When I was young my grandfather gave me a Canon Super 8mm camera and told me, ”You’re only limited by your imagination.” True story that. Some part of me knew I wanted to be a filmmaker very early on; it probably started with my Grandfather showing me films as a young kid. I watched Laurel & Hardy, The Three Stooges, Ray Harryhausen fantasy’s, James Bond, Clint Eastwood westerns and many other classics. If I recall they were all on Betamax and he had a lot of 16mm films but I never watched any of them. 

Sadly I wasn’t able to actually shoot anything with the camera due to the fact that in South Africa 8mm and Super 8mm are non-existent. I am also not made of money so the cost of importing and exporting a 50ft roll of film was not worth it. I did however run around with the camera pretending to film stuff with it, those were awesome days.

Since graduating from film school I have wanted to make my first feature; its based on my year-end thesis film A Life With Less Meaning. It is a film that I really connect with on an emotional level. The main character Murray is a guy that I see everyday in people around me. I like the story enough to justify the time and effort of making it into a feature length movie. I had a plan to leave film school and go out into the world and somehow find some money and make a movie Robert Rodriguez-style. I was going to pick up a camera find some actors and make a movie with whatever props and locations I knew I had access to. I had read Rebel Without A Crew many times and so I was determined to do this for a small budget to prove myself. 

The problem with my plan is that I lived and continue to live in a dream world. After varsity it came time to pay rent, pay my car, and generally pay my way through life. I made the mistake of not preparing myself for this. All I was concerned about was my ‘next project’. I basically had no money in my pocket; my parents are not rich so there was never the option of falling back onto that. They provided for me my whole life but now it was time to stand on my own feet. I would not say I totally ignored the advice of family and friends but I was convinced if I could make my own El Mariachi that money would not be a problem. “Why should a filmmaker care for such things?” I thought to myself. I had made some decent money during my varsity days and I should have saved it but I do not know where it all went. That is one of my biggest regrets in life, and a decision that has plagued me to this day.

I am going to take a little trip down memory lane here so buckle up. I spent most of my time making movies with my high school friend Stephen Drake, an IT expert and all round Geek like me (except I am no IT expert). Stephen can hack a microwave. I also used my best friend Kyle as the actor in everything I made. I made him work for no pay, but I am not sure if he liked it. He never complained, even after I broke things in his house whilst filming. I think what attracted me to Stephen was the large basement and garage he had in his house. In South Africa it is rare for a house to have a basement and it felt foreign to me. I had these fantasies of making all kinds of things down there in the depths of Stephens’s basement. We have a mutual love of films and that drew us together on a creative level. Whatever crazy ideas I concocted he encouraged me to go for it. He never once looked at me and said it cannot be done. That is the kind of attitude I like, it makes it easier to work with someone. Stephen and I spent four years in his bedroom listening to speed metal and drinking liters of tea and coffee making my projects from film school. It also helps that he had ADSL, which I did not. He also helped me buy my first PC. At the time it was expensive but I needed it if I was going to make movies. He mainly provided me with the CGI and some sound design/music and I used his room as a place to escape. I slept in his lounge, which was odd at first but his parents and grandparents got used to it. His room was tiny and there was literally no space to sleep.

I remember once we tried to make this film noir I had written, I really had no idea what I was doing and it was probably one of the worst pieces of crap I have ever made. To this day I have yet to venture back into a diner. What also screwed the entire process was the demolition of the location we had scouted. I have many memories of failed attempts to make films over the years. We once drove all the way to the Hartebeesport dam and spent two days filming only to change our minds halfway through and make something else. I cannot recall if I even bothered to ingest the Mini DV material. 

My first camera was a stills camera with a VGA video mode, the Sony DSC-P32. I shot a lot of my first films on it. It had a 256MB memory card that could record a whopping 42 seconds of video. That was not a problem, I simply filmed my takes and when the card was full I ran up to the room and copied the files to my PC and continued filming. I was the unofficial photographer at high school and I was friends with the principal’s son so that meant I could take the schools camera home with me. It had a zoom lens and also recorded VGA video. That increased my production value. Those were the days for me, I did not care if Stephen and I did not know what we were doing, that did not matter. What mattered was the fact we were determined to make it no matter what anybody said. I miss that period in my life. Going to film school definitely changed my outlook towards how I chose to make films. I am not laying blame here but rather I feel like film school was a limiting factor. When I left I could not shake certain ideologies that had been implanted in my mind. There are too many to name but I feel that being young and naïve it maybe would have been a better idea to just have gone out and made my movie and skipped film school altogether. The problem with that is I had nothing to fall back on. If I failed I was screwed and would have to live with that. I do not regret going go to film school but rather I wish I didn’t lose myself in the process. We had fun times but sadly when film school ended our movie making partnership came to an end, Steve moved out with his girlfriend and life for me continued. At the same time my other friends started getting married and buying their own cars and houses. In the back of my head I was thinking, “you bunch of suckers ha ha ha”. The truth is they make more money than I do, they have more stability and they are a little better off than I am. 

I still have my dream though. That dream is something most filmmakers are familiar with. You meet some guys in the industry who are there to work and get by, others are like me, and they see the goal of making it to Hollywood. I am not sure what constitutes “making it to Hollywood” means to everyone. To me it is simply the opportunity to make a film that a) gets financial backing from a studio b) gets theatrical distribution from a minor or major studio and c) something people want to see and buy on DVD/Blu ray. When that day comes for me I will finally be able to say that I am a filmmaker, right now I do not feel like I am one.

I spent a lot of time and money reading about anything related to filmmaking. I was looking for the “secret”. I was looking at the “secret” to good scripts, good editing, and good sound. I was like Indiana Jones questing for the Holy Grail of film secrets. I was convinced that the gear they were using in Hollywood was somehow special. It granted them access to the “next level” and I was in desperate need of leveling up. When I made my fourth year thesis film I decided I was going to make it the proper and professional way and that meant shooting it on 35mm film or a real high definition cinema camera. Up until that point I was used to shooting on 1/3” video and was accustomed to all the drawbacks of the format. When I shot A Life With Less Meaning I shot it on the (at the time) newly released Red One digital camera. The feeling of getting permission to go out and shoot in this camera could be likened to the scene in Shawshank Redemption where Tim Robbins stands in the rain with is arms outstretched to the heavens. I felt liberated and for the first time people were going to take me seriously. This is what I believed. My whole life it had been drummed into my skull that 35mm is the reason Hollywood films look the way they do, so after a while you believe that. The Red One has a sensor that almost covers a 35mm field of view and I was using a real set of 35mm PL lenses. I was amped to say the least.

Then I learnt something interesting, real interesting on the set. When I was framing my shots up I was expecting it to look like a scene out of Blade Runner, but it wasn’t. I got a little upset and blamed the lenses, so I changed from a wide lens to a tighter lens and it still made no difference. I was also scared of the so called “35mm depth of field.” I was genuinely scared to move my camera because of the so-called “focus pulling” needed. All the crap drummed into my head about this actually made me scared. That is wrong. I hated that feeling. After the second day I realized that all this talk was rubbish and the truth finally revealed itself to me… the truth is that there is no truth. The so-called “secret” did not exist. It takes a large amount of planning and hard work to make a film look good. I was looking for something that people on the Internet had created. People on forums arguing about what camera is best to buy, what scriptwriting software to write with, being told what editing software is best. Of course all of that is important and does matter but that should not be the driving force behind a project. I got so lost in this “armchair specialist” fantasy rubbish that I wasted an entire year of my life following it and quite frankly I don’t want to be a part of a crazy cult. People sitting behind a computer were dictating how I should make movies. Even today there are arguments over camera formats and it has finally reached the point where I wipe my hands of it all. 

I want to get back to what is actually important and let the technical stuff sort itself out. That leaves me with where I am today in 2011. I feel like I have achieved nothing since leaving high school in 2003. I have spent the last three years working in the professional industry on mostly feature film sets. I am grateful for the experience I have gained, I have truly learned quite a lot. This invaluable knowledge comes with experience and I am starting to see a pattern across all film sets. Time and money… those mystical elements control a film. The important thing to learn is to be in control and not ever let a lack of either hinder what is important to the movie.  2012 is the year that I finally get to be that young kid again with $7000 in his pocket (Yeah right! I wish! Who am I kidding? I am still broke) and a camera in his hand making movies. I am working on my own short film that I am prepping for January 2012 and I have three feature film scripts in place. My goal here is to start with this short film and use it as platform to launch my feature films into place. I will write another post about this short film so I can dedicate the entire page to just that. 

Here is to 2012.

It has been a while since I last posted but the last eight weeks have been quite hectic for me. I completed work on Leon Schusters new film "Mad Buddies" as Data Manager.

It was a great shoot and overall a very good experience for me with a wonderful cast and crew. We shot with two Red One MX's and managing the data alone was a full time job. On top of that I was equipped with a Mac Pro and Red Rocket card to make ProRes offline media.

I will post some pictures online detailing the shoot.

Splinter Town was formed in April 2010 in South Africa. It consists of four members, Victor Twigge (lead vocalist, rhythm), Cornel Viljoen (lead guitarist), Konrad Nieuwenhuizen (bass guitarist) and Reino Jonker (drums). These guys are incredibly talented and working with them was an amazing experience.

I  met with the band some time last year September and was supposed to start shooting around that time but was unable due to my prior commitment to Eternity. In the end the delay in shooting helped craft a better end product in my opinion. We planned the shoot quite well and despite a tight budget we managed to get everything we needed in three days of shooting.

We shot about one third of the performance against green screen, the rest was live action. We shot the video using the Canon 5D & 7D with a variety of lenses: Canon 70-200mm f2.8 L, 17-85mm f4.5 L, 50mm f1.4, Sigma 10-20mm f4-5.6, Canon 18-135mm f3.5-5.6, and finally 18-55mm f3.5-5.6. A big thanks to Tony Stroebel and Chris Dos Santos for the use of their gear.

I have used CGI in my films and work before but I always outsourced it to my mates, but the time has come to pick up the tools myself and learn how to do it. I have also started using Adobe After Effects for the compositing work. This represents a big challenge for me because I have always held the notion that I want to tell the stories and not have to do everything myself. I would prefer to hand this work over to guys with experience however the flip-side of this whole is experience is knowledge gained on my part, I can say" I've done that before".

My award winning short film is now available to view online courtesy of IMDB, please view it here. 
All feedback is welcome.

Back in 2008 I was a fourth year film student at The Motion Picture Academy of Pretoria trying to find enough money to make my final graduation film.  I funded the film through my own pocket and through asking family and friends for donations. I was even lucky enough to shoot the film on the Red One for free.

Today I found out the film won a Gold Award at the 2010 Colorado Film Festival. Here is a link to the competition winners page. I am very proud of this achievement and would like to thank all my family and friends for their contributions towards the film. It was very hard work getting this film made in 2 days with very little money and time.

Here is another link:

A Little bit of information about the film:

Murray is a stationary-supply salesman; not a very good one. Recently divorced, fired, out of luck, and friends. Life seems to have lost all sense of purpose and meaning, things change for Murray when he befriends a weird stranger by the name of Leonard.

The film stars Russel Savadier, Jonathan Pienaar, Gerard Bester, Juliette Jenner, Lee Ann Shephard. It won the 2010 Gold Award at the Colorado Film Festival.  In addition to this it also won three awards at the Motion Picture Academy of Pretoria awards evening 2008:

Best Director
Best Writer
Best Film

My thanks to all the cast, crew, my friends and my family, without you there would be no film! I co-wrote this film with Evan Dembskey, who deserves credit for his contribution to the script.  Bronwyn Burlison saved my life with regards to organising and doing all the work good producers generally do. Philip Curran, the composer really lifted the entire film to another level with his music.

I also think this is the first Student Film shot on the Red One digital camera in South Africa (we completed principle photography on the 21 October 2008).

Join the Facebook group.

Eternity is the new Vampire film set in South Africa and features mostly South African actors. It hits local cinemas December 16th.

Here is the link to the blog.

An official website is up as well as a Facebook and Twitter page.