Two Gauteng-based filmmakers used all their wits and resources to make a debut feature with “no budget at all’.
It’s always refreshing to meet brand new filmmakers and this is especially true of brother and sister team, Lorreal and Shaldon Ferris. In fact, listening to anecdotes about their debut feature, Eldorado, generates more than a few giggles.
“We needed blood for one scene so we mixed blackcurrant flavoured Kool-Aid with All Gold tomato sauce,’ says Lorreal (29).
Shaldon (34) adds: “For another scene we had to show characters handling cocaine so we decided to use flour. However, my mother-in-law had used all the flour on set to make vetkoek for our lunch. So I had to run to the shops to buy more flour.’
Despite this flippancy the Ferris duo are serious about making films and have had many of their music videos flighted on SABC and DStv. Their first music video was made for a mere R250.
“We started out hungry to do film and bought a 3CCD camera five years ago, went out and followed a “just do it’ filming ethos. Our stance is that people follow a certain route in life so we feel blessed to have gone the route. We have no film text book or any film training,’ say the duo.
Lorreal notes that Shaldon used to be a business analyst and opted out to run a fish and chips shop.
The Ferris’ started doing music videos in 2005, featuring “like-minded people’ in Eldorado Park “who’ve done Matric and nothing else’. They hooked up with people who wanted to sing and dance.
Lorreal continues: “Shaldon and I watched African-American films, like Foxy Brown, Shaft and Jungle Fever while growing up and realised that their stories were our stories. However, we didn’t, like Frank Lucas in American Gangster, sell drugs in order to raise money for films – we turned to God instead. So in a way God “funded’ our film.’
Eldorado chronicles the journey taken by four friends in the poverty-stricken Gauteng township of Eldorado Park. It was made together with township residents who also star in the film and combines fiction and documentary.
Shaldon wrote the script over three months, whenever inspiration took him. He would then send his work to co-director Lorreal.
DOP Kurt Orderson, who shot the Ferris’ first music video, came on board to do Eldorado on a pro bono basis and used his own Panasonic DVX. The film was shot over five days.
With casting, Shaldon identified four members of the group Blaq Cream, who featured in his and Lorreal’s music video, to star in the film and do its music track.
The film was punted “big time’ on Lorreal’s community radio station, Eldos fm. “This film was a case of makeshift everything,’ comments Lorreal. “Everyone working or acting in the film doubled up or even tripled up on duties.
We borrowed a microphone from Shaldon’s friend Frans Stofberg and I sing on the soundtrack.’
Shaldon stresses that despite the budget-less dynamic of the film, he and Lorreal took pains to ensure decent production standards. “The film was made cheaply but doesn’t look or feel cheap. We didn’t want to make a wack (street slang for low quality) film.’
The duo own their own Final Cut Pro and edited the film whenever they felt inspired.
Lorreal’s parting message: “Use what you have and get what you want. If you don’t have s..t, then use that.’
