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Issue 01 2013 Africa’s Leading Film Industry Magazine C allsheet The What’s Ahead in 2013 Making a Film in Africa Locations! Locations! Locations! In Production

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Page 1: The Callsheet Issue 01 2013

Issue 01 2013

Africa’s Leading Film Industry MagazineCallsheetCallsheetCallsheetCThe

What’s Ahead in 2013Making a Film in Africa

Locations! Locations! Locations!In Production

Page 2: The Callsheet Issue 01 2013

www.thecal lsheet.com THE CALLSHEET | 03

DISCLAIMER: Opinions expressed in The Event do not necessarily represent the offi 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 effort has been made to ensure the accuracy of the information contained in this publication, The Event 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.

Join us

www.thecallsheet.co.za

Cover Photograph: © Kudos for BBC : Joe Albas for Film Afrika

Publisher: Lance Gibbonslance@fi lmeventmedia.co.za

Executive Editor: Maya Kulyckymaya@fi lmeventmedia.co.za

Business Manager: Taryn Fowlertaryn@fi lmeventmedia.co.za

Advertising Sales: Taryn Fowlertaryn@fi lmeventmedia.co.za

Sales and Marketing Assistant: Robyn-Lee Malanrobynlee@fi lmeventmedia.co.za

Head of Design:Jess Novotnajess@fi lmeventmedia.co.za

Editorial Assistant:Danielle Illmandanielle@fi lmeventmedia.co.za

Africa’s Leading Film Industry MagazineCallsheetThe

Proudbly Published by

CAPE TOWN OFFICE57 2nd AvenueHarfi eld VillageClaremont7708South AfricaTelephone: +27 21 674 0646www.fi lmeventmedia.co.za

Facebook: www.facebook.com/thecallsheetsaTwitter: @TheCallsheetSAYoutube: www.youtube.com/thecallsheetLinked In: The Callsheet Newspaper

CONTENTS

4. Wesgro Assumes Film Mandate6. Charley Boorman’s South Africa Adventure8. Profi le: Giaco Angellini9. Spitfi re Films10. Jameson First Shot: Expert Tips12. Skyfall Takes Off in Africa14. NFVF Conducts An Economic Impact Survey15. WGSA Becomes Associate Member of IAWG16. Sony Camera Debut17. Oscars: 15 Documentaries Advance in the Oscars 2012 Race18. DHL Global Connectedness Index20. Cairo International Film Festival Winners22. Colours of The Nile International Film Festival Winners24. SA Delegation: Strategic Hollywood Mission26. SA Judges for International Emmy Awards27. In Production: January 201328 Country Spotlight: Kenya On The Move30. Upcoming Events32. Shooting in Sub-Saharan Africa in 201336. Telling “Africa’s Story” in 201338. Challenges of Season40. Trends: If A Picture Is Worth A Thousand Words42. Trends: Location, Location, Location

32

22

27

Page 3: The Callsheet Issue 01 2013

www.thecal lsheet.com THE CALLSHEET | 03

DISCLAIMER: Opinions expressed in The Event do not necessarily represent the offi 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 effort has been made to ensure the accuracy of the information contained in this publication, The Event 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.

Join us

www.thecallsheet.co.za

Cover Photograph: © Kudos for BBC : Joe Albas for Film Afrika

Publisher: Lance Gibbonslance@fi lmeventmedia.co.za

Executive Editor: Maya Kulyckymaya@fi lmeventmedia.co.za

Business Manager: Taryn Fowlertaryn@fi lmeventmedia.co.za

Advertising Sales: Taryn Fowlertaryn@fi lmeventmedia.co.za

Sales and Marketing Assistant: Robyn-Lee Malanrobynlee@fi lmeventmedia.co.za

Head of Design:Jess Novotnajess@fi lmeventmedia.co.za

Editorial Assistant:Danielle Illmandanielle@fi lmeventmedia.co.za

Africa’s Leading Film Industry MagazineCallsheetThe

Proudbly Published by

CAPE TOWN OFFICE57 2nd AvenueHarfi eld VillageClaremont7708South AfricaTelephone: +27 21 674 0646www.fi lmeventmedia.co.za

Facebook: www.facebook.com/thecallsheetsaTwitter: @TheCallsheetSAYoutube: www.youtube.com/thecallsheetLinked In: The Callsheet Newspaper

CONTENTS

4. Wesgro Assumes Film Mandate6. Charley Boorman’s South Africa Adventure8. Profi le: Giaco Angellini9. Spitfi re Films10. Jameson First Shot: Expert Tips12. Skyfall Takes Off in Africa14. NFVF Conducts An Economic Impact Survey15. WGSA Becomes Associate Member of IAWG16. Sony Camera Debut17. Oscars: 15 Documentaries Advance in the Oscars 2012 Race18. DHL Global Connectedness Index20. Cairo International Film Festival Winners22. Colours of The Nile International Film Festival Winners24. SA Delegation: Strategic Hollywood Mission26. SA Judges for International Emmy Awards27. In Production: January 201328 Country Spotlight: Kenya On The Move30. Upcoming Events32. Shooting in Sub-Saharan Africa in 201336. Telling “Africa’s Story” in 201338. Challenges of Season40. Trends: If A Picture Is Worth A Thousand Words42. Trends: Location, Location, Location

32

22

27

Page 4: The Callsheet Issue 01 2013

04 | THE CALLSHEET www.thecal lsheet.co.za

Recently, Alan Winde, the Western Cape Minister of Finance, Economic Development & Tourism in South Africa announced that Wesgro, the

offi cial destination marketing, investment and trade promotion agency for the Western Cape will be the region’s fi lm destination market-ing agency. This was previously done by the Cape Town Film Commission. A public debate has ensued over the roles of the organisations in this new environment. Denis Lillie, CEO/Commissioner of the Cape Film Commission has stated “We remain intact and continue to support the industry as best we can. The indus-try continues to service the local and interna-tional market.” Wesgro has published a “Film Sector Fact Sheet” (www.wesgro.co.za/publi-cations/publication-directory) providing data that shows a sharp drop in high-value foreign direct investment projects since 2011 that may have played a role in the change. The Callsheet will bring you more on this story as it continues to develop. The following is the statement of Minister Winde.

NEWS

Wesgro

Statement by Western Cape Minister of Finance, Economic Development & TourismAlan Winde

5 December 2012

“Wesgro now the Western Cape’s fi lm destination marketing agency

Today, Western Cape Minister of Finance, Economic Development and Tourism, Alan Winde, announced that promoting Cape Town and the Western Cape as a fi lm desti-nation is part of Wesgro’s mandate.

Wesgro is the offi cial Destination Market-ing, Investment and Trade Promotion Agency for the Western Cape. Addressing stakeholders in the Western Cape’s fi lm industry today, Minister Winde said: “Our tax envelope is shrinking and our government has to do more with less. Wes-gro already has the responsibility of marketing the Western Cape as tourism, investment and trade destination, adding the marketing of the Western Cape’s entire fi lm industry to the port-folio will mean that we have a streamlined and co-ordinated marketing strategy with which to approach local and international markets. Wes-gro has already started implementing plans to ensure that in the 2012/13 fi nancial year, fi lm trade and investment to the value of at least R1 billion will be leveraged.”

For the 2013/2014 fi nancial year, marketing

of Cape Town and the Western Cape as a fi lm destination by Wesgro will include: • Aggressively marketing the Western Cape as a fi lm destination, with a focus on fi lm trade promotion strategy to encourage as many in-ternational block-busters and commercials to be fi lmed in the Western Cape.• Facilitating access to national fi lm rebates.• Supporting commercial orientation of exist-ing fi lm makers.

Assumes Film Mandate

• Exploring potential of developing local con-tent fi lm making.• Developing local fi lm audiences.• Trade and investment missions in collab-oration with the Department of Trade and Industry.• Development of a fi lm market within the pro-vincial fi lm festivals.• Focused engagement with Cape Town Film Studios for investment purposes in the long fi lm and TV productions.• Hosting regular engagements with industry on key issues for the Western Cape in collabo-ration with the City of Cape Town, the Media, Information and Communications Technology SETA (MICT SETA), the National Film and Vid-eo Foundation (NFVF) and the Department of Trade and Industry. “South Africa’s entertainment industry is val-ued at around R7.4-billion, with fi lm and tel-evision generating more than R5.8-billion in economic activity each year. In the Western Cape, the estimated turnover contributed to the tourism industry is over R23.2 million per annum. I am confi dent that Wesgro will draw even more investment and grow the economic and jobs creation potential of the sector.” Min-ister Winde added.

Since 2010, various fi lm production have created thousands of jobs opportunities in the Western Cape:

• Judge Dredd – 592• Chronicles – 1153• Safehouse – 5274• Labyrinth – 1780• Great British Story - 931• The Borrowers – 428• History of the World – 1161• Flight of the Stocks – 1071• Young Leonardo – 669• Strike Back 11 – 1161• How we invented the world - 198

IT’S NOT THE SIZE THAT COUNTS...

...it’s how you use it

This compact camera comes packed with advanced features such as HD-SDI for advanced monitoring, high-speed imaging, a 1920x1200 resolution at 1380 fps, and a 2Mpx sensor with 3.2 Gpx/s throughput.

GET IT NOW AT A MFS NEAR YOU: CAPE TOWN 021 511 3300, JOHANNESBURG 011 258 5000, MAURITIUS +230 206 3333

WWW.MEDIAFILMSERVICE.COM

THE PHANTOM MIRO M320S MIGHT NOT BE HUGE, BUT THIS LIGHTWEIGHT, DIGITAL HIGH-SPEED CAMERA HAS WHAT COUNTS IN ALL THE RIGHT PLACES.

IT’S NOT THE SIZE THAT COUNTS...

...it’s how you use it

This compact camera comes packed with advanced features such as HD-SDI for advanced monitoring, high-speed imaging, a 1920x1200 resolution at 1380 fps, and a 2Mpx sensor with 3.2 Gpx/s throughput.

GET IT NOW AT A MFS NEAR YOU: CAPE TOWN 021 511 3300, JOHANNESBURG 011 258 5000, MAURITIUS +230 206 3333

WWW.MEDIAFILMSERVICE.COM

THE PHANTOM MIRO M320S MIGHT NOT BE HUGE, BUT THIS LIGHTWEIGHT, DIGITAL HIGH-SPEED CAMERA HAS WHAT COUNTS IN ALL THE RIGHT PLACES.

Page 5: The Callsheet Issue 01 2013

04 | THE CALLSHEET www.thecal lsheet.co.za

Recently, Alan Winde, the Western Cape Minister of Finance, Economic Development & Tourism in South Africa announced that Wesgro, the

offi cial destination marketing, investment and trade promotion agency for the Western Cape will be the region’s fi lm destination market-ing agency. This was previously done by the Cape Town Film Commission. A public debate has ensued over the roles of the organisations in this new environment. Denis Lillie, CEO/Commissioner of the Cape Film Commission has stated “We remain intact and continue to support the industry as best we can. The indus-try continues to service the local and interna-tional market.” Wesgro has published a “Film Sector Fact Sheet” (www.wesgro.co.za/publi-cations/publication-directory) providing data that shows a sharp drop in high-value foreign direct investment projects since 2011 that may have played a role in the change. The Callsheet will bring you more on this story as it continues to develop. The following is the statement of Minister Winde.

NEWS

Wesgro

Statement by Western Cape Minister of Finance, Economic Development & TourismAlan Winde

5 December 2012

“Wesgro now the Western Cape’s fi lm destination marketing agency

Today, Western Cape Minister of Finance, Economic Development and Tourism, Alan Winde, announced that promoting Cape Town and the Western Cape as a fi lm desti-nation is part of Wesgro’s mandate.

Wesgro is the offi cial Destination Market-ing, Investment and Trade Promotion Agency for the Western Cape. Addressing stakeholders in the Western Cape’s fi lm industry today, Minister Winde said: “Our tax envelope is shrinking and our government has to do more with less. Wes-gro already has the responsibility of marketing the Western Cape as tourism, investment and trade destination, adding the marketing of the Western Cape’s entire fi lm industry to the port-folio will mean that we have a streamlined and co-ordinated marketing strategy with which to approach local and international markets. Wes-gro has already started implementing plans to ensure that in the 2012/13 fi nancial year, fi lm trade and investment to the value of at least R1 billion will be leveraged.”

For the 2013/2014 fi nancial year, marketing

of Cape Town and the Western Cape as a fi lm destination by Wesgro will include: • Aggressively marketing the Western Cape as a fi lm destination, with a focus on fi lm trade promotion strategy to encourage as many in-ternational block-busters and commercials to be fi lmed in the Western Cape.• Facilitating access to national fi lm rebates.• Supporting commercial orientation of exist-ing fi lm makers.

Assumes Film Mandate

• Exploring potential of developing local con-tent fi lm making.• Developing local fi lm audiences.• Trade and investment missions in collab-oration with the Department of Trade and Industry.• Development of a fi lm market within the pro-vincial fi lm festivals.• Focused engagement with Cape Town Film Studios for investment purposes in the long fi lm and TV productions.• Hosting regular engagements with industry on key issues for the Western Cape in collabo-ration with the City of Cape Town, the Media, Information and Communications Technology SETA (MICT SETA), the National Film and Vid-eo Foundation (NFVF) and the Department of Trade and Industry. “South Africa’s entertainment industry is val-ued at around R7.4-billion, with fi lm and tel-evision generating more than R5.8-billion in economic activity each year. In the Western Cape, the estimated turnover contributed to the tourism industry is over R23.2 million per annum. I am confi dent that Wesgro will draw even more investment and grow the economic and jobs creation potential of the sector.” Min-ister Winde added.

Since 2010, various fi lm production have created thousands of jobs opportunities in the Western Cape:

• Judge Dredd – 592• Chronicles – 1153• Safehouse – 5274• Labyrinth – 1780• Great British Story - 931• The Borrowers – 428• History of the World – 1161• Flight of the Stocks – 1071• Young Leonardo – 669• Strike Back 11 – 1161• How we invented the world - 198

IT’S NOT THE SIZE THAT COUNTS...

...it’s how you use it

This compact camera comes packed with advanced features such as HD-SDI for advanced monitoring, high-speed imaging, a 1920x1200 resolution at 1380 fps, and a 2Mpx sensor with 3.2 Gpx/s throughput.

GET IT NOW AT A MFS NEAR YOU: CAPE TOWN 021 511 3300, JOHANNESBURG 011 258 5000, MAURITIUS +230 206 3333

WWW.MEDIAFILMSERVICE.COM

THE PHANTOM MIRO M320S MIGHT NOT BE HUGE, BUT THIS LIGHTWEIGHT, DIGITAL HIGH-SPEED CAMERA HAS WHAT COUNTS IN ALL THE RIGHT PLACES.

IT’S NOT THE SIZE THAT COUNTS...

...it’s how you use it

This compact camera comes packed with advanced features such as HD-SDI for advanced monitoring, high-speed imaging, a 1920x1200 resolution at 1380 fps, and a 2Mpx sensor with 3.2 Gpx/s throughput.

GET IT NOW AT A MFS NEAR YOU: CAPE TOWN 021 511 3300, JOHANNESBURG 011 258 5000, MAURITIUS +230 206 3333

WWW.MEDIAFILMSERVICE.COM

THE PHANTOM MIRO M320S MIGHT NOT BE HUGE, BUT THIS LIGHTWEIGHT, DIGITAL HIGH-SPEED CAMERA HAS WHAT COUNTS IN ALL THE RIGHT PLACES.

Page 6: The Callsheet Issue 01 2013

06 | THE CALLSHEET www.thecal lsheet.co.za

NEWS

Sunday night in Cape Town’s Westin Grand Hotel and the drinks have been flowing for a couple of hours. It’s the wrap party for Charley Boorman- and

Russ Malkin’s latest motorcycling adventure and the two are revelling in being reunited with their families, whom they’ve not seen for over two months.

There’s a lot of hilarity – most of the male crew-members and some of the invited guests have trimmed their beards to mirror Charley’s piratical bokbaardjie – but there’s a sombre undertone: after living in each other’s’ pockets for the past seven weeks, they’re upset the ad-venture is over.

Charley Boorman’s Extreme Frontiers: South Africa flights in the United Kingdom as a four-part series in early 2013. In each of the hour-long episodes, says Malkin, Charley “gets under the skin of South Africa”. Malkin describes himself as “primarily an adventurer”. He also wears the hats of series producer and director. He has made his mark in the reality adventure genre with Boorman

and actor Ewan McGregor in The Long Way Round and The Long Way Down, the latter fea-turing the two riding from the northern tip of the UK to Cape Town.

The series will be recut – “probably to about seven episodes”, says Malkin – for in-ternational flighting (including in South Af-rica) next year.

This is anything but a big-budget produc-tion with a crew and cast of thousands. In fact, the team numbers just seven…none of whom have worked with Boorman and Malkin before.

With McGregor increasingly in demand in Hollywood, Malkin and Boorman have main-tained their adventuring momentum with the Extreme Frontiers series, of which South Africa is the second after 2011’s Canada programmes.

“An adventure starts with an idea, which you then have to sell. In this case, our track record allowed us to sell the South Af-rica series to BBC’s Channel Five. It’s the same channel that showed the Canada pro-grammes in prime time.”

Malkin insists that having a broadcast

- By Jim Freeman

Charley Boorman’s South African Adventure

This is anything but a big-budget production with a crew and cast of thousands. In fact, the team

numbers just seven … none of whom have worked with

Boorman and Malkin before.

www.thecal lsheet.co.za THE CALLSHEET | 07

NEWS

partner is no longer an essential require-ment for planning and conducting an over-land expedition.

“There are very many ways that Internet branding can be an extremely exciting trigger point for generating funding and sponsor-ships. All it needs is a bit of entrepreneurism, passion and drive.

“You also don’t need a celebrity if you have a great idea and format.” Once he’d obtained the green light from Channel Five, Malkin – once quoted as saying “I’ve never met anyone who’s had an adven-ture and regretted it” – approached perennial sponsors BMW and sought other partners. Among those that came on board were South African Airways, Nissan SA, national and re-gional tourism authorities, the Mantis Collec-tion of privately owned boutique hotels and Intrepid Travel.

BMW was a cinch: the team was single-handedly responsible for a 45 percent world-

wide jump in the marque’s bike sales after the two Long Way series became international hits.

“The point was to travel South Africa side to side, top to bottom, and everything in be-tween. We started off with Charley abseiling down Table Mountain, visiting Robben Island and going shark-diving in Gansbaai all in the space of 48 hours.

“We ended, as has become a bit of tradition with us, by leading a convoy of bikes to our fi -nal destination.”

In this case, the team was astounded when more than 300 bikes arrived at the Meerlust wine estate outside Stellenbosch on one of the grimmest winter weekends in the Western Cape and followed Boorman to the top of Sig-nal Hill. Such is Boorman’s personality that he greeted each biker with a handshake and word as they arrived.

One of the highlights, he recalls, was lighting a blasting fuse in a goldmine near Barberton in Mpumalanga. “I turned round to tell the cameraman to make sure he got the fuse sparking … but he was gone! We had to do it all again.”

Malkin says an adventure journey cannot be planned in the fi nest detail. “Things change. Things go wrong. Unexpected opportunities arise. You have to include a huge measure of spontaneity in the production.” And working with an unknown team? “I like mixing things up. If you go away with the same people time after time, you’re unlikely to achieve any kind of breakout dynamic.

“I love working with people who are vital and who don’t only do what you, as director, tell them to do. If a cameraperson decides he has to run up a mountain to get a better shot, then let him get on with it but make sure he gets down again with himself and his equip-ment in one piece!“That’s a professional.”

I like mixing things up. If you go away

with the same people time after time,

you’re unlikely to achieve any kind of break-out dynamic.

““

- Charley Boorman

The crew

Charley Boorman’s South African Adventure

will begin airing in the United Kingdom on

Channel 5, early 2013.

Page 7: The Callsheet Issue 01 2013

06 | THE CALLSHEET www.thecal lsheet.co.za

NEWS

Sunday night in Cape Town’s Westin Grand Hotel and the drinks have been flowing for a couple of hours. It’s the wrap party for Charley Boorman- and

Russ Malkin’s latest motorcycling adventure and the two are revelling in being reunited with their families, whom they’ve not seen for over two months.

There’s a lot of hilarity – most of the male crew-members and some of the invited guests have trimmed their beards to mirror Charley’s piratical bokbaardjie – but there’s a sombre undertone: after living in each other’s’ pockets for the past seven weeks, they’re upset the ad-venture is over.

Charley Boorman’s Extreme Frontiers: South Africa flights in the United Kingdom as a four-part series in early 2013. In each of the hour-long episodes, says Malkin, Charley “gets under the skin of South Africa”. Malkin describes himself as “primarily an adventurer”. He also wears the hats of series producer and director. He has made his mark in the reality adventure genre with Boorman

and actor Ewan McGregor in The Long Way Round and The Long Way Down, the latter fea-turing the two riding from the northern tip of the UK to Cape Town.

The series will be recut – “probably to about seven episodes”, says Malkin – for in-ternational flighting (including in South Af-rica) next year.

This is anything but a big-budget produc-tion with a crew and cast of thousands. In fact, the team numbers just seven…none of whom have worked with Boorman and Malkin before.

With McGregor increasingly in demand in Hollywood, Malkin and Boorman have main-tained their adventuring momentum with the Extreme Frontiers series, of which South Africa is the second after 2011’s Canada programmes.

“An adventure starts with an idea, which you then have to sell. In this case, our track record allowed us to sell the South Af-rica series to BBC’s Channel Five. It’s the same channel that showed the Canada pro-grammes in prime time.”

Malkin insists that having a broadcast

- By Jim Freeman

Charley Boorman’s South African Adventure

This is anything but a big-budget production with a crew and cast of thousands. In fact, the team

numbers just seven … none of whom have worked with

Boorman and Malkin before.

www.thecal lsheet.co.za THE CALLSHEET | 07

NEWS

partner is no longer an essential require-ment for planning and conducting an over-land expedition.

“There are very many ways that Internet branding can be an extremely exciting trigger point for generating funding and sponsor-ships. All it needs is a bit of entrepreneurism, passion and drive.

“You also don’t need a celebrity if you have a great idea and format.” Once he’d obtained the green light from Channel Five, Malkin – once quoted as saying “I’ve never met anyone who’s had an adven-ture and regretted it” – approached perennial sponsors BMW and sought other partners. Among those that came on board were South African Airways, Nissan SA, national and re-gional tourism authorities, the Mantis Collec-tion of privately owned boutique hotels and Intrepid Travel.

BMW was a cinch: the team was single-handedly responsible for a 45 percent world-

wide jump in the marque’s bike sales after the two Long Way series became international hits.

“The point was to travel South Africa side to side, top to bottom, and everything in be-tween. We started off with Charley abseiling down Table Mountain, visiting Robben Island and going shark-diving in Gansbaai all in the space of 48 hours.

“We ended, as has become a bit of tradition with us, by leading a convoy of bikes to our fi -nal destination.”

In this case, the team was astounded when more than 300 bikes arrived at the Meerlust wine estate outside Stellenbosch on one of the grimmest winter weekends in the Western Cape and followed Boorman to the top of Sig-nal Hill. Such is Boorman’s personality that he greeted each biker with a handshake and word as they arrived.

One of the highlights, he recalls, was lighting a blasting fuse in a goldmine near Barberton in Mpumalanga. “I turned round to tell the cameraman to make sure he got the fuse sparking … but he was gone! We had to do it all again.”

Malkin says an adventure journey cannot be planned in the fi nest detail. “Things change. Things go wrong. Unexpected opportunities arise. You have to include a huge measure of spontaneity in the production.” And working with an unknown team? “I like mixing things up. If you go away with the same people time after time, you’re unlikely to achieve any kind of breakout dynamic.

“I love working with people who are vital and who don’t only do what you, as director, tell them to do. If a cameraperson decides he has to run up a mountain to get a better shot, then let him get on with it but make sure he gets down again with himself and his equip-ment in one piece!“That’s a professional.”

I like mixing things up. If you go away

with the same people time after time,

you’re unlikely to achieve any kind of break-out dynamic.

““

- Charley Boorman

The crew

Charley Boorman’s South African Adventure

will begin airing in the United Kingdom on

Channel 5, early 2013.

Page 8: The Callsheet Issue 01 2013

08 | THE CALLSHEET www.thecal lsheet.co.za

PROFILE

For Giaco Angelini life is about the sim-pler things; a good cup of coff ee, ad-venture travel and spending time with people he cares for. It is not about

suits, not about CROCS, not about weather days and most defi nitely not about boring, complicated, grainy and unfocused fi lm. It’s the reason he is the head of The Vision Cor-poration (TVC). It’s why he has a bookshelf made out of Loeries, received a number of Clios and taken 5 Cannes Lions.

Giaco was born in Rome and moved to South Africa at an early age. As a young man he served time on an abundance of fi lm sets, working on over 30 feature fi lms as an assistant in the camera department. During the shooting of Zulu Dawn, in which he lived in a caravan in the middle of Zululand for 3 months, it became obvious to him his passion lay in commercials, so he made a decision that would guide the rest of his career. After years as a DOP he be-gan shooting and directing his own television commercials, becoming one of the industry’s most sought after and respected creatives.

Being lauded for his work on local and in-ternational brands such as Castle, Mercedes Benz, Volkswagen, Castrol, Pepsi, Coca-Cola and American Airlines, Giaco was selected to shoot Metropolitan Republic’s new Castle Milk Stout TV campaign. For Giaco the campaign meant fi nding a new way of telling an age-old story and by utilising a combination of freeze frame action shots inspired by time slice tech-niques, along with innovative grading, the commercial leaves the viewer in awe.

“No matter where you go or what you do, a beautiful image will always be king. You can fol-low the fashion, follow the music but nothing evokes emotion like an amazing image.”

With this philosophy Giaco believes that his best work is still to come and will always tackle each new project with the same passion and intensity as when he fi rst began.

If I’m wearing a tie, then I

screwed up.”

“ “

- Giaco Angelini

GIACO ANGELINIADVERTORIAL

www.thecal lsheet.co.za THE CALLSHEET | 09

NEWS

A new creative content studio has opened its doors in Johannesburg, South Africa. Spitfi re Films opened during the

month of October. The company was founded by the Director AK, a Johannesburg native. With accolades which include being a fi nalist at both DA&D as well as Cannes in the past, AK has worked on brands such as Coca-Cola, Adidas, BMW and National Geographic, to mention but a few. “At Spitfi re Films we are passionate about all formats of fi lmmaking and look forward to taking on innovative and engaging visual projects that will result in marvellous content,” he says.

Spitfi re Films’ fi rst project was shooting on location in the Amazon for Investec’s new

television commercial. In the Amazon, they shot the Pororoca tidal wave which appears no more than twice per year and lasts mere minutes. “It was a challenging assignment because we had only one chance to get the shot we are looking for,” explains AK.

“What made it all the more challenging was that our visit coincided with the rainy season and we had to deal with language barriers from the local community.”

Together with director Nic Hester and producer Liesl Karpinski, AK hopes to take Spitfi re Films to new heights. “Our team is motivated, has a savvy, a can-do attitude as well as a balanced skill-set.”

Spitfi re Films is currently working on a documentary fi lm called Fracking The Karoo.

New Creative Content Studio in SA

Spitfire films

Founder and Director AK

Director Nic Hester

Page 9: The Callsheet Issue 01 2013

08 | THE CALLSHEET www.thecal lsheet.co.za

PROFILE

For Giaco Angelini life is about the sim-pler things; a good cup of coff ee, ad-venture travel and spending time with people he cares for. It is not about

suits, not about CROCS, not about weather days and most defi nitely not about boring, complicated, grainy and unfocused fi lm. It’s the reason he is the head of The Vision Cor-poration (TVC). It’s why he has a bookshelf made out of Loeries, received a number of Clios and taken 5 Cannes Lions.

Giaco was born in Rome and moved to South Africa at an early age. As a young man he served time on an abundance of fi lm sets, working on over 30 feature fi lms as an assistant in the camera department. During the shooting of Zulu Dawn, in which he lived in a caravan in the middle of Zululand for 3 months, it became obvious to him his passion lay in commercials, so he made a decision that would guide the rest of his career. After years as a DOP he be-gan shooting and directing his own television commercials, becoming one of the industry’s most sought after and respected creatives.

Being lauded for his work on local and in-ternational brands such as Castle, Mercedes Benz, Volkswagen, Castrol, Pepsi, Coca-Cola and American Airlines, Giaco was selected to shoot Metropolitan Republic’s new Castle Milk Stout TV campaign. For Giaco the campaign meant fi nding a new way of telling an age-old story and by utilising a combination of freeze frame action shots inspired by time slice tech-niques, along with innovative grading, the commercial leaves the viewer in awe.

“No matter where you go or what you do, a beautiful image will always be king. You can fol-low the fashion, follow the music but nothing evokes emotion like an amazing image.”

With this philosophy Giaco believes that his best work is still to come and will always tackle each new project with the same passion and intensity as when he fi rst began.

If I’m wearing a tie, then I

screwed up.”

“ “

- Giaco Angelini

GIACO ANGELINIADVERTORIAL

www.thecal lsheet.co.za THE CALLSHEET | 09

NEWS

A new creative content studio has opened its doors in Johannesburg, South Africa. Spitfi re Films opened during the

month of October. The company was founded by the Director AK, a Johannesburg native. With accolades which include being a fi nalist at both DA&D as well as Cannes in the past, AK has worked on brands such as Coca-Cola, Adidas, BMW and National Geographic, to mention but a few. “At Spitfi re Films we are passionate about all formats of fi lmmaking and look forward to taking on innovative and engaging visual projects that will result in marvellous content,” he says.

Spitfi re Films’ fi rst project was shooting on location in the Amazon for Investec’s new

television commercial. In the Amazon, they shot the Pororoca tidal wave which appears no more than twice per year and lasts mere minutes. “It was a challenging assignment because we had only one chance to get the shot we are looking for,” explains AK.

“What made it all the more challenging was that our visit coincided with the rainy season and we had to deal with language barriers from the local community.”

Together with director Nic Hester and producer Liesl Karpinski, AK hopes to take Spitfi re Films to new heights. “Our team is motivated, has a savvy, a can-do attitude as well as a balanced skill-set.”

Spitfi re Films is currently working on a documentary fi lm called Fracking The Karoo.

New Creative Content Studio in SA

Spitfire films

Founder and Director AK

Director Nic Hester

Page 10: The Callsheet Issue 01 2013

10 | THE CALLSHEET www.thecal lsheet.co.za

NEWS

How can you improve your chances of being the next winner of the Jameson First Shot competition? Follow expert advice!

Jameson First Shot, the international short film competition designed to uncover up-and-coming film talent from South Africa, Russia, and the U.S. was launched last year. The three winners, from South Africa, the U.S. and Rus-sia, beat over 700 other aspiring screenwrit-ers for the opportunity to fly to Los Angeles to shoot their script and direct Kevin Spacey, all with the backing of his award-winning Pro-duction Company, Trigger Street Productions. This year, winners will shoot another legend-ary actor in Los Angeles – Willem Defoe. And they are being offered advice from the experts, Kevin and Dana Brunetti, President of Trigger Street Productions. First, both say entrants should follow the rules. “Pay attention to the budget and stick to the theme of legendary, hu-morous, or tall tale,” says Dana.

Jameson First Shot Expert Tips

The rules are simple: • You must be at least 25 years old to enter. • You must write a script based on one of the three following themes: ‘legend ary’, ‘humorous’, or ‘very tall tale’. • Your script must be at least 5 pages and no longer than 7 pages on A4 paper in size 12 point Courier font. • Only entrants living in South Africa, Rus sia, and the U.S. (not California) are eligible to enter.• Do not depict anyone under the age of 25 in your script.• Your script should include a maximum of 7 cast.• Scripts must be submitted in English.• One submission per person – no writing teams – multiple submissions will be void.

Trigger Street Productions has noted a few scripts have a strong theme of violence and murder. They cannot feature excessive scenes of violence or excessive use of weaponry – keep that in mind!

Dana also says that competitors should “pay attention to the budget.” “I look at will it fit within the confines that we have to produce this, it gets two days to shoot and then a very limited post-schedule and a limited budget and crew. If it has large car explosions and car chases and things that are not possible to do in those confines it’s going to get eliminated,” says Dana.

Kevin advises entrants to tell a story, not write a script for Willem Defoe. “Most scripts are written as stories,” says Kevin, “and I think it might actually be a little bit of a hindrance if you’re writing for a specific actor and you’re

thinking ‘Oh what would that actor do?’ as op-posed to ‘What is my character going to do?’ ‘What should this character be about?’ ‘How should I bring this character to life?’ And then knowing it will be interpreted by an actor that has done everything. He has done comedy, drama, he’s done everything.”

Trigger Street Productions says that this year, they’ve already received “loads of great scripts” but many (nearly 50%) will have to be rejected since they are not sticking with the rules of the competition. Some have editorial and formatting issues that can be easily fixed before the closing date of December 31st. For instance, a high number of scripts are over 7 pages. They advise, “please review your sub-mitted scripts!”

Once scripts are in, Trigger Street, with their judging panel of industry experts, will produce a shortlist of 20 entries. After completing a rigorous second stage selection process to showcase their creativity and directing skills, the winners will be chosen. That’s when the real adventure begins!

Find out more about Jameson First Shot at http://www.jamesonfirstshot.com/.

This year, winners will shoot another

legendary actor in Los Angeles – Willem Defoe.

“ “Dana also says that

competitors should “pay attention to

the budget.” “I look at will it fit within

the confines that we have to produce this,

it gets two days to shoot and then a very limited post-schedule and a limited budget

and crew.

Dana Brunetti and Kevin Spacey

Page 11: The Callsheet Issue 01 2013

10 | THE CALLSHEET www.thecal lsheet.co.za

NEWS

How can you improve your chances of being the next winner of the Jameson First Shot competition? Follow expert advice!

Jameson First Shot, the international short film competition designed to uncover up-and-coming film talent from South Africa, Russia, and the U.S. was launched last year. The three winners, from South Africa, the U.S. and Rus-sia, beat over 700 other aspiring screenwrit-ers for the opportunity to fly to Los Angeles to shoot their script and direct Kevin Spacey, all with the backing of his award-winning Pro-duction Company, Trigger Street Productions. This year, winners will shoot another legend-ary actor in Los Angeles – Willem Defoe. And they are being offered advice from the experts, Kevin and Dana Brunetti, President of Trigger Street Productions. First, both say entrants should follow the rules. “Pay attention to the budget and stick to the theme of legendary, hu-morous, or tall tale,” says Dana.

Jameson First Shot Expert Tips

The rules are simple: • You must be at least 25 years old to enter. • You must write a script based on one of the three following themes: ‘legend ary’, ‘humorous’, or ‘very tall tale’. • Your script must be at least 5 pages and no longer than 7 pages on A4 paper in size 12 point Courier font. • Only entrants living in South Africa, Rus sia, and the U.S. (not California) are eligible to enter.• Do not depict anyone under the age of 25 in your script.• Your script should include a maximum of 7 cast.• Scripts must be submitted in English.• One submission per person – no writing teams – multiple submissions will be void.

Trigger Street Productions has noted a few scripts have a strong theme of violence and murder. They cannot feature excessive scenes of violence or excessive use of weaponry – keep that in mind!

Dana also says that competitors should “pay attention to the budget.” “I look at will it fit within the confines that we have to produce this, it gets two days to shoot and then a very limited post-schedule and a limited budget and crew. If it has large car explosions and car chases and things that are not possible to do in those confines it’s going to get eliminated,” says Dana.

Kevin advises entrants to tell a story, not write a script for Willem Defoe. “Most scripts are written as stories,” says Kevin, “and I think it might actually be a little bit of a hindrance if you’re writing for a specific actor and you’re

thinking ‘Oh what would that actor do?’ as op-posed to ‘What is my character going to do?’ ‘What should this character be about?’ ‘How should I bring this character to life?’ And then knowing it will be interpreted by an actor that has done everything. He has done comedy, drama, he’s done everything.”

Trigger Street Productions says that this year, they’ve already received “loads of great scripts” but many (nearly 50%) will have to be rejected since they are not sticking with the rules of the competition. Some have editorial and formatting issues that can be easily fixed before the closing date of December 31st. For instance, a high number of scripts are over 7 pages. They advise, “please review your sub-mitted scripts!”

Once scripts are in, Trigger Street, with their judging panel of industry experts, will produce a shortlist of 20 entries. After completing a rigorous second stage selection process to showcase their creativity and directing skills, the winners will be chosen. That’s when the real adventure begins!

Find out more about Jameson First Shot at http://www.jamesonfirstshot.com/.

This year, winners will shoot another

legendary actor in Los Angeles – Willem Defoe.

“ “Dana also says that

competitors should “pay attention to

the budget.” “I look at will it fit within

the confines that we have to produce this,

it gets two days to shoot and then a very limited post-schedule and a limited budget

and crew.

Dana Brunetti and Kevin Spacey

Page 12: The Callsheet Issue 01 2013

12 | THE CALLSHEET www.thecal lsheet.co.za

NEWS

SKYFALL, the 23rd film in the Bond franchise, has recorded the biggest African opening for a Bond film of all time.

The film released on over 120 screens in South Africa and took in over R7 million at the box office over the weekend. SKYFALL is now the biggest non-3D opening for a SPRI (Sony Pictures Releasing International) film in South Africa.

The extraordinary local opening follows the phenomenal international success of the film, which has now taken over USD $850 million worldwide, making it one of the biggest grossing movies of all time.

Says Isabel Rao, CEO Ster Kinekor Distribution, “The Bond franchise has always been a favourite of South African audiences and we are thrilled that they came out to support SKYFALL in this special anniversary year for Bond. It is a fitting tribute to such an iconic cinema legend.”

SKYFALL

The extraordinary local opening follows

the phenomenal international success

of the film, which has now taken

over $850 million worldwide, making it one of the biggest grossing movies of

all time.

Takes Off in Africa

www.thecal lsheet.co.za THE CALLSHEET | 13

NEWSMarketing Manager for SPRI in South

Africa, Bashan Govindarajulu, said, “The numerous local and global promotional partners associated with the film contributed significantly towards the theatrical release. Thanks especially to the fans who once again did not disappoint when they turned up in their thousands across the country throughout the weekend.”

Starring Daniel Craig as 007, SKYFALL is directed by British Director Sam Mendes and stars Judi Dench as “M”, Javier Bardem, Ralph Fiennes and Naomie Harris. The film also stars Bond actress Bérénice Marlohe.

Ticket sales in South Africa may have received a boost by the high-profile première in Johannesburg in November that was attended by Bérénice and the British High Commissioner to South Africa, Dame Nicola Brewer, who hosted the première. The ‘invitation only’ event was held in conjunction with Sony Pictures Releasing International and Ster-Kinekor Theatres.

“We are delighted to be working with the creative industries and partners in hosting the South African “Skyfall” première and welcoming Bérénice to the event. UK creativity

Berenice Marlohe at SA Skyfall premiere

plays a key role in the global film industry. Ten of the top 20 global box-office successes of the last 11 years are based on novels by UK writers and London is now the third busiest film production city in the world after New York and Los Angeles,” Dame Nicola said.

SKYFALL, starring Daniel Craig, who is back as James Bond 007, is the longest-running film franchise in history. The film is from Albert R. Broccoli’s EON Productions, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios, and Sony Pictures Entertainment and also stars Judi Dench, Ralph Fiennes, Javier Bardem, Bérénice Marlohe and Naomie Harris.

The Bond franchise has always been

a favourite of South African audiences...

- Isabel Rao, CEO Ster Kinekor Distribution

Page 13: The Callsheet Issue 01 2013

12 | THE CALLSHEET www.thecal lsheet.co.za

NEWS

SKYFALL, the 23rd film in the Bond franchise, has recorded the biggest African opening for a Bond film of all time.

The film released on over 120 screens in South Africa and took in over R7 million at the box office over the weekend. SKYFALL is now the biggest non-3D opening for a SPRI (Sony Pictures Releasing International) film in South Africa.

The extraordinary local opening follows the phenomenal international success of the film, which has now taken over USD $850 million worldwide, making it one of the biggest grossing movies of all time.

Says Isabel Rao, CEO Ster Kinekor Distribution, “The Bond franchise has always been a favourite of South African audiences and we are thrilled that they came out to support SKYFALL in this special anniversary year for Bond. It is a fitting tribute to such an iconic cinema legend.”

SKYFALL

The extraordinary local opening follows

the phenomenal international success

of the film, which has now taken

over $850 million worldwide, making it one of the biggest grossing movies of

all time.

Takes Off in Africa

www.thecal lsheet.co.za THE CALLSHEET | 13

NEWSMarketing Manager for SPRI in South

Africa, Bashan Govindarajulu, said, “The numerous local and global promotional partners associated with the film contributed significantly towards the theatrical release. Thanks especially to the fans who once again did not disappoint when they turned up in their thousands across the country throughout the weekend.”

Starring Daniel Craig as 007, SKYFALL is directed by British Director Sam Mendes and stars Judi Dench as “M”, Javier Bardem, Ralph Fiennes and Naomie Harris. The film also stars Bond actress Bérénice Marlohe.

Ticket sales in South Africa may have received a boost by the high-profile première in Johannesburg in November that was attended by Bérénice and the British High Commissioner to South Africa, Dame Nicola Brewer, who hosted the première. The ‘invitation only’ event was held in conjunction with Sony Pictures Releasing International and Ster-Kinekor Theatres.

“We are delighted to be working with the creative industries and partners in hosting the South African “Skyfall” première and welcoming Bérénice to the event. UK creativity

Berenice Marlohe at SA Skyfall premiere

plays a key role in the global film industry. Ten of the top 20 global box-office successes of the last 11 years are based on novels by UK writers and London is now the third busiest film production city in the world after New York and Los Angeles,” Dame Nicola said.

SKYFALL, starring Daniel Craig, who is back as James Bond 007, is the longest-running film franchise in history. The film is from Albert R. Broccoli’s EON Productions, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios, and Sony Pictures Entertainment and also stars Judi Dench, Ralph Fiennes, Javier Bardem, Bérénice Marlohe and Naomie Harris.

The Bond franchise has always been

a favourite of South African audiences...

- Isabel Rao, CEO Ster Kinekor Distribution

Page 14: The Callsheet Issue 01 2013

14 | THE CALLSHEET www.thecal lsheet.co.za

NEWS

The National Film and Video Founda-tion (NFVF) has commissioned a baseline study of the economic im-pact of the fi lm industry in South Af-

rica. The study is being conducted by Deloitte & Touche and is scheduled to be completed by the end of March 2013.

The NFVF’s objective is to develop and pro-mote the South African fi lm industry. In order to achieve this objective, one of the Founda-tion’s functions is to conduct research in any area of the fi lm and video industry as provided in section 4(1) (d) of the NFVF Act 73 of 1997. The NFVF is asking for industry support and cooperation for the study. That will enable De-loitte & Touche to access, gather and collect in-formation that is critical to the researching var-ious stakeholders across the fi lm value chain.

“Following the 10 year review of the South African Film and Video industry that the NFVF

The National Film and Video Foundation Conducts an

conducted in collaboration with the Tshwane University of Technology in 2010, which re-vealed some milestones and challenges the industry faced in the past 10 years, we are now looking at gathering data that will help us de-velop appropriate strategies for facilitating steady development of the fi lm sector. This is to enhance the audiovisual sector’s contribu-tions to the GDP and show it as an important player in the economy, we therefore request all relevant industry players to cooperate,” says Zama Mkosi, NFVF CEO.

The study is conducted in line with the

Economic Impact Study

terms of reference as outlined by the NFVF which includes the following: • Full value chain analysis of the fi lm industry – development, production, post production and distribution. • Turnover of the industry in terms of the following indicators: • Size of the industry; • Number of companies that are doing business in the industry; • Number of individuals em- ployed in the industry (per manent employees and free lancers); • Direct and indirect taxes that the industry pays; and • Economic multiplier eff ect. The detailed terms of reference of the study are available from the NFVF on request.

For more information about the study, contact Tsietsi Themane on [email protected] or 011 483 0880.

...we are now looking at

gathering data that will help us develop

appropriate strategies for

facilitating steady development of the

fi lm sector.

““

- Zama Mkosi, NFVF CEO

www.thecal lsheet.co.za THE CALLSHEET | 15

NEWS

On 12 November 2012, the Writers’ Guild of South Africa (WGSA) became an Associate Member of the International Affi liation of

Writers Guilds (IAWG).The IAWG includes representatives from

the Australian Writers Guild, the Irish Play-wrights and Screenwriters Guild, the New Zea-land Writers Guild, the Scriptwriters Guild of Israel, the Société des auteurs de radio, télé-vision et cinéma (Québec), the Writers Guild of America, East, the Writers Guild of America, West, the Writers Guild of Canada, the Writ-ers Guild of Great Britain and the La Guilde Francaise des Scénaristes (France). Associate members include the Film Writers Association, Mumbai, Sección de Autores y Adaptadores de

Writers Guild of South AfricaWGSA becomes associate member of The International Affi liation of Writers Guilds

Trabajadores de la Producción Cinematográfi -ca (Mexico) and now the WGSA (Writers’ Guild of South Africa).

WGSA says membership in the IAWG adds the collective power of IAWG to the WGSA’s negotiations for rates, contracts and IP rights with local broadcasters and producers. The IAWG is an international body represent-ing guilds of professional screenwriters that works to further the cause of screenwriters worldwide by lobbying governments to adopt writer-friendly legislation and through collec-tive action, mutual support and common rep-resentation internationally.

Katleho Ramaphakela and Jacqui Pickering, the co-vice chairs of WGSA, attended the IAWG Annual General Meeting in Barcelona, Spain to

pursue membership. The following are exerpts from the Charter of the International Affi liation of Writers Guilds:

The writer is a primary creator of works of imagination, entertainment and enlight-enment; a signifi cant initiator of cultural, social and economic processes. These are of basic importance in all societies. To fulfi l eff ectively these social responsi-bilities, the writer must have the following rights:

The right to be acknowledged, legally, morally and contractually, as the author of one’s work.

The right to complete freedom of expression and communication, and freedom from any form of censorship.

The right to maintain the integrity of a work and to protect it from any distortion or misuse.

The right to fair payment for all uses of a work.

The right to have the work published or produced solely on the basis of its merit, without regard to any form of invidious discrimination which shall include but not be limited to age, colour, gender, marital status, national origin, physical or emotional instability, race, religion, sexual orientation, social or political affi liation or belief of the writer.

4

1

2

3

5

Katleho Ramaphakela, co-vice chair of WGSA

Page 15: The Callsheet Issue 01 2013

14 | THE CALLSHEET www.thecal lsheet.co.za

NEWS

The National Film and Video Founda-tion (NFVF) has commissioned a baseline study of the economic im-pact of the fi lm industry in South Af-

rica. The study is being conducted by Deloitte & Touche and is scheduled to be completed by the end of March 2013.

The NFVF’s objective is to develop and pro-mote the South African fi lm industry. In order to achieve this objective, one of the Founda-tion’s functions is to conduct research in any area of the fi lm and video industry as provided in section 4(1) (d) of the NFVF Act 73 of 1997. The NFVF is asking for industry support and cooperation for the study. That will enable De-loitte & Touche to access, gather and collect in-formation that is critical to the researching var-ious stakeholders across the fi lm value chain.

“Following the 10 year review of the South African Film and Video industry that the NFVF

The National Film and Video Foundation Conducts an

conducted in collaboration with the Tshwane University of Technology in 2010, which re-vealed some milestones and challenges the industry faced in the past 10 years, we are now looking at gathering data that will help us de-velop appropriate strategies for facilitating steady development of the fi lm sector. This is to enhance the audiovisual sector’s contribu-tions to the GDP and show it as an important player in the economy, we therefore request all relevant industry players to cooperate,” says Zama Mkosi, NFVF CEO.

The study is conducted in line with the

Economic Impact Study

terms of reference as outlined by the NFVF which includes the following: • Full value chain analysis of the fi lm industry – development, production, post production and distribution. • Turnover of the industry in terms of the following indicators: • Size of the industry; • Number of companies that are doing business in the industry; • Number of individuals em- ployed in the industry (per manent employees and free lancers); • Direct and indirect taxes that the industry pays; and • Economic multiplier eff ect. The detailed terms of reference of the study are available from the NFVF on request.

For more information about the study, contact Tsietsi Themane on [email protected] or 011 483 0880.

...we are now looking at

gathering data that will help us develop

appropriate strategies for

facilitating steady development of the

fi lm sector.

““

- Zama Mkosi, NFVF CEO

www.thecal lsheet.co.za THE CALLSHEET | 15

NEWS

On 12 November 2012, the Writers’ Guild of South Africa (WGSA) became an Associate Member of the International Affi liation of

Writers Guilds (IAWG).The IAWG includes representatives from

the Australian Writers Guild, the Irish Play-wrights and Screenwriters Guild, the New Zea-land Writers Guild, the Scriptwriters Guild of Israel, the Société des auteurs de radio, télé-vision et cinéma (Québec), the Writers Guild of America, East, the Writers Guild of America, West, the Writers Guild of Canada, the Writ-ers Guild of Great Britain and the La Guilde Francaise des Scénaristes (France). Associate members include the Film Writers Association, Mumbai, Sección de Autores y Adaptadores de

Writers Guild of South AfricaWGSA becomes associate member of The International Affi liation of Writers Guilds

Trabajadores de la Producción Cinematográfi -ca (Mexico) and now the WGSA (Writers’ Guild of South Africa).

WGSA says membership in the IAWG adds the collective power of IAWG to the WGSA’s negotiations for rates, contracts and IP rights with local broadcasters and producers. The IAWG is an international body represent-ing guilds of professional screenwriters that works to further the cause of screenwriters worldwide by lobbying governments to adopt writer-friendly legislation and through collec-tive action, mutual support and common rep-resentation internationally.

Katleho Ramaphakela and Jacqui Pickering, the co-vice chairs of WGSA, attended the IAWG Annual General Meeting in Barcelona, Spain to

pursue membership. The following are exerpts from the Charter of the International Affi liation of Writers Guilds:

The writer is a primary creator of works of imagination, entertainment and enlight-enment; a signifi cant initiator of cultural, social and economic processes. These are of basic importance in all societies. To fulfi l eff ectively these social responsi-bilities, the writer must have the following rights:

The right to be acknowledged, legally, morally and contractually, as the author of one’s work.

The right to complete freedom of expression and communication, and freedom from any form of censorship.

The right to maintain the integrity of a work and to protect it from any distortion or misuse.

The right to fair payment for all uses of a work.

The right to have the work published or produced solely on the basis of its merit, without regard to any form of invidious discrimination which shall include but not be limited to age, colour, gender, marital status, national origin, physical or emotional instability, race, religion, sexual orientation, social or political affi liation or belief of the writer.

4

1

2

3

5

Katleho Ramaphakela, co-vice chair of WGSA

Page 16: The Callsheet Issue 01 2013

16 | THE CALLSHEET www.thecal lsheet.co.za

NEWS

South Africa has gotten a look at So-ny’s new cameras, including their fl agships: the Sony F5 and Sony F55. Collective Dream Studios

hosted the debut. The F5, with its new 4K imager, boasts vivid

HD and delivers superior, super-sampled pic-tures with higher contrast, richer colour repro-duction and greater clarity. The F5 is the next generation of the popular F3 and off ers built-in recording modes, all with 4:2:2 colour. Addi-tional options include the precision of 16-bit linear RAW 2K/4K recording and high speed shooting at up to 120 fps, without cropping.

South Africa also got its fi rst close look at the F55 camera, engineered to withstand ob-solescence – it has various hardware upgrades and software updates planned for the future. The Sony 4K image sensor incorporates an electronic global shutter. It delivers dynamic range, the widest colour gamut, and high im-age quality in both HD, 2K and 4K. With the optional AXS-R5 recorder, the camera will deliv-ers 16-bit Linear RAW in both 2K and 4K.

The presentation... demonstrated

Sony’s real-time, slow-motion

capture that enables fi lmmakers to see an object in slow-

motion without the need of additional

effects being added in post-production.

“Sony

Sony F5 CineAlta 4K

The presentation also demonstrated Sony’s real-time, slow-motion capture that enables fi lmmakers to see an object in slow-motion without the need of additional eff ects being added in post-production. Another test showcased Sony’s new “True-Black” feature that delivers the purest black ever seen on camera. The camera viewing screens have also improved, with in-camera-colour-grading now a possibility.

presents the

Sony F5 and Sony F55

Sony F55 CineAlta 4K

Sony presentation at Collective Dream Studios

www.thecal lsheet.co.za THE CALLSHEET | 17

NEWS

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has announced that 15 fi lms in the Documentary Feature category will advance in the voting

process for the 85th Academy Awards®. One hundred twenty-six pictures had originally qualifi ed in the category.

The 15 fi lms are listed below in alphabeti-cal order by title, with their production com-panies: “Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry,” Never Sorry LLC “Bully,” The Bully Project LLC “Chasing Ice,” Exposure “Detropia,” Loki Films “Ethel,” Moxie Firecracker Films “5 Broken Cameras,” Guy DVD Films “The Gatekeepers,” Les Films du Poisson, Dror Moreh Productions, Cinephil “The House I Live In,” Charlotte Street Films, LLC “How to Survive a Plague,” How to Survive a Plague LLC “The Imposter,” Imposter Pictures Ltd. “The Invisible War,” Chain Camera Pictures “Mea Maxima Culpa: Silence in the House of God,” Jigsaw Productions in association with Wider Film Projects and Below the Ra-dar Films “Searching for Sugar Man,” Red Box Films “This Is Not a Film,” Wide Management “The Waiting Room,” Open’hood, Inc.

The Documentary Branch viewed the eligi-ble documentaries for the preliminary round of voting. Documentary Branch members will now select the fi ve nominees from among the 15 titles on the shortlist.

OSCARS 15 Documentary Features Advance in 2012 Oscar® Race

The 85th Academy Awards nominations will be announced live on Thursday, 10 January 2013, at 5:30 a.m. PT in the Academy’s Samuel Goldwyn Theater.

Academy Awards for outstanding fi lm achievements of 2012 will be presented on Oscar Sunday, 24 February 2013, at the Dolby Theatre at Hollywood & Highland Center, and televised live on the ABC Television Network in the United States.

“Searching for Sugarman” by Red Box Films

“Ethel” by Moxie Firecracker Films“The House I Live In” by Charlotte Street Films, LLC

“Bully” by The Bully Project LLC

Page 17: The Callsheet Issue 01 2013

16 | THE CALLSHEET www.thecal lsheet.co.za

NEWS

South Africa has gotten a look at So-ny’s new cameras, including their fl agships: the Sony F5 and Sony F55. Collective Dream Studios

hosted the debut. The F5, with its new 4K imager, boasts vivid

HD and delivers superior, super-sampled pic-tures with higher contrast, richer colour repro-duction and greater clarity. The F5 is the next generation of the popular F3 and off ers built-in recording modes, all with 4:2:2 colour. Addi-tional options include the precision of 16-bit linear RAW 2K/4K recording and high speed shooting at up to 120 fps, without cropping.

South Africa also got its fi rst close look at the F55 camera, engineered to withstand ob-solescence – it has various hardware upgrades and software updates planned for the future. The Sony 4K image sensor incorporates an electronic global shutter. It delivers dynamic range, the widest colour gamut, and high im-age quality in both HD, 2K and 4K. With the optional AXS-R5 recorder, the camera will deliv-ers 16-bit Linear RAW in both 2K and 4K.

The presentation... demonstrated

Sony’s real-time, slow-motion

capture that enables fi lmmakers to see an object in slow-

motion without the need of additional

effects being added in post-production.

“Sony

Sony F5 CineAlta 4K

The presentation also demonstrated Sony’s real-time, slow-motion capture that enables fi lmmakers to see an object in slow-motion without the need of additional eff ects being added in post-production. Another test showcased Sony’s new “True-Black” feature that delivers the purest black ever seen on camera. The camera viewing screens have also improved, with in-camera-colour-grading now a possibility.

presents the

Sony F5 and Sony F55

Sony F55 CineAlta 4K

Sony presentation at Collective Dream Studios

www.thecal lsheet.co.za THE CALLSHEET | 17

NEWS

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has announced that 15 fi lms in the Documentary Feature category will advance in the voting

process for the 85th Academy Awards®. One hundred twenty-six pictures had originally qualifi ed in the category.

The 15 fi lms are listed below in alphabeti-cal order by title, with their production com-panies: “Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry,” Never Sorry LLC “Bully,” The Bully Project LLC “Chasing Ice,” Exposure “Detropia,” Loki Films “Ethel,” Moxie Firecracker Films “5 Broken Cameras,” Guy DVD Films “The Gatekeepers,” Les Films du Poisson, Dror Moreh Productions, Cinephil “The House I Live In,” Charlotte Street Films, LLC “How to Survive a Plague,” How to Survive a Plague LLC “The Imposter,” Imposter Pictures Ltd. “The Invisible War,” Chain Camera Pictures “Mea Maxima Culpa: Silence in the House of God,” Jigsaw Productions in association with Wider Film Projects and Below the Ra-dar Films “Searching for Sugar Man,” Red Box Films “This Is Not a Film,” Wide Management “The Waiting Room,” Open’hood, Inc.

The Documentary Branch viewed the eligi-ble documentaries for the preliminary round of voting. Documentary Branch members will now select the fi ve nominees from among the 15 titles on the shortlist.

OSCARS 15 Documentary Features Advance in 2012 Oscar® Race

The 85th Academy Awards nominations will be announced live on Thursday, 10 January 2013, at 5:30 a.m. PT in the Academy’s Samuel Goldwyn Theater.

Academy Awards for outstanding fi lm achievements of 2012 will be presented on Oscar Sunday, 24 February 2013, at the Dolby Theatre at Hollywood & Highland Center, and televised live on the ABC Television Network in the United States.

“Searching for Sugarman” by Red Box Films

“Ethel” by Moxie Firecracker Films“The House I Live In” by Charlotte Street Films, LLC

“Bully” by The Bully Project LLC

Page 18: The Callsheet Issue 01 2013

18 | THE CALLSHEET www.thecal lsheet.co.za

NEWS

Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) has seen the largest increase in global connected-ness according to the DHL Global Connectedness Index (GCI), a com-

prehensive analysis of the state of globaliza-tion around the world. The report, drawing on over one million data points from 2005 to 2011, concludes that the world today is less globally connected than it was in 2007 but that SSA has bucked that trend.

The DHL Global Connectedness Index documents global connectedness, measured by international flows of trade, capital, infor-mation and people. DHL is the global market leader in the logistics industry including inter-national express, air and ocean freight, and road and rail transportation services. It has a global network of more than 220 countries and territories and about 275,000 employees worldwide.

The GCI grew robustly from the report’s baseline year of 2005 to 2007, and then dropped sharply at the onset of the financial crisis. Despite modest gains since 2009, glob-al connectedness has yet to recapture its pre-crisis peak.

However, while the world as a whole expe-rienced only a very modest increase in global connectedness from 2010 to 2011, some in-dividual countries had large gains. These in-cluded Mozambique, Togo, Ghana, Guinea and Zambia – all of which are located in Sub-

African Countries Show the Largest Increases in... Global Connectedness

Saharan Africa. While this region remains the world’s least connected, it averaged the largest connectedness increases from 2010 to 2011.

The Netherlands retained its 2010 position as the world’s most connected country. Of the top ten most connected countries in 2011, nine of them are located in Europe. This is the world’s most connected region.

Charles Brewer, Managing Director for DHL Express in Sub-Saharan Africa says that the GCI also reveals that in 2011, intra-Africa trade continued to lag far behind its European and Asian counterparts. “If we want to improve this interconnectivity, we need to look at the ease of doing business across borders in the region and work towards regional trade agreements, customs improvements and border efficien-cies, to name just a few.”

Brewer says that from a global perspective, the GCI 2012 indicates that today’s volatile and uncertain business environment bears the last-ing impact of the financial crisis. “In this pe-riod of slow growth, it’s important to remem-ber the tremendous gains that globalization has brought to the world and recognise it as an engine of economic progress. It is crucial that governments around the globe resist pro-tectionist measures that hinder cross-border interactions.”

The GCI grew robustly from the report’s baseline year of 2005 to 2007, and then

dropped sharply at the onset of the financial

crisis. Despite modest gains

since 2009, global connectedness has yet to recapture its

pre-crisis peak.

www.thecal lsheet.co.za THE CALLSHEET | 19

NEWS

• Along most dimensions, the world is less than 20% globalized – often even less than 10%

• Of the international fl ows that do take place, 50-60% occur within regions

• The world’s center of economic gravity shifted thousands of kilom-eters to the east in the past decade, and continues to do so

• The most connected country, the Netherlands, is hundreds of times more connected than the least, Bu-rundi

The world today is less globally connected than it was in 2007. Global connectedness was hit hard at the onset of the fi nancial crisis and despite modest gains since 2009 has yet to recapture its pre-crisis peak.

Capital markets are fragmenting and services trade is stagnant. While merchandise trade has recovered robustly since 2009 and information fl ows continue growing, capital connect-edness is on a declining trend and the intensity of services trade has not risen since 2009.

Global connectedness is also weaker than is commonly perceived, which softens and even reverses some widespread fears about globalization.

Distance and borders still matter – even online. Most international fl ows take place within rather than between regions. Even online connections are mainly domestic and decline with distance.

Europe is the world’s most globally connected region: a reminder of what EU integration has managed to achieve – and what its fragmentation might put at risk. The Netherlands retains the top rank on this year’s DHL Global Connectedness Index, and 9 of the 10 most connected countries are in Europe.

Sub-Saharan African countries averaged the largest connectedness increases. Sub-Saha-ran Africa remains the least connected region, but the top 5 countries in terms of connected-ness increases over the past year were all in this region.

Potential gains from boosting global connectedness can reach trillions of dollars. As global growth slows and much of the world struggles with its debts, increasing global connected-ness can accelerate growth.

Every country has untapped possibilities to benefi t from more connectedness. Even in the most connected countries, most activities that could take place either within or across borders are domestic, not international.

Countries’ domestic and international policies can help them connect more. This report identifi es a broad array of policy levers that have been shown to deepen connectedness.

The world’s shifting economic center of gravity reshapes industry connectedness, with signifi cant business implications as shown in this report’s analyses of the mobile phone, pas-senger car, and pharmaceutical industries.

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

Ten Key Take-Aways from the GCI 2012:

10

Surprising

Facts from the

CGI 2012

Netherlands, the most connected country

Ghana, a country with an increase in connectedness

Zambia, a country with an increase in connectedness

Page 19: The Callsheet Issue 01 2013

18 | THE CALLSHEET www.thecal lsheet.co.za

NEWS

Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) has seen the largest increase in global connected-ness according to the DHL Global Connectedness Index (GCI), a com-

prehensive analysis of the state of globaliza-tion around the world. The report, drawing on over one million data points from 2005 to 2011, concludes that the world today is less globally connected than it was in 2007 but that SSA has bucked that trend.

The DHL Global Connectedness Index documents global connectedness, measured by international flows of trade, capital, infor-mation and people. DHL is the global market leader in the logistics industry including inter-national express, air and ocean freight, and road and rail transportation services. It has a global network of more than 220 countries and territories and about 275,000 employees worldwide.

The GCI grew robustly from the report’s baseline year of 2005 to 2007, and then dropped sharply at the onset of the financial crisis. Despite modest gains since 2009, glob-al connectedness has yet to recapture its pre-crisis peak.

However, while the world as a whole expe-rienced only a very modest increase in global connectedness from 2010 to 2011, some in-dividual countries had large gains. These in-cluded Mozambique, Togo, Ghana, Guinea and Zambia – all of which are located in Sub-

African Countries Show the Largest Increases in... Global Connectedness

Saharan Africa. While this region remains the world’s least connected, it averaged the largest connectedness increases from 2010 to 2011.

The Netherlands retained its 2010 position as the world’s most connected country. Of the top ten most connected countries in 2011, nine of them are located in Europe. This is the world’s most connected region.

Charles Brewer, Managing Director for DHL Express in Sub-Saharan Africa says that the GCI also reveals that in 2011, intra-Africa trade continued to lag far behind its European and Asian counterparts. “If we want to improve this interconnectivity, we need to look at the ease of doing business across borders in the region and work towards regional trade agreements, customs improvements and border efficien-cies, to name just a few.”

Brewer says that from a global perspective, the GCI 2012 indicates that today’s volatile and uncertain business environment bears the last-ing impact of the financial crisis. “In this pe-riod of slow growth, it’s important to remem-ber the tremendous gains that globalization has brought to the world and recognise it as an engine of economic progress. It is crucial that governments around the globe resist pro-tectionist measures that hinder cross-border interactions.”

The GCI grew robustly from the report’s baseline year of 2005 to 2007, and then

dropped sharply at the onset of the financial

crisis. Despite modest gains

since 2009, global connectedness has yet to recapture its

pre-crisis peak.

www.thecal lsheet.co.za THE CALLSHEET | 19

NEWS

• Along most dimensions, the world is less than 20% globalized – often even less than 10%

• Of the international fl ows that do take place, 50-60% occur within regions

• The world’s center of economic gravity shifted thousands of kilom-eters to the east in the past decade, and continues to do so

• The most connected country, the Netherlands, is hundreds of times more connected than the least, Bu-rundi

The world today is less globally connected than it was in 2007. Global connectedness was hit hard at the onset of the fi nancial crisis and despite modest gains since 2009 has yet to recapture its pre-crisis peak.

Capital markets are fragmenting and services trade is stagnant. While merchandise trade has recovered robustly since 2009 and information fl ows continue growing, capital connect-edness is on a declining trend and the intensity of services trade has not risen since 2009.

Global connectedness is also weaker than is commonly perceived, which softens and even reverses some widespread fears about globalization.

Distance and borders still matter – even online. Most international fl ows take place within rather than between regions. Even online connections are mainly domestic and decline with distance.

Europe is the world’s most globally connected region: a reminder of what EU integration has managed to achieve – and what its fragmentation might put at risk. The Netherlands retains the top rank on this year’s DHL Global Connectedness Index, and 9 of the 10 most connected countries are in Europe.

Sub-Saharan African countries averaged the largest connectedness increases. Sub-Saha-ran Africa remains the least connected region, but the top 5 countries in terms of connected-ness increases over the past year were all in this region.

Potential gains from boosting global connectedness can reach trillions of dollars. As global growth slows and much of the world struggles with its debts, increasing global connected-ness can accelerate growth.

Every country has untapped possibilities to benefi t from more connectedness. Even in the most connected countries, most activities that could take place either within or across borders are domestic, not international.

Countries’ domestic and international policies can help them connect more. This report identifi es a broad array of policy levers that have been shown to deepen connectedness.

The world’s shifting economic center of gravity reshapes industry connectedness, with signifi cant business implications as shown in this report’s analyses of the mobile phone, pas-senger car, and pharmaceutical industries.

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

Ten Key Take-Aways from the GCI 2012:

10

Surprising

Facts from the

CGI 2012

Netherlands, the most connected country

Ghana, a country with an increase in connectedness

Zambia, a country with an increase in connectedness

Page 20: The Callsheet Issue 01 2013

20 | THE CALLSHEET www.thecal lsheet.co.za

NEWS

The Cairo International Film Festival was held despite a climate of political upheaval in Egypt during December. Organizers noted that the festival

took place in “the midst of all the tragic events overshadowing our beloved country” and thanked committees and ministries whose ef-forts “gave this year’s festival a chance to ex-ist.” A disputed constitution sparked Egypt’s worst political crisis in two years, drawing crowds of protesters back into the streets. The organizers thanked attendees from 66 countries for coming to the festival, “adamant on being here with us in this exceptional edi-tion,” despite warnings from some foreign governments that travel to Egypt was unsafe. All scheduled programmes of the festival took place with no disruptions.

Arab fi lms Competition (Special Mention)“Prize of the 35th edition of the Cairo Inter-national Film Festival, The exceptional edi-tion held in exceptional circumstances, The Prize goes to a fi lm with a high cinemato-graphic language that detects the results of the 25th of January revolution.”“El-sheta elli-fat” (“Winter of Discontent”)

Directed by: Ibrahim El BatoutProduced by: Zad Communication and Production LLCCountry: (Egypt)

Cairo Film Connection Prize Presented to the Feature Film“Two Rooms and a Parlor”

Directed by: Sherif El BendariProduced by: Racha NajdiCountry: (Egypt- Lebanon)

Cairo International Film Festival

Winners

Congratulations to all of the winners:

The International Critics Prize(FIPRESCI Prize)Luis Alejandro & Andres Eduardo Rodri-guez (Directors)

For their fi lm: Breach in the Silence Produced by: The Motion Illusion ProjectCountry: (Venezuela)

Human Rights Competition (Special Mention)“Full Circle”

Directed by: Zhang YangProduced by: Dasen International Media CO, LTD.Country: (China)

Human Rights Competition (The Tahrir Square Prize)“Rose”

Directed by: Wojciech SmarzowskiProduced by: WFDIFCountry: (Poland)

Cairo Film Connection Prize Pre-sented to the Feature Documentary“Little”

Directed by: Nagham OsmanProduced by: Karim AmerCountry: (Egypt)

International Competition for Fea-ture FilmsThe Isis Prize for Best Actress:Vanessa Di Quattro

For her role in Film: Breach in the SilenceDirected by: Luis Alejandro & Andres Eduardo RodriguezProduced by: The Motion Illusion ProjectCountry: ( Venezuela )

“Full Circle” (China), directed by Zhang Yang

“Rose” (Poland), directed by Wojciech Smarzowski

www.thecal lsheet.co.za THE CALLSHEET | 21

NEWSThe Isis Prize for Best ActorMarian Dziedziel

For his role in Film: The Fifth Season of the YearDirected by: Jerzy Domaradzki Produced by: WFDIFCountry: ( Poland )

“Shadi Abdel Salam” Award Luis Alejandro & Andres Eduardo Rodriguez (Directors)

Film: Breach in the Silence Produced by: The Motion Illusion Project Country: (Venezuela)

The Silver Pyramid, Special Jury PrizeGuiliano Montaldo (Director)

Film: L’industriale Produced by: Bibi FilmCountry: (Italy)

The Golden Pyramid for Best FilmAnna Novion

Film: Rendez-Vous in Kiruna Produced by: La Mouche du CocheCountry: (France)

“Rendez-Vous in Kiruna” (France), directed by Anna Novion

“Rendez-Vous in Kiruna” (France), directed by Anna Novion

“L’Industriale” (Italy), directed by Guiliano Montaldo

“L’Industriale” (Italy), directed by Guiliano Montaldo

Page 21: The Callsheet Issue 01 2013

20 | THE CALLSHEET www.thecal lsheet.co.za

NEWS

The Cairo International Film Festival was held despite a climate of political upheaval in Egypt during December. Organizers noted that the festival

took place in “the midst of all the tragic events overshadowing our beloved country” and thanked committees and ministries whose ef-forts “gave this year’s festival a chance to ex-ist.” A disputed constitution sparked Egypt’s worst political crisis in two years, drawing crowds of protesters back into the streets. The organizers thanked attendees from 66 countries for coming to the festival, “adamant on being here with us in this exceptional edi-tion,” despite warnings from some foreign governments that travel to Egypt was unsafe. All scheduled programmes of the festival took place with no disruptions.

Arab fi lms Competition (Special Mention)“Prize of the 35th edition of the Cairo Inter-national Film Festival, The exceptional edi-tion held in exceptional circumstances, The Prize goes to a fi lm with a high cinemato-graphic language that detects the results of the 25th of January revolution.”“El-sheta elli-fat” (“Winter of Discontent”)

Directed by: Ibrahim El BatoutProduced by: Zad Communication and Production LLCCountry: (Egypt)

Cairo Film Connection Prize Presented to the Feature Film“Two Rooms and a Parlor”

Directed by: Sherif El BendariProduced by: Racha NajdiCountry: (Egypt- Lebanon)

Cairo International Film Festival

Winners

Congratulations to all of the winners:

The International Critics Prize(FIPRESCI Prize)Luis Alejandro & Andres Eduardo Rodri-guez (Directors)

For their fi lm: Breach in the Silence Produced by: The Motion Illusion ProjectCountry: (Venezuela)

Human Rights Competition (Special Mention)“Full Circle”

Directed by: Zhang YangProduced by: Dasen International Media CO, LTD.Country: (China)

Human Rights Competition (The Tahrir Square Prize)“Rose”

Directed by: Wojciech SmarzowskiProduced by: WFDIFCountry: (Poland)

Cairo Film Connection Prize Pre-sented to the Feature Documentary“Little”

Directed by: Nagham OsmanProduced by: Karim AmerCountry: (Egypt)

International Competition for Fea-ture FilmsThe Isis Prize for Best Actress:Vanessa Di Quattro

For her role in Film: Breach in the SilenceDirected by: Luis Alejandro & Andres Eduardo RodriguezProduced by: The Motion Illusion ProjectCountry: ( Venezuela )

“Full Circle” (China), directed by Zhang Yang

“Rose” (Poland), directed by Wojciech Smarzowski

www.thecal lsheet.co.za THE CALLSHEET | 21

NEWSThe Isis Prize for Best ActorMarian Dziedziel

For his role in Film: The Fifth Season of the YearDirected by: Jerzy Domaradzki Produced by: WFDIFCountry: ( Poland )

“Shadi Abdel Salam” Award Luis Alejandro & Andres Eduardo Rodriguez (Directors)

Film: Breach in the Silence Produced by: The Motion Illusion Project Country: (Venezuela)

The Silver Pyramid, Special Jury PrizeGuiliano Montaldo (Director)

Film: L’industriale Produced by: Bibi FilmCountry: (Italy)

The Golden Pyramid for Best FilmAnna Novion

Film: Rendez-Vous in Kiruna Produced by: La Mouche du CocheCountry: (France)

“Rendez-Vous in Kiruna” (France), directed by Anna Novion

“Rendez-Vous in Kiruna” (France), directed by Anna Novion

“L’Industriale” (Italy), directed by Guiliano Montaldo

“L’Industriale” (Italy), directed by Guiliano Montaldo

Page 22: The Callsheet Issue 01 2013

22 | THE CALLSHEET www.thecal lsheet.co.za

NEWS

Organizers of the inaugural Colours of The Nile International Film Fes-tival (CNIFF) 2012, say the event was, “a compelling and visually

inspiring cinematic feast, from every corner of the African continent, - east, west, north and south.” The winners certainly display that wide scope. However, the jury was “struck by a com-mon thread that weaved its way through the majority of the competition fi lms in the fi ction and documentary genres – that of migrant and immigrant lifestyles and displacement through immigration.” Filmmakers used a wide range of styles from traditional fi lm/cinema language to more current innovative and modern ways of storytelling, incorporating a mixture of tradi-tional and new media formats.

Congratulations to the following win-ners! (Commentary from CNIFF follows listed winners)

Winners at Debut Colours of the Nile Film Festival

Best Long Feature Film

– RESTLESS CITY (2011) by Andrew Dosun-mo, Nigeria“The winning fi lm shows a very high level of originality, high artistic merit, an innovative approach to storytelling and profound cin-ematographic fl air. A rarely touched upon subject of a journey about the struggles of Af-rican migration to the USA, told with care and attention to detail.”

Best Short Film

– HISAB (2011) by Ezra Wube, Ethiopia“The Jury was struck by the highly original, in-novative and creative way of depicting the hus-tle and bustle of life in a capital city, by mixing live sound with artistic animation techniques using animals that are a distinct part of life in the city, to portray in a humourous way, the be-haviour of humans.”

Best Documentary Film

– VOYAGE OF HOPE by Michel K. Zongo, Burkina Faso “The Jury was unanimously moved by the so-berness and love with which the director goes on the journey from one country to another to trace the trail of his brother, who left the coun-try for economical reasons 17 years ago and is rumoured to be dead.”

Best Cinematography

– RESTLESS CITY (2011) by Andrew Dosunmu, Nigeria “The Jury has decided to award the best cin-ematography to a fi lm that shows a creative and innovative visual approach to storytelling, thereby achieving a high level of photographic artistry and cinematic design that stands by it-self in telling a gripping story.”

Filmmakers used a wide range of styles from traditional fi lm/cinema language to more current innovative and modern ways of storytelling, incorporating a

mixture of traditional and new media formats.

““

Andre Dosunmo, Director of “Restless City” (2011)

“Restless City” (2011)

www.thecal lsheet.co.za THE CALLSHEET | 23

NEWS

Best Screen Play

– THE REPENTANT (2012) by Nerzak All-ouachi, Algeria “The winning fi lm epitomizes what a good fi lm is about, a great story well told. The Jury was impressed with how this story about a very dra-matic issue in contemporary Africa without the introduction of drama eff ects.”

Best Sound

– ½ A REVOLUTION (2011) by Karim El Hakim Omar Shargawi, Egypt“This award goes to an outstanding documen-tary work with live sound recorded and adapted during a dramatic turn of events, while main-taining the original tension of the environment as the action occurred.”

...the jury was struck by a common thread that weaved

its way through the majority of the competition

fi lms in the fi ction and documentary

genres – that of migrant and

immigrant lifestyles and displacement

through immigration.

Best Sound Track

-- Otelo Burning (2011), by Sara Blecher, South Africa.“The award of best Sound Track goes to the fi lm that the Jury felt, deserved recognition for its superior and original sound track that adds to the visual appreciation of the fi lm and fi rmly sets the story in the South African context.”

Best Actor

– Kenneth Nkosi in Otelo Burning (2011) by Sara Blecher“The Jury has decided to award the best actor to a character who, although seems to have a minor part in the fi lm, conveys with tremen-dous strength and humility, his emotional frustrations and sadness about the dramatic course the lives of his beloved ones has taken.”

Best Actress

–Elizabeth Melaku in SCENT OF A LEMON (2012) by Abraham Gezahagne“The Jury has decided to award Best Actress for the role of wife and mother that sees her transformation from a cheerful loving woman and caring wife to an introverted, bitter and struggling woman following unjustifi ed soci-etal pressure. Her performance shows highly remarkable and convincing screen acting.”

“Otelo Burning” (2011)“SCENT OF A LEMON” (2012)

“SCENT OF A LEMON” (2012) “SCENT OF A LEMON” (2012)

“Otelo Burning” (2011)

Page 23: The Callsheet Issue 01 2013

22 | THE CALLSHEET www.thecal lsheet.co.za

NEWS

Organizers of the inaugural Colours of The Nile International Film Fes-tival (CNIFF) 2012, say the event was, “a compelling and visually

inspiring cinematic feast, from every corner of the African continent, - east, west, north and south.” The winners certainly display that wide scope. However, the jury was “struck by a com-mon thread that weaved its way through the majority of the competition fi lms in the fi ction and documentary genres – that of migrant and immigrant lifestyles and displacement through immigration.” Filmmakers used a wide range of styles from traditional fi lm/cinema language to more current innovative and modern ways of storytelling, incorporating a mixture of tradi-tional and new media formats.

Congratulations to the following win-ners! (Commentary from CNIFF follows listed winners)

Winners at Debut Colours of the Nile Film Festival

Best Long Feature Film

– RESTLESS CITY (2011) by Andrew Dosun-mo, Nigeria“The winning fi lm shows a very high level of originality, high artistic merit, an innovative approach to storytelling and profound cin-ematographic fl air. A rarely touched upon subject of a journey about the struggles of Af-rican migration to the USA, told with care and attention to detail.”

Best Short Film

– HISAB (2011) by Ezra Wube, Ethiopia“The Jury was struck by the highly original, in-novative and creative way of depicting the hus-tle and bustle of life in a capital city, by mixing live sound with artistic animation techniques using animals that are a distinct part of life in the city, to portray in a humourous way, the be-haviour of humans.”

Best Documentary Film

– VOYAGE OF HOPE by Michel K. Zongo, Burkina Faso “The Jury was unanimously moved by the so-berness and love with which the director goes on the journey from one country to another to trace the trail of his brother, who left the coun-try for economical reasons 17 years ago and is rumoured to be dead.”

Best Cinematography

– RESTLESS CITY (2011) by Andrew Dosunmu, Nigeria “The Jury has decided to award the best cin-ematography to a fi lm that shows a creative and innovative visual approach to storytelling, thereby achieving a high level of photographic artistry and cinematic design that stands by it-self in telling a gripping story.”

Filmmakers used a wide range of styles from traditional fi lm/cinema language to more current innovative and modern ways of storytelling, incorporating a

mixture of traditional and new media formats.

““

Andre Dosunmo, Director of “Restless City” (2011)

“Restless City” (2011)

www.thecal lsheet.co.za THE CALLSHEET | 23

NEWS

Best Screen Play

– THE REPENTANT (2012) by Nerzak All-ouachi, Algeria “The winning fi lm epitomizes what a good fi lm is about, a great story well told. The Jury was impressed with how this story about a very dra-matic issue in contemporary Africa without the introduction of drama eff ects.”

Best Sound

– ½ A REVOLUTION (2011) by Karim El Hakim Omar Shargawi, Egypt“This award goes to an outstanding documen-tary work with live sound recorded and adapted during a dramatic turn of events, while main-taining the original tension of the environment as the action occurred.”

...the jury was struck by a common thread that weaved

its way through the majority of the competition

fi lms in the fi ction and documentary

genres – that of migrant and

immigrant lifestyles and displacement

through immigration.

Best Sound Track

-- Otelo Burning (2011), by Sara Blecher, South Africa.“The award of best Sound Track goes to the fi lm that the Jury felt, deserved recognition for its superior and original sound track that adds to the visual appreciation of the fi lm and fi rmly sets the story in the South African context.”

Best Actor

– Kenneth Nkosi in Otelo Burning (2011) by Sara Blecher“The Jury has decided to award the best actor to a character who, although seems to have a minor part in the fi lm, conveys with tremen-dous strength and humility, his emotional frustrations and sadness about the dramatic course the lives of his beloved ones has taken.”

Best Actress

–Elizabeth Melaku in SCENT OF A LEMON (2012) by Abraham Gezahagne“The Jury has decided to award Best Actress for the role of wife and mother that sees her transformation from a cheerful loving woman and caring wife to an introverted, bitter and struggling woman following unjustifi ed soci-etal pressure. Her performance shows highly remarkable and convincing screen acting.”

“Otelo Burning” (2011)“SCENT OF A LEMON” (2012)

“SCENT OF A LEMON” (2012) “SCENT OF A LEMON” (2012)

“Otelo Burning” (2011)

Page 24: The Callsheet Issue 01 2013

24 | THE CALLSHEET www.thecal lsheet.co.za

NEWS

A delegation of senior government of-ficials, funding agencies and execu-tives in the South African entertain-ment industry attended a week-long

program of strategic meetings in Hollywood in November. Some of most influential players in the global film industry, including senior ex-ecutives in physical production, co-production, finance and development at the major studios, independents and networks, as well as packag-ing agents participated.

The delegation says that in Hollywood the South African film industry has earned an out-standing reputation for its highly skilled crews, excellent infrastructure and renown for deliver-ing. “If they say it can get done in South Africa, it gets done,” said Steve Papazian, President, Worldwide Physical Production at Warner Bros. The studio has been one of the most pro-lific foreign producers in South Africa, injecting substantial contribution to the growth of the industry. Attendees reported that there is con-tinued interest in South African projects and viewing South Africa as a meaningful partner, not just a facilitator.

This mission to promote the South African entertainment industry in Hollywood comes

SA Delegation Strategic Hollywood Mission

through the annual South Africa/Hollywood Exchange; a strategic program produced by the LA and London the based MediaXchange, a media consultancy run by Katrina Wood, in association with Metal Moon, a South African specialist marketing firm, run by Dezi Rorich

– who have collaborated on such Programs po-sitioning South Africa in international markets since 1998.

The South African delegation included government officials from the DTI (Depart-ment of Trade & Industry) including Francois Truter, Chief Director: Services Incentive Clus-ter, and Nelly Molokoane and Thembakazi Maziko, respectively Director and Adminis-trator of the Incentive Scheme. Also included was Mawande Seti, Legal & Policy Officer at the National Film & Video Foundation, which signs International Co-Production Treaties and administers the Scheme.

Also participating were private sector film executives including David Wicht, CEO and Founder of Film Afrika, Tracey Williams, Di-rector of Post-Production at Refinery, Marvin Saven, Financial Director at Moonlighting Filmmakers, and independent producers Ju-naid Ahmed and Lynne Widgerow. The group was joined by Gwen Swart of Namib Film in Namibia - which attracts mainstream Holly-wood productions supported by crew and gear from neighbouring South Africa.

Tracey has participated in the mission for several years. She says that this year she no-

...in Hollywood the South African

film industry has earned an outstanding

reputation for its highly skilled crews, excellent infrastructure

and renown for delivering.

“Dredd” (2012) began filming in Cape Town, South Africa in November 2010

www.thecal lsheet.co.za THE CALLSHEET | 25

NEWS

...what emerged for me through these dynamic

exchanges is the South African

fi lm industry is making a strong impression on a

global level.

ticed that the reception was particularly warm. “Hollywood is a big powerhouse,” she says, “they haven’t really had to look to the rest of the world about how they make their movies. What is diff erent this year is how they are inter-ested in co-productions. What it does change is how you pull together funding from diff erent countries and the skills from diff erent areas. What I think has really changed is the eco-nomic downturn, it is changing how they do business.” She also noted a diff erence in the budgets of fi lms. “From the feature fi lm mar-ket it feels like they are doing 100 million dollar fi lms and the 25 and below fi lms and I think it has to do with distribution. You’ve got big blockbusters and then the smaller fi lms and they must be less of a gamble.”

Tracey said the mission provided rare ac-cess to key industry leaders in Hollywood. That creates an opportunity to grow South Af-rica’s entertainment industry through personal interaction with Hollywood’s decision makers.

Meetings were held with senior execu-tives at Sony Pictures Entertainment, Warner Bros., Paramount Pictures, MGM, Legendary Entertainment, Scott Free Productions, Wil-liam Morris Endeavour, eOne Entertainment, New Regency, Exclusive Media Group, Good Universe, Universal Cable Productions, Global Produce and Film Engine. Many of the com-panies already have projects headed to South Africa for shooting next year. For others, with projects in the pipeline, the personal contact and information about Government’s latest re-vision of fi nancial production incentives served

as catalyst. Added to the program this year was a Fi-

nance Forum. Topics included packaging pro-jects, development money, soft money and pre-sales with Robbie Little, Co-President of The Little Film Co., and Roy Ashton, Head of TV literary at Gersh Agency. The Co-Produc-tion and Finance Session was moderated by Larry Ulman, Partner at the Media Entertain-ment and Technology Group, Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, with speakers including Paytre Topp, and Zev Foreman, Director, Development at Voltage Pictures.

“This opportunity was invaluable as it al-lowed for meaningful discussions between South African and Hollywood producers for charting the way forward regarding joint col-laborations in fi lms. The NFVF supports this forum and would like to be part of it in the fu-ture.” says Mawande.

Says Junaid, “what emerged for me through these dynamic exchanges is the South African fi lm industry is making a strong impression on a global level. This was evident in nearly all the meetings we attended; the Americans made a point of impressing on us their respect for our production services companies, our talented crew pool, our locations, our government fi lm incentives. What excited me most were the possibilities of engaging with North American producers at the creative content level. These exchanges affi rmed that co-productions/partnerships with American studios and inde-pendents are seriously possible if our stories/screenplays are strong and resonate at a global level. I believe that we are at the cusp of some-thing great and we have to seize this moment to forge partnerships with the global commu-nity of fi lmmakers to usher in an exciting and dynamic phase in our evolving fi lm industry.”

“Chronicle” (2012) was also fi lmed in Cape Town

“Chronicle” (2012) was also fi lmed in Cape Town

Page 25: The Callsheet Issue 01 2013

24 | THE CALLSHEET www.thecal lsheet.co.za

NEWS

A delegation of senior government of-ficials, funding agencies and execu-tives in the South African entertain-ment industry attended a week-long

program of strategic meetings in Hollywood in November. Some of most influential players in the global film industry, including senior ex-ecutives in physical production, co-production, finance and development at the major studios, independents and networks, as well as packag-ing agents participated.

The delegation says that in Hollywood the South African film industry has earned an out-standing reputation for its highly skilled crews, excellent infrastructure and renown for deliver-ing. “If they say it can get done in South Africa, it gets done,” said Steve Papazian, President, Worldwide Physical Production at Warner Bros. The studio has been one of the most pro-lific foreign producers in South Africa, injecting substantial contribution to the growth of the industry. Attendees reported that there is con-tinued interest in South African projects and viewing South Africa as a meaningful partner, not just a facilitator.

This mission to promote the South African entertainment industry in Hollywood comes

SA Delegation Strategic Hollywood Mission

through the annual South Africa/Hollywood Exchange; a strategic program produced by the LA and London the based MediaXchange, a media consultancy run by Katrina Wood, in association with Metal Moon, a South African specialist marketing firm, run by Dezi Rorich

– who have collaborated on such Programs po-sitioning South Africa in international markets since 1998.

The South African delegation included government officials from the DTI (Depart-ment of Trade & Industry) including Francois Truter, Chief Director: Services Incentive Clus-ter, and Nelly Molokoane and Thembakazi Maziko, respectively Director and Adminis-trator of the Incentive Scheme. Also included was Mawande Seti, Legal & Policy Officer at the National Film & Video Foundation, which signs International Co-Production Treaties and administers the Scheme.

Also participating were private sector film executives including David Wicht, CEO and Founder of Film Afrika, Tracey Williams, Di-rector of Post-Production at Refinery, Marvin Saven, Financial Director at Moonlighting Filmmakers, and independent producers Ju-naid Ahmed and Lynne Widgerow. The group was joined by Gwen Swart of Namib Film in Namibia - which attracts mainstream Holly-wood productions supported by crew and gear from neighbouring South Africa.

Tracey has participated in the mission for several years. She says that this year she no-

...in Hollywood the South African

film industry has earned an outstanding

reputation for its highly skilled crews, excellent infrastructure

and renown for delivering.

“Dredd” (2012) began filming in Cape Town, South Africa in November 2010

www.thecal lsheet.co.za THE CALLSHEET | 25

NEWS

...what emerged for me through these dynamic

exchanges is the South African

fi lm industry is making a strong impression on a

global level.

ticed that the reception was particularly warm. “Hollywood is a big powerhouse,” she says, “they haven’t really had to look to the rest of the world about how they make their movies. What is diff erent this year is how they are inter-ested in co-productions. What it does change is how you pull together funding from diff erent countries and the skills from diff erent areas. What I think has really changed is the eco-nomic downturn, it is changing how they do business.” She also noted a diff erence in the budgets of fi lms. “From the feature fi lm mar-ket it feels like they are doing 100 million dollar fi lms and the 25 and below fi lms and I think it has to do with distribution. You’ve got big blockbusters and then the smaller fi lms and they must be less of a gamble.”

Tracey said the mission provided rare ac-cess to key industry leaders in Hollywood. That creates an opportunity to grow South Af-rica’s entertainment industry through personal interaction with Hollywood’s decision makers.

Meetings were held with senior execu-tives at Sony Pictures Entertainment, Warner Bros., Paramount Pictures, MGM, Legendary Entertainment, Scott Free Productions, Wil-liam Morris Endeavour, eOne Entertainment, New Regency, Exclusive Media Group, Good Universe, Universal Cable Productions, Global Produce and Film Engine. Many of the com-panies already have projects headed to South Africa for shooting next year. For others, with projects in the pipeline, the personal contact and information about Government’s latest re-vision of fi nancial production incentives served

as catalyst. Added to the program this year was a Fi-

nance Forum. Topics included packaging pro-jects, development money, soft money and pre-sales with Robbie Little, Co-President of The Little Film Co., and Roy Ashton, Head of TV literary at Gersh Agency. The Co-Produc-tion and Finance Session was moderated by Larry Ulman, Partner at the Media Entertain-ment and Technology Group, Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, with speakers including Paytre Topp, and Zev Foreman, Director, Development at Voltage Pictures.

“This opportunity was invaluable as it al-lowed for meaningful discussions between South African and Hollywood producers for charting the way forward regarding joint col-laborations in fi lms. The NFVF supports this forum and would like to be part of it in the fu-ture.” says Mawande.

Says Junaid, “what emerged for me through these dynamic exchanges is the South African fi lm industry is making a strong impression on a global level. This was evident in nearly all the meetings we attended; the Americans made a point of impressing on us their respect for our production services companies, our talented crew pool, our locations, our government fi lm incentives. What excited me most were the possibilities of engaging with North American producers at the creative content level. These exchanges affi rmed that co-productions/partnerships with American studios and inde-pendents are seriously possible if our stories/screenplays are strong and resonate at a global level. I believe that we are at the cusp of some-thing great and we have to seize this moment to forge partnerships with the global commu-nity of fi lmmakers to usher in an exciting and dynamic phase in our evolving fi lm industry.”

“Chronicle” (2012) was also fi lmed in Cape Town

“Chronicle” (2012) was also fi lmed in Cape Town

Page 26: The Callsheet Issue 01 2013

26 | THE CALLSHEET www.thecal lsheet.co.za

The Cape Film Commission has re-ceived a letter from the International Academy of Television Arts and Sci-ences confirming that the Cape Film

Commission will be hosting the judging of two semi-final categories of the 41st International Emmy Awards in 2013. “It puts us on the inter-national television radar, it allows people to un-derstand that we have a thriving industry and that we have industry professionals that have international standing,” says Denis Lille, CEO of the Cape Film Commission.

The International Academy of Television Arts & Sciences is a membership based or-ganization comprised of leading media and entertainment figures from over 50 countries and 500 companies from all sectors of televi-sion including internet, mobile and technolo-gy. The Academy’s yearly schedule of events includes the International Emmy Awards Cer-emony held in New York, The International Digital Emmy Awards at MIPTV and a series of industry events such as Academy Day, The International Emmy World Television Festival and Panels.

Every November the Academy produces The International Emmys World Television Festival and the International Emmy Awards Gala in New York City. The Festival screens

South African Judges

NEWS

...(the judging) puts us on the international

television radar, it allows people to understand that we have a

thriving industry and that we

have industry professionals

that have international

standing.

- Denis Lille, CEO of the Cape Film Commission

for International Emmy Awards

the current year’s International Emmy-nomi-nated programs and features the world-class producers and directors who speak about their work. The International Emmy Awards Gala takes place the day after the Festival, awarding the International Emmy. This black-tie event attracts over 1,000 major figures in broadcast, entertainment and media from around the world.

The Academy was founded in 1969 to pro-mote excellence in international television programming and is the organization that presents the International Emmy Award to the best television programs produced, and initial-ly aired, outside the U.S. There are twenty pro-gram categories for the International Emmy Awards: Arts Programming; Best Performance by an Actor; Best Performance by an Actress; Comedy; Current Affairs; Digital Program: Children & Young People; Digital Program: Fiction; Digital Program: Non-Fiction; Docu-mentary; Drama Series; Kids: Preschool; Kids: Animation; Kids: Factual; Kids: Non-Scripted Entertainment; Kids: Series; Kids: TV Movie/Mini-Series; News; Non-Scripted Entertain-ment; Telenovela; and TV Movie/Mini-Series. The categories that the South Africans will be judging will be confirmed next month. The Cape Film Commission will then put out a call for the nominations of the judges. “Any suitable industry professional is eligible to be a judge,” says Denis, “clearly they must have some experience and we have found the ma-jority of people judging the English language documentary category were from the docu-mentary filmmakers association. One of the judges, Richard Matthews of Wild Images, has won five International Emmys already so he is very well qualified.”

This is not the first time South Africans have judged the International Emmy Awards. Denis says the past experiences were good ones. “During the judging of the English language kids animation we realized that the quality of work that we are producing locally is as good as or better than the international content that we were judging. And our local animators also noted, from what they were seeing, about how important the script is,” says Denis.

The President of the International Emmy Awards, Mr. Bruce Paisner, will be joining the Emmy Judging Director, Mr. Nathaniel Bren-del, in Cape Town for the judging, which will take place next June. Discussions with the City of Cape Town are underway regarding support for showcasing Cape Town and talent in South Africa.

www.thecal lsheet.co.za THE CALLSHEET | 27

In January, Film Afrika takes over all four stages at the Cape Town Film Studios (CTFS) with the series Black Sails, a Treasure Island prequel set 20 years earlier than Robert Louis Steven-son’s classic novel. It’s expected to shoot until around May 2013.

Most of the hype is because, according to The Hollywood Reporter, Transformers director Michael Bay is one of the executive producers.

IMDB says Toby Stephens (the son of Dame Maggie Smith) stars as Captain Flint, Luke Ar-nold (The Pacifi c) plays John Silver, and Tom Hopper (Merlin) is Billy Bones. Other faces you might recognize include Zach McGowan (Shameless) and Nigerian/South African star Hakeem Kae Kazim.

Deadline says Neil Marshall (The De-scent, Game of Thrones) will be directing the pilot. Neil previously shot Doomsday in South Africa.

Deadline also says that integrated enter-tainment company Starz is planning an early 2014 launch, “possibly inheriting the Spartacus slot.” Hopes are high for a fi ve-year run.

For the local industry, the biggest long-term benefi t may be the addition to CTFS of a 75x50m water tank. Vlokkie Gordon told Karen van Schalkwyk, writing for The National Film and Video Foundation, that the tank is 1.20m deep, with an inner pool that is 20x10m and 4.8m deep. There are fi ve huge water fi lters at-tached, which will also be used for the beach area that’s been constructed next to the tank. There will also be a 40m pirate ship with a 70m sail span.

IN PRODUCTION

JANUARY 2013Thanks to ever-present confi dentiality clauses, there is very little offi cial talk about what’s in production in South Africa, but in this new monthly section The Callsheet provides an unoffi cial overview of the industry’s worst-kept secrets.

BLACK SAILS

Out of Africa will be fi lming the fourth season of Strike Back in January 2013. A collaboration be-tween Sky and Cinemax HBO, Strike Back follows Section 20, a secretive unit of the British Secret Intelligence Service, on their high-risk missions throughout the globe.

The popular show, which has an 8.1 rating on IMBD, was nominated for an Emmy for Out-standing Main Title Design in 2012 and earned South African company Big Bang Stunts and Ef-fects a Royal Television Society Award for Best Special Eff ects in 2011.

The cast members have yet to be announced, but Sky has confi rmed that director Michael Bas-sett (Silent Hill: Revelation 3D) and writers Simon Burke (Persuasion), James Dormer (MI-5) and Richard Zajdlic (EastEnders) will be returning for season four, which will also shoot in Hungary.

STRIKE BACK 4

In 2012, Rollaball became the most successful Kickstarter movie project from an African pro-duction company when it crowdsourced $38 577 from 294 funders across the planet. This put Big World Cinema’s documentary in the top 3% of all funded projects on Kickstarter.

In January 2013, this funding will enable Eddie to continue fi lming The Rolling Rockets in Ghana, where this inspiring team of polio survivors are pioneering an extreme sport hybrid of handball, skating and soccer. Dur-ing the Kickstarter campaign, The Huffi ngton Post called them “the world’s most bad-ass extreme athletes.”

The search for the new Khaya will be under-way in January 2013, when the ninth season of Idols South Africa will start fi lming. The second season of Masterchef South Africa will also be underway, after auditions were held in October and November 2012.

ROLLERBALL

IDOLS AND MASTERCHEF

Strike Back

Khaya Mthethwa, winner of Idols SA 8, performing at DICC 15th Anniversary

Strike Back

Page 27: The Callsheet Issue 01 2013

26 | THE CALLSHEET www.thecal lsheet.co.za

The Cape Film Commission has re-ceived a letter from the International Academy of Television Arts and Sci-ences confirming that the Cape Film

Commission will be hosting the judging of two semi-final categories of the 41st International Emmy Awards in 2013. “It puts us on the inter-national television radar, it allows people to un-derstand that we have a thriving industry and that we have industry professionals that have international standing,” says Denis Lille, CEO of the Cape Film Commission.

The International Academy of Television Arts & Sciences is a membership based or-ganization comprised of leading media and entertainment figures from over 50 countries and 500 companies from all sectors of televi-sion including internet, mobile and technolo-gy. The Academy’s yearly schedule of events includes the International Emmy Awards Cer-emony held in New York, The International Digital Emmy Awards at MIPTV and a series of industry events such as Academy Day, The International Emmy World Television Festival and Panels.

Every November the Academy produces The International Emmys World Television Festival and the International Emmy Awards Gala in New York City. The Festival screens

South African Judges

NEWS

...(the judging) puts us on the international

television radar, it allows people to understand that we have a

thriving industry and that we

have industry professionals

that have international

standing.

- Denis Lille, CEO of the Cape Film Commission

for International Emmy Awards

the current year’s International Emmy-nomi-nated programs and features the world-class producers and directors who speak about their work. The International Emmy Awards Gala takes place the day after the Festival, awarding the International Emmy. This black-tie event attracts over 1,000 major figures in broadcast, entertainment and media from around the world.

The Academy was founded in 1969 to pro-mote excellence in international television programming and is the organization that presents the International Emmy Award to the best television programs produced, and initial-ly aired, outside the U.S. There are twenty pro-gram categories for the International Emmy Awards: Arts Programming; Best Performance by an Actor; Best Performance by an Actress; Comedy; Current Affairs; Digital Program: Children & Young People; Digital Program: Fiction; Digital Program: Non-Fiction; Docu-mentary; Drama Series; Kids: Preschool; Kids: Animation; Kids: Factual; Kids: Non-Scripted Entertainment; Kids: Series; Kids: TV Movie/Mini-Series; News; Non-Scripted Entertain-ment; Telenovela; and TV Movie/Mini-Series. The categories that the South Africans will be judging will be confirmed next month. The Cape Film Commission will then put out a call for the nominations of the judges. “Any suitable industry professional is eligible to be a judge,” says Denis, “clearly they must have some experience and we have found the ma-jority of people judging the English language documentary category were from the docu-mentary filmmakers association. One of the judges, Richard Matthews of Wild Images, has won five International Emmys already so he is very well qualified.”

This is not the first time South Africans have judged the International Emmy Awards. Denis says the past experiences were good ones. “During the judging of the English language kids animation we realized that the quality of work that we are producing locally is as good as or better than the international content that we were judging. And our local animators also noted, from what they were seeing, about how important the script is,” says Denis.

The President of the International Emmy Awards, Mr. Bruce Paisner, will be joining the Emmy Judging Director, Mr. Nathaniel Bren-del, in Cape Town for the judging, which will take place next June. Discussions with the City of Cape Town are underway regarding support for showcasing Cape Town and talent in South Africa.

www.thecal lsheet.co.za THE CALLSHEET | 27

In January, Film Afrika takes over all four stages at the Cape Town Film Studios (CTFS) with the series Black Sails, a Treasure Island prequel set 20 years earlier than Robert Louis Steven-son’s classic novel. It’s expected to shoot until around May 2013.

Most of the hype is because, according to The Hollywood Reporter, Transformers director Michael Bay is one of the executive producers.

IMDB says Toby Stephens (the son of Dame Maggie Smith) stars as Captain Flint, Luke Ar-nold (The Pacifi c) plays John Silver, and Tom Hopper (Merlin) is Billy Bones. Other faces you might recognize include Zach McGowan (Shameless) and Nigerian/South African star Hakeem Kae Kazim.

Deadline says Neil Marshall (The De-scent, Game of Thrones) will be directing the pilot. Neil previously shot Doomsday in South Africa.

Deadline also says that integrated enter-tainment company Starz is planning an early 2014 launch, “possibly inheriting the Spartacus slot.” Hopes are high for a fi ve-year run.

For the local industry, the biggest long-term benefi t may be the addition to CTFS of a 75x50m water tank. Vlokkie Gordon told Karen van Schalkwyk, writing for The National Film and Video Foundation, that the tank is 1.20m deep, with an inner pool that is 20x10m and 4.8m deep. There are fi ve huge water fi lters at-tached, which will also be used for the beach area that’s been constructed next to the tank. There will also be a 40m pirate ship with a 70m sail span.

IN PRODUCTION

JANUARY 2013Thanks to ever-present confi dentiality clauses, there is very little offi cial talk about what’s in production in South Africa, but in this new monthly section The Callsheet provides an unoffi cial overview of the industry’s worst-kept secrets.

BLACK SAILS

Out of Africa will be fi lming the fourth season of Strike Back in January 2013. A collaboration be-tween Sky and Cinemax HBO, Strike Back follows Section 20, a secretive unit of the British Secret Intelligence Service, on their high-risk missions throughout the globe.

The popular show, which has an 8.1 rating on IMBD, was nominated for an Emmy for Out-standing Main Title Design in 2012 and earned South African company Big Bang Stunts and Ef-fects a Royal Television Society Award for Best Special Eff ects in 2011.

The cast members have yet to be announced, but Sky has confi rmed that director Michael Bas-sett (Silent Hill: Revelation 3D) and writers Simon Burke (Persuasion), James Dormer (MI-5) and Richard Zajdlic (EastEnders) will be returning for season four, which will also shoot in Hungary.

STRIKE BACK 4

In 2012, Rollaball became the most successful Kickstarter movie project from an African pro-duction company when it crowdsourced $38 577 from 294 funders across the planet. This put Big World Cinema’s documentary in the top 3% of all funded projects on Kickstarter.

In January 2013, this funding will enable Eddie to continue fi lming The Rolling Rockets in Ghana, where this inspiring team of polio survivors are pioneering an extreme sport hybrid of handball, skating and soccer. Dur-ing the Kickstarter campaign, The Huffi ngton Post called them “the world’s most bad-ass extreme athletes.”

The search for the new Khaya will be under-way in January 2013, when the ninth season of Idols South Africa will start fi lming. The second season of Masterchef South Africa will also be underway, after auditions were held in October and November 2012.

ROLLERBALL

IDOLS AND MASTERCHEF

Strike Back

Khaya Mthethwa, winner of Idols SA 8, performing at DICC 15th Anniversary

Strike Back

Page 28: The Callsheet Issue 01 2013

28 | THE CALLSHEET www.thecal lsheet.co.za

COUNTRY SPOTLIGHT

What is a Kenyan Film? The best answer may be “not what it used to be.” Like much of the rest of the continent, gone are

the days when Kenya’s locations were featured in fi lms and nothing else. Now there is a ro-bust industry backed by government eff orts to develop Kenyan cinema as an industry.

Kenya has produced a number of documen-tary fi lms related to poverty in the main cities like Nairobi, but since 2000 feature fi lms on a variety of topics have increased in the country.

Kenya

Recent popular fi lms from Kenya include “Nai-robi Half Life”, “The First Grader”, and “To Walk With Lions”.

The fi lmmakers making these fi lms have recently been joined by other low-budget inde-pendent fi lmmakers who use digital technol-ogy to shoot their fi lms and sell them locally on DVD and VCD format -- The Riverwood Industry. The Riverwood Industry takes its name from River road where music tapes and electronics are sold. Its content now has a much wider reach, capturing the attention of the mainstream TV stations and pan-African broadcasters. That is a wise strategy for cur-rent success in Kenya since, according to a re-cent audience consumer trends survey, for the majority of Kenyans TV viewership is higher than cinema and video. The top programs being watched on Kenya’s leading stations are local productions, and of the foreign pro-grammes being watched, a signifi cant number are programmes which can be placed in the Kenyan context. These are specifi cally movies from Nigeria. Other notable foreign produc-tions watched are the Mexican soap operas.

When it comes to movies, a signifi cant percentage of Kenyans are watching them, but it is clear that not all of them are watching lo-cally produced movies. According to the sur-vey, “this has been attributed to poor quality of locally produced movies; their unavailability

On The Movein the market and the high pricing. Diff eren-tiation between diff erent categories/genre of fi lms is largely lacking, majority of the re-spondents generally referred to the diff erent categories of fi lms as movies. This is an indi-cation that the market has not diff erentiated in terms of consumer segmentation by fi lm genres, hence making it diffi cult for produc-ers to try and come up with products that will satisfy the market adequately.”

The Kenyan government has made an ef-fort to develop Kenyan cinema as an industry, and in 2005 the government helped establish the Kenya Film Commission (KFC) which came into operation in mid-2006. The Kenya Film Commission aims to promote the in-dustry not only within the country but to raise international awareness and interest from po-tential investors. The commission falls under the Ministry of Information and Communica-tion. It supports the Kenyan fi lm industry by providing facilities for screenings and fi lming and organising various workshops to educate local fi lm-makers seeking to enter fi lm pro-duction. It is also responsible for advising on licensing and immigration; as well as facilitat-ing the fi lming process for fi lm makers.

Kenyan Film Festivals

Kenya International Film Festival2012 was the seventh year of the Kenya International Film Festival. The goal of the festival is to create a cinema-going culture and to make the fi lm business profi table for local fi lmmakers. Due to a funding shortage this year the festival’s programme was signifi cantly reduced.

Lola Kenya Screen Film ForumLola Kenya Screen Film Forum began in 2006 and focuses on fi lms by, for and with children and youth. Children are given the opportunity to participate in the fi lm selection, programme presenta-tion, fi lm jury, and in the making of short fi lms. The festival gives aspiring children the opportunity to collaborate with in-ternational partners and to also educate them in fi lm production, screenplay writing, cinematography, and in the art department and sound production. The festival has attracted participants from outside Kenya.

The Riverwood Industry takes its name from

River road where music tapes and

electronics are sold. Its content now

has a much wider reach, capturing the attention of

the mainstream TV stations and pan-

African broadcasters.

www.thecal lsheet.co.za THE CALLSHEET | 29

COUNTRY SPOTLIGHT

New AppointmentChristopher Kiprop Aubrey Foot was se-lected to be Chairman of the Board of Directors, Kenya Film Commission, for a period of three years.

Kalasha Film & Television Awards 2012Kalasha is a Swahili word that means “small elephant tusks” and stands for the Kenya Film and Television Awards (KFTA). The KFTA was created by the Kenya Film Commission, a government body that was constituted to spearhead growth in the fi lm industry. 2012 is the fourth season of KFTAs, which are meant to acknowledge Kenya’s fi lm and television industry lead-ers. The awards ceremony was held in December.

View the winners at: http://kenyafi lm-commission.com/

What’s

happening

nowIn Kenyan Filmmaking

You need

to know about The Kenya Film

Commission

The Kenya Film Commission is a state cor-poration under the Ministry of Informa-tion and Communication with the mission of “creating a gateway to economic growth through excellence in fi lm.”

Mandate and core functionsThe Commission is mandated to perform the following functions:

• To advise the government and other rel-evant stakeholders on matters pertaining to development, co-ordination, regula-tion and promotion of the fi lm industry in Kenya;• To facilitate the provision of content de-velopment, funding and investment for fi lm projects;• To market Kenya as a centre for excel-lence in fi lm production;• To facilitate proper keeping of Film Ar-chives in Kenya;• To facilitate investment in the develop-ment of fi lm industry infrastructure;

The Department of Film Services (DFS) used to be called the ‘Film Production Department’ (FPD) which then focused on fi lm production aspects. Since 2003, the department re-packaged its services and changed the name to ‘Department of Film Services’ mainly due to the broad-ened scope of services and products en-compassed in fi lm industry. The name re-orients DFS in its eff orts to be customer focused and indeed a one stop-shop ser-vice for all.

Department services include:• Licensing of local and international fi lm makers• Providing liaison services• Production of newsreels, documentaries, features, TV ads and inserts.• Provision of dissemination & Mobile cin-ema services

Department of Film Services

When it comes to movies, a signifi cant

percentage of Kenyans are

watching movies, but it is clear that not all of them are watching locally

produced movies.

“The First Grader”. 2010

“Nairobi Half Life”, 2012

Page 29: The Callsheet Issue 01 2013

28 | THE CALLSHEET www.thecal lsheet.co.za

COUNTRY SPOTLIGHT

What is a Kenyan Film? The best answer may be “not what it used to be.” Like much of the rest of the continent, gone are

the days when Kenya’s locations were featured in fi lms and nothing else. Now there is a ro-bust industry backed by government eff orts to develop Kenyan cinema as an industry.

Kenya has produced a number of documen-tary fi lms related to poverty in the main cities like Nairobi, but since 2000 feature fi lms on a variety of topics have increased in the country.

Kenya

Recent popular fi lms from Kenya include “Nai-robi Half Life”, “The First Grader”, and “To Walk With Lions”.

The fi lmmakers making these fi lms have recently been joined by other low-budget inde-pendent fi lmmakers who use digital technol-ogy to shoot their fi lms and sell them locally on DVD and VCD format -- The Riverwood Industry. The Riverwood Industry takes its name from River road where music tapes and electronics are sold. Its content now has a much wider reach, capturing the attention of the mainstream TV stations and pan-African broadcasters. That is a wise strategy for cur-rent success in Kenya since, according to a re-cent audience consumer trends survey, for the majority of Kenyans TV viewership is higher than cinema and video. The top programs being watched on Kenya’s leading stations are local productions, and of the foreign pro-grammes being watched, a signifi cant number are programmes which can be placed in the Kenyan context. These are specifi cally movies from Nigeria. Other notable foreign produc-tions watched are the Mexican soap operas.

When it comes to movies, a signifi cant percentage of Kenyans are watching them, but it is clear that not all of them are watching lo-cally produced movies. According to the sur-vey, “this has been attributed to poor quality of locally produced movies; their unavailability

On The Movein the market and the high pricing. Diff eren-tiation between diff erent categories/genre of fi lms is largely lacking, majority of the re-spondents generally referred to the diff erent categories of fi lms as movies. This is an indi-cation that the market has not diff erentiated in terms of consumer segmentation by fi lm genres, hence making it diffi cult for produc-ers to try and come up with products that will satisfy the market adequately.”

The Kenyan government has made an ef-fort to develop Kenyan cinema as an industry, and in 2005 the government helped establish the Kenya Film Commission (KFC) which came into operation in mid-2006. The Kenya Film Commission aims to promote the in-dustry not only within the country but to raise international awareness and interest from po-tential investors. The commission falls under the Ministry of Information and Communica-tion. It supports the Kenyan fi lm industry by providing facilities for screenings and fi lming and organising various workshops to educate local fi lm-makers seeking to enter fi lm pro-duction. It is also responsible for advising on licensing and immigration; as well as facilitat-ing the fi lming process for fi lm makers.

Kenyan Film Festivals

Kenya International Film Festival2012 was the seventh year of the Kenya International Film Festival. The goal of the festival is to create a cinema-going culture and to make the fi lm business profi table for local fi lmmakers. Due to a funding shortage this year the festival’s programme was signifi cantly reduced.

Lola Kenya Screen Film ForumLola Kenya Screen Film Forum began in 2006 and focuses on fi lms by, for and with children and youth. Children are given the opportunity to participate in the fi lm selection, programme presenta-tion, fi lm jury, and in the making of short fi lms. The festival gives aspiring children the opportunity to collaborate with in-ternational partners and to also educate them in fi lm production, screenplay writing, cinematography, and in the art department and sound production. The festival has attracted participants from outside Kenya.

The Riverwood Industry takes its name from

River road where music tapes and

electronics are sold. Its content now

has a much wider reach, capturing the attention of

the mainstream TV stations and pan-

African broadcasters.

www.thecal lsheet.co.za THE CALLSHEET | 29

COUNTRY SPOTLIGHT

New AppointmentChristopher Kiprop Aubrey Foot was se-lected to be Chairman of the Board of Directors, Kenya Film Commission, for a period of three years.

Kalasha Film & Television Awards 2012Kalasha is a Swahili word that means “small elephant tusks” and stands for the Kenya Film and Television Awards (KFTA). The KFTA was created by the Kenya Film Commission, a government body that was constituted to spearhead growth in the fi lm industry. 2012 is the fourth season of KFTAs, which are meant to acknowledge Kenya’s fi lm and television industry lead-ers. The awards ceremony was held in December.

View the winners at: http://kenyafi lm-commission.com/

What’s

happening

nowIn Kenyan Filmmaking

You need

to know about The Kenya Film

Commission

The Kenya Film Commission is a state cor-poration under the Ministry of Informa-tion and Communication with the mission of “creating a gateway to economic growth through excellence in fi lm.”

Mandate and core functionsThe Commission is mandated to perform the following functions:

• To advise the government and other rel-evant stakeholders on matters pertaining to development, co-ordination, regula-tion and promotion of the fi lm industry in Kenya;• To facilitate the provision of content de-velopment, funding and investment for fi lm projects;• To market Kenya as a centre for excel-lence in fi lm production;• To facilitate proper keeping of Film Ar-chives in Kenya;• To facilitate investment in the develop-ment of fi lm industry infrastructure;

The Department of Film Services (DFS) used to be called the ‘Film Production Department’ (FPD) which then focused on fi lm production aspects. Since 2003, the department re-packaged its services and changed the name to ‘Department of Film Services’ mainly due to the broad-ened scope of services and products en-compassed in fi lm industry. The name re-orients DFS in its eff orts to be customer focused and indeed a one stop-shop ser-vice for all.

Department services include:• Licensing of local and international fi lm makers• Providing liaison services• Production of newsreels, documentaries, features, TV ads and inserts.• Provision of dissemination & Mobile cin-ema services

Department of Film Services

When it comes to movies, a signifi cant

percentage of Kenyans are

watching movies, but it is clear that not all of them are watching locally

produced movies.

“The First Grader”. 2010

“Nairobi Half Life”, 2012

Page 30: The Callsheet Issue 01 2013

30 | THE CALLSHEET www.thecal lsheet.co.za

EVENTS

Film FestivalsAbuja International Film Festival 22-25 October (Tentative)Abuja City, Nigeria

AFDA Annual Film Festival TBC (Dates To Be Confirmed)Cape Town/Johannesburg, South Africa

Africa in MotionTBCGlasgow, Scotland

American Film Institute Festival7-14 NovemberLos Angeles, California, U.S.A.

Annecy International Animated Film Festival10-15 JuneAnnecy, France

Berlin Film Festival7-17 FebruaryBerlin, Germany

Cairo International Film Festival 26 November- 5 December (Tentative)Cairo, Egypt

Cannes Film Festival15-26 MayCannes, France

Colours of the Nile International Film Festival TBC Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

Cape Winelands Film Festival 13-23 March Cape Town/Stellenbosch, South Africa

Dockanema13-22 SeptemberMaputo, Mozambique

Durban International Film Festival18 - 28 July Durban, South Africa

Edinburgh International Film Festival18-29 JuneEdinburgh, Scotland

Encounters Documentary Festival6-23 JuneJohannesburg/Cape Town, South Africa

Hot Docs25 April – 5 MayToronto, Canada

IBC12-17 SeptemberAmsterdam, Netherlands

International Film Festival of Marrakech6-14 DecemberMarrakech, Morocco

International Film Festival Rotterdam23 Jan – 3 FebRotterdam, Netherlands

Jozi Film Festival15-17 FebruaryJohannesburg, South Africa

Kenya International Film Festival TBCNarobi, KenyaLola Kenya Screen Film ForumTBCNairobi, Kenya

London Film Festival11-22 AprilLondon, England

Out In Africa Gay and Lesbian Film Festival Cape Town17-18 MayCape Town/Johannesburg, South Africa

Out In Africa Gay and Lesbian Film Festival Johannesburg19-28 OctoberJohannesburg, South Africa

Panafrican Film and Television Festival of Ouagadougou (FESPACO)23 Feb-2 MarchOuagadougou, Burkina Faso

SWSX South by Southwest (Film)8 - 16 March Austin, Texas, U.S.A.

Sundance Film Festival17-27 January Park City, Utah, U.S.A.

Tribeca Film Festival17-28 April New York, New York, U.S.A.

Toronto International Film Festival5-15 SeptemberToronto, Canada

Tri Continental Film FestivalTBCJohannesburg/Cape Town, South Africa

Zanzibar International Film Festival29 June-7 July Zanzibar City, Tanzania

Eva Longoria - 2012 Cannes Film Festival

www.thecal lsheet.co.za THE CALLSHEET | 31

EVENTS

Film Markets and Awards AFCI Location Expo28-29 JuneLos Angeles, U.S.A.

American Film Market6-13 NovemberSanta Monica, California, U.S.A.Cannes Film Market (Marché Du Film)15-24 MayCannes, France

CineMart23 Jan-3 FebRotterdam, Netherlands

European Film Market7-15 FebruaryBerlin, Germany

Marché International Du Film d’Animation (MIFA)12-14 JuneAnnecy, France

MIPCom7-10 OctoberCannes, France

MipTV8-11 AprilCannes France

Advertising and Creative EventsADC 92nd Annual Awards2-4 April Miami, Florida, U.S.A.

AdFest 201317-19 MarchPattaya, Thailand

Advertising Creative Circle14 MarchLondon, England

Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity16-22 JuneCannes, France

Euro Effies19 SeptemberBrussels, Belgium

Golden Award of Montreux22-23 AprilMontreux, Switzerland

International Advertising Cup8 MarchIstambul, Turkey

Loerie Awards TBCCape Town, South Africa

One Show Design7 MayNew York, New York, U.S.A.

One Show Interactive11 MayNew York, New York, U.S.A.

The One Show8 MayNew York, New York, U.S.A.

Stills Events

LeBook Connections Tour 201329 NovemberChicago, Illinois, U.S.A.

31 JanuaryLos Angeles, California, U.S.A.

TBC (April)Paris, France

TBC (May)Hamburg, Germany

5-6 JuneNew York, New York, U.S.A.

October (TBC)Berlin, Germany

Winter (TBC)London, England

The Loeriwe Awards 2012

Page 31: The Callsheet Issue 01 2013

30 | THE CALLSHEET www.thecal lsheet.co.za

EVENTS

Film FestivalsAbuja International Film Festival 22-25 October (Tentative)Abuja City, Nigeria

AFDA Annual Film Festival TBC (Dates To Be Confirmed)Cape Town/Johannesburg, South Africa

Africa in MotionTBCGlasgow, Scotland

American Film Institute Festival7-14 NovemberLos Angeles, California, U.S.A.

Annecy International Animated Film Festival10-15 JuneAnnecy, France

Berlin Film Festival7-17 FebruaryBerlin, Germany

Cairo International Film Festival 26 November- 5 December (Tentative)Cairo, Egypt

Cannes Film Festival15-26 MayCannes, France

Colours of the Nile International Film Festival TBC Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

Cape Winelands Film Festival 13-23 March Cape Town/Stellenbosch, South Africa

Dockanema13-22 SeptemberMaputo, Mozambique

Durban International Film Festival18 - 28 July Durban, South Africa

Edinburgh International Film Festival18-29 JuneEdinburgh, Scotland

Encounters Documentary Festival6-23 JuneJohannesburg/Cape Town, South Africa

Hot Docs25 April – 5 MayToronto, Canada

IBC12-17 SeptemberAmsterdam, Netherlands

International Film Festival of Marrakech6-14 DecemberMarrakech, Morocco

International Film Festival Rotterdam23 Jan – 3 FebRotterdam, Netherlands

Jozi Film Festival15-17 FebruaryJohannesburg, South Africa

Kenya International Film Festival TBCNarobi, KenyaLola Kenya Screen Film ForumTBCNairobi, Kenya

London Film Festival11-22 AprilLondon, England

Out In Africa Gay and Lesbian Film Festival Cape Town17-18 MayCape Town/Johannesburg, South Africa

Out In Africa Gay and Lesbian Film Festival Johannesburg19-28 OctoberJohannesburg, South Africa

Panafrican Film and Television Festival of Ouagadougou (FESPACO)23 Feb-2 MarchOuagadougou, Burkina Faso

SWSX South by Southwest (Film)8 - 16 March Austin, Texas, U.S.A.

Sundance Film Festival17-27 January Park City, Utah, U.S.A.

Tribeca Film Festival17-28 April New York, New York, U.S.A.

Toronto International Film Festival5-15 SeptemberToronto, Canada

Tri Continental Film FestivalTBCJohannesburg/Cape Town, South Africa

Zanzibar International Film Festival29 June-7 July Zanzibar City, Tanzania

Eva Longoria - 2012 Cannes Film Festival

www.thecal lsheet.co.za THE CALLSHEET | 31

EVENTS

Film Markets and Awards AFCI Location Expo28-29 JuneLos Angeles, U.S.A.

American Film Market6-13 NovemberSanta Monica, California, U.S.A.Cannes Film Market (Marché Du Film)15-24 MayCannes, France

CineMart23 Jan-3 FebRotterdam, Netherlands

European Film Market7-15 FebruaryBerlin, Germany

Marché International Du Film d’Animation (MIFA)12-14 JuneAnnecy, France

MIPCom7-10 OctoberCannes, France

MipTV8-11 AprilCannes France

Advertising and Creative EventsADC 92nd Annual Awards2-4 April Miami, Florida, U.S.A.

AdFest 201317-19 MarchPattaya, Thailand

Advertising Creative Circle14 MarchLondon, England

Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity16-22 JuneCannes, France

Euro Effies19 SeptemberBrussels, Belgium

Golden Award of Montreux22-23 AprilMontreux, Switzerland

International Advertising Cup8 MarchIstambul, Turkey

Loerie Awards TBCCape Town, South Africa

One Show Design7 MayNew York, New York, U.S.A.

One Show Interactive11 MayNew York, New York, U.S.A.

The One Show8 MayNew York, New York, U.S.A.

Stills Events

LeBook Connections Tour 201329 NovemberChicago, Illinois, U.S.A.

31 JanuaryLos Angeles, California, U.S.A.

TBC (April)Paris, France

TBC (May)Hamburg, Germany

5-6 JuneNew York, New York, U.S.A.

October (TBC)Berlin, Germany

Winter (TBC)London, England

The Loeriwe Awards 2012

Page 32: The Callsheet Issue 01 2013

32 | THE CALLSHEET www.thecal lsheet.co.za

Economic growth is the biggest driver of the film industry. That’s good news for Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) as a whole, which the International Monetary

Fund expects to grow at 5.7% in 2013. How-ever there are differences in the rate of growth across SSA and in what different countries have to offer when it comes to film. For instance, South Africa’s reputation as the “Gateway to Africa” is well established, while others are less well known. The following is a closer look at the countries you’ll want to know more about shooting in in 2013.

Film Afrika shot the Emmy-nominated No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency in Botswana in 2007.

There is no film commission in Botswana, so co-producer Vlokkie Gordon says Film Afrika worked closely with The Botswana Export De-velopment and Investment Authority.

While Botswana didn’t offer any bona fide servicing companies, Film Afrika tapped into the local knowledge through Tin Roof’s “won-derful” producer Ndipo Mokoka.

Film Afrika shot in Botswana because the country is a lead character in the Alexander

FEATURE

Shooting

McCall-Smith novels the series was based on. No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency was set in the present, so the country came “pretty much dressed,” according to Vlokkie.

However, she admits shooting the pilot was “very hard. There were no real crew, no profes-

sional equipment companies, and no support infrastructure specializing in the film industry,” she says. “I tried to set up everything as much as possible in line with the South African in-dustry standards and conditions, as Botswana would be an extension of South Africa’s in-dustry. During the pilot we trained 180 locals. When we returned for the series, we employed 60 of them as official crew members. The vi-sion was to employ more Botswana and less South Africans each series.”

“Shooting in and around Gaborone was great as it is like a big backlot,” says Vlokkie. “Access was easy and safe. The transitions from city to very rural were also easy as 10 minutes out of Gaborone you can find the most beautiful rural villages. On the pilot, we also shot in the swamps and on the Makga-digadi pans, which were the most unbeliev-able experiences.”

She says Botswana’s business district felt very familiar, with the shops looking distinctly South African.

She also praised the people. “The main business language is English and the people are very friendly, open, willing to help and hardworking,” she said. “Five years later, we still work with some of the Botswana crew we trained.”

in Sub-Saharan Africa in 2013

BOTSWANA

“Access was easy and safe. The transitions from city to very rural were also easy as 10 minutes out

of Gaborone you can find the most

beautiful rural villages.”

- Vlokkie Gordon

- By Kevin Kriedemann

www.thecal lsheet.co.za THE CALLSHEET | 33

Kenya has an impressive fi lmography going back to the 80s, when seven-time Oscar win-ner Out of Africa, Golden Globe winner The Colour Purple, and Oscar-nominee Gorillas in the Mist were all shot there.

More recently, Kenya was the location of the Oscar-winning The Constant Gardener, as well as the 2011 and 2003 Best Foreign Film Oscar winners: In a Better World and Nowhere in Africa.

The country has also hosted box offi ce hits like Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life, Love Actu-ally and Independence Day, among other im-pressive projects.

Ginger Ink is currently fi nishing production on Fishing Without Nets, the feature fi lm ex-tension of Cutter Hodierne’s Sundance Grand Jury winning Somali pirate short fi lm.

Ginger Ink and Blue Sky are the two main service companies, but there are a variety of other production company options available.

This year, for the fi rst time, Kenya has en-

FEATUREGHANA

tered its own fi lm into the Best Foreign Film Oscar race: David ‘Tosh’ Gitonga’s Nairobi Half Life. This is the second fi lm after the ac-claimed Soul Boy to emerge from the One Fine Day Film Workshop, acollaboration between Tom Twyker’s One Fine Day Films and Ginger Ink, supported by The Deutsche Welle Acad-emy. The third, Something Necessary, will be out in February 2013, and they are already in production on the fourth, Veve.

The Ministry of Information and Communi-cations and The Department of Film Services oversee the fi lm industry, which has a fi lm commission and a professional association.

Ginger Wilson of Ginger Ink says, “Kenya off ers fresh locations that are still very underex-posed. There’s a very diverse landscape close to Nairobi, so you don’t have to go far to get savannah, jungle, mountains, or un-spoilt, pristine beaches.”

According to Ginger, there are some quality heads of departments (HODs) in Kenya, in-cluding a world-class production designer and a strong base of second-tier fi lm crew, includ-ing great sound guys, lighting and grip crews, and focus pullers. For complex projects, she generally recommends bringing in HODs such as DOPs, fi rst assistant directors and produc-tion accountants from South Africa.

She says that one area of real growth is acting, where the rise of local TV has turned screen acting into a viable career option for the fi rst time.

At present, there are no incentives or fi lm fi nancing options available. It can be hard to obtain international insurance when shooting there due to the recent unrest, which South Africans should know not to over-estimate. Ginger says there are a number of misconcep-tions about Kenya at the moment. “I’ve been working here for 18 years and I’ve never paid a bribe,” she says.

STAGE5FILMS’ founder and producer Dylan Voogt shot all over Africa while working for Moonlighting Films on documentary pro-jects like Samsara and The Beautiful Game, but he calls Ghana “the one everyone should go to. They speak the language of fi lm, have a large infrastructure, and are friendly, open and understanding. English is the offi cial language, so there’s less of a language bar-rier, and security concerns are relatively low.”

Ghana doesn’t have a service fi lmogra-phy to speak of, although ‘Ghollywood’ is producing an increasing number of local fi lms, like Leila Djansi’s Sinking Sands and Ties That Bind.

A number of South African companies are shooting adverts for Ghanaian agencies, but these still tend to be fi lmed in South Af-rica rather than Ghana.

Dylan says that, while there are no bona fi de service companies in Ghana, he worked with fi xers like Teddy Sabautey and Victor Odonko while shooting The Beautiful Game there. Prior to shooting in Ghana, you will need permits or press passes, as well as let-ters of invitation.

“Ghana is primarily set up for TV, not high-end features,” says Dylan. “There’s lim-ited gear available: mostly lower-end Sony products and news gathering cameras. We used local sound recordists but otherwise brought in the key crew and equipment.”

Ghana is just 238skm, so about 1/6th of the size of South Africa. “This means there are limitations to the number of locations one can fi nd,” says Dylan. “You go there to shoot the jungle, or cocoa farms, or the coastline, which has grey sand and is more like Durban than Cape Town; there’s noth-ing uniquely distinct city-wise, apart from the plantation-house-style architecture they share with Nigeria and the clash of rural and city sprawl.”

Hotel chains are found mostly along the coast. Ghana’s internet speeds were rated the fastest in Africa earlier this year by Speedtest.net but are best in urban areas, according to Dylan.

He says Ghana has a culture of ‘talk now, eat later,’ so small talk is important before you get down to business. Dylan also warns that Ghanaians often dislike being photo-graphed by tourists, so it’s polite to ask for permission before pointing your camera.

KENYA

...Kenya was the location of the

Oscar-winning The Constant Gardener, as well as the 2011

and 2003 Best Foreign Film Oscar winners: In a Better World and Nowhere

in Africa.

Photo by Philippa Ndisi, One Fine Day Films. on the set of “Something Necessary” . Camera Operator Allan Gichigi Kenyan Landscape

Page 33: The Callsheet Issue 01 2013

32 | THE CALLSHEET www.thecal lsheet.co.za

Economic growth is the biggest driver of the film industry. That’s good news for Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) as a whole, which the International Monetary

Fund expects to grow at 5.7% in 2013. How-ever there are differences in the rate of growth across SSA and in what different countries have to offer when it comes to film. For instance, South Africa’s reputation as the “Gateway to Africa” is well established, while others are less well known. The following is a closer look at the countries you’ll want to know more about shooting in in 2013.

Film Afrika shot the Emmy-nominated No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency in Botswana in 2007.

There is no film commission in Botswana, so co-producer Vlokkie Gordon says Film Afrika worked closely with The Botswana Export De-velopment and Investment Authority.

While Botswana didn’t offer any bona fide servicing companies, Film Afrika tapped into the local knowledge through Tin Roof’s “won-derful” producer Ndipo Mokoka.

Film Afrika shot in Botswana because the country is a lead character in the Alexander

FEATURE

Shooting

McCall-Smith novels the series was based on. No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency was set in the present, so the country came “pretty much dressed,” according to Vlokkie.

However, she admits shooting the pilot was “very hard. There were no real crew, no profes-

sional equipment companies, and no support infrastructure specializing in the film industry,” she says. “I tried to set up everything as much as possible in line with the South African in-dustry standards and conditions, as Botswana would be an extension of South Africa’s in-dustry. During the pilot we trained 180 locals. When we returned for the series, we employed 60 of them as official crew members. The vi-sion was to employ more Botswana and less South Africans each series.”

“Shooting in and around Gaborone was great as it is like a big backlot,” says Vlokkie. “Access was easy and safe. The transitions from city to very rural were also easy as 10 minutes out of Gaborone you can find the most beautiful rural villages. On the pilot, we also shot in the swamps and on the Makga-digadi pans, which were the most unbeliev-able experiences.”

She says Botswana’s business district felt very familiar, with the shops looking distinctly South African.

She also praised the people. “The main business language is English and the people are very friendly, open, willing to help and hardworking,” she said. “Five years later, we still work with some of the Botswana crew we trained.”

in Sub-Saharan Africa in 2013

BOTSWANA

“Access was easy and safe. The transitions from city to very rural were also easy as 10 minutes out

of Gaborone you can find the most

beautiful rural villages.”

- Vlokkie Gordon

- By Kevin Kriedemann

www.thecal lsheet.co.za THE CALLSHEET | 33

Kenya has an impressive fi lmography going back to the 80s, when seven-time Oscar win-ner Out of Africa, Golden Globe winner The Colour Purple, and Oscar-nominee Gorillas in the Mist were all shot there.

More recently, Kenya was the location of the Oscar-winning The Constant Gardener, as well as the 2011 and 2003 Best Foreign Film Oscar winners: In a Better World and Nowhere in Africa.

The country has also hosted box offi ce hits like Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life, Love Actu-ally and Independence Day, among other im-pressive projects.

Ginger Ink is currently fi nishing production on Fishing Without Nets, the feature fi lm ex-tension of Cutter Hodierne’s Sundance Grand Jury winning Somali pirate short fi lm.

Ginger Ink and Blue Sky are the two main service companies, but there are a variety of other production company options available.

This year, for the fi rst time, Kenya has en-

FEATUREGHANA

tered its own fi lm into the Best Foreign Film Oscar race: David ‘Tosh’ Gitonga’s Nairobi Half Life. This is the second fi lm after the ac-claimed Soul Boy to emerge from the One Fine Day Film Workshop, acollaboration between Tom Twyker’s One Fine Day Films and Ginger Ink, supported by The Deutsche Welle Acad-emy. The third, Something Necessary, will be out in February 2013, and they are already in production on the fourth, Veve.

The Ministry of Information and Communi-cations and The Department of Film Services oversee the fi lm industry, which has a fi lm commission and a professional association.

Ginger Wilson of Ginger Ink says, “Kenya off ers fresh locations that are still very underex-posed. There’s a very diverse landscape close to Nairobi, so you don’t have to go far to get savannah, jungle, mountains, or un-spoilt, pristine beaches.”

According to Ginger, there are some quality heads of departments (HODs) in Kenya, in-cluding a world-class production designer and a strong base of second-tier fi lm crew, includ-ing great sound guys, lighting and grip crews, and focus pullers. For complex projects, she generally recommends bringing in HODs such as DOPs, fi rst assistant directors and produc-tion accountants from South Africa.

She says that one area of real growth is acting, where the rise of local TV has turned screen acting into a viable career option for the fi rst time.

At present, there are no incentives or fi lm fi nancing options available. It can be hard to obtain international insurance when shooting there due to the recent unrest, which South Africans should know not to over-estimate. Ginger says there are a number of misconcep-tions about Kenya at the moment. “I’ve been working here for 18 years and I’ve never paid a bribe,” she says.

STAGE5FILMS’ founder and producer Dylan Voogt shot all over Africa while working for Moonlighting Films on documentary pro-jects like Samsara and The Beautiful Game, but he calls Ghana “the one everyone should go to. They speak the language of fi lm, have a large infrastructure, and are friendly, open and understanding. English is the offi cial language, so there’s less of a language bar-rier, and security concerns are relatively low.”

Ghana doesn’t have a service fi lmogra-phy to speak of, although ‘Ghollywood’ is producing an increasing number of local fi lms, like Leila Djansi’s Sinking Sands and Ties That Bind.

A number of South African companies are shooting adverts for Ghanaian agencies, but these still tend to be fi lmed in South Af-rica rather than Ghana.

Dylan says that, while there are no bona fi de service companies in Ghana, he worked with fi xers like Teddy Sabautey and Victor Odonko while shooting The Beautiful Game there. Prior to shooting in Ghana, you will need permits or press passes, as well as let-ters of invitation.

“Ghana is primarily set up for TV, not high-end features,” says Dylan. “There’s lim-ited gear available: mostly lower-end Sony products and news gathering cameras. We used local sound recordists but otherwise brought in the key crew and equipment.”

Ghana is just 238skm, so about 1/6th of the size of South Africa. “This means there are limitations to the number of locations one can fi nd,” says Dylan. “You go there to shoot the jungle, or cocoa farms, or the coastline, which has grey sand and is more like Durban than Cape Town; there’s noth-ing uniquely distinct city-wise, apart from the plantation-house-style architecture they share with Nigeria and the clash of rural and city sprawl.”

Hotel chains are found mostly along the coast. Ghana’s internet speeds were rated the fastest in Africa earlier this year by Speedtest.net but are best in urban areas, according to Dylan.

He says Ghana has a culture of ‘talk now, eat later,’ so small talk is important before you get down to business. Dylan also warns that Ghanaians often dislike being photo-graphed by tourists, so it’s polite to ask for permission before pointing your camera.

KENYA

...Kenya was the location of the

Oscar-winning The Constant Gardener, as well as the 2011

and 2003 Best Foreign Film Oscar winners: In a Better World and Nowhere

in Africa.

Photo by Philippa Ndisi, One Fine Day Films. on the set of “Something Necessary” . Camera Operator Allan Gichigi Kenyan Landscape

Page 34: The Callsheet Issue 01 2013

34 | THE CALLSHEET www.thecal lsheet.co.za

Moonlighting Films has shot a number of commercials and fi lms in Mozambique, in-cluding Ali, with Will Smith; The Interpreter, with Nicole Kidman; and Blood Diamond, with Leonardo di Caprio.

“The most attractive thing about Mozam-bique is its proximity to Joburg,” says Moon-lighting’s Philip Key. “It’s a 45-minute fl ight or a six hour drive, so you can make a decision at 10pm and call Joburg and your equipment will be at the airport at 6am and on set by 8am. There’s nowhere else in Africa that you can support so well and so economically. That’s why on so many of these projects, we scout the whole of Africa and end up in Mozam-bique or Namibia.”

You don’t require a visa to travel between South Africa and Mozambique, which further simplifi es shooting there.

There’s no fi lm commission, but working on high-profi le studio fi lms helped Moonlight-ing deal with the Mozambican government at a ministerial level. Philip says Moonlighting always employs a local fi xer, generally Mickey Fonseca from Mala Films; Joao Ribeiro, a founding member of AMOCINE (The Mozam-bican Association of Filmmakers); or Melissa Thorne, if she’s there.

Philip has noticed a marked improve-ment since Ali, where he felt Moonlighting was charged “extortionate” fees. However he says fi lming in Mozambique can still be fairly anarchic. “The biggest asset we have in South Africa is certainty, whereas when you shoot in Africa you’re not always in control

FEATURE

of the end result.”He says the infrastructure has improved re-

markably, especially in terms of roads. The city has been cleaned up, although this means Ma-puto has lost some of its appeal as a decaying colonial environment.

For commercials, Moonlighting generally shoot in Mozambique for its turquoise water and exotic islands. The growing tourism infra-structure, like fl ights and accommodation, has made this “quite easy,” according to Philip. “It’s always very nice to be there and buy fresh prawns,” he says.

Namibia has a fi lmography almost as im-pressive as South Africa’s, including block-busters like 10 000 BC, Oscar nominees like The Cell, Emmy nominees like The Prisoner, and Emmy winners like Generation Kill.

In 2012, Namibia hosted the feature fi lms Mad Max: Fury Road, with Tom Hardy and Charlize Theron; Zulu, with Orlando Bloom and Forest Whitaker; Blue Fron-tier and Mariyaan, as well as TV series like MTV’s reality program The Challenge: Bat-tle of the Seasons; NBC’s The Today Show: Where in the World is Matt Lauer?; ITV’s World Wide Cookout; and Feeding Frenzy and Around The World in 80 Ways, both for Icon Film.

The Namibian industry is regulated by The Namibia Film Commission and sup-ported by The Filmmakers Association of Namibia.

Namibia off ers experienced service com-panies like Namib Film, Media Logistics Na-mibia, and Power and Glory Films. There’s enough crew for one independent-size fea-ture or several commercials at a time, but if a studio fi lm shoots in Namibia, additional crew will need to be sourced from South Africa. Namibian equipment rental houses only stock lighting and grips equipment, so fi lm and HD camera equipment should also be brought in from South Africa.

Namib Film’s Gwen Swart says, “Na-mibia’s strength is its unique locations. Namibia is located in the oldest desert in the world: the Namib Desert. With a bigger surface area than the whole of the United Kingdom, and a population of less than 2.5 million people, Namibia proves to be the perfect location if you are looking for that 360˚ of beautiful seclusion. Namibia has 300 days of sunshine and also natural light that is loved by DOPs worldwide.”

Among others, Namibia has doubled as Iraq (Generation Kill), Ethiopia (Beyond Borders), Sudan (Mariyaan) and even coun-tries such as Afghanistan, Israel and Mon-golia (Flight of the Phoenix).

Namibia is the fi rst country in the world that has added the environment to its constitutions, so all locations in Na-mibia are well protected to give that sense of being untouched.

MOZAMBIQUE

NAMIBIA

Namib Landscape

There’s nowhere else in Africa that you can support so well and so economically.

That’s why on so many of these

projects, we scout the whole of Africa

and end up in Mozambique or

Namibia.

- Philip Key

www.thecal lsheet.co.za THE CALLSHEET | 35

Chris Briggs of Red Dot Productions has shot around 70 commercials in Nigeria over the past ten years. He’s also fi lmed extensively in South Africa for Nigerian agencies and says Nigerian budgets are increasingly similar to South African ones.

“There’s a lot of negativity about Nigeria in South Africa but I’ve enjoyed it immensely,” says Chris.

He describes a well-educated, well-traveled culture that is very religious, whether Christian or Muslim. “There’s a perception of Nigeri-ans as scam artists and drug dealers, but you can’t fi nd drugs in Nigeria,” he says. “Nigeria has a population of 160m; it’s half the size of America. 2-3% of Nigeria is still bigger than the whole of New Zealand. So you only need a tiny percentage of the population to be drops outs to create a reputation.”

FEATURE

NIGERIA According to Chris, there’s no fi lm offi ce or fi lm commission in Nigeria, but it’s essen-tial to work with a local production company like Jungle Film Works or Six Sense. “They’re excellent collaborators and make it impossible to have a problem. They’ll make the necessary arrangements with customs and with the local area boys or gangs.”

He says Nigeria isn’t geared up for high-end fi lmmaking yet. “They don’t have special-ists. You can rent a camera there, but you can’t rely on it being properly maintained. We gener-ally bring in the key equipment and crew, like the AD and DOP.”

But he praises the Nigerian support crew, including their grips and digital imaging tech-nicians (DITs). “The best thing about Nigeria is the people,” he says. “They are helpful, work hard, and are chirpy and cheerful.”

While Nigerian prices are cheaper per day, he warns you need to budget more time than you would in South Africa.

He adds that the roads are bad, traffi c jams happen, and driving can be like a com-puter game, while the weather is overcast in summer and overcast with rain in winter. “You don’t get that beautiful South African light there,” he says.

Mozambique

“Something Necessary”, by One Fine Day Films shooting in Kenya, image by Allan Gichigi

Namibia

The best thing about Nigeria is the

people... they are helpful, work hard and are chirpy and

cheerful.

- Chris Briggs

Page 35: The Callsheet Issue 01 2013

34 | THE CALLSHEET www.thecal lsheet.co.za

Moonlighting Films has shot a number of commercials and fi lms in Mozambique, in-cluding Ali, with Will Smith; The Interpreter, with Nicole Kidman; and Blood Diamond, with Leonardo di Caprio.

“The most attractive thing about Mozam-bique is its proximity to Joburg,” says Moon-lighting’s Philip Key. “It’s a 45-minute fl ight or a six hour drive, so you can make a decision at 10pm and call Joburg and your equipment will be at the airport at 6am and on set by 8am. There’s nowhere else in Africa that you can support so well and so economically. That’s why on so many of these projects, we scout the whole of Africa and end up in Mozam-bique or Namibia.”

You don’t require a visa to travel between South Africa and Mozambique, which further simplifi es shooting there.

There’s no fi lm commission, but working on high-profi le studio fi lms helped Moonlight-ing deal with the Mozambican government at a ministerial level. Philip says Moonlighting always employs a local fi xer, generally Mickey Fonseca from Mala Films; Joao Ribeiro, a founding member of AMOCINE (The Mozam-bican Association of Filmmakers); or Melissa Thorne, if she’s there.

Philip has noticed a marked improve-ment since Ali, where he felt Moonlighting was charged “extortionate” fees. However he says fi lming in Mozambique can still be fairly anarchic. “The biggest asset we have in South Africa is certainty, whereas when you shoot in Africa you’re not always in control

FEATURE

of the end result.”He says the infrastructure has improved re-

markably, especially in terms of roads. The city has been cleaned up, although this means Ma-puto has lost some of its appeal as a decaying colonial environment.

For commercials, Moonlighting generally shoot in Mozambique for its turquoise water and exotic islands. The growing tourism infra-structure, like fl ights and accommodation, has made this “quite easy,” according to Philip. “It’s always very nice to be there and buy fresh prawns,” he says.

Namibia has a fi lmography almost as im-pressive as South Africa’s, including block-busters like 10 000 BC, Oscar nominees like The Cell, Emmy nominees like The Prisoner, and Emmy winners like Generation Kill.

In 2012, Namibia hosted the feature fi lms Mad Max: Fury Road, with Tom Hardy and Charlize Theron; Zulu, with Orlando Bloom and Forest Whitaker; Blue Fron-tier and Mariyaan, as well as TV series like MTV’s reality program The Challenge: Bat-tle of the Seasons; NBC’s The Today Show: Where in the World is Matt Lauer?; ITV’s World Wide Cookout; and Feeding Frenzy and Around The World in 80 Ways, both for Icon Film.

The Namibian industry is regulated by The Namibia Film Commission and sup-ported by The Filmmakers Association of Namibia.

Namibia off ers experienced service com-panies like Namib Film, Media Logistics Na-mibia, and Power and Glory Films. There’s enough crew for one independent-size fea-ture or several commercials at a time, but if a studio fi lm shoots in Namibia, additional crew will need to be sourced from South Africa. Namibian equipment rental houses only stock lighting and grips equipment, so fi lm and HD camera equipment should also be brought in from South Africa.

Namib Film’s Gwen Swart says, “Na-mibia’s strength is its unique locations. Namibia is located in the oldest desert in the world: the Namib Desert. With a bigger surface area than the whole of the United Kingdom, and a population of less than 2.5 million people, Namibia proves to be the perfect location if you are looking for that 360˚ of beautiful seclusion. Namibia has 300 days of sunshine and also natural light that is loved by DOPs worldwide.”

Among others, Namibia has doubled as Iraq (Generation Kill), Ethiopia (Beyond Borders), Sudan (Mariyaan) and even coun-tries such as Afghanistan, Israel and Mon-golia (Flight of the Phoenix).

Namibia is the fi rst country in the world that has added the environment to its constitutions, so all locations in Na-mibia are well protected to give that sense of being untouched.

MOZAMBIQUE

NAMIBIA

Namib Landscape

There’s nowhere else in Africa that you can support so well and so economically.

That’s why on so many of these

projects, we scout the whole of Africa

and end up in Mozambique or

Namibia.

- Philip Key

www.thecal lsheet.co.za THE CALLSHEET | 35

Chris Briggs of Red Dot Productions has shot around 70 commercials in Nigeria over the past ten years. He’s also fi lmed extensively in South Africa for Nigerian agencies and says Nigerian budgets are increasingly similar to South African ones.

“There’s a lot of negativity about Nigeria in South Africa but I’ve enjoyed it immensely,” says Chris.

He describes a well-educated, well-traveled culture that is very religious, whether Christian or Muslim. “There’s a perception of Nigeri-ans as scam artists and drug dealers, but you can’t fi nd drugs in Nigeria,” he says. “Nigeria has a population of 160m; it’s half the size of America. 2-3% of Nigeria is still bigger than the whole of New Zealand. So you only need a tiny percentage of the population to be drops outs to create a reputation.”

FEATURE

NIGERIA According to Chris, there’s no fi lm offi ce or fi lm commission in Nigeria, but it’s essen-tial to work with a local production company like Jungle Film Works or Six Sense. “They’re excellent collaborators and make it impossible to have a problem. They’ll make the necessary arrangements with customs and with the local area boys or gangs.”

He says Nigeria isn’t geared up for high-end fi lmmaking yet. “They don’t have special-ists. You can rent a camera there, but you can’t rely on it being properly maintained. We gener-ally bring in the key equipment and crew, like the AD and DOP.”

But he praises the Nigerian support crew, including their grips and digital imaging tech-nicians (DITs). “The best thing about Nigeria is the people,” he says. “They are helpful, work hard, and are chirpy and cheerful.”

While Nigerian prices are cheaper per day, he warns you need to budget more time than you would in South Africa.

He adds that the roads are bad, traffi c jams happen, and driving can be like a com-puter game, while the weather is overcast in summer and overcast with rain in winter. “You don’t get that beautiful South African light there,” he says.

Mozambique

“Something Necessary”, by One Fine Day Films shooting in Kenya, image by Allan Gichigi

Namibia

The best thing about Nigeria is the

people... they are helpful, work hard and are chirpy and

cheerful.

- Chris Briggs

Page 36: The Callsheet Issue 01 2013

36 | THE CALLSHEET www.thecal lsheet.co.za

FEATURE

When faced with the question of “What stories are African Filmmakers telling?” my fi rst reaction would be to question

the endless homogenizing of the 54 distinct countries with their own histories, cultures and languages into one ‘Africa’ with the expectation of arriving at a single identity or fi lmic voice.

Abraham Haile Biru, President of the Col-ours of the Nile International Film Festival in Ethiopia said earlier this year: “I don’t think African fi lm is attempting to establish any spe-cifi c identity. Every fi lmmaker has his/her own identity expressing African realities in their own way and from their point of view”.

The themes in ‘African Films’ of the pur-suit of love, enlightenment and/or economic success are universal rather than African. The extended economic meltdown across Europe and the U.S. means that the penniless man in a low-budget movie may as likely be Greek as Ghanaian, the unruly protester seeking the downfall of capitalism in New York rather than Nairobi and the economic migrant Spanish, not Sudanese.

“PRO”SPECTIVETelling “Africa’s Story” in 2013

International box offi ce fi gures for ‘African fi lms’ off er no answers. But there are few in-dependent fi lms of any type on those lists. The collapse of traditional cinema structures across Africa means that the ‘Straight to DVD’ and ‘Made for TV’ sectors are the mainstay of the African fi lm industries.

Says Peter Rorvik, the Director of the Dur-ban International Film Festival, “Low budget fi lmmaking opens up possibilities to fi lmmak-ers who previously had little hope of entering the elite domain of high-end cinema. Filmmak-ers turned inward and began to produce low budget videos for an enthusiastic home view-ing audience.”

The freshest of ‘African Film’ is thus not able to be interrogated according to tradi-tional parameters. With video on-demand (VOD) and the Internet penetrating the most remote communities in the world, almost every fi lm ever made becomes accessible to anyone with the ability to make an electronic transfer and a download. African fi lmmakers of all ages and descriptions will direct you to their YouTube link.

Wikipedia, that source of all wisdom, tells us that “African cinema focuses on social and political themes rather than any commercial interests, and is an exploration of the con-fl icts between the traditional past and mod-ern times.” I think that may have been written sometime in the last century.

If we analyse the substance of the countless fi lms being made in Africa, we see the massive infl uence of the Nigerian model of ‘story fi rst’ fi lmmaking -- roughly made but engaging sto-ries of family drama, crime, moral choices, love and loss. As amateurish as these fi lms may seem to a “discerning fi lmophile”, they reso-nate strongly with the audiences they reach, with re-broadcasts being watched almost as widely as premiers and DVDs passed from hand to hand. Bums on couches at home rath-er than a cinema seat are bums nevertheless.

Broadcasters and funders across Africa have run numerous programs for entry-level fi lmmakers to make no/low budget fi lms and these fi lms fi nd massive support in their home markets. South Africa’s eTV draws around 2.5million viewers to its weekly ‘eKasi stories’

- By Nicola Rauch

“Man on Ground” (2011) (South Africa)

I don’t think African fi lm is attempting to establish any

specifi c identity. Every fi lmmaker

has his/her own identity expressing

African realities in their own way...

“Phone Swap” (2012) (Nigeria)

www.thecal lsheet.co.za THE CALLSHEET | 37

FEATURE

This is the cutting edge of ‘African Film’,

where the brave take a ‘just do

it’ approach and cross boundaries of language and

statehood.

““

Nicola Rauch is a Creative Producer and Script Consultant. She is currently in ‘Pre-pre’ on two feature fi lms and in 2013 will be running a feature fi lm incubator with “The Griot”.

“Otelo Burning” (2011) (South Africa)

productions. These one-off hour-long fi lms are commissioned from young African fi lm-makers with shoe-string budgets. The fi lm-makers are mentored to tell their own stories. The DVDs are available in chain stores across the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) region.

This is the cutting edge of ‘African Film’, where the brave take a ‘just do it’ approach and cross boundaries of language and statehood. Adding economic participation for the fi lm-maker into the equation of such fi lms has cre-ated a massive industry for Nigeria, the third most prolifi c producer after Bollywood and Hollywood. And markets like Ghana, Kenya, Egypt and South Africa are quickly adopting the model – make it on a shoe-string, take it to DVD and just sell it yourself. Do it quickly to avoid the pirates and tell a good story. Then repeat, making some profi t along the way.

Page 37: The Callsheet Issue 01 2013

36 | THE CALLSHEET www.thecal lsheet.co.za

FEATURE

When faced with the question of “What stories are African Filmmakers telling?” my fi rst reaction would be to question

the endless homogenizing of the 54 distinct countries with their own histories, cultures and languages into one ‘Africa’ with the expectation of arriving at a single identity or fi lmic voice.

Abraham Haile Biru, President of the Col-ours of the Nile International Film Festival in Ethiopia said earlier this year: “I don’t think African fi lm is attempting to establish any spe-cifi c identity. Every fi lmmaker has his/her own identity expressing African realities in their own way and from their point of view”.

The themes in ‘African Films’ of the pur-suit of love, enlightenment and/or economic success are universal rather than African. The extended economic meltdown across Europe and the U.S. means that the penniless man in a low-budget movie may as likely be Greek as Ghanaian, the unruly protester seeking the downfall of capitalism in New York rather than Nairobi and the economic migrant Spanish, not Sudanese.

“PRO”SPECTIVETelling “Africa’s Story” in 2013

International box offi ce fi gures for ‘African fi lms’ off er no answers. But there are few in-dependent fi lms of any type on those lists. The collapse of traditional cinema structures across Africa means that the ‘Straight to DVD’ and ‘Made for TV’ sectors are the mainstay of the African fi lm industries.

Says Peter Rorvik, the Director of the Dur-ban International Film Festival, “Low budget fi lmmaking opens up possibilities to fi lmmak-ers who previously had little hope of entering the elite domain of high-end cinema. Filmmak-ers turned inward and began to produce low budget videos for an enthusiastic home view-ing audience.”

The freshest of ‘African Film’ is thus not able to be interrogated according to tradi-tional parameters. With video on-demand (VOD) and the Internet penetrating the most remote communities in the world, almost every fi lm ever made becomes accessible to anyone with the ability to make an electronic transfer and a download. African fi lmmakers of all ages and descriptions will direct you to their YouTube link.

Wikipedia, that source of all wisdom, tells us that “African cinema focuses on social and political themes rather than any commercial interests, and is an exploration of the con-fl icts between the traditional past and mod-ern times.” I think that may have been written sometime in the last century.

If we analyse the substance of the countless fi lms being made in Africa, we see the massive infl uence of the Nigerian model of ‘story fi rst’ fi lmmaking -- roughly made but engaging sto-ries of family drama, crime, moral choices, love and loss. As amateurish as these fi lms may seem to a “discerning fi lmophile”, they reso-nate strongly with the audiences they reach, with re-broadcasts being watched almost as widely as premiers and DVDs passed from hand to hand. Bums on couches at home rath-er than a cinema seat are bums nevertheless.

Broadcasters and funders across Africa have run numerous programs for entry-level fi lmmakers to make no/low budget fi lms and these fi lms fi nd massive support in their home markets. South Africa’s eTV draws around 2.5million viewers to its weekly ‘eKasi stories’

- By Nicola Rauch

“Man on Ground” (2011) (South Africa)

I don’t think African fi lm is attempting to establish any

specifi c identity. Every fi lmmaker

has his/her own identity expressing

African realities in their own way...

“Phone Swap” (2012) (Nigeria)

www.thecal lsheet.co.za THE CALLSHEET | 37

FEATURE

This is the cutting edge of ‘African Film’,

where the brave take a ‘just do

it’ approach and cross boundaries of language and

statehood.

““

Nicola Rauch is a Creative Producer and Script Consultant. She is currently in ‘Pre-pre’ on two feature fi lms and in 2013 will be running a feature fi lm incubator with “The Griot”.

“Otelo Burning” (2011) (South Africa)

productions. These one-off hour-long fi lms are commissioned from young African fi lm-makers with shoe-string budgets. The fi lm-makers are mentored to tell their own stories. The DVDs are available in chain stores across the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) region.

This is the cutting edge of ‘African Film’, where the brave take a ‘just do it’ approach and cross boundaries of language and statehood. Adding economic participation for the fi lm-maker into the equation of such fi lms has cre-ated a massive industry for Nigeria, the third most prolifi c producer after Bollywood and Hollywood. And markets like Ghana, Kenya, Egypt and South Africa are quickly adopting the model – make it on a shoe-string, take it to DVD and just sell it yourself. Do it quickly to avoid the pirates and tell a good story. Then repeat, making some profi t along the way.

Page 38: The Callsheet Issue 01 2013

38 | THE CALLSHEET www.thecal lsheet.co.za

FEATURE

Season is underway! But what does that mean? Neil du Toit, Managing Director of Media Film Service and Tony Eddy, Managing Director of Panavision, both say “season” started in November,

while Visual Impact director Marius van Straaten says it kicked off hard in October. Neil and Tony expect it to last till about April, while Marius expects a dip in activity in May. Take 2 Films’ Brenn Marais expects June and July to remain the quietest months, he says, “as an equipment supplier, season is all year round. It just changes shape.”

This is what people are saying in Cape Town, South Africa. But the concept of “season” doesn’t really apply outside Cape Town: Tony says Johan-nesburg, if anything, has converse seasons with summer being slightly slower than mid-year, while both Namib Film in Namibia and Ginger Ink in Kenya report a steady fl ow of productions throughout the year. Still, “season” – whichever you follow – off ers a time to take stock of the year and what indicators say about the year ahead. Here is what The Callsheet is hearing…

Challenges of Season- By Kevin Kriedemann

POSITIVE SIGNSThe exchange rate“The exchange rate is defi nitely in our favour and should attract more commercial and long form work into the country,” says Neil, refer-ring to the South African rand sitting at over 8.6 to the dollar, 11.2 to the euro and nearly R14 to the pound. “We have seen a substantial increase in workload since the middle of last month and the quoting tempo has certainly escalated. We have seen a number of big com-mercials already being shot, which hopefully is an indication of a good season to come.”

Growth in feature fi lms and long-term TV shows“This has been our busiest season with this kind of work yet and there are even more shows pending for next year,” says Brenn. “More stu-dios could not come any quicker...”

Having just fi nished Fear Factor: Malaysia, Marius says Visual Impact has also seen a growth in reality TV series shooting in South Africa, which has extended the rental season for them.

Commercials still strong“We enjoyed substantial upturn in our rent-als activity in the commercials sector for both local and international work,” says Tony. “This sector continues to surprise us and defi nitely forms the mainstay revenue stream for Panavision.”

The political & economic climate “The recent unrest in the Western Cape may have an impact on foreign clients wanting to come to the country,” says Neil. Similarly, the twin specters of Marikana and Mangaung have created an atmosphere of political un-certainty and haven’t helped the local South African economy, which is also at the mercy of the sense of impending doom emanating from Europe.

“The stagnation of the South African econ-omy has defi nitely impacted negatively on our business, with a slow start in supply to local commercials and features,” says Tony. “Al-though the outlook in this area remains guard-ed, there are signs that the new year ahead car-ries with it more promise.”

Similarly, Marius says, “Our sales division has seen a big shrinkage this year. People are keeping their kit two years longer at the mo-ment. But the phase of consolidation we’ve been on means we’re leaner and meaner than we have ever been before and sales in the last two months have been phenomenal.”

The fl uctuating rand is another spinoff from the political and economic climate that’s hurt those aspects of the fi lm industry that rely on imports rather than service. “The rand has really taken a dip: 25% in the last two-and-a-half months,” says Marius. “On the one hand it’s great for rentals, but on the other

WARNING SIGNS it’s crap for sales. We’re really battling to off er consistent pricing.”

Shorter redundancy periods“The redundancy period for equipment is a real challenge for any rental facility in today’s digital era,” says Neil. “The time period to retrieve the return on one’s investment has become exceptionally small prior to a new re-lease appearing on the market and requiring further investment.”At a time when there are more professional cameras than ever before, it doesn’t help that margins are ever-shrinking. “We are fi nding it much more challenging to maintain a com-petitive edge as the overall pricing on rental of equipment is forced downwards constantly by productions, while the expectation to supply the newest high defi nition (HD) cameras and lenses is increasing,” says Tony.

Digital teething problems“Through the year we have all experienced im-mense learning curves, as we – as an industry – have had to adapt to handling HD workfl ows,” says Tony. “This is a worldwide phenomena and we see major manufacturers constantly launching new products or tweaking existing products to streamline the handling of the new electronic HD capture formats.” One digital fl op this year was the much-hyped, much-delayed and now much-maligned Blackmagic Cinema Camera.

www.thecal lsheet.co.za THE CALLSHEET | 39

FEATURE

It’s typical of how gear houses always have a new camera to research, invest in, and then support through its initial glitches. “It is one thing providing hardware to your client,” says Brenn, “it is another understanding that gear and providing support for it.”

According to Tony, the biggest challenges of shooting HD have been “safe storage and duplication of image data – and resultant complications, unlike celluloid, which stores such information ad-infi nitum.”

Of course, this is also an opportunity for businesses. For instance, Marius says Visual Impact’s data recovery business has “exploded.” He also points to the strong de-mand for Visual Impact’s on-set transcod-ing, data wrangling services, digital imag-ing technicians (DITs), and THX-accredited viewing room, especially for rushes.

The Arri Alexa has arrived“The Arri Alexa is the most used camera both locally and within Europe,” says Brenn, the only company to supply all fi ve versions (Standard; Plus; Studio; Plus 4:3; and M) in South Africa. Neil similarly says the Arri Al-exa has been Media’s “most requested digi-tal camera,” while Tony says there’s been a “strong demand” for the Alexa, Alexa-Plus and Alexa 4x3 at Panavision.

“The recently released 4x3 Alexa Plus cam-era, which utilises a larger censor accommo-dating a true anamorphic 2:1 squeeze, has now become a very popular long-form format choice,” says Neil, who adds that the 4x3 is also being used for commercial shoots.

Tony says Panavision’s Red Epic cameras have continued to, “work well on jobs requir-ing heavy post work.”

“Perhaps the most obvious equipment trend is the rapid and spectacular decline in fi lm/celluloid capture as the worldwide swop to HD capture takes traction locally,” he adds.

The resurgence of SonyFor Visual Impact, the Sony EX1 was their top rental camera for the television market. Marius says the F3 also came into its own in 2012, while there was massive demand for the Gemi-ni external recorder that allows a recording rate above 50mb/s.

Marius expects 2013 to be the year of Sony. “Sony is coming out with the F5 and F55, which are both fi nally above 50mbps and 4K upgradable. Sony’s backup and ser-vice in South Africa have always been really good, but they’ve been lagging behind Pana-sonic at 35mbps. Now they’re at the 50mbps BBC bitrate capture standard, the response has been hugely positive.”

Great, aff ordable camerasAt around R30 000 to buy, Marius calls the Canon 5D Mark III, “the cheapest large sensor camera out there.” He heard one gear rental house say they’d lost 30% of their camera rent-als to the 5D.

At $399 on pre-order, the new Go Pro Hero 3 is even cheaper. Marius says it’s increasingly popular. “It’s an amazing camera and has less of a rolling shutter issue, which used to create a jello eff ect at certain panning speeds on earli-er models,” he says, adding that Visual Impact is focusing on off ering the most comprehen-sive accessorized kit for this, with mounts for wrists, helmets, surfboards and more.

Recording RAW“There is a huge push on top-end commercials and features to record RAW footage,” says Brenn, who invested in the CODEX brand and systems about three years ago. “It is costly but delivers unparalleled image quality.”

TRENDS

“Winnie” (2011) shot in South Africa in April 2010

Page 39: The Callsheet Issue 01 2013

38 | THE CALLSHEET www.thecal lsheet.co.za

FEATURE

Season is underway! But what does that mean? Neil du Toit, Managing Director of Media Film Service and Tony Eddy, Managing Director of Panavision, both say “season” started in November,

while Visual Impact director Marius van Straaten says it kicked off hard in October. Neil and Tony expect it to last till about April, while Marius expects a dip in activity in May. Take 2 Films’ Brenn Marais expects June and July to remain the quietest months, he says, “as an equipment supplier, season is all year round. It just changes shape.”

This is what people are saying in Cape Town, South Africa. But the concept of “season” doesn’t really apply outside Cape Town: Tony says Johan-nesburg, if anything, has converse seasons with summer being slightly slower than mid-year, while both Namib Film in Namibia and Ginger Ink in Kenya report a steady fl ow of productions throughout the year. Still, “season” – whichever you follow – off ers a time to take stock of the year and what indicators say about the year ahead. Here is what The Callsheet is hearing…

Challenges of Season- By Kevin Kriedemann

POSITIVE SIGNSThe exchange rate“The exchange rate is defi nitely in our favour and should attract more commercial and long form work into the country,” says Neil, refer-ring to the South African rand sitting at over 8.6 to the dollar, 11.2 to the euro and nearly R14 to the pound. “We have seen a substantial increase in workload since the middle of last month and the quoting tempo has certainly escalated. We have seen a number of big com-mercials already being shot, which hopefully is an indication of a good season to come.”

Growth in feature fi lms and long-term TV shows“This has been our busiest season with this kind of work yet and there are even more shows pending for next year,” says Brenn. “More stu-dios could not come any quicker...”

Having just fi nished Fear Factor: Malaysia, Marius says Visual Impact has also seen a growth in reality TV series shooting in South Africa, which has extended the rental season for them.

Commercials still strong“We enjoyed substantial upturn in our rent-als activity in the commercials sector for both local and international work,” says Tony. “This sector continues to surprise us and defi nitely forms the mainstay revenue stream for Panavision.”

The political & economic climate “The recent unrest in the Western Cape may have an impact on foreign clients wanting to come to the country,” says Neil. Similarly, the twin specters of Marikana and Mangaung have created an atmosphere of political un-certainty and haven’t helped the local South African economy, which is also at the mercy of the sense of impending doom emanating from Europe.

“The stagnation of the South African econ-omy has defi nitely impacted negatively on our business, with a slow start in supply to local commercials and features,” says Tony. “Al-though the outlook in this area remains guard-ed, there are signs that the new year ahead car-ries with it more promise.”

Similarly, Marius says, “Our sales division has seen a big shrinkage this year. People are keeping their kit two years longer at the mo-ment. But the phase of consolidation we’ve been on means we’re leaner and meaner than we have ever been before and sales in the last two months have been phenomenal.”

The fl uctuating rand is another spinoff from the political and economic climate that’s hurt those aspects of the fi lm industry that rely on imports rather than service. “The rand has really taken a dip: 25% in the last two-and-a-half months,” says Marius. “On the one hand it’s great for rentals, but on the other

WARNING SIGNS it’s crap for sales. We’re really battling to off er consistent pricing.”

Shorter redundancy periods“The redundancy period for equipment is a real challenge for any rental facility in today’s digital era,” says Neil. “The time period to retrieve the return on one’s investment has become exceptionally small prior to a new re-lease appearing on the market and requiring further investment.”At a time when there are more professional cameras than ever before, it doesn’t help that margins are ever-shrinking. “We are fi nding it much more challenging to maintain a com-petitive edge as the overall pricing on rental of equipment is forced downwards constantly by productions, while the expectation to supply the newest high defi nition (HD) cameras and lenses is increasing,” says Tony.

Digital teething problems“Through the year we have all experienced im-mense learning curves, as we – as an industry – have had to adapt to handling HD workfl ows,” says Tony. “This is a worldwide phenomena and we see major manufacturers constantly launching new products or tweaking existing products to streamline the handling of the new electronic HD capture formats.” One digital fl op this year was the much-hyped, much-delayed and now much-maligned Blackmagic Cinema Camera.

www.thecal lsheet.co.za THE CALLSHEET | 39

FEATURE

It’s typical of how gear houses always have a new camera to research, invest in, and then support through its initial glitches. “It is one thing providing hardware to your client,” says Brenn, “it is another understanding that gear and providing support for it.”

According to Tony, the biggest challenges of shooting HD have been “safe storage and duplication of image data – and resultant complications, unlike celluloid, which stores such information ad-infi nitum.”

Of course, this is also an opportunity for businesses. For instance, Marius says Visual Impact’s data recovery business has “exploded.” He also points to the strong de-mand for Visual Impact’s on-set transcod-ing, data wrangling services, digital imag-ing technicians (DITs), and THX-accredited viewing room, especially for rushes.

The Arri Alexa has arrived“The Arri Alexa is the most used camera both locally and within Europe,” says Brenn, the only company to supply all fi ve versions (Standard; Plus; Studio; Plus 4:3; and M) in South Africa. Neil similarly says the Arri Al-exa has been Media’s “most requested digi-tal camera,” while Tony says there’s been a “strong demand” for the Alexa, Alexa-Plus and Alexa 4x3 at Panavision.

“The recently released 4x3 Alexa Plus cam-era, which utilises a larger censor accommo-dating a true anamorphic 2:1 squeeze, has now become a very popular long-form format choice,” says Neil, who adds that the 4x3 is also being used for commercial shoots.

Tony says Panavision’s Red Epic cameras have continued to, “work well on jobs requir-ing heavy post work.”

“Perhaps the most obvious equipment trend is the rapid and spectacular decline in fi lm/celluloid capture as the worldwide swop to HD capture takes traction locally,” he adds.

The resurgence of SonyFor Visual Impact, the Sony EX1 was their top rental camera for the television market. Marius says the F3 also came into its own in 2012, while there was massive demand for the Gemi-ni external recorder that allows a recording rate above 50mb/s.

Marius expects 2013 to be the year of Sony. “Sony is coming out with the F5 and F55, which are both fi nally above 50mbps and 4K upgradable. Sony’s backup and ser-vice in South Africa have always been really good, but they’ve been lagging behind Pana-sonic at 35mbps. Now they’re at the 50mbps BBC bitrate capture standard, the response has been hugely positive.”

Great, aff ordable camerasAt around R30 000 to buy, Marius calls the Canon 5D Mark III, “the cheapest large sensor camera out there.” He heard one gear rental house say they’d lost 30% of their camera rent-als to the 5D.

At $399 on pre-order, the new Go Pro Hero 3 is even cheaper. Marius says it’s increasingly popular. “It’s an amazing camera and has less of a rolling shutter issue, which used to create a jello eff ect at certain panning speeds on earli-er models,” he says, adding that Visual Impact is focusing on off ering the most comprehen-sive accessorized kit for this, with mounts for wrists, helmets, surfboards and more.

Recording RAW“There is a huge push on top-end commercials and features to record RAW footage,” says Brenn, who invested in the CODEX brand and systems about three years ago. “It is costly but delivers unparalleled image quality.”

TRENDS

“Winnie” (2011) shot in South Africa in April 2010

Page 40: The Callsheet Issue 01 2013

40 | THE CALLSHEET www.thecal lsheet.co.za

“PRO”SPECTIVE ANIMATION

We’ve all heard the saying, and if it’s true then surely moving pictures (especially animation) can convey so much more, and

not only to children.From games to apps, and now Augmented

Reality (AR), animation is uniquely placed to cut across cultures, literacy levels and lan-guage barriers in a way that few other medi-ums can. In this article we will briefly explore how animation is breaking new ground in three keys areas - brand communication, entertain-ment, and learning.

There is a fundamental shift happening in the way brands communicate with their audi-ences. Traditional, above-the-line advertising is increasingly expensive to produce and many companies are finding it harder to reach their audiences using traditional media. With con-sumers using PVR, watching movies online (or from hard drives), and navigating the prolifera-tion of channels available, media planners and creatives have their hands full driving home brand messages.

Animation has long played a part in tradi-tional advertising, but animation offers flexibil-ity that live-action alone sometimes doesn’t. Animation inherently requires the suspension of disbelief to be effective, and this means viewers have to engage their imaginations. This is true of course of all media (from books,

If A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words…to films), but animation seems to cut through the clutter to get the essence of the story across, in a fun and entertaining way.

An example of this is animated explainer videos. Instead of trawling through endless information on a web site looking for the es-sence of what a company does, many sites now offer users a short explainer that traps the core company message or brand’s stories in just 90 seconds.

Explainers can be used in other ways too. For example, helping customers navigate through complex choices or driving home key sales messages at every level of engagement. Think, for example, of the challenge of choos-ing a cell phone contract from drop-down men-us on a web site, or going into a store where the sales staff are often not as well-trained as they should be.

Now imagine an interactive animated app, or even a game where, by making a few key choices, customers can interact with the infor-mation in a far more intuitive, rewarding (and dare we say fun) way. It’s like having your best sales-person at work all the time, asking the right questions, guiding customers to make an informed decision. This is the power of game thinking, and animation lends itself to these interactive communications that would be far too expensive or time consuming to produce in other ways.

Another advantage of animation is that it is cross-platform ready. Once the digital assets (characters and so on) have been created they can relatively easily be used in games, apps and other forms of digital communication. Brands increasingly want a so-called 360de-gree approach to engage their customers, and we’d argue that animation is well placed to take advantage of this trend. Clearly animation is not just for kids.

With regards to entertainment, animation is very much at the forefront of changes tak-ing place everywhere. At Sea Monster our core business is 2D animated TV series and film, but essentially what we offer is powerful story telling that can keep 4 to 6 years engaged for up to 11 minutes at a time, and we can do this 52 times in a row (this being a typical TV se-ries). Our belief is that if we can keep this most unforgiving of all audiences engaged, then this skill should surely translate into other forms of entertainment and communication for other audiences too.

As is the case with branded communica-tion, broadcasters are also looking to engage their audiences in multiple ways. Once again if we understand the essence of the story being told or what the emotional relationship is be-tween the story-teller and their audience, and have the digital assets, our ability to produce games and apps is significantly enhanced.

- By Glenn Gillis

“Zambezia” (South Africa) (2012)

www.thecal lsheet.co.za THE CALLSHEET | 41

Many TV shows now launch with associated games and apps, and are increasingly trying to take advantage of the interactive capabili-ties of new media platforms. Some shows or brands ask customers to like their Facebook pages, and our question is always “What’s in it for the customer?” We can create apps, games and bite size forms of entertainment to compli-ment shows and fi lms, as a way to drive aware-ness, reward customers, or to fi nd news ways to get feedback.

One of the other challenges facing enter-tainment companies everywhere are the so-called new media platforms. From watching content on mobiles, to tablet devices, anima-tion lends itself well to these third screens. Critically, in an African context, we’re not only talking about the higher LSMs and thankfully, after years and years (and years), it seems that aff ordable broadband is much closer. Yes, some of us might be thinking iPhones and Galaxy Tablets. And of course, these powerful devices off er many opportunities for anima-tion to communicate your message. But we’re

“PRO”SPECTIVE ANIMATION

Glenn Gillis is the Managing Director of Sea Monster Entertainment, one of South Africa’s pre-eminent animation, gam-ing and app development companies. He has a Business Science degree from UCT and has been an entrepreneur, gen-eral manager and consultant to growing, knowledge-intensive businesses around the world for over 25 years.

Glenn was the General Manager of Clockwork Zoo, one of the largest 2D and Live TV production companies in the country, and before that he was the General Manager at Moonlighting Film Services which is South Africa’s lead-ing fi lm and commercials company for around 2 years.

He has also provided consulting, ad-visory and facilitation services to leading public sector agencies, such as the Cape Film Commission, the Department of Trade & Industry, amongst other govern-ment bodies. His area of expertise is the fi lm, media and the creative industries.

He has also provided management consulting services to a number of grow-ing private sector businesses and is a sought-after speaker, facilitator, research-er and strategist.

Glenn is also the co-founder of Re-late, a social trust that provides em-ployment opportunities and connects organisations to good causes by making branded bracelets. Relate has sold about 750 000 bracelets since 2009, and has created income producing opportunities for around 150 people in the townships around Cape Town.

equally excited about Mxit, Bozza and Android tablets coming onto the market for $100 and other similar initiatives aimed at making con-tent accessible to many more.

The fi nal aspect we want to touch on in this article is the power of animation in a learning and training context. For many companies training is more vital today than ever, but the costs of employees taking time off work and gathering from across the country into a single venue have made this a luxury many can’t af-ford. And it comes with a considerable environ-mental cost too.

Imagine that even before the employee steps into a training room, they have already watched and interacted with the actual con-tent that needs to be conveyed. They can watch this at their own pace and several times over to get diffi cult concepts, either on their PC’s, phones, or on in-store TVs before the customers come in. When the group training happens, the experience can be that much richer and far more cost eff ective. Animated clips and games can also be used to follow up with the employees for in the days and weeks after training to lock in key learnings, give people tips, and extend ideas.

What really excites us at Sea Monster is the role that we can play in improving the eff ective-ness of learning at all levels, including schools, specifi cally within an African context where so much needs to be done. We always say that if Mythbusters got married to the Simpsons we’d want to have their children.

We believe that South Africa is well placed to take advantage of our years of fi lm service experience to deliver projects on time and on budget, and the rich store of stories and crea-tive talent. As Zambezia is proving there is a ready market for our animated fi lms, and there is no reason this shouldn’t apply to TV series, games and apps.

With regards to entertainment,

animation is very much at the forefront of changes

taking place everywhere.

The Plastics by Sea Monster Productions

Page 41: The Callsheet Issue 01 2013

40 | THE CALLSHEET www.thecal lsheet.co.za

“PRO”SPECTIVE ANIMATION

We’ve all heard the saying, and if it’s true then surely moving pictures (especially animation) can convey so much more, and

not only to children.From games to apps, and now Augmented

Reality (AR), animation is uniquely placed to cut across cultures, literacy levels and lan-guage barriers in a way that few other medi-ums can. In this article we will briefly explore how animation is breaking new ground in three keys areas - brand communication, entertain-ment, and learning.

There is a fundamental shift happening in the way brands communicate with their audi-ences. Traditional, above-the-line advertising is increasingly expensive to produce and many companies are finding it harder to reach their audiences using traditional media. With con-sumers using PVR, watching movies online (or from hard drives), and navigating the prolifera-tion of channels available, media planners and creatives have their hands full driving home brand messages.

Animation has long played a part in tradi-tional advertising, but animation offers flexibil-ity that live-action alone sometimes doesn’t. Animation inherently requires the suspension of disbelief to be effective, and this means viewers have to engage their imaginations. This is true of course of all media (from books,

If A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words…to films), but animation seems to cut through the clutter to get the essence of the story across, in a fun and entertaining way.

An example of this is animated explainer videos. Instead of trawling through endless information on a web site looking for the es-sence of what a company does, many sites now offer users a short explainer that traps the core company message or brand’s stories in just 90 seconds.

Explainers can be used in other ways too. For example, helping customers navigate through complex choices or driving home key sales messages at every level of engagement. Think, for example, of the challenge of choos-ing a cell phone contract from drop-down men-us on a web site, or going into a store where the sales staff are often not as well-trained as they should be.

Now imagine an interactive animated app, or even a game where, by making a few key choices, customers can interact with the infor-mation in a far more intuitive, rewarding (and dare we say fun) way. It’s like having your best sales-person at work all the time, asking the right questions, guiding customers to make an informed decision. This is the power of game thinking, and animation lends itself to these interactive communications that would be far too expensive or time consuming to produce in other ways.

Another advantage of animation is that it is cross-platform ready. Once the digital assets (characters and so on) have been created they can relatively easily be used in games, apps and other forms of digital communication. Brands increasingly want a so-called 360de-gree approach to engage their customers, and we’d argue that animation is well placed to take advantage of this trend. Clearly animation is not just for kids.

With regards to entertainment, animation is very much at the forefront of changes tak-ing place everywhere. At Sea Monster our core business is 2D animated TV series and film, but essentially what we offer is powerful story telling that can keep 4 to 6 years engaged for up to 11 minutes at a time, and we can do this 52 times in a row (this being a typical TV se-ries). Our belief is that if we can keep this most unforgiving of all audiences engaged, then this skill should surely translate into other forms of entertainment and communication for other audiences too.

As is the case with branded communica-tion, broadcasters are also looking to engage their audiences in multiple ways. Once again if we understand the essence of the story being told or what the emotional relationship is be-tween the story-teller and their audience, and have the digital assets, our ability to produce games and apps is significantly enhanced.

- By Glenn Gillis

“Zambezia” (South Africa) (2012)

www.thecal lsheet.co.za THE CALLSHEET | 41

Many TV shows now launch with associated games and apps, and are increasingly trying to take advantage of the interactive capabili-ties of new media platforms. Some shows or brands ask customers to like their Facebook pages, and our question is always “What’s in it for the customer?” We can create apps, games and bite size forms of entertainment to compli-ment shows and fi lms, as a way to drive aware-ness, reward customers, or to fi nd news ways to get feedback.

One of the other challenges facing enter-tainment companies everywhere are the so-called new media platforms. From watching content on mobiles, to tablet devices, anima-tion lends itself well to these third screens. Critically, in an African context, we’re not only talking about the higher LSMs and thankfully, after years and years (and years), it seems that aff ordable broadband is much closer. Yes, some of us might be thinking iPhones and Galaxy Tablets. And of course, these powerful devices off er many opportunities for anima-tion to communicate your message. But we’re

“PRO”SPECTIVE ANIMATION

Glenn Gillis is the Managing Director of Sea Monster Entertainment, one of South Africa’s pre-eminent animation, gam-ing and app development companies. He has a Business Science degree from UCT and has been an entrepreneur, gen-eral manager and consultant to growing, knowledge-intensive businesses around the world for over 25 years.

Glenn was the General Manager of Clockwork Zoo, one of the largest 2D and Live TV production companies in the country, and before that he was the General Manager at Moonlighting Film Services which is South Africa’s lead-ing fi lm and commercials company for around 2 years.

He has also provided consulting, ad-visory and facilitation services to leading public sector agencies, such as the Cape Film Commission, the Department of Trade & Industry, amongst other govern-ment bodies. His area of expertise is the fi lm, media and the creative industries.

He has also provided management consulting services to a number of grow-ing private sector businesses and is a sought-after speaker, facilitator, research-er and strategist.

Glenn is also the co-founder of Re-late, a social trust that provides em-ployment opportunities and connects organisations to good causes by making branded bracelets. Relate has sold about 750 000 bracelets since 2009, and has created income producing opportunities for around 150 people in the townships around Cape Town.

equally excited about Mxit, Bozza and Android tablets coming onto the market for $100 and other similar initiatives aimed at making con-tent accessible to many more.

The fi nal aspect we want to touch on in this article is the power of animation in a learning and training context. For many companies training is more vital today than ever, but the costs of employees taking time off work and gathering from across the country into a single venue have made this a luxury many can’t af-ford. And it comes with a considerable environ-mental cost too.

Imagine that even before the employee steps into a training room, they have already watched and interacted with the actual con-tent that needs to be conveyed. They can watch this at their own pace and several times over to get diffi cult concepts, either on their PC’s, phones, or on in-store TVs before the customers come in. When the group training happens, the experience can be that much richer and far more cost eff ective. Animated clips and games can also be used to follow up with the employees for in the days and weeks after training to lock in key learnings, give people tips, and extend ideas.

What really excites us at Sea Monster is the role that we can play in improving the eff ective-ness of learning at all levels, including schools, specifi cally within an African context where so much needs to be done. We always say that if Mythbusters got married to the Simpsons we’d want to have their children.

We believe that South Africa is well placed to take advantage of our years of fi lm service experience to deliver projects on time and on budget, and the rich store of stories and crea-tive talent. As Zambezia is proving there is a ready market for our animated fi lms, and there is no reason this shouldn’t apply to TV series, games and apps.

With regards to entertainment,

animation is very much at the forefront of changes

taking place everywhere.

The Plastics by Sea Monster Productions

Page 42: The Callsheet Issue 01 2013

42 | THE CALLSHEET www.thecal lsheet.co.za

TRENDS

Over the past couple of years, there’s been much talk of the “locations crisis” in Cape Town, South Africa but The Commer-

cials Producers Association (CPA) is sounding refreshingly upbeat about the current situation.

Bobby Amm, the CPA’s executive officer, says the locations crisis turned a corner after

the CPA and the South African Association of Stills Producers (SAASP) hired Rudi Riek as a fulltime locations trouble-shooter. “Rudi’s done a fantastic job,” Bobby says. “He staged over 100 interventions last year and has been meeting with the City and Province on a regu-lar basis. The Cape Town Film & Permitting Office is now working better than it ever has,

although there are still some niggling issues that need to be addressed.”

Challenges remain with public locations. For example, The Civic Centre and the Wale Street arches are no longer available now that they’re national key points (locations that have been designated strategic installations or places of importance by the government), access to the railway stations remains fickle, and SANPARKS shuts down key locations like Cape Point Nature Reserve completely over the festive season, a peak time for the local film industry.

“Public locations are still a work in pro-gress and there’s no quick fix, but we feel that we’re making real progress for the first time,” says Bobby.

She’s also noticed an improvement with private locations.

“Cape Town has seen a definite change in attitude,” says Bobby. “Where once there were just a couple of location agents, the last few years have seen many new entrants in

LOCATION! LOCATION! LOCATION!- By Kevin Kriedemann

Living on Location

www.thecal lsheet.co.za THE CALLSHEET | 43

TRENDS

this arena. It’s made the market much more competitive, so everyone is trying to negotiate reasonable rates and is working harder to get their share.”

Julia Finnis-Bedford, founder and manag-ing director of Amazing Spaces, says, “Our prices have held steady for three years now. Due to the recession, we have communicated to our location owners the pressures being placed on the industry, and what we need to do to play our part in sustaining it. 95% of our locations come to the party on this.”

Similarly, Jackie Dobrin of Living on Loca-tion says, “We haven’t had any major location

increases in two years.”Contrary to popular belief, locations’ agents

don’t dictate pricing: owners do. As Lisa H Martin from 021 Locations says, “The location fee is 100% based on the location and the loca-tion owners’ experience.”

While the locations agencies have worked hard to create realistic expectations in their location’s owners’ minds, they often fi nd this undermined by the very people they’re trying to bring costs down for.

“One of biggest challenges with locations pricing is, ironically, that producers often pay way too much for a location that they have scouted without an agent,” says Julia. “ Countless times I have been approached by a location that has had one shoot directly with a production company, had a positive expe-rience, earned good money, and would like to indulge in more shoots. When I tell them what we can pay them, they often have re-ceived as much as double to three times as much. I implore all producers to off er less, much less. My worst case was a location in Bishops Court: I off ered R15 000 per day and he laughed at me, saying, ‘Last shoot I had, I got R100 000!’”

Public locations are still a work in progress and

there’s no quick fi x

- Bobby Amm

Shoot My House

021 Locations

Shoot My House

Page 43: The Callsheet Issue 01 2013

42 | THE CALLSHEET www.thecal lsheet.co.za

TRENDS

Over the past couple of years, there’s been much talk of the “locations crisis” in Cape Town, South Africa but The Commer-

cials Producers Association (CPA) is sounding refreshingly upbeat about the current situation.

Bobby Amm, the CPA’s executive officer, says the locations crisis turned a corner after

the CPA and the South African Association of Stills Producers (SAASP) hired Rudi Riek as a fulltime locations trouble-shooter. “Rudi’s done a fantastic job,” Bobby says. “He staged over 100 interventions last year and has been meeting with the City and Province on a regu-lar basis. The Cape Town Film & Permitting Office is now working better than it ever has,

although there are still some niggling issues that need to be addressed.”

Challenges remain with public locations. For example, The Civic Centre and the Wale Street arches are no longer available now that they’re national key points (locations that have been designated strategic installations or places of importance by the government), access to the railway stations remains fickle, and SANPARKS shuts down key locations like Cape Point Nature Reserve completely over the festive season, a peak time for the local film industry.

“Public locations are still a work in pro-gress and there’s no quick fix, but we feel that we’re making real progress for the first time,” says Bobby.

She’s also noticed an improvement with private locations.

“Cape Town has seen a definite change in attitude,” says Bobby. “Where once there were just a couple of location agents, the last few years have seen many new entrants in

LOCATION! LOCATION! LOCATION!- By Kevin Kriedemann

Living on Location

www.thecal lsheet.co.za THE CALLSHEET | 43

TRENDS

this arena. It’s made the market much more competitive, so everyone is trying to negotiate reasonable rates and is working harder to get their share.”

Julia Finnis-Bedford, founder and manag-ing director of Amazing Spaces, says, “Our prices have held steady for three years now. Due to the recession, we have communicated to our location owners the pressures being placed on the industry, and what we need to do to play our part in sustaining it. 95% of our locations come to the party on this.”

Similarly, Jackie Dobrin of Living on Loca-tion says, “We haven’t had any major location

increases in two years.”Contrary to popular belief, locations’ agents

don’t dictate pricing: owners do. As Lisa H Martin from 021 Locations says, “The location fee is 100% based on the location and the loca-tion owners’ experience.”

While the locations agencies have worked hard to create realistic expectations in their location’s owners’ minds, they often fi nd this undermined by the very people they’re trying to bring costs down for.

“One of biggest challenges with locations pricing is, ironically, that producers often pay way too much for a location that they have scouted without an agent,” says Julia. “ Countless times I have been approached by a location that has had one shoot directly with a production company, had a positive expe-rience, earned good money, and would like to indulge in more shoots. When I tell them what we can pay them, they often have re-ceived as much as double to three times as much. I implore all producers to off er less, much less. My worst case was a location in Bishops Court: I off ered R15 000 per day and he laughed at me, saying, ‘Last shoot I had, I got R100 000!’”

Public locations are still a work in progress and

there’s no quick fi x

- Bobby Amm

Shoot My House

021 Locations

Shoot My House

Page 44: The Callsheet Issue 01 2013

44 | THE CALLSHEET www.thecal lsheet.co.za

TRENDSLisa adds, “There is a dangerous perception that one can make hundreds of thousands of rands off one’s home from the fi lm industry. When I ask potential locations where they re-ceived their information, it’s generally come from the fi lm commission or producers they know. Surely, to protect the longevity of the location industry in Cape Town, this percep-tion should be squashed? The only way this is going to happen is if the industry stands to-gether in the talk around fair and reasonable location prices.”

The worse the experience a location has had with the fi lm industry, the more they are likely to charge, if they make their location available at all. “My frustration every now and then is with a lack of respect that crew or cast sometimes have for locations,” says Jeanne ‘Red’ Watson from Shoot My House. “This leaves a bad taste in location owner’s mouths and makes our po-sition in trying for better rates very diffi cult.”

She adds, “Last season, we lost our most fantastic offi ce location - a top-end invest-ment bank – because a scout marched into the building and demanded to speak to the offi ce manager immediately, when we had told him that under no circumstances was he allowed to go there without us having made fi rm arrangements. That rudeness lost the industry a top location that was actually very reasonably priced.”

She says that incidents like this are the ex-ception rather than the rule though. “On the whole though, the fi lm industry is a lot more respectful of locations than they were a few years ago; we all appreciate that we need to hold onto them.”

But even when everyone is well-behaved, fi lm shoots can be too invasive and disruptive for some locations. Rudi says one of the biggest losses to the fi lm industry this year was when Eris Properties informed the CPA that it didn’t make fi nancial sense for them to allow fi lming at any of the properties they manage, which in-clude the Pinnacle and Wesbank buildings, as well as many popular rooftop locations.

Rudi says, “Eris told me they rent out a park-ing bay for R1100 a month, which is R13 200 a year. They just have to draw one white line for the year and they’ve done their maintenance. According to Eris it just doesn’t make sense for them to allow fi lm shoots, for a similar amount of money, to bring in 60 people, do possible damage, make noise and disrupt things.”

Rudi tried to explain the broader economic and cultural importance of the fi lm industry to the Western Cape, but Eris locations remain

unavailable at present. There are no set prices for locations, which can be confusing at fi rst.

Diff erent productions wanting to shoot at the same location may fi nd they receive wildly diff erent quotes, with 50-60% diff erences de-pending on their requirements. For example, a 10-15 person stills shoot will generally be charged less than a 45-60 person commercial shoot, which will be charged less than a feature fi lm with an even larger crew.

This pricing diff erence is generally less about whether you’re shootings stills, com-mercials or feature fi lms than it is about factors like “impact” and “inconvenience,” so your quote will be shaped by factors like the size of the crew, the vehicles and machinery required, the timing, the hours on set, the area of the shoot, and the props involved, especially since Julia points out that these have been known to include cows in the garden and cars being

We prefer communication

before the shoot, and during the

shoot if the time is running over,

which empowers us to inform our location owners

and thereby circumvent any

issues...

“Amazing Spaces

Shoot My House

Living on LocationLiving on Location

www.thecal lsheet.co.za THE CALLSHEET | 45

TRENDSdropped into swimming pools.

The more these factors can be contained, the better your price may be. For example, ex-terior-only shoots often cost less than interior shoots. But there are no hard and fast rules. As Maja Heynecke from Permitz says, “I like the idea of much less for small-scale exterior shoots, but it’s not always up to us to decide that. Quite often we come across owners who have spoken to others who have hosted shoots and they name a fi gure they have received. Not knowing the industry, people expect to receive the same, even though the shoot might have a completely diff erent budget or set of logistics.”

Similarly, Jackie says, “There is not a dif-ference between shooting interior and exte-rior at private residences - they have one rate for use of the whole property, be it inside or out. Even if you only use one room in the house, rates are set.”

The more days you spend at a location, the better your day rate should be.

If you go into overtime, expect to pay extra for it, with the exception of Permitz. “We do not charge overtime as a company policy, unless our location owner specifi cally requests us to do so,” says Maja.

Julia says the worst-case scenario for over-time is usually 10% of the day fee, per hour over the standard 14 hours they allow on set. Jackie warns that stills overtime can reach 20% of the day fee, per hour over.

“We prefer communication before the shoot, and during the shoot if the time is run-ning over, which empowers us to inform our location owners and thereby circumvent any issues,” says Julia. “It’s very diff erent warning someone upfront and off ering to pay for their dinner, than having them experience a crew leaving at 1am when they were expecting to be

in bed by 10pm!” The one downside of the increased competi-tion is that some properties are now listing with more than one agency, which has resulted in an increase in the number of double-book-ings. While SAASP has asked agents to not list locations already represented elsewhere, this is yet to change and remains an issue.

R1500 - R2500/hour: the average hourly rate in a commercial location from Living On LocationR5 000: the lowest price from 021 Loca-tions for a six-hour, exterior-only fi lm shootR8 000-R20 000/day: the average price range for private homesR6 000–R17 000: the price range for of-fi ces from Living On LocationR20 000/day: an average commercial lo-cation like a restaurant or nightclub from 021 LocationsR40 000/day: as expensive as private locations normally get5%: the lowest once-off markup I heard of from 021 Locations20%-30%: the average markup range50-60%: the potential diff erence in price for the same location depending on the size and impact of your shoot

*These fi gures come from 021 Locations, Amazing Spaces, Living on Location and Shoot My House only and are for overview purposes only.

Additional location costs to keep in mind:• Base camps in red fl ag areas • Prep and wrap fees at locations; Shoot My House usually charges these at 50% of the shoot day rate)• Some locations request that they have a location manager on set for the duration of the shoot. This can cost between R300-R1000 extra per day. • Cleaning• Damages/repairs• Electricity• Loss of trade at commercial locations

Keep in Mind

Numbers

Amazing Spaces

Page 45: The Callsheet Issue 01 2013

44 | THE CALLSHEET www.thecal lsheet.co.za

TRENDSLisa adds, “There is a dangerous perception that one can make hundreds of thousands of rands off one’s home from the fi lm industry. When I ask potential locations where they re-ceived their information, it’s generally come from the fi lm commission or producers they know. Surely, to protect the longevity of the location industry in Cape Town, this percep-tion should be squashed? The only way this is going to happen is if the industry stands to-gether in the talk around fair and reasonable location prices.”

The worse the experience a location has had with the fi lm industry, the more they are likely to charge, if they make their location available at all. “My frustration every now and then is with a lack of respect that crew or cast sometimes have for locations,” says Jeanne ‘Red’ Watson from Shoot My House. “This leaves a bad taste in location owner’s mouths and makes our po-sition in trying for better rates very diffi cult.”

She adds, “Last season, we lost our most fantastic offi ce location - a top-end invest-ment bank – because a scout marched into the building and demanded to speak to the offi ce manager immediately, when we had told him that under no circumstances was he allowed to go there without us having made fi rm arrangements. That rudeness lost the industry a top location that was actually very reasonably priced.”

She says that incidents like this are the ex-ception rather than the rule though. “On the whole though, the fi lm industry is a lot more respectful of locations than they were a few years ago; we all appreciate that we need to hold onto them.”

But even when everyone is well-behaved, fi lm shoots can be too invasive and disruptive for some locations. Rudi says one of the biggest losses to the fi lm industry this year was when Eris Properties informed the CPA that it didn’t make fi nancial sense for them to allow fi lming at any of the properties they manage, which in-clude the Pinnacle and Wesbank buildings, as well as many popular rooftop locations.

Rudi says, “Eris told me they rent out a park-ing bay for R1100 a month, which is R13 200 a year. They just have to draw one white line for the year and they’ve done their maintenance. According to Eris it just doesn’t make sense for them to allow fi lm shoots, for a similar amount of money, to bring in 60 people, do possible damage, make noise and disrupt things.”

Rudi tried to explain the broader economic and cultural importance of the fi lm industry to the Western Cape, but Eris locations remain

unavailable at present. There are no set prices for locations, which can be confusing at fi rst.

Diff erent productions wanting to shoot at the same location may fi nd they receive wildly diff erent quotes, with 50-60% diff erences de-pending on their requirements. For example, a 10-15 person stills shoot will generally be charged less than a 45-60 person commercial shoot, which will be charged less than a feature fi lm with an even larger crew.

This pricing diff erence is generally less about whether you’re shootings stills, com-mercials or feature fi lms than it is about factors like “impact” and “inconvenience,” so your quote will be shaped by factors like the size of the crew, the vehicles and machinery required, the timing, the hours on set, the area of the shoot, and the props involved, especially since Julia points out that these have been known to include cows in the garden and cars being

We prefer communication

before the shoot, and during the

shoot if the time is running over,

which empowers us to inform our location owners

and thereby circumvent any

issues...

“Amazing Spaces

Shoot My House

Living on LocationLiving on Location

www.thecal lsheet.co.za THE CALLSHEET | 45

TRENDSdropped into swimming pools.

The more these factors can be contained, the better your price may be. For example, ex-terior-only shoots often cost less than interior shoots. But there are no hard and fast rules. As Maja Heynecke from Permitz says, “I like the idea of much less for small-scale exterior shoots, but it’s not always up to us to decide that. Quite often we come across owners who have spoken to others who have hosted shoots and they name a fi gure they have received. Not knowing the industry, people expect to receive the same, even though the shoot might have a completely diff erent budget or set of logistics.”

Similarly, Jackie says, “There is not a dif-ference between shooting interior and exte-rior at private residences - they have one rate for use of the whole property, be it inside or out. Even if you only use one room in the house, rates are set.”

The more days you spend at a location, the better your day rate should be.

If you go into overtime, expect to pay extra for it, with the exception of Permitz. “We do not charge overtime as a company policy, unless our location owner specifi cally requests us to do so,” says Maja.

Julia says the worst-case scenario for over-time is usually 10% of the day fee, per hour over the standard 14 hours they allow on set. Jackie warns that stills overtime can reach 20% of the day fee, per hour over.

“We prefer communication before the shoot, and during the shoot if the time is run-ning over, which empowers us to inform our location owners and thereby circumvent any issues,” says Julia. “It’s very diff erent warning someone upfront and off ering to pay for their dinner, than having them experience a crew leaving at 1am when they were expecting to be

in bed by 10pm!” The one downside of the increased competi-tion is that some properties are now listing with more than one agency, which has resulted in an increase in the number of double-book-ings. While SAASP has asked agents to not list locations already represented elsewhere, this is yet to change and remains an issue.

R1500 - R2500/hour: the average hourly rate in a commercial location from Living On LocationR5 000: the lowest price from 021 Loca-tions for a six-hour, exterior-only fi lm shootR8 000-R20 000/day: the average price range for private homesR6 000–R17 000: the price range for of-fi ces from Living On LocationR20 000/day: an average commercial lo-cation like a restaurant or nightclub from 021 LocationsR40 000/day: as expensive as private locations normally get5%: the lowest once-off markup I heard of from 021 Locations20%-30%: the average markup range50-60%: the potential diff erence in price for the same location depending on the size and impact of your shoot

*These fi gures come from 021 Locations, Amazing Spaces, Living on Location and Shoot My House only and are for overview purposes only.

Additional location costs to keep in mind:• Base camps in red fl ag areas • Prep and wrap fees at locations; Shoot My House usually charges these at 50% of the shoot day rate)• Some locations request that they have a location manager on set for the duration of the shoot. This can cost between R300-R1000 extra per day. • Cleaning• Damages/repairs• Electricity• Loss of trade at commercial locations

Keep in Mind

Numbers

Amazing Spaces

Page 46: The Callsheet Issue 01 2013

www.thecal lsheet.co.za THE CALLSHEET | 47

DIRECTORY

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www.wizardz.co.za

Page 47: The Callsheet Issue 01 2013

www.thecal lsheet.co.za THE CALLSHEET | 47

DIRECTORY

Featured Government Film Contacts

Advertisers

Upload your directory listing on www.thecallsheet.co.zafor FREE!

COMPANY

COMPANY

REGION

REGION

WEBSITE

WEBSITE

EMAIL

EMAIL

TELEPHONE

TELEPHONE

Embassy Of The Republic of Namibia

Ghana Embassy

Kenya Film Commisson

Ministry of Labour & Home Aff airs

Nigerian Film Corporation

7 Films

Aquila Private Game

Bidvest Premier Lounge

Capital Medical Services

Jameson First Shot

Lindbergh Lodge

Media Film Service

Pioneer Frieght

Protea Hotel Victoria Junction

Roodebloem Studios

Rosco

Sitewise

Sunshine Company

TVC

UVS

Wizardz

Namibia

Ghana

Kenya

Botswana

Nigeria

Cape Town

Western Cape

Nationwide

Cape Town

Nationwide

Johannesburg

Nationwide

Nationwide

Cape Town

Cape Town

UK

Cape Town

Cape Town

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Nationwide

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+264 202 986 0540

+233 202 686 4520

+254 020 271 4073/4

+267 00 267 361 1255

Not Available

+27 21 447 4523

+27 21 430 87260

+27 86 124 3247

+27 82 864 4982

+27 21 405 8800

+27 72 765 7201

+27 21 511 3300

+27 21 386 5946

+27 21 418 1234

+27 21 447 6326

+44 020 8659 2300

+27 21 447 3151

+27 21 465 8262

+27 82 444 4181

+27 21 686 2404

+27 21 461 9334

[email protected]

[email protected]

Not Available

Not Available

[email protected]

jason@7fi lms.co.za

[email protected]

[email protected]

[email protected]

[email protected]

info@mediafi lmservice.com

[email protected]

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www.namibianembassyusa.org

www.ghanaembassy.org

www.kenyafi lmcommission.com

www.gov.bw

www.nfc.gov.ng

www.7fi lms.co.za

www.aquilasafari.co.za

www.bidvestlounge.co.za

www.falsebayrugby.co.za

www.jamesonfi rstshot.com

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www.rosco.com

www.sitewise.co.za

www.sunshinecompany.co.za

www.tvcsa.com

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www.wizardz.co.za

Page 48: The Callsheet Issue 01 2013