And now I enter the world of production delays.
To say that I am exhausted is an understatement.
Luckily I am unstoppable! :)
This thing was supposed to be ready to rock and roll for release on the 9th December.
Sponsors and product placement companies defaulting on payment, investors simply not taking calls, bridging financiers lying through their teeth... We don't sue anyone, it's not how we roll! We just find money from scratch to finish our baby for a release in April.
After 4 months of ducking and diving, companies come clean on their slashed marketing budgets, loud mouth businessmen repent for over committing and we have to sell 35% of our movie...
Quite honestly, although it's been tough on the team and the poor sods who have had to ride the storms of financial hell, I am glad for every drop of anguish so far.
"Andrew are you mad?"
When I started making the Race-ist, I knew nothing.
Literally nothing.
All I was focused on was making my movie and it's sequels and that was that for the next 5 years.
The past 6 months have shown me a Country of unpaid cast and crew (not just from our project), ignorant producers, slimy investors, pessimistic distributors, unmotivated government and an industry that just cannot sufficiently keep its employees alive!
I must be honest. Although D9 was a fantastic film that created a lot of Jobs for South African cast and crew and really put us on the map (like a home run after Tsotsi :), It cannot be counted as part of the 'South African' film industry. That would paint a completely wrong picture! D9 had dollars.. LOTS of dollars. The average South African film has Rands, VERY LITTLE rands!
To Neil and his team I tip my hat (and bow on the floor for lack of worthiness) but I am driven with a mission to change the South African film Industry!
Our crews and cast walk around with too many battle scars for what should be a creative space, our producers are demoralized, most of them so sceptical you can't have a conversation with them! We've all been lied to so severely by so many people and (believe me) when your word to others cannot be kept because others could not keep their word to you, I can only describe it as hell.
Me, I'm fine, I am good at closing deals and finding money. The rest of the Industry?
The Race-ist is no longer my sole project. I am now driven to get South Africa behind our film Industry like they are behind our Sports teams!
Do you realize that out of 50 million South Africans, less than 1.5 million go to the movies?
Every year the number of film goers increase, but think about this:
The average 'good' movie will pull in a mere R10 mil at local box office. The film maker will get R4 mil of that if they are very lucky! What kind of a movie can you make for R4mil?
Mr Bones 2 pulls R30 Mil at the box office and we are all "Woohooo, a smash hit!"
Have we lost our minds? Thats less than $4 mil! We should be pulling ten times those numbers!
Movies with proper budgets create jobs, and lots of jobs! We are talking over 1000 people that need to be accommodated, fed, clothed, entertained and supported logistically.
If a high budget movie is produced in your town, TENS of MILLIONS of Rands or Dollars get spent in your community!
The more high budget films we have, the better off our entire industry!
So yeah... we're almost done with The Race-ist, but I'm just getting warmed up!
Watch this space!
