User:Anna-Marie Jansen van Vuuren/sandbox

WOLF WOLF (HOE LAAT IS DIT?) 2019
WOLF WOLF (Hoe laat is dit?) is an Afrikaans romantic period piece suspense thriller in which twenty directors worked together to direct a feature film – similar to Paris Je t’aime, but in this case – a film with a single narrative.

Direction
The directors contributed to a unified creative vision of the film in terms of performance, production design, cinematography, and lighting. After completing a joint directorial treatment, each directed a sequence from the film. In a media interview, the producer, Anna-Marie Jansen van Vuuren was quoted as saying. “When our mentor Ntshaveni wa Luruli encouraged us to embark on this journey, he explained that if a series can have multiple directors, a film should also be able to.” The film started out with 17 directors, and when the project continued for another year three other directors became attached to the project. After production was completed, the directors opted for Jansen van Vuuren to serve as the executive director to complete the film's post-production stage.

Screenplay
The story premise was based on an unproduced short film screenplay– Angsnag – written Gerhard Ehlers. Ehlers became one of the two screenplay writers and also a co-director of the film. Wolf Wolf is a period piece suspense thriller set on a farm in the late 1970’s South Africa. The screenplay writers, Anna-Marie Jansen van Vuuren and Ehlers decided to keep the original plot, but added characters and expanded the story to make it a worthy feature-length film. Six drafts were written before going into production in 2009. After the final editing and post-production stage, the film was 60 minutes long. The film's distributor requested that the film's story be expanded in order for it to become a full length 90 minute feature film. Jansen van Vuuren wrote four more drafts of the screenplay and added the backstory of the main protagonist, the anti-hero Abel Wolfaardt. She also added more suspense scenes to the story.

Cast
ANEL ALEXANDER as Adriana

Probably best known for her roles as Jaci van Jaarsveld in Semi Soet, Liesl in 7de Laan and Nina in Mnet’s Binnelanders. Anel has also performed in a number of stage productions including The Witness and Jesu – An African Portrait at the State Theatre and The Calitzdorp Passion with Nicholas Ellenbogenat the KKNK play.

After graduating with honours from the University of Pretoria, Anel performed in the cabaret Blondes and numerous guest appearances in TV shows such as The Mating Game, Zero Tolerance, Amalia, City Ses’la, Hillside, Rhythm City, and the popular TV series on KykNET, Getroud met Rugby.

In between her TV work she continued to perform on stage in such productions as Bosryk with Gys de Villiers and both acted in and co-produced the art film, Discreet which was released internationally by Green Apple Entertainment.

Anel also played the role of Steve Hofmeyer’s wife in the Afrikaans musical, Dis Hoe Dit Was and has been a presenter on both Artcha and Pasella.

DEWALD REYNECKE as Abel

After completing his studies in Drama and Dance at the Tshwane University of Technology, Dewald started his acting career as a dancer for the Circus Hippodrome at Gold Reef City.

He went on to do children’s theatre as well as performing as a freelance dancer. His first role in a television series was as Jaco, one of the original Scandal cast members. He has since appeared in a number of local TV series such as 7de Laan,Egoli, The Coconuts, Font and Sons, The Mating Game and, most recently Villa Rosa.

He also had roles in the feature films, A Million Colours and Winnie Mandela.

JUSTIN STRYDOM as Johan

Justin has played in leading roles in Binnelanders, Snitch, Kruispad and Innocent Times (which he co-wrote and produced) as well as in SIBAHLE, a feature film that won a SAFTA for best director.

He also appeared in supporting roles in Darryl Roodts’ film Winnie Mandela, the box office hit District 9 and Claudio Faeh’s Sniper Reloaded.

RENSKE JACOBS as Yuvanke

Renske received her Diploma in Drama at the Tshwane University of Technology in 1996. Since then she has appeared as an Estate Agent in Generations, Erika in Binnelanders and the State Prosecutor in Isidingo. On stage she was part of the cast of Benedict’s Castle performed at the Dance Umbrella and a number of roles in children’s theatre productions. She is also a prominent radio personality and is probably best known for her Ghost Stories program on RSG.

Wolf Wolf Today
After graduation, the team scattered, and for most of the directorsWolf Wolf became a vague memory of their student years. However, Anna-Marie strongly felt that the film had potential, and thus looked far and wide for a post-production team that would be willing to sacrifice their time and effort in working on the film without a financial incentive. At the time, one of her colleagues at Wits University, Jurgen Meekel, suggested a collaboration with Dave Olivier and Antoinio Raposo. Antonio completed the editing, grading and sound design of the film just in time for it to be entered in the 2012 Silwerskermfees (the first edition of the film festival to be held in Camps Bay). The screening at the Silwerskermfees drew a large crowd and was followed by a Q&A with Anna-Marie and another core member of the Wolf Wolf team, Gerhard Ehlers.

Two of the audience members attending the screening were acclaimed South African director Sallas de Jager and sound designer Allie Heyns. Both gave Anna-Marie valuable feedback on how to improve the film, especially in terms of editing the film in such a way to create more suspense (as it is a thriller). Thus, Christoff Hendricks came on board as an editor to make the suggested changes to the film. Working as a director/producer in the professional advertising industry, Christoff saw this as a great opportunity to get his creative juices flowing and immerse himself in the fiction format. With Christoff’s assistance, Anna-Marie changed thelook and feel of the film and made important creative choices in terms of the film’s final narrative structure, picture lock, musical score and grade. Composer and sound designer Jozua Loots, then a Masters’ student in Music at the University of Pretoria, offered his services in terms of sound design and final mixing. He used music composed originally by Peter Jaspan as the base of the musical score. The next stop for the film was the inaugural Mzanzi Independent Film Festival, organised by Jarrod de Jongh in 2014.

Wolf Wolf was honoured by being the closing night film of the Mzanzi Film Festival, and enough tickets were sold to warrant screening the film in two cinemas. The audience included well known role players in the South African film industry, such as producers Piet de Jager, Danie Bester and Lucia Meyer-Marais, editor and composer Quinn Lubbe, directors Jozua Malherbe and Ntshavheni wa luhruli, and actress Rolanda Marais (amongst others). Again Anna-Marie received valuable feedback on the film, and suggestions were made on minor changes that could, in the words of Piet de Jager,take Wolf Wolf from being a good film, to a great film. But Anna-Marie was conflicted about what she should do. Could she again impose on the team of individuals that had already offered up so much of their time? Feeling overwhelmed by a lack of budget, distribution challenges, and a need to focus on completing her PhD, she shelved the film for a year.

A breakthrough came when another University colleague, Lieza Louw, introduced her to editor and post production specialist Nena Buchman and suggested a collaboration. Nena built on the previous post-production team’s work, and did not try to reinvent the wheel, but rather brought in a fresh eye to tweak minor technical elements of the film. By that point, Anna-Marie had seen the film so many times, she almost knew the lines of dialogue off by heart. But the hard work paid off when the film was selected for the 2017 Echo Brics Film Festival in Moscow. In 2018 the film was also invited to form part of the Apollo Film Festival in Victoria West.

According to Anna-Marie, the biggest challenge was creating a feature film set in 1976 with a limited budget. “The film as it stands today would not have been possible without so many contributions from friends and acquaintances – just proving again that film making is a truly collaborative art form”.