GEORGE NEWS - Film producers who want to film indoors can expect to be given red carpet treatment when they come to George.
A fully equipped studio has been established by the brand new company, the Garden Route Film Studios (GRFS).
The signage is already in place at Paddagat in Knysna Road, signalling readiness to commence business.
The GRFS aims to provide specialised studio, location and support services to international and local directors that need a film crew in any of the scenic locations of our region.
Dream
The establishment of film studios is a dream come true for CEO Johan Claassen. "The project has been a long time in the making," he said. Claasen is a GRFS director, along with Philip de Vries and Johannesburg businessman Neville Bosman.
GRFS is financed by a consortium committed to seeing the project through.
A former George cinema complex (over 1 000m² in size) has been converted into a sound-proof studio, a workshop for set building, storage rooms, offices and smaller studios to shoot film, advertising and locally produced TV series.
The successful conversion from former cinema to fully fledged film studios was overseen by Claasen.
Hartland
Someone who has dared to dream along with Johan is Jacques van der Merwe, who is running his Hartland Broadcasting company from the facility.
Local actors and cameramen have already been roped in for making TV series, which range from high-quality children's programmes to cooking programmes and lifestyle-based programmes.
The idea is to develop magazine type programmes. "We were involved in shooting Padlangs and foresee being used for making more films for StarSat pay television," said Van der Merwe.
With regional TV becoming a new trend in South Africa, an opportunity was identified for the Garden Route and Klein Karoo region and Van der Merwe has been training young aspirant filmmakers with a view of being ready when film producers arrive on our doorstep.
Film office
The aims of GRFS coincide with the vision of the Eden District Municipality, who are establishing the Garden Route Film Office with the view of marketing the Garden Route region abroad as an ideal filming destination / location (see report Film office set to attract film-makers).
An excited Claassen said, "We are ready to put the Garden Route on the world film producing map. We have the local talent; we have a few seasoned film producers and scriptwriters and we already have the infrastructure.
"We are ready to do business. Where else in the world do you have mountains, lakes, beaches, forests and quaint towns as well as desert areas (such as found in the Klein Karoo) all in close proximity and within 40 minutes' drive?
"We can also offer live shows in our studios and we invite creative thinkers to come on board.
"We are ready to place service providers to the filming industry on our database. Send an e-mail to info@gardenroutefilmstudios.com if you want to come on board."
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