“The market is seeing a marked increase in long-form and studio work. Based on international trends and political and economic pressures, we see this trend projecting through the coming year and beyond.”
Trending in 2017
You have to be an optimist to be a filmmaker, so it’s perhaps not surprising that the mood in the industry is positive as we come through the 2016/17 season.
“We live in such a competitive landscape, both internationally and within South Africa,” says Media Film Service’s CEO, Neil du Toit, “we need to keep raising the bar in terms of service levels, understanding our clients’ needs, attention to detail and delivering world class gear. Our history goes back to the inception of the film industry in South Africa. Our experience has proved that staying abreast of world trends and innovation and providing best in service and professionalism, is key to our success.”
The market is seeing a marked increase in long-form and studio work. Based on international trends and political and economic pressures, we see this trend projecting through the coming year and beyond.
Trends in the equipment rental business, have come mostly in camera and lighting innovations. The ARRI SkyPanel has revolutionised the face of lighting rentals of which Media Film Service has now made a substantial investment in. The company recently invested in a large stock of ARRI’s SkyPanel lights. These innovative and flexible lights are outshining their competitors and this worldwide phenomenon has put ARRI under pressure to keep up with demand.
“They’ve been an incredible addition to our lighting gear. It’s completely ‘DMX-able’ and is simply updated by means of a download thereby enhancing its functionality. There are various modes for Colour Correction, Hue and Saturation as well as a full range of Gels. It’s a versatile piece of equipment and is definitely a forerunner in its field,” says Shiraz Jaffer, Media Film Service lighting floor manager (Cape Town).
Technically ahead
The first SkyPanels were launched in 2015 at NAB in Las Vegas. In order to produce this new age lighting, the design process took a lengthy ten years. Ever since, ARRI has continued to broaden their LED line and reaffirmed their commitment to accurate colour rendering with the introduction of the SkyPanel range. Using technology originally designed for the L7-C Fresnel, the SkyPanel is fully colour ‘tuneable’ allowing output of a warm 2 800K to icy blue 10 000K light, and also uses the full RGB+W colour gamut with hue and saturation control for fine adjustments. Full Minusgreen to Full Plusgreen is also possible, so if you’re lighting for blue or greenscreen, you can simply dial your chosen colour in. This wide degree of control is responsible for a very high CRI of 95 and a rating of 90 with the newer TLCI standard. All of these functions as well as 0-100 per cent dimming can be adjusted locally with the SkyPanel’s onboard controller or remotely via DMX or a LAN. Besides inputs and outputs appropriate to these functions, the light also has a USB-A port for downloading firmware upgrades from a thumb drive, PC or Mac.
“It’s amazing, soft and incredibly diverse. All the different colours and gels included in the light make it easier and faster to work with as compared to any other LED lamp on the market,” comments gaffer, Gilles Bosaiq.
“I like the SkyPanel as it doesn’t pull that much, it’s got poke and it gives you the options to decide on tones to the eye rather than think out colour beforehand,” says Vicci Turpin, SASC.
Leroux Swanepoel, gaffer, adds: “The most amazing light I’ve ever used. It’s so extremely versatile and also gives you great punch when needed. I’ve recently worked with one DOP who is on the board of judging new LED lights and he reckons that it will have the longest lifespan, at least for the next ten years.”
Staying ahead of the game globally
While the fluctuating exchange rate makes attracting international work to South Africa tricky and unpredictable, Media Film Service’s approach is that if you have the right equipment, the work will follow. While it makes investment returns that much more challenging within a market of diminishing budgets and tighter margins, it certainly is the way of the future globally.
“I feel that these challenges offer a great opportunity for the rental business to offer top quality and cost effective equipment solutions. Being affiliated to the best brands internationally, positions us to offer our clients what they require for their best production outcome. We understand that right sizing is a key focus for productions,” comments Neill Horsfall, MD of Media Film Service (Johannesburg).
