AV Specialist - Africa Edition Vol 92 - (Page 22)

Divers Down pursues tapeless workflow Divers Down is a 13-part drama series that follows a group of young recruits as they progress through the SA Navy’s notorious diver training course in Simons Town. It was shot using Sony’s XDCAM format technology and according to producer JJ van Rensburg, the tapeless workflow dramatically cut the time taken to edit the series. n 1999, Leon Jacobs and JJ van Rensburg created a stir in the industry when they decided to purchase a Sony PD150 DVCAM camera along with a Matrox RT2000 edit system. “Back then the camera was regarded as a domestic camera and the edit system as no more than home-movie software,” recalls van Rensburg, “but within the first two months, we produced 7 commercials for pay-point TV that compared in quality to anything else out there. I still worked fulltime in my sound studio, and we both enjoyed the extra income the video commercials generated.” Over the next few years the duo used the extra income to polish their golf game but in 2003 van Rensburg quit his job at Intellsound and purchased an Avid Xpress to replace the Matrox system. In the preceding years Leon had become a multi- I media boffin, specialising in CD-ROM and DVD authoring, and the two teamed up to form CanDo Multimedia. Their breakthrough came when Leon landed a huge authoring job for Thomas Cook International. “We bought a graphic computer and tackled the task,” he recalls. “A standing ovation at the launch of the CD-ROM in Australia was a great reward and finally some acknowledgement for all our effort.” Business developed quickly From this first success their business then evolved into the edit café. “The change happened very quickly,” says van Rensburg. “Hennie Groenewald, a service engineer for Sony broadcast and Avid, was busy reprogramming one of our machines when he mentioned the concept of an affordable edit facility. BAM! We had been 22 talking about exactly that for several months. Within three months, we had ourselves some offices, two more Avid’s, a broadcast equipment service division and very little money…” Today the company owns their own building at the Waverley Business Park in Observatory and have a staff compliment of 9. They’ve recently completed a drama series for kykNET titled ‘Van Die Verhoog Af’ and toward the end of last year, were commissioned to produce a 13-part 24 minute drama series for SABC about a group of young recruits who embark on the notorious Navy diver training course. “The filming took place inside the Simons Town naval base and included quite a lot of under water shooting,” says van Rensburg. “We had to deal with constant humidity and the SouthEaster wind. The cast consisted of 8 lead actors, several part roles and tons of

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of AV Specialist - Africa Edition Vol 92

Larger than life
Mediatech Aftrica shines bright in local market
HD camcorder runs with the wild dogs
Divers Down pursues tapeless workflow
Broadcast industy feedback

AV Specialist - Africa Edition Vol 92