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www.screenafrica.com VOL 21 – January 2009 R27.00 

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Election Coverage pg 8 The Year Ahead pg 22 Editing pg 18 

Broadcast • Film • Commercials • Technology • Digital Media 

www.screenafrica.com VOL 21 – January 2009 R27.00 

Sithengi is back! 

After a two-year hiatus, the 

Sithengi Film & Television 

Market will be back in 2009. 

Sithengi, which was the 

premier Southern African 

Gauteng 

makes 

progress 

There has been much criticism 

levelled at Johannesburg 

municipal and provincial 

departments for 

their lack of support and 

assistance for commercial 

productions shooting in 

the city (see page 6). According 

to Jacques Stoltz, 

senior marketing manager 

for the Gauteng Film 

Commission (GFC), 

progress has been made in 

addressing the challenges. 

“We have made progress 

with the Johannesburg 

Metro Police Department 

(JMPD) in agreeing on 

operational matters, including 

a maximum five 

day application turnaround 

time. We have also 

agreed that all permit applications 

will be channelled 

through the GFC 

in order to ensure that 

we properly co-ordinate 

applications.” 

– to page 51 

media event held in Cape Town 

for 11 years, came to an abrupt 

end when it was cancelled in 

2007 by the then board because 

of financial difficulties. 

It was announced at the 

Sithengi AGM held in 

Johannesburg on 6 December 

that the survival of Sithengi has 

now been assured with the 

support of Minister Pallo 

Jordan and Director-General 

Themba Wakashe of the 

Department of Arts and 

Culture (DAC), as well as the 

National Film and Video 

Foundation (NFVF) which 

has been mandated by 

government to develop and 

grow the South African film 

industry. 

A web-based location booking 

system for the Cape Town Film 

Permit Office is to be developed 

over the next six months in an 

effort to resolve the industry 

crisis which is hindering 

productions in terms of location 

access. This is an intervention 

by the City of Cape Town to 

address the Film Permit 

Office’s logistical challenges 

and bureaucratic systems. The 

Commercial Producers 

Association (CPA) will be 

consulted on the development 

aspects of the new system. 

Further, the City Cape 

Town, under which the Film 

Permit Office falls, will 

It was agreed that the DAC 

would work with Sithengi and 

the NFVF to find a solution for 

the debt and to draw up a 

proposal for a three-year 

funding period in line with 

Sithengi’s vision of a publicprivate 

sector funding model. 

The Department of Trade and 

Industry (DTI) and the public 

broadcaster SABC have also 

committed their support to 

Sithengi. 

Since the new Sithengi board 

was elected in November 2007 

it has been working tirelessly 

on a new strategy, meeting with 

previous funders, donors and 

partners and trying to find 

mechanisms to overcome the 


Cape film permit crisis 

accelerate the establishment of 

a dedicated film and events 

traffic services unit to support 

locations for the industry. 

These developments are the 

result of a meeting held on 4 

December between the City of 

Cape Town, the CPA and the 

Cape Film Commission 

(CFC). 

The ongoing Film Permit 

Office crisis was highlighted in 

a recent Cape newspaper and 

prompted Garth Strachan, 

Western Cape Minister for 

Finance, Economic Development 

& Tourism, to call for an 

urgent investigation. 

MARKET FORCE: Firdoze Bulbulia (Sithengi media liaison), Themba Sibeko 

(Sithengi consultant), Faith Isiakpere (Sithengi chairperson), Theo Seanego (Sithengi 

legal adviser), Judi Nwokedi (vice chairperson Sithengi), Eddie Mbalo (CEO NFVF) 

and Themba Wakashe (director-general DAC) 

CTFS captures 

industry support 

The new look and vision of the 

Cape Town Film Studios 

(CTFS) was launched on 

Monday 1 December on the 

Faure site, near Stellenbosch, 

where the mega studio complex 

will be built. The industry 

learnt from CTFS chief executive 

officer Nico Dekker that 

by early 2010, the first phase 

which includes four studios, 

two workshops and the production 

house will be complete. 

Half of the CTFS 200 

hectares site will be developed 

and the rest will remain as unspoilt 

wetlands. Of the 100ha 

that is to be developed, 70% is 

earmarked for studio use with 

the remaining area allocated 

for residential, commercial 

and retail developments. 

(See www.screenafrica.com 

for Screen Africa’s report on 

CTFS developments at the 

time of the launch.) 

Dekker told Screen Africa 

that there had been a remarkable 

confidence turnabout by 

the industry in the development 

of the long delayed 

R450m Hollywood-style studios. 

Industry scepticism about 

whether the studio complex 

would ever be built has finally 

turned to enthusiastic support 

with more than 60 film-related 

companies indicating their 

interest to move to the future 

studio site. 

The type of companies 

which have made serious enquiries 

about relocating to the 

CTFS range from production, 

post-production, film and digital 

laboratories, special effects, 

set building, casting, training 

– to page 51 – to page 51

NEWS 

Big Bollywood film in SA 

LOOKING EAST – Lead actors Akshay Kumar and Ayesha Takai 

Bollywood is a huge industry 

and South African production 

companies are looking to India 

for work opportunities. Local 

production company Clockwork 

Zoo recently facilitated 

one of the biggest Bollywood 

There are talk shows and 

then there’s Encounters. It 

may follow a talk show 

format, but Encounters 2, 

which began its run in 

December 2008, is one of 

the few programmes to 

actually ask the questions 

no-one wants to ask. And 

the premise is: “Just what is 

morally okay in South Africa 

today?” 

Given that democracy and 

our dream of a rainbow 

nation have emphasised 

tolerance, diversity and 

acceptance, Encounters 2 

explores what may have been 

lost in the transition – each 

individual’s sense of what is 

morally okay and what is 

not. 

Questions such as whether 

it’s morally acceptable to be 

ruled by the rule of law, or to 

wear clothes that offend 

films to be shot outside India, 

called Tasveer. The film is a 

Percept Picture Holdings film 

starring Bollywood heartthrob, 

Akshay Kumar and is directed 

by Nagesh Kukunoor. 

Vince Gibbons, CEO of 

Getting to the 

crux of morality 

CHALLENGING BASIC VALUES – Andile Gaelesiwe 

others, will be posed each 

week by Andile Gaelesiwe to 

three guests, challenging 

them to engage each other 

on topics that are of great 

concern to all of us right 

now. 

The series director of 

Encounters1 and Encounters2, 

Odette Geldenhuys, is one 

of a curious breed of people 

who are not happy with one 

career. She’s a human rights 

lawyer, filmmaker and 

researcher, among others. 

Geldenhuys is very excited 

about Encounters2. She says, 

“It will ask and demand of 

all of us to liberate ourselves 

from preconceived notions, 

to revisit the fundamentals 

of African morality as 

practised and understood 

prior to slavery and 

colonialism, and examine 

how this can become the 

Director Nagesh Kukunoor 

Clockwork Zoo, explains that 

they were first introduced to 

Percept Picture Holdings by 

Iain Banner, a friend and 

creator of the Laureus Sport for 

Good Foundation. “Percept 

Picture Holdings (PPH) is the 

second biggest producer of 

basis for a shared moral and 

ethical framework in South 

Africa now.” 

The series is produced for 

SABC Religion by Kagiso 

TV & Communications, an 

11-year-old television, video 

and communications 

company, that works 

consistently for social 

upliftment. Kagiso produces 

content for financial literacy, 

HIV education and teacher 

development projects among 

many others. Their 

communications work at 

grassroots levels, in all 

communities across the 

whole country makes them 

very well aware of the moral 

and social disharmony that 

need to be addressed, before 

we can move forward as a 

united nation. 

Unique to Encounters2 is 

that African morality is the 

thread running throughout 

the series. What are these 

basic values when challenged 

by contemporary society? 

And when do communities 

adopt new values? The 

challenge now is to revisit 

the fundamentals of African 

morality and try and 

determine what to keep and 

what to lose, what to develop 

and how to grow. Only then 

can South Africa as a nation 

shape a moral and ethical 

framework to guide us into 

the future. 

Don’t miss Encounters2 on 

SABC2 at 13h00 on Sundays 

from December through to 

March 2009. 

movies in India. My partner 

Sean Rogers and I saw an 

opportunity and visited 

Mumbai where PPH is situated 

and created a relationship and 

offered our services. We have a 

slate of pictures lined up with 

PPH.” 

Gibbons elaborates: “Tasveer 

is the start of our relationship 

with Bollywood. The next step 

is to work towards films that 

can be accessible to both Indian 

and South African audiences. 

The fact that this is the largest 

Indian population outside of 

India and Pakistan is something 

that we will capitalise on. The 

film is a high-octane thriller.” 

Gibbons adds that on the 

visit to Mumbai they realised 

that there were areas of common 

interest. “Both companies 

wanted to expand their interests 

in different territories. PPH 

also realised that it made 

commercial sense to shoot in 

South Africa rather than 

Canada and our central 

motivation was to create 

sustainable business in the local 

industry and to develop the 

talent. The film’s location 

included Cape Town, 

Stellenbosch and Langebaan.” 

Gibbons elaborates on the 

working relationship. “There 

was no doubt that both 

Going global 

A home-grown South African 

animation series, Supa Strikas, 

is set to be broadcast in 15 

countries across Africa, Latin 

America and Europe. The 

series began its life as a comic 

and tells the tale of soccer star 

Shakes and his teammates 

taking on the world’s best teams 

in the Super League. 

Oliver Power, executive 

director of the show, says they 

are thrilled. “This is just the 

start of bigger things to come. 

companies were going to need 

to accommodate each other at 

first, as the film making style 

of Bollywood was very different 

to what we are used to in South 

Africa. We met each other half 

way. I believe that the Indian 

crew has learnt a lot more about 

planning, South African style. 

We have learnt how to focus on 

the finances available and coordinate 

this with what 

will be reflected on the big 

screen.” 

One of the main reasons for 

foreign companies to shoot 

here still remains the favourable 

exchange rate. “South Africa 

competes internationally and 

we still have the most varied 

locations packed close together. 

On top of that we are known 

for our great crews, who are 

hard-working and accommodating. 

The director, Nagesh, 

was saying that in Canada he 

gets told: ‘That’s not 

possible,’ but here he gets the 

response: ‘Let’s see if we can do 

that.’ We have that kind of 

mentality.” 

Gibbons says that because of 

the great experience that 

foreign filmmakers have in 

South Africa, “Nagesh, the 

director, will most definitely be 

shooting his next film 

here.” 

We firmly believe that the 

series will take Supa Strikas 

brand to new levels of popularity 

among the youth all over the 

world and in the process 

showcase some of South 

Africa’s creative talent.” 

Power says that it is extremely 

expensive to animate the show. 

“The biggest hurdle we faced 

was to raise approximately $2m 

to produce the series. 

Fortunately we secured 

sponsorship from Caltex to 

 

SCREENAFRICA – January 2009

NEWS 

Local industry 

sees Red 

Drama series 

educates voter 

Red Light Studios is a 

newcomer to the Cape Town 

production scene with 

December 2008 marking the 

opening of its first two studios. 

Its professional team is diverse 

and is represented by both 

stalwarts of the industry, as 

well as individuals from the 

business, marketing, hospitality 

and sales sectors. One thing 

that is common to all, however, 

is a shared passion for creating 

sustainable solutions to 

production challenges in the 

local industry. 

The team consists of 

commercials director Craig 

Ferguson, writer and performer 

Louw Venter (co-creator of The 

Most Amazing Show), Lomo 

guru Robin Sprong, studio 

manager Gareth Rees and 

other executive shareholders 

from the technology sector. 

Red Light Studios is 

committed to facilitating film 

NEW DOG ON THE BLOCK – Red Light Studios 

help with the production costs 

in exchange for branding on 

the players’ shirts.” 

Power says that it took close 

on five years to source the 

finance. “Fortunately the comic 

has been a very successful 

brand, so we were able to 

leverage our global sponsorship 

with Caltex. We believe that 

this is a pioneering branded 

content deal as we have not 

come across any other animated 

projects in the world that have 

been financed this way.” 

Power adds that they tried 

for a number of years to get 

broadcaster support, but this 

equivalent production values at 

budgets that would previously 

have only allowed for a high 

definition video process. This 

has been possible with the 

ontroduction of the Red One, a 

digital camera that actually 

bridged the gap between 35mm 

and digital in all ways. As 

studio manager Gareth Rees 

explains, “Both the high 

resolution 4k imaging as well as 

variable depth of field creates a 

stark contrast between the ‘flat’ 

images currently observed on 

digital features. This allows 

directors all the creative 

flexibility available on film, 

with the added efficiency of 

digital post-production.” 

Although geared toward the 

commercial industry, Red 

Light Studios is also heavily 

focussed on the promotion and 

development of the independent 

movie industry. “Our two 

200m 2 studios (one of which is 

never became a reality. 

“Animation is especially 

difficult to produce as local 

broadcasters are not willing to 

invest the amount of money 

required to produce world class 

animation and therefore 

creative financing become a 

necessity.” 

Once they had the production 

finance in place, Power 

says that they were able to secure 

broadcasters who were 

willing to ignore the Caltex 

logo on the players’ shirts and 

not expect to be paid for granting 

this exposure to Caltex. “In 

exchange we have a deal with 

green screen ready) as well as 

the very same camera that 

Steven Soderbergh has just 

used to shoot his big screen 

biopic of the life of Che Guevara 

(starring Benicio Del Toro) are 

available.” 

Over the past few months, 

the Red Light technical team 

has spent considerable time 

with the Red One camera, testing 

and fine-tuning a workflow 

process from image acquisition 

through post. This has culminated 

in Red Light being able 

to offer clients a smooth, reliable 

workflow that allows for 

unparalleled control throughout 

the filmmaking process – 

from the full 2k client monitoring 

facility through to 

in-camera grading, and on-set 

offline assemblies. Clients will 

be able to shoot and review full 

quality footage on set, while 

their rushes will be triple 

backed-up immediately after 

acquisition. 

“It’s basically like 

digital celluloid!” says 

co-owner Louw Venter 

while he views the 

crisp new space of 

Studio 1 from the 

mezzanine viewing 

area. 

Will the dream of 

merging the established 

values of 35mm 

with the ‘fantasy’ of a 

viable digital equivalent 

come true? Only 

time will tell. But 

judging by the confidence 

of Red Light’s 

creators, the future 

looks bright. 

broadcasters that involves no 

licence fee. The downside is 

that we don’t get licence fees or 

financial support from the 

broadcaster but we are able to 

give Caltex the exposure for the 

financing of the production. 

We managed to secure channels 

including SABC2, BTV 

(Botswana), ZNBC (Zambia), 

Nation TV (Kenya and Uganda), 

Caracol TV (Colombia), 

RTM (Malaysia) etc.” 

Power elaborates: “We want 

to get Supa Strikas to the point 

where we have a full long 

format television series on air 

across the world. This is the 

CHOOSING THE SHOT – Directors Gerard Mostert and Vusi Dibakwane 

SABC Education, in partnership with the Independent 

Electoral Commission (IEC) is engaged in an ongoing 

national voter education awareness campaign. The latest 

project, which hopes to motivate youth and public participation 

in the upcoming general elections, is a television drama series, 

Khululeka Siyavota. 

The series forms part of a larger ID (Identity Document) 

Voter Education Campaign which runs across radio, print, 

SMS and the web. The campaign urges 16 year-olds to get 

their ID books (in order to be able to vote in the future) and 18 

year-olds to register to vote. It will address issues of voter 

education, the secrecy of your vote, emotional readiness around 

voting, the process, ballot papers, etc. 

This democracy education drama with comedy focuses on 

the happenings in the lives of the extended Zwane family, 

their friends and community who live in the Western Cape. 

Khululeka Siyavota reminds viewers that they have a voice 

with their vote and that each vote has the power to make a 

difference. Apathy among the youth is addressed as well as the 

alienation and disillusionment of voters. The series also takes 

a strong human rights approach with regards to individual and 

group rights as underpinned in South Africa’s constitution. 

The cornerstones of democracy underpin the content of the 

series specifically the right to dignity and equality. Issues of 

accountability and transparency of those holding public office 

are also examined. Furthermore institutions of democracy 

that support the community are brought to the fore. 

The overall message in Khululeka Siyavota is that democracy 

needs to be nurtured, to be looked after by taking responsibility 

and participating in the elections. Although the brand of 

Khululeka was first conceived in 1994 before the first 

democratic elections in South Africa, this series of Khululeka 

reflects a whole new group of characters and setting. Lead 

roles are played by Patrick Mofokeng, Tina Jaxa, Anelisa 

Phewa, Akhumzi Jezile, Roxanne Blaise and Keeno-Lee 

Hector. 

This edutainment series is produced by Penguin Films for 

SABC Education in consultation with the IEC. It began 

broadcasting on SABC 2 on Sunday 4 January at 19h00. 

realisation of a dream that we’ve 

had for many years. We believe 

that as a television property the 

characters and brand will 

have the opportunity to be 

exposed to a larger audience 

and therefore attract many 

millions of new loyal Supa 

fans.” 

In order to achieve this, 

Power says that they will need 

to raise more money to shoot 

more episodes. “Fortunately, 

we have already begun 

production on the next 13 

episodes that will bring us up to 

a total of 26 half hours. We are 

also looking at making a 

number of key sales to territories 

like Canada, UK, etc. These 

markets are vital to the 

economics of any successful 

animation show. We have also 

launched a range of Supa Strikas 

clothing in both Mr Price and 

Edgars and we hope that this 

will add to the revenue stream. 

Watch this space!” 

January 2009 – SCREENAFRICA

INDUSTRY 

Up close and personal 

One of the biggest Johannesburg film gatherings for some years took place in November last year at the 2008 Film 

infrastructure and technological developments of Gauteng, but also presented an opportunity for the industry to 

Thinking out of the box 

At the Gauteng Film 

Commissions Indaba last year, 

one of the most interesting 

seminars looked at ways of 

alternative distribution. The seminar 

was titled: Thinking out of the box: A role 

for alternative distribution. The panel 

consisted of high-profile producers, 

distributors and entrepreneurs – Ross 

Garland (Rogue Star Films), Helen 

Kuun (Ster Kinekor), Sello Twala (C- 

Free Production), Tendeka Matatu 

(Muti Films), Sharlto Copley 

(independent producer) and Dan Jawitz 

(Fireworx). 

Helen Kuun’s presentation dealt with 

the different methods that producers 

use to distribute their film and the 

recent success stories of films like 

Jerusalema, Hansie, Bakgat! and 

Confessions of a Gambler, which all made 

use of different distribution strategies. 

Kuun explained that 2008 could be 

viewed as a tipping point for South 

African produced films. “The last year 

has been pretty good for local films and 

all of them had different 

methodologies. The development of 

digital is most definitely changing the 

landscape for film distribution. 

“If we look at some figures, Bakgat! 

made R3.3m at the local box office – 

this is good when you compare it to its 

foreign counterpart like Dude, Where’s 

my Car, which made R2.2m at the local 

box office.” 

Kuun elaborated that Jerusalema has 

made R4.4m on a print run of 14 and 

Hansie, which went out on half digital 

and half film, has made R4m. 

Confessions of a Gambler, which went out 

on 16 digital sites, has made over 

R500 000, which is also a good return 

on investment considering the 

distribution run and the amount spent 

on the film. 

Kuun added: “All these films are 

actually success stories if you look at 

box office. It is great when you look at 

local films that make R3m to R4m. 

This is good box office even for a lot of 

Hollywood and European distributed 

films. Bend it Like Beckham, which was 

an acclaimed international film, made 

around R3.5m here. Local films are 

starting to make their mark.” 

Kuun however reiterated that box 

office is different from recouping 

money back on the film and making a 

profit. “For instance, if you shoot at a 

lower budget and make money back at 

the box office then this is a good 

position. Films like Confessions and 

Bakgat! are examples. However, a film 

like Hansie, which was shot for over 

R40m and is only making R4m back at 

the box office, means that it has to 

travel to international territories to 

make money. 

Distribution 

“DVD sales are also a huge part of 

distribution and I think it is crucial that 

the window of DVD release becomes 

smaller. We should be looking at 

releasing on DVD three or four weeks 

after the film is released on the 

theatrical circuit. This will also, I 

believe, go some way in solving the 

piracy problem.” 

Kuun added that the DTI rebate is 

one of the most important 

developments for local producers. “This 

is a key to access financing and being 

able to produce films. New technology 

is also creating huge opportunities to 

make and deliver content.” 

Ross Garland said that Confessions of 

a Gambler was shot for R1.5m. “We 

were also able to access soft funding 

from the National Film and Video 

Foundation (NFVF) and SABC. So 

the R1.5m was not all risk money. The 

challenge with Confessions was to get a 

cinema release and try and manage 

distribution as effectively as possible, so 

we went out on 15 screens around the 

country. When we went into the Cape 

Flats we knocked US films off and 

became the most popular film. It is 

crucial to know your audience. My 

view, however, is that for a film release, 

you need wide release.” 

Garland said that Faith Like Potatoes 

in a way was the film that changed 

perspectives. “They did their own 

distribution and made money. We also 

did our own release for Confessions.” 

Tendeka Matatu explained their 

path. “We shot Jerusalema for R14m on 

pure equity. We had pre-sold the film 

into some international territories and 

had an international sales agent. 

However, the benchmark for us was 

how well the film would do with local 

audiences and this has proved to be a 

success story.” 

Matatu added: “We also had a very 

specific idea of how we wanted to 

distribute the film with specific 

audiences in mind. We went out on 

35mm film projection and had a 14 

print run and moved it around to 

specific sites. For instance the film is 

now only playing in some of the smaller 

provinces.” 

The two crucial elements, Matatu 

said, were control of their own 

distribution with the decision to go out 

on film and to do a limited release. 

“We also invested around R200 000 in 

P&A and signed a deal with Metro 

FM, which gave us publicity on radio 

and on SABC. TV reaches the widest 

possible audience, which was a great 

way of getting the film out there. The 

GFC also helped with marketing and 

we had some billboards sponsored.” 

Sharlto Copley explained his views. 

“The simple truth is this: what the 

industry comes down to is do you have 

the knack to move people, and will they 

be moved by what you do? I started out 

with my ex-partner with the Space 

Shuttle landing in Cape Town on 

Internet distribution. The truth is that 

the Internet is a horrible leveller and 

there is a sea of stuff out there. 

However, the clip has received 14 

million downloads. 

“You have to make exceptional 

content to get it seen on the Internet. 

The interesting thing with our clip 

being distributed was that we could 

show people what we were capable of 

doing. The people who we wanted to 

impress, namely the South African 

broadcasters, took no notice but we 

started getting noticed overseas in 

Hollywood. I think this is an 

undeniable truth – South African 

broadcasters do not support talent and 

there is generally a lack of support for 

embracing and encouraging talent 

here.” 

Struggle 

Copley explained that after Shuttle they 

did Hellweek and this enabled them to 

get interest from Videovision for their 

feature film, Spoon. “However a lot of 

this struggle rubbed off on my 

professional relationship with my 

business partner and we are no longer 

together. With Spoon we have also 

developed viral and Internet interest. 

As a local independent filmmaker you 

have to do it all yourself. The lesson is 

this: it is hard work but all possible.” 

Sello Twala, an entrepreneur, 

elaborated on his experience: “One 

needs to take a gamble. With our film, 

Moruti Wa Tutsi, we shot it for 

R300 000 and distributed via DVD in 

the townships. To date we’ve made 

close to R10m. Black people do not go 

to the movies; they watch DVDs at 

home. Our other release – My Shit 

Father and my Lotto Ticket – is also 

doing very well.” 

Twala said that this kind of 

distribution also eliminates piracy. 

“The only way to eliminate piracy is to 

compete with the pirates. I will be 

selling my DVDs in spaza shops and 

filling stations around the country. My 

aim is to have music and film 

everywhere and accessible to everyone. 

The DVD market is growing and it is 

only going to get bigger and bigger.” 

 


INDUSTRY 

with the film industry 

Indaba organised by the Gauteng Film Commission (GFC). The event not only showcased the locations, 

debate the challenges and advancements made in the past year, as well as to find solutions for the future. 

The financial sweet pot 

By Karen van Schalkwyk 

Financial issues are the cornerstone 

of the film industry. At the 

Gauteng Film Commission’s 

(GFC) Indaba, one of the most 

complex seminars was on film finance. 

Basil Ford of the Industrial 

Development Corporation (IDC) said 

that from a historical perspective the 

IDC began investing in films in 2001. 

“The initial strategy was to look at coproductions 

and move away from a 

service industry. However, over the 

years we realised the need to back the 

local industry, and this phase is now in 

place. The DTI (Department of Trade 

and Industry) rebate of 35% for locally 

qualified films will make a tremendous 

difference to the industry, coupled with 

the IDC and other financial support 

structures.” 

Ford elaborated that the IDC is 

considering a model that allows for 

local productions to be cash flowed. 

“The DTI rebate is positive in that it is 

soft funding, and if a film qualifies it 

gets the 35% tax free rebate back at the 

end of production. However, 

productions need to be able to cash 

flow the shoot and we are trying to 

build in a model to cash flow the DTI 

rebate.” 

Ford added that the aim is to make 

local films that are successful. “This 

seems to be changing as we see more 

local films gaining at the box office. 

From the IDC’s perspective we are 

hopeful that we can build a strong local 

industry.” 

Bigger budgets 

Producer David Wicht of Film Afrika 

mentioned that the DTI rebate fails 

bigger budget local films. “At Film 

Afrika we have developed a slate of 

films at around the R7m to R15m 

range. However, in the absence of 

additional money to close the gap it 

becomes difficult to produce these 

films at this budget. I believe that these 

are the kinds of budgets we need for 

local films to be able to travel. 

“We need local broadcast 

participation in funding feature films. 

Without this we cannot build a 

sustainable industry where we produce 

films for around R15m. I take my hat 

off to independent producers who have 

shot films for R2m or less, but this is ad 

hoc, and does not mean we are creating 

sustainability.” 

Wicht said that a typical financial 

model would work something like this. 

“The 35% of DTI rebate would ideally 

be matched with around the same 

percentage from a broadcaster. Then 

about 20% on DVD and distribution, 

leaving roughly 20% for gap finance in 

the form of private equity, pre-sales and 

the IDC.” 

Ramadan Suleman from Natives at 

Large explained his views: “At some 

point we really do need to be working 

on a sustainable business model. We 

also need to look to film destinations 

like India, Nigeria and Mexico and 

learn from them. As filmmakers we 

cannot disregard soft finance as this 

reduces risk. The issue that arises is 

how you cash flow the DTI rebate 

when you’re in production. 

Funding 

“The NFVF (National Film and Video 

Foundation) has been mandated to 

come up with funding mechanisms, but 

unfortunately there seems to be no 

concrete mechanism in place. We are 

simply not sure what their policies are. 

The SABC has for the last five years 

spoken of a film fund, but this has 

never materialised. It might be a good 

idea if through the Independent 

Producers Organisation (IPO) went to 

ICASA (Independent 

Communications Authority of South 

Africa) and put pressure on the 

broadcasters to come to the table. 

Another idea is if through the DTI we 

set up a meeting with the NFVF and 

the Lotto [it was anticipated that the 

National Lotteries Distribution Trust 

Fund would allocate funding for 

production – Editor] to see how far this 

initiative has progressed.” 

Neil Brandt of Luna Films 

maintained that in Ethiopia about 50 

films are made every year. “It gets one 

thinking that it’s possible to do this in 

South Africa. We also need a paradigm 

shift, and this is simply that producers 

must own their intellectual property 

(IP). This actually means that they are 

in a position to be earning revenue off 

their creative work years later through 

royalties.” 

Brandt said that what is killing the 

entrepreneurial spirit in South Africa is 

a sense of entitlement. “We as creative 

people need to invest in our projects 

and make sure that we own IP. The 

biggest element that is missing at the 

moment in terms of financial 

investment and support is from the 

broadcasters. However the attitude 

Facility infrastructure 

under review 

This session dealt with the assumption that the current spread of facilities 

in the industry is adequate for current requirements. One of the 

questions posed was whether the coming of age of the Cape Town Film 

Studios (CTFS) would impinge on the facilities landscape in Gauteng 

and how ongoing re-investment in infrastructural capacity could be ensured. 

The panel, chaired by Andy Stead, consisted of Nico Dekker CEO CTFS, 

Jonathan Gimpel of Atlas Studios, Dennis Mashabela, a Director of dv/8, 

Tracey Williams of Video Lab, Eileen Sandrock of ZSE-TV and John Hendry 

of IATSE 480 Santa Fe Film Office. 

Dekker gave an informative run down of the new studios, revealing that 

they would open in February 2010 with four studios and total of 7 000m 2 of 

floor area and a grid height of between 12-15m. The studios will meet 

Hollywood standards, and service a broad spectrum of facility providers 

including film equipment rental, post-production, and a training academy. He 

went on to say that talks were in progress with some 45 major companies and 

training institutions in terms of re-locating to the new complex. There was also 

ample capacity for any Gauteng based work which required a Cape base. 

Both Gimpel and Sandrock spoke about Gauteng studios and their 

capabilities. Sandrock pointed out that they had just completed two large 

studios on the Sasani site and for the foreseeable future, these were fully 

booked. Gimple advised that Atlas Studios, which is much in demand with 

production companies, has decided to build an eighth studio to cater for future 

capacity. 

Mashabela warned that digital pipelines and other forms of high-speed 

transmission of visual materials were inadequate for the immediate future and 

the 2010 FIFA World Cup. He anticipated that a lot of the infrastructure 

would be built for the 2010 soccer event which afterwards would be 

repurposed for local production use. Williams commented that whilst there 

was seemingly sufficient post-production facilities and crew for current 

requirements, these would be insufficient for the World Cup. It was important 

to address this issue. 

should always be to go out there and 

make a plan.” 

Independent producer Sharlto 

Copley (Spoon, sci-fi supernatural 

thriller) elaborated: “There is a lot of 

talk of Nollywood and other industries, 

and Hollywood is mostly disregarded. 

However, I have had experience of 

working with Hollywood and I can say 

this: they support and encourage talent 

100%. The two distinguishing factors 

about Hollywood and South Africa are 

this: the Hollywood system is 

accountable, whereas in South Africa 

you get the distinct impression that noone 

is accountable. The second and 

most important aspect is that it 

embraces talent from anywhere in the 

world. Their underlying value is 

creative talent.” 

Copley went on further. “In 

Hollywood if an executive makes a 

decision to invest money in a film then 

he takes a risk and is accountable for 

that risk. In South Africa there is more 

of a gold-mining mentality.” 

With regards to the feature film 

Spoon, Copley explained, “I was very 

grateful that government came on 

board with financing. However, we 

also invested a considerable sum in the 

film and took a chance. This idea that 

you never invest in your own content is 

nonsense. You need to show that you 

believe in your work, and why should 

others invest if your attitude is not to 

invest in your work? I was accountable 

for this investment and there is nothing 

wrong with self-investing.” 

Copley elaborated: “We have to start 

leveraging and managing risk and learn 

how to deal with creative risk. I actually 

believe that unions could possibly work 

in South Africa as they would force 

government and broadcasters to be far 

more active and accountable. The 

bottom line is that filmmaking is a 

business and it takes a tremendous 

amount of courage, talent and 

determination to see it through.” 


INDUSTRY 

Status of locations 

in Gauteng 

Is Gauteng ‘film friendly' 

or not? And can Gauteng 

make that claim? The simple 

answer to that is No! says 

GAVIN GILLESPIE in 

his feedback report on the 

Gauteng Film Indaba. 

For a city to make the claim that 

they are film friendly, they are 

publicly declaring that they are 

committed to service, have a full 

understanding of the needs and 

demands of the industry and have all 

the necessary set ups in place, not only 

in the private sector but more 

importantly in the public sector. 

Filmmakers need to know that 

locations as well as logistical and 

technical support are consistently and 

easily available. They need to know 

that productions will be co-ordinated 

smoothly by city authorities. Gauteng 

does not have a clear understanding of 

these needs and demands nor does 

Johannesburg have the necessary set 

ups in place. However, in saying this 

one cannot discount the efforts by the 

Gauteng Film Commission (GFC) to 

facilitate this process and turn Gauteng 

into a film friendly province. 

The general concerns lie mainly with 

the lack of support from the 

Johannesburg Metro Police 

Department (JMPD) and City 

administrators. However, the single 

most talked about concern is the R450 

per hour fee levied on all shoots which 

have to make use of municipal property 

to park units on streets, in car parks etc. 

This is seen by the industry as a tax 

with absolutely no benefits and is 

contrary to everything that a film 

friendly city stands for. It must be noted 

that every effort is being made to get 

this fee lifted. 

Mistakes 

As a city we are in an advantageous 

position to learn from the mistakes of 

other big cities like Sydney, New York, 

Los Angeles to name a few, where 

there was an attitude and environment 

of contempt when dealing with film. 

The result was runaway productions to 

Toronto in Canada, South America, 

Mexico and New Zealand (which 

offered film incentives). Every effort 

should be made to consult with these 

cities and apply what has been learnt to 

our city. 

It is no secret that the film industry 

is an industry of inconvenience and to 

operate, we rely heavily on the good 

will and understanding of others. 

Therefore, the only way we can expect 

to be taken seriously is if the city 

recognises the financial benefits of film 

– not only from a location fee 

perspective but also the spin-off 

benefits for tourism, car rental, the 

restaurant sector, hotels etc. It is not 

how we go about presenting our case to 

the city, but rather whether it will be 

prepared to listen and action what is 

necessary to make Gauteng a film 

friendly? 

Councillor Parks Tau, who was 

present at the Film Indaba, stressed 

that the City is committed to providing 

the industry with a single point of entry 

in respect to film. He also pointed out 

that the city has been investigating the 

establishment of a film hub, which will 

support emerging production 

companies through dedicated facilities. 

Councillor Tau requested that the 

industry formulate a clear business case 

for the industry and he availed himself 

to meeting with the industry. He noted 

that some of the current problems stem 

from the fact that film is not often seen 

as an industry and it has therefore not 

traditionally been prioritised by council. 

Now, unless the above is done in 

consultation and collaboration with the 

industry it is unfortunately, without 

sounding pessimistic, doomed for 

failure. One just has to look south to 

realise that city departments that are 

put in place without the knowledge or 

the know-how of the needs and 

demands of the industry, become 

obstacles and gate keepers rather than 

assets and opportunities to streamline 

the process. 

We are 100% dependant on the city 

and its councillors to make film 

everyone’s business, which could mean 

employing people in the designated 

departments to deal with film 

specifically or even adding film to 

existing employees’ job descriptions. 

But unless this happens the concept of 

a film friendly city will only remain a 

notion. 

As an industry and city we would be 

wise to avoid the opportunistic-type 

private location companies coming in 

and stealing our assets. A plan should 

be put in place whereby all or any 

individual or company operating in the 

location sector has to be registered with 

the GFC as an official operator. This 

will mean that standards and 

procedures will have to be adhered to 

and fees on private locations can be 

monitored. 

As we are often dependent on the 

man in the street it is paramount that 

Permit fees 

questioned 

The R450 per hour fee levied on all shoots when making use of 

Johannesburg municipal property and the lack of support by the 

Johannesburg Metro Police Department (JMPD) was hotly criticised by 

panellists taking part in a special 2008 Film Indaba session on the 

thorny question of whether Gauteng could claim to be ‘film friendly’. 

Shrinking local and worldwide budgets together with the rising cost of 

production, meant that producers had to consider the cost of shooting in a 

particular location. 

According to Gavin Gillespie, Fresh Eye Films Production, part of the 

problem lay with provincial and municipal departments which did not 

recognise film as a legitimate industry in Gauteng. This gave rise to a lack of 

sensitivity to the needs of the industry. 

“We are all fighting the battle of finance. We simply can’t afford the R450 

per hour permit fee. There are also no financial incentives to attract 

international productions to the province.” 

In dealing with departments like the JMPD, producers were continually 

frustrated by the lack of response to requests. “We don’t have the luxury of 

waiting for a month to know whether we can shoot on the Nelson Mandela 

bridge. We are a R750m industry but we are not recognised. Mostly we are 

seen as irritating and obstructive by the departments we have to deal with,” 

said Gillespie. 

Cape Town film consultant, Martin Cuff who chaired the discussion, 

confirmed that in his research on the permit situation he received no return 

calls from municipal departments he had contacted. “We need to make 

government departments understand that film is a core business of the 

country’s economic development.” 

Rehad Desai, representing the South African Screen Federation (SASFED), 

said that the appeal of locations were intrinsically linked to financial incentives. 

“People go where the incentives are. Government’s commitment of resources is 

also too short term. It can take 15 years to create and shoot a production.” 

Speaking about the experience of the Sante Fe Film Office, New Mexico in 

the US, Lisa Van Allen explained that the State government was good about 

supporting film with incentives. “Sante Fe charges only a nominal fee for 

officers and parking in municipal areas. Basically we have a permit simply to 

track the number of productions shot in the city.” 

Councilor Parks Tau of the City of Johannesburg said the industry needed to 

engage with him and his department more closely. He saw the creation of a 

film production hub as playing a role in facilitating production support and 

accessibility in the city. “The approach needs to be two prong: to define 

problems and find solutions.” 

Commenting from the floor, Barry Munchik, Velocity Films, said that 

commercial production was down by 50 to 70% which affected job creation. 

“We need a low cost friendly city and we will probably be able to create 500 

jobs.” The only reason commercials were coming back to the country was the 

very favourable rate of exchange of the Rand to the Euro and Dollar. 

the GFC embark on a local marketing 

exercise in newspapers and local 

gazettes to inform the citizens of 

Gauteng about the benefits of film. 

The general public need to know that a 

Commission exists, and that they can 

contact the GFC when seeking advice 

about concerns relating to the industry. 

A film friendly city relies not only on 

the local government but on the 

attitude and co-operation of its people 

as well. 

Fee increase 

There is the concern that the 

privatisation and refurbishment of the 

city centre by big business has caused 

location fees to increase substantially, 

making them unaffordable. In some 

cases, certain city landmarks have 

become no film zones because of this. 

It is these locations that make our city 

the attractive city it is and losing them 

puts us in a very compromising position 

when attempting to market Gauteng as 

a filming destination. Again, we call 

upon the GFC and local government to 

facilitate meetings with these industries 

to educate them on the need for cooperation 

and the benefits of film. 

Can Gauteng become a film friendly 

city? Yes, on the premise of a strong 

economic argument and through 

greater liaison between the GFC, 

industry and regions. But time is of the 

essence. While we drag our heels and 

get bogged down in bureaucracy, other 

cities are putting plans in place to 

capitalise from film. We would be 

fools to waste such an incredible 

opportunity. 

• Gavin Gillespie is an executive producer 

with Fresh Eye Films Productions and a 

member of the Commercial Producers 

Association. The above report by Gillespie 

has been edited. 

 


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From the editor 

Without fear, prejudice or favour 

We have entered a fresh new year. In a few months time we will go to 

the polls to vote in the general election for a new government which 

will determine the future course of South Africa over the next five 

years. The media in the lead up to the hottest contested election in our 

history will play a pivotal role in conveying the opinions and values of 

the different political parties. There is an onus on journalists in 

broadcast and print to uncover and present the truth without fear, 

prejudice or favour. 

Screen Africa has gone to the heart of politics by interviewing political 

parties (with which we could make contact) on their assessment of the 

coverage they could expect to receive in the coming months. It is 

interesting to note that most of the parties are sceptical about whether 

they will receive a fair and equitable hearing from the public broadcaster 

SABC. Just how politically structured the SABC is became evident 

from the political power play engaged in by the SABC board and 

management towards the end of last year. 

The ruling party, the African National Congress (ANC) wants the 

present board to be dissolved as it is seen as the creation of former 

president Thabo Mbeki. The controversial Broadcasting Amendment 

Bill passed by Parliament in November 2008 provides for the removal 

of the board or its members by a resolution of the national assembly. 

These developments, so shortly before the general election, indicates 

that the SABC is seen as a state institution which can be 

manipulated. 

Free and fair election coverage? 

Turbulent times 

Over the coming days and months we need to take cognisance of 

developments within South Africa and globally. To navigate the 

turbulent times of tighter production budgets, rising costs, a declining 

economic environment and political uncertainty will require savvy, 

know-how and a bit of luck. 

With this in mind, Screen Africa has polled the views on the year 

ahead from people who are representative of the industry as a whole. 

The really good news is that the production industry is expected to 

be well and healthy. It is suggested by one of the stakeholders 

interviewed that we could see as many as two low budget films made 

every month based on the low budget indigenous feature film incentive 

from the Department of Trade & Industry (DTI) and cash flow 

assistance by the Industrial Development Corporation (IDC). 

A milestone was reached towards the end of last year with the launch 

of Digital Terrestrial Television trails when e.tv, M-Net and SABC 

joined forces for the first time. This co-operation will benefit not only 

consumers but the industry which could see more channels launched. 

The digital investment and migration to high definition (HD) made 

in the past year by the three broadcasters while the rand currency was 

still fairly strong means they will score in the tougher economic climate 

with which we are now faced. 

On track 

There has been an important part of the industry missing over the past 

two years. There has been nowhere for us to meet with our African and 

international colleagues on an annual basis in one place so we could 

network, talk co-production, sell or buy product and pitch new projects. 

What a wonderful way to start 2009 with the news that Sithengi, the 

film and TV market which ran for 11 years, will be back with us. 

The multi-million rand Cape Town Film Studio is also finally on 

track and the first phase of development is expected to be ready either 

at the end of 2009 or the beginning of 2010. 

Angela van Schalkwyk 

SCREENAFRICA 

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Angela van Schalkwyk, 

Sun Circle Publishers (Pty) Ltd 

editor@screenafrica.com 

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IN THE NEWS 

The hot issue of 

political coverage 

South Africans will go to the polls next year to decide who should 

lead the country. In the run-up to the 2009 elections, the public will 

be confronted with a barrage of political opinion from broadcast 

and print media. Here KAREN VAN SCHALKWYK examines 

the expectations of some of the major political parties concerning 

fair and equitable electoral coverage. 

Media across the 

board, from 

broadcasters and 

newspapers to the 

Internet, are crucial 

mechanisms in 

communicating to the public 

the ideas, opinions and debates 

of various political parties. The 

question that arises is how free 

and fair this coverage will be. 

The crucial elements for a 

free and fair press are 

autonomy and the marketplace 

of ideas. Based on this 

framework, the following 

questions were presented to 

different political parties. 

1. What kind of 

media coverage 

do you expect in 

the run-up to the 

2009 Election? 

United Christian 

Democratic 

Party (UCDP) 

We expect the media to cover 

political parties freely and 

fairly without pronouncing on 

which party they expect to 

win, as this tends to influence 

the electorate either positively 

or negatively. While the 

Independent Electoral 

Commission (IEC) enjoins 

political parties to respect the 

role of the media before, 

during and after the election 

the media should do likewise 

[when it comes to parties]. 

They should not rubbish some 

parties in preference of others. 

Independent 

Democrats (ID) 

The ID expects fair media 

coverage that focuses on our 

fight for social justice, which is 

best reflected in our work in 

communities around the 

country. This work continues 

throughout the year, every year 

and unlike other political 

parties, it is not only rolled out 

during election time. 

The media will know that 

since our inception, we have 

also taken a strong stand on 

transformation, poverty, 

education, crime, corruption 

and HIV/Aids. 

The ID supports political 

tolerance and our party was 

founded on the principles 

enshrined in our Constitution, 

which are based on the values 

and ideals of our struggle 

against apartheid. 

United Democratic 

Movement (UDM) 

All role players participating in 

the election process should 

receive equitable, fair, as well 

as unbiased media coverage. 

 


IN THE NEWS 

Currently this is not the situation; the 

ruling party is awarded more and 

lengthy hours of coverage by the SABC 

even on petty party internal matters, 

whilst the opposition parties get mainly 

nothing. The opposition parties have 

collectively called on the IEC and 

ICASA to arrange a summit involving 

all the political parties and the SABC, 

in order to ensure equity and fairness. 

But this has not happened to date. We 

want answers from the IEC on whether 

it will be business as usual as far as the 

SABC’s ANC-bias is concerned. 

Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) 

What we expect to get and what we 

will actually get are likely to be two 

different things if we go by past 

experience. We obviously hope for fair 

treatment that covers issues of 

importance to us and the electorate. We 

also hope for coverage which portrays 

us fairly and without recourse to 

agendas serving to denigrate or belittle 

us. Whether this is what ensues or not 

remains to be seen. 

We are certainly prepared to engage 

with all media outlets to discuss this 

matter and to ensure that our 

relationship is managed professionally. 

The African National 

Congress (ANC) 

The ANC expects to get a lot of media 

coverage, both fair and unfair. As the 

leading party in government, the ANC 

is likely to attract a lot of attention from 

the media, commentators and other 

parties. Past experience has shown that 

certain sections of the media are openly 

hostile to the ANC, others stridently 

critical. The ANC’s request is that all 

media institutions, whatever their 

political inclination, should report the 

election accurately, honestly and fairly. 

And should allow all parties space to 

present their views and policies. 

Democratic Alliance (DA): 

The DA runs arguably the most 

professional communications 

department of all political parties in 

South Africa; we would therefore 

expect to receive substantial coverage 

during the election, both in terms of 

free media as well as in terms of paid 

media. 

2. Do you think that the 

media will cover the 

election fairly? 

UCDP: I doubt it. Based on the past 

experience and the most recent issue of 

the Democratic Convention that was 

held on 1 November 2007 in Sandton, 

it is unlikely. Some opposition political 

parties that were invited were not 

covered though the event was meant to 

be live coverage. The selective and 

preferential coverage of speeches of 

some parties and the blackout of others 

is proof that all is not well. This goes 

even for the print media, who, though 

we appreciate have space limitations, 

covered excerpts of speeches made by 

some representatives of some parties 

and were content to mention others by 

name only. 

ID: We are confident that the media 

will give all parties fair coverage, 

although we do have some concerns 

when it comes to the SABC, the public 

broadcaster. 

What we have found is that the 

problem with the SABC is not its 

hardworking journalists, but the ANC, 

which continues to meddle in its affairs. 

When we work with all media, we 

voice our criticisms in a fair and 

constructive manner, ensuring at all 

times that we respect the independence 

of the media, as contained in the 

Constitution and we work with the 

media to find solutions. 

UDM: It is on record that we have had 

serious battles with the South African 

media regarding coverage for political 

parties on elections, in particular the 

SABC. As the UDM we have written 

open letters, engaged the SABC Board 

and written to the Ministry of 

Communication in the past appealing 

for a situation in which the SABC will 

be democratic, unbiased, transparent 

and inclusive when covering stories and 

events for political parties. It is 

unfortunate that at this stage the 

SABC still behaves like it did under 

the old Nationalist Party, where people 

were denied access to coverage and 

freedom of expression and speech. 

Nevertheless, it is our expectation that 

every political party contesting and 

participating in the election process in 

the country, will receive a fair and equal 

platform, as well as coverage to present 

its election campaign strategy, 

including manifesto and policies to the 

electorate. 

IFP: The media in South Africa needs 

to be disaggregated. There is the public 

broadcaster, which acts too often as a 

state broadcaster and even as a party 

broadcaster. There are newspaper 

groups. There are independents, both 

electronic and print, some with and 

some without party agendas or 

leanings. By and large, we think the 

media are aware of perceptions of bias 

and of the need to behave in a 

professional manner and we hope 

coverage is better than it has been in 

the past. 

ANC: Yes and no. As is the case in any 

country, there are certain factors that 

impact on the political inclination of 

media institutions. These include the 

history of the sector, commercial 

considerations, and the interests of their 

market. This will mean that there is an 

in-built bias in most media institutions. 

Journalists and editors have a 

responsibility to compensate for this 

bias through professional reporting. 

DA: It is important to draw a 

distinction between state and privately 

owned media in this context. With 

regard to state-controlled media, such 

as the SABC, it is always a battle to 

gain equal coverage. The SABC is 

compelled during an election to provide 

equitable, not equal coverage and this 

provision is often manipulated so as to 

give the ANC an unfair advantage. 

This manifests itself in the national 

broadcaster covering the ANC’s 8 

January statement, but not opposition 

parties manifesto launches. It is going 

to be especially important that there is a 

more fair formula used to determine 

coverage in election 2009 as there will 

be a genuine contest for power, 

therefore the ANC should not be 

presented as the inevitable winner. 

With regard to privately owned media 

the DA on the whole expects to 

generate extensive coverage through a 

pro-active and well planned campaign. 

3. What are the challenges 

you foresee regarding 

election news/coverage? 

UCDP: There is a tendency as 

indicated above to pursue the 

programmes of the so-called bigger 

parties to the total exclusion of others. 

Media tend to forget that ALL parties 

pay the same amount for registration 

and deserve to be treated alike. ICASA 

exacerbates the situation as with the 

Party Election Broadcasts (PEBs) by 

allocating advertising time based on 

past elections, when we are dealing 

with a completely new election. The 

whole issue of coverage is lopsided in 

favour of the incumbent political party. 

ID: Our only concern is that coverage 

of the national election will get caught 

up in mud-slinging by political parties, 

instead of focusing on the real issues 

facing our people. The ID believes that 

it is in the interests of all South 

Africans that media coverage focuses 

on policies and issues. Parties 

themselves have often been more 

concerned with scoring points against 

each other than dealing with the real 

issues affecting so many South 

Africans. 

UDM: Aside from the issues raised 

above we are concerned about the use 

of ‘political commentators’ who often 

appear to have their own agendas. They 

are prone to comment on opposition 

views/issues when it is obvious that 

they have not read our manifestos. 

IFP: There are internal and external 

challenges. Those that are internal (to 

us) include the responsibility we have to 

generate stories that are newsworthy; to 

be cognisant of media deadlines; to be 

always available; and so on. We have 

taken steps to address these issues. 

ANC: Shortage of resources is a major 

challenge. Most election coverage is 

limited to the major centres and driven 

by the PR machines of the various 

parties. Most media institutions lack 

the personnel and resources needed to 

go out into communities in towns and 

rural areas to find out what people’s real 

needs are, and what their political 

thinking is. There is also the problem 

of a lack of depth in reporting – partly a 

consequence of resource constraints – 

which means that a lot of the context of 

the election is lost. Coverage is reduced 

to soundbites and story-of-the-day 

reporting. There is little opportunity to 

provide viewers, listeners or readers 

with a context of what has happened in 

the country over the last few years, 

what the current challenges are, and 

how parties are responding to these 

challenges. 

DA: There would be concerns relating 

to bias on behalf of the state broadcaster 

as well as the ANC abusing 

government communication to push a 

party political line as it did extensively 

during the 2004 election. 

4. What do you think is 

the role of the public 

broadcaster? 

UCDP: The public broadcaster should 

be impartial. There is a feeling that the 

Herstigte Nasionale Party (HNP) is 

justified in calling the broadcaster the 

ANCBC because all the ANC says, 

does and plans is covered whereas other 

political parties are not. This trend is 

evident even in parliament in the 

morning coverage of parliamentary 

events. Only the ANC members are 

called on to deliberate on committee 

issues, only the ANC members in the 

main are given opportunities to express 

themselves. The South African 

parliament is a multi-party institution; 

as such all political parties have to be 

given opportunities to air their views 

even on matters before the committees. 

ID: The public broadcaster’s role is to 

give fair coverage in spite of the 

continued party political and faction 

fighting that is happening at the 

highest levels of the broadcaster. But 

the ID has faith that the good 

journalists – and there are many – at 

the SABC, will be able to stand up to 

any political pressure from the ANC 

and the ANC’s political commissars, 

like Snuki Zikalala, deployed at the 

SABC. The broadcaster also needs to 

balance the size of parties with the 

substance of what we say so that South 

Africans have the opportunity to 

consider our policies, principles and 

track record in communities. 

UDM: The UDM cannot accept a 

situation where the ANC is given 

preferential treatment by an institution 

which should subscribe to the 

Constitution of the country and owes 

its allegiance to the public – the SABC 

is financed by taxes and licence fees 

from the public. In this regard, the 

SABC is expected to serve all the 

members of the public fairly and 

transparently in the run-up to the 

elections. 

IFP: The proper role of the public 

broadcaster needs to be internalised by 

those running the SABC. There is a 

clear disjuncture between what the 

SABC professes as its practice and the 

actual output of a broadcaster widely 



IN THE NEWS 

from page 9 

perceived and indeed, correctly 

perceived, to be active in pursuit of 

political agendas. The role should be 

that of providing news and information 

to the electorate in a dispassionate and 

objective manner to educate and update 

voters, so they are better informed and 

better able to decide for themselves 

which party they should support. 

ANC: The public broadcaster has – 

like other media – to report accurately, 

honestly and fairly, just more so. Unlike 

other media, however, the SABC has a 

legal responsibility to provide fair and 

equitable coverage of all parties 

contesting the election. This is difficult 

in a news and current affairs format 

that has severe time limitations. 

It also has to contend with pressure 

from those who argue that the principle 

of equitable coverage means that all 

parties, regardless of their size or 

significance, should receive equal 

amounts of airtime. Equitable coverage 

means that coverage of parties is guided 

by the established size and significance 

of parties. 

DA: A public broadcaster has a duty to 

cover a diversity of views and to not 

favour any one political party or 

viewpoint. Therefore it must ensure 

that the public is properly informed 

about the choices they have in an 

election by carrying unbiased and 

impartial coverage. 

5. Do you think that freedom 

of expression, as 

guaranteed by the South 

African Constitution, 

is a reality or that the 

South African public is 

increasingly subjected 

by the SABC to the views 

of the ruling party and 

politicians with their 

own vested interests? 

UCDP: There is bias shown by the 

SABC Television at the election centre 

in Pretoria where they have their 

makeshift studios and cover the 

elections live. We have been refused an 

opportunity to state our views on air 

while there. This has happened over a 

number of years. 

ID: The SABC does a lot of good 

work. There are a lot of good, fair and 

independent journalists who we in the 

ID are very proud of. However, there 

have been certain worrying signs over 

the past few years in which this 

independence has been threatened. We 

are referring to the blacklisting saga, 

where analysts were blacklisted if they 

were suspected by Snuki Zikalala as 

being anti-Mbeki. We are also 

referring to the fight between the 

Board and the Group CEO, where the 

infighting in the ruling party spilled 

over into the SABC, as well as the 

drawing up of the draconian Broadcast 

Amendment Bill. As with many of the 

rights enshrined in our Constitution, it 

is up to all of us to breathe life into 

these rights so that the Constitution 

will eventually become a living 

document. The ID does this by not 

only ensuring that what we say is 

truthful, but that we work with the 

SABC to ensure that our progressive 

message and hard work are covered 

fairly. 

UDM: Yes; if one refers to the 

country’s Constitution it is a reality, but 

the fact of the matter is that the SABC 

has been used and is programmed by 

the ruling party. During the UDM’s 

initial establishment stage we were 

subjected to hostile marginalisation, 

non-coverage, and blackmailing and 

propaganda tactics by the ANC, as well 

as a black-out by the public broadcaster 

on the UDM policy positions. In many 

corners of the country there have been 

political activities by political parties, 

but you will not see any of this on the 

SABC Television channels. You will 

only hear and see lengthy live coverage 

of interviews, talk-shows, line-up and 

public statements of certain senior 

ANC leaders. 

IFP: There is freedom of expression in 

so far as there are few constraints on 

political parties to freely express their 

viewpoints. However, the dubious role 

of the public broadcaster over a lengthy 

period is a serious indictment, not so 

much on the right to freedom of 

expression as enshrined in the 

Constitution, but in respect of the 

manner in which the Constitution fails 

to prevent the manipulation of the 

SABC for party political or even 

factional purposes. Given our party 

system and the dominance of a single 

party in Parliament, the notion that 

independence of the SABC is secured 

through the present process is naive and 

disingenuous because it is tantamount 

to the ruling party and its president 

appointing the board and thus 

determining the operational behaviour 

of the broadcaster. 

ANC: No media institution in South 

Africa is constrained in its reporting by 

the instruments of state. The notion 

that the SABC unduly favours the 

ruling party is not borne out by facts 

(nor is it borne out by the daily 

experience of the ruling party’s 

communications unit). 

However, there are constraints on the 

capacity of most South Africans to 

exercise their right of freedom of 

expression. Patterns of ownership and 

consumption, and the need for 

profitability, means that the media 

tends to reflect the interests and views 

of the wealthier sections of society. 

This leaves many poor, rural and 

marginalised South Africans without a 

voice. 

DA: There is no question that freedom 

of expression is under threat from a 

variety of sources. These stem firstly 

from the bias of the state broadcaster, 

secondly from a self-imposed political 

correctness which sees the views of the 

opposition either ignored or 

downplayed, as well as a government 

that increasingly displays hostility 

towards freedom of expression. 

6. What would your political 

party do if you won the 

elections to develop the 

role of the media and 

to ensure freedom of 

expression was protected? 

UCDP: Simple. State it as it is. Cover 

all and have no hidden agendas. We 

should avoid a situation where 

journalists of substance resign because 

they are made to follow a certain line of 

political thinking. The broadcaster 

should be independent and not pander 

to the whims of some political party. 

The public broadcaster should tell it as 

is without fear, favour or prejudice. 

ID: The ID would work with all other 

political parties in Parliament to ensure 

that the SABC Board was elected 

based on their commitment to media 

freedom and not their political 

affiliation. We would make demands of 

the SABC, but they would not be 

partisan demands – all political parties 

and the public deserve fair coverage and 

that’s what we must get. The SABC is 

owned by the people of South Africa 

and as such we would get the support of 

all political parties to scrap the 

Broadcast Amendment Bill, which 

gives the communications portfolio 

committee the power to dissolve the 

Board on a finding, and they don’t even 

have to follow the process of due 

inquiry. 

UDM: The first step will be to ensure 

that the policies that are formulated to 

guide and regulate the existence of 

particular media institutions are in line 

with the Constructional principles. It is 

the UDM perspective that the media 

must serve and be seen as the voice of 

the people, rich and poor, young and 

old, irrespective of political affiliation, 

race and belief. We will have to ensure 

that the SABC Board is constituted by 

all role-players inside and outside 

parliament. 

IFP: We would first and foremost 

affirm the role of the Fourth Estate in 

protecting democracy. We would also 

stop any attempts to register the media 

as was/is being planned by the ruling 

party in a manner that smacks of 

control. It would also entail doing away 

with any notions of pre-censorship and 

‘big boss’ control of content. We also 

believe there is a need to regulate the 

coverage of incumbency in pre-election 

periods. If necessary, we would consider 

strengthening the Constitution to 

make it legally impossible to pursue 

anti-democratic agendas. 

ANC: We need to find ways to make 

South Africa’s media landscape more 

diverse and more representative. In that 

way, freedom of expression will not 

merely be protected, it will be expanded 

to those who until now have not had 

platforms to express themselves. 

Instruments like the Media 

Development & Diversity Agency 

(MDDA) need to be reviewed to 

ensure that sufficient resources are 

directed to the right places to encourage 

a more diverse media. The SABC 

needs to have the resources to fulfil its 

public mandate. The balance between 

public funding and advertising revenue 

needs to shift in the opposite direction; 

less reliance on advertising. 

DA: The DA would ensure that the 

state broadcaster would deliver on its 

mandate by ensuring that the state 

broadcaster was free from any form of 

party political interference, that staff 

were retained for their professionalism 

and not their links to the governing 

party and would ensure that it was 

adequately funded to ensure that a 

plurality of views were aired and 

exchanged. 

* Those parties who do not feature 

in this article either had no website 

addresses, contact details were 

untraceable or they did not 

respond. 

10 


SA commercials 

directors in demand 

COMMERCIAL FIGURES – Bobby Amm (CPA) 

and Jacques Stoltz (GFC) 

The results of the 4th Commercial 

Producers Industry Survey 2008, 

released on Tuesday 25 

November by the Commercial 

Producers Association of South Africa 

indicate that the sector continues to 

produce a relatively stable number of 

commercials, using more shoot days but 

for higher budgets per commercial. 

When evaluating the total billable 

value versus total billable expenditure of 

the 20 companies which participated 

over the four year period, it was noted 

that while the total number of 

commercials produced decreased by 

0.34%, the total billable value increased 

by 17.17% from 2006/2007 to 

2007/2008 and the total billable 

expenditure decreased by 6.87% over 

the same period. 

A decrease was recorded in the 

number of local (originated by South 

African agencies and produced by 

South African director based 

production companies) and service 

(originated by foreign agencies, 

produced by foreign production 

companies with the assistance of South 

African service companies) productions 

for the period 1 May 2007 to 30 April 

2008. The good news is that, the 

International/South Africa 

commercials (originated by foreign 

agencies, which are produced and 

directed by South African director 

based companies) market grew, as did 

the use of South African directors on a 

year-by-year basis. 

The survey adopted a conservative 

approach and expenditure, income and 

turnover by the entire industry is 

assumed to be more than what is 

DVD release 

A 

new South African comedy 

feature film starring some of the 

country’s most popular TV stars 

was released straight to DVD on 

21 November. Swop! was directed by 

Hlomla Dandala and written and 

produced by Charles Sapadin. 

This is the first production from new 

company Dark Continent Pictures, in 

which Sapadin and Dandala are 

partners with Judy Phillips. “Making 

your investment back on a local film is 

difficult. So we wanted to create 

something that was low budget enough 

to be able to make back its money, 

while simultaneously appealing to the 

presented by the survey results. The 

total billable value for all commercial 

productions during the 2007/2008 

period was just under R765m while 

expenditure measured totalled over 

R555m. 

The survey sample of 32 commercial 

production companies reported that 

they produced 727 commercials in the 

2007/2008 period, including 13 

commercials shot in high definition, 

totalling 1 603 shoot days, an average 

of 220 days per commercial. The 

average budget per commercial, for all 

types produced, was just over R1m. 

Mostly due to a large increase in 

International/South African billable 

value, 2007/2008 showed a notable 

increase in total billable value for all 

types of commercials over 2005/2006. 

This follows the small increases of 

2006/2007 from the previous year. 

The two most popular locations 

continue to be Gauteng and the 

Western Cape. 

Participating companies have on 

average been producing more 

commercials each year, until 

2007/2008, which shows a 5.32% 

decrease in the average number of 

commercials produced per company. 

However, shoot days and average shoot 

days per commercial increased from 

2006/2007 to 2007/2008, both by 

about 4%, with a concurrent 17.56% 

increase in budgets per commercial. 

One of the key findings of the survey 

is that production companies in this 

sector must pay more attention to 

Broad Based Black Economic 

Empowerment (BBBEE) as there is a 

below average performance in terms of 

ownership and equity. 

The survey, which is carried out for 

the Commercial Producers Association 

South Africa by Evolutions Research 

Solutions, was sponsored by the Cape 

Film Commission and the Gauteng 

Film Commission. 

To see the full survey results, visit www. 

screenafrica.com and click on Reports under 

NEWS in the menu column. 

broadest possible audience,” comments 

Sapadin. 

Dandala adds: “Swop! was always 

intended to go straight to DVD as a 

theatrical release would have doubled 

the budget. And, we don’t think that 

the majority of our market goes to the 

cinema – they watch DVDs. The film 

was entirely self-financed with a budget 

of under R1m.” 

Next Video came in as distributor 

during post-production, without even 

seeing a frame of the film. Swop! is 

being marketed via traditional media 

like print, radio, TV, street poles, instore, 

etc. as well as through viral 

strategies on YouTube and Facebook. 

The high profile cast has generated a 

lot of exposure. Swop! will be sold into 

Africa as well and the producers are 

Panda victory 

South African wildlife content 

production company, Earth- 

Touch, won the Panda ARKive 

New Media Award at the recent 

Wildscreen Festival in Bristol, for its 

entire portfolio of podcasts and for the 

related online content on its website that 

supports the weekly highlights podcast 

feed. 

The ARKive New Media Award is 

presented to the project that “best 

‘GREEN OSCAR’ – 

Brian Palmer and Richard van Wyk 

NEWS 

explores the interactive potential of digital technology including websites, 

podcasts, Internet TV, DVD special features, mobile technology etc. to raise 

awareness and understanding of the natural world”. 

Earth-Touch’s Brian Palmer comments on the victory: “The Panda Awards 

are often described as the Green Oscars, so to win a Panda award is one of the 

highest accolades that any wildlife production team can hope to achieve. It also 

confirms that within the new media space Earth-Touch is pioneering new 

ways of telling stories about the wild, and doing so at a level which is up there 

with the very best in the world.” 

Roger Horrocks adds: “I believe that our entry stood out at Wildscreen 

because of the quality of the podcast itself; the subject matter, the way it was 

shot, and the editing. And then there is the overall packaging of the podcast 

within the broader Earth-Touch.com online offering.” 

Footage in the Earth-Touch podcasts includes swimming with a Southern 

Right whale, wildlife in Ecuador, a flock of colourful bee-eaters in Botswana, 

African wild dogs, snakes in Thailand, a turtle laying eggs on a beach in 

Mozambique, dung beetles, sharks, elephants and coral reefs. 

Each of the podcasts is between 10 and 12 minutes in length. The 92 

individual podcasts published to date by Earth-Touch have been downloaded a 

total of 850 000 times, with the average monthly downloads per individual 

podcast sitting at around 60 000. Says Horrocks: “While it’s tricky to 

accurately work out the core audience figures for the podcast feed, given that 

all podcasts are available on demand, we conservatively estimate that we our 

core audience base is around 40 000 viewers. In total we estimate that the 

Earth-Touch online offering has touched over 100 000 viewers since launch 

two years ago, and is growing quickly, with the bulk of that audience sitting in 

the USA and Europe.” 

The team working on the weekly podcasts include the field crews (about five 

cameramen), an editor, audio engineer, and the two designers responsible for 

original Earth-Touch imaging. Footage is recorded on Sony F900 cameras and 

edited on Final Cut Pro. It takes about three days to compile and package a 

weekly podcast (ie. editing, graphics and final mix). 

Earth-Touch uses a combination of high definition (HD) compression 

technologies to extract footage from remote wildlife locations over narrow 

VSAT networks. This allows a full 1080 HD video signal to arrive at the 

Earth-Touch facility and to be dropped into an edit timeline within hours of it 

being filmed. “Because of this, Earth-Touch offers TV networks the choice of 

stand-alone HD wildlife content in a variety of different formats, or crossmedia 

packages that bundle traditional broadcast formats with complimentary 

digital content including live feeds from the field, video blogs, short form 

videos, microblogs, sms alerts, and weekly highlight podcasts,” 

explains Palmer. 

looking at some new forms of 

distribution to get the movie straight to 

the street. 

In Swop! a black executive swops his 

life with a street hustler from 

Zimbabwe due to a bet made by the 

former’s bosses. 

The inspiration for the script came 

from the 1983 American hit, Trading 

Places, which starred Dan Aykroyd and 

Eddie Murphy. “We thought it was a 

great premise from which to tell a 

uniquely South African story,” says 

Sapadin. “Swop! has a mix of comedy 

styles; some of it is satirical and there 

are some slapstick moments, but it’s 

primarily a character-driven comedy. 

You laugh because you fall in love with 

the characters.” 

Dandala, himself well known to the 

South African public as an actor who 

has appeared in Isidingo and Jacob’s 

Cross, worked closely with Sapadin 

during the script development process. 

Sapadin notes that a form of script 

editing occurred during the extensive 

rehearsals with the actors prior to 

shooting. “A lot of the ideas for rewrites 

came out of those sessions. We 

also encouraged the actors to play on 

set, which freed them up to come up 

with some really funny moments.” 

The film was shot over four 

weekends in September on two 

Panasonic DVX-100 cameras. 

Locations were kept to a minimum and 

included a house at the Eagle Canyon 

Estate in Honeydew, an office in town, 

Eldorado Park and the Alexandra 

police station. 

January 2009 – SCREENAFRICA 

11

adcetera 

Report on the commercials industry by Sonja Hodgen 

STOP! REWIND! FAST FORWARD! 

What were the highlights of the past year for the South African commercials production 

sector? What does 2009 hold? Here are some industry opinions. 

Business as usual at Velocity 

Velocity had a consistently busy year in 2008 

and ended it on a positive note with a fresh new 

corporate identity and two commercials, Keith 

Rose’s Allan Gray Beautiful and Greg Gray’s 

commercial for MTN Clap, both being featured 

amongst the world’s top commercials in the 2008 

Gunn Report. 

According to Executive Producer Peter Carr, “all 

our directors are busy shooting right now and, gauging 

by the incoming workflow, we have not seen a change 

to mirror the worldwide economic events of the last 

few months. African business, particularly in the 

telecommunications market, is very active with 

productions planned for the next few months. “ 

He does advise caution, however, adding, “It’s not to 

say we aren’t expecting the global economic crisis to 

hit us in some form at some stage.” Carr is especially 

concerned with the facilitation business, which relies 

entirely on foreign income. “With Europe and the 

States being hardest hit and them being our greater 

foreign income, I expect things to slow down a little.” 

On the positive side Velocity attracts “a lot of regular 

business from the East and other markets. In our 

favour too is the exchange rate, which is appealing to 

those foreigners who do need to keep advertising. And 

of course with South Africa’s hosting of the 2010 

FIFA World Cup event and this year’s election in 

sight, we’re expecting a lot of work pertaining to these 

events. All-round, I think everyone is treading 

carefully, tightening their belts and preparing for less 

business whilst we ride it out. It would be foolish not 

to tread cautiously.” 

Eye on the European Markets 

Carr’s concerns with regards to the European market 

were echoed by Mario Bozzone, Executive Producer 

of Fresh Eye Productions. He noted that while a 

weaker rand makes quotations more competitive, 

many jobs were subsequently being cancelled. Bozzone 

was concerned not only with the cancellation of jobs 

but also with widespread retrenchments in Europe, 

which have touched some of their colleagues there. 

Fresh Eye Productions works extensively in Europe, 

with its own directors, and towards the end of 2008 

was feeling a decline in work from this market. While 

Bozzone is grateful for the exchange control which 

insulates South Africa to some extent, he believes 

2009 must be a year about watching cash flow and 

good quality people because “good people make 

money out of small margins”. 

A growing African market for 

Picture Tree 

Gary King, Executive Producer of Picture Tree 

commented on the “unusual amount of work for other 

countries, especially African countries, coming 

through the local advertising agencies,” adding that, 

“Local agencies seem to be doing a lot more 

international and African work, which is an 

interesting trend”. 

While turnover at Picture Tree increased during 

2008, margins were lower. On the year ahead he 

added that, “We have a lot of work for the new year 

already, which is promising and encouraging. 

However, the outlook for 2009 is bleak and we need to 

tread carefully and wisely to ensure our industry 

survives the economic slump." 

Refinery faces talent challenge 

Pam Marsh, General Manager of The Refinery, 

described 2008 as a “challenging” year due mainly to 

the fact that the company lost key talent to overseas. 

“So while work was coming in, it cost more to do it 

because of having to use freelancers,” she added. 

Marsh is however, feeling very positive with regards to 

2009 and beyond. She hopes that opportunities from 

the Confederations Cup and 2010 will keep a 

recession at bay and feels that companies have “to be 

clever” around realising the potential of these 

opportunities. 

World Cup fever for Tartan 

Keith Lindsay of Tartan Sound & Video also 

expressed optimism with regards to 2010, in terms of 

both production and eventing. “We’ve seen a 40% 

increase in work over the last four months,” he says, 

adding that he sees this increasing through 2009 into 

2010. 

New hatchings at Egg Jhb 

Verushka Vogt 

Egg Jhb grew tremendously during 2008. The small 

satellite office, originally opened at the end of 2006 to 

house the Humanoid directors, Greg Rom and 

Terence Neale, took on talented director Slim and 

then toward the end of 2008, new director Verushka 

Vogt. The latter started as a researcher and so 

impressed the team by assisting Rom with directing 

some scenes for the Cell C spots, she was promoted to 

director. 

The fast growth made the office ready for its own 

executive producer and Nicci Cox was promoted to fill 

the position. According to Cox, “2009 looks extremely 

exciting for Egg Jhb with us quoting on a variety of 

local and international scripts.” 

Bioscope Films enjoys great end to a 

great year 

Steers 

After a great 2008, Bioscope Films is approaching its 

third year with great vigour. According to Bioscope’s 

Executive Producer Daniel Kaplan, “it’s been a pretty 

good year of some solid work. Hylton Tannenbaum’s 

performance and humour work keeps getting stronger, 

particularly evident in his recent work for Steers. We’re 

also very excited about new directing talent, Mark 

Hofmeyr, joining us”. 

Mark Hofmeyr hails from a music video 

background, having done some beautiful work for 

Freshly Ground. Within his first weeks of joining 

Bioscope, he directed his first commercial for Draftfcb 

and FNB. 

Shining on for Shine Interactive 

Skeleflex 

"Shine had an incredible year,” comments Peter 

Furstenberg, managing director of Shine Interactive. 

In November 2008 they completed their first 

international commercial, Skeleflex, in association with 

Tartan Sound and Video for Just Fun Toys on behalf 

of Wild Planet, San Francisco. The advert flighted in 

America, South America and Singapore as well as 

South Africa. 

Says Furstenberg; “The commercial sets the 

standard for future projects and proves that the 

company is geared towards producing even more 

impressive character animation into the near future.” 

Foghound aims high 

The highlight of 2008 for Neil Symon, Managing 

Director of Foghound Studios, was being able to offer 

a number of their clients the opportunity to flight 

their commercials free on M-Net’s high definition 

(HD) channel. This was a result of Foghound having 

completed the upgrade to full HD and having shot 

and finished a number of commercials that were 

amongst the first commercials to be finished in HD. 

Symon believes that companies should not cut back on 

advertising in times of economic downturn. “Now, 

more then ever, it is crucial to maintain market share 

and those who do advertise will have stronger market 

share when things get better and the rest will have to 

play catch up at an inflated cost,” he says, adding that 

he believes companies that add value and are cost 

effective will weather the tough times. “Foghound is 

well positioned to assist clients with budgets without 

compromising on value. This is our strength.” 

Creative Vision experiences boom 

Creative Vision has experienced a boom during these 

turbulent economic times. They attribute this to the 

quality and cost effectiveness of their work. A fine 

example of this is an animated Airwaves commercial 

for DDB SA. This clever concept by Steven Jones and 

Kenneth Van Reenen was to animate a collection of 

600 airwaves pellets illustrating the convenience of 

their new bottle pack. 

12 


adcetera 

AND OTHER 

NEWS … 

GREG FRANCOIS SHOOTS UP 

A STORM 

BOUFFANT 

HITS TARGET 

WITH 

APPLETISER 

Ariane Besson of Bouffant 

directed the latest Appletiser 

commercial which reflects her 

Appletiser 

unique sense of what is 

contemporary. The visually 

appealing and sensory ad is 

brought together through the 

use of the classic electronic beat 

named Delirium – Silence. 

Collective Films director, Greg Francois, has added another 

action-packed adventure spot to his showreel, this time for 

Distell’s Three Ships Whisky brand, through agency BBDO 

Cape Town. Authenticity was paramount so all the scenes were 

shot in camera using wind machines, water cannons, water dump 

bins, and complex lightening effects to create storm sequences. 

Another element of authenticity is the fact that after extensive 

casting, Three Ships Whisky’s actual cellar master was best suited 

to the role of cellar master. 

LET THE GAMES BEGIN 

Towards the end of 2008, The Agency launched the first 

television commercial for 2010 FIFA World Cup National 

Supporter, Telkom. The advert entitled Players highlights the 

functional contribution that Africa’s largest communications 

company will be playing in providing the ICT infrastructure for 

the international tournament. 

Telkom 

CROWD 

CONtROL AT 

ANIMMATE 

Animmate was the animation 

company behind Jeremy 

Goodall’s Danamon Bank 

TVC. 

The TVC’s demand for 

special effects enabled 

Animmate to use their 

Massive crowd creation 

package as well as Maya for 

the building creations. 

There were 350 extras on 

set. In some of the scenes 

more than 15 000 digital 

people were added. 

Three Ships Whiskey 

Agency Speak 

WHO IS 

JERRY MPUFANE? 

I have over 17 years experience in the marketing 

communications field, including positions in the public 

and private sectors. Previous positions I have held 

include Group Marketing Director at the South African 

Broadcasting Corporation (SABC), and General 

Manager: Brand at South African Tourism, responsible 

for all global brand strategies and advertising. Today, I 

have the privilege of heading up one of South Africa’s 

largest and most successful advertising agencies, 

Draftfcb Johannesburg. My responsibilities entail overall 

agency growth strategy, with the core responsibility of 

developing the best creative solutions for clients’ 

communications problems. 

DEFINE YOUR PERSONALITY: 

Passionate, professional, problem solver. 

WHY ARE YOU IN ADVERTISING? 

Ideas, ideas, ideas. Actually, my dream career was to be 

an airline pilot. I followed through with the idea and was 

accepted to join the old South African Air Force for 

training after finishing matric. This was obviously during 

the apartheid years, and at the last minute a senior 

family member discouraged me. With ticket in hand, I 

never pitched for my train ride to the air force base! 

That said, marketing communications had always been a 

career option. I enjoy that it’s an ‘ideas’ environment. I 

started at the very bottom doing menial tasks like 

working the mailroom. I have over the years risen 

through the ranks and gained experienced on both the 

agency and corporate side. 

WHAT HAS BEEN THE HIGHLIGHT OF 

YOUR CAREER IN ADVERTISING? 

Right here, right now – heading up South Africa’s oldest 

advertising agency, which is also one of the country’s 

largest and most successful. 

WHAT WOULD YOU SAY IS THE CRAZIEST 

THING ABOUT THE ADVERTISING INDUSTRY? 

Developing the best communication ideas and not 

charging for them. It’s really crazy – we don’t get paid 

for the essence of advertising and marketing, which is 

‘the big idea’. We only get paid to implement them. 

WHAT WOULD YOU SAY IS THE MOST SANE 

THING ABOUT THE ADVERTISING INDUSTRY? 

The ability to influence society. 

WHAT ELEMENTS MAKE FOR A GOOD AD? 

Relevant human truths. Have you seen the latest 

Vodacom Summer Loving TV ad? It dramatises an 

emotion everyone has during this time of the year – that 

the holiday season is upon us – in such a uniquely South 

African way. 

WHAT PERSONALITY TRAITS MAKE 

FOR A GOOD CREATIVE? 

The desire and will to change the world through ideas. 

WHAT IS THE TRICK IN MANAGING CREATIVES? 

Giving them the freedom to ‘just be’; to remind them 

that it’s all about the big idea, always. And to assure 

them that I’ll worry about the budget. 

WHAT ELEMENTS MAKE FOR A GOOD AGENCY? 

Creative energy in the studio is critical, but it is also 

about accountability and knowing how far to push the 

bar. Draftfcb South Africa has a strong track record for 

meeting its clients’ marketing and business objectives. It 

is, and always has been, truly accountable, and it is this 

accountability that clients value and appreciate. 

WHAT KIND OF INPUT DO YOU EXPECT 

FROM A PRODUCTION COMPANY? 

A ‘can do’ attitude. 

WHICH CLIENT OR BRAND WOULD YOU MOST 

WANT TO SECURE FOR YOUR AGENCY AND WHY? 

Brand South Africa – there can be no greater honour. 

January 2009 – SCREENAFRICA 

13

TELEVISION 

Reports by Joanna Sterkowicz 

Messing with the 

viewer’s head 

What inspires viewers to watch a TV show? Is it 

a promo that appeals to the left (rational) side of 

the brain, or the right (emotional) side? The “Dirty 

Little Secret” of good promo-making was revealed 

by international promo guru Charley Holland at 

the recent Promax/BDA Africa Conference in 

Johannesburg. 

As promo-makers are in the 

business of making viewers 

watch something they’ve never 

heard of, they need to be good 

salesmen. “So often the world of 

promos is like Groundhog Day – the 

creative bucket of Lego is full of pieces 

but we tend to reach for the same ones 

and build the same thing. Hence the 

advent of ‘McPromos’ – fast food 

promos that are churned out with no 

originality or good ideas behind them. 

Even good promo makers make 

McPromos sometimes. They inevitably 

blame the client, who’s never made a 

promo in his life. But McPromos are 

the failure of us creatives to find 

alternative solutions,” said Charley 

Holland, who has worked in the global 

TV industry for 25 years. 

A good salesman will find out all 

about the customer, what they want 

and like and then close the sale by 

making the decision to watch the show 

a no-brainer. According to Holland, a 

good promo starts with conflict that 

grabs the viewer’s attention. Then the 

promo communicates who the message 

is for and what it is about. Then comes 

the close of sale or promise 

ANTI-McPROMOS – Charley Holland 

(eg. watching this show you will 

intrigue you), followed by the call to 

action (ie. ‘Watch Desperate Housewives 

tonight’).” 

Holland showed Promax/BDA 

Africa delegates a ‘perfect promo’ made 

for Air Crash Investigations. It shows the 

cockpit of a commercial airliner with 

this voice-over: “With both engines 

dead, they didn’t have a chance.” A 

subtitle then appears: “Yes, they did. 

Any one of the passengers could have 

stopped the accident.” So the promise 

to the audience is that they will find out 

what the passengers should have done. 

This is followed by the call to action 

(ie. details of when the programme 

is showing). 

Promo makers must ask themselves 

the following questions when 

conceptualising a promo: what do I 

want the audience to do (call to action); 

what’s going to make them do that 

(closing the sale); how will viewers get a 

sense that this message is for them; how 

will they get a sense of what the 

message is; how am I going to get their 

attention; and how will I reward the 

viewer for giving his attention? 

“A call to action must come after the 

close of sale,” stressed Holland. “And, 

lines in a promo alone won’t get 

someone to watch a show. People don’t 

go around saying they saw a show last 

night where ‘the hunter became the 

hunted, from the director of Patriot 

Game’. Ideas and not lines will get 

people to watch TV.” 

Holland believes promos should be 

targeted at “those who need a damn 

good reason to watch the show. Before 

writing a promo, make a list of all the 

reasons why someone might watch the 

show. For example, Titanic was the 

biggest box office earner of all time, it 

won Oscars, has action for boys, 

romance for girls, etc. These are all 

rational reasons. But there is also the 

emotive side of the brain. So you have 

the conscious (left) brain versus the 

subconscious (right) brain; think versus 

feel. Therefore you need to decide 

whether viewers might watch this show 

for conscious, rational ‘thinking’ 

reasons or for subsconcious, emotive 

‘feeling’ reasons. Promos are supposed 

to create a need to watch the show. 

They’re not supposed to tell you about 

the show. 

“We make purchasing decisions 

based on the needs of our subconscious. 

People buy because they feel 

understood, not because they’ve been 

made to understand. So how do promo 

makers do this? By studying drama, 

which is our DNA and speaks to the 

things deep inside us. People go to see 

Titanic to feel what it was like to be on 

a sinking ship and to feel like what it’s 

like to lose everything and then find it 

again. 

“So you need to find a way to distract 

viewers’ rational brains while appealing 

to their emotive brains. You have to 

figure out what subconscious 

experience the show will give viewers 

that they can’t experience in their 

normal life.” 

Design-savvy promos 

An on-air promotion can be 

turned into a thing of beauty by 

adding some design panache, 

according to Jeff Rustia, 

president and founder of Front, 

Canada’s leading broadcast design and 

branding agency, who presented at the 

recent Promax/BDA Africa 

Conference in Johannesburg. 

Rustia, whose 18-year career has 

spanned the globe from Tokyo and 

Mumbai to New York, revealed ‘The 

12 Commandments of Promo Design’ 

– tips to turn a promo into a 30-second 

work of art. “The first four tips revolve 

around process. Number 1 – embrace 

design into the process. Don’t put 

design at the end and slap on a few ugly 

graphics at the end. Number 2 – start 

with an idea and then do the ‘form and 

function’ test by asking the following: 

who is the promo for, what is the 

message, what will the promo look like, 

what emotion does it evoke, does it fit 

the brand, and finally, what resources 

do I have?” 

Tip Number 3 involves finding a 

visual direction. Rustia 

suggested that promo 

creatives cut up everything 

they can get their hands 

on – books, magazines, 

etc, as all these become 

references. 

The next tip is to 

sketch and draw 

pictures. Rustia stressed 

that creatives don’t need 

lots of money to make a 

designer promo and 

showed delegates a 

simple, design-based 

promo featuring Oscar-winner Sissy 

Spacek advertising the classic movie, To 

Kill a Mocking Bird. The budget for the 

promo was just $5 000. 

Rustia continued: “Tip Number 5 is 

to have fun, play and kick-start your 

creativity. Ditch your beta brainwave 

and play. Next – simplify, connect and 

exclude what is not important.” 

Tip Number 7 is to design the promo 

with words. “Write a script that will 

inspire beautiful images. Treat your 

PROMO PANACHE – Jeff Rustia 

promos 

like any 

good story 

in a book 

with a 

beginning, a 

middle and 

an end. But 

keep it 

simple and 

be merciless 

with your red 

pen. 

“Next, 

design the 

promo with pictures 

because pictures have the power to give 

information and make an impact. So, 

how you do you make visuals more 

appealing? Train your eye to look for 

design savvy-scenes – look for great 

angles or great camera moves. Develop 

a graphic eye for existing footage (eg. 

scenes from films). Or, you can design 

beautiful visuals yourself with graphics, 

animation or objects like sticks or 

paper, cut-outs or motion graphics. 

Remember that the promo maker is a 

visual storyteller.” 

Tip Number 9 incorporates the five 

basic elements of design: use of colour 

because it’s immediate; use of contrast 

as a sharp contrast always draws the eye 

to the screen; use of symbols – signs 

that have meaning and are powerful 

(eg. Desperate Housewives has an apple 

because it represents temptation); use of 

font (ie. consider your audience when 

choosing a font, for example, use a 

funky, modern typeface for a young 

audience); and use of layout and 

composition. 

Said Rustia: “Tip Number 10 is to 

design promos with the use of pacing 

and editing. Slower cuts allow your 

audience to have better retention. 

Number 11 is to design with audio and 

music. For me, sound is almost as 

powerful as visuals, while for some 

promo creatives, music is the starting 

point.” 

The last tip, concluded Rustia, is to 

learn all the above design tips so that 

you can execute them. 

14 


Memory Card Camera-Recorder 

AG-HPX170 series

TRACKINGTECHNOLOGYPRODUCTS 

JVC unveils 

surveillance camera 

JVC has introduced the new VN-X35U IP network 1.3 

megapixel security camera which offers scaling from QUAD 

VGA to VGA resolution allowing users to conserve bandwidth 

with VGA images, while benefitting from megapixel resolution 

when needed. 

The VN-X35U creates a surveillance environment where the 

user can see an image at four times the resolution of standard IP 

network cameras. The VN-X35U has the ability to digitally 

zoom in on the recorded image to provide precise image detail in 

any conditions, day or night. 

The VN-X35U uses a full motion multi-stream codec that 

delivers dual-stream Quad-VGA (4 x VGA) Motion JPEG and 

VGA MPEG-4 compression streams simultaneously at 15 

frames per second. In addition, the camera has a built-in in/out 

audio jack which supports two-way audio to which a microphone 

and speaker jacks can be attached providing the ability to 

communicate both ways with people at the camera's location. 

With Quad-VGA resolution, up to four times the area can be 

monitored compared to a standard VGA output camera, when 

the viewing of the full resolution is not required. The camera also 

offers digital PTZ function for the panning and zooming of an 

image with no moving parts. 

The VN-X35U features a motion detection function that 

outputs an alarm, with two inputs and two outputs, whenever 

movement is detected within a pre-specified area of the image. 

The VN-X35U supports industry standard Power over 

Ethernet (POE) for quick installation. Video, audio and power 

are carried on a single Ethernet cable. The camera can also be 

powered using separate data AC 24V power cables. 

For more information contact Inala Technologies 

Multi-SDI Leader 

monitor 

Both non-technical 

programme-makers 

as well as technically 

experienced studiobased 

engineers in 

the field or in the 

edit suite will 

appreciate Leader's 

new LV5380 highly 

intuitive multi-SDI 

monitor. 

Designed to permit 

easy on-camera mounting or rack-mounting, the LV5380 displays 

video and audio signal information in a wide choice of operatorselectable 

combinations. An integral high-precision 8.4 inch 1024 

x 768 pixel XGA colour LCD screen provides accurate sourcepicture 

representations, high-resolution waveforms and clearly 

readable text. Screen calibration can be switched to 6500K or 

9300K colour temperature or to storable user-specified settings. 

Measuring 315 x 176 x 85mm and weighing 2 kg, the LV5380 

can be powered from battery (10 to 18 V DC) or via an external 

universal mains adapter. 

The LV5380 incorporates user-selectable multi-display modes 

Advantages 

of Panasonic 

AVCHD 

Camera 

Range 

AG-HMC71 

The innovative 

Panasonic AVCHD 

range of camcorders 

and supporting 

products offers many 

of the workflow and 

AG-HMC151 

operational benefits 

pioneered in Panasonic's market-leading P2 range of high-end 

professional products. It also uses Panasonic's codec based on 

H264 for compact file sizes with outstanding image quality. 

The AG-HMC71, launched round NAB in April 2008, is the 

industry's first shoulder-mounted AVCHD camcorder, and shares 

the reliable tapeless workflow of the AG-HMC151. The 

AG-HMC151 came on line towards the end of last year. 

Panasonic's AVHCD camcorder range brings the benefits of 

solid-state recording to budget-conscious professionals. Recording 

onto an SD/SDHC card offers a fast and simple IT-compatible 

workflow and ensures ultra-reliable performance without moving 

parts in the recording process. 

The cameras are resistant to shock, vibration, temperature 

change, and extreme weather conditions, and they offer instant 

access to the recorded footage — without the need to ingest or 

digitise — for rapid editing and post-production, and 

uncompromised quality. 

The AG-HMC151 provides enhanced HD, extended 

recording capability, and the fast, simple, and highly reliable 

workflow offered by tapeless, solid-state recording. The 

AG-HMC151 features three native 16:9 progressive 1/3-inch 

CCD imagers with an optical image stabilisation (O.I.S.) 

function to ensure stable shooting and a 28mm Leica Dicomar 

wide-angle zoom lens (35MM equivalent). The AG-HMC151 

supports a full range of HD formats. 

Additional features of the AG-HMC151 include professional 

XLR audio input connections and a wide range of data and signal 

interfaces including HDMI out, USB 2.0, component out (D 

terminal), composite out and RCA audio out jacks, a 3.5-inch 

LCD monitor to display thumbnail images for quick viewing and 

playback, and a time code/user bits menu. The camera also has 

remote jacks for focus iris and start/stop functions, a prerecord 

feature that allows the camera to capture footage occurring 

immediately before real-time recording begins, and a time/date 

stamp menu option for documentation purposes. 

Based on MPEG-4 AVC/H.264 high-profile encoding, 

AVCHD provides a near doubling of bandwidth efficiency and 

considerably improved video performance over the older 

MPEG-2 compression used in HDV formats. 

For more information contact Panasonic Broadcast 

which can be switched to show YCbCr, YRGB, YGBR, GBR or 

RGB luminance waveform, colour vector, five-bar, surroundsound 

level, status and video source. Freeze mode allows 

comparisons of different SDI input signals. Thumbnail picture 

display can be selected with other multi-display operating modes 

for easy source identification. 

Integral dual auto-detecting inputs allow the LV5380 to be 

used for monitoring and analysis of over 20 HD-SDI/SD-SDI 

formats including SMPTE 259M, 274M, 292M and 296M. 

Input format, colourimetry, black burst or tri-level external 

reference input are auto-sensed. Front-panel USB drive 

connectivity allows video stills to be captured at the press of a 

button as well as storing presets and software updates. 

For more information contact Zimele Broadcasting Services 

Toon 

Boom 

software 

more 

advanced 

than ever 

Toon Boom Animate, 

released at the end of last 

year, combines the best of 

its digital animation 

toolsets which make it the 

most advance software to 

date. 

With Toon Boom 

Animate, users have greater 

productivity, better quality 

and faster delivery of 

animation than ever before. 

It offers flexibility for all 

types of media, from online 

to HDTV. 

Aaron Simpson, founder 

of ColdHardFlash.com and 

Lineboil.com had this to 

say about Animate: "As the 

title suggests, Toon Boom 

Animate is built with one 

type of user in mind – the 

animator. The way it works 

simply makes sense, and it 

took me about as much 

time to learn as it did to 

open the box. Like many 

digital artists, I use a variety 

of software packages in my 

productions, and Animate 

has already become a 

mainstay in my toolbox." 

Toon Boom Animate 

adapts to any creative habit 

whether users are trained in 

traditional or digital 

animation. It also supports 

standard formats for 

seamless asset transfer and 

multi-channel digital 

output. 

For digital animators 

wanting to expand their 

creative possibilities, Toon 

Boom Animate delivers 

impressive features and 

substantial benefits 

throughout their entire 

production process. 

Other features include 

the ability to create 

tradigital and bitmap 

animation as well as 

combine both styles. Users 

can access advanced lipsync 

and cell swapping 

tools to give an extra edge 

to their content creation 

process. 

For more information 

contact Touchvision 

Digital Media Solutions 

16

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