The future of the South African film, television and advertising industries are in good hands if the judges’ comments about the standard of entries in this year’s M-Net TAG newcomer category is anything to go by.
Gary King of Picture Tree was bowled over by the quality of work in what was an exciting group to judge. “The newcomers were fantastic. They were far better than the professionals as a body of work! There was tremendous depth and an impressive insight of ideas. They were a mouthpiece for some really important social messages but the filmmakers still expressed themselves in a creative way.”
Fellow judge Peter Carr of Velocity was impressed with the animation offerings in this category but felt that there could have been more live action PSAs.
“There were lots of animated film entries and they were really good, not only in animation technique, but also concepts. However there were very few live action films in the mix. It does suggest to me that we need improvement in the area of emerging live action film-makers.”
So what impressed him about overall newcomer winner Draw With Me? “It was a fresh, different style of animation to the rest and very well executed in telling the story. It was fun and interesting to watch, the message was clear and I guess simplicity is always what wins in commercial terms.”
Carr was also pleased that writing and scripts were much improved this year: “Our advice in previous years was to put more effort into this and it was clearly taken to heart. The mentored films (TAG 10) were very well made and congratulations to those companies that backed these teams because it showed in the craft. There were also some very good acting performances all-round.”
“One must remember these advertisements aim to benefit a charity so it is not only about the film- makers and their images, but also about the message being brought across. The choice of style, story-telling and emotion is vital to making an advert that moves audiences.” says Desiree Markgraaff, organiser of M-Net TAG.
“The judges are looking for films that have a clear call to action, that show understanding of the charity work and offer the audience an insight into a social issue important to South Africans.”
Carr rounded off: “This is a tremendous opportunity to experiment and create your own fresh techniques and develop a new style without a client telling you to be conservative. We are looking for innovative thinking, fresh concepts and filmmakers who are prepared to take risks creatively and not copy other people’s work.”
This article originally appeared in the Mail & Guardian newspaper as an advertorial supplement