The winners of General Post and Curious Pictures’ South Africa’s Next Top Filmmaker 2011 competition were recently announced at Maximillien in Johannesburg. They are Sbu Zuma and Sihle Ngcamu for What’s In A Name and Keolebongile Moaisi for The Intersection. Both teams have been awarded a paid internship at Curious Pictures in 2012.
This is the second year that General Post has run this competition and was privileged in 2011 to partner with Curious Pictures, one of South Africa’s top production companies and the people behind the much anticipated Masterchef South Africa.
Say’s JP Potgieter, acting head of Production at Curious Pictures: “It’s been a great experience for Curious Pictures to be involved in this initiative. This is the first year that we are involved in the competition and we are very excited about the process and all of the finalists that we had the pleasure of working with.
“We were so lucky to work with young people who really cared about their stories and would do almost anything to get them told. At Curious Pictures we have always believed in giving young talent a break and a helping hand and a shoulder when it’s needed.’
Judging for this competition was done on two levels. The organisers invited three industry judges – executive producer Harriet Gavshon, director / writer John Trengrove and creative director Rolie Nikiwe, each of whom had no involvement in the production of the films.
Judges scored the five films on criteria such as story, creativity and final execution. In an effort to find a well-rounded filmmaker, the production team was asked to judge the finalists on criteria like organisational skills, pre-production processes and on set management skills.
When the scores were added up the organisers realised that all five films were separated by a very small margin. At that point, Curious Pictures generously decided to award not just one internship prize but two, one for best creative film and one for the best produced film.
General Post thanks the competition sponsors: Digitalfilm, who sponsored all the camera lighting and grips equipment and who gave the finalists so much more than was originally negotiated; iKhaya, who gave each finalist R5,000 worth of wardrobe as well as invaluable advice and help; Warren Burley at Finetune Audio who did all the final mixes – his advice and guidance was pivotal to the quality of the final products; and The Bladeworks which sponsored the grade in Baselight.
Owen Kessel & Tanqueray sponsored the Mojitos as welcome drinks at the Maximillien.
A special thanks goes to Aardvark Casting for helping with actors and extras.
The following General Post members were responsible for the all the post-production of the films: Marcus Carter, Gareth James, Desmond Allan, Lolly Gumbi, Kingsley Brown, Phillip Mohloakoane, Richard Mayes and Masibonge Mtshali. Andrew Dixon edited the Behind the Scenes on top of jumping in to help on a few occasions when last minute help was needed.
The five final videos can been viewed on www.facebook.com/generalpost
