1. Film Locations (TO BE FILLED IN BY Bday) 24 October 2014 Film Locations (TO BE FILLED IN BY Bday) 24 October 2014
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Editor: David A Steynberg david.steynberg@gmail.com
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Bradley Sparks bradley.sparks@pamedia.co.za 073 666 3842 (KwaZulu-Natal)
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shaun.minnie@thecreativegroup.info BusinessDayA PUBLICATION
EDITORIAL TEAM
Editor: David A Steynberg david.steynberg@gmail.com
Creative Director: Mark Peddle
ADVERTISING SALES
Michèle Jones michele.jones@pamedia.co.za 084 246 8105 (Sales & Marketing Manager)
Sarah Steadman sarah.steadman@pamedia.co.za 082 334 4367 JHB (Property)
Yvonne Botha yvonne.botha@pamedia.co.za 082 563 6685 JHB (Lifestyle)
Susan Erwee susan.erwee@pamedia.co.za 083 556 9848 (Western Cape)
Bradley Sparks bradley.sparks@pamedia.co.za 073 666 3842 (KwaZulu-Natal)
Jackie Maritz jackie.maritz@pamedia.co.za 078 133 5211 (Garden Route)
BusinessDayA PUBLICATION
CAPE TOWN KUDOS
Home to the R500m, 200ha
Cape Film Studios, just
outside Stellenbosch, Cape
Town’s presence on the
worldwide film industry map
has been cemented for some
time now.
Hollywood A-lister Sean
Penn’s The Last Face, set in
Liberia, as well as season four
of the American TV series
Homeland, which is set in the
Middle East, are both being
shot in Cape Town. These two
productions indicate just how
multifaceted and adaptable
the city’s landscapes and
cityscape are.
Says internationally
acclaimed, award-winning
director Ian Gabriel of Giant
Films: “Cape Town’s range
of locations and fantastic
mobility in and out of the city
means you can access classic
European architecture,
American cityscapes,
highways, beaches,
mountains, deserts and farms
all within an extended day’s
work. There’s no other city in
the world that offers that sort
of proximity and access, with
long daylight hours.”
The city’s malleability is
evidenced in a number of new
commercials that Gabriel has
directed, one for local brand
Red Heart Rum, and the
other for American Express.
The latter was shot at
the Castle of Good Hope,
where Gabriel recreated
the 17th-century streets of
Pamplona to shoot a running-
of-the-bulls scene.
Cape Town’s locations are often the first choice of many
international film and commercial productions, thanks
to the city’s cosmopolitan adaptability, but Joburg’s
interesting Afropolitan character has also caught their eye
‘There’s a bigger and bigger call for
“African” locations and we’ve found
Kenyan grasslands just outside Cape
Town, and Nigerian backstreets and
Central African avenues, all close to
Cape Town’s centre’
Ian Gabriel, director, Giant Films
The Red Heart Rum
advert was shot outside
Malmesbury, about one
hour out of Cape Town, on
a location resembling the
rugged Andes landscape.
The many Heritage
buildings in Cape Town’s
inner city also provide prime
locations for various types
of staging, a fitting example
being the well-known art
deco Mutual Heights building
in Darling Street. Says
Gariel: “We’ve dressed that
building as an art deco hotel
in Shanghai, as a snowed-in
postal services building in
Chicago and as a venue for a
stylish club in New York. Each
time we manage to make it
look different and exotic.”
The crop of feature films
that have recently used the
city in its authentic identity
has garnered a lot of interest
not only because the city is
photogenic, but also because
it’s inundated with rich
narratives and stories. Safe
House (2012) and Invictus
(2009) are two international
big-budget films where the
city’s identity was weaved into
the plot lines. Likewise with
Gabriel’s acclaimed feature
films Forgiveness (2004) and
Four Corners (2013), both of
which were based on Cape-
based stories, the former
on the fishing community
of Paternoster and its
dealings with the Truth and
Reconciliation Commission,
and the latter on the city’s
entrenched gang culture on
the Cape Flats.
LIFESTYLE
Shot on location
WORDS: GENEVIEVE PUTTER :: PHOTOGRAPHS: GIANTFILMSAND GOODCOPTV
District Six’s Alhambra
Theatre was the cinema that
the wealthy were believed
to frequent.
The Labia Theatre is one
of the only independent
cinema complexes in SA not
driven by American
blockbuster releases.
Only after 1994 did Cape
Town start becoming a film
destination. During the
1970s and 1980s it was
primarily concerned with
commercials production for
TV and cinema to feed the
local advertising industry.
One of the first completely
Cape-based films by
British-South African
film-maker Ross Devenish was
based on Athol Fugard’s
Boesman and Lena (1973).
Other well-known movies
and TV series shot in Cape
Town: Lord of War (2005),
uCarmen eKhayelitsha
(2005), Blood Diamond
(2006), Catch a Fire (2006),
Goodbye Bafana (2007),
24: Redemption (2008),
The Borrowers (2011),
The Girl (2012), Long Walk
to Freedom (2013), Zulu/City
of Violence (2013), The Giver
(2014), Black Sails (2014).
Cape Town editHollywood A-lister
Sean Penn’s The Last
Face, set in Liberia, as
well as season four of
the American TV series
Homeland, which is
set in the Middle East,
are both being shot in
Cape Town
.AMERICAN EXPRESS SET..
ORIENT EXPRESS LOCATION. MUTUAL HEIGHTS GETS A FAR-EASTERN SET DRESSING
RED HEART RUM LOCATION.
JOZI’S GOLD
Johannesburg’s filmography
extends back to roughly
the same time as that of
Hollywood’s, a little-known
fact attributable to the gold
rush of the late-1800s.
This implies that where
there’s money there’s
entertainment — and
that still rings true today
in the City of Gold:
Gauteng accounts for
70% of South African
television productions.
A number of big-budget
international films have
been shot in Gauteng, most
notably SA’s Oscar winner
for Best Foreign Film, Tsotsi
(2005), and District 9 (2009).
In both instances,
Johannesburg the city
played a key character, as
it did in Cry the Beloved
Country (1948), Jim Comes
to Joburg (1949) and Come
Back Africa (1959).
According to Laurence
Hamburger, director and
owner of film production
company goodcop TV,
the city offers dynamic,
inimitable and authentic
locations and characters,
as well as interesting
light — the holy grail of
creative direction.
“Joburg has a real patina
to it: less overshot with
In April 1895 the first
kinetoscopes were opened to
the public in Herwoods
Arcade on Pritchard and
President streets,
Johannesburg.
In 1913 Isidore Schlesinger
formed the African Theatres
and Films Trusts, which held
a monopoly over film
distribution in SA for
43 years.
Two years later
Schlesinger built SA’s first
film studio, Killarney Film.
De Voortrekkers was the
first one-hour feature film
made at the studios in 1916,
the first of 43 to be made
there over the next six years.
1976 saw the formation
of the SABC in Johannesburg
as television was introduced
into SA.
Other well-known movies
shot in Jozi: Max and Mona
(2004), Goodbye Bafana
(2007), Catch a Fire (2006),
Sarafina, Jerusalema (2008),
End Game (2009), The Bang
Bang Club (2010), Long Walk
to Freedom (2013).
The Avengers: Age of Ultron
(2014) features a scene shot
in Jozi, as Jozi.
Jozi edit
‘Joburg has a real patina to it: less
overshot with curious locations and
easier access than Cape Town does’
Laurence Hamburger, director and owner of goodcop TV
curious locations and easier
access than Cape Town does.
The international directors
and directors of photography
I know from when I worked
in the UK and America
enjoy shooting in Jozi, as
they find it unique, less
clichéd and with softer light
because of the cloud cover,
and especially in winter.”
Some of Hamburger’s
favourite locations around
the city are the mining
towns south of the city,
such as Carltonville,
which in his opinion are
visually distinctive and
relatively easy to access.
While Joburg has a mix
of dilapidated warehouses
and modern skyscrapers, it
doesn’t have Cape Town’s
advantage of well-maintained
Heritage buildings.
“Joburg’s older buildings
aren’t well preserved,
which I believe is because
the local government has
no attachment to them.
They see them as associated
with apartheid, so building
new ones is a sign of their
presence on the landscape.
“It’s a pity, as film-
makers like places that have
history and authenticity,
which is not only very
hard to recreate but also
expensive,” he says.
‘Film-makers like places that have
history and authenticity’
Laurence Hamburger, director and owner of goodcop TV