Murmures
English
When we left Harare for Johannesburg on Wednesday November 19 to tour some of their top film and television show production studios courtesy of MultiChoice Africa, we just thought it was going to be a cool learning experience but, it turned out to be something deeper.
We never understood why some of the players in the local film sector would always say that in Zimbabwe we do not have a film industry but a film community. After the tour we can now comprehend that statement.
Some of the film production sets and studios we visited were, Zabalaza, Isibaya, Vuzu, Super Sport and Give me the Bill Game Show.
In this review will be looking specifically on the film scene as there is a lot we can do locally, even with the limited resources at our disposal.
EDUCATION
One common element amongst all the players we met was that they were educated. Be it the cast, crew, directors, everybody had gone through some form of formal training and were certified.
This is similar to the Zimbabwean situation, we have various institutions that train people on acting, how to do film productions amongst many other things but, a bulk of players on the local scene are often saying, and it just comes natural.
“One can act without having gone through film school and all and that’s for those who are highly talented but on the technical aspects one needs to get trained. If people want to get where we are and even surpass us they need to be trained,” said the brains behind Dstv’s Mzansi Magic, Lebone Maema.
Hence for our film sector to grow, we need to have players in that field educated.
INNOVATION
Times are tough in Zimbabwe but do we stop perusing our passions…? No! Therefore film makers need to be innovative.
When we visited the Zabalaza, Isibaya and Rockville sets, we were amazed to realise that everything happens under one roof. This means that costs such as transport, location hiring are reduced.
Taking Zbabalaza as a case study, there are over 20 locations that appear in the film but everything is happening in one place. It was amazing to see how they can play around with various components to make a room that was a bedroom become a prison and what was a dining room become a bar.
The initial cost to set up such a facility might be a bit on the high but imagine if the local film sector was to join forces and invest in one such purpose built studio and come up with a shooting schedule for their productions.
This will help them share ideas and skills and with time the quality of our productions will be boosted and more films would be made in a short space of time.
ORIGINAL STORY WRITING
The film industry is simply story telling using motion pictures, what captures an audience is not necessarily the effects and sophisticated camera angles but it’s that original unique storyline.
In Zimbabwe productions such as ‘Sabhuku Vharazipi’, ‘Gringo’, ‘Two Villages Apart’ just to name a few are very much original. The challenge we have is to maintain the momentum in developing these unique story angles (remember we are not talking about the quality of the production but the storyline).
Before people watch the film or even its trailer, the storyline on its own has to be enticing to the audiences.
This is one area South African’s are beating us. Film writers should be trained and know what they are doing and avoid having the same old story lines being repeated in one film after the other.
We need to have some thematic variety.
EXCELLENCE
South African’s do not compromise on quality. Everything from an actor’s wardrobe, script, make-up and all the other nitty-gritty’s are on point.
For instance, when we visited the Zabalaza set, the cast was moving around in gowns and we said oh well maybe they are all in some random morning scene shoot but after talking to them we learnt that they were wearing the gowns to avoid damaging the clothes they will be using on set, amazing hey.
When we attended the 10th South African Idols finale at Carnival City on Sunday November 23, we noticed that excellence is something the production teams down south take seriously.
The host, Proverb, would not just say funny unnecessary jokes like some of our local hosts do, but he would follow a script. Everything was flawless and was right on time.
We hope that producers of events that are shot live such as NAMA, ZIMA and Miss Zimbabwe will learn from our neighbour’s that the idea is not to have a long meandering show but a short explosive production that leaves audiences begging for more and not leading to go sleep.
DEVELOP WORKING BUSINESS MODELS
After a film production has been launched and it is making noise on the street, you will often see an article stating that the producers did not make a single dime form it and yet street vendors are making a mega killing. At times you also hear that the cast was not paid.
The only way to resolve this mess is to be creative about how to develop the business angle of our productions.
Fortunately for film makers down south, most of their productions are commissioned and so they get cash up front.
In Zimbabwe we do not have a lot of channels to buy content created hence film makers need to think outside the box.
Some ways to do this is sell content to international platforms, produce and sell the films by themselves like what the ‘Lobola’ movie team did.
