Darkside Studios is a production house based in Rivonia, north of Johannesburg,
which offers a full range of production services ranging from pre to post.
Founded by producer Dean Konidaris and director Alastair Orr, Darkside draws
on the experience and expertise of both, as well as that of their team of
animators, to offer post-production services ranging from 3D animation to offline
and online editing and sound design.
However, Konidaris and Orr are both in the business to make movies and so
they do not limit their work to post-production alone. While they offer their skills
in this area to clients on both short- and long-form projects, they are one of the
only post houses bringing international work into South Africa. They recently
finished an international film, Flock of Dudes starring Ray Liotta. They also
develop their own feature films (one of which is set to begin shooting in
October) and are able to serve their clients throughout the production value
chain.
Orr is an experienced director with three feature-length horror films under his
belt, including the South African releases The Unforgiving and Rancid, and the
soon-to-be-released Hollywood production Indigenous. He also trained as an
editor and writes the screenplays for his films. Konidaris has 17 years of
experience in various aspects of post-production, with a particular focus on
sound, working on television, cinema and radio projects. While the Darkside
team works on its own feature projects, it currently makes the majority of its
bread and butter in corporate AVs, commercials, animation on various projects
and full post services on television shows. Among its output in the latter
category are shows for kykNet, SABC1 and SABC3
Darkside is equipped with Maya and After Effects for animation, Final Cut Pro
and Avid for editing and a 7.1 ProTools sound suite. It is also set to install a
DaVinci Resolve finishing suite in the near future.
Previously based in Randburg, the company has set up its new base in Rivonia
and is on a mission to expand its client base. Forming lasting relationships with
people in the industry, Konidaris says, is currently one of its main objectives. The
facility will do their best to beat any written quote from competitors, inviting
everyone in the industry to “come over to the Darkside’.
