The Incubator programme, running May - December this year, is an intensive 24-week course with some clear objectives in mind: to give the 14 chosen participants from previously disadvantaged backgrounds free filmmaking training and mentorship by industry professionals, thereby contributing towards skills development in the burgeoning South African film and television industry. Since its launch three years ago, it has equipped 32 young filmmakers.
The top 14 applicants have made it through a gruelling three-round selection process that included interviews, psychometric tests and technical ability assessments. Another requirement was to have at least two years' experience in the film industry, or tertiary qualifications in film and television.
The chosen 14 will interact with some of the best industry specialists and receive experiential training in technical specialisation in lighting design, cinematography, production management, editing, sound and research.
The training will be conducted by the award-winning and MAPPP SETA-accredited Big Fish School of Digital Filmmaking in Auckland Park.
Says MultiChoice's GM - corporate affairs Jackie Rakitla, "The MultiChoice Film Talent Incubator is divided into two programmes. The core technical skills programme and a programme for a producer and a director. This intake was for the core technical skills and we are pleased with the calibre of the candidates that have been chosen."
Twelve-year-old Van Rooyen's Learn to be Yourself is the KwaZulu-Natal winning story in the Lights Camera Action film and story-writing competition that was launched in June 2006 by the SABC. This was made into a short film in 2007 with her in the lead role.
This year, it has been chosen and entered into the CIAK International story-writing and film competition in the festival at the end of May 2009 in Treviso, Italy. Here, participants will watch one another's films, talk about them, exchange ideas and, ultimately, choose an overall winner for the festival over a number of categories.
Van Rooyen's story is partly based on her experience of moving to Mooi River from Gauteng. Learn to be Yourself tells the story of a city girl who moves to a farm and battles to fit in. It is on the farm that she meets an old Zulu Sangoma (played by actor Hlomla Dandala) who teaches her three important life lessons.
Mindpool, a film-production company has turned the winning story into film scripts and short films, which will be shown on SABC1 next year. The project's aim was to produce a total of nine films in the language of the original story submitted. All official South African languages were taken into account.
Winning stories came from the following writers:
During 2007 a two-day scriptwriting and casting workshop with the producers took place with the winning author/s and the children who would be chosen to feature in the film. Here the children were introduced to the world of filmmaking and found out about the challenges of this career and the those of taking a winning story and transforming it into a screenplay.
The actors in the film would comprise the author/s of the story and other children who are not professional actors and have never had the experience of being part of a film. They would be supported and produced by a professional crew as well as industry interns who wanted to break into the television/film business.
By the end of 2007, four of the nine films had been completed. Due to lack of funds, the SABC has been unable to complete the project until now.
The remaining five films will be produced later in this year. “I am happy that the children of the winning films can finally have their films made,” says Jacqui Hlongwane-Papo, Lights Camera Action Project manager for SABC. Once all nine films are complete, they will be broadcasted on SABC1 in 2010.
To date, the following films have been completed:
