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SEPTEMBER 2007: Cape Town screenwriter
Paul Johnson has been selected as a quarterfinalist
for the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences'
prestigious Nicholl Fellowship in Screenwriting.
The screenplay A Tin of Paint was chosen from over 5000 screenplays,
making the Top 5% in the Academy's 2007 competition - and follows
shortly after it was also named a quarterfinalist in Scriptapalooza
2007, another top Hollywood contest. The screenplay has drawn
positive industry comment, with one U.S. reader calling it "a
skilful, morally complex dramatization of a race riot, told with
sincerity and urgency." The story has as a backdrop the 1952
riots in New Brighton, Port Elizabeth, the very first anti apartheid
uprising that followed the start of Nelson Mandela’s defiance
campaign as president of the ANC youth League in South Africa.
Johnson developed the screenplay after being approached by Cape
Town filmmaker Roy Zetisky. "Roy's spent the past decade
piecing together witness accounts of the uprising," says
Johnson. "This project is very much driven by his commitment
to bring it to screen as director."
Zetisky comments: “Years ago, I was approached by a leader
of the New Brighton community to make a movie about a riot that
was triggered by a bizarre event, which ultimately changed the
future for all South Africans. I was intrigued by this story and
knew that it was an unusual slice of history, which had to be
brought to screen. After so many years of research, A Tin of Paint
was particularly close to my heart and when I met Paul Johnson,
I instinctively knew I had found the screenwriter to give this
profound story the narrative it deserved. Paul has lived up to
all my expectations and I am ecstatic that the Academy has confirmed
my belief in him as a great screenwriter.”
Zetisky who is currently trying to raise finance for the film
from both local and International investors said: "Hopefully,
the screenplay’s competition performances will help accelerate
that process. Having recognition from the Academy will certainly
help convince investors of this film’s potential - huge
thanks to Paul."
In addition to A Tin of Paint, Nicholl judges rated a second
Johnson screenplay, The Last Marine, among the top 15% in this
year's competition.
The highly competitive Nicholl Fellowship is regarded as Hollywood's
most important contest identifying the film industry's best new
writers. Recent Nicholl alumni include Ehren Kruger (Arlington
Road; The Ring; The Brothers Grimm); Susannah Grant (Erin Brokovich)
and Doug Atchison (Akeelah and the Bee).
MAY 2007: We are very pleased that producer
Sonja Rabé has just joined the team at
Pistoleros. This sinorita has just joined us from New York City
and her guns are already blazing, producing a feature documentary
for local and international distribution.
FEB 2007: Roy Zetisky was the producer, director
and D.O.P. of MNET’s new reality show CULTURE SHOCK.
Launched this month this show is destined to become an extremely
popular reality series on MNET. Mzi Kumalo was
the line producer and Pistoleros director, Cindy Poole
co-directed the Port Elizabeth location.
NOV 2006: Roy Zetisky was director and D.O.P.
for Ad agency FCB’s 5FM and Savanna’s commercial
to promote their end of year million buck giveaway parties.
JULY 2006: Thabang Moleya is directing an episode of
the new Canadian/British/South African co-production JOZI H.
This hospital series is being filmed in Johannesburg
on 35mm and Moleya was hunted down, by the international producers,
to direct for them. They already have him earmarked to direct the
next series.
Hollywood
Hearts. Pistoleros Films does it’s bit for charity
again. This time around we helped the American organization HOLLYWOOD
HEARTS, which is chaired by MTV Films Executive Producer, David
Gale and driven by Hollywood filmmaker, Lisa Cavenaugh. Their mission
was to make a short film with aids orphans from a Phillipi institution
called Beautiful Gate. Collaborating with the Cape Film Commission,
The Imaginarium and other Cape film industry contributors, we gave
these children an opportunity to act in their own movie, an experience
they will never forget. Roy Zetisky was the D.O.P. and Melisizwe
Lugulwana was the assistant director to Lisa Cavenaugh.
Revel
Fox, director of THE FLYER joins the Pistoleros. Also a
passionate director of music videos, music documentaries and commercials,
Revel has found a new home at Pistoleros. We are very pleased to
have him in our stable and wish to create opportunities for some
award winning feature films and television dramas with him.
Cindy
Poole, director of the SIVENI music video joins the Pistoleros.
AFDA film school honours graduate, Cindy Poole has several short
films under the belt as well as an awesome music video for Siveni.
She is hoping to expand her abilities in the commercial, television
series and feature film genres.
JUNE
2006: Ikapa Youth Film Festival Commercial. Pistoleros
films has just produced a commercial for the Ikapa Film Festival
with Asanda Gonya, directing. Asand Gonya, one of the new young
directors that we have been mentoring, also released his first book
of poetry this month…not bad for a 21 year old lad. The producer
of the commercial was Melisizwe Lugulwana and the D.O.P. was Roy
Zetisky.
Ikapa
Youth Film Festival Documentary. As part of a contribution
to the Youth day, weekend celebrations, Pistoleros films in collaboration
with the Cape Film Commission sponsored a mentorship program for
students to make a documentary of the event and the weekends activities.
This led to documentary footage being captured in the 3 townships
where the festival was being held, the Youth day concert in Langa
and the Youth Leaders convention on Robin Island. The students who
were constantly being mentored by Producer Melisizwe Lugulwana,
D.O.P. Roy Zetisky and Editor, Tiro Rose, produced a great documentary
which received a standing ovation when viewed at the closing ceremony
of the festival.
MAY
2006: Melisizwe Lugulwana joins the Pistoleros as the gringo honcho
producer. Ex training and development officer of the Cape
Film Commission, affectionately known as Meli has joined as one
of the key producers at Pistoleros and we are very pleased to have
this gringo on board.
APRIL
2006: Three Pistoleros Films Viral spots have been selected for
the UKTV’s Worlds Best Virals show. Two of director
John Warner’s spots were selected and one of Sam Alessandri’s
spots. John Warner’s Kauai commercial and his commercial to
promote responsible drinking and Alessandri’s Cannes Finalist,
commercial for Hunter’s Dry were selected for a show to feature
the worlds best Virals.
MARCH
2006: Zetisky is D.O.P. on the South African and period Cuba parts,
of the American Film Cambia Tu Vida, directed by Lee Don
Taicher. Pistoleros Films produced the local part of the American
film and handled the entire post- production, under the supervision
of editor Jackie Le Cordeur.
FEBRUARY
2006: Moleya directed the new hip hop artist Rashid’s music
video, featuring Hoodlum. The music video has Moleya’s
edgy trademark and promises to be a hit on air.
NOVEMBER
2005: Roy Zetisky was commissioned to film all the action sequences
for the MNET television series, Orion, being produced by
Jungle Media. Working in collaboration with D.O.P. Jaques Barnard,
they captured some amazing footage of the chase, fight and shoot
out scenes.
OCTOBER
2005: Moleya directs for African Bank. After directing
the successful African bank commercial “Reflections”,
Grey Worldwide commissioned Moleya to direct 2 more commercials
for their client with the same theme. Believe it or not these two
spots have turned out even better than the original and the client
and agency are ecstatic.
SEPTEMBER
2005: Zetisky directs the Nelson Mandela Invitational commercial
for Coca Cola. Ad Agency, Chemistry commissioned Roy Zetisky
to direct the 2005 NMI commercial. Involving Roy at concept stage
they collaborated and came up with a beautiful heart warming story
about a disabled kid in a wheelchair playing golf with his mates
on the edge of the township. Roger Hodgson of the band SUPERTRAMP
was kind enough to donate the use of the song “Give a little
bit” for the commercial.
AUGUST
2005: Moleya wins the City Varsity best Long cut Award.
The City Varsity Film Festival finished last week with an awards
evening on Friday night. The best students work over the past decade
was judged and two awards were given for the best overall short
cut and for the best overall long cut.
Two
of Pistoleros Films directors were nominated for the best long cut
award. John Warner for his award winning film “Note to Self”
and Thabang Moleya for his latest film “Case 474”. Last
year Moleya won the International Jameson Award for best short film
for his film “Portrait of a Dark Soul” and shortly afterwards
won the IBDA Advertising festival Grand Prix for his commercial
promoting the use of Condoms.
Thabang
Moleya won the City Varsity Best Long Cut Award on Friday night,
adding another trophy to his collection. It seems that everything
this talented young director touches turns to gold. JULY
2005: Pistoleros Films commercial titled "pool" for BBDO's
client Hunter's Dry, was a Cannes finalist at the Cannes
Lions Festival last week. Being the only SA commercial to make the
short list in this very highly contended Alcoholic Drinks category,
this is quite an achievement, considering that other commercials
that made it into the short list in this category such as Guinness
"surfer", Stella Artois "pilot" and others are
commercials produced with huge budgets. We are very happy with the
news and very proud of Sam and the rest of the team that worked
on this spot. A huge thanks goes to BBDO Creative Director, Ivan
Johnson, who gave birth to this excellent idea and gave us the opportunity.
We are honoured to be on the same playing field with such big budget
commercials and this result reaffirms that the size of the idea,
can often outweigh the size of the budget.
JUNE
2005: Zola Maseko, director of Award winning movie DRUM joins Pistoleros.
We are very honoured to have this award winning director join our
stable. Director, Zola Maseko almost needs no introduction as he
has featured so strongly in the news lately. His latest feature
film DRUM is causing a worldwide stir. It was the opening film at
the World Cinema festival, premiered at Sundance to a standing ovation
and was also the opening film at the Cannes critics week. The film,
set amid the jazz clubs and bars of 1950’s Johannesburg, has
also won the top prize, at Africa’s premier film festival,
Fespaco 2005 in Burkina Faso. Maseko was awarded the Etalon d'Or
de Yennenga. Since 2001, Maseko has also directed several television
commercials. We at Pistoleros believe that Maseko is great for those
commercials that require the experience of a cinematic director.
Maseko has a magnetic personality, is an outstanding communicator
and has the ability to bring out the best, from the talent that
are fortunate to work under his direction. If you are after a director
for your next feature film, short film or commercial then Maseko
is an excellent choice.
MAY
2005: Finalist of the 2004 Cannes/Shots Young Directors Award joins
Pistoleros. Andrew George, just became a Pistolero. We
welcome this talented performance director to our stable. Andrew,
who has a flair for comedy direction has directed commercials for
major brands including Toyota, Millers, Converse, Oreo and Nescafe.
Andrew has also been awarded the Kodak Vision Award for his short
film “The Blue Hotel”.
APRIL
2005: Dry Humour. Sam Alessandri has just directed an extremely
funny spot for Hunters Dry cider, which is being used as a viral
ad by Hunter’s agency, Berry Bush BBDO. We have received great
reviews of this commercial from creatives and production companies
worldwide.
FEBRUARY
2005: Foschini Summer TV Campaign. Wahb Mabkhout has just
directed a 4 commercial campaign for agency Jupiter drawing Room
and their client Foschini. These fashion commercials, make use of
a very stylish combination of live action and computer graphics.
NOVEMBER
2004: Jameson Short Film Award. Thabang Moleya started
the month by winning the Jameson Short Film Award at the World Cinema
Festival in Cape Town. IBDA Advertising Grand Prix.
Thabang Moleya’s commercial encouraging the use of condoms
was a finalist at the Vuka Awards and a week later he won the Grand
Prix for Advertising at the IBDA Advertising Awards in Dubai for
the same commercial. It has been a very sweet November for this
Pistolero.
OCTOBER
2004: Vuka Awards. Pistoleros has 3 directors making finalists
in the 2004 Vuka awards. Wahb Mabkhout, John Warner and Thabang
Moleya have made it through to the final round, meaning that all
their social service commercials will be flighted by Mnet at no
cost for the charities involved.
MAY
2004: The Film “Angel”. Roy Zetisky was recently
Director of Photography for the film “Angel” otherwise
know as Freedom Day. “Angel” the latest film from the
writer of the newly released film “Stander” is a very
alternative love story between 2 people from opposite sides of the
track. Set in Cape Town, principal cinematography is complete and
the project is in post production in Los Angeles.
APRIL
2004: Sam Alessandri has just directed a commercial for
The Blood Donor Association. The piece is a visual stunner, featuring
some dramatic cinematography and some awesome post production effects,
which clearly show that Sam is a great director for those projects
that require some post magic. He followed his debut commercial with
2 edgy spots for the Argus cycle tour, the biggest one-day cycling
event in the world. Sam has also just completed the latest cinema
commercial for the publication VISI.
MARCH
2004: Roy Zetisky has been shooting up a storm and has
recently directed commercials for some major brands, including Coca
Cola for Lowe Scanad, Ravensburger Games for Serviceplan, Germany,
Bell Lager for Lowe Uganda and CBA Bank for Ayton Y&R. Roy has
also recently shot the new Aids Awareness commercial, starring Richard
E Grant and the Chimpanzee Ruby. Also hot off the press is his latest
spot for Golf Digest magazine, starring Golfing legend Ernie Els.
FEBRUARY
2004: New Offices. We have recently moved into our new
offices on Dunkley Square in the Gardens. Positioned on the side
of a quaint square, with restaurants and a cozy guest lodge, this
272 year old building, is one of the oldest and most characterful
buildings in the Cape. Some of the interior walls have been restored
to reveal the old rock and brick, used in the days when this historical
monument was built. The offices overlook a beautiful garden with
a stunning pool. This environment truly inspires creativity and
makes a great place for a production company, to be fully productive.
Feel free to come and visit and see for yourself.
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