Lights Camera Action! commences

The South African participation and successes at the Ciak Junior competition over the past three years encouraged Jacqui Hlongwane-Papo, project head at SABC, to implement Lights Camera Action

Says Hlongwane-Papo, "The project Lights Camera Action went out on tender earlier this year and was awarded to Mindpool Productions. The project will produce nine short films across all provinces. These films will be based on stories written by children from the provinces who will be involved in all facets of the competition from casting, film making, editing and scriptwriting."

Mindpool Productions has produced three international award-winning films for the SABC: Lucky, Mbiya & His Cow and Strangers. Monique Garden, producer at Mindpool Productions says, "Lights Camera Action invites children to write a story in any South African language about something that is important to them. Children can write alone or in a team of three fellow peers or friends. Winning writers will also act in the films."

The Lights Camera Action competition is open to children aged 10 to 16 years. Experts comprising of producers, directors and scriptwriters will judge all the stories and a winning story from each province will be selected. A film production team will help turn winning stories into film scripts and short films which will be shown on SABC during 2007. A national awards festival will be held where the children involved will select the best films in various award categories.

"Stories should be at least two pages but not more than five pages in length and should reach us by 31 October 2006. Winners will be notified during February 2007. Entry forms can be obtained by calling 086 22 22 005 from a fax phone," concludes Garden.