Two years ago we were involved in the most colourful and vibrant Afrikaans musical feature film project called
Pretville produced by
Hartiwood Films. Hubby
Ferdinand Gernandt was choreographer for the project, I acted as Assistant Choreographer and featured as a dancer in the film as well. Producers
Paul Kruger (also DOP)
and
Emma Kruger, as well as Co-Producer and Director
Linda Korsten, were so supportive and encouraging throughout the creative process, it was only a pleasure to create 'cinemagic' together.
We had so much fun shooting this project and creating the choreographic content for the lively musical numbers. The delightful lyrics and soundtrack was created by the talented arranger/composer
Machiel Roets (@machielroets on Twitter)
, some of my favourite tracks being '
Skillie Skillie Skilpad', '
In die Maanlig',
'Is jy Verlief?', Skud, Skop en Hop' and
'Ek en Jy'.
We had a week's worth of rehearsals with the amazing dance team, as well as the various characters prior to principal filming. And then we worked the final touches whilst preparing on set during the shoot days. Here are some beautiful and fun 'behind-the-scenes' shots of the rehearsals and other on set moments.
The challenging task of editing fell to the lovely Anel Stolp, the beautiful costume design was the work of Nerine Pienaar from The Wardrobe Studio and the magnificent art direction by Bathoni Robinson. It was a wonderful team of crew and cast; we really had such a fun time during production.
I even have a wonderful cookbook at home called 'Proe Pretville' that was released along with the film which contains some of the most beautiful stills from behind-the-scenes of filming Pretville.
Fans can actually visit the little Pretville 'town' in Hartbeespoort Dam which functioned as the set for the film. It has now expanded to include memorabilia from other Hartiwood Productions, there's a functional 50's 'diner' where you can order yummy milkshakes, a quaint 'silver screen' bio-scope where you can watch the film Pretville (and several other Afrikaans or South African produced features) and you can also visit the Zaza Photographic Studio, take fun photographs in the little town and dress up in 50's wardrobe and accessories. It's a really fun family outing, so contact Emma on 083 283 1323 for movie tickets, times and info on the the Pretville 'dorpie'.
Hartiwood recently produced another feature film called '
French Toast' which is due for release in 2015, (I play a tiny cameo role as a nurse and loved every minute of it, read about it
here) for which they built and created another magical 'set' in Hartbeespoort Dam - the lovely
French Toast 'Koffiekafee' (Cafe).
It is now also open to the public, serving their customers french-inspired cappucinos, macarons and all styles of french toast.
A few of our
FADCreationS Mentorship Students will also feature in this film, read this
post on their behind-the-scenes experience.
Here is a trailer of the film Pretville which released in Nov 2012.
Here's to making movies in SA!
Chat soon peeps!
