by Thinus Ferreira
As the channel director for MultiChoice’s M-Net channels on DStv, the veteran industry executive Jan du Plessis is the boss of M-Net but you can literally call him “Mister Silwerskerm” – and many have and do.
Jan du Plessis has been involved with the Silwerskermfees film festival since its very inception more than a decade ago.
At the 10th Silwerskermfees, taking place at The Bay Hotel in Camps Bay, Cape Town, I spoke to him about how there’s never been more opportunity than right now for local filmmakers and local talent across Africa to shine and how MultiChoice and M-Net remain firmly committed to continuing to invest heavily in local film production across the continent.
What advice do you have for aspiring and existing filmmakers as the local and international film industry is emerging from two years of lockdowns and a global Covid pandemic. What should they do now?
Jan du Plessis: It’s really honing in on the story they want to tell.
Be authentic, be true to your idea. Don’t write something you think someone might like – stick to your story. The moment that truth, that authenticity comes across – I’ve been in thousands of pitches in my life and you immediately within the first few minutes you see when a person knows what they’re talking about, they know the topic or they’re incredibly passionate about it.
When you read a script and it hasn’t really grabbed you in the first 15 or 20 pages, then you know it’s not going to grab you later on. It’s about authenticity.
What is a trend in terms of how the global film industry has now changed and got damaged? What is happening now that wasn’t the case before Covid?
Jan du Plessis: When we look back years from now we will realise that we were actually part of a very prominent, historical moment in cinema.
What I mean with that is when you just look at prior to Covid, there was this bubbling and growing and really incredible independent film markets and production.
Then suddenly the pandemic and that lower budget film started making less and less money and it became far more difficult to fund these films.
If you then look at the results of films over the past two years, it is Spider-Man, it is franchises. All these big films make lots of money, then suddenly where there used to be this wonderful middle-ground for independents disappeared.
Then when you bring it back to the South African context, it’s even more prominent.
We’ve got less than a handful of films the last two years that have made lots of money, including Spider-Man: No Way Home which by the way, fascinatingly, has made more money than films released prior to Covid. But then it just drops and there’s nothing.
I have lots and lots of conversations, daily, weekly with the two distributors because we obviously help them to buy and then we identify product for them, and they are massively concerned because where a film used to make R5 million and they could collect R5 million – and these people are very clever, they’re experienced and they get it right far more than what they get it wrong – so those R5 million South African box office films are suddenly barely R1 million.
And the lower millions range films – which are the films we love, the art house and more audience challenging films – used to make R800 000 to a million and those barely break that level now. So it’s so scary.
The result of that – if you look at what films are available at the European Film Market (EFM) earlier this year and that’s coming to Cannes now in May, you will see in the past there used to be 50 to a 100. Now there’s 20.
And then the streamers with big, big pockets just take worldwide rights. The moment there’s a John Wick: Chapter 4, these big-pocket over-the-top (OTT) players come and grab them.
What have you picked up from the 10th Silwerskermfees – how does it feel or look different?
Jan du Plessis: For two years we were planning every 6 months a Silwerskermfees film festival and then it couldn’t happen. And last year we had a virtual webinar.
In the meantime, in our back pockets, we were finishing a film and then keeping it for this festival, and three or four of these films had stop-starts because of Covid, and financially the impact was massive as it would add huge sums to budgets that were already stretched.
The fascinating thing is then when you look at this variety of films spanning so many genres at this year’s film festival. We have Gaia as the first Afrikaans ecological horror film, we have a romantic comedy – I’m thrilled that it all came together. I’m relieved and surprised and very proud.
Why is it important for the local film festival in South Africa, like a Silwerskermfees, to exist?
Jan du Plessis: This festival has really been operating as an incubator, especially the short film project typically has been a fantastic incubator for new local films and new talent.
I’m obviously very proud to expose the new films to a new crowd and for them to get their moment in the limelight but for the M-Net and kykNET it’s a fantastic moment to identify new talent and tho showcase new talent. It’s a wonderful thing to be proud of and to have these five very diverse, very different, very uniquely South African films, shown all at once in one place.
Very interesting are all these talks and all these international companies that are now noticing our films, attending our festivals and acquiring international distribution. We’ve been noticed – both because of the films and because of the international co-production series.
I was at The London Screenings, the London upfronts market focused on TV series, a month ago and I can’t tell you how every single person who I was in the past just buying content and asking “What’s new? Show me your new BBC Western series The English with Emily Blunt?”, would barely finish pitching new product to me when they would now say “But I want to introduce you to our head of co-production who is very interested in South Africa and here is so-and-so.”.
One of the very proud things I’m very thrilled about is that one of our M-Net Original series, Reyka from Quizzical Pictures, got sold to Channel 4 in the United Kingdom and has actually been scheduled in their prime time drama slot on a Sunday night with a massive marketing campaign.
I think it took a while but we’re getting there. We’ve been noticed.
You’re an iconic industry veteran – you’ve seen everything over decades. But is there maybe something new you’ve seen or a new awareness you’re taking away from or a new impression from this year’s 10th Silwerskermfees?
Jan du Plessis: I really find that the more we’ve been going through these years in developing product and giving people chances to realise their dreams – and although you guide, it’s not interference – you try to help people to get their product to the level they dream it could be – for me the thing that surprises me is the really bizarrely uniqueness of the ideas that came out of our talent this year.
You look at a film like Gaia and you think oh my goodness, how did you think this up? Or you look at Stiekyt and it’s just fascinating.
I think just when you think the level of creativity, the level of finding brand-new things that the world will take notice of has peaked, there are these South African filmmakers who step forward with these amazingly weird and wonderful things.
And that’s what cinema is about – it’s about surprise. You want to sit there and be surprised. You want to go: “Yes, it’s another romantic comedy, but wow, I’ve never seen this story or this story told this way.”
M-Net also has M-Net Movies as a strong brand, and MultiChoice is increasing its investment in local content in South Africa and countries across sub-Saharan Africa – is funding and creating local films still important within that overall mix of the local content offering? How does creating new local movies fit into that strategy?
Jan du Plessis: If you look at the research, consistently two of the reasons why people subscribe to our service are sport and movies.
Over the years movies have gone through ups and downs but at the moment M-Net’s movie channels continue to feature in the top 10, top 5 channels in many cases.
What I find fascinating is that movie channels 3 and 4 – where 3 is targeted to the DStv Compact audience and 4 for DStv Access – and you look at the target audience, they actually watch 3 and 4, they compete with one another and for a channel not designed for that.
So we’re absolutely, fully committed, we’re constantly looking at new deals, we’re constantly renewing deals, we’re constantly buying everything we can place our hands-on in the movie space.
Then on the local side, the mass market channels invest massively in Southern Africa, also East and West Africa, and then you also have kykNET.
kykNET now has three sets of movies – there’s the short film, and then the hour-long made-for-TV movie that really school people and train them and gives them an opportunity to make a film, and then the feature film like the ones shown at the Silwermskermfees film festival.
I feel there’s never been more opportunity than now for local producers, local directors, local talent in front of and behind the camera.
On top of that, we have to really be one step ahead because there are the OTT players who come with big pockets.
Our unique selling proposition is definitely to have local content and be hyper-local and to give viewers recognisable, aspirational stories where they can watch and feel “this is me. I recognise myself”.