COMPANY NEWS RELEASES

« go back
Great response for Screen Africa Conference and Mediatech exhibition
Posted Tue, 28 Jul 2009

While attendance figures for the Mediatech Africa Exhibition are yet to be finalised, exhibition director Simon Robinson is confident that the show will meet the target figure of close on 5,000 visitors.

The one-day Screen Africa Talent & Technology Conference which kicked off on Thursday 23 July alongside the Mediatech Africa Exhibition had a full house attendance for both the morning and afternoon sessions. Delegates also expressed the view that a conference of this informative nature should be held more regularly.

Here we provide a quick summary of the conference sessions which will, however, be reported on in more detail in the September issue of Screen Africa. Where possible Screen Africa will also run powerpoint conference presentations on its website.

The morning conference session which focused on technology revealed that broadcasters SABC, M-Net and e.tv as well as suppliers in the set box sector had set aside competitive objectives and were co-operating closely to ensure that the first stage of the digital terrestrial television (DTT) trials would be reached by April 2010.

In the 2010 panel discussion, David Swannack of Siemens revealed that a specially commissioned report by the SABC to research the public broadcaster’s readiness for 2010 indicated that the SABC was on track except for a few areas which still required dedicated attention. He did not reveal where these areas lay.

Peter Kwele, head of SABC 2010 said that on Mandela Day on 18 July, he resolved to commit the SABC to creating 67 public viewing areas and that he was determined to achieve this objective.

Business opportunities in Africa were explored and the consensus was that while it was difficult to operate on the continent, installations and production value could be achieved if a few rules were followed. Securing payment from some African countries, especially Nigeria, continued to be problematic and payment upfront was the only route.

Marcos Gonzalez-Flowers from Siemens in the UK gave a fascinating analysis of where the heart of entertainment lay in the future against the backdrop of cheaper broadband. 

To summarise the afternoon session which was themed Low Budget Production, panellist all made the case for cutting production budgets, continuing to make movies against all odds, being realistic about where finance could be obtained and exploring different platforms to generate revenue. Kevin Fleischer the accountant for the local box office success, White Wedding, gave a breakdown of the film’s budget and demonstrated the impossibility of making a profit unless the film qualified for the Rebate from the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI).

The good news conveyed by Basil Ford of the Industrial Development Corporation (IDC) was that the IDC together with the DTI,  National Film and Video Foundation (NFVF) and the SABC have been exploring a collaborative strategy to support low budget filmmaking. It was confirmed by Nadia Sujee of the DTI Creative Industries sector that an integral part of this would be to cashflow productions. The IDC defined low budget as R2,5m to R6m.