Film students get a production start

After completing the Young Creatives Student Challenge, 10 film students were awarded a one-month paid internship at prominent production companies, this was announced last Wednesday at the Peninsula Hotel in Sea Point.

The winners in the Young Creatives Student Challenge from left to right, Sivuyile Wayi, FJ Moller, Monique Kloppers, Kanaya Qagana, Hishaam Voterson, Lauren Buchner, Marco Rodrigues, Aleksander Szuta and Tayla Jane.

The challenge – to showcase the Waterfront without referring to a specific product – was given by the International Tourism Film Festival (ITFF) Africa. Besides the internship, the students also got a chance to work with renowned photographer Craig Kolesky for a day.

“It’s to cultivate, nurture and nourish the young creatives within the film production content creation industry and to leverage our platform to provide opportunity for them to get on-site work and integrated learning opportunities, so this serves to encourage and motivate them,” said James Byrne, co-founding festival director of the ITFF Africa.

A total of 25 students competed in the project but only 10 were rewarded for excelling in this tourism film task.

“They will be working on active sets and productions and if they impress at the end of the internship, then they will be offered a full-time job for a year, so this is a great opportunity for them,” Mr Byrne said.

“It was a new experience, fun, exciting and I’m grateful to have been part of this experience. My ultimate goal is to be an actor and to be a film writer as well,” said Tayla Jane, 21, from Claremont.

“It was exciting, just getting the chance to compete in the competition was great and to get prizes and new opportunities is great. My aim is to work as a camera operator,” said Marco Rodrigues, 25, from Bothasig.

“It was challenging as we had to come up with concepts and content and we are new to this but here we are as winners. My passion is sound engineering and that’s where I want to be involved,” said Sivuyile Wayi, 31, from Milnerton.

“It was amazing, no one really pays attention to the tourism film section but seeing all the landscapes and all the parts of the world was just amazing. I want to be a script supervisor to make sure that the storylines and visuals align,” said Kanaya Qagana, 19, from Gugulethu.

The CEO of South African Film Academy, Seton Bailey, says that this challenge is also about encouraging the “filmpreneurs” to go out and shoot.

“We encouraging them to generate local content, take a camera, take a phone and create your own content, produce South African content. We need our young people to get out there and tell stories of South Africa that are engaging and captivating –show the world who we are,” Mr Bailey said.