The Callsheet issue 04 | 2014

ISSUE 04 | 2014

IT’S A NEW ERA

+ AFRICA: From TV Destination to TV Producer

+ HOLLYWOOD HEAVYWEIGHTS Swoon over SA's Skills

+ AERIAL CINEMATOGRAPHY Flying with the Big Boys

Image courtesy of the History Channel: America The Story of US © Joe Alblas

CONTENTS | 01

www.filmmakerafrica.co.za

2. ‘State House’ – Zuku Commissions New Locally Produced Drama

3. Cote Ouest To Showcase AwardWinning Drama This MIPTV

4. The Zamani Project Documents Our Heritage

5. Tribeca Film Festival Launches New Programme

6. ‘Joe Bullet’ to Premiere at DIFF 2014

7. Two SA Films Win French Film Festival Awards

8. Hollywood Heavyweights Swoon Over SA’s Skills

11. Cannes Lions Announces Changes to Palme D’Or

12. Aerial Cinematography – Flying

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State House

Africa is a content haven

Zuku commissions new locally produced drama.

From TV destination to TV producer.

with the Big Boys

16. Africa: From TV Destination to TV Producer

22. A Chat with Giulio Biccari 24. Hot Docs to Host Official South African Delegation

26. Greg Latter Shares His Scriptwriting Insights

28. Kenya – East African Leader in Filmmaking

30. In Production 32. Review: ‘Miners Shot Down’

22 Giulio Biccari

28 Kenya

The talented cinematographer and DOP talks East African leader in filmmaking. about the most challenging aspects of his craft.

Offers a Poignant Look at Marikana

34. Events 36. Opportunities 38. Associations 40. Directory

02 | NEWS

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STATE HOUSE Zuku Commissions New Locally Produced Drama

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uku, the Wananchi Group’s triple play and pay-tv business, has announced its commission of an original, locally produced political drama series, State House. A coproduction between Wananchi Programming and a Kenyan production company, Awali Entertainment for Zuku Entertainment (formerly Zuku Afrika), State House is a modern day political drama set in Nairobi’s presidential residence. The 12 x 30 minute series was made in the capital and features well-known, award-winning East African talent.

Hannelie Bekker, Managing Director of Wananchi Programming, says: “State House is Kenya’s answer to The West Wing. It is an excellent example of high quality locally produced Kenyan drama. The first-ever series to dramatise the inner workings of a living and breathing East African political institution, State House demonstrates Zuku’s ongoing commitment to investing in unique and original content, which delivers relevant and compelling stories for our audience. Zuku Entertainment’s ambition

is to be the home of thrilling drama and entertainment, and State House provides all this and more!”

Zuku Entertainment’s commission of State House follows the platform’s recent premiere of Groove Theory, a gripping mix of music and drama that was directed for the stage and filmed for television. At the forefront of innovation, Zuku Entertainment continues to invest in the burgeoning East African media industry through its support of local talent and dedication to tell engaging African stories to an African audience.

State House State House plays out in 2013, just as the government is changing and the old dictator has been ousted after 40 years of rule in Kenya. Everything for the last two decades has been running in a very particular way; conservative, traditional, rigid; but now the established order is threatened. Young, up and coming, radical and popular, the newly elected president Kajana Mda is set to instigate change. As the drama unfolds

amongst the political elite, changes are also afoot for the presidential house-keeping staff, adding to the twists and turns of an addictive storyline.

State House deals with many themes, the most prominent being power, corruption and dominance. Throughout the show the protagonists compete to retain their positions of power within the presidential residence.

The main narrative of the series follows lead character Eric Kiuma, the departing President’s right hand man, in his daily dealings with the new President and the President’s Personal Assistant, Catherine Mutwa. Eric has to find ways to remain relevant in the new administration and often resorts to political manipulation; feeding rumours to the press and cajoling old allies to make sure that his rival, Catherine Mutwa looks incompetent. But his place by the President’s side continues to be threatened by the new, brash young up-start. However as Eric starts to dig into Catherine’s past he starts to unearth secrets that not only threaten Catherine’s job but also his own safety.

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Côte Ouest To Showcase Award-Winning Drama this MIPTV

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ôte Ouest, a premier distributor of content for and from Africa, brings award-winning drama to Cannes this April. Headlining Côte Ouest’s impressive slate of programming will be the Emmy-award winning series Side

by Side, as well as the Emmy-nominated Angolan soap-opera Windeck.

Bernard Azria, Chairman and CEO, Côte Ouest Audiovisuel, says: “MIPTV is a key event in our calendar and an opportunity for us to highlight the strength of our offering to an international audience. We are also excited to be bringing the addictive Africa Zapping to market, a three minute compilation of great TV highlights as broadcasted on French African TV Channels in the previous 24 hours.”

Winner of the Emmy Award for Best Telenovela 2013, Brazilian-produced Side by Side (105 x 45’) from Globo TV, focuses on Isabel and Laura, two women of different origins and social classes with the same purpose in life: the conquest of freedom in the conservative society of the early 20th century. The series earned a 51% ratings share during its primetime broadcast on Globo TV Channel in 2013.

Emmy-nominated soap-opera Windeck (120 x 40’), produced by Angolan production company Semba, explores the consequences of unbridled ambition in the fictional newsroom of Divo, a lifestyle magazine.

The series brings to life a web of betrayal and intrigue, passion and glamour within

the publishing world, portraying the story of those who will stop at nothing to succeed, while capturing the vibrancy of Angolan culture. Windeck was shot on location in the Angolan capital of Luanda, one of Africa’s most energetic cities, and experienced huge success in Angola and also in Portugal where it achieved a market share of 22.3% on RTP1.

Fancy a three minute adventure through French-speaking Africa? Look no further than Côte Ouest-produced Africa Zapping.

The innovative and unique series offers three minute snapshots of outstanding, hilarious and sometimes strange TV moments that have been broadcast across French-speaking African in the previous 24 hours. Africa Zapping serves as a daily barometer of the social, cultural and political life on the continent. The

juxtaposition of different views presented in these clips results in an amusing and creative show that will captivate viewers everywhere. Simply addictive!

Finally, Côte Ouest proudly present The Story of My Life (26 x 26’), the first Englishlanguage version of the popular Ivory Coast production. The Story of My Life is a drama series that follows Jade Gnaoré, a young woman who returns to her hometown to grieve her late-husband’s death. While visiting, the city is attacked by rebels, and her father is killed. Jade meets Alex, a young doctor, and a connection between the pair develops, despite Alex being betrothed to someone else…

Côte Ouest will be on stand G71, Palais 1 at MIPTV 2014. For more information on Côte Ouest visit www.coteouest.tv

04 | NEWS

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THE ZAMANI PROJECT documents our heritage

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amani, 3-D documentary series set to go into production in mid-2014, and dedicated to documenting the World Heritage sites of the African continent, has been selected for the official programme of the World Design Capital Cape Town 2014. Zamani means “the past” in Swahili and “Zamani Project” is the original name given to the mission led by a team of four who have been documenting heritage sites for close to 10 years across Africa.

Under the expert supervision of Professor Heinz Rüther, The Zamani Project was initiated in the Geomatics Division of the University of Cape Town, partly funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and endorsed by (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO).

The project is based on state-of-the art data acquisition and presentation technologies, including laser scanning and close range photogrammetry, which are used to generate Geographic Information Systems, 3D computer models and other spatial data.

Production of the series will be officially launched during an event in the city mid-2014.

Man Makes a Picture (MMaP), a Capetonian production company, has developed the Zamani Project documentary series concept. They are currently promoting the series locally and internationally, to finance the projected R30 million production budget via sponsorships and international TV coproductions and presales.

The series will uncover how the most interesting heritage sites in Africa came into existence and why, and also how they have transformed into complex “Cultural Landscapes”, through their role and meaning for the local population today.

Each episode will document various sites in different Sub-Saharan countries grouped by theme, such as “The Gold Trade”, “Man’s Footprint” or “Castles and Fortresses”.

The Zamani Project Documentary series will combine travel and adventure, following the Zamani geomatic experts Heinz Rüther and Roshan Burtha as they discover and document the sites, sometimes in very intriguing and remote environments, stateof-the-art 3D entertainment and interviews with historians and local residents.

Worldwide distribution of this TV programme and its educational spin-offs will promote worldwide awareness of the richness of these “Cultural Landscapes”, constructed in the past and inhabited by the present.

The Zamani Project Documentary Teaser can be viewed at: http://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=da5R2A73Fps. Professionals can contact showrunner Joanna Tomkins for more information at: Joanna@manmakesapicture.co.za.

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Tribeca Film Festival Launches New Programme

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he 13th annual Tribeca Film Festival (TFF), which is set to take place in Lower Manhattan in April 2014, marks the beginning of a new season for the festival. TFF plans to incorporate a number of competitions and fresh programmes in an effort to breathe new life into the event and to interact with its audience on a more global level.

Opening the 2014 event is the World Premiere of ‘Time is Illmatic’, a documentary that explores the legacy of multi-platinum rapper Nas’ iconic album 20 years after its release. The film follows the trajectory of Nas’ landmark debut album Illmatic in 1994. It is widely considered one of the most important and revolutionary records in hip hop. The premiere, which takes place on Wednesday, 16 April, will be followed by a special show where Nas will perform the ground-breaking album from front to back.

“I want to thank the Tribeca Film Festival for supporting the film with the incredible platform they’ve built over the years,” Nas said in a recent statement. “It’s an honour

to premier this film in my home town.”

TFF has also announced the inaugural “Tribeca Innovation Week”, which will take place in conjunction with the festival. The new pass opens the door to innovators, creative leaders and events celebrating innovation and storytelling in the digital age. The worlds of culture, technology and storytelling will collide here from 21 to 26 April. The week is specifically designed for the likes of “coders, screenwriters, hackers, futurists, gamers, directors, engineers, venture capitalists, film financiers, techno radicals, the generally curious, and anyone who has a story to tell,” according to a recent news release.

“As the digital and analogue worlds continue to blur, there has never been more of an opportunity to create and tell stories,” Jane Rosenthal, TFF Founder and CEO said.

Tribeca Innovation Week is anchored by the 5th annual Tribeca Disruptive Innovation Awards (TDIA) and five other major events.

This year’s theme for the awards is “From Outer Space to Inner Space: A New Sputnik Moment?” It will honour people across

all fields who are “living laboratories for innovation and disruption”. The week will culminate in a Lifetime Achievement Award for TEDMED’s Jay Walker, whose body of work has helped showcase the possibilities of human imagination. Other parts of the programme include Tribeca Hacks <Mobile>, TFI Interactive, and Storyscapes – a programme offering transmedia artists an opportunity to showcase their creativity within a festival setting.

TFF is well known for being a diverse international film festival that supports emerging and established directors. Founded

by Robert De Niro, Jane Rosenthal and Craig Hatkoff in 2001, the Tribeca festival has screened over 1,500 films from over 80 countries since its first edition. It has also attracted an international audience of more than 4.5 million attendees and has generated an estimated $850-million in economic activity for New York City since 2002.

06 | NEWS

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JOE BULLET to Premiere at DIFF 2014

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Joe Bullet’, a film originally banned by the apartheid government in 1972, was recently digitally restored and will now have its premiere at the 2014 Durban International Film Festival. It was remastered through the Gravel Road African Film Legacy (GRAFL) Initiative by Waterfront Film Studios in Cape Town.

The film stars Ken Gampu, Abigail Kubeka and Cocky “Two Bull” Tlhotlhalemaje. Produced by Tonie van der Merwe, ‘Joe Bullet’ is described as one of South Africa’s first all-African cast Blaxploitation films – produced at the height of the apartheid era. It follows Ken Gampu as Joe Bullet, a James Bond-type character, as he fights corruption in the criminal underworld of soccer. It was shot on

location in and around Johannesburg in 1971 and includes guns, karate fights, explosions and even a bit of romance.

GRAFL CEO Benjamin Crowley said in an official statement that he feels honoured to bring back such a film as ‘Joe Bullet’. “It is an honour…restoring it and having the opportunity to pay homage to the brave filmmakers and cast of this film and finally recognize them for their contribution to the South African film industry so many years later,” he said. “We could not find a more suitable film with which to launch our Gravel Road African Film Legacy Initiative, this is certainly not the first and last you’ll be hearing about Joe Bullet!”

GRAFL was launched by Gravel Road Entertainment Group to locate, acquire,

restore and screen once discarded and forgotten African cinematic gems. For more information, visit the Facebook page: www.facebook.com/joebulletmovie

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Two SA Films Win French Film Festival Awards

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outh African films ‘Kanyekanye’ and ‘To The One I Love’ have won the Audience Choice Award for Best Short Film and the Professional Jury Award respectively at the 15th CineSud Short Film Festival in France. The festival is one of the largest in the world celebrating African film.

‘To The One I Love’ is a short documentary where the director (and film student), Zolani Ndevu, embarks on a quest to find and confront his father who walked out of his life as a baby.

The brutally honest and touching film portrays how unflinching Ndevu is with his treatment of a difficult and highly personal matter.

‘Kanyekanye’ is a dark, yet whimsical romantic comedy that centres on a small township where, many years ago, two best friends had a childish argument about which apple is better – the red or the green. The argument escalates, creating a great divide within the town, culminating in two teenagers from opposite sides falling in love. The film navigates their relationship and how they

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South African films ‘Kanyekanye’ and ‘To The One I Love’ won the Audience Choice Award for Best Short Film and the Professional Jury Award respectively at the 15th CineSud Short Film Festival in France.

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overcome the division. Directed by AFDA film student Miklas Manneke, ‘Kanyekanye’ has won multiple awards including Best Student

Film at Jozi Film Festival in 2013, and was recently screened at the Pan African Film Festival in Los Angeles.

‘Behind The Word’, a short film by MarieClémentine Dusabejambo from Rwanda, also won a CineSud award. It tells the story of a young, 14-year-old girl who manages to get into a prestigious school but struggles to adapt and learn the language.

Barkhad Abdi to Star in ‘The Place That Hits The Sun’

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cclaimed first-time actor Barkhad Abdi, who recently won a BAFTA award for his role as supporting actor in ‘Captain Phillips’ is set to star in a historical drama called ‘The Place That Hits The Sun’, according to an exclusive in The Hollywood Reporter.

Producer Noel Pearson’s film follows famous South African marathon runner

Willie Mtolo, a Zulu warrior, who competed in the 1992 New York marathon. The story centres on Mtolo and Ray De Vries, a bar owner whose unlikely friendship transcended apartheid South Africa.

Abdi, who was born in Somalia and moved to the US when he was 14, made his film debut as a ship hijacker alongside Tom Hanks in Paul Greengrass’ film

‘Captain Phillips’. He was nominated for multiple awards for his role as a Somalian pirate, including a SAG, a Golden Globe, a BAFTA and an Oscar. In the Academy’s best supporting actor category, he faced competition from Jared leto (‘Dallas Buyers Club’), Bradley Cooper (‘American Hustle’), Michael Fassbender (’12 Years A Slave’) and Jonah Hill (‘The Wolf of Wall Street’).

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HOLLYWOOD HEAVYWEIGHTS Swoon over SA's skills

By Katie Reynolds

“ MaryAnn Hughes from Walt Disney Studios, Nils Flaatten, CEO of Wesgro, and Marvin Savin, CFO of Moonlighting Films

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rand South Africa and other national and provincial partners including Wesgro, the official tourism, trade and investment promotion agency for the Western Cape, brought four top Hollywood film executives to South Africa’s shores for what is known as a ‘familiarisation’ trip. The group comprised Vance van Petten, Executive Director of the Producers Guild of America; MaryAnn Hughes, Vice President, Film and Television Production Planning at Disney; Sara Spring, Senior Vice President of Feature Production at Paramount; and Kate Beyda, Senior Vice-President of Physical Production at Warner Bros. The purpose of this trip was to showcase the country’s talent, locations, skills and attractive financial incentives to industry heavyweights, with the intention of attracting more film productions from the major movie studios and independent producers. But did it work? Katie Reynolds, Editor of The Filmmaker’s Guide to Africa

and The Callsheet, sat down with the executives for an in-depth talk about their experiences. Nils Flaatten, CEO of Wesgro, as well as Nico Dekker, CEO of Cape Town Film Studios, provided insight into the country’s film sector, and the promising outcomes that will result from the executives’ visit.

What were your expectations for this trip?

MaryAnn Hughes: “I came here to meet with government officials and representatives from the Department of Trade and Industry (dti), the NFVF, and various film commissioners to talk about incentives and doing things that would help to further the relationships and partnerships between the industry and government.

We’ve started dialogue about tapping into working with tourism and doing crossmarketing, and so I leave here feeling that we really have started that partnership.”

The depth of skills that the crew have here is incredibly attractive, and in my mind, a competitive advantage over other countries.

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Sara Spring: “I really just came here to see how viable it was, from a creative standpoint in terms of locations as well as a production standpoint like crew, facilities or level of crew expertise.”

Kate Beyda: “I wanted to see physical production facilities and locations, as well as creative aspects.”

Vance Van Petten: “My expectations were quite high when I arrived here, because two of my producers both produced films here (Invictus and Blood Diamond). They told me that they were exceptionally impressed with South Africa.”

What are the key competitive advantages that South Africa has over other locales?

Kate Beyda: “The depth of skills that the crew have here is incredibly attractive, and in my mind, a competitive advantage over other countries. The fact that there is no

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Sara Spring from Paramount Pictures, Kate Beyda from Warner Bros, MaryAnn Hughes from Walt Disney Studios, and Vance Van Petten from the Producers Guild of America

language barrier is another great advantage.

South Africa is simply a premier filmmaking country. Everything we saw in Johannesburg and Cape Town, including the incredible Cape Town Film Studios, was tremendous.

Every hotel we stayed in was gorgeous. I would have no trouble bringing high-profile cast here, I actually think it would be an attractive location for high-profile cast. It was just terrific on every level.”

Vance Van Petten: “The support system that has been set up with the government, the dti and Wesgro is exceptional in that everyone is so invested. In America we don’t have the same support from our government officials. You have direct personal and financial investment in building an industry. In California we have taken it for granted, and we are losing production. The commitment you have from all levels of government is truly astounding.”

Were your expectations met?

Sara Spring: “I have a number of projects that could possibly shoot here, and I’m sure I’ll have more in the future as well. I have to say that my expectations were more than met. We had the opportunity to go to the CTFS and they are state-of-the-art, and the level of craftsmanship on top of that far surpassed any expectations. I was also able to validate numbers in terms of crew rates, and I look forward to bringing movies here.”

Kate Beyda: “My expectations were more

than met, in fact they were surpassed!”

Vance Van Petten: “I was more than impressed with everything, including Nico Dekker (CEO of CTFS) and the work he has done. I’m no stranger to new studios, and what Nico has done with the tanks (for the production of Black Sails), the facilities and the craftsmanship truly exceeds what I have seen in the United States. You are at the forefront, and there is massive competition behind you. I went to South Korea last year, I’ve been to Jordan and the Czech Republic and they all want to be involved in this business but I’ve never seen the degree of investment and courage as I’ve seen in South Africa. We were treated like family.”

MaryAnn Hughes: “You so wildly exceeded my expectations that I don’t think we can put words to how amazed we are. From the warm welcoming attitude to the hospitality; all of us said we would like to move here!

What we take away from this trip is that we have gained a wealth of information, fostered many relationships across individuals and companies and we have really planted the seed of ‘how do we take this to the next level? “

How does South Africa compare to other countries in terms of technology?

Kate Beyda: “In terms of technology, South Africa is actually ahead of the curve in many respects. Those sound stages at Cape Town

Film Studios are incredibly advanced, and beyond anything I have seen before. We saw visual effects work being done, and the work was beautiful and highly competitive.

The success of this trip for me was seeing the depth of what is available here. It was surprising and enlightening only because we were physically here to experience it and see it firsthand. South Africa has always had amazing commercial productions, and that translates so easily into film.”

Please tell us about some of the people you met while here.

Vance Van Petten: Francois Truter (Head of Incentives at the dti) literally spent days with us. He badgered us for detailed information regarding what we as foreign film executives look for in a possible film location. He was incredibly diligent. We also met some people from the Industrial Development Corporation, and were just astounded by their willingness to cooperate, and the passion that they so clearly have for nurturing the film sector in South Africa.

Zama Mkosi of the NFVF was also amazing. We are looking into partnering for a diversity project that would nurture upcoming, developing producers from South Africa and putting them through our 11-week programme in America. They could then come back and widen the networking circle.

Nils Flaatten of Wesgro also spent hours with us. What we need to know when we

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Monica Rorvik from Wesgro, MaryAnn Hughes from Walt Disney Studios, and Welcome Msomi from the KZN Film Commission

come to a country is that we can partner up with professional producers to make sure the work gets done in a way that we can sell it internationally. Production values are extremely important, and Nils put together an evening event which involved professional, excellent producers with vast experience. They were incredibly impressive.”

Kate Beyda: Mpumi Mabuza from Brand South Africa was great, and always had answers for us. We were introduced to all the right production people through Mpumi and team.

So introducing film producers to South Africa was a smart move?

Vance Van Petten: “Producers are trailblazers, they are risk takers, and they are at the very front of the charge. They are the ones who are first in and last out. They work harder than anyone. It takes real leaders, and South African entrepreneurs are taking the forward step ahead of the industry. I represent 6 000 producers that have to make a living producing, so they are going all over the world to look for the best opportunities including financial, like tax incentives, as well as creative and construction talent and crew

members that are state of the art making the very best stuff.”

When the conversation turned to job creation, Nils Flaatten said “What we would really like to see is the destination’s capacity for film. We want to close the gaps between productions. When crews are done, we want them to move on to the next production regardless of what part of the value chain they are in. What arose from a conversation with MaryAnn was the potential of producing television and animation content in South Africa. Our people are more than capable in every aspect.

As we’ve travelled around the country, the comment has been made that we are really strong on the location side, we have a lot of diversity, and we knew that. But to hear it from people that have shot films and shows around the world really validated what we knew. The great period that South Africa finds itself in proves that the entire value chain is worthy of respect. There is so much depth here, and we have a great platform to work with going forward. This kind of connectivity, and understanding how the studio’s business model is driven and what the independent producer’s requirements are was invaluable

for us. We should look forward to seeing some big-budget films move into the country.”

Nico Dekker, CEO of Cape Town Film Studios, had this to say about the state of the South African film industry: “I’ve personally always been a great fan of the spirit of filmmaking in the US, and the way they tackle challenges. It made me believe that anything is possible if you work hard and believe in your work. I’ve been very fortunate to be involved, and I like to think of the filmmaking process holistically. We don’t want just buildings. We also want people with passion. South Africa is proud of what it has accomplished in the film sector, and we still have a long road ahead of us. The biggest challenge for the South African film industry is to try and translate some of this energy into film partnerships with our friends overseas.

That means we haven’t managed it yet. We have made small films and been very careful, but there is no reason why we can’t cross over into a different style of filmmaking. I feel that we don’t trust our industry to produce bigger budget films, and it’s just a matter of envisioning it. We make wonderful little films that go to festivals and win prizes. Gavin Hood said to me that we must somehow take the next step and cross into commercial-style film.

The economic impact of film on the economy is around R5-billion, so the importance of making a success of this sector cannot be overstated” The exuberance and enthusiasm that emanated from the four film executives was truly contagious. It was apparent that this ‘fam’ visit was no free holiday. Their humility, passion and drive shone through in their responses, and they were genuinely thrilled about the prospects of film and television productions being created in partnership with local industry.

This bodes extremely well for South Africa.

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CANNES LIONS ANNOUNCES CHANGES To Palme d'Or and Introduces Media Network of the Year and Regional Networks of the Year Awards

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inemark, the local representatives of Cannes Lions and its affiliates, are passionate about both great film and advertising making this the perfect synergy to bring you the latest information from the world’s premier advertising festivals.

The Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity is introducing a number of changes to some of its Special Awards which are based on points accumulated from shortlisted and award-winning work presented at the Festival.

The Palme d’Or award, presented to the best performing Production Company, will see changes introduced to bring it in line with the other special awards. The calculation will continue to be based on a points system awarded as follows: 10 points for a Grand Prix; 7 points for a Gold Lion; 5 points for a Silver Lion; 3 points for a Bronze Lion; 1 point for a shortlist entry.

The changes being introduced are: •

Production companies no longer have to have at least 10 entries in the qualifying categories - Film, Film Craft and Branded Content & Entertainment - to be eligible for the Palme d’Or. • The Palme d’Or will now consider all shortlisted and winning entries from a Production Company. In previous years, only the best 10 entries from each production company were considered.

• Shortlisted points will now be capped at 10 points, which is in line with the existing Agency of the Year rules.

“We welcome these positive changes to the Palme d’Or award as they will allow exposure to more producers throughout the

world,” says François Chilot, President of CFPE/YDA. The Media Agency of the Year Award will be replaced by the Media Network of the Year award. It will be awarded to the media agency network that obtains the highest score for entries in the Media Lions section. Only media agencies are eligible to compete in this award, which will be based on a points system as above. Advertising agencies credited on shortlisted and winning campaigns in Media Lions will see their points included in the Agency of the Year and Independent Agency of the Year calculation.

“Having a Media Network of the Year is extremely smart and fair. It is an exciting and welcome innovation to Cannes,” comments Daryl Lee, Global CEO of UM. Complementing the global Network of the Year award, for the first time the performance of networks at a regional level - Regional Network of the Year award- will be announced during the final awards ceremony on Saturday 21 June, to honour the most awarded network at the festival in EMEA, Asia-Pacific, North America and LATAM. “As is our usual process when introducing changes at Cannes Lions, we consult extensively with industry leaders to ensure that we continue to be relevant and reflect the changes that are happening in the business around the world,” says Terry Savage, Chairman of Lions Festivals.

“These adjustments to the calculations of the Special Awards are no exception, and as such we are delighted to have the support and endorsement of the key players.”

The Media Network of the Year will be revealed in Cannes during the awards on Tuesday 17 June. Holding Company of the Year, Network of the Year, Regional Networks of the Year, Independent Agency of the Year,

Agency of the Year, Palme d’Or and Grand Prix for Good will all be announced on 21 June, the last day of the festival, during the final awards.

Entries for Cannes Lions 2014 can be submitted until 28 March. The 61st Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, the largest and most prestigious communications awards and gathering of industry peers from around the globe takes place 15-21 June at the Palais des Festivals in Cannes, France.

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AERIAL CINEMATOGRAPHY Flying with the Big Boys

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rom ever-changing technology to hi-tech copters and stunning locations – the life of an aerial cinematographer is every youngster’s dream. Soaring above a herd of elephant crashing through the jungle and handling remote-controlled everything are part and parcel of this envious career path. But there’s a lot more to aerial cinematography than meets the eye.

Hayes Cunningham, Director at Halo Media and PixAir, a Durban-based aerial video and photographic company that has worked with the likes of National Geographic, Karlien van Jaarsveld and many other South African film directors and producers, says that attaching a camera to an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) offers some very exciting prospects to the traditional video, film and photography industry. “It allows the industry to capture imagery that was previously not possible using traditional filming methods. It also allows the industry to capture traditional scenes – dollies and jibs, for instance – that would normally take a great deal of time to achieve, in a very short space of time, which translates to massive savings in production costs.”

The basic idea of aerial cinematography is using either a multi-rotor drone powered by batteries to transport the camera into the air. “These drones usually have either four, six or eight brushless motors depending on the weight of the camera and the shots required for each specific project,” he says.

And of course, each project has different specifications, whether it’s a corporate video, sporting event or high-end film production. For high-end film projects, both a pilot and a camera operator are vital to achieve dynamic results. The pilot will focus on the predetermined and discussed flight paths, while the camera operator will

control the camera mounted on a “highly technical 3-axis gimbal that is stabilised using software set to each specific camera and weather conditions in order to achieve optimum stabilisation,” according to Cunningham.

Falk Eggert is Director at Cinesky, the foremost aerial cinematography company in Cape Town. Cinesky is known for their work with reality show ‘The Bachelor’, the Aleit Group, and most recently, the launch of the new Mercedes Benz G-Class.

“Aerial cinematography can be divided into four main categories: feature films, commercials, broadcasting and sports,” he says. “Equipment and manpower depend on budget. For movies, Cineflex systems are high end, mounted onto helicopters, and come with a camera already.” He says that Cineflex is one of the most powerful tools in the industry right now because it’s “stabilisation is phenomenal”. “Even at full zoom there’s zero vibration so you get tremendous focal length. This is used mainly in car commercials and films, but also in broadcasting the ‘Planet Earth’ series

“

Aerial cinematography allows the industry to capture imagery that was previously not possible using traditional filming methods.

“

and ‘Blue Planet’, for example.” Eggert says Cineflex also lends itself to broadcast and television shows in establishing locations for viewers.

Although the Cineflex systems are expensive, this doesn’t necessarily mean that drones or octocopters are much cheaper. “Octocopters are in demand because of their manoeuvres and useful angles,” says Eggert. “There are the highend ones which can lift big cameras – Red Epics – but also drones which can be

14 | SPOTLIGHT

employed for less which carry cameras for broadcast, like DSLRs (Digital Single-Lens Reflex cameras) and Panasonic Lumix DMCGH3s at a much reduced rate.”

He says there are many pitfalls, however, and despite octocopters looking like fun, there are things that every pilot needs to know and consider – like the battery life of their instrument. “It’s a new production tool that directors need to get used to and understand what is possible and what is legal. It’s not a question of if, but when it falls from the sky so it should not be flown over crowds or highways.”

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“

Cunningham echoes this sentiment, saying, “It is vital to understand that there is a huge difference between the small drones that you fly around your garden with your iPhone and the expensive, professional progear we use. These are NOT toys! Current drone legislation and usage of drones is still being formed and drafted, which means both the safety and reputation of our industry depends on the operators.”

When it comes to learning aerial cinematography, Cunningham believes that special training is imperative. “In terms of film training, this technology has only

This industry is literally growing on a daily basis both in drone and camera technology. Not a day goes by where we are not online visiting our favourite websites or forums, discussing and reading about these developments.

recently been commercialised on a large scale. As a result there are no institutions that I know of where you can specialise in this kind of cinematography in South Africa. However, if you have a film, video or photographic background this is a great foundation to work from. In many circumstances as you are flying around the skies, the lighting changes dramatically and this will call on that knowledge to overcome these variables.”

“Experience is the biggest component,” Eggert says. “Some guys jump into it and think they can do it. In the Cape especially, there are many conditions that test pilots.

Drones are easily influenced by wind so producers need to include that in the shoot.

Safety is always the threshold but when you have trained pilots for these conditions, it works.” He says there are also different fields of aerial cinematography to specialise in. “Do you want to be a pilot, man a helicopter, or operate remote heads? Not everyone can steer cameras on joysticks.”

As for recent trends in the industry, there

“

seems to be no such thing. The technology for aerial cinematography is developing at such a fast rate that sometimes not even operators can keep up. “This industry is literally growing on a daily basis both in drone and camera technology. Not a day goes by – unless on an extended shoot in the middle of nowhere – where we are not online visiting our favourite websites or forums, discussing and reading about these developments,” says Cunningham. He does mention, however, that there has been an “absolute explosion” of drone sales in the final quarter of 2013. New cameras are being developed to suite drones and vice versa.

“Drones are able to lift heavier, fly longer and be far more capable than they have ever been before. Cameras are getting smaller and more powerful. This year there’s a big buzz about 4K. It seems there is a race on across the manufacturers to compress 4K into smaller cameras and recording devices while measuring up to the standards of the film industry. I think this year should be called 2014K (All rights reserved - PixAir).”

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From

TV DESTINATION TO TV PRODUCER O

ver the last decade, Africa has emerged as a popular destination for TV series, but the continent is also positioning itself as a content producer for the international marketplace.

Cooked In Africa’s business development and marketing director Lara Black points out that Africa, a relatively untapped continent of just over a billion people, “represents the new frontier and next biggest growth market to content producers, distributors and buyers.”

Charles Murito, chief commercial officer of Wananchi Programming, echoes this, pointing to the continent’s economic boom. “A lot of countries are experiencing mid-to-high singledigit GDP growth (more than most developed countries), a rising middle class, a leapfrog in technological advances, as well as a need for greater content due to the digital migration/ analogue switch-off.”

For now, Lucky Bean Media’s executive producer Donald Clarke says that the main market for African TV exports remains the 30 million-strong African diaspora.

Endemol’s managing director Sivan Pillay agrees. “Local African programming does give the audience a good idea of issues and environment prevailing on the continent, but this is still much more relevant locally.

Demand globally is only from the African diaspora predominantly.”

But with Africa taking its rightful place on the global stage, this may be changing. For example, news channels are increasingly creating windows onto Africa, just as they would the rest of the world. In recent years, as a few examples, Al Jazeera launched ‘South2North,’ a weekly talk show from Johannesburg with Redi Tlhabi; BBC launched ‘Africa Business Report’ with Lerato Mbele; and CNN launched ‘Inside Africa’ and ‘African Voices.’

While interest in Africa is growing, the quality of African content is also improving. As Charles says, “Africa is coming of age, with well-written

Jungle Beat

and produced shows that have strong storylines and characters. These shows are worthy of travelling beyond their country of origin. Just as content in other markets travels beyond borders and resonates, we are now seeing the same type of content originating from Africa. I look forward to when we speak of ‘great shows’ that just happen to be made here.”

African projects have received a string of international accolades recently: at the 2013 International Emmy Awards, for example, Semba Comunicaco’s Angolan soap opera ‘Windeck: The Price of Success’ was nominated as Best Telenovela; Lucky Bean Media and Quizzical Pictures’ ‘MasterChef South Africa’ was nominated as Best Non-Scripted Entertainment; and Diprente Films’ ‘Late Nite News With Loyiso Gola’ was nominated as Best Comedy.

This kind of international affirmation isn’t unusual; just look at South African production company Quizzical Pictures. At the 2010 Rose D’Or Awards, their documentary ‘A Country Imagined’ was nominated in the Arts Documentary category, while their drama ‘Hopeville’ won the Drama and Miniseries

category. ‘Hopeville’ was also nominated for an International Emmy in 2010. In 2012, their drama ‘Intersexions’ won a Peabody. Last year, their film ‘iNumber Number’ premiered at Toronto International Film Festival and has been picked up by Wrekin Hill Entertainment for a limited theatrical release in the USA, by Fortissimo Films for international distribution, and by Universal Pictures for a remake.

“African TV programmes are hitting a stride quality-wise; they now hold their own on the world stage,” says Sunrise Productions’ marketing and licensing manager Nicola Rowe.

‘Jungle Beat,’ their series of five-minute animations for children, is a great example of this, having won numerous awards worldwide, including both the Audience Award and Second Place at AnimaMundi in Brazil.

“It’s exciting times because not only is the quality in the zone now, but the ability to genuinely create the volumes required in long form is growing and shaping up nicely,” she says.

Although much delayed, digital migration has already led to more channels and more

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Ultimate Braai Master

demand for African content, which in turn is creating a vibrant industry. Sherene Kingma, Off The Fence’s business manager in South Africa, says, “It’s an exciting time for African filmmakers as there are many new channels launching within the African continent. These are looking more and more for local, Africa-centric shows, so commissions and co-productions on the continent should increase.”

For example, in South Africa alone, 2013 marked the launch of OpenView, a new, payonce, HD satellite platform; Mzansi Bioskop, Telemundo, True Movies1, SABC’s 24-hour news channel and Africa News Network 7 on DSTV; and four new e.tv channels: eKasi+, eAfrica+, eMovies+, and eToonz. In addition, Charles says, “The key new trend that I have witnessed is the increased appetite for VOD.” Deloitte’s ‘Technology, Media ands Telecommunications Predictions for 2014’ report prophesied one million new video-on-demand (VOD) subscribers in sub-Saharan Africa alone in 2014, despite the lack of broadband infrastructure in the region.

While Amazon Prime, Hulu, Netflix and most iTunes content is only available via VPN at this stage, there are a number of African alternatives springing up, including Africafilms.tv, Buni, DSTV’s Box Office and CatchUp services,

iRokoTV, StreamSAMovies, Wabona and Zuku.

South African internet provider Telkom also issued a VOD tender in February 2014.

Quizzical Pictures’ publicist Theo Nel says, “Audiences are growing fast and are hungry for content, especially shows that reflect their realities and aspirations. Presales, minimum guarantees and sales of content to new markets are for the first time possible for South African producers and broadcasters. The amount that can be generated is now sizable enough to make real co-productions possible.”

Donald agrees that “budgets are definitely rising”, but Charles put this into context. “Yes, budgets are rising. However, they are still incredibly low compared to other markets.

So the increase in budgets is only marginal.

There is still a lot more investment that needs to be done, especially around character and script development.”

Nicola adds, “The increase in African viewers has only had a minimal effect on our industry and local budgets stalled years ago with no sign of increase. Adding more and more channels only serves to break up a viewer base, not increase it.”

Sherene agrees. “Unfortunately budgets are not rising. Rather than becoming larger, the audience is becoming more selective on what

they watch; the present audience is being split into smaller groups,” Charles adds, “The issue is that, even though more people are watching content across more markets, the per capita GDP is still relatively low and therefore the trickle effect that comes with that is not as great as in other places such as Asia or Europe. Advertising spends are still very low outside South Africa, Nigeria and Kenya. There are still a lot of factors that that have to change before we can see a significant rise in budgets.”

However, Sherene says African filmmakers are making the most of the budgets they have.

“Because of generally lower commissioning rates per show, African filmmakers have become very smart in how to get the most for the lowest dollar! They make great, quirky content for a fraction of the price, content which has a great appeal to this continent and further afield.”

Rather than larger budgets, what the increased number of channels has rather meant is more selective viewers. “The discretion of the audience is increasing,” says Donald. “The multitude of channels now available across Africa means that viewers want world-class production values with local relevance. And local doesn’t mean the continent but specific to a particular territory, such as Angola, Nigeria or East Africa.”

Sivan agrees that Africa is not a country.

“Africa does not have a continental ubiquitous brand or identity in television; the markets vary from east to west and north to south.”

Charles similarly points to regional specialties such as Bongo from Tanzania and Riverwood in Kenya. However, he says, “The key point to emphasize is that content creators and commissioners are now spending time creating and delivering stronger content that can travel beyond the points of origin. Content that takes universal story lines and tells them well, with high production value. With the increase of the multi-channel universe and audience fragmentation, great content will continue to be even more critical. As they say, cream rises to the top. In this case, well-written and produced content is the cream.”

To compensate for the lack of financial support from African broadcasters, Donald says, “The trend is that of branded content or big primetime formats that have brand integration.”

The other is to look internationally for funding and audiences. Nordic Noir is a recent example of successful regional branding for international markets, but there’s no direct equivalent for Africa yet.

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Peter Gird & Justin Bonello

“The Scandinavian model of making a good local show and then selling the concept to America seems like a short-term plan with limited benefit to the original countries’ industry, especially since we just cannot raise that kind of budget locally,” says Nicola. “What’s needed is a South African-located show for an international audience, created with an international partner like HBO or Netflix.”

Although created by Company Pictures in the UK, one successful example would be ITV’s ‘Wild At Heart,’ the story of British vet who emigrated to a South African reserve. The popular show ran for seven seasons, ending in 2012, and was remade – less successfully – for an American market. Out of Africa provided production services in South Africa.

One area that may emerge as an African specialty is cooking shows. Sherene says these are proving to be the most popular content in Off The Fence’s African catalogue, “especially cooking shows that have a travel element.”

For example, she points to ‘Charly’s Cake Angels,’ a Cooked In Africa show centered around a quirky cake shop in Cape Town’s CBD, and ‘Tales From The Bush Larder,’ about Kenyan chef Kiran Jethwa. “The success of season one of ‘Tales From The Bush Larder’ created the opportunity for Fox to step in and co-produce

season two with Wananchi,” she says.

Cooked in Africa Films is one South African production company to watch in this regard.

Over the last decade, Cooked in Africa has delivered more than 200 hours of programming to broadcasters as diverse as BBC International, Discovery, The Food Network, National Geographic, Sky, Travel Channel and local South African broadcasters M-Net, e.tv and SABC. Their flagship reality TV franchise Ultimate Braai Master made its debut on SABC 3 in 2012; screened its first two seasons to over 100 million viewers worldwide in over 280 territories, and has now been licensed as a format by all3media International, their first format from South Africa.

Sivan says “scripted and reality are the consumption drivers for television,” while Donald says “bubblegum movies, African fashion and music, and of course wildlife are selling well and will continue.”

Nicola adds, “Africa is starting to position itself as a contender in the 3D CGI space. From an animation perspective, South Africa offers unique stories with highly trained artists that are cheaper than Europe. This is a great mix and broadcasters have realised this with Sunrise’s show, ‘Jungle Beat’. Of course the key is to move from service work to our own content, but this is actually easier in animation as opposed to live

action because of our ability to re-voice accents and create characters of any ethnicity or origin.”

Looking forward, Nicola is positive, “As more and more African viewers become middle-class in years to come, there could be a huge shift in this base. Channels like Fox have seen this potential and are investing in that African future.”

But for now, the sad reality is, as Endemol managing director Sivan Pillay points out, “Africa’s most successful shows are generally not sold at MIP as the distribution rights either are with a broadcaster (South Africa) or in Africa with a sponsor or producer (who don’t have a MIP presence.) So in the case of South Africa, the local broadcasters don’t have a sales stand, for example where all the drama and soapies are being canvassed for distribution. That may change soon should demand increase.”

Similarly, Mfundi Vundla from Morula Pictures says, “I receive no financial benefit of any significance on the sale of Generations,” South Africa’s most-watched soap opera for the 20 years of democracy. Mfundi created the show and produced it for the SABC, but as he points out: “The copyright rests with the SABC. Given this, I have no incentive to even think about foreign sales because in South Africa producers do not own what they create. This in my view is a barrier to economic growth and an injustice the SA television industry perpetrates on the producers of SA. In the UK and the US for example -producers own what they create.

They can leverage their shows to produce other shows in the same way that you leverage a bond through refinancing. That’s the only way industry grows. We will never be serious players in the international marketplace as long as this injustice persists. The tragedy is the broadcasters parachute themselves into the landscape of TV entrepreneurs, muscling them out of local content sales sector they know nothing about.

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‘State House’ A co-production between Wananchi Programming and Awali Entertainment for Zuku Entertainment, ‘State House’ is a modern-day political drama set in Nairobi’s presidential residence. As Wananchi Programming’s Hannelie Bekker says, “’State House’ is Kenya’s answer to ‘The West Wing.’”

Around Iceland On Inspiration, Crew

Broadcasters must leave producers to producing and owning the material they create. British TV producers and programmes have cracked the lucrative American TV marketplace because, since they own what they create, they have aggressively marketed themselves.”

AFRICAN CONTENT TO WATCH ‘Around Iceland On Inspiration’ Riaan Manser rose to prominence when he became the first person to cycle 37,000 kilometres around the entire perimeter of Africa a feat that earned him the title ‘Adventurer of the Year 2006’. In 2009, Riaan set another world first when he circumnavigated Madagascar by kayak - alone and unaided. For his latest adventure, Riaan takes on the North Sea’s arctic waters in a six-month, 5 000km circumnavigation of Iceland by kayak. Not only does Riaan have to adjust to freezing sub-zero temperatures, but this time he is not alone - he has an expedition partner, Dan Skinstad, who suffers from cerebral palsy.

‘Around Iceland on Inspiration’ is produced by Cooked In Africa.

‘Intersexions’ ‘Intersexions’ is a gripping drama series exploring often taboo issues on HIV/Aids, love, sex and relationships. Produced by Quizzical Pictures for SABC1, the show won 11 South African Film and Television Awards (SAFTAS) for its first season, as well as a 2011 Peabody Award.

Its second season has just been nominated for another eight SAFTAs. ‘Charly’s Cake Angels’ One of the two most successful African shows (that are sold internationally) from Off The Fence’s catalogue, ‘Charly’s Cake Angels’ is centered around a quirky cake shop in Cape Town’s CBD. “What makes this show is the delightful interaction between the charismatic main characters of the show,” says Off The

Fence’s Sherene Kingma. “They have a huge international following now; in summer time the queues at the shop are out of the door, around the corner, and filled with various nationalities coming for a glimpse of their favourite Angel.”

‘Jungle Beat’ ‘Jungle Beat’ is a fun, family-friendly series of CGI-animated, self-contained, dialogue-free, fiveminute episodes, which each feature a different animal and the bizarre situations they encounter in nature. Produced from Cape Town by Sunrise Productions, ‘Jungle Beat’ has been broadcast in over 180 countries and won numerous awards.

They’re currently producing season three, which introduces underwater characters for the first time and will be completed by the end of 2014.

They’re also rolling out a new website, mobile game and social media integration over the next year.

‘Late Nite News With Loyiso Gola’ Nominated as Best Comedy at the 2013 International Emmys, ‘Late Nite News with Loyiso Gola’ is a mad-cap take on South Africa’s ever-changing political and social landscape.

There are no sacred cows for this weekly satire, which also features David Kibuuka, the reluctant foreign correspondent, and Chester Missing, widely considered to be one of the most insightful (albeit plastic) commentators in the nation. Diprente Films produces for eNews Channel Africa.

‘MasterChef South Africa’ Nominated as Best Non-Scripted Entertainment at the 2013 International Emmy Awards, ‘MasterChef South Africa’ brings the popular reality cooking competition for amateurs to Africa. Produced by Lucky Bean and Quizzical Pictures, MasterChef South Africa has already been sold for a second season into Europe and the UK by Shine, while the third season held auditions in February and March 2014.

‘Tales From A Bush Larder’ Screened on National Geographic in the UK, ‘Tales From The Bush Larder’ takes you on a culinary tour of Kenya. Shot against breathtaking landscapes and hosted by Kenyan chef Kiran Jethwa, each episode explores the source of one of the unusual ingredients that the country is rich in: Nile perch, African wild honey and wild fowl, Swahili prawns, Boran beef, Dorobo lamb, Palm Wine, and Mud Crabs.

‘Ultimate Braai Master’ Described as “the toughest outdoor cooking competition ever seen,” ‘Ultimate Braai Master’ challenges amateur chefs to cook in the great outdoors. The show attracted double the audiences of ‘MasterChef South Africa’ throughout its premier run on SABC and triple the audiences of ‘Come Dine With Me South Africa.’ all3media international has just bought the format, their first from South Africa. It’s produced by Cooked in Africa Films.

‘Undercover Boss’ Cooked in Africa Films has secured the rights to produce the Emmy-winning reality series, ‘Undercover Boss,’ in South Africa from all3Media International. The series follows high-level corporate executives as they take the extraordinary step of going undercover in their own companies and walking in the shoes of an ordinary employee - sometimes having to carry out the lowest level jobs within their companies as they find out what their employees really think of them and discover whether their companies are really operating as smoothly as they believe.

Cooked in Africa is currently in pre-production, with filming kicking off in July 2014 for a 2015 South African premiere.

‘Windeck: The Price of Success’ Nominated as Best Telenovela at the 2013 International Emmy Award, ‘Windeck’ is set in the Luanda offices of the fictional lifestyle magazine ‘Divo.’ The show was such a hit in Angola that producers Semba Comunicaco actually launched ‘Divo’ as a real magazine last year. Côte Ouest is handling international sales at MIPTV.

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2014 IS A WATERSHED YEAR for Cape Town-based media group, Okuhle (O-koo-shle) Media.

By Alison Evans

S

ignalling the start of a new era was opening of the doors on the group’s MagnaTude Studios in January of this year. After an 18-month process, from sourcing the ideal property to the completion of the facility, MagnaTude Studios broadcast live for the first time on Monday, 13 January 2014 with an hour-long episode of the twice SAFTA nominated, daily, live, youth show Hectic Nine-9.

“After 11 years of producing exceptional video and broadcast content for brands and broadcasters locally and internationally, it was a natural progression for the company to add studio and post production facilities to our offerings,” said Executive Director of Production and Development, Louise McClelland (van Hoff).

MagnaTude Studios & Post caters for all segments of the television recording, broadcast and post production market. Located at Waverley Business Park in Mowbray, it is Cape Town’s first (and currently only) permanent, HD, live broadcast, soundproof studio.

“With an overriding objective of providing state-of-the-art recording and live broadcast facilities, a great deal of time, effort and finances have been invested in sourcing and acquiring the best possible technology for the studio,” continued McClelland. “This extends to the available space being optimised in order to

create a facility that exceeds expectations of all the productions it hosts,” she concluded.

MagnaTude Studios’ unique offering has not gone unnoticed by the industry or government.

Alan Winde, Minister of Finance, Economic Development and Tourism for the Western Cape said, “The Western Cape Government is pleased to see the Okuhle team open doors on a powerful new business venture. Their offering of a state of the art, fully sound proof, live TV. HD broadcast studio, located just minutes from downtown and the airport, should be a welcome offering to the industry. This is the kind of investment that will drive employment to the province and the City, and assist in consolidating the reputation of the Cape in the Film and TV industry.”

This is a sentiment echoed by Denis Lillie, CEO of the Cape Film Commission. “I welcome the opening of the new MagnaTude HD TV studios in Cape Town,” he said. “Over recent years the CFC has seen an increase of 30% of TV, documentary and features enquiries into Cape Town and the Western Cape. This new addition to the landscape will give international and local TV producers a further opportunity to bring their creative energies to the city. Cape Town is now firmly on the international map and is probably one of the top 10 international destinations for film and TV series.”

With MagnaTude Studios significantly strengthening Okuhle Media’s ability to be able to significantly contribute to the Film and TV industry in South Africa and the Western Cape, it is no surprise that the company was recently named as a finalist in the South African Premier Business Awards in the SMME category. The SA Premier Business Awards, hosted by the dti, in partnership with Proudly South African and Brand South Africa, aim to recognise South African enterprises which invest in both human and technical resources in various projects or activities, produce quality products and services and remain domestically and internationally competitive.

Okuhle Media’s Managing Director, Paula Brown, believes that the nomination is public recognition for the steps the company has taken over the past 3 years. “Okuhle Media has been participating in Grindstone, the business accelerator program for high-growth SMEs, backed by Knife Capital with support from the dti,” she said. “As a result, the company has undergone an intensive restructuring process that has resulted in a series of measures being undertaken to maintain and build on the momentum of our strong growth over the past few years,” “It is gratifying to see this process already bearing fruit. The opening of MagnaTude Studios is a significant step in our journey to achieving our long-held ambition of being listed amongst the top Media Groups in the country, if not internationally,” concluded Brown.

22 | PRO-SPECTIVE

www.filmmakerafrica.co.za

All images courtesy of the History Channel: America The Story of US © Joe Alblas

A chat with

GIULIO BICCARI

Giulio Biccari, an immensely talented cinematographer and director of photography, talks about the most challenging aspects of his craft, and weighs in on the aerial cinematography trend.

Please give our readers a brief overview of your career. How did you begin and what led you to become a cinematographer?

My interest began with stills; the photographic process seemed magical to me. Working in a darkroom and making images appear whether on negative or print was a wonderful adventure into a place where science and art met. I loved the smells and the sorcery of it all. After studying Film at Wits University doing a BA Dramatic Arts

I began working on documentaries and l learnt invaluable lessons on how to work ‘on the fly’ with very little resources and a small crew. Typically my crew consisted of myself, a sound recordist and a camera assistant if we were lucky. I began shooting small local independent feature films such as ‘Promised Land’ and ‘Forgiveness’ and have gradually moved into working on a broader range of work both in South Africa and abroad, such as `Luther’ and `Da Vinci’s Demons’ for television, as well as smaller independent films like `Black Butterflies’ and ‘Price of Sugar’.

What sort of training and qualifications do you need to become a cinematographer?

These days, there are a lot of study options to train for becoming a Cinematographer, either at University or through schools like AFDA, but at the end of the day, being on set, doing the hours and experiencing the mechanics of film making is what counts. There is a kind of mercurial energy in translating a story onto film, and only practice will teach you that.

Filmmaking is like joining a travelling circus and you need to be up for that kind of life.

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“

Filmmaking is like joining a travelling circus, and you need to be up for that kind of life.

“

What do you feel are the major trends occurring in the South African film landscape? How is the industry evolving?

I find it difficult to comment on the major trends occurring in the South African film landscape as I am based in Cape Town where the work is largely service orientated. The major change, I think is the advent of digital acquisition. Previously the resources to make a film were limited to a few heavily financed projects. Nowadays the technology is available to a much broader spectrum of filmmakers.

Digital cameras are prevalent in many forms and the fact that mainstream Hollywood directors like David Fincher, Steven Soderbergh, James Cameron etc are all embracing the idea of originating on a digital format, has opened

the door to a myriad of new filmmaking possibilities. Cameras such as the Arriflex Alexa, RED, and even the SLR’s (Canon D5 and D7) have meant the costs of making a film has become much more affordable. This gives independent filmmakers a lot more freedom to shoot the films they want, with smaller budgets and less interference from financial investors.

As a result there have been some very exciting local films produced recently, such as `Sleeper’s Wake’, `Skoonheid’, `Four Corners’, `Faan se Trein’ and ‘Durban Poison’.

What is the most challenging aspect of your work?

The most challenging aspect of my job is achieving the vision of the director within the financial parameters of the project. There is often not enough time or budget to craft the kind of film we would love to make, which often dictates the shooting style. Having said that, sometimes the budgetary constraints force us to be more innovative in how we approach the visual style of the film. The story is the thing that is paramount for me, and usually the director is the key to unlocking how we do this. My biggest collaboration on any job is with the director. Essentially it is my job

to realise the director’s vision. Telling the story sometimes may involve high-tech camera work and lighting, and sometimes it needs a more discreet naturalistic approach.

This month, The Callsheet is exploring aerial cinematography (see page 12). Have you ever encountered or worked with the aerial aspects of your craft?

Aerial work has transformed radically in the last few years. The use of drones with stabilized motion rigs has become almost standard on a medium-sized budget. The technology that allows operators to fly a drone with a small lightweight camera such as a Red Epic or SLR is now so sophisticated that amazing aerial work can be achieved with a fraction of the time and money that would with have normally been spent on traditional helicopter aerial work. The Movi Rig has created a buzz around aerial shooting and can produce some startling results with the right application and operators. Although, as with any new piece of kit that comes up, it’s all about figuring out how it’s going to help you tell the story.

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HOT DOCS to Host Official South African Delegation

“

H

ot Docs, North America’s largest documentary festival, conference and market, is set to take place from 24 April to 4 May 2014. The event will screen an outstanding selection of approximately 200 documentaries from Canada and around the world in Toronto. The theme for 2014 is “Doc (r)Evolution”, and will centre around interactive sessions and practical tools for working with the “rapidly changing landscape of documentary filmmaking”.

This year, the event will feature a keynote speech by Johanna Blakely, the Managing Director of Research at the Norman Lear Centre. Hot Docs will also be hosting special delegations from China, Germany, Italy, Japan, the Nordic region, the USA and South Africa. Each delegation consists of established producers and broadcasters working in social, cultural or political documentary genres. During the festival, delegates will have the chance to partake in a wealth of networking opportunities, market events and conference sessions.

South Africa’s official delegation is led by the National Film and Video Foundation (NFVF).

“We are pleased to have filmmaker delegations attending from such a diverse range of countries,” says Stephanie McArthur, Hot Docs Industry Programs

Manager. “The International delegation program ensures that the best industry professionals from around the globe are in attendance at Hot Docs.”

In addition to the programme, delegates will also be taking part in International Co-Production Day on April 28. It includes coproduction case studies, producer-to-producer meetings, and a networking luncheon and cocktail event. Aimed at sparking international co-productions, the day is open to all registered industry delegates.

Hot Docs recently announced that its $10,000 (R107,737) grant from the CrossCurrents Doc Fund will go to Quipu Projects. Established by Hot Docs and the R & M Lang Foundation in November of 2013, the international production fund aims to support short and midlength documentaries from emerging filmmakers working within communities whose perspectives have been historically underrepresented or marginalized.

“I’m delighted with the quality and variety of docs submitted,” says Robert Lang, Toronto-based documentary filmmaker and chair of the R & M Lang Foundation. “In the end, Quipu Project’s scope, the filmmakers’ close collaboration with the women in Peru, and the innovative

During the festival, delegates will have the chance to partake in a wealth of networking opportunities, market events and conference sessions.

South Africa’s official delegation is led by the National Film and Video Foundation (NFVF).

“

approach to its subject and the film’s release won us over.”

Hot Docs has also disclosed the recipient of its 2014 Outstanding Achievement Award – English documentary filmmaker and journalist, Adam Curtis. As part of the honour, Hot Docs will screen a retrospective during the 21st annual festival celebrating Curtis’ distinguished career as a director, producer and writer. Curtis is a multiple BAFTA award-winning documentary filmmaker and journalist known for his distinctive visual style. He enjoys exploring the theme of power and how it works in society through the medium of film, leaving viewers with a refreshing new angle on sociology, philosophy and political history.

“Adam Curtis blends journalism and cinematic storytelling to critique media and power in society with an unmatched style and complexity,” says Hot Docs director of programming Charlotte Cook. “It’s our pleasure to be able to showcase the work of a master of our craft and to celebrate his incredible contribution, not only to the art form, but to our culture as a whole.”

Hot Docs will also pay tribute to Canadian filmmaker John Zaritsky with the

SPOTLIGHT | 25

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“

Hot Docs will also be hosting special delegations from China, Germany, Italy, Japan, the Nordic region, the USA and South Africa.

“

2014 Focus On retrospective. The festival will screen ‘Romeo and Juliet in Sarajevo’ as part of the retrospective. Zaritsky has been making documentary films for over 40 years and his productions have been honoured with over 30 major awards, broadcast in 35 countries and have screened at over 40 film festivals across the globe.

For more information on the Hot Docs festival programme or conference details, visit www.hotdocs.ca

26 | PRO-SPECTIVE

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GREG LATTER Shares His Scriptwriting Insights

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multi award-winning writer who has brought over 20 feature films, 11 television series and five plays into existence, Greg Latter is a true pioneer in the South African film industry. Some of his more recent works include the superb stage production of ‘Death of a Colonialist’, starring Jamie Bartlett, ‘Night Train to Lisbon’ featuring Jeremy Irons, ‘Black Butterflies’, which won the Best Actress Award at Tribeca Film Festival in 2011, and ‘Goodbye Bafana’, which scooped up the Berlin Peace Prize as well as Best Screenplay and Best Feature Film at the 2007 South African Television and Film Awards. The Callsheet chatted with him about his secret to success, his current projects and how he effortlessly he weaves between film and stage productions.

You’ve won countless awards for scriptwriting.

What is your ‘formula’ for success?

I don’t have a formula but I do like telling small, intimate stories set against monumental backdrops. For example in my last film, ‘Night Train to Lisbon’, Jeremy Irons’ character becomes obsessed with

discovering the identity of the author of a book he is busy reading, a journey which ultimately leads him to self-discovery. But all this is told against the backdrop of the Carnation Revolution in Portugal in 1974, which culminated in a military coup. So the combustion of the intimate, smaller story becomes fuelled by the larger social picture. I did a similar thing in ‘Black Butterflies’ where Ingrid Jonker’s character is trying to find love,

both within herself and with others, but the cruelty of the Apartheid system blocks her.

The fact that her father was actually heading up the Censorship Board at the time helped link the smaller story to the larger social canvas. In my film ‘Forgiveness’, the village of Paternoster serves as a microcosm for the larger South Africa; beautiful sunny skies with tortured worms burrowing up through the fragile crust.

PRO-SPECTIVE | 27

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“ Black Butterflies

Looking back on your career, which stage or film projects have you been most proud of?

I’m very proud of one of my earlier works, ‘Jobman’, directed by Darrell Roodt. But after that I started doing a lot of rubbish, working on action movies. Unfortunately that carried on for many, many years. Then one day in Los Angeles my wife called to tell me she was pregnant with our third child and I thought, I can’t have my children watching these films! So I went into the office and told the producers I can’t work on another film with a Ninja, or a Kickboxer or a Marine or Cyborgwhatever in it. They said to me: (imagine a thick Israeli accent) “But Greg, that means you’ll never work for us again.” That night I flew home and since then I’ve been very proud of the work I’ve done.

I am particularly proud of my film ‘Goodbye Bafana’, directed by Bille August.

I think it’s the best film done on Mandela, although it’s hardly about him – perhaps that’s why it’s good. My advice is to stay away from characters that are near perfect – flawed people are far more interesting.

I’m also very proud of my play ‘Death of a Colonialist’, which has just played to packed houses at The Baxter Theatre in Cape Town.

How did you feel when you saw your first play or film brought to life?

Are there changes to what you had originally envisioned?

I find watching my work torturous, premieres especially! I far prefer watching my films as an anonymous passenger on overnight flights to Europe. But even then I get bored halfway through. I’ve written

My advice is to stay away from characters that are near perfect – flawed people are far more interesting.

“

the story, lived with it for so long, spoken everyone’s lines over and over, so why watch it? Only to see if the casting, editing and music worked – and those things don’t interest me all that much.

Most of the directors I work with consult me about any changes they feel are needed to the script. I’ve occasionally worked with directors who think they’re the author of the piece but this kind of behaviour is rare; usually a result of insecurity. When that happens I just try and keep quiet and move on.

me. Then, after reading it a few times, I’ll do a treatment of about 40 pages - mainly outlining the narrative, putting in only the essential dialogue, hoovering the novel for gems. That then goes back to the producers and we get together, hopefully with a director now on board, to discuss it further before going to draft stage. That’s when I throw the book out of the window and try and write a film that can stand on its own.

My motto is: Why let a good book get in the way of a great screenplay.

What is your process for creating a script? Do you simply have an idea and run with it or do you have a different system of writing?

What advice do you have for young writers starting out in the industry?

I write very few spec scripts these days.

Most of my work is commissioned by overseas producers, adapting novels for the screen. I’ve just finished Nabakov’s Laughter in the Dark and am now busy adapting Stefan Zweig’s novel Beware of Pity, for Senator Films, Berlin. Obviously I only take on the job if the novel grabs

Only start writing when you feel really ready to tell the story. Know your characters, see them speaking – don’t hear them speaking. Research the subject matter, but only enough to free you up. Then write as fast as you can. You’ll be surprised how energy can end up on the page.

If a scene is funny and you don’t laugh while writing it, then it’s not funny. If a scene is sad and you do not cry while writing it, then it is not sad. And remember, laughing and crying are opposite sides of the same coin.

28 | COUNTRY SPOTLIGHT

KENYA East African Leader in Filmmaking

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enya is a rich and diverse nation â&#x20AC;&#x201C; from its vast savannahs, deserts and wildlife reserves, to its vibrant cities complete with slums, rural areas, estates and modern districts. This diversity is exactly what brings so many filmmakers and stills photographers to the country. For almost one hundred years Kenya has been the entry point to east and central Africa, and for over 80 of those, it has been a welldocumented film destination.

www.filmmakerafrica.co.za

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A Land of Silver Screen Success Attracting international filmmakers since the early 1930s, Kenya has become synonymous with silver screen success. Box office hits like ‘Inception’, ‘The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen’ and ‘Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life’, which were set in Kenya, have helped establish the nation as a beautiful and unique place. Films of note that were shot in the country include ‘Out of Africa’ starring Meryl Streep and Robert Redford, ‘Independence Day’ with Will Smith, and award-winning feature film ‘The Constant Gardener’, starring Rachel Weiss and Ralph Fiennes. The 1950s film ‘King Solomon’s Mines’ featuring Deborah Kerr and Stewart Granger was also filmed in Kenya.

Most recently, young Kenyan-American actress Lupita Nyong’o has been making waves on the international screen through her role as Patsey in ’12 Years A Slave’.

Performing alongside Chiwetel Ejiofor (‘American Gangster’, ‘Half of a Yellow Sun’, ‘Children of Men’), Lupita won the world over. She was nominated for over twenty awards including the BAFTA EE Rising Star and won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress in March 2014.

Filming in Kenya Kenya offers a wealth of film locations. The mighty Mount Kilimanjaro stands at 19 340 feet (5 896m) and is a six-day climb. The “big five” can be found in one location – the

Masai Mara. During the dry season from July to October the wildlife spectacle is unparalleled. Nowhere else can you watch the annual migration of over a million wildebeest. From volcanoes to vast deserts, from cities to seascapes, from wildlife reserves to rain forests, Kenya has it all. And its history is equally interesting, with ample stories to lure the avid filmmaker.

Film licenses can be obtained through local, registered production service providers and are issued by the Department of Film Services. Costs vary depending on the type of production. Kenya is an ethnically diverse country and is home to 42 African tribes, including the renowned Maasai Tribe. The nation also has a wide variety of professional talent, including a pool of professional, internationally experienced directors and photographers, most of whom have their own kits. Crews are very capable and professional. They are used to working on the latest equipment, which can be sourced in Kenya or easily imported.

Getting to Kenya by Air Jomo Kenyatta International Airport in Nairobi, Kenya, is the largest airport in East and Central Africa. It is a major transit hub for passengers visiting East Africa’s natural attractions and other smaller cities in East and Central Africa. It is situated 20km from Nairobi’s Central Business District and directly serves international passengers from Europe and Asia. Kenya Airways is the nation’s flag carrier.

Climate Located on the equator, Nairobi is never really too hot or too cold. March to April is the long rainy season, while the short rains tend to come in October and November.

Filming during the rainy season is not recommended as the long rains can be intense and power outages are common.

Population 44,037,656 (July 2013 estimate, CIA World Factbook)

You Need to Know About The country has a burgeoning filmfestival sector, facilitated by the Kenya Film Commission. The Kenya Film & TV Awards is an annual event celebrating and recognising excellence in production of national filmmakers and stars. It is a massive arts and culture platform, along with the Kenya International Film Festival (KIFF). KIFF is the fastest-growing festival in the region, promoting cinema culture in Eastern Africa. It screens both locally made and international films. Another innovative event is The Slums Film Festival.

It showcases community-based and features films and shorts from, by and about people living in urban slums everywhere.

30 | IN PRODUCTION

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IN PRODUCTION April 2014 Thanks to ever-present confidentiality clauses, no one is ever allowed to officially talk about what’s in production in Africa, so this monthly section is an unofficial overview of the industry’s worst-kept secrets.

‘Tiger House’ wrapped in February, but there’s still an impressive amount of work to go round in April.

‘Black Sails’

‘Dominion’

‘A Hologram For A King’

‘Black Sails’ premiered on Starz in January to mixed reviews, with an impressive 8.1 rating on IMDB but a disappointing 5.9 rating on Metacritic.

The ‘Treasure Island’ prequel is currently based at Cape Town Film Studios filming its second season. Film Afrika is the South African production company, while African actors Hakeem Kae-Kazim and Sean Cameron Michael are both credited in the title sequence.

After shooting its pilot in Cape Town last year, ‘Dominion’ has a full-season order from Syfy to premiere June 2014.

Syfy describes the ‘Legion’ sequel as “an epic supernatural drama” about “an army of lower angels” waging “a war of possession against mankind.”

‘Dominion’ stars Christopher Egan (‘Resident Evil: Extinction’), Tom Wisdom (‘300’), Roxanne McKee (‘Game of Thrones’) and Alan Dale (‘Lost’), among others. Film Afrika is the South African production company.

According to ScreenDaily, Tom Twyker (‘Cloud Atlas,’ ‘Perfume’) is currently in Morocco directing ‘A Hologram For a King,’ an adaptation of Dave Eggers’ novel “about a desperate businessman who flees to an ambitious Saudi Arabian city in a last bid to stave off bankruptcy, pay for his daughter’s education and reinvent himself.” Tom Hanks stars.

‘Book of Negroes’ Out of Africa Entertainment is currently shooting ‘The Book of Negroes,’ a six-hour miniseries based on Lawrence Hill’s Commonwealth Writers Prizewinning novel.

Variety says Oscar-winners Louis Gossett Jr. and Cuba Gooding Jr. star alongside Oscar-nominee Jane Alexander, Aunjanue Ellis, Lyriq Bent, Ben Chaplin and Allan Hawco.

According to Variety, ‘The Book of Negroes’ follows the life of Aminata Diallo, who, after being kidnapped by slave traders in West Africa and subsequently enslaved in South Carolina, tries to navigate her way to freedom.

The miniseries is co-written by Hill and director Clement Virgo (‘The Wire’).

‘Hollywood In My Huis’ Dylan Voogt and Saskia Schiel will be producing their first feature film as Stage 5 Films: writer/director Corne van Rooyen’s ‘Hollywood in My Huis.’ When Jana van Tonder witnesses Charlize Theron’s Oscar win, she’s inspired to secure her own Hollywood red carpet moment at her matric dance. But with only a month to go, Jana soon finds herself in the middle of a love triangle between her closest friend and her dream date. Advantage Entertainment’s Vlokkie Gordon is executive producer, with Red Letter Day Pictures’ Rene van Rooyen co-producing. Newcomers Christia Visser and Edwin van der Walt star alongside the likes of Vilje Maritz (‘Binneland,’ ‘Verraiers’), and Leandie Du Randt (‘Getroud Met Rugby’).

‘Karsten og Petra på Safari’ Spier Films and Do Productions are shooting ‘Karsten og Petra pa Safari’ in Johannesburg. It’s the fourth in a popular Norwegian children’s franchise.

‘Our House’ Out of Africa are shooting ‘Our House,’ a five-part BBC One series about an 18-year-old British girl during her first deployment as an army medic in Afghanistan. Former ‘EastEnders’ actress Lacey Turner stars alongside ‘Games of Thrones,’ ‘Misfits’ and ‘Wild Bill’ actor Iwan Rheon.

BAFTA-winner David Drury (‘Prime Suspect’) directs. The pilot is nominated for a Royal Television Society Award for Best Single Drama after attracting an audience of 5.3 million last year.

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IN PRODUCTION | 31 Black Sails, Courtesy of Starz

UPCOMING ‘Oceans 14’ (TBC) The gossip pages were abuzz at the end of January with the news that Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie will be living in Johannesburg for eight months this year while Brad shoots a film with George Clooney. There’s been lots of talk about the rent they’re paying (R85 000 a month for a mansion in Sandhurst, according to CityPress) and whether or not they’ll be getting married while they’re here, but no one seems clear what film they’re making or who the local production company is yet. The most common guess is that it’s ‘Oceans Fourteen,’ but they’re also skeptics who insist the whole thing is a hoax.

32 | REVIEW

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MINERS SHOT DOWN Offers Poignant Look at Marikana Tragedy

By Kim Muller

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lmost two years ago on 16 August, South Africa watched in horror as its police force gunned down and killed 34 peaceful, striking mine workers and wounded 78. The incident, which ironically took place on the 25th anniversary of a nationwide miner’s strike, was turned into an enormous controversy, with police arresting and initially charging 270 miners with public violence and later changing the charge to murder. On October 2012, President Jacob Zuma commissioned an inquiry into the shooting with unsatisfactory results – officials were blatantly covering their tracks and no one, it seems, was to blame for the massacre. The inquiry is still underway today.

It is against this tumultuous backdrop that an unassuming documentary was released. ‘Miners Shot Down’ has a unique perspective, one that has seldom – if ever – been seen: the plight of the miners. From its brutal, opening scene showing droves of men being shot while trying to go home to its slow but steady development that edges the viewer into the story, this film is a tear-jerker.

Perhaps its cinematography and presentation are scuffed compared with the HD quality aerial shots we are used to seeing on National Geographic and the like, but its message reaches deep into the core of every South African’s heart.

Director Rehad Desai weaves intimate retellings from mine workers with shocking footage from news coverage of the event. It hurts to watch

as real people, working for next to nothing to further their nation’s economy, are essentially treated as garbage, beaten, shot in the back and left to die by the very people who are meant to serve and protect them.

As the film progresses, it delves into the deeper plot of Marikana – ANC Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa’s involvement in Lonmin, a platinum mining group where many of the strikers were employed. Desai’s sneaky revelation of Ramaphosa’s anti-apartheid rigour deliciously contrasts his cushy seat on Lonmin’s board and his direct involvement with the massacre. Although he diplomatically skirts questions related to the tragedy, it is abundantly clear from the film that someone is hiding something. Desai then takes political fanatics even further into the abyss: he reveals Lonmin’s connections with the South African Police Service (SAPS). Although the final few scenes allude to an unclear ending (as the inquiry is still underway), it does give one a good grasp of the horrors that took place, how they came to escalate and how certain unions were even involved in stirring up violence.

One of the few small issues with ‘Miners Shot Down’ is the fact that it is not an unbiased account of what has happened at Marikana.

Not for lack of trying, according to the film. It mentions on several occasions that it requested interviews with the SAPS and the Lonmin board and with the exception of Ramaphosa, all have

declined the lime light. But perhaps this is a good thing. Perhaps it’s time that South Africa’s leaders hear from the people who truly run this country and how they feel about it. Perhaps it’s time that we stop focusing on what our country can do for the world, but what we can do for our fellow countrymen.

After the world premiere of ‘Miners Shot Down’ on 3 March 2014 in Prague, Rehad Desai said that scores approached him, “many visibly emotional about what they had seen”. “Bigger strikes and indeed bigger political battles lay ahead in the coming months and years and we need to lay down the groundwork for this contestation in whatever we can,” he said.

‘Miners Shot Down’ is a sad wake-up call for those who watch it – a wake-up call that subtly but unmistakably tells us exactly who is in charge of our proud nation. It comes at a perfect time, too, with elections close at hand. This film is undoubtedly a call to action for every individual who has the right to vote.

‘Miners Shot Down’ in Numbers • • • • •

• •

•

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R5,000: current median wage of platinum mine workers R12,500: the living wage rock drillers are striking for 34 mine workers killed in SA’s first post-apartheid massacre 78 mine workers injured 17 February was the film’s first screening – which took place at Marikana 8 past screenings including a world premiere in Prague 4 screenings to take place in The Hague, Netherlands at Movies that Matter Festival 4 ways to take action: donate, organise a screening, wear the t-shirt, or pass a resolution 30 May ‘Miners Shot Down’ will be released nationwide at Cinema Nouveau

34 | EVENTS

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APRIL SAFTAS 5-6 Johannesburg, South Africa MIPTV 7-10 Cannes, France AFRICA MOVIE ACADEMY AWARDS (TBC) NFFTY Festival 16 - 27 Seattle, U.S.A TRIBECA FILM FESTIVAL 16-27 New York, U.S.A.

MAY

DIGITAL RADIO BROADCASTING SUMMIT 22 - 24 Cape Town

MARYLAND FILM FESTIVAL 7 – 11 Maryland, USA

SOUND ON SCREEN MUSIC FILM FESTIVAL 24, 25, 27, 28 Johannesburg HOT DOCS 24 – 4 May Toronto, Canada SOUND ON SCREEN MUSIC FILM FESTIVAL 26 - 2 MAY Cape Town MID-ATLANTIC BLACK FILM FESTIVAL 25-26 Norfolk, U.S.A.

FESTIVAL DE CANNES INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL 14 - 25 Cannes, France SEATTLE INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL 15 – 8 June Seattle, USA THE BROADCAST SHOW AFRICA 2014 19-22 Johannesburg, South Africa SAN FRANCISCO GREEN FILM FESTIVAL 29-04 San Francisco, California

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EVENTS | 35

Š Gavin Goodman

36 | OPPORTUNITIES

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Sundance Institute Announces Short Film Challenge

T

he Sundance Institute, with the support of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, has announced a new project to harness the power of independent film. The Short Film Challenge is designed to create “a global conversation about extreme hunger and poverty”, according to an official press release. It will spur the production of documentary and narrative films through an international open call for submissions.

All three to eight minute entries should embody the imaginative solutions that real people are creating to overcome the challenges of extreme hunger and poverty.

The Institute is working with Tongal.com to manage the online call for entries. Winning films will receive a $10,000 grant (R108,512) and will premiere at a private event at the 2015 Sundance Film Festival. According to the brief, all short film submissions can be narrative fiction or documentary,

imaginative, unorthodox, daring or simple — the style and structure is completely up to the entrant. The only specification is that it touches on economic inequalities.

Five new films made with production grants premiered at a private screening at the 2014 Sundance Film Festival. Two of these had African or related themes – ‘Am I going Too Fast’ is an experimental documentary that weaves a web of connection and possibility in contemporary Nairobi, while ‘Vezo’ is a 9-year-old girl’s tale about how her family and village came back from near starvation after their fishing village adopted sustainable fishing practices.

‘Vezo’ director Tod Lending is an Academy Award-nominated and Emmy-winning producer, director and cinematographer.

The Executive Director of Sundance Institute, Keri Putnam, said, “With the support of the Gates Foundation, we are proud to launch this short film challenge

and support filmmakers around the world in telling stories that inform and engage audiences in ways that are as innovative and imaginative as the solutions people are putting into action every day.”

The competition ends on 1 July 2014 and is open to both filmmakers and storytellers.

Five unique stories will be awarded $1,000 and one will be brought to life by a renowned Sundance Filmmaker. For more information or to enter the competition visit tongal.com/sundance.

Open Doors calls for applications

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he twelfth edition of Open Doors will be dedicated to Sub-Saharan Africa.

With support from the Swiss Foreign Ministry’s Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC), Open Doors aims to support and highlight films and filmmakers from the South and the East, where independent filmmaking is vulnerable, via a focus on a different region every year. The next edition will explore SubSaharan Africa, following the spotlight on Francophone African countries in 2012. 2014 will cover the following nations, which did not participate in 2012: Angola, Botswana, Cape Verde, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Gambia, Ghana, Kenya, Lesotho, Liberia, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, São Tomé and Príncipe, Sierra Leone, Somalia, South Africa, Southern Sudan, Sudan, Swaziland, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

The Festival will select a dozen projects from the region to participate in Open Doors 2014. The objective of the co-production lab (August 9-12) is to

bring the finalist projects’ directors and producers together with potential partners, to encourage support for these projects to come to fruition.

Open Doors will continue the new initiative introduced in 2013, whereby, in addition to enabling the selected directors and producers to meet possible partners, there are also workshops for professionals on related film industry issues, with individual meetings and panels on training and marketing. The four-day event will conclude with the awards. The Open Doors Grant, worth 50,000 CHF (ca. 40’000 EUR), is funded by the Open Doors initiative in collaboration with the Town of Bellinzona and the Swiss production support fund Visions Sud Est, also supported by the SDC. Two further awards are offered by the CNC (Centre national du cinéma et de l’image animée) and by ARTE. In addition to these initiatives for professionals, the section also offers the general Festival audience the Open Doors

Screenings, which present a selection of films that are representative of production in the countries involved. The initiative is organized in close collaboration with Locarno’s Industry Office and enjoys the support of ACE (Ateliers du Cinéma Européen), EAVE (European Audiovisual Entrepreneurs) and the Producers Network Marché du Film (Festival de Cannes).

The 2014 edition of Open Doors is the first to be managed by Ananda Scepka, who succeeds Martina Malacrida. A graduate in philosophy and history from the Sorbonne in Paris, Ananda Scepka has been working with the Festival since 2009. For this edition of Open Doors, the Festival is working with Alex Moussa Sawadogo, an expert in African cinema and director of the Afrikamera Festival in Berlin.

The 2014 edition is open for applications, via www.opendoors.pardo.ch for projects originating from any of the 25 countries listed above. The 67th edition of the Festival del film Locarno will take place August 6 -16 2014.

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Mindset Network is Looking for Writers

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recent McKinsey & Company report on what makes the world’s best education systems work highlighted that the quality of an education system cannot exceed the quality of its teachers. Therefore, improving teaching is central to improving learner results. The only way for a system to reach peak performance is to raise the standard of every learner.

In other words the best education systems get great people to teach well to every learner.

Teachers are at the centre of delivering quality education and are crucial to maintaining increases in learner performance.

Mindset Teach, a division of Mindset Network, is about helping all teachers to teach well to all their learners. It does this by sharing authentic, effective and contextually relevant classroom practice through high quality video. Mindset Teach also aims to help re-professionalize teaching by treating teachers as professionals and highly esteemed members of society.

Mindset Teach’s Ukusiza project, supported

by SCIP, applies this vision to Foundation and Intermediate Phase Language and English teachers and those who manage them.

Ukusiza is guided by the fact that teacher development is activated rather than delivered - it is something done with and not to teachers. Teachers need safe spaces to confess their difficulties in order to grow and develop and developing teachers is as much a heart as it is a mind exercise.

Ukusiza will develop over 30 hours of high quality teacher development video plus a range of supporting materials. These will be distributed via broadcast television, the internet, DVDs and USB devices.

All videos will be filmed in real classrooms with real teachers. They will promote reflective learning and mentoring and so will support professional learning communities. They will focus on changing classroom habits as well as knowledge.

Ukusiza will broadly develop three types of videos: • Great Lesson Idea videos will, in approximately 5 minutes, demonstrate effective classroom practice by

showing an exemplary lesson taught by a real teacher in a real classroom.

The full lesson must be filmed in as unobtrusive a way as possible so as to retain the authenticity of the classroom experience. After this, an “interview” with the teacher will get the teacher to describe, to camera, how the lesson works (the sequence of events), the teaching methodologies used in the lesson, why the teacher enjoys teaching this lesson, why the lesson is effective and what other teachers can do try the lesson themselves or adapt it to their own context. The final video presents the action of the lesson using the teacher’s voice as narration and explanation for the action. See http:// www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL8A10 9B8249CF2038 for examples.

• Lesson Starter videos will, in 5 minutes, provide teachers with a set of fun, exciting and easy to implement tips ‘n trick or other forms of video content for teachers to use in their teaching. This category is necessarily wide ranging and explicit briefs will be discussed.

• Professional Mentoring videos are 15 minutes long and involve a professional mentor and a volunteer teacher. Each begins by filming a lesson taught by the volunteer while being observed by the mentor. As soon as possible thereafter, a discussion between the mentor and teacher is filmed where they discuss the teacher’s practice while viewing clips from the filmed lesson. This entire process (filming an observed lesson and then a discussion between the mentor and teacher using clips from the filmed lesson) is repeated. The final video shows progression and improvement in the teacher’s practice based on their implementing the mentor’s suggestions.

See http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=P LE04D15037B2CEFB8 for examples.

4 School Management videos are also 15 minutes long but there is not set format for these other than short documentaries.

In general, these videos will investigate and present a particular set of school management practices being successfully employed in a school by a principal or management team.

Specific Deliverables Before all filming, it is necessary that a preproduction visit to each school be conducted.

This is to familiarize the school with the production team and the team with the school and for the director to meet with the teacher being filmed. During this interaction with the teacher it will be important for the director to talk through the lesson that will be filmed with the teacher.

Successful Applicants to be added to our Database will have the following qualifications and skills: • Must have a show reel • Must have worked in the film industry for at least 2 years.

• Must have a passion for working with children • Must have their own Editing suites and editors • Must have their own Cameras • Must be able to work under pressure NB: To add your name to the database please go to http://goo.gl/qZGMau and fill in the details: Closing Date: 30 April 2014

38 | ASSOCIATIONS

Five SAGE Members Nominated for SAFTAs Among the 2014 South African Television and Film Award nominations in early March were five members of the South African Guild of Editors. Susan Scott was nominated for Best Editor of a Documentary Short for ‘50/50: Wild Dogs’, Ula Oelsen was nominated for Best Editor of a TV Drama for her work in ‘High Rollers’ and both Sandra Vieira and Julia Scott-Lawson were nominated for Best Editor of a TV Soap, the former for ‘The Wild’ and the latter for ‘7de Laan’. Tracy Clayton was also nominated for an award – Best Editor of a Feature Film for her work in ‘Gog’Helen’. The award winners will be announced on 4 April 2014 at a ceremony in Johannesburg.

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ACA Announces APEX Awards 2014 Jury The APEX Awards, which is put together by the Association for Communication and Advertising, has announced the jury for the 2014 awards, due to take place later this year.

Judges will be scrutinising the case studies of each submission for campaigns that broke through the clutter, had extensive reach and communicated via relevant mediums to reach and resonate with desired target audience. The rigorous adjudication process spans three rounds when submissions will be judged against specific criteria including rigour, degree of difficulty, clarity of evidence, compelling case and insight.

Ivan Moroke, CEO of TBWA\Hunt\ Lascaris will be the vice-chairman of the Jury, while other jury members include but are not limited to Ayanda Mbanga, Deputy CEO of Saatchi & Saatchi, Boniswa Pezisa, Group MD at Network BBDO, Doug Place, Marketing Director at Ster Kinekor Theatres, Lethepu Matshaba, Marketing Director: Personal Care at Unilever, Mariana O’Kelly, co-Executive Creative Director of Ogilvy Johannesburg and the CEO of the ACA, Odette van der Haar.

ASSOCIATIONS | 39

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In 2013, the national Film and Video Foundation undertook a study aimed at tracking the absorption rate of students awarded bursaries in 2008. The results revealed that despite the rising unemployment rate, the South African film sector was able to absorb graduates with film-related qualifications. The study, which surveyed 52 graduates, revealed that 69.2% were able to find employment and a further 83% of those were absorbed into the film sector. 16.7% were reported to be working in fields unrelated to the industry.

While transformation has been distinguished as one of the challenges in the local film industry, the survey revealed some progress towards its achievement, with more black graduates being employed in the sector. Although their qualifications allow them to work either in the film or television sector, the graduates revealed that they prefer working on feature films rather than on television. Another revelation showed that youth between the ages of 22 and 25 have the highest rate of absorption at 61.1%, and that most of those employed began with junior positions, giving them an opportunity to hone their skills and progress in their respective fields.

Among some of the issues raised by the graduates was that of exploitative tendencies practiced by some companies, a factor reportedly blamed on film schools as they seem to perpetuate and prepare them to â&#x20AC;&#x153;work for free as part of their in-service trainingâ&#x20AC;?. Graduates also raised concerns that the industry uses word of mouth to recruit employees, meaning that young graduates would have to know someone in order to find a job. Suggested solutions include film schools focusing on practical training. The study also suggests the NFVF co-ordinating networking sessions with film practitioners and bursary recipients in order to broaden their potential horizons, and to expand its recently launched internship programme by partnering with more production companies.

To view or download the full Graduate Absorption Study, visit the NFVF website.

Š Filipa Domingues

NFVF Releases 2013 Graduate Absorption Study Findings

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