Prinses is a supernatural short film about the Strydom family and the generational curses that haunt them. In the short, Simone Strydom, played by newcomer Jane van der Westhuizen, who recently finished shooting on the Hollywood film Kite, is crowned as the new debutante princess of Sonstraal Primary School. But when even this achievement disappoints her alcoholic mother (Bertha le Roux) the ghost of her grandmother takes possession of Simone to reveal the family’s hidden secrets.
C.A. van Aswegen and Quinn Lubbe of FiX Post Production in Johannesburg immediately knew that they wanted to be part of this groundbreaking 24-minute short film directed by Morne du Toit (who also directed Afrikaans feature film Hoofmeisie).
“Not only was it an opportunity to work within the realms of this underexposed and extremely thrilling genre, but it also provided us with the platform to push the edit and visual effect boundaries of what South African audiences are used to seeing,’ says Van Aswegen.
FiX Post Production handled the entire post-production process including offline edit, grade and online edit, which was done by Van Aswegen, while Lubbe wrote the original score. FiX also took care of the sound design and final mix.
Adds Van Aswegen: “One of the biggest challenges was finishing a film of this nature in an incredibly short time frame – only 10 days. This posed a challenge for all aspects of post production, especially visual effects of which there were a total of 39 shots, including rig and object removals, eye replacements and general enhancements.’
The short also stars Dirk Stoltz, Adri Britz, Zelda Roelofs, Juane Vermaak and JC Snooke.
Prinses is one of 13 short films that will premiere at the kykNET Silwerskermfees from 28 August to 1 September in Camps Bay in Cape Town.
