In a first for the country, renowned South African Johannesburg-based post-production and visual effects facility Refinery managed all post-production and deliveries on SAF3, a new American TV series from Baywatch creator Gregory J Bonann.
Filmed in Cape Town last year, SAF3 is an heroic series about an elite division of the Malibu Fire Department which includes specialists in sea, air and fire rescue.
The programme is currently screening in the USA and stars action legend Dolph Lundgren, Dancing With The Stars winner JR Martinez and The Bold and The Beautiful’s Texas Battle.
To manage the post-production of the series, Refinery set up a satellite post facility at Cotton Mill Studios in Epping, Cape Town to manage all post-production on SAF3, delivered to 23 countries around the world.
Refinery handled the dailies, editorial, VFX and sound editing at Cotton Mill Studios, with Area 5.1, based at Sasani Studios in Highlands North in Johannesburg, handling the sound and Refinery the deliveries from Johannesburg.
Industry experience
No stranger to working on international series, Refinery has handled the dailies transfers on the Emmy-winning Generation Kill; the ADR for the Emmy-nominated No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency; the visual effects on two seasons of the Kidscreen winner Leonardo; the dailies on three seasons of the Emmy-nominated Strike Back; and the audio post-production on the award-winning animated South African / Canadian co-production Magic Cellar.
Refinery also worked on more than 3,000 episodes of 7de Laan, winner of the South African Film and Television Award for Best Soap Opera in 2010, 2011 and 2013.
Michael Murphey from Kalahari Pictures, the South African production company on SAF3, says, “I’m very proud of the fact that we were the first major international TV series to post entirely in South Africa and to make our international deliveries from here as well. Our international delivery items were first rate and saved the production a great deal over what it would have cost us in the US or Europe.’
DTI rebate praised
Murphey praised The Department of Trade (DTI) and Industry’s Foreign Film and Television Production Scheme and Post-Production Incentive, which now offers productions shot in South Africa an additional 2.5% rebate if they spend over R1.5m on post-production in the country and an additional 5% if they spend more than R3m on post-production in South Africa.
Thus far, SAF3 is the largest project to benefit from this post-production incentive.
“The DTI post-production rebate of an extra 5% helped seal the deal to bring SAF3 to South Africa,’ continues Murphey. “Australia, New Zealand and the US just couldn’t compete.’
“The rebate was the tipping point,’ says Tracey Williams, Refinery’s Managing Director. “It always comes down to economics, and when you add the weak rand, it just makes financial sense to keep your post-production in South Africa now.’
She says the tight timeline also counted in Refinery’s favour. “We had two weeks to ship everything in, get the equipment installed, and be ready to start. Then we had three weeks to our first TX date. It would have been very difficult to turn the show around this quickly with an international facility.’
Williams adds that setting up a temporary facility is “the way of the future; I’d do that again tomorrow.’
Time and cost efficiency
Williams says from a time and cost efficiency perspective, Refinery particularly benefited from having the ADR facilities right where the cast was filming, as well as from having Cyril Schumann as a dedicated visual effects artists on Flame.
“Flame’s not a typical TV tool, but we knew Cyril would turn around the effects really quickly on it,’ Williams comments. “The VFX turned out to be one of the big savings on the series.’
South Africa has been hosting a steady stream of international television series, with Black Sails and Dominion currently filming in Cape Town.
Williams says this increase in international TV series is a unique opportunity for the South African post-production industry. “On SAF3, we had 14 people employed full time for six months.
“Features come and go, but a successful TV series like Black Sails will keep coming back every year. There’s no reason why we shouldn’t be keeping the post-production in South Africa for TV series like that, so it’s a major growth opportunity for the sector,’ she concludes.
South African terrestrial television channel e.tv will screen SAF3 later this year.
Watch and embed the SAF3 promo at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dqpWg3FM1RY.
For more information, visit www.refinery.co.za or www.saf3.tv.
