The Minister of Department Trade and Industry, Dr Rob Davies has commended partnership of the film industry players and efforts aimed at contributing towards employment creation, enhancement of international profile and increasing the country’s creative and technical skills base. This follows Minister Davies’ visit to three foreign films that are currently shooting at Cape Town Studios.
“In the period 2016/17, the film sector created 6 029 full time job equivalent and escalated to 9 423 for 2017/18. The South African films created the highest number of jobs at 6 334 whilst foreign films had the highest multiplier for investment. During the past financial year, 99 film projects were approved, of which 22 were through the Foreign Film & Production and Post-Production Incentive, with projected investment of R2.2 billion and incentive of R468, 5 million, this reflect our determination to realise the objective to encourage and attract large budget films and television production and post production work,” says Minister Davies.
Around R200 million incentive has been allocated for the three productions, i.e. Warrior Season 1, Warrior Season 2 and Raised by Wolves visited by Minister Davies.
The Director of Film Afrika Entertainment Rudi Van As, says the dti’s incentive is the life blood of the South African film industry which is one of the fastest growing economic sectors.
“We are delighted by the dti’s acknowledgement of the huge contribution made by international television series to sustainable job creation in South Africa. The film industry looks forward to continued collaboration with the department in the evolution of an incentive programme which remains competitive”, says Rudi Van As.
The production of Warrior Season 1” will spend over R342 million in South Africa for production and post-production over nine (9) weeks while ‘Warrior Season 2’ will shoot over 20 weeks with a South Africa with a South spend of over R329 million inclusive of production and post-production.
The qualifying South African spend on Production of, ‘Raised by Wolves’ directed by Sir Ridley Scott will be around R593 million, with production shooting period of 22 weeks in 2019 and beyond on location in South Africa with the assistance of a South African company, Film Afrika Entertainment.
These three productions aims to create 1 078 full-time jobs equivalent as the sectors’ jobs are seasonal.
Warrior Season 1 and 2 are produced by the American premier cable and satellite television network Home Box Office (HBO), which also produced Game of Thrones. The program which featured on the network consists primarily of theatrical released motion pictures and original television shows, along with made-for-cables movies, documentaries, boxing matches, occasional comedy and concert specials.
Raised by Wolves is produced by a British film and television company Scott Free Productions founded by brothers, Sir Ridley Scott and Tony Scott. The company has produced films ranging from the 2000 Hollywood blockbuster Gladiator (2000).
Beginning of this month the Department of Trade and Industry (the dti), undertook a mission and to participate at the American Film Market (AFM) with the intention of introducing Black Film makers and other service providers in the value chain to the studios.
This article was sourced from IOL/BusinessReport; for the original article, click here.
