“My advice to aspiring filmmakers out there is to go out and see as many films as you can, in as wide a range of genres as possible,” said new young South African filmmaker Oliver Hermanus during a workshop session at the Durban International Film Festival.(DIFF), which runs until 2 August. Hermanus’ feature debut, Shirley Adams, premiered at the festival on 25 July and is generating lots of buzz.
Questioned about social realism in his film, which is about a woman trying to cope with the fact that everything in her life is falling apart, Hermanus responded: “Social realism is a loaded phrase. As a filmmaker you try and make the story feasible. You need to know exactly what you want at every stage of the film. I chose to tell Shirley’s story in close up, as a way of showing how isolated she is. ”
Picking up on the subject of close ups, American filmmaker Sean Baker, who was at DIFF to present Prince of Broadway, said it was a tool to get close to the characters. “Close ups make the audience connect with the characters. In terms of social realism, my film, which is about an immigrant street-hustler on Broadway who gets saddled with a baby that may or may not be his, I hung out in the area for a year with the lead actor as a form of research. I wrote the script and the non-professional actors workshopped their dialogue.”
On the ever topical issue of film finance, Baker said that while making his previous film, the Independent Spirit Award-nominated Take Out, he fell in love with guerrilla filmmaking. “I got used to shooting from the hip. My first ever film was made for $3 000 and shot on a Sony PD 150. We wanted to make the film first and worry about distribution later. I found a dedicated crew that didn’t mind working without insurance.”
Hermanus’ rationale is to find solutions to lack of resources. “I kept re-writing my script until I was able to shoot it – I cut down on locations and avoided wide shots.”
The session concluded with a discussion about how much the audience figures in filmmakers’ minds when they embark on a project. Said Hermanus: “I get the feeling that there is a race to try and figure out what South African audiences want, but our audiences are so diverse. As a filmmaker I don’t think about the audience. Filmmaking is a bit like gambling – just pick a number and see if it works. If it doesn’t, pick another number.”
See in-depth report on Hermanus and Shirley Adams in the September issue of Screen Africa.
