what i have done..

I have just realised that i haven't really been documenting all of the work that i have contributed to this production, something that hennie,lauren and i will have to discuss to sort out credits... So far I came up with and pitched the idea, done some research (this was my slightly less active area) found the experts and liased with them. A fair bit of editing, and took part on almost all shoots, and did 2 on my own, this couldn't be helped and narrated the documentary. I know that Hennie and Lauren have contributed a lot too, Lauren's editng and camera skills are phenomenal, and to be honest she has taught me a lot about Final Cut. Hennie has been great on sound, and research, as to has Lauren, and to be honest sometimes just having them around when your all trying to make sense of the mess, is really helpful for moral. Both of them were really great at putting together the script, and shooting shedule, such an essential for documentaries, and it really helped us during the edit, when we were putting together the rough assembly.
I couldn't have done it on my own, and Im glad they were part of my production team.

update

today we have almost finished our documentary, its been long and hard, and very stressful. However after Helens viewing today she gave us some very positive feedback, and all that is left, is to sort out the audio levels, and some colour correction.. Thankfully the filming i did last night means we have the material we needed to cover the rest of the edits,which we did today. This unit has been the hardest to date, but the most enjoyable.

Editing

We have begun editing and when we initially added all the clips in we wanted it ended up being about 30 minutes long we knew this was way to long so we went through the whole project and typed up what everyone said and then printed it out and highlighted the most important bits which we knew we had to include in the film. The next day we cut down the film according to these highlighted bits and we managed to get it down to 16 minutes. We realised that the section about Ari's kidnap was 6 minutes long but we knew that once we had filmed the reconstruction that we would be able to cut this right down.

On Tuesday 29th November We knew that we wanted commentary in our documentary and so Jane and Lauren record the speech we wanted on Garage Band and then started to add it in to the project.

On Wednesday 30th November me and Jane began adding in the archive which all of us found and went through and made the film flow together so that the story made sense.

The documentary is coming along really well and once we have fitted in the reconstruction and therefore cut down Ari's speech we will be able to create a final cut and their for a final documentary ready to hand in.

Crime Rate in South Africa

The graph shows that the rate of robbery went up after the reversal of apartheid.
http://www.boxofficefootball.com/is-the-crime-rate-in-south-africa-putting-off-fans/

With a multitude of tourists heading to South Africa for the World Cup, a question hangs on many lips: how dangerous is the country?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/8668615.stm

filming update

Filming of Skyla fundraising outside Tesco went well on the 12th Nov, with the exception of a member of staff being rude thinking I wasn't allowed to be there, however this was quickly resolved, and I manged to get some nice shots of Rita and the girls all together fundraising, aswel as some close ups of Skyla.. The 15th Nov we were filming our interview with Renee, our expert, in Kingscross at SOAS university, this went very well, although I am concerned about the edit, as Renee talks very fast and this could make it difficult went cutting to different sync.. So far this project has been very demanding, but it is going well, we have a reconstruction left to film, which we will be looking at doing this week. I hope the edit wont be too difficult.

Production

Just shot some beautiful-looking sequences of Rita cooking in the kitchen, Skyla doing her homework plus an interview with her about how she feels about leaving South Africa and coming to the UK, she was natural in front of the camera. We also got some shots of Rita holding the baby, Peyton, and making her giggle. Then we went outside and took some shots through the window watching them all eat dinner, some slightly out of focus in all different frame sizes. We then took various shots of Rita feeding Peyton.

Tomorrow morning we plan on shooting them again, getting ready for school, ie. packing lunchboxes, putting on coats and shoes, walking out of the front door and leaving the frame. Then we will be off the London to shoot the interview with Renee.

update

Last night's shoot went well, with the exception of some sound issues because of the children, which meant occasionally re taking.. All of us worked together well, with Hennie on sound and Lauren on camera, and myself asking questions and keeping time logs. This Sat I am filming the oldest daughter fundraising for cancer, as part of one of our cuttaway sequences. I am looking forward to this.  Renee our expert is going to confirm on Monday 14th Nov whether or not she can do the interview on the 15th Nov.. She is still happy to the interview we just need her to confirm the date, so that we can inform the university she works at which day we will be arriving, as they have given us permission to film on the condition we let them know what day we are coming. So far everything seems to be coming together..

Hazzard Assessment

I have completed the hazard assessment for each of the locations we want to film at. There was not alot of risk involved which I could think of apart from people triping over wires and I have put this under control by making sure someone is cable bashing at all times.

I have also been through the script and made the few little changes that Helen asked for to make it more presentable and understandable.

Shooting Schedule

Today we looked through our script and came up with a very in depth shooting schedule so we know exactly what we are shooting, where and when. We printed all of the schedules out and then we gave Rita a call to confirm dates. We have confirmed with her to shoot the evening sequences, the home GVs and her and Ari's interview on Wednesday 9th November at 6:30pm onwards. On Saturday 12th we will shoot Skyla doing fundraising outside Tesco and on Tuesday 15th we will be shooting Rita and the children's early morning school day routine.

Helen had a look at what we had come up with and she liked what we had done, she also gave us feed back on our script and there are a few little things we need to change but nothing to major. We have been given the go ahead to film when we need to as Helen is pleased with our script and preparation.

Tonight I will edit the little bits in the script we need to and I will also make sure I complete a risk assessment for Rita and Ari's house so that we are already to film on Wednesday.

Questions for Renee

The script is coming together, I've put in some commentary, what questions we may ask Renee and what we expect the answers to be, and Rita and Ari's story. Tomorrow, we're going to see Rita to get her side of the story so we can fill in the gaps in the script. The research into visuals that Hennie came up with have been added to the script and I've also thought about some more visuals we're going to see, but they need more development.

We then need to get our filming dates together for the interviews and sequences and possibly recce the location for Renee beforehand to see what we can use as a background; perhaps a projected image behind her. 

Here are some of the questions Jane and I went through in the week, putting them into the script and using Hennie's research, in keeping with what answers we expect to fit in with the story:

• What was apartheid?
• How did the apartheid affect South Africa? Economy? People?
• When was apartheid abolished?
• What is it like for South African's now? Economy?
• Was there an increase in crime? How has this affected South Africans?
• How has the rate of immigration to the UK changed? And what is the cause of this?

Footage of South African Police

South African police putting men in the back of a police van, with violence. We could use footage like this when Ari talks about how the police arrived and arrested people when Ari was kidnapped and taken to the bank.or to demonstrate what the "fake policemen" would have been wearing.

Interview Set-ups & Reconstruction Shots Ideas

Taken from 'Exposure: Gaddafi & The IRA' on ITV1. Examples of how to set-up the interviews with the expert, using projected images and lighting techniques. And for reconstruction when Rita and Ari talk about his kidnapping; we can use extreme close-ups of guns, telephones, driving shots (steering wheel and the road), possibly a form with a dotted line and writing "help", and we could also made a map to illustrate where he went.

Using objects in the frame out of focus

A simpler lighting set-up

Questions To Ask

I've had a think of what questions we could ask our expert so that we get the information we want from her but at the same time let her be completely objective because we don't want our film to be considered racist.

1. What does apartheid mean and what was it?
2. How were people effect after and during apartheid?
3. How did apartheid effect the economy?
4. When and why was apartheid abolished?
5. Can you tell us anything you know about the diamond industry 

Visuals

I've been trying to think of visuals which will be interesting for the viewer to see and will fit in with the sound.
I think we should keep the opening as archive of Nelson Mandela being elected president and I think the end shot should be Ari and Rita leaving the house with the children and walking down the road so that we have a shot of them "Leaving Home".
I've thought of a few things we could film to cover edits:

• South African art/objects in the experts office or in Rita and Ari's house
• Family photos in frames from when they lived in South Africa
• Diamonds twinkling 

I've also had a think about what Rita and Ari could be doing in the shots so that they are not just sitting there having an interview:

• Feeding the baby
• Brushing child's hair
• Cooking
• Looking at diamonds
• Playing with the kids
• Looking at photos from when they lived back in South Africa
• Watching home videos

When the family leave South Africa and arrive in the UK there should be shots of an airplane taking off and the image of the South African flag and then a plane lading and the image of the United Jack.

I was trying to think of how we could show the trauma Ari went through and the only thing I could think of was having a blurry reconstruction of 2 men dressed as policemen being aggressive.

I also think that parts of the interviews need to be covered with archive so that the viewer can fully understand what the person is talking about.

Thats what i've come up with so far I will try and think of some more visuals which will be interesting to put in the documentary and full explain the point we are trying to make.

Images of Segregation

Some images we could use to overlay the expert sync when she talks about apartheid and what it was. 

 

Opening Sequence

Videos of Nelson Mandela becoming president, found via youtube. Includes shots of South Africans cheering.

update

I received a pleasant call this morning from Dr Lutz Marten, from the soas university re the message i had left him about our commision, he was quite agreeable to talking on camera, however i did discover his expertise is more in the African languages. Not quite sure how that will work. Renee Horn also contacted me re the commision and again seemed happy, however i need to ring her back tonight after six as she is teaching all day, so i can confirm filming dates etc. She is more ideal as she is an expert in south african politics...

De Beers Diamonds

There is some footage on De Beers Diamond's website of the mines in South Africa all the way to sorting and manufacturing, thought it would be useful for when we talk about the business.

http://www.debeersgroup.com/en/Media-centre/B-roll/

There is a contact regarding the footage and photos if we wanted to use them: mark.thomas@debeersgroup.co.uk

Script breakdown

Visuals	Sound
Video of Nelson  Mandella winning the election and becoming prime minsister.	V.O  of expert talking about the history of apartheid, with some music fading in/out at end of V.T
Leaving Home title comes up bottom left of screen, fading into expert still talking in her office.	Voice of expert, discussing abolishment of apartheid.
Video footage of white south africans currently in South Africa.  Youtube clip.	Sound from footage.
Expert talking in her office about the plight of black and white South Africans in South Africa currently andthe state of the economy.	Voice of expert, maybe some African music at end fading into next scene.
Youtube news reel  clip about whites living in slums.	Music , some voice over from the news reel clip.
Introduction to Rita and Ari kotsis, in their home.	Rita and Ari discussing life in S/A before apartheid ended.
Photos, and personal archive footage of Rita and Ari’s life in S/A.	Music, african? Plus atmospheric background noises.
News reel clip of Thabo Mbecki being elected as South African Prime Minister.	Sound from clip.
Expert talking about diamond business in S/A and crime associated with this industry.	Expert voice, and atmos.
Rita and Ari talking about the kidnapping of Ari. Shot at their home.	Dramatic music
Ari and Rita talking about why they left S/A, and coming to the U.K	Voices of Ari and Rita, and happy music in background.
Family shot either in the park or at home in the garden.	Ari talking about quality of life now for them in the U.K. Atmos in background, fading out to tribal music?

Interview with Rita an Ari

Aristidis, 41 and Rita Kotsis 33.They have been together 17 yrs.
Had lived in Benoni near Guateng (Johannesburg) most of their lives. Rita is 3rd generation South African, and Ari is 1st gen South African.Ari S/A born but family are Greek orthodox from Greece.
They got married in 2001 26th Oct they then moved in together in Kessington. 
They left in 2002 due to endless thefts and lived with in laws in Brackpan for a year.
They then looked at buying a house in Benoni, Ari was an accountant and Rita was looking after their children.
After they had purchased their home they found out that the previous owners had all been executed with the exception of the daughter.
Despite this though life was good, Ari was still running his accountancy business and was also in the mobile phone,properties and diamond business selling rough diamonds to cut.
They were living a fairly good life and were earning well, living a standard South African life.

Apartheid had been abolished in 1994 with Nelson Mandella's rise to prime minister of the A.N.C party, and 8 yrs later Thabo Mbecki took over. Thabo a radicalist introduced new laws about Broad Based Black Economic Empowerment (B.B.B.E.E)  which meant that white owned businesses had to have black partners and the black partners had to be GIVEN 26% of the company shares, as a direct result large companies left South Africa moving their head quarters to places like London only leaving subsidiary branches in S/A in order to avoid giving away their shares, companies like De beers diamonds, Investec, Sasol,Anglo American and Old Mutual.

The economy of South Africa was suffering, and affirmative action( businesses had to be 93%black to better represent the African populace) meant that whites were loosing jobs, and the immigration of white South Africans to the U.K was a common place thing.
Meanwhile in 2006/7 Ari and Rita were doing ok, life was still good and Ari was bringing in enough money to provide for his family, however life did get bad.

In the yr of 2006/7 (he is unsure which) Ari and his business partner Willi (white,German friend) had to travel to Kimberly from Johannesburg, this was a 4 hour trip, to go and make a deal with some diamond dealers. They packed the boot with the money as diamond dealers don't deal with card, and fueled up and left. When they arrived they went to the house at the mine where the deal was due to take place. After a few minutes police officers blasted in shouting it wasn't a legal deal, Ari was telling them he had a licence to deal, the guys they were dealing with were forced into a corner(3 black men)and Ari was taken out to his car to fetch the money whilst his partner was being beaten in the house by the other "officers" once inside the officers separated Ari and Willi into 2 rooms and beat them to within an inch of their lives interrogating them about the deal and the money, after 4 hours they took Ari and said he was going with them to a local village to empty his bank accounts and give the "officers" all of his money, it become clear by this point that they were fake police men and he was being kidnapped held to ransom.

They took Ari's car leaving his partner at the house with officers and the dealers. Once they they arrived at the bank Ari held at gunpoint was made to go into the bank and start first emptying his private account, when the teller asked him to sign the slip he wrote help on the dotted line.
The teller then asked to speak to him privately stating there was a problem with his account so that the gunman wouldn't get suspicious. Once he was the private room where the gunman couldn't follow he explained his predicament to the teller, explaining that they were due to travel to 2 other banks to empty his business accounts. She told him she would inform the banks and the police.
Leaving the bank with the entire contents of his private account, he and the gunmen travelled to the next bank. Luckily the bank had been informed and managed to stall Ari, upon which the police turned up and arrested everyone including Ari, who resisted, being unsure of the validity of the police credentials.
After 2 more days at the station the ordeal was over having only lost a small percentage of money due to an escaped gunman. However mentally Ari was scarred, the first week after the ordeal Ari was in chronic pain due to being smashed in the head with a butt of a gun. After the first week Ari had lost interest in work and had become nervous and depressed.

 Unable to continue with work for almost a year due to the psychological impact of the kidnapping, this resulted in Rita and Ari selling everything and they moved back in with Ari's parents, Rita was working in the catering business and Ari had manged to find work in a school, however the school was robbed several times with one occasion Ari in the building, Rita was mugged on the way to the bank, then their daughter was being threatened.

They decided enough was enough.  Applying for visas to the U.K for the children and Rita,Ari has a E.U passport, they started selling what they had left, packed up, wrote off debts they were owed, just 2 days before they left the visas arrived and they travelled to the U.K at the end of 2008.


Rita is still in her job, whilst Ari has since moved to a company in London as an accountant. They and their children are happy and safe now. Ari told me that he is sure that had they not left S/A they would all or some be either dead or raped and he is thankful to the U.K and has no intention of ever returning to South Africa, the place he called home for so many years.

update

Hi all, im off now to go and interview Rita and Arry, aswell as organise a time for filming...Im hoping this goes well...

See you all Monday morn...

South African Timeline 1999-2011

1999 

• ANC wins general elections, Thabo Mbeki takes over as president. 

2001   

• May - An official panel considers allegations of corruption surrounding a 1999 arms deal involving British, French, German, Italian, Swedish and South African firms. In November the panel clears the government of unlawful conduct. 

2002  

• October - Bomb explosions in Soweto and a blast near Pretoria are thought to be the work of right-wing extremists. Separately, police charge 17 right-wingers with plotting against the state. 
• Land Distribution and Agricultural Development Programme - 20,000-100,000 rand is given to help black entrepreneurs set up commercially viable farms, they have to first contribute 5,000 rand of their own money. 
• Economy ranked 23rd largest in the world.

2003 

• Government transfer 300,000 hectares of land to 140,000 people.
• Black Economic Empowerment (BEE) Act - Affirmative Action.
• Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment (B-BBEE) Act.

2004  

• April - Ruling ANC wins landslide election victory, gaining nearly 70% of votes. Thabo Mbeki begins a second term as president. 
• Budget deficit falls to 1.5%.

2005  

• June - President Mbeki sacks his deputy, Jacob Zuma, in the aftermath of a corruption case. 
• August - Around 100,000 gold miners strike over pay, bringing the industry to a standstill. 

2006  

• May - Former deputy president Jacob Zuma is acquitted of rape charges by the High Court in Johannesburg. He is reinstated as deputy leader of the governing African National Congress.  
• September - Corruption charges against former deputy president Zuma are dismissed, boosting his bid for the presidency.   
• December - South Africa becomes the first African country, and the fifth in the world, to allow same-sex unions. 

2007  

• April - President Mbeki, often accused of turning a blind eye to crime, urges South Africans to join forces to bring rapists, drug dealers and corrupt officials to justice. 
• June - Hundreds of thousands of public-sector workers take part in the biggest strike since the end of apartheid. The strike lasts for four weeks and causes widespread disruption to schools, hospitals and public transport.    
• December - Zuma is elected chairman of the ANC, placing him in a strong position to become the next president. Prosecutors bring new corruption charges against him.

2008 

• May - Wave of violence directed at foreigners hits townships across the country. Dozens of people die and thousands of Zimbabweans, Malawians and Mozambicans return home.  
• September - A judge throws out a corruption case against ruling ANC party chief Jacob Zuma, opening the way for him to stand as the country's president in 2009.
• President Mbeki resigns over allegations that he interfered in the corruption case against Mr Zuma. ANC deputy leader Kgalema Motlanthe is chosen by parliament as president.  
• December - A new political party is launched in Bloemfontein, in the first real challenge to the governing ANC. The Congress of the People - or Cope - is made up largely of defectors from the ANC and is headed by former defence minister Mosiuoa Lekota. 

2009 

• January - Appeals court rules that state prosecutors can resurrect their corruption case against ANC leader Jacob Zuma, opening the way for Mr Zuma's trial to be resumed, just months before general election.  
• April - Public prosecutors drop corruption case against Jacob Zuma.
• ANC wins general election. 
• May - Parliament elects Jacob Zuma as president.
• Economy goes into recession for first time in 17 years.  
• July - Township residents complaining about poor living conditions mount violent protests. 

2010 

• June - South Africa hosts the World Cup football tournament.  
• August - Civil servants stage nation-wide strike. 

2011 

• May - Local elections, with opposition Democratic Alliance nearly doubling its share of the vote since the last poll.
• President Zuma mediates in Libyan conflict.

History of Apartheid

I've began to research South Africa and Apartheid as much as I can so that I can gain a greater understanding of it and can then present the information in our documentary. I'm finding it very hard to find information on how apartheid effected white people but I have found a few things which relate to what we want to talk about in the documentary.

The link below shows information one Africa in the 1990's
http://www.fsmitha.com/h2/ch34-sa.htm
The link below contains a video about what has happened to South Africa in the 15 years apartheid has been abolished.
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2009/04/19/66232/fifteen-years-after-apartheid.html

This link shows the effects of apartheid and explains how many blacks were forced to leave their homes and land as the government had decided they should be white areas. This was part of the Group Areas Act.
http://library.thinkquest.org/C002739/AfricaSite/LMSouthaffects.htm

"There are various reports and statistics on poverty, but very few on white poverty, which is growing at an alarming rate," says Mr. Mulder. "There are more than 70 white informal settlements around Pretoria and Johannesburg, and they're now appearing in Cape Town. It's a problem."
http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Africa/2010/1014/More-white-South-Africans-struggle-in-post-apartheid-economy

South African economy

South Africa is a middle-income, emerging market with an abundant supply of natural resources; well-developed financial, legal, communications, energy, and transport sectors; a stock exchange that ranks among the 10 largest in the world; and a modern infrastructure supporting an efficient distribution of goods to major urban centers throughout the region. However, growth has not been strong enough to lower South Africa's high unemployment rate, and daunting economic problems remain from the apartheid era - especially poverty and lack of economic empowerment among the disadvantaged groups. South African economic policy is fiscally conservative but pragmatic focusing on targeting inflation and liberalizing trade as means to increase job growth and household income.

BBC South Africa Articles

An article from a white commercial farmer's point of view on losing his farm and the damage this is causing to the South African economy. Here is a quote:

"Farmers have spent 60 million rand on private security firms to protect their farms. 1,600 farmers were murdered in 8,000 farm attacks in the ten years between 1994 and 2004. Many have abandoned their land at a loss to the Government of 100 million rand a year in tax revenues. Since 1994, the number of commercial farms has declined from 70,000 to 55,000."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/scotland/education/ms/southafrica/social_economic/land/story.shtml?story=storyc

Another article on affirmative action. A brief quote from the article on what it means:

"The transfer of power and economic status to black South Africans so they too can take up leadership roles in the New South Africa."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/scotland/education/ms/southafrica/social_economic/economics/story.shtml?story=storyc

Ideas

On our initial discussion Jane told us the story of Christine and Norman and explained apartheid to us in alot of detail so we could make sure we all understood exactly what it was and what it meant from this we could start discussing locations, sequences and footage we needed to gather.

For some of the sequences we thought it would be a good idea to film Norman and Christine in their everyday jobs. So we are going to try and film Christine giving a service in her parish and Norman doing some gardening around the village.

When we were talking about archived footage we thought it would be good to use clips from the news about apartheid but also use some of the couples personal video footage so we can show how their life has changed.

We want to use shots of the couple actually being interviewed and when the archived footage and the sequences of Christine and Norman doing their everyday job are shown the couple will be explaining their story through voice over.

- Hennie

Leaving home research.

Another useful link, worth looking at for research purposes.

jane and Lauren

research...

This is one of the news reel links i would be looking at using in the documentary, to demonstrate the problems that south africans face.

jane

The pitch for, Leaving Home

Leaving Home.

By Jane Lowe

Most of us have heard of apartheid, In Afrikaans apartheid means 'separateness, and after his release from prison in 1990 Nelson Mandela went on to become president of South Africa and Apartheid was officially ended. This was a great victory for Nelson Mandela, however like with every great victory, there are always casualties, some of whom never get the opportunity to tell their story.

In this documentary I will be looking at a couple (Christine and Norman Mundell) that left South Africa in the early noughtie’s following the reversal of apartheid. Facing financial ruin, and unable to continue running their farm, they made a brave decision to Leave Home and come to the U.K. Christine now a stranger in her country of birth, and unqualified had to re-train in a new career, whilst her husband Norman managed to find work as a gardener, having never worked for an employer before whilst their daughter struggled to integrate into an English education system.

I will be looking at their journey using their own personal archive footage and one to one interviews, remaining objective at all times to insure there’s no racial prejudice.

This will be a very personal account of what it was like living in South Africa, and how moving to the U.K has changed them as people.

The unique selling point will be the personal touch, not to mention that because so many channels are concerned with being politically correct, this story is a rarely told one, and it should get coverage it deserves as it effects so many South Africans who are still living in the U.K today.

This documentary is aimed at the Yesterday’s channel target audience the 30’s plus, keeping in mind that this age group will have an idea of what apartheid was, and how it affected to some degree the immigration of South Africans into the U.K.

This documentary will be entirely self-funded, which means no overheads to cover.