & LEGISLATION
First co-production between South Africa and China currently in development
Murray Clive Walker, Wu Wei Lin, Zhou Yong (Cultural Attache at Chinese Embassy), Kang Li Juan & Darrell Roodt
Wu Wei Lin, Darrell Roodt and Kang Li Juan
The first-ever co-production between South Africa and China – a conservation-inspired story entitled No Man’s Land – is in advanced stages of development.
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ith Darrell Roodt set to direct and Murray Clive Walker slated for a starring role, the project represents an exciting partnership between the two BRICS countries. No Man’s Land is largely set in China’s Qinghai Province, situated in the northern foothills of the Himalayas, as well as the northern wetlands of Gauteng. It tells the story of a conservationist who strives to protect China’s endangered red-crowned crane. When she comes across a blue crane with a South African tag, she decides to return the bird to its original nesting-ground. The production of No Man’s Land plans to bring Africa and Asia together in a friendly, cultural collaboration. The film will be the first co-production of its kind between China and South Africa, and will also mark a big step towards greater cultural collaboration between the BRICS countries. “In the future, we hope to shoot more films that communicate to the world the beauty, charm and ethnic diversity that these countries possess. China and South Africa have a good political relationship and we want to strengthen it through this kind of cultural storytelling,” says Murray Clive Walker, who is also acting as co-producer of the film. Walker explains that he set up Colony
Films “six months ago, with the express purpose of doing a co-production with China. I got back to Johannesburg at the end of 2017, after working in China for 14 years, and it was a question of deciding to ‘do what I know.’ It occurred to me that I could leverage my Chinese resources and the experience I had of working in both countries.” Walker continues: “I was in conversation with producer Jin – who I met about seven or eight years ago doing another movie – and he was on the lookout for a top director for this project of his. I told him I knew Darrell Roodt, who is an Oscarnominated director – but the more we spoke about it, the more we both realised it would be ideal to make it a coproduction.” Providing an update of the progress of the project, Walker explains that “we have completed the first stage of three. We have just invited two Chinese representatives to Cape Town and Johannesburg to meet with Darrell and producer Greig Buckle at Enigma Pictures – a company which has done great work over the years in production services, including five months on Mad Max: Fury Road. The representatives also visited Cape Town Film Studios, Atlantic Film
“In the future, we
Producer Jin
Studios and Refinery Post Production, and conducted meetings at the Gauteng Film Commission, the Department of Trade and Industry and the Chinese Embassy.” Walker and Roodt are “currently working on the script to adapt it for the co-production. We need to flesh out the local scenes and make sure we have twenty-one filming days in South Africa – and next we’ll fly over to Beijing in April. There’ll be a whole delegation of us, hopefully with representatives from the Gauteng Film Commission and the DTI, to participate in the official signing of the contract. And after that,” he concludes, “we’ll be able to head into production.” – David Cornwell
hope to shoot more films that communicate to the world the beauty, charm and ethnic diversity that these countries possess. China and South Africa have a good political relationship and we want to strengthen it through this kind of cultural storytelling.
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– Murray Clive Walker, co-producer of No Man’s Land
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The Durban Film Office celebrates 15 years of moving the local film industry forward This year marks the 15-year anniversary of the establishment of the Durban Film Office (DFO), the eThekwini Municipality’s film industry development unit. To reflect on this important milestone, as well as report back on its achievements to date and to share its strategic vision and insights from consultations with local film industry representatives, the DFO hosted a stakeholder engagement at the ICC on Wednesday, 20 March.
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n welcoming the stakeholders, the eThekwini Municipal Mayor, Councillor Gumede, said, “As we feel the effects of the Fourth Industrial Revolution on the global economy, and as we observe that the world is digitally dynamic, and ever-changing, creating new roles for people to be economically active in ways we have never imagined, it is vital that as a City we remain ahead of the game. As government we act as an enabler for economic development, and with the express goal to eradicate the triplechallenge of poverty, inequality and unemployment, we are mindful of the role that film plays in driving a particular economy and how film and the moving image feeds into this new digital economy. The Durban Film Office plays an important role in keeping our economic development hub in touch with the film industry, as well as being strategic about how filmmakers can be supported to ensure this City continues to strive to become a hub of film activity with endless possibilities of economic growth.” “The film industry is not merely about the creative process and end product, there is an entire value chain that benefits from it: from locations and infrastructure, logistics and services, hospitality and catering, post-production and distribution amongst other things,” said Toni Monty, Head of the Durban Film Office. “Then, as a by-product, films ‘sell’
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the City as a tourism destination and/or a film production destination of choice. These economic drivers are what we are looking at harnessing going forward.” The DFO was established in 2003 by the Ethekwini Municipality as a sector development office mandated to promote and support the development of the local film and television industry in Durban. Since its inception, the DFO has spearheaded several developmental programmes to build capacity and awareness of the local industry – one of these being the Ethekwini Filmmakers Association (EFA) in 2011, after the DFO recognised the need to establish a collective voice for emerging Durban filmmakers and supported the association through various mediums, including workshops to aid them in their field of filmmaking. A Micro Budget Film Fund was established in 2012 and was one of the first of its kind in South Africa aimed at bridging the gap between emerging and intermediate filmmaking. The fund provides emerging filmmakers with an opportunity to produce their first film within a mentoring environment. To date, the DFO has supported 25 micro-budget productions, and 12 films have been completed with others still in production. The DFO also established its Development Fund, designed to assist intermediate and professional filmmakers
Film industry stakeholders and staff of the Durban Film Office join Head of Economic Development, Shunnn Tulsiram (in suit); Head of the DFO, Toni Monty; and Councillor Sipho Kaunda (right) to cut a 15-year anniversary cake.
to package film projects for the broader market and increase capacity to attract production funding from provincial and national funding agencies and private investors. To date, the programme has worked with eight projects, two of which are completed and the other six are still in development. The DFO has, furthermore, developed a Location Scout Service to further incentivise local and foreign productions to scout Durban as a potential location for their next project. SCOUT is a programme to provide and develop local location scouts and expose young and previously-disadvantaged filmmakers to the business of location scouting and, eventually, full location management. In 2009, the DFO established a highly-successful market access programme, the Durban FilmMart (DFM), in partnership with the Durban International Film Festival. The DFM is an African co-production market that aims to promote collaboration between Durban and the rest of South Africa, as well as between Durban and African and global markets. The business model was the first of its kind in South Africa and Africa and has enjoyed tremendous support from important partners across Africa and the world, with a record attendance last year of 856 delegates. The market provides opportunities for emerging, intermediate
and professional-level filmmakers, and this year celebrates its 10th edition in July 2019 alongside the celebration of 40 years of the Durban International Film Festival. To date, the DFM has worked with more than 200 projects in development with countless success stories, such as Five Fingers For Marseilles, Alison, Inxeba (The Wound) and Train of Salt and Sugar (the latter two being official selections for Oscar consideration), among many others. “Two important additions to the DFM this year are the African Locations Expo and a content buyer’s programme, which we believe are going to be major drawcards for filmmakers,” Monty said. The Festival and Market Support Policy is an additional market access programme that provides support to Durban filmmakers who have been invited to present completed works or projects in development at other markets and festivals. Over the years, the DFO and DFM have also formed strong partnerships with “sister city” festivals in Nantes (3 Continent Festival) and the International Film Festival of Rotterdam; festivals and markets such as Berlinale, Hotdocs Canada, Caribbean Tales Canada, Sundance Film Festival (USA) and the International Documentary Festival of Amsterdam (Netherlands); and funding and investment agencies such as the
| to be box office hits, or else snapped up for the international festival circuit, providing enabling environments for filmmakers to network and develop relationships globally. Successful films made in the city include Izulu Lami, Otello Burning, Keeping Up with the Kandasamys (with a sequel about to be launched this year), White Wedding, the Spud series, More Than Just a Game and Deep End, which is currently on circuit in 26 cinemas around the country. The DFO statistics viewed over 15 years illustrate the steady growth of the industry. Its permit office works with an average of 150 productions per annum, issuing in the region of 250 film permits annually. Since 2003, the Durban Film Office has assisted over 3000 productions to film in eThekwini locations, which has created employment to the tune of over 30 000 crew days over the last 15 years. These production activities contribute R329 million to the local economy annually. A key aspect of the strategy is to promote a service culture in the City and increase these numbers over the next five years. Finally, going forward, and in consultation with the industry, the DFO has developed a Sector Strategy, which
National Film and Video Foundation, Westgro and Department of Trade and Industry. Going forward, Monty explained that the DFM has upcoming relations with the Motion Picture Association, and – in 2018 – a Memorandum of Understanding was signed between the DFO and the KZN Film Commission to ensure good intergovernmental cooperation and programme synergies. A key focus of the strategy is to develop programmes to attract functioning production hubs into the City. “We supported the establishment of Stained Glass Productions studio in KwaMashu that produces the ‘mostwatched’ SA TV soap, Uzalo, on home
turf. To date, this production hub has contributed R190 million over three years to the local economy and employed over 600 locals across the value chain. We also have strong relations with Durban film producers VideoVision, who have invested in, produced and distributed countless South African films, including the current television drama Imbewu. Other TV shows include the highlypopular Nat Geo Series Snake City and the reality show eHostela. Encouraging additional productions hubs in Durban will go a long way towards stabilising the local industries’ growth path.” Durban has also played host to many film productions that have gone on either
BUSINESS & LEGISLATION
will essentially focus on four pillars. “We need to grow the local business network through the design of programmes to encourage local film business formalisation, which will allow these businesses to access more opportunities,” explained Monty. “Another pillar is to encourage new market entrants, which we would achieve by the creation of a transformation and localisation policy, and – within this – further grow the existing content development and market access programmes. We also need to attract film and television hubs to the city through the creation of a policy to entice TV series production, which provides consistent opportunities for filmmakers. This will include a framework to promote ‘Digital Durban’, which will aim to attract post-production and visual effect opportunities. Finally, the DFO aims to grow a film service culture through a strong marketing approach to uncover, showcase and promote the services available in the city and to build a film service community and promote Durban as a Film-Friendly City.” – Sharlene Versfeld
“The film industry is not merely about the creative process and end product, there is an entire value chain that benefits from it: from locations and infrastructure, logistics and services, hospitality and catering, post-production and distribution amongst other things. Then, as a by-product, films ‘sell’ the City as a tourism destination and/or a film production destination of choice. These economic drivers are what we are looking at harnessing going forward.
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– Toni Monty, head of the Durban Film Office
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MultiChoice Talent Factory’s collaboration with Dolby places sound at the centre of visual storytelling
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frican filmmakers are faced with a myriad of challenges in their quest to take African stories to the rest of the world. Not only do filmmakers have a responsibility to tell stories that have never been told, they should be accurate, timeless and allow people to make sense of the world, and their place in it. Storytelling is an African tradition that is woven into the very fabric of what it means to be African. It has enabled families across the continent to pass on knowledge, life lessons, cultural values and age-old wisdom without the need for writing. MultiChoice has over the years provided platforms for these timeless stories – and the fresh new content that has been born out of this time-honoured storytelling tradition – to be shared in new and exciting ways. To continue this tradition, the MultiChoice Talent Factory (MTF) launched sound-focused masterclasses supported by the Dolby Institute, an initiative of Dolby Laboratories which has for over 50 years been invested in transforming the science of sight and sound into spectacular experiences through innovative research and engineering. MTF is MultiChoice Africa’s flagship initiative aimed at creating shared value (CSV). It is a year-long training programme facilitated at academies in Kenya, Nigeria and Zambia, and headed by industry experts. Working hand-in-hand with creative organisations, regulatory and
government partners, the MultiChoice Talent Factory seeks to provide young emerging filmmakers with skills, experience and qualifications to become modern African storytellers. The Dolby Institute masterclasses were aimed at nurturing the art of visual storytelling in Africa, developing technical skills and improving the quality of local productions by placing sound at the centre of visual storytelling. An essential component of filmmaking, sound is often overlooked when creating productions, says Femi Odugbemi, award-winning Nigerian filmmaker and Academy Director for West Africa. “There’s still this perception that sound is the thing you don’t have to worry about once you’re able to hear dialogue. But dialogue is not enough. Sound is a distinct art. It’s a specialisation. There is a lot of demand on us as TV and filmmakers to get this right, especially if we want our films to travel within and outside of Africa. Sound is an integral part of the full experience.” “The big plan is to ignite the creative industry, by looking at the different aspects of the creative industry, we aim to get people within the screen industry to a position where they can actually thrive, and to where producers can take advantage of the entire value chain,” says Berry Lwando, MTF Academy Directory for Southern Africa. To date, MultiChoice Africa has hosted seven MTF Masterclasses with DOLBY in Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya, Uganda, Malawi, Tanzania and Zambia. Led by Vikram Joglekar, an expert trainer and sound consultant with Dolby Laboratories facilitated a Masterclass for industry professionals on surround sound design for film & television, selection and positioning microphones in sound design and adding and texture to audio recording. “The partnering with Dolby is essential on this particular score because it will be able to bring up and enhance skills in the critical sound elements: dialogue, foley, sound effects and sound design. The good combination of all these four elements of sound are what makes for a great film production,” says Berry Lwando.
For Femi Odugbemi, this partnership is “important to help create a standard curriculum that will put the right kind of priority on the learning of the science and art of sound and sound gathering. Whether or not all the equipment is there, it’s imperative that people operating sound on sets are skilled in sound management.” Pushing towards a gold standard for sound in Africa’s film and television industry, Dolby’s initiative is part of its wider commitment to empowering emerging filmmakers. Since launching in 2015, the Dolby Institute has been at the centre of ground-breaking initiatives, such as the inaugural Dolby Fellowship in partnership with US organisation SFFILM. Speaking on sound development in film and TV industries across parts of the continent, East Africa Academy Director Njoki Muhoho says, “Sound is one of East Africa’s weakest areas in film, if not the worst. To admit a weakness is the beginnings of a journey of improvement.” Speaking on the collaboration, Dolby Laboratories Pankaj Kedia says “Our aim is to educate, inspire and empower the next generation of content creators and storytellers in Africa. MTF and Dolby are bringing together emerging artists with experts to offer concrete tools and mentorships that will enable them to more effectively use sound and imagery to create inspirational stories. ” The MultiChoice Talent Factory is privileged and proud to be working with DOLBY giving us the opportunity to take sound development to the next level. As a video entertainment company rooted in African soil, MultiChoice’s remains committed to enriching lives through local storytelling.
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MOBILE CONTENT
| OPINION
Mobile Money & Mobile Content W Everybody knows that VOD is the future of content distribution on the African continent – a space that is currently dominated by Showmax, iflix/Kwese Play and Netflix, with Apple TV, YouTube Premium and Amazon Prime also trying to establish themselves in this market. In addition to these large players, the sheer number of African-based streaming platforms is dizzying. iROKO, Tultuntulu, AcornTV, TV2Go and the newly-launched Viu in the South African market, are just some of the platforms now available.
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ithin this space, however, one of the more interesting trends is the growing convergence between mobile content providers and mobile money platforms, and where this confluence might lead. As mobile operators increase their ability to act as both broadcaster and bank – via their content platforms and mobile money operations – African banks are more and more finding themselves in competition for customers and are therefore having to find innovative ways to operate, and even move into the content space. Smart phones across Africa are fast-becoming the ‘new TV’, as well as the ‘new wallet’ – and this on top of the fact that most people who access the internet in Africa do so via their mobile phones, with more than 80% of broadband in Africa being accessed via smartphones, tablets and other mobile devices. In South Africa alone, 2.6 billion gigabytes were accessed in 2018, with only 651 million of these via fixed broadband. The rest – over two billion gigs’ of data – was accessed on mobile devices, while in Nigeria we observe the same trend, with just over one billion gigs being utilised and only 200 gigs of this via fixed broadband connections.
It’s important to note that within Africa, retail banking penetration stands at half the global average for emerging markets – at 38% of the gross domestic product, according to management consulting firm McKinsey. Telcos have rapidly filled this gap, with Safaricom’s M-Pesa, MTN Mobile Money, Orange Money, Tigo Cash or Tigo Pesa, Vodafone Cash and Airtel Money just some of the mobile money platforms present across sub-Saharan Africa. According to a report by GSMA, mobile money transactions are growing at a rate of over 17% annually since 2017, with over 135 mobile money platforms facilitating over 122 million active accounts and processing over $20 billion in transactions – or 63% of mobile money transactions worldwide. Mobile money platforms in Africa are a massive business with a massive consumer base, and so it makes perfect sense for banks to ‘get in’ on this market, which is currently dominated by the telecommunications companies. Banks are seeing that cooperation with the telcos, rather than competition, is the only route for the future. For example, last year saw the emergence of a partnership between MTN and Ecobank that enabled Ecobank and MTN Mobile Money customers to
OPINION
transfer money between mobile money wallets and bank accounts. The banks have also quickly learned that the best way to attract young customers to their mobile (or traditional) banking platforms is through wholly owned and operated content platforms. Within this space, once again we find Nigeria leading the way. In Nigeria alone, the following banks have launched streaming content platforms and are using content to reach a newer, digitally-savvy market: • United Bank for Africa: REDTV is a Pan-African lifestyle entertainment channel that focuses on engaging content from around the continent. • Access Bank: Accelerate TV features the Accelerate Film Maker Project, which aims to take young aspiring filmmakers and turn them into film festival veterans. • Diamond Bank: MyDiamondTV is a multimedia platform designed to entertain, educate and inform its viewers by documenting Nigerian pop culture, fashion and beauty, while keeping an eye on the business space as well.
In Kenya, meanwhile, Guaranty Trust Bank has launched Ndani TV. Ndani means ‘inside’ in Swahili, and that is the channel’s stated singular proposition: to take you inside Africa. However, if one really wants to see the future of mobile money and mobile content, look no further than France’s Orange Studios and Orange telecommunications, who are rapidly starting to own the entire content value chain within Africa. The French company is opening cinema chains and making content available digitally, with Orange Studios increasing its efforts to boost production and exhibition across Africa, where the film and TV arm of France’s leading telco operator, Orange, has a growing footprint. Orange Studio has a number of African film projects in different stages of development, with the goal of producing six to ten projects per year across the continent, as well as moving into TV production, with its first series in Burkina Faso, and – via a partnership with Orange Senegal – to develop TV content in the West African nation. Orange is also shrewdly bringing to three African markets a US$20 smart feature phone called Sanza (from April), with plans to take the device into 13 more markets in the near future. The 3G-capable
smart feature phone will first come to Mali, Burkina Faso and Côte d’Ivoire, KaiOS and Orange announced at the World Mobile Congress 2019. The phone will be priced starting at $20 with Orange services packages included – which implies that Orange will subsidise the device for the local markets. Moreover, in late-2018, MTN and Orange launched Mowali: a continentwide mobile money interoperability joint venture, which allows users to send money between mobile money accounts across different providers. The service is immediately open to users of MTN Money and Orange Money, but can also be enabled for other mobile money providers (including banks), thereby having the potential to serve the more than 300 million mobile money users in Africa.
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MOBILE CONTENT
Orange has quietly gone about developing a complete mobile content and mobile money value chain that seamlessly integrates every aspect – from production to consumption. As the worlds of mobile money and mobile content continue to merge, it will be interesting to see how these platforms, with built-in customer bases of tens of millions, compete with the major players in the streaming world in the battle for content and viewers. The advantages held by mobile network operators in terms of their ability to discount data costs, enable seamless mobile money payments and leverage massive consumer bases should enable their success. Only time will tell. – Lara Preston
As mobile operators increase their ability to act as both broadcaster and bank – via their content platforms and mobile money operations – African banks are more and more finding themselves in competition for customers and are therefore having to find innovative ways to operate, and even move into the content space.
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Africa needs superheroes for its own stories The 2019 Design Indaba was a joyous celebration of how sustainable design can create meaningful change in the world and solve real-world problems at their source. Changing how the rest of the world views Africa was, again, a strong narrative from the storytellers present at the event: the filmmakers and Afrofuturists.
Rafiki by Wanuri Kahiu
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key theme was how to get Africans around the continent to view themselves as people of joy, creativity, imagination – and as deserving of heroes. Africa’s story has, for far too long, only been one of pain and suffering; and while those stories need to be told, it is also important to balance that aspect with joy, said award-winning 24 | SCREENAFRICA | APRIL 2019
Kenyan filmmaker, Wanuri Kahiu. Kahiu is one of a new generation of African storytellers who are changing the narrative about the continent. She specifically co-founded Afrobubblegum, a media company that “supports, creates and commissions fun, fierce and frivolous African art.” Creative director and artist, Kordae Jatafa Henry, along with Kahiu, both owned the stage at #DesignIndaba2019,
Filmmaker Wanuri Kahiu on the Design Indaba 2019 stage
held at the Artscape in Cape Town between 27 February and 1 March 2019, when they talked about breaking the boundaries of traditional filmmaking and envisioned an Afrofuturist Africa. Henry, who identifies as JamaicanBritish-American, grew up immersed in the counter-culture and today explores the ideas that infiltrate technology and culture in his music-films, which are described as “a remix of Afrofuturism and cyberpunk aesthetics.” His background is
actually in architecture, as well as film, but he collaborates with artists across multiple industries. He intends to give Africa’s past, present and future a “new lens” through which to view and interpret itself. In his film, Earth Mother, Sky Father: 2030, Henry offers up an Afrofuturistic utopia in this experimental work that presents a different narrative – one where Africa’s mineral wealth remains on the continent and is used to aid its own people and is treasured as part of their
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FESTIVALS & MARKETS
Earth Mother, Sky Father: 2030 by Kordae Jatafa Henry
culture. He tells the story though a mix of interpretive dance and Afrocentric visuals. Kahiu, in turn, believes strongly that we need hope and frivolity in Africa – and when she refused to change the “hopeful ending” to her film Rafiki (about same-sex relationships) to one of “remorse”, it was banned in Kenya. She has gone to the courts to overturn that ban. She believes Africans need to see themselves as people of radical hope, as this is the legacy of their history and rich culture. Her latest film, Pumzi, is a sci-fi which advocates for nature, and while Kahiu was creating the film, she thought it would be an incredibly powerful story to tell of Africans as guardians of nature, with African women at the forefront of this battle. Kahiu was named a TED Fellow in 2017 and a World Economic Forum Cultural Leader in 2018. She has written and directed six films to date. In 2008, she completed her first feature film, From A Whisper, based on real-life events surrounding the twin bombings of US Embassies in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam in 1998. The film was honoured at the Africa Movie Academy Awards, including winning the Best Director and Best Picture prizes, and it also picked up the Golden Dhow Award at the Zanzibar International Film Festival as well as Best Film at the Kalasha Awards (presented by the Kenya Film Commission). Shortly after, she completed a documentary about the life of Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Wangari Maathai, entitled For Our Land (2009), for M-Net’s Great Africans series.
Her short science fiction film, the original version of Pumzi (2009), was partially funded by Focus Features, the Goethe-Institut and the Changa Moto Fund in Kenya, and screened at Sundance in 2010. Pumzi won Best Short at the Cannes Independent Film Festival in May 2010, and took Silver at the Carthage Film Festival in 2010.
FIERCE AND FUN Kahiu spoke at length before the Design Indaba this year about changing the storytelling narrative in Africa to include joyful and hopeful stories. “Rafiki was really just an ode to love. I really wanted to tell a love story because, growing up, I had never seen images of us as Africans in love. Europeans were falling in love, Americans were falling in love, everyone else was falling in love, but Africans were not. I really wanted to add our experiences [as Africans] of being in love, to cinema. “I started to investigate stories from Africa about joy, because I believe that joy and hope are part of our culture, that joy is part of our tradition and part of who we are.” As she looked at modern Africa and even further back, into the myths of the past, she realised that there were more stories of joy in African culture than of remorse. Her motivation in making films that have a hopeful and joyful message is to ensure that audience members view people of colour in their own neighbourhoods as people of “joyful radiance.” It is what drives her continuous study of African mythology, which also
Creative director and visual artist Kordae Jatafa Henry contains wondrous tales of African mermaids and dragons. “To be able to glorify the ideas of these mythical beasts in Africa, prove more than the ideas of Africa’s suffering and pain, but rather the ideas of our exuberance and creativity,” Kahiu said.
INVESTIGATING MYTHS Both Kahiu and Henry spoke about the importance of myths in Africa in pointing to a different history of the continent, as well as a reimagined future. They believe past legends and myths can help remind Africans that they have a future more joyous than the recent past, where stories have been more painful and desperate than hopeful. “Black Panther cannot be the only example [of a story that celebrates African superheroes]. There are stories of joy to be told [in Africa] and they need to be told by us,” Kahiu reiterated. Henry questions the lens we use to
imagine tomorrow. He believes we should all be incorporating rituals and culture as essential parts of storytelling in the future. He told a story of how his father brought home old technology and transformed it into sculptures. “My father created meaning in the things he was making.” This is the crux of what he believes: that we need to look beyond the functionality of our new technological world and investigate the purpose of that technology. He explained that early on he realised that our modern devices have a deeper meaning. For example, most people are unaware of how these devices are manufactured, a process which often brings suffering to those who mine the essential minerals used in much of today’s technology – with much of these resources coming from Africa. “I’m interested in the invisible. I want to figure out how to bring those stories to life. What if we could tell a new story of faith and hope in the technology of tomorrow?” This is the essential theme of Henry’s futuristic film, Earth Mother, Sky Father: 2030, where he imagines that a future Africa will have control of its own wealth and a new energy, guided by spirits, will watch over the land. Like Kahiu, Henry is also using science fiction, Afrofuturism and black cinema to present “black bodies in future spaces” and to reimagine Africans as superheroes. “Vision is only an idea until we can build futures that can evolve,” he concluded. – Louise Marsland
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What makes a Sundancewinning short film?
PHOTO BY CALVIN KNIGHT
FESTIVALS & MARKETS
Robert Redford at the Sundance Film Festival
Entries for the second SundanceTV South African Shorts Competition close on 16 April. Fiona Walsh spoke to local judges Aletta Alberts and Sara Blecher to see what they look for in a great short film.
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or Aletta Alberts, one of the biggest take-outs from watching the shortlisted films in 2018’s inaugural Sundance TV Shorts Competition was the wealth of talent on display by local filmmakers. Currently executive head of content strategy and third party channels for Africa’s giant pay-television business MultiChoice, Alberts has over 30 years’ experience in the competitive African television market. For her, last year’s winner Ian Morgan ticked several crucial boxes with his short Good Mourning. “I loved the subject matter, the creativity and the originality of his storytelling, plus he brought it to life with great characters and high production values,” says Alberts. “Good Mourning is definitely a film that provides great entertainment value to the viewer.” Journalist-turned-director and producer, Sara Blecher, points out that the short form is a genre unto itself. An award-winner for both documentary and fiction, her fourth feature Mayfair had two sold-out screenings at the London Film Festival last year, followed by a general release across South Africa, while her previous movie Ayanda premiered at the Los Angeles Film Festival, where it received a special jury mention. Vital for her in transforming your short from good to outstanding is to embrace the specifics of the genre. “Don’t submit a tome when you’ve been asked for a poem. Submit a short film. Also experiment: stretch the limits and push the boundaries,” advises Blecher. “We aren’t looking for a remake of Black Panther or any other Hollywood blockbuster. We’re looking for something unique and original, an idea we haven’t seen before, a voice we haven’t heard before.”
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Sara Blecher Aletta Alberts
Morgan describes winning the competition as “an incredible experience,” notably because the prize included a trip to the Sundance Film Festival: London and a chance to network with filmmakers and producers from across the globe. “I think the most rewarding part was how people received the film and how the judges were drawn to interesting characters, rather than big budget production values. Winning also gave the film an extra push when it came to entering other festivals, and it’s a great stepping stone in your career.” Young filmmakers are often constrained by very tight budgets, but – according to Blecher – it’s still possible to make an impact with limited resources. “Keep it simple. The best short films are the ones that embrace the genre and aren’t trying to be feature films. There’s enough space in a short film for one single idea. Don’t throw everything you’ve ever thought plus the kitchen sink into it. You’ll have the opportunity to make more films. This isn’t the one and only. Think of one great idea and then try and explore that. One single thought. But don’t
compromise on either your actors or your DOP.” Reflecting on the competition, Alberts comments: “The SundanceTV South African Shorts Competition provides local filmmakers with an opportunity to showcase their unique points of view. SundanceTV is synonymous with the kind of innovative and independent filmmaking that has kick-started the career of many award-winning and commercially successful directors. But more so, it exposes the work on an international platform, side by side with other filmmakers and to a much broader audience. Hopefully, we can expect to see many more of our local filmmakers following in the footsteps of award-winning SA directors such as Gavin Hood, Neil Blomkamp and Darrell Roodt.”
To be in with a chance to take your short all the way to an event during the Sundance Film Festival: London and to see it premiere internationally on SundanceTV, log on to www.sundancetvshorts.com for all the details and to watch last year’s prizewinning films, including Good Mourning. The SA jury will be led by Mike Plante of the Sundance Institute and – alongside Blecher and Alberts – will also include Harold Gronenthal from SundanceTV. Local entries must be submitted by Tuesday, 16 April on the Sundance TV Shorts website by the producer or director and should be no longer than 15 minutes. Entries also need to meet SundanceTV’s official rules and technical requirements, which are available on the website. Films will be judged on a number of criteria, including creativity, entertainment value, original storytelling and production values – with the winner to be announced in May. SundanceTV is available exclusively in SA on DStv channel 108, and the satellite broadcaster is partnering with the channel for the second year running to support the Shorts Competition.
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THE MOSAIEK TEATRO TAKES ON THE WORLD
World-class in-house technical infrastructure for the home of M-Net’s The Voice South Africa The Mosaiek Church, situated in Roodepoort, Johannesburg, recently made significant strides in achieving its ambition to raise its flagship venue, the Mosaiek Teatro, to worldclass technical standards. Highly respected audio engineer and current head of technical at the church, Estian Els, spoke with Screen Africa about the recent upgrades to the lighting, sound and control rig at the venue. A praise and worship service in session at the Mosaiek Teatro APRIL 2019
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ver the past fifteen years, the Mosaiek Church has established a reputation as a highly respected religious organisation that enjoys a strong following both at its Lifestyle campus in Fairlands, as well as on various broadcast channels, including M-Net’s kykNET. When not hosting church services and in-house worship events, the Mosaiek Teatro has become a popular venue for filming live performances for some the country’s favourite music contests, including M-Net’s South African Idols and The Voice South Africa.
A UNIQUE OFFERING Els explains that when the Mosaiek Church moved from a modest 800-seater venue in Randburg to their new facilities in Roodepoort, they wanted to establish a world-class venue that would meet all of the needs of its growing congregation. At the same time, the church wanted to expand their capacity to support a wide range of outreach projects aimed at improving the lives of people in the community. It was soon realised that by hiring out the Mosaiek Teatro to third parties, the church could diversify its revenue stream, which would – in turn – strengthen its ability to fund missionary work.
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The business model has proven highly successful, and over the past 15 years, the Mosaiek Teatro has hosted an impressive number of high-profile productions and live events. “The Mosaiek Teatro has become a firm favourite for a number of South Africa’s leading production and events companies because the venue provides a well-equipped and secure environment to host audiences, while being perfectly set up for filming,” Els points out. M-Net first used the Mosaiek Teatro for the live broadcast of the performance rounds of the reality TV series SA Idols in 2009, and the venue soon became popularly known as the home of Idols after hosting the final rounds four times. In 2017, M-Net produced the second season of the critically-acclaimed reality TV singing contest The Voice South Africa, and they elected to film the final performance rounds at the Mosaiek Teatro. M-Net will be returning to the venue for the finals of the third season of The Voice in May 2019.
A WORLD-CLASS VENUE When Mosaiek was established in the early 2000s, church management decided to invest in the highest-quality technical rig for their flagship venue, in order to achieve the highest production standards possible for their services.
“Our vision for the Mosaiek Teatro is for it to become a world-class theatre, that offers a turnkey solution for live event and broadcast productions,” Els explains. “There are many venues in the Johannesburg area, and we want to differentiate ourselves by providing a safe, family-friendly environment for audiences while ensuring that artists and their crew can simply arrive at the venue, plug in and put on a world-class show.” According to Els, the decision to upgrade the technical infrastructure at the Mosaiek Teatro was largely driven by this goal. “The rig at the Mosaiek Teatro has been in almost daily operation for 15 years, and while our initial investment has served us well, it was time for us to update our theatre infrastructure – especially as smarter, more energyefficient products have become available and are increasingly being requested. We also wanted to ensure that the in-house technology was rider-friendly for both local and international artists,” Els explains. As a result, the Mosaiek Teatro has made significant investments in new lighting fixtures, lighting control as well as a state-of-the-art PA system from d&b, all of which will be operational by the time that the season three finale of The Voice South Africa begins filming at the venue.
SHINING A NEW LIGHT There were a number of factors that Els and his team needed to take into consideration when considering the theatre’s lighting rig. “As an organisation, we are very committed to being environmentally responsible. The whole venue runs off of solar power – with roof-mounted solar panels feeding a large UPS. As a result, we decided to move our whole lighting rig onto LED fixtures, which are far more energy efficient,” Els explains. Another consideration was that the theatre needed to be equipped for live events and camera applications simultaneously – especially as services are broadcast on kykNET on a weekly basis. After extensive research and consultation with some of the country’s leading lighting designers and production companies, Els decided to invest in 10 MAC Auras and four MAC Encore Profiles, distributed through Electrosonic SA’s Martin by HARMAN brand. The MAC Aura is an award-winning light that has become widely recognised by lighting designers across the world for its versatility as a powerful wash beam and wash luminaire. The fixture is the first LED moving head wash light to combine multicolour beam LEDs with a backlight LED array that removes the ‘synthetic
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The new d&b speaker system being hoisted into place
look’ which has been much criticised by lighting designers working in film. The Martin MAC Encore has been specifically designed for applications in theatre and television and therefore fulfils all of Els’s needs. The fixture’s high CRI, TM-30 and R9 values ensure that skin tones, costumes, set pieces and more will render their true colours naturally, while carefully-chosen LED refresh rates ensure flicker-free operation in camera applications. Reflecting on his decision to install the Martin by HARMAN range, Els states that when the church invested in its first professional lighting fixtures, they elected to purchase five Martin MAC 250s and four Martin MAC 500s. “Over past 15 years, the lighting rig has been extended significantly. However, those very first Martin fixtures remain in the rig and are fully operational, despite their age.” In addition to his confidence in the brand, Els points to the exceptional customer support that he has received from local Martin by HARMAN distributor Electrosonic as a huge deciding factor. “The support that I have received from Electrosonic – especially Renier Smit – is truly exceptional,” Els states. “Electrosonic has always provided the best possible customer support, and Renier and the team have been
extraordinary. If I have a fixture that is broken and I take it in, I will often get it back the very same day. They understand the urgency of what we do, and we simply could not ask for more from a service provider.”
BUILDING FOR GROWTH In line with the church’s goal of providing a state-of-the-art turnkey solution for clients wishing to hire the Mosaiek Teatro for professional live events and the filming of shows, Els and the team gave a lot of consideration to the lighting control infrastructure available at the venue. The Mosaiek Teatro has been relying on PC-based lighting control for a number of years, and as a result, production companies frequently brought in their own professional lighting consoles to run their shows. The decision was taken to invest in a lighting console at the theatre that would provide the most versatility and would be rider-compliant. “We looked very carefully at the pros and cons of staying on PC or upgrading to a state-of-the-art lighting desk, and we decided that if our objective is to provide clients with a turnkey solution for their events, then the grandMA3 is the best that we can offer,” Els points out.
RE-SOUNDING SUCCESS The Mosaiek Teatro has a long-standing tradition of investing in the best possible sound solutions for the venue and was the very first church in South Africa to install a line array system in 2004. “France van der Merwe, a sound engineer who is a legend in our industry, has been a part of our community for many years and was involved in installing our first PA system. While we have been extremely happy with our sound system for many years, the time came for us to invest in a new PA for the venue.” After extensive research, Els and his team decided to invest in a comprehensive line array PA system from d&b audiotechnik. As the certified distributors and undisputed product experts in the country, Stage Audio Works consulted extensively with Els and his team and specified the d&b J-series large format three-way line array system. The installation includes a number of d&b J8 loudspeakers, d&b J12 loudspeakers, d&b Yi8 loudspeakers, d&b Yi12 loudspeakers, d&B B22 subwoofers, d&b 8S loudspeakers, d&b 10S-D loudspeakers, d&B D80 amplifiers and a d&b 30D amplifier. Together, the sound quality achieved is remarkable and is one of the very few installations of its kind in the country. “We decided to go with the d&b system because the system is very popular on international riders and offers outstanding processing capability,” Els points out. “We were very privileged to be able to fly out to Germany to see the system being manufactured first hand, and the quality of production and attention to detail that is invested into every box is truly mind-blowing,” he reflects. Adding to the world-class infrastructure that is provided in-house at the venue, the Mosaiek Teatro is equipped with two Soundcraft Vi3000 sound desks – one at front of house and
another on stage for monitoring purposes. “We purchased our Soundcraft consoles from Wild & Marr some years ago and they have proven well suited to our needs, especially as we often have volunteer teams at front of house, and the console is very user-friendly,” Els says. One of the important goals that Els wanted to achieve with the upgraded sound system at the Mosaiek Teatro was a seamless migration from analogue to digital, which was also achieved by Stage Audio Works, using state-of-the-art technology by QSC. The QSC Q-SYS is one of the world’s leading platforms for scalable audio, video and control as it leverages the power of Intel processing, the robustness and mission-critical reliability of a purpose-built Linux kernel, the interoperability of IEEE networking standards, and the limitless potential of the Q-SYS realtime operating system to deliver an open and IT-friendly ecosystem. The capabilities of Q-SYS software-based processing and control transcends the limitations found in a single purpose, hardware-based products. “A large part of the upgrade was moving the entire rig onto a digital network, which has been achieved with the help of Stage Audio Works’ outstanding use of Q-Sys. Currently, there is no copper between front of house and the stage, as everything has been integrated on the network.” Els adds that the level of service and expertise delivered by Stage Audio Works was exceptional. “Stage Audio Works offered outstanding customer support and the installation carried out was truly outstanding. All of the cabling and racking has been managed by Stage Audio Works, and their work really sets the standard. Nathan Ihlenfeldt and his team not only met but exceeded all of our expectations,” he concludes. – Nicole Barnes
The new grandMA3 being unboxed APRIL 2019
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“The exact moment the magic happens”: Behind the scenes with ZAP Speed At the 2019 South African Film & Television Awards (SAFTAs), there was an unexpected star on the red carpet: the ‘Glambot’, a high speed camera robot operated by the team at ZAP Speed, which provided beautiful slow-motion shots of strutting celebrities to the live feed of the event broadcast by the SABC.
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s Paul Thompson explains, this technology “first debuted at the Oscars about three years ago. I like to think of it as the ultimate selfie – these are glamorous people who love to perform, and so it’s a lot of fun for everyone.” Peter Constan-Tatos describes the Glambot as “a bit of a show unto itself” and provides some insight into the technical rigours of the operation: “We were shooting 500 frames a second, three-second clips – that’s 1500 frames at 2K every time. We had to get that footage off the camera, cut together, graded and out to the OB van for the live 30 | SCREENAFRICA | APRIL 2019
feed. We accomplished this with just eight people – two for lighting, although Paul also got stuck in on that side, I had a couple guys to help me set up the robot, and there was a DIT and a focus-puller and that’s it.”
A ONE-STOP SOLUTION Of course, although the Glambot was a showcase deployment for the company, ZAP Speed’s operations are far more extensive. Operating mainly out of Foghound Studios in Midrand, but with frequent business in Cape Town, the company provides a one-stop high speed filming solution. Commenting on the origins of the company, Constan-Tatos says: “We
looked at the fact that there is no dedicated high speed service here in South Africa. There is an equivalent that was started many years ago in Germany called The Marmalade, and what they did was bring in all the skills necessary to make high speed filming cost-effective. What often happens is that production companies hire in all the different parties, but they haven’t worked together before, or they’re not working as a team until they get to set – and this leads to costly inefficiencies.” Thompson adds that “Peter has kept all his gear with Neil [Symon] at Foghound Studios, and we’ve all worked together over the years. Peter is the motion control expert – that’s his background, and that’s
why he’s in charge of the robots – while I come more from a commercial and filmmaking side, as a director and lighting cameraman. I’ve also done a lot of tabletop work and Foghound has studios and edit facilities, so we collaborated our skills and decided to launch this new venture.” As Thompson points out, having this pool of experience mitigates risk – a crucial factor because “any high speed filming is expensive. The robot’s expensive, the Phantom cameras come in at a price, and because you’re shooting at high speed, you need tons of light to fill the aperture.”
| A BRIEF HISTORY OF HIGH SPEED FILMING IN SOUTH AFRICA “Twenty-five years ago, a high speed camera was a big, bulky thing,” says Constan-Tatos. “The Photosonics must have weighed 50 kilograms, at least, and you’d burn about two hundred feet of film just to get up to speed. It was horrific from a producer’s point of view and it cost big money. We were the first to put a camera on a robot in this country. Purpose-built motion control rigs – like the Milo, for example – were the industry standard, but when we looked at it, it was just too expensive. Not only that, but in those days it was locked onto a Mitchell film camera – and we had a younger group of directors who were wanting to shoot video, they just didn’t have the budget to shoot film.” For those who don’t know, the machines used by ZAP Speed are, technically, “Robots that weld cars. They are general material handling and welding machines which exist by the thousands on factory floors around the world, mainly in the car industry. So the specialisation comes in the programming, as well as in adapting them in certain ways – such as making them more portable, because usually they’d be bolted to the floor.” In contrast, the company’s veteran Motoman robot – a popular unit still produced by the Japanese company Yaskawa – has been deployed “on a yacht, a fishing boat, up sand dunes in Atlantis and at the top of Chapman’s Peak.”
Constan-Tatos says that re-purposing factory robots has become the new standard in the industry, with companies such as the UK’s Mark Roberts Motion Control now selling these units preprogrammed with proprietary software, and he shares some information about technical developments in the field over the years. “What’s interesting, is that the robot we had twenty-five years ago – we actually needed to slow it down. Its movements were too fast for the cameras of the day, so we geared it down to get smooth starts and finishes. But now it’s going in the opposite direction again – now the cameras are running so fast, we need faster robots and we’re doing what we can to speed them up.”
AWESOME AUTOMATION Delving into the topic of technical developments in the industry, Thompson says: “The contemporary Phantom cameras are not only much smaller-format units, but the frame-rates are dramatically higher than you could get in the old days. The Mitchell camera could only go up to 120 frames per second – we’re now shooting 1500 frames, even up to 2000 frames per second.
“Another big development,” Thompson continues, “has been the automation of things like focus-pulling and zooming. Especially in the high speed environment, a focus-puller can’t do the job quickly enough – that needs to be programmed into the robot’s brain. So, we use a focus-puller to do a focus pull on a slow movement of a shot; the robot software then records and stores this data and repeats the focus pull at high speed. We can also program a zoom in much the same way. “The advantage of this is that you can programme the robot to do the same move over and over again – making sure you capture the exact moment the magic happens. If you’ve got a very precise move, Peter programs that robot every step of the way – so it can do a curve, a twist, every conceivable motion. It’s like a wrist. That’s where the motion control
aspect is so useful: you can repeat the same move again and again, but change the background or the action area. Meanwhile, with high speed, the value of having preciselyprogrammed moves is when you introduce a second robot – you can coordinate the two to work together, with one pouring a bottle at the exact millisecond that the
camera moves to capture it, for example. “To try and do that move with normal operations becomes impossible, because you’re shooting about ten or twenty times faster than the normal frame-rate. You might get lucky with a straight zap-pan to get the shot – but with the robots, we can build in the curve and convey the sense of smoothness of the pour.”
A SERVICE-BASED APPROACH Thompson summarises ZAP Speed’s uniqueness as a company as follows: “High speed has been around for ages, but what makes our offering special is the camera integration and the ability to synchronise the robotic actions. So you can move the camera and the subjectmatter around at the same time, which creates the possibility for some amazing shots.”
CAMERAS & ACCESSORIES Constan-Tatos is keen to underline the service-based approach the company takes: “ZAP offers a specialist service to companies requiring any high speed photography, from tabletop to any form of live action. We have the equipment to move the camera at super high speed very precisely to create very dynamic and exciting shots. “If someone has an idea, they can come in – we have the machinery here, we can do tests, very often at little or no cost so that we can provide proof of concept for them. Then, on the back of those tests, they can present to their clients and we can go forward into production. It’s vital with motion control that we’re involved in the early stages – we can save a whole lot of time and money in post that way.” Thompson agrees, saying: “We offer ourselves to the industry as a service, to help companies create interesting shots. We work as a team to develop that image. We have the skills to go from brief to final execution, but we are also happy to work within
crews: work with directors and cinematographers to help them develop their ideas. We have great facilities here, two studios where we can test ideas and work out shots beforehand. Almost all the macro photography work we do requires special effects – perhaps a machine that will throw things around, or throw things up into the air – and so we work very closely with FX crews all the time, they are crucial to our business. We have workshops here to develop this skill in the SA industry, we build sets – we are committed to supporting this aspect of the film industry in South Africa.” Constan-Tatos concludes the interview by revealing the company has just purchased the latest model of the Motoman robot. “It’s a big, fast machine. We’re still in the process of developing its brain,” he says with a smile. – David Cornwell For more information about ZAP Speed, contact paul@zapspeed.tv or peter@zapspeed.tv
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DRONE TECHNOLOGY ADVANCES:
AN AERIAL VIEW OF WHERE THINGS STAND IN 2019 Drone technology has made considerable advances since the last Mediatech Africa in 2017. According to Mediatech trade show director, Simon Robinson, drone technology is a powerful tool for many sectors of the economy but it’s undeniably disrupting and drastically altering the events, media and filmmaking industries. “Unmanned aerial geniuses – drones ignite the imaginations of people and industries the world over, and till now we have only just begun to scratch the surface of their potential,” says Robinson.
“F
rom toys for adults to drones able to land on water and film underwater, to solar battery technology that’s allowing high-altitude drones to fly for weeks at a time without landing – drone technology is leap-frogging what was ever imagined possible.” As drone technology evolves at blinding speed, the question to ask is what new horizons will it take the industry to? Robinson believes that one thing is certain, “Companies can design new and innovative value propositions, and fundamentally modify the way they operate thanks to drones.” When it comes to drone technology, Mediatech exhibitor, Timeslice Cinematography, is recognised as a trailblazing company and is best known for its ability to cater for feature films and TVCs – where precision flying and heavier 4K to 8K cameras with PL mounting are required. Timeslice is a company that has celebrated many firsts in the South African market and continues to demonstrate authority in this arena – and Screen Africa spoke to SA director, Jono O’Connell, to gather insights into this accelerating technology.
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TELL US ABOUT THE GROWTH OF DRONE TECHNOLOGY IN SOUTH AFRICA SINCE MEDIATECH IN 2017 The past two years have been significant and markedly good for the drone industry both locally and internationally, with several drone technologies disrupting the drone market and much technological advancement achieved. We are now at a point where drones are faster, safer and easier to use – and far smarter. Battery technology has also come a long way: improved flight time capabilities are a notable improvement. From a safety perspective lithium polymer batteries are now housed in rigid casings, which makes handling and transportation of these batteries less dangerous. Today’s drones also have avoidance collision. Drones that are really easy to fly are now on the market and they have a greater ability to fly fast and far and range has improved dramatically. Consumer drones can easily fly up to 4kms away – which allows us to get to places we were never able to reach previously. IS THERE A COST BENEFIT TO USING DRONES IN FILMMAKING? With the cost reduction of drones over the last two years, and the advances in technology, opportunities, accessibility and capabilities have been greatly enhanced for many through the opening of this new platform. Very little capital outlay is needed to buy into the world of
drones – so whether you’re in the film industry, or just a home movie maker, drones are now widely accessible. An aspiring music video producer, or budding filmmaker, can purchase a drone for between R8 000 to R10 000 and shoot great quality, beautiful 4K videos – easily, smoothly and cost effectively. This has paved the way for a wave of filmmakers to start living their dreams. IS SOUTH AFRICA KEEPING STEP WITH TECHNOLOGY ADVANCES COMPARED TO GLOBAL TRENDS? I believe South Africa is lagging in some verticals – this is most certainly true of the consumer market. We just don’t have the footprint of other countries and the local regulations have also stifled growth. The embryonic phases of drone technology were completely constrained and when the regulations came out in 2015, they had a very negative influence on the industry and stunted its growth for at least the first couple of years. It is regrettable, but the landscape is changing and the floodgates have opened – and I believe that, moving forward, we will catch up and keep pace with global standards. DRONE REGULATION IN SA – HOW DO WE FARE? Make no mistake: South Africa has the strictest drone regulations in the world. On average, it takes an operator in the region of two years to get a Remote Operator Certificate (ROC). The process for approvals is protracted and expensive. This barrier to entry is prohibitive. I believe that, as an industry, we need to collectively work on the regulations and make it easier to comply. In so doing, we will nurture and promote the industry – all the while attracting a younger set of aspiring filmmakers to shoot without massive overheads and the time restrictions that come with getting a full-blown license. On the flip side, when it comes to working on jobs abroad, the stringent confines of our regulatory environment work in our favour. When a registered South African operator works overseas, their accreditation and certification almost always validates them in that country. There’s no need for any proficiency testing; we merely provide paperwork.
WHERE DO YOU SEE DRONE TECHNOLOGY GOING IN THE NEXT FIVE YEARS? As with many accelerating technologies, it’s hard to say what the future holds: five years in this industry is an absolute lifetime, if not two. But, in general, it can be predicted that the mainstream use and demand for drones will continue to rise and seeing Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) in the sky will become more commonplace. As for specific projections, I believe range will be the next big thing to dominate the drone world: BVLOS – Beyond Visual Line of Sight. This speaks to the ability of drones to be flown at great distances from the operator and to fly accurately. We already have the technology now where directors, DOPs and creatives with no training can wear goggles and move the camera around by simply moving their head or arms by holding a handle bar. This means a significant barrier has been lifted for creatives with no training, allowing them simply to point and shoot the camera. I do believe a big issue to work on over the next five years is endurance – flight time. Drones require an enormous amount of energy to stay airborne, which means heavy batteries must power the drone and this counteracts their own endurance. In principle, most drones use half their power to carry the very batteries that power them. Fundamentally, we need a device or system that makes the aircraft more efficient in the air – better battery technology and even solar power or renewable energy would work. I don’t think it’s unrealistic to consider that soon, a director will be able to operate a drone from a completely different city, and be able to control it automatically without even laying eyes on the bird.
In 2017 Mediatech Africa introduced a drone cage exhibition for the first time – showcasing the best cameras and drones the industry had available, while leading operators discussed functioning within the current legislation and the impact of drone usage in film and broadcasting production. A hugely popular addition to the show – drones will be a big feature at the show this year. Mediatech Africa is on between 19 and 21 July – register before the 12 July closing date to avoid paying the R100 entrance fee.
Shaping theatrical cinema Chris Vermaak is an expert Steadicam operator and has served as DoP on three Christiaan Olwagen films in the past few years. Screen Africa chatted to him about how he brought his unique visual style to the Die Seemeeu – a mostly-Afrikaans adaptation of Anton Chekhov’s play, set for nationwide release on the 5th of April.
WHAT IS YOUR BACKGROUND AS A DoP, AND HOW DID YOU FIRST GET INVOLVED WITH CHRISTIAAN OLWAGEN AS A DIRECTOR? I cut my teeth as a DoP doing SABC drama in Johannesburg. It was a great way to learn how to make do with minute budgets and little time. It was in this world that I first introduced my thenrudimentary Steadicam skills to try and add as much production value as possible in the least amount of time. I progressed into commercials work and honed my skills, continually operating Steadicam on various feature films and TVCs. I received a call from Christiaan asking me whether I would like to DoP Johnny is nie dood nie literally days before they would start shooting. Christiaan had this idea that he wanted to keep the performances and the flow of time real: reel time becoming real time. I leapt at the opportunity. It was certainly not the first time in history that long takes without cuts would be used but….wow! This was for every scene! A whole movie of one takes!
| YOU’VE WORKED ON THREE OF CHRISTIAAN’S FILMS IN THE PAST FEW YEARS: JOHNNY IS NIE DOOD NIE, KANARIE AND NOW DIE SEEMEEU. FROM YOUR PERSPECTIVE, TO WHAT EXTENT DO YOU THINK THESE FILMS SHOULD BE VIEWED AS A “TRILOGY”, IF AT ALL? These three movies are unique in their visual style. All three movies were shot with basically the same collaborators and in a very short space of time (as movies go). This allowed not only the people involved to really get to know each other, but also that we could keep sight of an overall ethos – a manifesto as to our sensibility across all three projects. All three are a testament to us shaping this strange style of theatrical cinema. Johnny and Kanarie were set in very Afrikaans backgrounds and had us re-thinking our own ideas about ourselves and our past. What did the war do to us? What did Apartheid do to us? What did our super-controlling, morally reprehensible yet deeply religious government do to us? Die Seemeeu is the existential question we need to ask ourselves after dealing with all of that. It has the most universal theme of all three movies. YOUR WEBSITE STATES THAT “A WHOLE STORY CAN BE TOLD IN A SINGLE FRAME”… WHAT IS IT ABOUT THE ONE-TAKE STYLE ENABLED BY STEADICAM SHOTS THAT SO APPEALS TO YOU, AND WHEN DID YOU REALISE THAT YOU WANTED TO SPECIALISE IN THIS STYLE? There is a certain honesty that is inherent in a oner. It’s like when a magician shows you a trick “right before your eyes.” The audience don’t think that they were fooled – but, of course, they were. The material we are shooting is scripted. The people you see are actors. Of course we want to manipulate you into having emotions! That is what YOU want, too. It takes believable performances and perceived visual honesty to have people suspend their disbelief. Even though they obviously are still aware that they are watching a movie.
We can’t cut to a close up if someone starts crying. If you deserve a close up the camera needs to get that close to you. We can’t use one actor’s good take with a different take that worked with the other’s good performance. The passage of time is real. The timing of one actor’s performance with another is real. All these things make the audience trust in the fact that you are telling it like it is. That this is “a real story” – whatever that means. Of all the ways to move a camera through space and time, the Steadicam is the platform that most closely mimics human movement. It behaves like a head on a neck. It follows humans where they go. It listens to them talking. When it does point of view shots, it pretends to be human. At other times, it just floats through people’s lives like a voyeuristic ghost. WHAT, IN YOUR OPINION, DOES THIS CAMERA STYLE ADD TO THIS FILM ADAPTATION OF THE SEAGULL? DO YOU THINK IT WORKS PARTICULARLY WELL WITH THE ‘THEATRICAL’ MODE OF PERFORMANCE, FOR EXAMPLE…? Yes. We only shot Die Seemeeu after Johnny and Kanarie, and – in a way – it was as if we had developed this style for this movie. Ironically, we did experiment with shooting coverage during the filming. It just felt wrong. I remember reading a critique in The Guardian of the Michael Mayer adaptation of The Seagull with Annette Bening as Irina. It was released way before Die Seemeeu and obviously made with much more budget. The reviewer said that – and I am paraphrasing here – even though the material was fantastic and performances were great, there was something that kept bugging him: the fact that it was cinema. I was intrigued with this, as we had obviously done something different. Something much more theatrical, but also cinematic. Hopefully to successful ends.
CINEMATOGRAPHY
ANTON CHEKHOV ONCE SAID, “DON’T TELL ME THE MOON IS SHINING; SHOW ME THE GLINT OF LIGHT ON BROKEN GLASS.” WHAT SEQUENCES/SHOTS WERE YOU PARTICULARLY PROUD OF THIS TIME AROUND, AND PLEASE SHARE ANY INFORMATION ABOUT HOW THEY WERE ACHIEVED. The whole performance of Konstant’s play on the lake was just beautifully absurd and so visually pleasing. The location was spectacular but the weather gave us hell the whole first week of shooting! We lost so much time. When we came back and finished it in that unbelievable dusky light we couldn’t believe it ourselves! When you have to finish a scene before the sun goes down and try to maintain lighting continuity it is a blessing to be shooting one take! WHAT EQUIPMENT WAS USED ON THE SHOOT? We used the Arri Alexa Mini camera with Kowa anamorphic lenses. I used my GPI PRO Steadicam rig with the Letus Helix single-axis pro stabiliser. There were no tripods, no dollies and a very small crew. The lighting package was also very small. I remember sticking a string of tungsten bulbs to the ceiling and hanging paper napkins as a skirt…
ANY FINAL REFLECTIONS ON THE EXPERIENCE OF SHOOTING THESE THREE FILMS? I really feel privileged to have done these three movies with Christiaan. We couldn’t solve problems with money but were always brave in our choices. Strapping slide projectors to cameras, spinning the whole screen 360 degrees, not cutting even though it would have solved myriad practical problems. Always finding a way to stay true to our manifesto and giving the actors the stage. If all life be a stage, play on. – David Cornwell
Chris Vermaak on set
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NAB SHOW 2019
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The NAB SH
Las Vegas has already started gearing up for an influx of likeminded media, entertainment and technology specialists, all keen to explore the new and disruptive trends that encompass the workings of the broadcast industry at this, the 96th National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) Show 2019.
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W
ith the very apt tagline – every story starts here – the NAB Show is synonymous with powering what the broadcast industry creates and how the world consumes it. It is the ultimate event for media, entertainment and technology professionals looking for new and innovative ways to create, manage, deliver and monetise content on any platform. Every year we think, ‘Surely it can’t get any better?’ – and yet every year, we find ourselves amazed at how technology keeps coming up with new ideas, new techniques and new ways to drive the broadcast industry down the road of success. With over 100 000 attendees from 160 countries expected this year, with a combined total of about $20.5 billion in purchasing power, the NAB Show organisers have come up with some new and exciting treats for all. Attendees can look forward to exploring a number of fresh topics, some quite unexpected, at this year’s show. What is most surprising is the newest addition of discussion-points and exhibit areas known as In-Vehicle Entertainment. With autonomous vehicles becoming more commonplace on our streets, the opportunity grows for content consumption, delivery and unique tailored experiences. The passenger economy is set to be a significant player in the monetisation and business case for the first wave of this new mode of
Yet again, artificial intelligence and machine learning are some of the many hot topics being thrown around at this show, with companies hinting at AI’s future potential to enhance workflows and create new efficiencies for broadcasters.
transportation. Focus points like audio design, HD radio, media display, consumer technology peripherals and voice activation will be of particular interest to those who like to delve into new and emerging technology ideas. Something that is not ‘just an idea’ anymore is 5G, and in the broadcast world it has arrived – big time. As this next-gen wireless technology sits poised to reshape entire industries, few are riper for disruption than media, entertainment and traditional content delivery models. Discussions on what this massive shift will mean for your business, and what’s actually feasible and when, will be held daily. But, as we collectively prepare for 5G, one of the conference sessions at NAB definitely worth attending – and which should be particularly popular with senior leaders from satellite providers and
content delivery executives – is Satellite: the future of 5G. As governments, companies and everyone in between prepares to trade out 4G wireless infrastructure for 5G, questions linger about what the transition will entail. The performance benchmarks for 5G wireless services are high: user download speeds of 100 megabits per second (Mbps) and uploads of 50 Mbps, with a millisecond of maximum signal lag. Satellites today are just starting to near those throughput markers, but none is close to a single millisecond of latency. Fifth-generation networks also must be capable of supporting a million devices in a single square kilometer and maintain connections for mobile devices travelling up to 500 kilometers per hour. Despite these challenges, satellite operators, analysts and industry observers remain
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NAB SHOW 2019
HOW optimistic that space-based communications will play a significant role in connecting 5G devices, and these sessions will no doubt be of interest to everyone in the broadcast delivery fields. Another new topic arena generating a lot of interest is the eSports phenomenon. The Switch, a provider of managed, private cloud services that enhance live video productions anywhere in the world, will formally launch The Switch eSports at NAB this year and will sponsor the eSports Experience, the show’s first eSports pavilion (located in the North Hall), which will highlight the technology behind eSports production, brand-building initiatives and monetisation strategies in what is the
fastest-growing segment of the entertainment industry. Within NAB’s eSports Experience facility, eSports producers, as well as those in the gaming community, will have the opportunity to engage with The Switch technology in both its booth and meeting areas. In its booth, The Switch plans to unveil its eSports pop-in-a-box, which enables production and transmission workflows from virtually anywhere that gaming is occurring. Don’t underestimate the importance of this new technology: it promises to be a big gamechanger in the broadcast industry in the near future. Yet again, artificial intelligence and machine learning are some of the many
Something that is not ‘just an idea’ anymore is 5G, and in the broadcast world it has arrived – big time. As this next-gen wireless technology sits poised to reshape entire industries, few are riper for disruption than media, entertainment and traditional content delivery models.
hot topics being thrown around at this show, with companies hinting at AI’s future potential to enhance workflows and create new efficiencies for broadcasters. Although during the conference sessions there are many discussions planned around the use of AI in the broadcast industry, one in particular has caught my attention: using AI to create better storytelling through slow motion replays, presented by Johan Vounckx (SVP, Innovation and Technology at EVS). Unfortunately, not all cameras feature slow motion capabilities, and super motion cameras are often prohibitively expensive. In addition, archive material can be enriching to storytelling, but is rarely available in slow motion. Vounckx will explain how artificial intelligence can help to overcome these limitations. With an AI-based system, it is possible to generate hallucinated images in between original video images to artificially create slow motion feeds. The discussion aims to focus on two use-cases: creating slow motion images from regular video feeds; and generating super or hyper motion images from super motion cameras, proving that AI can outperform traditional slow motion approaches in terms of quality. The conference sessions at NAB extend way beyond new technologies in broadcasting, however. The Creative Masters series is an opportunity to go
behind the scenes with the creatives and crew responsible for today’s most innovative and popular feature films, TV series and OTT experiences. Here you can learn how filmmakers and show runners designed game-changing looks on set, generated nuanced performances, choreographed complex shots and applied the latest technologies to solve workflow challenges. Come to these sessions to understand how today’s content creators are reinventing storytelling for 21st-Century audiences. As always, there is also some excited speculation about what new cameras will be launched into the public domain at NAB. Last year was a relatively solid year for new camera releases. We saw new products from Blackmagic Design, Canon, Nikon and Panasonic, amongst others. With Sony having reigned supreme with their mirrorless cameras, at least in terms of video production, over the past few years – and with the company having spent years developing 8K televisions ahead of the Tokyo 2020 Olympics – I suspect we might just see major updates to many of their popular models ahead of the Summer Games. Will we witness the much-anticipated launch of the Sony A7S III featuring 8K video recording? Every story starts somewhere – see you at NAB 2019. – Ian Dormer
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POST-PRODUCTION
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Meet the Editor: Haiko Boldt Haiko Boldt is a freelance video editor and graphic designer currently living in Namibia, who worked as editor and cinematographer on Land of the Brave. He has received a Namibian Film Award for his editing work and is the owner of Thunderboldt Design & Post Production.
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and of the Brave, produced in Nambia, traces the journey of policewoman Meisie Willemse: a tough cop with an illustrious career, who hides a dodgy past. As she solves one the biggest cases of her career, she is forced to face herself; the closer she gets to catching the killer, the more the dark secrets of her past are revealed, ultimately derailing her life. Screen Africa chatted to Haiko about the interesting story, the equipment used to capture the epic Namibian landscapes and the need to “kill your darlings” in the editing room…
Behind the scenes of Land of the Brave
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HOW DID YOU FIRST BECOME INVOLVED IN WORKING ON THE FILM? My involvement came about through the director, Tim Huebschle, and producer David Benade. We had worked together on short films and various other projects over the years. I was given the opportunity to read one of the early drafts of the script and I enjoyed the story immensely. It is a local story, which I hoped would turn into a local production and would give me the chance to stretch my creative muscles as an editor. Initially, my involvement was only meant to be editor of the film, but during the
pre-production phase Tim and David approached me and asked if I would also like do the cinematography for the film, as well. This was an amazing opportunity and daunting, as well, but of course I accepted. THE TEASERS ALL LOOK AMAZING – ESPECIALLY THE WIDE-ANGLE SHOTS. WHAT CAMERAS AND LENS SET-UPS WERE USED ON THE FILM? The early teasers were filmed on a Canon 60D with the 18-135mm kit lens. Some of the aerials were done with the Phantom 2 and later with the DJI Inspire One. For
principal photography, we used the Sony A7s II with a Metabones adaptor and Canon lenses (EF 16-35mm, EF 24105mm and the EF 100-400mm), as well as a Sigma Macro lens. We recorded onto the Blackmagic Design 4K Video Assist from the Sony A7s II HDMI out to be able to capture in 4K (UHD) and Apple ProRes HQ 422. The director’s monitor on set was an identical 4K Video Assist. In the beginning of the production, the director’s monitor would get its feed via SDI cable. We did have a wireless video transmission option but could not use it because it only worked with HD and we were shooting in UHD. A bit into the production, however, I found a new solution after the launch of a few products from Blackmagic Design. Among these was the Mini Converter SDI to HDMI 4K. This was used to downconvert the UHD to HD and to connect the wireless video transmitter. Luckily, the device is small and compact and did not add too much weight to the camera rig. The whole setup was powered from a V-Mount battery plate system via 12V and D-Tap cables to the devices. Aerials were filmed with the DJI Inspire One and the DJI Ronin MX gimbal was used for the motion shots.
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CAN YOU TALK US THROUGH YOUR CHOICE TO COMPLETE FULL PICTURE POST IN RESOLVE? WHAT ADVANTAGES DID THIS BRING? Working on other projects, we had gotten into a bit of a workflow issue between FCP X and the export and import of the audio through third-party software for audio post. I always assumed that the colour grade was going to happen in DaVinci Resolve, which led us to decide to choose Resolve for editing as well. Because of the free version, we could install DaVinci Resolve, give it a try and see if it would be the right fit. The advantage was clearly the fact that the entire workflow happens within one ecosystem. It is so easy to switch from edit to audio to colour workflow with a click of the mouse. This became evident when, during the rough cut of the film, the sound designer would come in over the weekends and clean up the audio for the past week’s rough cut. This meant
that by the time we had a first full rough cut, we had clean audio, too. Recording on the 4K video assist in ProRes HQ, which is optimised for DaVinci Resolve, also meant no transcoding. It was liberating, as we edited in full resolution – and so what we saw on screen was what we would get out, and it didn’t slow down the computer. WHAT WAS YOUR RESOLVE SETUP, INCLUDING PANELS, HARDWARE, MONITORING AND MORE? The studio setup consisted of an entry-level iMac Pro running DaVinci Resolve and a 16TB G-Tech Raid Drive for the media. Connected to this was a 4K Ultra Studio. We opted for a BenQ SW271 monitor and the Blackmagic Design Micro Panel for the colour grading. During editing, the audio was taken out of the 4K studio and sent into a small mixer and out to two Yamaha speakers. We also had a big screen TV for viewing in studio.
CAN YOU DESCRIBE THE BRIEF FOR THE EDIT? WHAT WERE YOU TRYING TO ACHIEVE WITH IT? The brief was to forget what I had seen on location, and craft the edit from the footage that was there. The director and I started to make editing decisions as early on as the storyboarding stage. The edit was quite predetermined in a way, as we had created an extensive storyboard with more than 700 boards. We spent about five weeks on it and had already made decisions on shot sizes and angles, and had specified the shots we would use for specific parts of the dialogue. This helped us immensely on set, but also set the tone for the edit. THE STORY IS REALLY INTERESTING – AND THE FEMALE LEAD, TOO. DID YOU FACE CHALLENGES IN TELLING HER STORY THROUGH YOUR WORK? ‘To kill your darlings’, like the director said, was and is probably always a challenge.
POST-PRODUCTION
We all loved some shots for whatever reason, but for the greater good of the story, some of them didn’t fit or just felt a bit ‘out.’ Letting go of shots like these can only make the film better. DO YOU HAVE A FAVOURITE SCENE OR SEQUENCE? CAN YOU TELL US WHY, AND GIVE US AN INSIGHT INTO THE WORKFLOW BEHIND CREATING IT? In Land of the Brave, my favourites are the shots that involved small edit decisions. Omitting certain parts of the story, or even just seconds of footage – small decisions that ultimately strengthened the film. Always remember that sometimes the things you don’t say also have an impact. For a specific example, I really like one of the city skyline shots. We kept the bottom of the shot at normal speed and sped up the top part to get some movement into the clouds, to create the effect that time was passing.
Stills from Land of the Brave
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MEDIA ASSET MANAGEMENT
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STRANGLER APPLICATION PATT ASSET MANAGEMENT Back in 2004, a Chicago-based software designer, Martin Fowler, visited the rainforests of Queensland on the east coast of Australia. He was intrigued by the huge strangler vines, which seed themselves in the upper branches of fig trees and gradually work their way down the tree until they root in the soil. Over many years they grow, strangling and killing the tree that was their host. Equating this to rewriting critical systems software – where the chosen route is gradually to create a new system around the edges of the old, letting it grow slowly over several years until the old system is no longer used – he coined the metaphor ‘Strangler Application Pattern.’
T
he strangler pattern is commonly used in technology fields these days and the terminology is best understood as incrementally migrating a legacy system, by gradually replacing specific pieces of functionality with new applications and services. As features from the legacy system are replaced, the new system eventually replaces all of the erstwhile system’s features, ‘strangling’ the old system and allowing you to decommission it. There are hundreds of media asset management (MAM) systems out there and as technology develops, some organisations are adopting artificial intelligence (AI) to help them create and use the strangler software development pattern to slowly take over legacy MAM system functions until nothing is left but the new system. There are, furthermore, also many MAM systems out there that are allowing third-party AI applications to enable their users to train their machines to think like them – with the end goal of eventually replacing the user in order to cut costs. I have been fortunate enough to be involved in the beta testing of software being designed as a potential plug-in to many existing MAM systems, with the aim of utilising AI to do all the hard graft in terms of logging and metadata creation
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– by having the system learn to do what the operator does. The ultimate objective of these initiatives is to provide a completely unmanned media asset manager: a system with no human involvement at all, and a typical strangler pattern in practice. The software was originally developed to count and identify the sex of salmon swimming through a canal leading to an upstream river breeding area. The software not only extracts enough metadata from a camera clip to make presumptions about seasons, GPS locations and time of day, but also ‘visualises’ the clip to identify species type (human, animal, insect, etc.), identify the species itself (e.g. lion, leopard) and even possibly its gender. Another method used is audio sampling, which further assists the system to log the shot. While all of these things can easily be done by human eyes and ears, the advantage of having artificial intelligence perform the tasks is phenomenal when it comes to speed. Though it is still in a very rough beta stage, this system – in a test conducted using footage that I supplied – was able to identify all the species of animals around a watering hole, and from the camera’s metadata, told me where it was filmed, the time of day and season of the year. There were 27 shots and the
logging took less than a second and even in this early stage of development, it was 100% accurate. The beauty of AI is that the system continually learns from any errors it generates. When human intervention overrides incorrect information, the system remembers the changes – and even improves on them. This developmental software is not unique at all. Third-party plug-ins are being used in many asset management solutions, such as Squarebox Systems’ CatDV, one of the pioneering media asset management solutions out there. The CatDV developers have started integrating video and image analysis options from AI vendors into their suite of systems and, through these integrations, CatDV is offering a range of advanced capabilities, including: • Speech-to-text, to automatically create transcripts and time-based metadata; • Place analysis, including identification of buildings and locations without using GPS tagged shots; • Object and scene detection, e.g., daytime shots or shots of specific animals; • Sentiment analysis, for finding and retrieving all content that expresses a certain emotion or sentiment (e.g., “find me the happy shots”); • Logo detection, to identify when certain brands appear in shots; • Text recognition, to enable text to be extracted from characters in video; and • People recognition, for identifying people, including executives and celebrities. Another example is Avid | AI Media Analytics, which provides a framework that automates content indexing, such as facial detection, scene recognition and speech-to-text conversion, by using Microsoft Cognitive Services (Azure Video Indexer) to auto-index content using machine learning algorithms, creating a library of rich metadata that can readily be searched.
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MEDIA ASSET MANAGEMENT
TERN APPROACH TO MEDIA
With the media and entertainment industry slowly being transformed by artificial intelligence, the future is bright for AI-powered MAM. In the right hands, AI becomes the key that unlocks the next generation of MAM technologies, and – just like the strangler vine found in the forests of Queensland – artificial intelligence is slowly, ever-so-slowly, growing in many broadcast applications, and in some faster than you think.
Avid have also teamed up with Finnish start-up firm Valossa, which grew out of one of Europe’s leading computer science and AI labs at the University of Oulu and integrated their software into Avid | Media Central. The comprehensive audio/visual recognition solution from this partnership can detect and identify people based on their age, speech patterns, sounds, emotions, colours and dialogue.
Dave Clack, CEO of Squarebox Systems, sums it up: “An AI-powered MAM solution offers a way forward. A great approach is to add to the MAM’s existing logging, tagging and search functions through integrations with best-of-breed AI platforms and cognitive engines, such as those from Google, Microsoft, Amazon and IBM, as well as a host of smaller, niche providers. These AI vendors and AI aggregators enable media asset managers to leverage AI analysis tools for speech recognition and video/image analysis, with the flexibility to be deployed either in the cloud or in hybrid on-premises/cloud environments.” With the media and entertainment
industry slowly being transformed by artificial intelligence, the future is bright for AI-powered MAM. In the right hands, AI becomes the key that unlocks the next generation of MAM technologies, and – just like the strangler vine found in the forests of Queensland – artificial intelligence is slowly, ever-so-slowly, growing in many broadcast applications, and in some faster than you think. – Ian Dormer
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M A R KET PL AC E
UPCOMING EVENTS APRIL 6 – 11
NAB SHOW Las Vegas
8 – 11
MIPTV Cannes, France
24 – 5 MAY
TRIBECA FILM FESTIVAL New York
25 SCREEN AFRICA GOLF DAY Johannesburg 25 – 5 MAY HOT DOCS CANADIAN INTERNATIONAL DOCUMENTARY FESTIVAL Toronto, Canada
MAY 3–5
NYC INDEPENDENT FILM FESTIVAL New York
13 – 25
FESTIVAL DE CANNES Cannes, France
29 – 13 JUNE SAN FRANCISCO DOCUMENTARY FESTIVAL
San Francisco
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Golf Day 2019 will take place on
Thursday, 25 April 2019 at Eagle Canyon Golf Estate 3 Blueberry St, Eagle Canyon Golf Estate, Honeydew, Johannesburg, 2040
A cocktail party and prize-giving will be held at the Eagle Canyon Clubhouse Pub following the competition, which provides great networking opportunities. Secure your sponsorship and 4-ball by Friday, 12 April 2019. Date:
Thursday, 25 April 2019
Sponsorship:
Hole 1 & Hole 10 – R7 500.00 (ex vat)
Halfway House:
All other holes – R5 750.00 (ex vat) For your own account
Green Fees:
Green fees will be R500 per player which includes dinner from Burger Bar
Start:
Shotgun Start @ 10:30am
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