the callsheet december 2011

GENERAL INDUSTRY

UPDATE: At the time of go-ing to press, Jurgens revealed that the provisional liquida-tors had received offers for some of the company’s assets, and that those offers were under consideration.

Ex Managing director and founder of Waterfront Studios Mike Smit, general manager gary Edwardes and liquidator Jurgens Steenkamp talk about the liquidation process, the fu-ture of the company and what went wrong.

Mike explained what he thinks went wrong at Waterfront Studios,

saying: “The company was heavily geared and did not have the resources to adapt to the rapidly changing indus-try. New competition and the subsequent loss of key talent was a major blow to the com-pany. This could have been avoided! Continued spending on litigating and investing in projects without the available funds resulted in the com-pany being in the position it is in today”

Liquidator Jurgens stressed that time is indeed of the es-sence for the company, say-ing: “We want to see to what extent we can keep the busi-

ness alive with one aim and that is to sell it as a going con-cern. My duty is to the credi-tors of the company and the view is that we can do better for creditors to sell it as a going concern rather than to just sell a heap of assets. “

Jurgens continued: “i can’t give commitments to produc-ers who want to come into the studios for the next six months. We obviously have a very short window and the decision was made that we would run until

the end of December. if by Fri-day 9 December 2011 there is no clear indication that there are people who are commit-ted to buying it as a going concern, then it becomes a foregone conclusion that we will shut down and won’t start up again in January.”

Gary revealed that they are talking to a handful of dif-ferent companies who are looking to buy, some of them looking to buy the whole busi-ness and others to buy parts of

it. He said: “My gut feeling tells me there should be offers by the end of this week.”

Although there is a court date set for 29 January 2012, Jurgens explained that the nuts and bolts of the liquida-tion will be finalised far sooner. He explained that the courts will grant a final order of liqui-dation on 29 January, and that if any party wished to argue against that order they would have the opportunity to do so then. Jurgens said: “As far as

the business is concerned – that’s a commercial decision. it’s got nothing to do with the court; it’s a decision that we as provisional liquidators have to make. i can’t keep the busi-ness running while waiting for the court if in this period there are losses of three or four hun-dred thousand being incurred – obviously we’re not doing our creditors any favours if we do that. ”

Gary and Jurgens revealed that the job losses since the start of the liquidation pro-cess have been relatively low. Once the company went into provisional liquidation, all employment contracts were suspended. There have been eight job terminations and of those employees whose contracts were suspended, 15 are not being utilised at the moment.

When asked what went wrong at Waterfront Studios, Gary cited the recession; the crossover from film to digital and the internal issues in man-agement. He said: “A lot of the internal issues in the business have affected us. And i think when that happens you tend to take your eye off the ball, the ball being the customer and i think that’s been a fun-damental problem in this busi-ness. That hasn’t helped.”

Continued on page 17

WATERFRONT STUDIOS - WHAT WENT WRONG?

R22.80December/January www.thecallsheet.co.za

pg9 pg13 pg14

Mike Smit

2

LANCE GIBBONSAfter the World Cup year in 2010, everyone looked for-ward to 2011 as twenty-heav-en. Unfortunately, twenty-heaven wasn’t as heavenly as it could have been – but it’s not all bad!

Over the last 18 months, the industry has been buckling under the

combined strains of escalating costs, increased competition, an unpredictable exchange rate and, in the Western Cape, policy issues that have cre-ated tension between local Government and the core industry associations.

In contrast to the heady days of the early 2000s, the in-dustry does appear to have en-tered a sluggish period with only marginal growth since before the World Cup. According to the CPA’s annual survey*, de-spite an increase in local com-mercials and service jobs, the cost of sales is threatening the viability of the industry (crew prices alone rose by between 3% and 32%).

The more Jo’burg based director-led industry has report-ed an increase in the number of commercials produced, but a reduction in profit margins due to increased cost to sales. The Cape-based service sector fared better with an increase in

both commercials produced and turnover. This was only pos-sible by containing cost. In addi-tion, the Western Cape record-ed 162 more shoot days (and more crew employed) over the previous year.

Despite its challenges, the local industry remains stable. However, worryingly, the inter-national demand for South Afri-can directors and creatives has dropped off by almost 50% due to a combination of the eU and US financial crisis’ and a lack-lustre performance on the global awards circuit.

Where is the industry going? As the season accelerates

into 2012, the weakening rand is definitely making a positive im-pact on service production. And digital is well and truly king – it has changed how we produce con-tent, and what is needed to do so. 34% of all commercials shot between May 2010 and April 2011 were shot in hi-definition; and then there’s the as yet un-matched voracious appetite for mobile content.

Change is inevitable. To grow we must risk the new, the unfamil-iar, the future.

Like production companies, it’s been a tough year for Film and event Media. By keeping our overheads low, we’ve managed to increase our product offering, maintain our market share and actually grow.

This year we changed our

brand to reflect our widening range of products and services. Film and event Media has re-placed Film and event Publish-ing. This reflects our broader mandate as a company and of-fers our clients much more than a publishing solution.

In the past year we were able to offer successful network functions, and greater exposure online. We built an incredibly suc-cessful social media presence and recruited some highly talent-ed, passionate and dedicated team members.

Our new editor Kate Hodges has taken the publication to a whole new level with her insight, her acute sense of understand-ing and research into our indus-try. Our dedicated webmaster and project manager, Charl Fou-rie, has elevated our online pres-ence immensely.

For 2012, my wish is that the season extends until June, that the vision of our creatives is celebrated at Cannes Lions in 2012, and that we negotiate a hassle-free permitting solu-tion in Cape Town that ensures a good working relationship between the associations and government bodies.

Here’s to film in 2012! To a long production summer (per-haps 365 days long!) and suc-cess for us all!

*Findings from the 7th CPA annual survey, which covered May 2010 to April 2011

LETTER FROM THE PUBLISHER

4

BOZZA CHANGES CONTENT CONSUMPTION

MOBILEBozza is the new mobile app that allows locals to share their own video content, direct from their cellphones.

Large-scaLe black and white photograph posters of ordinary south africans are

popping up in townships around the country, opening acts for Freshlyground’s tour have their own channels and there’s a new name being whispered on the creative wind: “Bozza”.

currently launching its south african rollout is a mobile app

that allows for the distribution and sharing of local content and encourages its users to “Be Bozza”, which is slang for being your own boss.

This brand of african new media for the mobile screen seeks to activate youth em-powerment, develop micro-enterprises within the cre-ative industries and leverage m-commerce to grow small township businesses.

Bozza was created by mo-bility visionary emma Kaye. Well-known as one of the smart-est and nicest achievers in the animation community as co-founder of Triggerfish in 1995 and animation south africa, emma went on become ceO of Breakdesign, which became one of the top seven Flash Lite developers globally for Nokia and adobe. starting gate7 New Media in 2007, she was again responsible for an afri-can first in the form of Mobfest in 2008, a user-generated sMs serialised fiction.

emma is on the board of the prestigious Mobile entertain-ment Forum and was recently voted one of the Top 10 Wom-en in science and Technology in africa.

“Mobility has huge socio-economic, educational, com-mercial, societal and indi-vidual significance. Emerging economies have been hugely resourceful in using mobility in

socio-economically important ways, to empower micro en-terprises. By embracing mobility as a content delivery platform, emerging countries or conti-nents can leapfrog developed economies, establishing a unique societal brand in a vi-brant new industry”.

Proof of concept for Bozza in October 2010 in Alexandra and Khayelitsha saw two groups of first-time filmmakers trained to use mobile phones to shoot their own content. “We took seven minutes of content and launched two unknown brands. Within two days we had 40 000 users and in the first month we had 170 000 users,” says Emma.

This message is sweet to the ears of both audiences not cur-rently seeing stories that reflect their experiences and produc-ers dissatisfied with traditional broadcast mechanisms. “There is a deep need to interact and the mobile platform has the po-tential to actively engage the end user,” explains Emma.

Mobile platforms allow for a level of personal interac-tion that is not possible with traditional media outlets. “We are leap-frogging the Pc and desktop environment in af-rica – instead, we’re going straight to mobile,” emma adds. Bozza allows communi-ties “to tell their stories from the inside out”.

audience ground zero is

the african citizen, predomi-nantly young, black and vo-cal aged between 18 and 25 years. Yet Bozza is also see-ing strong uptake beyond this by older viewers who are de-prived of relevant local content through traditional mechanisms and where the stories offer relatable characters.

The Bozza team is creating a ‘mobihood’, or mobile neigh-bourhood on phones, which al-lows users to see what content their friends are watching and recommending. Local content creators are allocated their own channel through which they can engage with their au-dience and earn revenue by of-fering “hyper-local” content.

There is no specific genre of Bozza content and an entirely new realm of content is starting to emerge as content providers grapple with mobile cameras and webcams as tools to pro-duce content. “We’ve seen a huge demand for poetry and short stories, whether in written, spoken or video formats, which illustrates a revival of the age-old craft of storytelling preva-lent across the african conti-nent,” says head of content Nicole Klassen.

content can be originated on cameras, mobiles or web-cams as long as it is submitted according to required specifi-cations. content is transcoded in-house and pushed out in dif-

ferent formats via handset de-tection technology. soon Bozza would like to see content cre-ators shoot, edit and upload via their mobile phones.

Bozza welcomes all levels of filmmakers and overcomes the traditional barriers of en-try into the content creation industry, which have ham-pered broader inclusivity or meaningful transformation.

From the traditional industry, Jo Higgs from Go Trolley films will have her own channel on Bozza as well as rhodes Uni-versity, animation sa and Mdu Comics. What is really exciting is the ability to see what the au-dience is responding to as they interact, so that creators can adjust accordingly.

Nicole says: “My advice to content creators remains: De-liver for your audience then be consistent on your delivery. audiences in the digital realm have a plethora of choice - dis-appoint and you will find your-self struggling to get your fans back, and fans equate to reve-nue. It’s all about the audience, the community and their rela-tionship with you as a brand.”

Bozza’s maverick pioneers include Pan african rollout plans in their list of 2012 reso-lutions and there’s no doubt they’ll be re-shaping the global mobile distribution ecology too.

LIezel Vermeulen

Emma Kaye

5

CANON C300 vs RED sCARLET

CAMERASJasyn Howes takes a closer look at the latest offerings from Canon and RED, the Canon C300 and the RED scarlet, to see whether either camera is a viable option for local film-makers.

What were you do-ing on November 3 2011? If you’re a digi-

tal filmmaker then chances are you were waiting with bated breath to find out what the big announcements were going to be from Canon and RED.

Canon was first up with their C300 cinema camera, which is

basically a DSLR with muscle. It offers improved ISO range, better rolling shutter perfor-mance, 422 compression and a 4K sensor. Not to mention the brand new range of Can-on prime cinema lenses.

I was blown away and ex-cited at the prospect of mov-ing on from the 5D/7D heyday and on to more serious film-making. That was until they announced the price of the basic kit, a handsome USD 20 000 (R160 000).

In the time leading up to the announcements RED had everyone convinced that the Scarlet was going to be a 2/3” sensor that was aimed at the lower end market.

It still offered an exciting prospect for up-and-coming filmmakers wanting to explore professional workflows. Howev-er, the bomb dropped when it came time to unveil the cam-era only to find that RED had decided to do us all one big favour and fit the Scarlet with their well-known super35 Mys-terium-X sensor.

This was a true game changer that was amplified by the price of the base pack-age, a relatively low USD 14 000 (R112 000).

The Internet was soon lit-tered with comparative specs on the cameras and for the most part the Scarlet seemed the obvious choice leav-ing the Canon C300 dead on arrival. This may well be true for the European and American markets, but where does this leave the South African market?

To find out where we stand I spoke to American DOP/DIT Caleb Heymann, who lives and works in Cape Town and runs Afterglow Digital Cinema-tography, where he offers RED Epic rentals and DIT services to both local and internation-al productions that shoot in South Africa.

His initial opinion on the Scarlet was positive saying; “I think it’s great that RED contin-ues to push the envelope by shipping a super35 sensor cam-

era with 4k resolution for USD 10 000. It’s great even at USD 20 000, which is a lot closer to what you’d be spending for a useable package.

Clearly a lot of things have changed over the last couple of years while the various entities know as Scarlet have been in de-velopment, and too many have been waiting for and expecting the camera of their dreams.”

This is where the Scarlet los-es its traction in our local indie market. The additional cost of the necessary equipment is high, and RED don’t offer add-ons tailored specifically for the Scarlet, meaning that you’ll be buying the same additional equipment, used on the Epic, at the same price.

“Buying a Scarlet with the idea of renting it out is sig-nificantly more difficult, unless one already has a good cli-ent base. And you have to understand that the initial USD 10 000 price tag for the ‘brain’ won’t take you very far. To get it properly kitted you’ll end up spending at least USD 20 000. And that’s of course before you get to lenses and post pro-duction support such as Red Rocket cards which are an absolute necessity.”

Something RED has con-sidered is offering a Canon EF mount on the Scarlet. Many HD DSLR users working on Canon have over the past few years

garnered a range of Canon lenses, so this ensures the con-tinued use of these lenses on the Scarlet with autofocus ca-pability that even the C300 cannot offer.

“The Scarlet seems a clear winner versus the C300. If you’re going out into the field and need a lightweight camera and a very fast turn-around, then I would consider it, but it’s probably going to be more comparable to working with an F3 (without the S-log curve / external recorder). I see it as more of an option for documentary shooters than features or commercials. For the average ‘prosumer,’ I think the USD 20 000 price tag of the C300 is too much, and I would rather rent until something cheaper comes along.”

If you want to move on from your HD DSLR then both the Scarlet and the C300 appear to be out of reach in terms of owning your own unit. how-ever, once local gear houses begin to offer these units, ob-taining affordable high quality rental equipment will become a reality.

Thus, for the South African market this could mean the end of low quality imagery across the board and the be-ginning of the end for the low budget 5D Mark II generation.

Jasyn Howes

6

INDUSTRY EVENTSFILM & Event Media’s fi nal wrap party of the year was a spe-cial occasion, with over 400 guests in attendance. The wrap party took place on 24 No-vember 2011 at Roodebloem Studios in the vibrant suburb of Woodstock.

CAPE Town’s fi lm indus-try turned out in force for the event, which

included stiltwalkers, fi re-eat-ers, a screening room, trained animals and two separate sets where guests could have their photographs taken.

One of the sponsors, Ian Lowe, the senior sales manag-er Europe, Middle East and Af-rica at Dolby Video Products, was blown away by the event, saying: “It had a real wow fac-tor that would work anywhere in the world. I have not seen something that professional even in London.”

The crowd was also addressed by Seton Bai-ley the manager at F.I.L.M (Film Industry Learner Mentorship Programme).

Seton singled out people in the fi lm industry who men-tored young trainees this year. He thanked them for their role in enriching the industry and upskilling a new generation of fi lm industry professionals. He thanked Alan Shearer, Belinda

Johnson and John Mackay.Lucky guests who had re-

membered to put their busi-ness cards in the hat were treated to amazing prizes, in-cluding a night for two at the Cape Grace Hotel; dinner for two at the 12 Apostles; two But-lers Pizza vouchers (worth 10 pizzas each); a cruise for four on the Peroni yacht, and a half day at Roodebloem Studios all awarded.

Digital Depot also spon-sored prizes for the F.I.L.M mentors who were hon-oured, while Media Film Ser-vice sponsored goodie bags for the mentees that were singled out.

We would like to say a heart-felt thank you to our fantastic sponsors: Jameson Irish Whis-key; Film Light; Searle Street Post Production; Panalux; Cape Film Commission (CFC), Crush Catering and entertain-ment sponsors Shen FM.

The entertainment from Afrodiziaks included stiltwalk-ers, fi re-eaters and jugglers - which was perfectly in keeping with the Carnival theme.

Our fi rst wrap party of the new year will be at Mandela Rhodes on 26 January 2012.

Visit our Face-book page to see the full gallery of photos, includ-ing the beach scene and the Moulin Rouge scene.

END OF YEAR WRAP PARTY AT ROODEBLOEM STUDIOS

Amazing Spaces Team

Roodebloem Studios

Innocentia Williams, Christine Metcalf and Warren Schmitt

Jade Mathieson and Sheri Pead

Oscar

Seton Bailey

Anthony de Klerk and Jan VerboomShenFM

Cikizwa Roto, Patrick Vrieslaar, Lulu Stone and Audrey Louw Catering by Crush

Collette Cruywagen, Lynette Ou Tim, Leah Hawker and Mickie Birkett

8

SOS PICKETS SABC AND PARLIAMENT

BROADCASTINGOn 24 november 2011 SOS (Support Public Broadcast-ing Coalition) protested out-side the SABC headquarters at Auckland Park. At the same time in Cape Town a small delegation handed a mem-

orandum over to the Chair of the Portfolio Committee, Eric Kholwane.

The SOUTH African Screen Federation (SASFED), CO-SATU, The Media Workers

Association of South Africa, The Freedom of Expression In-

stitute and the Right to Know Campaign, made up the bulk of the protesters.

In Cape Town those hand-ing over the memorandum were made up of represen-tatives from Cape TV, Right to Know Campaign and SAS-FED. The master of ceremo-

nies at the picket was Terence Bridgett. The former Isidingo, Backstage and 7de Laan star reminded picketers that they had protested back in 2009 and that none of their de-mands had been met in the intervening two years.

SOS Coordinator Kate Skin-ner was pleased with the turn-out on the day, saying: “For SOS it was important to ensure that as wide a range of or-ganisations was represented as possible including unions, film makers, NGOs, community based organisations, and ordi-nary members of the public.

We had a wonderfully di-verse range of people and or-ganisations at the picket. The SABC as our public broadcast-er should be representing all these different people, points of view and stories.”

The memorandum stated that the SOS Coalition had tried to communicate with the SABC, prior to the decision to hold the protest. The memo-randum handed over to the Portfolio chair said: “On 23 November 2011 we received a formal letter from the Board calling for a meeting with SOS. SOS welcomes this opportu-nity. However, after some de-liberation, the working group decided to continue with the pickets to continue to publi-cally highlight our concerns.”

The memo also included a list of demands, which includ-ed: “Maximum transparency around the ongoing scandals taking place at the SABC in-cluding the contentious em-ployment of Justice Ndaba, the R20 million car scandal and the allegedly unlawful sus-pension of the company sec-retary, Thelma Melk. SOS notes that Parliament has received some feedback on the above but that the full details have not as yet been investigated or revealed. In line with Parlia-ment’s own requests, SOS de-mands that the SABC provide full written reports on the scan-dals and that these written re-ports are publically circulated.

“Members of the public need to be reassured that the SABC is taking these issues seri-ously and further will be safe-guarding against such scan-dals in future.

“Excellent public service programming – including most importantly local program-ming. The SOS Coalition notes that the most recent Request for Proposals (RFP) Book is no-tably thinner than previous books and that a number of briefs are specifically targeted at development with no roll-out of production. Whilst SOS and its members believe de-velopment is very important, the briefs need to go further than this. Fair and transparent commissioning processes for local programming.”

Kate concluded: “We pushed the point home that we need a transpar-ent, accountable SABC with strong leadership. We pushed the point home that we need South African sto-ries told by South Africans. We hope SABC executives and the Board are feeling the pressure! We are not going to let up!”

Kate said that while the SOS does not have any fur-ther action planned at the moment, they have found it a highly “effective strategy for gaining attention.”

SABC spokesman Kaizer Kganyago reportedly said the public broadcaster was aware of SOS’s action and would endeavour to engage with the coalition.

Kate Hodges

SOS protest

SOS protest

SOS protest

SOS protest

9

CREW OF THE MONTH: AD NICOLE BAILEY

TELEVISIONNICOLE Bailey talks about her role as Assistant Director on the set of Penguin Films’ drama series Montana.

How did you get involved in the industry?I studIed acting at City Varsity, When I was at school I wanted to do it, but you know when you go to a good school you don’t think it’s a career option, or it never crossed my mind as a ca-reer option anyway. then I went overseas and discovered that it really is what I want to do with my life. Acting foremost, but just being in the industry would be enough. When I came back I attended stellenbosch uni-versity and then I went to City Varsity and it was like a dream come true. I met shirley John-ston there, she was one of my lecturers, and she was just in-credible. she really helped me. she was still in the industry writ-ing and directing (she was one of the writers on Montana). she offered me the chance to do a writing internship with her, and the first job was on Montana. I

went and wrote when the sABC came down. It was a three day workshop and Roberta (durrant) was there. Roberta asked me if I was interested in directing as they were look-ing for female directors, and I said I was even though I nev-er saw myself directing in my 20s or 30s. she offered me the chance to Ad on Montana the following year.

How do you negotiate castings and production work?It depends on the job. Like with Montana, there was no time for me to go to any castings. But in other instances you get the shoot dates at the casting and if there’s a conflict then I obvi-ously am not able to do it. Now that I’m working in production I took the job on the understand-ing that I could go to castings and shoots if I get the job.

What’s your favourite part of the job?the people were the best, be-cause when I was there firsting and seconding on Montana, it gets really boring sometimes and not because it’s horrible

but because it’s just the same thing over and over. And you can sit there and its long and in the studio and you’re used to being outside. But then you sit there and the people have been together for such a long time and they’re such a fam-ily, they make the strangest jokes. You know before the show wrapped everybody was like “is this show ever going to wrap” but now that we’re not all together anymore – we miss each other terribly. You used to be able to go to work and talk to everyone and go to make-up for a free haircut and mas-sage and it was great. I think the people were definitely my favourite, most of the Montana crew are working in studio on another production and I go back and visit them as often as I can.

What’s the worst part?the worst part – every scene is different but you do the same thing all the time. You can do it by rote. Also writing out cam-era cards, from camera scripts - definitely camera cards.

Have you had a mentor in the industry?shIRLeY and another lecturer, Peter van heerden, as well as Riaz solker all from City Varsity. they taught me a lot about myself and I owe them all the opportunities I got. In terms of mentoring on Montana, Ger-hard Mostert, who is already an established television director, was first AD, and he showed me the ropes. When he went on to direct his episodes, I could take over the firsting.

What are the challenges of hav-ing to work with talent (extras and actors)?WIth extras it’s always a little bit difficult because they’re not sure what to do. With extras its difficult because people treat them badly. they’re there the whole day and they eat last and there’s nothing to do. It’s so bor-ing for them I’m sure. But at the end of the day there’s nothing you can do, you can’t entertain them because you’re working. It’s not fun, because you have to move them and you feel like you’re moving a prop and it’s a human being.

What personality traits do you need to be a 2nd AD?You need to be sensitive, to people’s moods and morale, that’s important. You need to be a people’s person. there are a lot of people who can first or second Ad and people hate them because they’re so hard and they stick to their schedule so closely and they’re so precise and pedantic that they shout a lot. Which I mean, gets the job done – but if you can find a bal-ance between being firm and being fun and seeing when a joke is a joke, then that’s cool.

Well that’s what I saw on the set of Montana – you looked like you were having a good time.It must have been early in the day! sometimes you have a real-ly good day, sometimes the ac-tors are cool and you can just chill with them and they listen. some cast members need a lot of quiet and a lot of focus they need to concentrate and I understand that because of my own act-ing. then some actors are very distracting and they distract the people around them and then I get upset because you can’t do the schedule. sometimes you’ll have a really good day when everyone comes together.

What route would you suggest someone take in order to get this job, do they need any specific qualifications?I thINk what helps a lot is just be-ing on set. If you can just be on set and be open to it and you have a strong personality. You can’t be too shy. Just be on set, look, listen, absorb, look what gets done, see what needs to get done. Also watch as many Ad’s as possible, see which one’s work, which ones don’t work and which ones people respond to and then try and put all that together. I think you’d be more than qualified then.

What’s next for you? I’M getting back into acting and working with Atomik Pictures in production, but next year I’ll be moving to Johannesburg for a little while, where I’ll pursue my acting full time and explore what else the industry up there has to offer.

Kate Hodges

10

PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENTS

The M-Net TAG (Television Awards for Good) Award Win-ners were announced at a glit-tering awards ceremony at the Theatre on the Track, at Kyal-mai on 30 November 2011.

The awards, formerly known as the Vuka Awards, cel-ebrate the creatives be-

hind powerful PSAs (Public Service Announcements) that are screened on DSTV. The PSAs are made by pro-fessional agencies and pro-duction companies, as well as by students and new-comers to the industry. They are judged in three catego-ries: Professional, Newcomer and TAG 10.

The Professional and New-comer categories are self ex-planatory, but the TAG 10 cat-egory created a great deal of interest this time around. The TAG 10 category matches young up-and coming art di-rectors, producers, copywriters and directors with established professionals who worked with them on their TAG entries.

The overall winner in the Professional category was production company Veloc-ity Films and agency Lowe Bull Cape Town for Leila, their moving PSA for the Organ Do-nation Foundation. The winner in the Best Overall Newcomer category was a team from the University of Pretoria for their animated advert Draw

with me which addresses the issue of teenage suicide. The overall TAG 10 award went to production company Cata-pult Commercials and agency Lowe Bull for The Trade, a PSA that addresses the horrors of child trafficking for Alberton Children’s Home. The Trade was a big winner on the night, winning additional awards for Best Script, Best Concept, Best Direction, Best Sound Design/Music and Best Editing.

The award for Best Cinema-tography, along with the View-er’s Choice Awards, went to production house 7 Films and agency Lowe Bull Cape Town for Breakfast , an advert they did for the charity ARA (Indus-try association for responsible alcohol use).

M-Net director of corpo-rate marketing and commu-nications Koo Govender, said: “The M-Net TAG Awards have been designed to do good in many ways. By creating PSAs for worthy charities, young creatives experience the real-life challenges of the industry. At the same time, M-Net TAG still offers the professionals who enter, as well as many charities that are featured in the PSAs, valuable exposure on television.”

Koo added: “We received 104 entries from newcomers and 26 from professionals. The concepts – and especially the animation – were also fresh, creative and punchy. There is no doubt that the cream of the crop of PSAs will move our viewers and create more

awareness for the chosen charities.”

As part of their prize, the overall TAG 10 winners will receive the following – the copywriter/art director team will go to Cannes: Young Li-ons; and the producer/direc-tor team will go to the Cannes film festival.

In addition to the awards, M-Net also announced that eight second and third year students who are interested in studying animation, adver-tising, film and television, will receive M-Net TAG bursaries for 2012. All their tuition fees will be paid and the names of the eight recipients will be an-nounced in January next year.

Kate Hodges

M-NET TAG AWARDS 2011

ALL THE WINNERSNewcomer Best Animation

Nominees: Draw with Me, Lend a Hand, Re-think the SharkWinner: Draw with MeSpecial Mention: Anti-Smoking

Newcomer Best Sound Design / Original Music

Nominees: A Cardboard Reality, Smile, ThuliWinner: Thuli

Newcomer Best editing

Nominees: A Cardboard Reality, Lend a Hand, SmileWinner: A Cardboard Reality

Newcomer Best Script

Nominees: Draw with Me, Grim Work, Lend a HandWinner: Lend a Hand

Newcomer Best Concept

Nominees: Draw a Hand, Lend a Hand, Missing ChildrenWinner: Draw with Me

Newcomer Best Cinematography

Special Mention: Missing Children

Newcomer Best Direction

Nominees: Lend a Hand, Smile, ThuliWinner: Lend a Hand

Newcomer Best Overall

Nominees: Draw with Me, Lend a Hand, ThuliWinner: Draw with MeSpecial Mention: Smile

M-Net Cares Rising Star

Winner: Cellphone Abuse Best TAG 10 Sound Design / Original Music:

Nominees: Breakfast, Nakanjani, The TradeWinner: The Trade

Best TAG 10 editing:


Best TAG 10 Script:


Best TAG 10 Concept:


Best TAG 10 Cinematography:

Nominees: Breakfast, Nakanjani, The TradeWinner: Breakfast

Best TAG 10 Direction:


Best TAG 10 Overall:

Nominees: Breakfast, Nakanjani, The TradeWinner: The Trade Professional Best Sound Design / Original Music:

Nominees: Driver, Hit, LeilaWinner: Hit

Professional Best editing:


Professional Best Script:

Nominees: Blanket, Hit, LeilaWinner: Leila

Professional Best Concept:

Nominees: Blanket, Hit, LeilaWinner: Blanket

Professional Best Cinematrgraphy:


Professional Best Direction:

Nominees: Blanket, Hit, LeilaWinner: Hit

Professional Best Overall:

Nominees: Blanket, Hit, LeilaWinner: Leila Viewers’ Choice Award:

Winner: Breakfast

Leila

The winning team behind The Trade

Cardboard Reaility

Draw With Me

Breakfast

The Trade

Blanket

10

PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENTS

The M-Net TAG (Television Awards for Good) Award Win-ners were announced at a glit-tering awards ceremony at the Theatre on the Track, at Kyal-mai on 30 November 2011.

The awards, formerly known as the Vuka Awards, cel-ebrate the creatives be-

hind powerful PSAs (Public Service Announcements) that are screened on DSTV. The PSAs are made by pro-fessional agencies and pro-duction companies, as well as by students and new-comers to the industry. They are judged in three catego-ries: Professional, Newcomer and TAG 10.

The Professional and New-comer categories are self ex-planatory, but the TAG 10 cat-egory created a great deal of interest this time around. The TAG 10 category matches young up-and coming art di-rectors, producers, copywriters and directors with established professionals who worked with them on their TAG entries.

The overall winner in the Professional category was production company Veloc-ity Films and agency Lowe Bull Cape Town for Leila, their moving PSA for the Organ Do-nation Foundation. The winner in the Best Overall Newcomer category was a team from the University of Pretoria for their animated advert Draw

with me which addresses the issue of teenage suicide. The overall TAG 10 award went to production company Cata-pult Commercials and agency Lowe Bull for The Trade, a PSA that addresses the horrors of child trafficking for Alberton Children’s Home. The Trade was a big winner on the night, winning additional awards for Best Script, Best Concept, Best Direction, Best Sound Design/Music and Best Editing.

The award for Best Cinema-tography, along with the View-er’s Choice Awards, went to production house 7 Films and agency Lowe Bull Cape Town for Breakfast , an advert they did for the charity ARA (Indus-try association for responsible alcohol use).

M-Net director of corpo-rate marketing and commu-nications Koo Govender, said: “The M-Net TAG Awards have been designed to do good in many ways. By creating PSAs for worthy charities, young creatives experience the real-life challenges of the industry. At the same time, M-Net TAG still offers the professionals who enter, as well as many charities that are featured in the PSAs, valuable exposure on television.”

Koo added: “We received 104 entries from newcomers and 26 from professionals. The concepts – and especially the animation – were also fresh, creative and punchy. There is no doubt that the cream of the crop of PSAs will move our viewers and create more

awareness for the chosen charities.”

As part of their prize, the overall TAG 10 winners will receive the following – the copywriter/art director team will go to Cannes: Young Li-ons; and the producer/direc-tor team will go to the Cannes film festival.

In addition to the awards, M-Net also announced that eight second and third year students who are interested in studying animation, adver-tising, film and television, will receive M-Net TAG bursaries for 2012. All their tuition fees will be paid and the names of the eight recipients will be an-nounced in January next year.

Kate Hodges

M-NET TAG AWARDS 2011

ALL THE WINNERSNewcomer Best Animation

Nominees: Draw with Me, Lend a Hand, Re-think the SharkWinner: Draw with MeSpecial Mention: Anti-Smoking

Newcomer Best Sound Design / Original Music

Nominees: A Cardboard Reality, Smile, ThuliWinner: Thuli

Newcomer Best editing

Nominees: A Cardboard Reality, Lend a Hand, SmileWinner: A Cardboard Reality

Newcomer Best Script

Nominees: Draw with Me, Grim Work, Lend a HandWinner: Lend a Hand

Newcomer Best Concept

Nominees: Draw a Hand, Lend a Hand, Missing ChildrenWinner: Draw with Me

Newcomer Best Cinematography

Special Mention: Missing Children

Newcomer Best Direction

Nominees: Lend a Hand, Smile, ThuliWinner: Lend a Hand

Newcomer Best Overall

Nominees: Draw with Me, Lend a Hand, ThuliWinner: Draw with MeSpecial Mention: Smile

M-Net Cares Rising Star

Winner: Cellphone Abuse Best TAG 10 Sound Design / Original Music:


Best TAG 10 editing:


Best TAG 10 Script:


Best TAG 10 Concept:


Best TAG 10 Cinematography:

Nominees: Breakfast, Nakanjani, The TradeWinner: Breakfast

Best TAG 10 Direction:


Best TAG 10 Overall:

Nominees: Breakfast, Nakanjani, The TradeWinner: The Trade Professional Best Sound Design / Original Music:


Professional Best editing:


Professional Best Script:


Professional Best Concept:

Nominees: Blanket, Hit, LeilaWinner: Blanket

Professional Best Cinematrgraphy:


Professional Best Direction:

Nominees: Blanket, Hit, LeilaWinner: Hit

Professional Best Overall:

Nominees: Blanket, Hit, LeilaWinner: Leila Viewers’ Choice Award:

Winner: Breakfast

Leila

The winning team behind The Trade

Cardboard Reaility

Draw With Me

Breakfast

The Trade

Blanket

11

12

LOCATIONSA petition organised by the Commercial producers Asso-ciation of South Africa (CpA) and the South African Associa-tion for Stills producers (SAASp) has gained nearly 1500 sig-natures at the time of going to press.

The petition regards the issu-ing of permits in Cape Town, describing the situation in the

city as a crisis and detailing a dif-ficult relationship between the City, the Cape Film Commission (CFC) and the film industry. The difficulties between the Cape Film Commission and the CPA and SAASP are not new, with the two associations having resigned from the CFC board as far back

as March 2011. The primary issue at the moment is the lack of ac-cess to film permits, and the indus-try’s mistrust of the CFC to liaise with the city for permits. Com-missioner Lillie called a meeting at the beginning of December to discuss these issues; however a health scare means the meet-ing has been postponed until 10 January 2012.

Access to locations in Cape Town has been an ongoing chal-lenge for the film industry. A flare up of the issue seems to be an in-dicator that season is in full swing.

Last season was rounded out by the CPA and SAASP leaving the CFC over the issue of loca-tions and permits. The fact re-mains that until this is resolved and government and industry are able to find a solution that

suits all parties, this issue will con-tinue to tarnish the South African film industry’s name at home and abroad.

Tracey Rollino, co-owner at One Step Beyond, one of Cape Town’s foremost service compa-nies, said: “The problem we have is we feel commissioner doesn’t represent the film industry. This is a worrying situation. It doesn’t bode well for industry and is im-pacting the amount of work we’re getting.”

When asked about the best possible outcome of the petition for the film industry, Tracey said: “We would like there to be a co-operative working relationship between the City and the indus-try. We just want to see fair repre-sentation of film industry.”

executive producer at

Bioscope Films Daniel Kaplan re-vealed that his business has been affected by the locations crisis in Cape Town, saying: “The uncer-tainty on the beach options and the time and effort it was taking for any permit with the new on-line permit system is making it dif-ficult to work in Cape Town.”

When asked what he would do if the situation in Cape Town doesn’t improve, Daniel said he would take his business elsewhere: “We would look to shoot more in Johannesburg or Durban where there are more available options and more support.”

Daniel hopes the petition will result in more communica-tion between the film commis-sion and the film industry and a more organised film office. he concluded, “We would like to have them working with us rather than against us.”

The petition can be ac-cessed through the website change.org or via either the CPA or SAASP’s website. The petition states that it hopes to see the CFC excluded from the industry’s engagement with government in future, stating that it is not “propor-tionally representative of the industry”.

The comments by signa-tories of the petition give an insight into the challenges faced by the members of the film industry in Cape Town as they look to access the city’s many desirable locations.

See page 18 of this news-paper for CFC CeO Denis Lil-lie’s response to the petition.

Kate Hodges

CAPE LOCATIONS CRISIS CONTINUES

petition to the premier & MayorWe, the Film industry of the West-ern Cape and the broader business community allied thereto and which supplies the industry, generating enormous revenue for the prov-ince, support the call by the CpA and SAASp to the Mayor of Cape town and the premier of the Western Cape to urgently address bureau-cratic barriers to the industry’s ac-cess to viable locations to be utilised in the industry. this industry, the sup-port businesses allied thereto, and its employment which is substantial and the livelihoods sustained by the industry, are directly dependent upon urgent address and attention being given to this very salient and material matter.

We furthermore entrust the CpA and SAASp to interface directly with Government on the resolution of this issue as their members are respon-sible for sourcing and securing the work which drives the industry.

We are and remain of the consid-ered opinion, given our history and experience with the Cape Film Commission in matters similar to this, that it be excluded from our engagement process with Govern-ment at this stage, primarily in that it is not proportionately representa-tive of the industry at all and the role players at large, and regrettably lacks the necessary knowledge, skill and / or expertise to be able to efficiently and accurately advise the provincial / Local Government on matters germane to our industry. our experience with the Cape town Film Commission, when we have at-tempted to engage it meaningfully in matters which are material, unfor-tunately leads to many representa-tions which are sadly left unfulfilled, resulting in the imposition of further bureaucratic barriers which prevent us from carrying out our industry in an efficient and appropriate man-ner. Under the supervisory authority of the Cape Film Commission, the availability and access to loca-tions in the Western Cape has dra-matically decreased, the aforesaid bureaucratic hurdles imposed on production have increased expo-nentially and the threat to the very livelihoods which are dependent upon the film industry is now at a critical stage.

13

FILMS

Cape Town is currently playing host to Oscar nominee John Hurt and Harry Potter star Tom Felton as Labyrinth is filmed at Cape Town Film Studios (CTFS).

The four hour mini-se-ries, based on the best-selling novel by Kate

Mosse, is being produced by Tandem Communications and Scott Free Films - Rid-ley Scott and Tony Scott’s production company.

Principal photography on the mini-series has com-menced on the purpose-built backlot at Cape Town Film Studios. The backlot was built and designed to double as Carcassonne in France, where photography was shot be-fore the production moved to Cape Town.

Following a visit to the backlot in October, Cape Film Commission CEO Denis Lillie was very impressed with the construction and attendant job creation. He said: “The number of jobs being created is amazing, we experienced at least 150 people employed

locally from set builders, spe-cialist painters, carpenters, road builders, prop designers to builders, transport and ca-tering specialists. One skill that particularly impressed us were the costume designers and seamstresses, a team of 10 who were one minute stitching together a roman toga and the next a Victorian gentle-mans’ three piece suit. With the demands on the produc-tions, scene changes and cos-tume changes can happen over the course of a few hours and these skilled craftsmen and women need to keep up with the production schedules.

“We were also impressed by the new make-up studios and artists that have recently taken up residence there. This is really leading edge film in-dustry creating jobs and mov-ies in a way that matches the Hollywood industry”.

The Cape Film Commission recently applied to the Devel-opment Bank of Southern Af-rica (DBSA) for funding under the jobs creation programme for two more back-lots a typi-cal New York street and the second a typical US style sub-urb. These backlots will result in

further international work be-ing produced in Cape Town.

Under the direction of pro-duction designer, Tom Han-nam, a spectacular repro-duction of the French medi-eval town of Carcassonne in Southwest France - and the dark and tortured landscape of the Crusades and Cathar massacres of the 13th Century - has been constructed on the backlot of the Cape Town Film Studios. This will be first set to remain as a permanent struc-ture at the Studios. Producing for Tandem is Moritz Polter (The Lost Future, Treasure Guards).

On her blog the author wrote, “Of course South Africa has a thriving and intensely hard working film industry, and many films and commercials are made out at the Cape Town Film Studios, but nothing had prepared me for the sight of medieval Carcassonne come to life on the hill.

It is, of course, an illusion, but at the same time, the streets, the houses, the mar-ket, the dogs and horses, the straw, it felt as near to step-ping back in time as anything I’ve ever experienced.

Tom Hannam’s extraordi-

nary sets and the attention to detail, the integrity, of every sword, every cup, every stone, every door, all built in South Africa for the production, were mind blowing. And Moi-ra Meyer’s costume designs for the medieval characters, hand stitched, hand dyed, hand aged, were outstand-ing. As in Carcassonne, I felt only lucky to have so enthusi-astic, so talented, so energetic a team of people working on the production.”

She concluded: “What was even more marked was how, in certain ways, this cor-ner of South Africa did feel very like - in spirit, at least - the Languedoc. There is some-thing about land that lies be-tween the mountains and the sea, where the wind blows savagely through, where vines line the roads and there is al-ways the sense of the rock and the immensity of the sky. While we were filming, the notori-ous Cape wind was blowing hard, much as it does through the real streets of contempo-rary Carcassonne, capturing a certain sort of mood, a cer-tain sort of atmosphere that only added to the scenes of battle and displacement we were filming.”

Tandem Communications (The Pillars of the Earth, The Company), Ridley Scott and Tony Scott’s Scott Free Films (The Good Wife, The Androm-eda Strain) and Film Afrika Worldwide (Dark Tide, End-game) produce the four-hour Event miniseries in association

with Universal Production Part-ners (UPP). Labyrinth is a Ger-man / South African treaty co-production. Labyrinth will take a global audience on a richly compelling journey through the South of France of the present, and the Crusades and Cathar massacres of medieval times.

Two spirited and charis-matic heroines must somehow work together across the cen-turies in order to save a four thousand year-old secret from falling into the wrong hands.

Mosse’s epic novel has been published in more than thirty-eight languages world-wide; it hit both the New York Times hardcover and paper-back Bestseller lists; was the UK’s bestselling fiction title of 2006 and a top ten bestseller in more than twenty-one other major territories.

Mosse’s adventure thrill-er is adapted to a four-hour event mini-series by award-winning writer Adrian Hodges and British filmmaker, Chris-topher Smith directs the multi-national cast.

The cast includes two-time Oscar nominee, three-time BAFTA Award winner and Golden Globe winner John Hurt, Sebastian Stan, Tom Felton (of Harry Potter fame), Janet Suzman, Jessica Brown-Findlay, Vanessa Kirby, Clau-dia Gerini, Katie McGrath, Emun Elliott and Tony Curran.

Kate Hodges

LABYRINTH FILMING AT CTFS

On the set of Labyrinth On the set of Labyrinth

14

MOVIESAfrikAAns musical Platteland, which opened at cinemas on 25 november, has proven to be a hit, already establishing itself as the highest grossing local film of 2011.

The film has already grossed R4 255 554.89 at the box of-fice from a whopping 130

183 attendances. Tte film’s site average on opening weekend

ran at 13% higher than last sum-mer’s smash hit Liefling, Plat-teland has made it into the number five spot, coming in behind international blockbust-ers Puss in Boots, Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn, Real Steel and Happy Feet 2.

“The response from cin-emagoers has been abso-lutely wonderful and we could not be happier,” says director Sean Else, who also owns his own Afrikaans recording label,

Mozi records. “We wanted to make a musical that would appeal to all the people who love Afrikaans music and who have turned it into a booming industry in South Africa. There is something for everyone in the film.”

Platteland was produced by Philo Pieterse (Lipstiek Dipstiek, Circles in the Forrest/Kringe in ‘n Bos) and Sean Else, and written by Sean and multiple award winning playwright Deon Op-

perman, Platteland, directed by Sean (Ons vir Jou), and was filmed in Vrede and Verkyker-skop. The film was released by Indigenous Film Distribution.

Helen Kuun, CEO of Indig-enous Film Distribution, says the storyline, combined with the many popular artists and musi-cians performing some of the most-loved songs of recent years, is proving to be irresist-ible for the Afrikaans-speaking public. “Platteland got 11% more attendances than Bakgat 2 and 144% more attendanc-es than the hugely popular Jakhalsdans. It’s the perfect film for the upcoming holidays and we are confident it will continue

to shoot the lights out.”Platteland features a stellar

cast of actors and musicians and puts a vibrant new spin on some of the most popular Afrikaans hits of the past few years. It tells the story of Riana van Niekerk (Lianie May) who is desperately fighting to save her family’s farm from Mike Ferreira (Steve Hofmeyr). He has his own agenda and is determined to drive Riana from the land and seize her farm. When Dirk Pre-torius (Bok van Blerk), a drifter with many secrets of his own, arrives in town, new alliances are formed and love blossoms in unexpected ways.

Kate Hodges

PLATTELAND IS HIGHEST GROSSING LOCAL FILM OF 2011

sean Else Platteland Cast

15

We’re distributing 4 000 copies a month free via bulk distribution at film industry commissions and organisations; key industry meeting points like equipment houses, post facilities and broadcasters; on set; and at key industry events. This means we’ll remain the most read film industry trade publication.

After seven years of carrying the cost of mailing another 4 000 copies direct to everyone else, we’re asking for subscriptions to help us cover our rising distribution costs.

Subscribe now for just R22.80 pm to keep receiving your copy, delivered to your door every month.

Please contact us for a subscription debit order form: [email protected] or 021 674 0646.

16

DIGITAL TERRESTRIAL TELEVISION ON ITS WAY

TELEVISION South Africa’s migration to Digi-tal terrestrial television is becom-ing a talking point in film and television production, particular-ly as it has occurred to many in the industry that the extra chan-nels will require more content.

EssEntially Digital terrestrial television (Dtt) is the replace-ment for analogue television.

The benefits of DTT include mini-misation of the amount of spec-trum used, better quality picture and lower costs for broadcasters (long-term).

A further advantage is the potential for interactivity, with many set-top boxes allow-ing for internet access and

HD signal.There are a variety of differ-

ent broadcast standards used around the world, but following a southern african Develop-ment Community (SADC) deci-sion in December 2010, it was decided that South Africa will follow the Digital Video Broad-casting - Second Generation Ter-restrial standard (DVB-T2). This is the most widely used standard, with Europe, New Zealand, Aus-tralia and some South American countries having chosen it.

SABC spokesman Kaizer Kg-anyago said: “South Africa plans to launch in 2012. SABC is on track and will be able to launch some channels by the third quarter of 2012. The SABC is cur-rently in the process of convert-

ing its current DVB-T trial to DVB-T2. The switch will happen on 13th and 14th December 2011. SABC’s plans are currently being approved internally.”

Once the switchover begins the government has just three years to complete the switchover, as the itU (international telecom-munications Union) will no longer protect Africa’s analogue fre-quencies from June 2015. There are problems facing the govern-ment in the move though, as the estimated cost of a set-top box is R700 - a steep price in a country with South Africa’s economically disparate population.

The major talking point seems to be the proposed 17 news channels that will be a direct result of the crossover to Dtt. Many have questioned the pub-lic broadcaster’s ability to pro-vide content for an additional 14 channels.

The SABC appears to be aware of the problem, having a published a Request for Pro-posals book for the first time in three years, just a month ago. (ed - you can read more about the RFP book on page 22 of this newspaper).

in his presentation at africa Cast in November 2011, acting chief technology officer at the SABC Gelfand Kausiyo, stressed the benefits of the additional channels. He cited the ability of the broadcaster to cover na-

tional events without interrupting the existing schedule. Gelfand replaced Richard Waghorn fol-lowing his shock resignation in November. Richard, who joined the SABC in March 2009, had been overseeing the SABC’s digi-tal migration project.

According to the road-map that Gelfand presented, the SABC’s DTT platform will be launched in the second quarter of 2012. At Africa Cast Richard Lindsay-Davies, the director general of the Digital TV Group, the company that oversaw the switchover in the UK, also discussed South Af-rica’s switchover to digital. Richard listed several techni-cal challenges they faced during the course of the swi-tchover, including short times-cales, difficulties testing equip-ment and the fact that there was only one manufacturer of the chipsets they were using.

Richard also mentioned that skills and knowledge needs to be built in the TV indus-try to accommodate the tech-nology and said that creating and regulating quality content is a challenge. He stressed that there are benefits, particularly the HD and interactive op-tions. Kaizer revealed that the SABC has chatted to Richard abou the DTT switchover, say-ing: “The SABC is a member of the DTG and it has been a

great source of information on digital migration. The di-rector, Mr. Lindsay-Davies has been to South Africa last year and meetings were held, but nothing formal, just sharing of information on SA’s digital migration progress.”

When asked about the ben-efits of investing in this technol-ogy despite the economic prob-lems we face in South Africa, the SABC spokesman explained: “The switch to digital needs to happen as it is an international agreed objective. SADC has set itself a target date of December 2013 and South Africa is working towards meeting that deadline. Spending the funds will bring with it many advantages to citizens, better video and audio quality, more free to air public service channels and entertainment from the SABC. It will also em-power citizens with information via e-government services where they have not had access to such service due to low density of internet connectivity.”

He also revealed that: “The set top box (STB) standard that is currently being finalised allows for High Definition services to be broadcasted. SABC is especially ecstatic about this as it allows the SABC the ability to provide HD service to South African citizens in future.”

Kate Hodges

DTT PROS AND CONS

Advantages

- better picture- viewers have access to many more channels- viewers can make use of interactive services- operational costs are lower for broadcasters

Disadvantages

- picture is usually either totally on or totally off- set-top boxes can be pricey- installation of antenna and set-top box is required- switching channels is slower

17

GENERAL INDUSTRYContinued from front page

Gary thinks the indus-try will miss Waterfront Studios if they aren’t

sold and the liquidation goes through, saying: “I think the disappearance of Waterfront Studios will be a problem for the industry. I think you lose another option as a produc-er. For a producer it’s nice to get quotes from a variety of facilities as monopolies are a problem for obvious reasons. Waterfront has traditionally produced a lot of international work, because we’re a service industry in the Western Cape that’s just been the nature of it. Having done movies like Blood Diamond, Invictus and Strikeback and others and as a result our reputation in the international industry has been very good and people don’t particularly want to find new places for their work.”

The studios are still busy despite the provisional liqui-dation. In addition to holding meetings with potential buy-ers, there are staff hard at work. Gary said: “We are tak-ing on new work. We’ve just taken on a new Bollywood job through the film lab, it’s going remarkably well. We’re taking any job, we’ve committed to taking any jobs until the end

December, because that’s our timeline. We are able to do VFX work, commercials, 3D work, finishing work on the Flames or the Pablos, the series we’re working on or in the studios or anything through the film lab. Every day we broadcast HecticNine9 from here, Rob-erta (Durrant) from Penguin has just finished Montana and is now finishing Stokvel on the 23rd of December, so those are committed contracts and those continue without any interruptions.”

When asked if he would do things differently, Gary said: “I would do a lot of things differ-ently. I think we would have partnered from a production point of view a lot sooner than what we’ve done. I would have certainly tried to phase myself out of the pure facility game a lot sooner. Then there’s a lot of politics that I would have handled differently.”

Jurgens revealed that if a buyer doesn’t come on board the studios will move on to sell-ing off assets. He was due in court on 7 December 2011 to-wards that end. Jurgens said: “I’m in court to apply to extend the powers of the provisional liquidators to enable us to sell assets. That will put us in a posi-tion that where we negotiate with buyers at this stage for the sale of the business as a going concern that we can immedi-

ately do so with the full author-ity. Clearly we haven’t looked at the sale of any other assets before we finalise the sale as a going concern because that would defeat the purpose. I can tell you emphatically no decision been made as far as auction of assets is concerned. It remains but one alternative available to the liquidators in the process. No decision has been made, the aim at this point in time is still to sell the business as a going concern.”

Mike concluded on a hope-ful note, saying: “I’ve done a lot of work to put like-minded

people together, to form a consortium to keep the busi-ness going. It’s difficult times though, the timing is difficult, not many people have cash. The bank has taken quite a tough line. I’m really hoping that something can come to-gether but I’m not too opti-mistic at this time. Fortunately the company that takes over the business will start off with a lower cost base and there’s a good chance of reviving and being very competitive.”

Gary ended our conversa-tion with an appeal to the in-dustry, asking that they give

any potential new owners a fair chance. “We’ve had a good ride with the clients up to now. If and when a new purchaser comes on board we would like for the business to continue. I think it’s impor-tant that the business does continue, so I would appeal to people to get involved in the new business and not just dismiss the new owners. I think it’s been nice that we’ve had great support from the industry over the years.”

Kate Hodges

WATERFRONT STUDIOS CONTINUED

Gary Edwardes

18

CFC CEO DENIS LILLIE RESPONDS TO PETITION

LOCATIONSCAPE Film Commission (CFC) CEO Denis Lillie responds to the issues raised in the petition by the CPA and SAASP.

The petition confuses us a little bit as it is talking about the CFC involvement in lo-

cations and permits as if they are the sole domain of the CPA/SAASP business mem-bers. It also makes reference to additional red tape which again we do not understand.

What is also interesting is that the comments that those who have signed the petition make. With two exceptions which refer to the CFC all com-ments from the 1000 signatures appear to relate to accessibil-ity to locations managed by the Cape Town Film Permit Office, which the CPA/SAASP spokespersons have recently said they are very happy with.

What we are doing at the CFC is working with City, Prov-ince and other stakeholders to open up more locations and make the locations booking process for government and parastatal properties more ac-cessible and easier by devel-oping a one stop shop portal. We have made reference to this in newsletters over the past few months, shortly before the petition went on line.

The reference to the loca-

tions crisis is difficult to com-ment on as the term has been used by the CPA/SAASP rep-resentatives every year for at least five years. This is evi-denced by various letters at the CFC, City, Province, on line and elsewhere.

It is a bit like crying wolf, at what point is it a crisis or a complaint, if it is termed a crisis each and every season then the recipients of the complaint may become blasé. I am not suggesting they have but it is something that needs to be reviewed in how the relevant agencies are interacted with in order to gain more traction and a better working relation-ship. Constant public criticism of the agencies only leads to greater alienation rather than integration.

We are working with some of the location scouts and it is clear there are deep frustra-tions with some locations in the city. Some of this is caused by block bookings by certain organisations, some due to in-accessability and others due to a lack of understanding of the particular facility manager as to the importance of the film industry to the economy and how they can help to contribute to this investment by making the access to the location flexible.

The CFC are working very closely with filmmakers and

property owners to resolve this “crisis” but it must be noted that according to a govern-ment representative, the CPA/SAASP membership have been instructed by their representa-tives not to attend the meet-ing the CFC have called to try and understand what the crisis is as we understood both or-ganisations had been working with the City permit office to resolve issues.

I think it is also worth point-ing out that the City Permit office is only responsible for City municipal properties and there are many other loca-tions available to filmmakers. Using these locations would take some of the pressure off the City locations.

Whatever the outcome of the petition, the CFC is com-mitted to working with industry to resolve these matters, cre-ate employment and to as-sist in enabling filmmakers to make a living. We have invited the CPA and SAASP to meet with us to move things forward but as yet have not received a response to our invitation which was made a couple of weeks ago.

The Cape Film Commission is eager to open up a dialogue with the film industry, and hopes the planned meeting on 10 January 2012 will be the starting point.

Denis Lillie

20

GENERAL NEWS GENERAL news from the South African film and commercials industry. You can load your own stories to our website at www.thecallsheet.co.za

Cape Town wins bid to host LoeriesCape Town has won its bid to retain The Loerie awards in the Mother City. Cape Town se-cured the Loeries against pitch-es from Ballito in KwaZulu-Natal, Johannesburg and Sun City. The Loerie awards and the city are now in the process of drafting an agreement to cover the period 2012 – 2014.

The Loeries Festival Week-end is a major event in the film industry’s calendar, attracting around 5000 people, including CeO’s, production companies, marketing directors, advertising executives, creative leaders, media owners and journalists.

The intention of the Loeries is to promote creativity and in-novation as primary business tools and to grow the creative services sector. Taking this into consideration, the committee has decided that the Loeries Judging Week and Seminars will also move to Cape Town (from Johannesburg), so that judging will take place during Creative Week in the days leading up to the awards ceremonies. Finalists will be announced throughout the week and the seminars will include international marketers and creative leaders.

In addition to this, Creative Week will be expanded and plans include an industry-fo-cused expo, the Loeries Student portfolio Day and the Creative Future Scholarship.

“The Loeries are a micro-cosm of our positioning as a city. It is a reward for an industry that relies on innovation, excellence in design and finding new ways of bringing people together,” comments executive mayor of Cape Town, patricia de Lille. “This is exactly the kind of image we want to associate with Cape Town: a cutting-edge driver of bringing people together, fu-elled by an unmatched dyna-mism and energy built by vision-ary design.”

“We are delighted that Cape Town will continue to host these prestigious awards for the creative industry for the next three years.”

Creative Week Cape Town was first initiated in 2010 in part-nership with The Loerie awards, as a legacy event to support Cape Town’s successful bid for World Design Capital 2014. Creative Week is a week-long celebration of creativity where companies and individuals are invited to expose their creativity to the industry’s elite.

Cape Town has been the home of the Loeries for past three years and the decision to con-tinue to hold the awards in the city was arrived at by the Loer-ies committee based on a num-ber of factors, including conti-nuity and strategic alignment in building towards a national design capital.

“The return of the Loeries to Cape Town for the fourth year in a row is something to celebrate as proof that the city is one that attracts investment and makes an attractive offering to the cre-ative industry. In light of Cape Town’s recent successful bid for the title of World Design Capi-tal 2014, it is becoming clear to more and more people that the City of Cape Town is a choice destination and hub of increas-ing innovation and growing prosperity,” explains Helen Zille, premier of the Western Cape.

“The expanded Loeries in 2012 will no doubt inspire new talent and stimulate new en-ergy, which the city and indeed the province will thrive on, as we endeavour to build on the strong foundation that help make the Western Cape the best place to live, work and relax.”

Other reasons behind the committee’s decision include the venue – the Cape Town In-ternational Convention Centre provides a world class raked auditorium seating for 2100 people; and Cape Town offers a strong conference infrastruc-ture, including an international airport, public transport and a high density of hotel accommo-dation near the CTICC.

“The Loerie awards started in 1978 as a vehicle to promote the usage of television as a me-

dium. 34 years later, the Loer-ies has evolved and grown to be South africa’s, if not africa’s, premier creative awards cer-emony recognising a multitude of disciplines within the brand communication industry,” says Loeries Chairperson, Boniswa pezisa. “This includes areas such as digital media, outdoor, print, direct and pR communication, live events, alternative media, architecture, interior design, and many more. Our future focus is to build a compelling and in-dustry engaging Creative Week with a strong accent on industry and people development.”

Super-producer Helena Spring options rights to Lauren Beukes Novel Zoo CitySOuTH african producer Helena Spring has optioned the rights to the arthur C Clarke award-winning Lauren Beukes novel Zoo City.

Helena has produced over 20 feature films and more than 60 television projects. She is the head of production of Videovi-sion entertainment. among her credits are The First Grader, Yes-terday, Dollars and White Pipes and the Leon Schuster box of-fice hits Mr Bones and Mama Jack.

Lauren said: “every novelist dreams of a movie deal - but you actually want more than that. You want to find a producer of great vision and integrity and experience who fundamentally gets the book and understands how to transform it into an en-tirely different creature based on the same genetic material. I’m thrilled that it’s being pro-duced in South africa - for an i nternational audience.”

Helena added: “I’m delight-ed to have secured the film and television rights for Zoo City. It is a ground-breaking, magical novel begging for a life on the big screen. Lauren’s storytelling is masterful - edgy and futuristic, unique yet universal. It is high in entertainment value yet emo-tionally charged - a dream proj-ect for any producer.”

Julian Friedmann of Blake Friedmann (the Literary agency that represents the writer), says that: “Helena outbid all the oth-ers in a spirited auction for film

rights to this extraordinary book: she had an extremely proac-tive, writer-friendly approach to working with Lauren and offered an imaginative and creative proposal that was irresistible.”

Helena beat out several top uS and uK producers for the rights to the novel. Lauren made her directorial debut earlier this year with the documentary Glit-terboys and Ganglands which premiered at the encounters Documentary Film Festival.

Jameson gives first shot entrants more guidanceJaMeSON say they are delighted to have received loads of scripts already for the First Shot com-petition. They say while many of the scripts are promising they will not get through to the short-list of finalists because they are not meeting the competition rules. Clair van der Mescht from Jame-sons asks: “Why risk a great story (which could become an even greater short film) being reject-ed all for a few editorial and for-matting issues that can be easily fixed before the closing date of 31 December 2011?”

These are the main problems they have found: a high num-ber of scripts are over seven pages. The majority are coming in at 9-10 pages which are too long. Scripts must be at least five pages and no longer than sev-en pages, size 12 Courier fonts. Based on this format the industry experts can equate one page of script to roughly one minute of footage, therefore with your five to seven page script they know they can produce a five minute film. Anything longer is too long!.please refer to the provided script template.

Clair added: “It is not that we don’t love children, we do, but just not in our Jameson First Shot scripts. Remember all cast must be over 25 years of age.”

Some scripts have not com-pletely followed the theme of a legendary, humorous or very tall tale. They have noted a few scripts with a strong theme of violence and murder. Clair said: “While we do enjoy a good tall tale murder mystery we cannot feature excessive scenes of vio-lence or excessive use of weap-onry. “

In relation to the qualitative nature of the scripts - the crite-ria from their experienced script reader is if they have the germ of a good idea it must also have sufficient plot, drama and ac-tion. They should think visually and in a filmic way. Many of the scripts from Sa are heavy on dia-logue and lack this visual film ref-erence / description. While dif-ficult in a short film there should also be good characterisation.

Visit the website at www.jamesonfirstshot.com for more tips. International Academy launch-es the International Emmy Kids AwardsTHe International academy of Television arts & Sciences an-nounced the launch of The In-ternational emmy Kids awards, a new competition and stand-alone ceremony, solely dedi-cated to recognizing excel-lence in children’s television programming produced and initially aired outside of the united States.

“For years, kids production has been underserved in our International emmy awards process, and we felt strongly it was time to give that vital and booming programming area its due.” said academy presi-dent and CeO Bruce L. paisner. “These new International emmys will provide a global showcase for the world’s best kids pro-gramming and a unique net-working opportunity for kids tele-vision executives from around the world.”

Six new categories have been created for this event: Kids: preschool; Kids: animation; Kids: Factual; Kids: Non-Scripted entertainment; Kids: Series, and Kids: TV Movie/Mini-Series. The inaugural awards ceremony is scheduled for February 2013 in New York City. entries into the kids competition will run concur-rent with The International emmy awards competition which opens 6 December 2011 and closes 15 February 2012.

The three rounds of judg-ing for these six categories will take place throughout the sum-mer and fall of 2012. Rules and regulations can be found on the academy’s website.

ONLINE NEWS HIGHLIGHTS

Cape Town Mayor Patricia De Lille© Jess Novotna

21

GENERAL NEWS

GENERAL news from the South African film and commercials industry. You can load your own stories to our website at www.thecallsheet.co.za

Terry Tselane relinquishes role as film commission CEO to take up IEC appointmentTerry Tselane, who has served the country’s film industry and in particular the Gauteng Film Commission (GFC) for five years, has been appointed as deputy chairperson of the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC), ef-fective 1 January 2012.

“I am honoured by this ap-pointment and with the trust and faith that has been placed in me by the President, Jacob Zuma. I see this as an opportu-nity to contribute even more to the development of our country and all its citizens. Our country’s record and reputation in achiev-ing fair and free democratic elections since 1994 is to be pro-tected, valued and I intend to make whatever contribution I can to sustaining this,” says Terry.

He thanked the Gauteng Provincial Government, and in particular the MEC for Economic Development, Qedani Mahlan-gu for the faith shown in him and their support of the GFC’s initia-tives in promoting the audio-vi-sual sector.

In the same week that he was appointed a deputy chair of the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC), Tselane was also appointed the CEO of Na-tional Film Video Foundation (NFVF). About this appointment Tselane had this to say “It was a great honour and privilege that the NFVFV Council believed that I could take the NFVF to an-other level and I have worked for the film industry in Gauteng for the past six years and I was also confident that I could make a positive contribution to the NFVF, and it was with great pain and regret that I had to decline this position”

In terms of the Electoral Commission Act, whoever gets appointed on a fulltime basis has to serve to the exclusion of any other appointment or posi-tion. Tselane therefore cannot serve in both capacities

Terry encouraged engage-ment with the film industry and under his guidance, the Gauteng Film Partnership, a body comprising key represen-tatives of the film industry sector and the GFC, was established.

Terry believes that the GFC’s achievements over the past five years are due largely to the commitment of his team at the Commission.

“I have been fortunate to have worked with a dedi-cated team of professionals, whose passion for the sector and the country will no doubt be of immense support to the incoming CEO.”

Janet van Eeden is crowd-sourcing funds for A Shot at the Big TimeAwArD-wINNING filmmaker and journalist, Janet van Eeden, has launched a crowd-sourcing campaign for her film A Shot at the Big Time, inspired by the story

of her brother, Jimmy, who took his own life rather than fight in the Apartheid Border war, a war he didn’t believe in.

Janet, who wrote the script for the internationally acclaimed White Lion (2010), has taken nine years to write the poignant story about her brother’s experience and is now ready to put it on the big screen.

“I’ve launched a crowd-sourcing campaign on Indie-GoGo.com to raise produc-tion funds for this film after the conventional fund raising plat-forms didn’t help me,” she ex-plains. “This film is timeless, a film about the young men who gave up their lives to fight in a war they had no desire to fight. Every white boy in South Africa in the seventies, eighties and early nineties, was conscripted into military service. After three months of brutal basics they were spat out onto the border to kill their so-called enemy. “

A Shot at the Big Time traces the life of her brother and one of his black friends who just want-ed to play music. “They had no interest in waging war against each other - they just wanted to be rock stars,” she says. “Then Jimmy received his call-up pa-pers. Forced into the brutal re-gime of the military, with a Ser-geant who had it in for him, and after a fatal accident, he had a mental breakdown. He was re-moved from service and placed in a mental home to recover. He just started to find his feet again when the army drafted him again and sent him into armed combat on the Angolan bor-der with the instruction to seek and destroy. His broken heart couldn’t do this. So instead of fighting, he released the bullets from his rifle, walked straight into the line of enemy fire, strumming his gun, like his beloved guitar.”

“we need funding!” enthus-es Janet. “But we’re not asking for money for nothing. Even USD 10 will get you a co-producer’s credit and USD 100 gets you a copy of the novel, Width of a

Thread, which is based on the screenplay, and a radio rats CD. Then USD 1000 gets you all of the above, plus a chance to appear in the film in a crowd scene as well as to send in your auditions for the roles. The main roles will be auditioned online.”

A number of songs have al-ready been written by Jonathan Handley of the radio rats who was so moved by reading the script that he recorded songs which can be viewed on the In-diegogo website.

Janet said: “we have crowd-sourced some amazing peo-ple so far. I didn’t realise how much crowd-sourcing is as much about finding incredible people to help on this project as it is about money. So far we have: Paul Dwyer’s Graphic De-sign company working on the poster in Australia through the skills of Justin webber; there is Pr supremo Sharlene Versveld doing stirling duty as our press agent, and we have wonderful Mayan Films’ producer Magda Olchawska keeping me on my toes and thinking big – just what I needed. She recently joined the crew,

Cal Harding is now work-ing his wizardry with the Shot website. Don van Orr is going to shoot the new promo piece to go on the opening page of this site. He is an award winning young director so I can’t wait to see what he comes up with. Did I mention these are all pro bono? Can’t believe what good people there around. Thank you all! we’re going to make a great movie.”

Masters & Savant Worldwide il-lustrate transformation for Stan-dard Bank MASTErS & Savant world-wide recently completed a series of illustrations for the staff of Standard Bank Corpo-rate and Investment Bank to show the progress the bank had made in achieving their transformation targets.

“Due to the volume of in-

formation we had to commu-nicate as well as the target market we needed to com-municate to, the decision was taken to use illustrations,” says roger Smythe, Masters & Savant worldwide’s managing director for Johannesburg.

“we decided to dress the pillars around the bank with eye-catching and informative illustrations to communicate the bank’s three transformation pillars, that of meeting their na-tional Transformation targets, celebrating the role of diver-sity to their business and their CSI initiatives which focus on health and wellness, education and enterprise development. The task was a challenge, but something that allowed us to push our illustrators into new, unchartered territory.”

The challenge to appeal and make a connection with the in-ternal staff was something that Laura Noyce, Marketing Man-ager, Corporate and Investment Banking, Standard Bank South Africa was well aware of, “Ours is an audience that is always on the move and we had to find an effective device to get them to stop and look and get the gist of what we as an organisation are doing.”

“we’ve done a lot of work with Masters & Savant worldwide in the past and have always been impressed by both their con-ceptual ideas and their creative level of design and fantastic

production support.”“By employing this tech-

nique, where one glance wasn’t enough to take everything in, re-ally resonated with the staff and the Bank as a whole. This was something that Marilyn Maki, Di-rector, Transformation, Standard Bank bought into from the get-go, to communicate in an in-novative way about transforma-tion back to our community.”

Bouffant’s Jeana Theron directs magical Dating site TVCJEANA’S unique, stylised aes-thetic shines through in this com-mercial for an online dating site. Creative director Darren Borino of agency 303 Sydney (McCann Erickson) had this to say of the production, “Of all the TV I have shot over the years I have never seen so many things pulled to-gether in as little time, or with as little budget (and with as many last minute changes) as this job.”

He was particularly impressed with Jeana, adding: “Over and above the production side, shooting with Jeana was a plea-sure. Always listening to every comment, but ultimately be-ing hard on what was right for the film.”

Jeana’s first commercial was shortlisted in the CFP-Shots Young Director Award at Cannes in 2006. In 2007 she won a Gold Loerie for her Cell C spot starring Kwaito star Zola.

ONLINE NEWS HIGHLIGHTS

Magda M Olchawska

Jeana Theron’s TVC

22

SABC RELEASES RFP BOOK

TELEVISIONIn november 2011 the SABC re-leased their eighth Request For Proposals Book. The book is a set of guidelines for the kind of content the broadcaster is look-ing to make in the coming year.

The 2011 RFP Book was re-leased in the wake of wide-spread criticism of the cut-

backs on local content commis-sioned by the broadcaster. The fact that the book was finally re-leased can be seen as a nod to the broadcaster’s commitment to the move to digital television.

The last book, released in 2010, did not result in the commissioning of many pro-grammes, but with several ad-ditional channels mooted in the coming years the SABC will need a much greater quantity of local content. SABC spokesperson Kaizer Kganyago says the re-lease of this book is focused on content for their existing chan-nels. Kaizer said the reason the SABC took so long to release the book is that they wanted to en-sure they had enough money to cash flow the book.

On the first page is a note from the acting head: SABC television Bessie Tugwana to the independent production com-munity. She states: “The SABC is proud to launch its 8th Request for Proposals Book, for the first time through the newly created

Television Division. We believe that the merging of Channels and Content will set the frame-work for a far more robust de-livery of the SABC’s mandate as a Public Broadcaster. The re-alignment of Television will ensure that the SABC is able to provide viewers with the highest editorial standard and technical quality.” She also mentions the SABC’s switch over to Digital Ter-restrial Television.

The book requires that a budget be submitted along with each proposal, and notes that “the SABC is open to negotiation around co-pro-ductions and the licensing of local content.

The budget that you sub-mit should be in line with your proposed concept, but should also take into consideration the parameters in which the broadcaster generally oper-ates within that particular genre and format.”

The submission agreement contains several standard rid-ers covering ownership of ideas, possible duplication of ideas, non-confidentiality of ideas, modification of ideas and the fact that the release is applicable for five years after the submission.

Among the briefs in the book are 12 briefs for drama, 10 briefs for factual, seven briefs for edu-cation, five briefs for entertain-ment, five briefs for religion and

three briefs for children. Accord-ing to SOS (Save our Broadcast-er Coalition) the release of the last book did not result in local content being commissioned.

The SABC embarked on a roadshow to further promote the book in early December. The roadshow included com-missioning editors, channel rep-resentatives, legal experts and experts on finance and industry development. The roadshow visited several cities including Johannesburg, Cape Town, Dur-ban, Bloemfontein, Polokwane and Port elizabeth.

Kaizer said the roadshows have gone very well, elaborat-ing: “Producers hadn’t heard from the SABC in 3 years – they stuck to questions about the business of broadcasting.”

each proposal must in-clude five copies of the pro-posal. In addition each pro-posal must contain a submission form, concept and treatment, company profile, full produc-tion budget and a submission agreement form.

Kaizer said: “The book clos-es by the first week in February and we urge all producers to comply with the closing dates and ensure that they follow the submission guidelines. We look forward to receiv-ing the response to the 2011 RFP book.”

Kate Hodges

24

UNiTE FILM FESTIVAL

FILM FESTIVAL A new film festival was launched this month to highlight the abuse of women and to support the efforts of the annual 16 Days of Activism campaign against gender violence.

The event was created by women in South Africa’s film industry and screened more

than 30 films, short films and documentaries from across the continent that are about women and chiefly produced by wom-en. Contributions came in from Egypt, the Congo, Kenya, Liberia and Ghana as well as many from South Africa.

The inaugural UNiTE SA Film festival won the backing of more than a dozen sponsors includ-ing the Gauteng Film Commis-sion, the Films and Publications Board, the United Nations De-velopment Programme and the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA). Its main organisers were

Eve Rantseli from Women of the Sun and Xoliswa Sithole of Nay-anaya Pictures, a producer and director who makes films mainly about women and children fo-cusing on justice, human rights and poverty.

Since the aim of the festival was to spread awareness about the abuse of women and en-courage a change in behaviour, some of the films were screened at community centres in Alexan-dra, Yeoville and Kliptown. The event also featured workshops and seminars in Johannesburg and Pretoria, where filmmakers spoke about their work and led discussions on themes including gender and filmmaking, misog-yny and masculinity, rape and corrective rape and youth in the media. Each of the workshops included clips from relevant films being show during the festival to kick-start the discussions.

Eve from Women of the Sun said audio-visual productions had the ability to change peo-ple’s psyche and their behaviour, so it was important to use that tool correctly. People in the film and entertainment industry had to realise the responsibility they had to showcase positive images so that audiences would follow their lead, she said. “If we show responsible films it’s amazing how that impacts on society. I call on all our filmmakers to try to be re-sponsible and make films that will change people and society

positively. For Women of the Sun when we commission films that’s the message we always send out,” she said. Women Of the Sun is a non-profit support organisa-tion for women filmmakers, and works to promote and celebrate the skills and achievements of Af-rican women filmmakers.

The well-attended open-ing event featured A Love Dur-ing the War, a documentary by Cameroonian filmmaker, Osval-de Lewat-Hallade, about rape being used as a weapon of war by soldiers and rebels in the Dem-ocratic Republic of Congo.

Rosie Motene, an actress, and representative of People Oppos-ing Women Abuse (POWA), said there was definitely a need for this film festival, and stressed that it was time to educate young men to respect women and to respect themselves.

Nonhlanhla Zindela of the UNFPA said the United Nations was very excited about the film festival, and its UNiTE campaign was galvanising people to speak the message of non-violence against women and children. But the 16 Days of Action campaign needed to be turned into 365 days of action, she said.

One of the short films select-ed for the festival, Jiva Majivana, was made by a 17-year-old in Limpopo and shows a tavern where girls as young as 13 jive for old men in exchange for money and alcohol. “You can imag-

ine how much of that remains unseen behind closed doors. We must take these messages to our homes and raise chil-dren in the future so they bring about an end to this social evil,” Nonhlanhla said. However, the opening film by Lewat-Hallade was set in the DRC, which was an important point for South Africa to realise, she said. “We think our situation is so bad, but when we see the conditions going on there we realise that our won situation is manageable.”

Others films in the programme included the award-winning Chi-na’s Lost Children by Jezza Neu-mann, Mama Africa, a docu-mentary about Miriam Makeba, and A Country For My Daughter by South Africa’s Lucilla Blacken-

berg, a co-director of Commu-nity Media Trust, which works with aspiring filmmakers.

Lucilla’s film features human rights activist Nonkosi Khumalo and shows how public outrage and organised protests can have the power to force the authori-ties to provide women with pro-tection and justice.

The festival was inspired by the United Nations’ UNiTE to End Violence against Women cam-paign, launched in 2008 by UN Secretary-General Ban-ki Moon. The aim is to raise public aware-ness and increase the political will and resources made avail-able to prevent and respond to violence against women and girls around the world.

Lesley Stones

The Market Theatre

Lucilla Blankenberg

26

JOBS & OPPORTUNITIES33rd Durban International Film Festival Calls for EntriesTHE 33rd edition of Durban International Film Festival will take place from 19 - 29 July 2012.

Supported by the National Lottery Distribution Trust Fund (principal funder), the National Film and Video Foundation, the KwaZulu-Natal Department of Economic Development and Tourism and other valued funders and partners, the festival will pre-sent over 200 screenings of fi lms from around the world, with a special focus on fi lms from South African and Africa. 2012 will see the return of Talent Campus Dur-ban and the Durban FilmMart.

The festival calls for entries

from around the world. Feature fi lms, short fi lms and documenta-ries are all welcome. The dead-line for entries is 16 March 2012 for short fi lms and documentaries; 6 April 2012 for feature fi lms. All sub-missions must be done via the Eventival online system. For more information visit: www.cca.ukzn.ac.za or email [email protected]

2012 Annecy Animation Festival Calls for EntriesTHE Calls for Projects are able to give a kick-start to the creative process and the Festival is the perfect occasion for artists to present their projects to a panel of professionals from the industry and meet up with eventual fi -

nancial and artistic partners.The Calls for Projects are di-

vided into four categories: Short fi lms Features TV series and spe-cials Cross-media For all, selec-tion by a committee of experts, organisation of meetings, help in arranging meetings.

For more information visit http://www.annecy.org

2012 Africa Movie Academy Awards Calls for EntriesTHE Africa Movie Academy Awards (AMAA) is calling for fea-ture, short and documentary en-tries for its 2012 edition, to be held in April in Nigeria, home to the world’s third largest fi lm industry. The deadline for submissions is 30 December 2011. Since its incep-

tion in 2005, AMAA has estab-lished itself as the most prestigious and glamorous awards celebrat-ing fi lmmaking on the continent. The gala event, which is televised live around the world, attracts Hollywood celebrities alongside their African counterparts, as well as African politicians and me-dia. Only fi lms produced and re-leased between December 2010 and December 2011 are eligible. Features may not exceed 120 minutes and shorts may not be longer than 40 minutes. Submis-sion forms can be downloaded from the AMAA website, www.ama-awards.com/

Nominations will be an-nounced in February 2012.

UPCOMING FEATURES

Troye Sivan with the cast of Spud at the Cape Town premiere

DECEMBERHoofmeise

23 December, cinemas

Otelo Burning 30 December, cinemas

JANUARYSundance Film Festival

19-29 January, Park City, Colorado, USA

Palm Springs International Film Festival

5-16 January 2012, Place: Palm Springs, California, USA

Flickerfest International Short Film Festival

6-15 January 2012, Sydney, Australia

Sundance Film Festival19-29 January 2012, Park City,

Colorado, USA

Machine Gun Preacher20 January, cinemas

NATPE Market & Conference23-25 January 2012, Miami,

Florida, USA

International Film Festival Rotterdam

25 January - 5 February 2012, Rotterdam, the Netherlands

Göteborg International Film Festival

27 January - 6 February 2012, Gothenburg, Sweden

DIARISE

The Prodigies screening at Annecy 2011Gerard Butler stars in the upcoming Mahcine Gun Preacher, Photo Credit: Ilze Kitshoff

• PUBLISHER: Film & Event Media

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WWW.THECALLSHEET.CO.ZA

DISCLAIMER: Opinions expressed in The Callsheet do not necessarily represent the o� cial viewpoint of the editor or the publisher, while inclusion of adverts/advertising features does not imply endorsement of any business, product or service. Copyright of this material is reserved. While every e� ort has been made to ensure the accuracy of the information contained in this publication, The Callsheet and/or its employees may not be held liable or responsible for any act or ommission committed by any person, including a juristic person, referred to in this publication. It and they furthermore accept(s) no responsibility for any liability arising out of any reliance that a reader of this publication places on the contents of this publication.

FEBRUARY ISSUE 2012Booking deadline: 01 February 2012Material deadline: 03 February 2012

Print deadline: 10 February 2012

27

Jameson First ShotASPIRING screenwriters and di-rectors from South Africa will have the chance to write a screenplay for a short fi lm to be produced by Trigger Street Pro-ductions and star Kevin Spacey.Filmmakers are invited to sub-mit a script to the Jameson First Shot website written around the theme of a ‘legendary, humor-ous or very tall tale’. The short-listed entrants will be judged by Kevin and the president of Trigger Street Productions Dana Brunetti. The nominees will then enter a second round where they will be asked to direct a scene selected by Trigger Street.

One winner each from the US, South Africa and Rus-

sia will be fl own to Los Angeles to shoot their script and direct Kevin Spacey. The overall win-ner will be decided by a public vote. The deadline is 31 Decem-ber 2011. To fi nd out more visit www.jamesonfi rstshot.com

Autodesk 2012 Games Show Reel Call for SubmissionsTHE Game Developer Confer-ence (GDC) 2012 is only a few months away. Send us your re-cent video game cinematics, trailers, in-game sequences and animations created using any or a combination of the follow-ing Autodesk software, 3ds Max, Maya, MotionBuilder, Mudbox, Softimage, Beast, HumanIK, Kynapse and Scaleform.

The Autodesk 2012 Games Reel will be showcased at GDC from March 7-9, 2012. It will be featured at our booth, on AREA, the Autodesk website and You-Tube Channel, as well as at events throughout the year.

The deadline for video and imagery submissions is January 13, 2012. For more information visit http://usa.autodesk.com

Travel and Tourism Venues and EventsSATFA gets a great number of requests from travel and tourism product owners who needs new videos. Register at SATFA to get a copy of these requests. The goal of the Southern Africa Travel and Tourism Film & Video Awards is

to provide a showcase for travel products and artwork to as wide an audience as possible.

The best fi lms and videos will be shown at popular Ster Kine-kor, NuMetro and Avalon cin-emas countrywide. And some of the best fi lms and videos will make it to traditional television broadcasters. The very best will be entered at international fi lm festivals. hotels, B&B’s, guest houses, game lodges, holiday resorts, caravan parks, hiking routes, etc are all welcome to enter their videos.

For more information visit http://www.satfa.co.za or email [email protected]

Charl Fourie

FEBRUARYEuropean Film Market

9-17 February 2012, Berlin, Germany

Semi Soet17 February, cinemas

Discop Istanbul28 February - 1 March 2012,

Istanbul, Turkey

MARCHInternational Random Film

Festival10-13 March 2012, Anija,

Estonia

Out in Africa Gay and Les-bian Film Festival

17-18 March 2012, Mafi keng, South Africa

Out in Africa Gay and Les-bian Film Festival

23-24 March 2012, Kimberley, South Africa

MIPDoc Documentary Con-tent Market

30-31 March 2012, Cannes, France

Absa KKNK National Arts Festival

31 March to 7 April 2012, Oudtshoorn, Western Cape,

South Africa

For more, visit www.thecallsheet.co.za/diarise

Compiled by Charl Fourie

DIARISE

Andy Bates launching his new show on The Food NetworkStiltwalkers at Film & Event Media’s monthly wrap party

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NEX-FS100PK

SONY Authorised Dealer and Workshop

Contact: Neil White • [email protected] • Mobile: +27 82 800 0217 • James Macpherson • [email protected] • Mobile: +27 82 569 4136

Sony’s OLED - Re-definingthe Master Monitor and Picture Monitor

Sony is proud to introduce its much-anticipated Organic Light-Emitting Diode (OLED) monitor lineup: the BVM-E Series BVM-E250 and BVM-E170 master monitors, BVM-F Series BVM-F250 and BVM-F170 master monitors, and PVM Series PVM-2541 and PVM-1741 picture monitors.

Sony is capable of extraordinary innovation in reference monitor development, as the company builds on over 30 continuous years of BVM master monitor experience, and is the world leader in OLED display devices and signal processing engines.

Sony has developed these 24.5-inch and 16.5-inch OLED display panels for critical professional use. The OLED is a self-emitting device, and can deliver deep black, highcontrast, accurate color reproduction, and quick response with virtually no motion blur.And yet it features a wide color gamut, meeting ITU-R BT.709, EBU, and SMPTE-C broadcast standards, and conforming to the wider DCI-P3 color gamut.

Furthermore, the newly developed OLED processor with cutting-edge technology offers quality consistency, superb uniformity, and long-term reliability.

The NXCAM NEX-FS100K Super 35mm camcorder has been developed specifically for shooting truly stunning images at low cost. The high sensitivity, large format CMOS sensor is capable of producing full 1920 x 1080 progressive images with shallow depth of field similar to that of a film camera. Exmor™ Super35 CMOS Sensor for Shooting Motion Pictures Equipped with a large CMOS sensor equivalent in size to Super 35mm film, the NEX-FS100K enablesshooting with the same creative depth of field as the PMW-F3.

the callsheet december 2011

Documents

todayliquidator jurgens

provisional liquidation

liquidator jurgens steenkamp

going concern

provisional liquidators

business alive

general manager gary

liquidation process