Looking Back #FlashbackFriday

It's been a while since my last post, and so I thought I'd catch you up on some of my recent activities.

Our months of April and May have been filled with lots of great projects. One of which was our FADCreationS annual Broadway Performance Showcase Experience. This year the production was entitled 'Follicle The Musical', in partnership with the wonderful team of stylists from the salon Follicle Hair Atelier. The hair and make-up styling was out there, outrageous and out of this world, wow!
After a two week workshop auditioning, dancing, singing and acting at Dance de Art studios, we moved onto stage at Monte De Dios with excellent staging and technical equipment provided by EPH Productions and JSF Productions. The production was such a great success and the talent astounding. Each year our candidates manage to creep into our hearts and it's a great reward to hear all of their feedback about how much they've learned, grown and enjoyed the 14 intensive days with us.

This is the awesome logo and poster below that was designed for the show this year by the talented Anzel Liebenberg from Fire Cherry Creative Branding.  

Ferdi and I with designer Anzel Liebenberg

Hubby Ferdinand acted as a writing assist on the screenplay for the 8 Days Film which highlights the growing and pressing issue of human trafficking. The film had already premiered in several major cities in the States when director/producer Jaco Booyens began planning the South African premiers. It was a star-studded premier in Johannesburg on the 14th of March, and a wonderful privilege to attend. The 8 Days message is truly important for the trafficking awareness campaign, if you want to follow this movement or donate to the cause, visit their site at this link.


It was also particularly special to attend this year's Naledi Theatre Awards with Ferdi who was nominated as choreographer for his work on the production of Reik Na Die Sterre die Musical, which he produced together with Johan Ferrreira and Henre Bornman as TheSmashHitCo. The musical was nominated for 7 Naledi categories, and was a grateful affirmation and reward for the vision and hard work that went into the production.

My beautiful friend Clarice Pieterse recently launched an online musical 'movement' named #DinsdagDeuntjie. Every Tuesday, performers record videos of themselves playing their instruments and singing cover or original songs and post them online with the hashtag #DinsdagDeuntjie.

A brand new development has evolved from the growing popularity of this movement! We recently attended the second monthly 'live' #DinsdagDeuntjie event at the ProSound venue at the Hillfox Centre in Roodepoort. It is a wonderful platform for up and coming vocalists and musical artists to showcase their brands and perform live.

The next live event is happening on Friday 5 June 2015, TydOmTeSkyn#3 - you should all come and check out the great talent! For more info go and like their Facebook Page. 


Another highlight of the past few weeks was the official premier of the French Toast feature film.

I was so thrilled to play a cameo in this film and thoroughly enjoyed playing the french nurse Marion, as well as working on speaking the french language which I've been in love with since high school.
The premier was held with a lot of 'french flair' (and lots of really yummy) french toast at the knew open air cinema at the French Toast Coffee Cafe in Hartebeespoort. The smaller replica of the Eiffel Tower was all lit up on the other side of the romantic lock bridge, and had everyone experiencing a little bit of Paris in Gauteng.
It was such a lovely evening!

Wow it's been an eventful few weeks, it's been fun looking back.

I am looking forward to all that is still lying ahead and all the exciting new possibilities!!
Will keep you posted :)

 ** Subscribe to this blog on the right, in order to receive my posts conveniently via email.

Chat soon peeps,

Pretville Film #FlashbackFriday

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!

#SCARS Promo Photoshoot #BehindTheScenes

If you don't know about our #SCARS film project yet, where have you been?

(Read more here and watch the teaser trailer video.)

#SCARS is a teen adventure film being developed by FADCreations in partnership with The Smash Hit Company and is a film about 4 teenagers who discover they have two things in common, superpowers and one sinister neighbourhood mom. The film is currently in the early stages of conceptualising and pre-production, while the final details of financier investment and budgeting are being finalized.

And so, a few days ago we had a ridiculous amount of fun shooting some promotional shots for the film, which will be edited into posters and marketing material for the initial campaign.

We are blessed with incredible people on the team. All the characters' hair and make up was crafted and perfected by the incredibly talented team from Follicle Hair Atelier, including the detailed special effects make up. The fabulous photographer for the two day shoot was Eben Liebenberg from Photo Elements, and the styling was meticulously mastered by Reg Hart. 



I am really excited to see what the creative minds at Fire Cherry Creative Branding will come up with when they get their hands on the raw images.

I can not wait to start filming on this project, but I loved getting a small taste for my sly character Vanessa during this shoot. The 4 lead teen characters were photographed namely Shane, Ariana, Chloe and Tshepo, we also shot images of Sophie and Cain, two pivotal supporting characters.






Once we have the official shots, I will share them with you guys. In the mean time, here are some more behind the scenes moments and videos from the shoot.

If you would like to get involved with this project or would like more info about this investment opportunity, go and check out the website or contact Ferdinand at info@fadcreations.co.za.

Chat soon,

Crazy Castings #ActressLife

Have you ever looked back at your career and really, no I mean really thought about some of the auditions and casting moments you have been faced with??

There have been some weird and wonderful requests and experiences during my career as actress... One that comes to mind was an audition for a soap where I had to portray a completely psychologically disturbed women in a hospital, who shoots her love interest during the scene, locks herself in the bathroom and threatens suicide. Which wouldn't be strange on the actual set but in the casting room with only one other person and absolutely no props or actors reading opposite you - it can get a little interesting!

Or you end up auditioning with a poker-faced monotonous 'actor' reading in the lines (often they're the wrong sex for the character). I once had to actually eat the actual (dry) cereal in the casting room with a spoon which all the other auditionees had already used, oh... and then deliver a line afterwards. I've had to pretend to speak to imaginary digital characters, fall in love with a mannequin, get pretend hi-jacked and dance like nobody's watching. I have had to do a full on made-up-on-the-spot yoga routine, pretend my finger snaps bring imaginary items to life, pretend I'm surfing and pretend I'm playing tennis (well)! I've had to moonwalk to work, dance like a robot, a drunk party animal, a cheerleader and a ballerina. I have had to imagine a horrific crime scene and become emotional over it, have had to memorise pages and pages of script for one character - by the next day and speak in several different accents, sometimes even other languages. And I wouldn't have it any other way!

What a crazy wonderful job, never quite the same and certainly never ever dull. Even once you get booked for the job, there is a large amount of the set and warderobe that isn't actually physically there (often added in post) which must be created by the actors' imagination and ability to put themselves into that possible reality. And sometimes your co-actor can not be part of a take due to space, availability or a type of camera angle for the shot. Think of a bedroom scene where the lens is filming the POV (point of view) of the person lying at the bottom, or a POV during a fight, a telephone call etc... There are many such instances where the actor doesn't have the luxury of playing off of another actor's lines or reactions.
Personally I have found that working as an improv actor has greatly improved my skill with these situations and auditions.

I hope you enjoy some of the mad pics of castings I've been to over the last while...

Neeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeext!!!!

Bye for now!

Glimpses from my Crew Life #BehindTheLens

So one of the many avenues of work I am blessed with happens to be behind the lens. I am signed with the very best crew agency in SA, Call A Crew and I get to enjoy a variety of amazing set environments either as 2nd Assistant Director, Production Coordinator or Cast Coordinator.

What I love about the other side of filming is really the never-ending pace, the high-energy and ever-changing environment that really is not for the faint-hearted.

One of my very first set experiences was AD'ing on an Afrikaans short-film with a group of friends for the KykNet Silwerskerm Filmfees in 2012, called Uit Die Kaskenades - which was one of 10 short-films commisioned to be aired from about 450 entries. And from there the bug bit!



I remember working on a great OlaFilms production for Adidas in the Maboneng Precinct in Johannesburg. It meant anything from scheduling,
wrangling little soccer players, sweeping glass from a tar road and everything in between. I had such great fun on that shoot.


Another Ola Films project had me working with a Norwegian company called Babusjka and we were filming in Rockville, Soweto. Our lead actor was the legend Sam Phillips, it was great to be able to watch him work. The little boy playing the 'younger Sam', had to throw a live chicken onto his parents' bed during a short scene. I got tasked with holding the chicken and passing it to the little one on 'action'!  I learnt that day that if you tie a chicken's feet together they become pretty much passive, but if you untie them - not so much!

I've even had the privilege of meeting Richard Branson's daughter, Holly last year. She is completely down to earth and was telling us all about their preparations for travelling to space with the launch of Virgin Galactic.

The corporate video world has also taken me to a few interesting places, including banks, boxing rings, breweries, insurance companies, charities, universities and many many many... many offices.

My most recent shoot, a week or so ago was on campus at the University of Pretoria, where I was running into a whole bunch of students I coached years ago in their schools' musical revue productions, who are now all students at the Varsity.
And student life at UP really does look fantastic!

The crew shot a lot of interviews and vox pops but then got creative with our cutaways. The Director Zoe and I were driving the DOP around on the back of a golf-cart, getting some great architectural shots and drawing attention every time we had to reverse with that ridiculously loud beeping sound.
All in a day's work!


I learn such a great deal every time I work a new job with a new crew and I'm looking forward to the next adventure to tell you all about...


Chat soon,

#SCARS The Movie #ComingAttractions

Dreams are born with a seed of a thought and grown through countless steps of action and loads of passion, faith and belief. #SCARS was a seed, a thought, a concept and has grown to become the potential realisation of not one person's dream, but many.

Hashtag Scars (#SCARS) is a teenage adventure film, a story about four random teenagers pulled together by fate when they realise they have two things in common; superpowers and one sinister neighbourhood mom. It is a project that has been blessed from the very beginning with so many individuals willing to contribute and invest their time, skills, money or energy in helping the development of this dream.

(Read more about this project here.)

This incredibly exciting project is the brain child of my hubby, Ferdinand and has been in development for just over a year now. A major amount of legwork in the development phase has already been completed, including the filming of an exciting new teaser trailer. It gives you a great feel for what's to come...
#SCARS Teaser Trailer 

It is so incredible to watch something come alive from concept phase to the written word, to images and possible shots and locations..

Some of the teenage cast members have already been pencil booked and let me tell you, there are some truly incredible talents in this country and we strive to give them the creative platforms they deserve. I am truly excited for all the possibilities it may bring for the young stars who will make their debut with this project and dream of great careers within this industry. There are 4 great main characters who drive the story: Ariana, Chloé, Shane and Tshepo. Then there's the antagonist character, Vanessa - a wonderfully meaty role and I feel so privileged and excited to be playing her. I really hope I will do her justice when the time comes. I can't wait to be on set and see the story come alive.

We are now in the process of sourcing the final funding and investment for #SCARS, which some say can be the hardest part of producing a film. But we already have so much support, I just know that in no time we will be green lit and shooting the first scene of this remarkable project. We are also currently running a crowd-funding campaign on indiegogo, and would love for you to check it out.
Just follow this indiegogo link.

We are daily working on the #SCARS campaign and development and I can not wait to let you know when we're finally in production. So keep an eye out and watch this space!