THESE are fire-treated so they can go up in flames, says costume supervisor Stephen O’Rawe. There’s a battle tonight and O’Rawe is in the thick of it. He’s marshalling uniforms for three different tribes so that everything is ready when the 400-odd extras arrive to be dressed. The clothes of the various "soldiers" will catch alight in the midst of the fray — without the actors being crisped.
It’s dusty and hot in the bleached hills outside Durbanville in the Western Cape where the American Broadcasting Corporation Studios’ (ABC’s) television series Of Kings and Prophets is being filmed. It’s the largest ABC production yet to be filmed in SA.
"He came from Game of Thrones," says costume designer Moira Meyer of O’Rawe. "He says he’s never going back."
O’Rawe is marching about showing off Philistine masks and leather jerkins. Game of Thrones in some ways marked a new era in television drama: the television spectacular. The Home Box Office (HBO) series has won 26 Primetime Emmy Awards and attracted record numbers of viewers and a broad and active international fan base.
Of Kings and Prophets, which traces the rise of a shepherd, David, to become the Israelites’ most famous king, is ABC’s answer to the rise of these superseries.
"If you look, Netflix and HBO spend a lot more than we usually do (on their TV series)," says Gary French, ABC Studios production co-head. "We have to step up our game, and this is an example of what we are going to do (to achieve that). This industry is all about eyeballs and the bigger and more high-profile you are, the more eyeballs you get (watching the series you produce)."
The series is being filmed at two Western Cape locations — interior scenes on sets built in an old brandy warehouse in Stellenbosch, and the city of Gibeah — the Israelites’ pre-Jerusalem capital — on the Durbanville hillside.
"It’s one of the biggest productions ever for SA," says production designer Johnny Breedt, a South African who worked on the film adaptation of Nelson Mandela’s Long Walk to Freedom. "It’s by far one of the biggest sets built in SA, and it’s all built by South Africans," he says of Gibeah.
...
BREEDT is one of many South Africans working on the project — studio executives keep repeating that "99%" of those working, on Of Kings and Prophets are South African. On the day Business Day visits the set, Breedt is rigging various adobe huts to explode, making sure the catapult mechanisms are working, and checking the huge crossbow-like weapon pointed at the city gates.
"The city’s under siege; you are not seeing it at its best," he says. Reaching above his head, he tugs at dry palm leaves. "We’ve been helped by another production designer: nature."
"I have never seen such an enormous crew," says Chris Brancato, a Hollywood writer and producer of several films and television programmes, who is executive producer of the series.
He has been floored by the "entire mix of races; camera, sound, transport".
As well as the set building — South Africans were responsible for a lot of what was created in Stellenbosch too — the costume design and most other aspects of production have been done by South Africans.
That’s quite something, considering this is the first large ABC production filmed in SA — direct production spend in SA is R490m, of which R391m is expenditure that qualifies for a 20% rebate from the South African government. This is part of the Department of Trade and Industry’s plan to encourage the local film industry.
Filming of the nine-episode first series is wrapping up and the experience has wowed Hollywood professionals. "You have here a country that’s gaining a reputation for production (expertise)," says Brancato. He has had numerous "unsolicited" comments from Hollywood veterans working on the show, who have said, "the crew was a plus — their work ethic and excitement for the show, their skills levels". This is not "a common response" in the industry, he says.
ABC’s French says, "We couldn’t have done it without the South Africans who have come onto our show and become part of our family."
Costume designer Meyer says her job is a "lifestyle".
A South African who has worked in the industry for 30 years, including on the Oscar-winning The Hurt Locker, says, "It’s hard work, and you can’t really escape it, but what else would I do?
"Nothing is ever going to compare to the variety…. It’s a gift. I was lucky the day the stars aligned to let me choose this as a career," she says.
...
MEYER works with fellow costume designer Neil McClean on Of Kings and Prophets, splitting the design of costumes for the principal actors, and people from 12 Israeli tribes and their nemesis, the Philistines.
"Designers often have a style, so it’s not bad to have two creative heads working (on a production as big as the series)," she says.
Breedt, standing in the "royal stables", is quite cheerful when he says there is "never enough" time to research, before conceding that production staff had a 13-week preproduction period in which to make sure that sets, costumes and such like would "transport the viewer back 3,000 years".
"One thing I have noted," says Brancato, "is the level of detail … even the stitching on armour that will probably not be seen on screen is done by hand. Dozens and dozens of people, even the smallest props. That gives the actors the sense they are really in this world and that reflects in their work."
ALSO working on the series are 26 trainees, spanning 12 departments. Carl Johannes is one of them. Brought in "as muscle, to move heavy boxes", Johannes has found his métier. "I stayed one day to dress (extras) and found I am good at it…. I can’t see myself doing anything else. I love the chaos when you have to dress 300 people…. Costumes are flying, shoes, but once you get those guys on set the end result is amazing."
While main characters include Hollwood actors Ray Winstone — you may have seen him in Noah, or the last Indiana Jones movie — Nathaniel Parker, Simone Kessell and Mohammad Bakri, the production can just about claim to be proudly South African.
• Of Kings and Prophets will premiere in the US on March 8 and in SA later in the year on M-Net Edge (DStv Channel 102).
• Blaine was an on-set guest of the Walt Disney Company Africa. (Disney owns ABC)
-
English actor Ray Winstone portrays the Israelite king Saul in ABC Studios’ Of Kings and Prophets. Picture: SUPPLIED
-
Trade and Industry Minister Rob Davies and production designer Johnny Breedt speak to journalists on a set tour. Picture: ABC STUDIOS/ JULIAN GOLDSWAIN
-
Local designers helped to create Gibeah. Picture: ABC STUDIOS/ JULIAN GOLDSWAIN
THESE are fire-treated so they can go up in flames, says costume supervisor Stephen O’Rawe. There’s a battle tonight and O’Rawe is in the thick of it. He’s marshalling uniforms for three different tribes so that everything is ready when the 400-odd extras arrive to be dressed. The clothes of the various "soldiers" will catch alight in the midst of the fray — without the actors being crisped.
It’s dusty and hot in the bleached hills outside Durbanville in the Western Cape where the American Broadcasting Corporation Studios’ (ABC’s) television series Of Kings and Prophets is being filmed. It’s the largest ABC production yet to be filmed in SA.
"He came from Game of Thrones," says costume designer Moira Meyer of O’Rawe. "He says he’s never going back."
O’Rawe is marching about showing off Philistine masks and leather jerkins. Game of Thrones in some ways marked a new era in television drama: the television spectacular. The Home Box Office (HBO) series has won 26 Primetime Emmy Awards and attracted record numbers of viewers and a broad and active international fan base.
Of Kings and Prophets, which traces the rise of a shepherd, David, to become the Israelites’ most famous king, is ABC’s answer to the rise of these superseries.
"If you look, Netflix and HBO spend a lot more than we usually do (on their TV series)," says Gary French, ABC Studios production co-head. "We have to step up our game, and this is an example of what we are going to do (to achieve that). This industry is all about eyeballs and the bigger and more high-profile you are, the more eyeballs you get (watching the series you produce)."
The series is being filmed at two Western Cape locations — interior scenes on sets built in an old brandy warehouse in Stellenbosch, and the city of Gibeah — the Israelites’ pre-Jerusalem capital — on the Durbanville hillside.
"It’s one of the biggest productions ever for SA," says production designer Johnny Breedt, a South African who worked on the film adaptation of Nelson Mandela’s Long Walk to Freedom. "It’s by far one of the biggest sets built in SA, and it’s all built by South Africans," he says of Gibeah.
...
BREEDT is one of many South Africans working on the project — studio executives keep repeating that "99%" of those working, on Of Kings and Prophets are South African. On the day Business Day visits the set, Breedt is rigging various adobe huts to explode, making sure the catapult mechanisms are working, and checking the huge crossbow-like weapon pointed at the city gates.
"The city’s under siege; you are not seeing it at its best," he says. Reaching above his head, he tugs at dry palm leaves. "We’ve been helped by another production designer: nature."
"I have never seen such an enormous crew," says Chris Brancato, a Hollywood writer and producer of several films and television programmes, who is executive producer of the series.
He has been floored by the "entire mix of races; camera, sound, transport".
As well as the set building — South Africans were responsible for a lot of what was created in Stellenbosch too — the costume design and most other aspects of production have been done by South Africans.
That’s quite something, considering this is the first large ABC production filmed in SA — direct production spend in SA is R490m, of which R391m is expenditure that qualifies for a 20% rebate from the South African government. This is part of the Department of Trade and Industry’s plan to encourage the local film industry.
Filming of the nine-episode first series is wrapping up and the experience has wowed Hollywood professionals. "You have here a country that’s gaining a reputation for production (expertise)," says Brancato. He has had numerous "unsolicited" comments from Hollywood veterans working on the show, who have said, "the crew was a plus — their work ethic and excitement for the show, their skills levels". This is not "a common response" in the industry, he says.
ABC’s French says, "We couldn’t have done it without the South Africans who have come onto our show and become part of our family."
Costume designer Meyer says her job is a "lifestyle".
A South African who has worked in the industry for 30 years, including on the Oscar-winning The Hurt Locker, says, "It’s hard work, and you can’t really escape it, but what else would I do?
"Nothing is ever going to compare to the variety…. It’s a gift. I was lucky the day the stars aligned to let me choose this as a career," she says.
...
MEYER works with fellow costume designer Neil McClean on Of Kings and Prophets, splitting the design of costumes for the principal actors, and people from 12 Israeli tribes and their nemesis, the Philistines.
"Designers often have a style, so it’s not bad to have two creative heads working (on a production as big as the series)," she says.
Breedt, standing in the "royal stables", is quite cheerful when he says there is "never enough" time to research, before conceding that production staff had a 13-week preproduction period in which to make sure that sets, costumes and such like would "transport the viewer back 3,000 years".
"One thing I have noted," says Brancato, "is the level of detail … even the stitching on armour that will probably not be seen on screen is done by hand. Dozens and dozens of people, even the smallest props. That gives the actors the sense they are really in this world and that reflects in their work."
ALSO working on the series are 26 trainees, spanning 12 departments. Carl Johannes is one of them. Brought in "as muscle, to move heavy boxes", Johannes has found his métier. "I stayed one day to dress (extras) and found I am good at it…. I can’t see myself doing anything else. I love the chaos when you have to dress 300 people…. Costumes are flying, shoes, but once you get those guys on set the end result is amazing."
While main characters include Hollwood actors Ray Winstone — you may have seen him in Noah, or the last Indiana Jones movie — Nathaniel Parker, Simone Kessell and Mohammad Bakri, the production can just about claim to be proudly South African.
• Of Kings and Prophets will premiere in the US on March 8 and in SA later in the year on M-Net Edge (DStv Channel 102).
• Blaine was an on-set guest of the Walt Disney Company Africa. (Disney owns ABC)
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