The point of the day was to inform everyone what the writers guild was doing and then have two guest speakers, one from the NFVF and the other from M-net. The WGSA is on a mission to become “professional”. It now has a mandate, a “corporate strategy” and a 5 year goal. ALthough, to be honest I thought there was alot of rhetoric and am still not sure what it is that is going to change. It felt like a bunch of writers wanting to be Vice Presidents and CEO’s without actually being VP’s and CEO’s…It’s still early days and good intentions are good to have, hopefully my judgement is misplaced and the mission statements will become tangible.
The WGSA is setting up to become the go-to organization for writers and producers alike, and will include everything from protecting writers against evil producers who wont pay them to helping them protect their copyright. One thing that has changed and was mentioned time and again, the WGSA (and now the NFVF also) are taking drastic steps to NOT be the up-liftment, teaching, nurturing, placement organization it has become. Instead they expect writers to go out, be pro-active, write more and complain less. I like it. The backlash I feel is inevitable and some kids are surely going to protest (luckily writers don’t toi-toi) in the name of seeking opportunity and help into the hard, unforgiving “industry”. Where have all the good people gone they will ask?
The good people are becoming serious and this was where they could say it. The NFVF, represented by Clarence Hamilton
Head of Development and Production started with some statistics (because the numbers talk cough) which where quite frightening. In the last 15 years of film industry and 10 years the NFVF has lived there have been 135 movies made with a gross of R220 million. Out of that total gross most of that income has come from 6 films and one film maker, Leon Schuster. wow. Furthermore, the NFVF has not seen a cent back for any of their investment and quite frankly I wouldn’t have expected the movies they have backed to recoup their investment. My question to Clarence was what will change NOW that will curb the trend toward “backing the wrong horse”(as one of the writers said post meeting)? Unfortunately the answer was vague at best and after hearing three films the NFVF is backing now I’m not sure the trend will change any time soon.
When my script is complete though I am going to take it there and see for myself how the process goes, I hope to be pleasantly surprised mostly because of my low expectations… What was disheartening was that the average film budgets (from the stats) was R9 million. This is such a high number and it seems that the NFVF is ok with that. No wonder they struggle to make back investment. There is a lot of restructuring going on at the moment and I wish the NFVF all the best in trying to get the machine to work. Obviously it has potential (and R40 million a year budget) so by all respects it should work, it just hasn’t yet.
Finally Anne Davis from the new local content division at M-net shared what her company was hoping to do. What was great was her enthusiasm and obvious passion for good(!) local produce, written well and made on relatively good budgets. “If its not world class we wont bother” was something she said. I say to that GREAT! The thing that really got me going was her empathetic discourse on global media colonization in Africa and how it is up to us as creatives to either allow or curb this trend. The only way to do it is to play on the same field and never pull the “feel sorry for us poor Africans” card. YES! Realism is refreshing isn’t it… The fact is that we are a continent of amazing potential for extending corporate business and its not long before NBC or Viacom realize this and actually take it for themselves. And why not, we’re not doing much to stop them.
After the meeting Anne was inundated with writers trying to pitch their latest and greatest endeavor. Her answer; “wait for my briefs to come out, keep an eye on the website and make sure you are part of the WGSA because that is where I plan on finding my writers.” Good news for the WGSA and hopefully for some writers too!
A half day well spent I thought on my way to a wine tasting session (who would have thought in Johannesburg, full of surprises) leaving there knowing I am going to see some top entertainment come out of SA over the next 24 months. I cant wait!