Dowbload Part 3 - size: 2.7mb - Screen Africa

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SCREENAFRICA
Zooming in on the film & Television
production industry in Africa
NEWS
MAGAZINE
Bang Bang Club pg 36 Post-production pg 26 21st Anniversary pg 42
BROADCAST • FILM • COMMERCIALS • TECHNOLOGY • DIGITAL MEDIA
SABC signs
contract with Siemens
The South African
Broadcasting Corporation
(SABC) signed a contract with
Siemens IT Solutions &
Mauritius
digital
upgrade
Mauritius Broadcast
Corporation (MBC) has
been upgraded with a R7m
Avid Unity ISIS media
storage solution by South
African-based Spescom
Media IT. This upgrade
which boosts storage
capacity and postproduction
efficiencies,
signals a further evolution
towards a fully digital
environment for the
broadcaster.
MBC's television
network currently consists
of three analogue channels
and six digital channels.
Two new digital terrestrial
channels were launched in
2008 and a project for a 24-
hour rolling news station is
well under way and will
provide an interactive
platform for local, regional
and international news.
– to page 51
Services at the beginning of
April to oversee the roll out of
digital technology solutions
across the corporation.
The contract encompasses
an agreement that will allow
Siemens to oversee, project
manage, consult and deploy
the necessary technology for
the roll out of a number of
specific digital projects.
Priority areas are projects
relating to infrastructure for
Digital Terrestrial Television
(DTT) including new Final
Control Centres (FCC),
playout and storage,
infrastructure for supporting
the SABC’s coverage of the
2010 FIFA World Cup, and,
Township film
goes to Cannes
The Game of My Life, a soccerthemed
feature film shot over
seven days in the Duduza
township just outside of
Johannesburg, will be
represented at the Cannes
Film Festival in May by its
writer/producer Michael J Rix.
Directed by Dumisani Vusi
Nhlapo in his feature film
debut, The Game of My Life is
going straight to DVD for
distribution in South Africa’s
townships via a network of
vendors. “I’m also hoping to
CR
archiving libraries enabling
easy access to content material.
Siemens and the SABC, as
the managing client, will work
in close co-operation to get the
best possible equipment for the
projects. In some cases, the
SABC will purchase the
equipment, in others, Siemens
will evaluate and buy the
equipment on the SABC’s
behalf from suppliers. “This
will, in effect, allow us to
choose the best possible
systems available throughout
the world,” says Richard
Waghorn, Chief Technology
Officer at the SABC.
Siemens, in its project
– to page 51
get the DVDs into stores like
Reliable. We will be doing a
lot of word of mouth
marketing and taking ads in
the Daily Sun. There is also
the potential of selling the film
to a local broadcaster,” explains
Rix.
In January Rix, who singlehandedly
made South Africa’s
first ever claymation feature,
Tengers, put out a call to
interested parties to each buy a
2% share in The Game of My
– to page 51
www.screenafrica.com VOL 21 – MAY 2009 R27.00
EIGHTIES TO NOUGHTIES: Southern Screen & Stage, the first trade magazine
for the South African film and television industry launched in May 1988. It changed its
name to Screen Africa in 1992 and for a while was published in A4 size. Today Screen
Africa is a glossy, world class trade monthly magazine which reflects the South African
and African industries to local and international readers.
M-Net’s new local
content strategy
All local series produced for
South African pay-TV
broadcaster M-Net will now
be piloted as a means of
testing content before series
go into production. In other
firsts, the broadcaster is to
issue commissioning briefs for
its Series and Action channels
and focus strongly on
development.
Newly appointed head of
Local Development &
Production Helen Smit
emphasises the importance of
the development element.
“We’re really keen to develop
our own formats in all genres.
As a broadcaster we want to
perform on all platforms and
to do that you need to own all
rights. However, we wouldn’t
necessarily exclude coproductions.”
It’s no secret that local
content performs well in
South Africa and M-Net’s
locally produced shows are no
exception. “Local content,
which accounts for about 18%
of the M-Net schedule, really
works for us. As long as we
tell stories that are relevant
and that people can relate to,
they will resonate with the
audience and generate good
ARs. We always set AR
targets for each local show
and that target is tied to the
time slot and to the record for
that time slot. Carte Blanche,
for example, performs
remarkably well for an
– to page 51
DIRECTORY &
INTERNATIONAL GUIDE
EMAIL NEWS
EVENTS
www.screenafrica.com
For more information
Tel: +27 (0)11 719-4380
Fax: +27 (0)11 719-4392
Email: editor@screenafrica.com