kagablog

WHILE MOST OF JOZI’S BUSY STREETS EMPTIED FOR THE FESTIVE SEASON AND BEACH-SOAKED HOLIDAYS, AN AVANT-GARDE FILM CREW ASSEMBLED FOR THE TWELVE DAYS OF CHRISTMAS TO SHOOT THE WORLD’S FIRST FEATURE-LENGTH FILM ON A CELLPHONE.

A few short films and music videos have been shot using mobile technology, but SMS Sugar man is the first full-length movie to be shot exclusively on mobile phone cameras.

The project was the brainchild of the film’s director, Aryan Kaganof. With over 15 films and 30 videos to his name, Kaganof is one of South Africa’s most prolific filmmakers. As Kaganof points out, with this easily accessible technology, he could finally “film what I like.”

Set in Johannesburg on Christmas Eve, the film is about a pimp driving three prostitutes around the city. It stars John Matshikiza and Jerry Mofokeng, who recently starred in the Oscar-winning film, Tsotsi. Writer and director Kaganof also plays the lead role of Sugar man. Newcomers Deja Bernhardt and Leigh Graves play the hardened hookers, forming a twisted love story. Its premise may be dark, but the film is described as a “feel-bad story for the modern urban viewer.”

The time frame for SMS Sugar man, from the idea phase to shooting, was 12 weeks and the actual production lasted a mere 12 days - a feat unheard of in cinematic terms. It was shot using eight Sony Ericsson W900i cellphones.

In one particular love scene, the two actresses were in control of filming it themselves. This gave the performers immense freedom in the process, when massive tripods and heavy camera equipment can often interfere with an emotionally driven performance.

The no-budget premise for the film made shooting with mobile technology not only a creative inspiration, but also a necessity. SMS Sugar man takes film making out of its elite and elusive realms into the public arena. As Kaganof states, this conceptual leap “mirrors the tremendous empowering effect that cellphone technology has had on our everyday lives.”

During production, cinematographer Eran Tahor had to come up with various ingenious strategies for the placement of the phones. Not all eight phones were used at once. During car scenes, two cellphones were mounted into the rear-view mirrors. Makeshift tripods were assembled for the handsets, giving a naturalistic feel to the scenes.

Maverick filmmaker Kaganof has been called everything from a counterculture revolutionary to a perverse and obnoxious iconoclast.

Yet critics agree his work is never mundane - constantly subverting the boundaries of modern living and challenging our perceptions of society. SMS Sugar man was improvised around a collection of Kaganof’s short stories. Actors workshopped the story with Kaganof before shooting through the night over the 12-day period, cruising the deserted streets of Hillbrow and downtown Jozi with cellphones in tow. Needless to say, sleep was not a factor in this production!

Whatever the merits of the film, the mere fact of the means of its production makes it iconic. South Africa has produced a film that may revolutionise cinema as we know it, overtaking the “developed world” with its innovation.

this article first published on vodaworld

Q and A with the lead actress Deja Bernhardt, who plays Selene in the film.

Q: How did you become involved with the film SMS Sugar Man?

I heard hype about a film that was to be shot completely on cell phones at the Cape Town cinema fest in November 05. Once back in Joburg I was having lunch with a friend and he admitted to me that he had sent my photo to the director, while they had already closed castings…he said they wanted me to audition. I flew around the world to Bali and half way back for the shoot but I thought it was an important film and was thrilled to have the opportunity to be a part of it.

Q: The film deals with sexuality in today’s fractured world. What is your take on the story?

Yes, this is an interesting question because the stories in SMS Sugar Man I think are not soooo abnormal. We live in a very sexual society and this just happens to be a story about a pimp and his crew…the emotion and play of the evening could be any family anywhere in the world. Although there are some super sexy scenes, the real scandal comes through in quite surprising elements. The characters find themselves questioning their morals on the eve of Christmas - go figure - yet they work those wallets and drive those empty South African streets well into the night.

Q: How does the film deal with female perceptions of gender, and specifically, sexual relationships; and power?

SMS Sugar Man was very sexually empowering for these female characters, all unique women. They not only define themselves but each other. Selene for example, defines herself on the hold she has on the world that outwardly could seem very sexual, but really is so articulated in her mind that it is a balance between actual love she has for herself and a deep fear of the world.

Of course there is the internal battle of the sugars for Sugar Man’s attention and then the fight for each other’s affection within the group. Although these are all very interesting and very real in any triangular group of tight people, the really juicy gender, sexual and power struggles are seen in less obvious fashion.

Selene and Grace find something truly unique and beautiful that is just heart-wrenching at times, they are always kind of fooling everyone else too, comical at the expense of the others’ emotions.

There are also instances when you don’t know as much as you think you might, and this happens in real life too doesn’t it…you think you are jealous of this woman but you really wanna…

SMS Sugar Man looks at some real honest situations that we don’t always want to address, “who am I?” for one. We all find ourselves one day waking up in some life that we don’t quite know, having started with people that you may have stumbled across and dragged along the way, some that you despise, then grow to cherish and some just plain stalkers.

Q: The casting of the film was almost part of the improvised approach to the script. How was the casting of this film different to other films? How did you feel about the process?

There was virtually no script to read and no lines to memorize. I was told to sing a lullaby and asked how comfortable I was with my own sexuality in not so many words! I was pre-warned of Kaganof.

For me, I think the casting really carried out through the first week of workshopping, there were no promises and although you may have thought you had the part, if you couldn’t take the process and keep up with the group while each discovered their niche, themselves in the story… you were out before the blink of an eye.

Q: The film worked off an outline, a basic treatment of Kaganof’s and it was work-shopped. Can you explain the process? Did it carry on through the shooting?

It was like morphing. We spent 3 weeks, the first week started with some exercises to see how each girl interacted with each other, what characteristics each brought from her own personality and real life experience. We had only an outline of an idea at this point.

I can’t explain to you how vulnerable we all were, naked completely, or basically asked to kind of strip ourselves from our perceptions of sexuality and whatever our true behavior was. It was also a very beautiful process.

I was able to bring into my character what I thought was important in every female and that was a strong maternal sense in the midst of this hard reality. There were no set rules or set characters still at this point.

Then like nothing I have ever seen there was a moment of truth and it seemed the whole story was created in one tender moment of improvisation. Once we had the basic love relationships, the power struggle, the sexiness of the film down, we started.

The film takes place on Christmas eve so we shot every night, all night. When we got to work the sun was going down and we got our script pages, we had no idea what we were about to read and this is how each day began right up until the end. Although we did have a lot of input in the stories, we even wrote a lot of our own pieces, or improvised, we still had no idea what Kaganof would do with it and where he would take it.

Q: How comfortable did you feel to contribute towards the creative process? Both as a storyteller and actress?

For me this was the most gratifying. I remember sitting many evenings with actress Leigh Graves who plays Grace and writing frantically because we just realized where we wanted to take Selene and Grace. I think we were given a great amount of room to really be part of the film and not just act in it if we chose to do so. This was also terrifying at times because for me I really integrated a lot of Deja into Selene, and it was very honest.

Q: How did you approach the rehearsal process? What was different in this process to your previous roles?

Before Sugar Man, being interested in a completely different side of cinema, I had little experience acting in films so I won’t compare it to that. How do you prepare for life? The opportunity came and it was right, so I went for it.

Q: Your performance as Selene is a tour de force. Selene is a hooker in the film. What is her attitude toward sex?

Thank you. Selene is a hooker and she sells herself. While she is extremely open about her sexuality, she realizes what it is that each wallet is really looking for, who it is that they need and she becomes that woman, that mommy, that siren, that confidante, and that sister.

Sex is merely a formality for her. Yet, it’s a yummy one making it impossible to ever get enough of her. Selene enjoys the wallets as much as they do her, she thrives on that connectedness that is the reason men need women like her.

Q: Selene is in a certain way the love interest, Sugar Man’s ideal woman. How did you reconcile this in your role?

This was in a way how we found the basis for the angle of the story and really just flowed once we realized this during workshopping. The thing is, it was not just Selene and Sugar Man who had control of their characters love relationship, but also the other sugars, so this got to be a lot of fun, and quite catty at times.

Selene and Sugar Man had not only an intimate relationship but also a straight up business relationship, she had to be very strong and brutally icey at times because of this, and at the same speed keep him totally infatuated and in love with her. What a tiresome life she has!

Q: How did you prepare for the role of Selene?

I worked as a dancer to put myself through film school so I didn’t need much research or preparation in acting, yet a hooker is a lot different than what I did. Really I had to just get over myself and my hang-ups about how I think woman are supposed to behave. And not just with men but more so with each other. There were many scenes that hit home with me.

Q: What was it like to work with Kaganof?

He is a mad man. I was like, “shit what have I gotten myself into!”, at times.
And then he takes you just as far as he knows you can go and a little further because he has spent that much time getting to know you and the material. He surprised me everyday. Kaganof really deeply cared for the film and although I just met him on this film, I think he was probably nervous at times wondering if we could actually pull it all off. I know for a fact this man did not sleep a wink in December 2005.

Q: The role is very challenging. How did you feel about the nudity required of you for the role? What is the extent of the nudity in the film?

Oh it was actually quite fun! Ha, I can’t tell you that. You have to watch! I will say the wallet scenes are as articulate as they are sexy and some have little to do with sex actually. You know, something I remember is how Kaganof expresses through the scenes how people just really sometimes need to perform, I mean real-life people. So for example in a few of my wallet scenes Selene would go to great lengths to beautify every inch of herself just to be outdone by some lunatic customer who didn’t want a blow job, but someone to literally preach to, or someone to actually make them up! I love Kaganof’s humour.

Q: This the first feature film to be shot using mobile phone cameras. How did this technology work for you as an actress?

We were being filmed? Oh my!

No really, it was amazing because the cameras were so inconspicuous that there was not the same level of invasiveness you would have in a more traditional film. I felt most of the time that even if the phone was right in my face I was merely looking past it and much more in the moment of the story especially for those very intimate scenes.

There were some shots that we were able to get only because the cameras were very flexible. We are constantly being shot and filmed by cell phone cameras whether we like it or not. And we used that element not only in the script but also when we filmed each other, there were plenty of moments where we could have simply been real people walking through Johannesburg and there just happened to be someone behind us with a cell phone (or one of us filming each other or using the cell). Passers-by would have had little clue that we were shooting an actual feature film.

Other shots were much bigger productions, yet always, always using only the cell phone camera. I remember wishing that the camera was bigger once too, purely out of embarrassment because of the scandalous outfits we did prance around in and the dramatic acting of high class hookers in a busy public place with the onlookers thinking we were real working girls, we didn’t care who knew it!

Q: How did you interact with the cinematographer, Eran Tahor?

Eran was always telling us how excited he was about a new angle he found, or this new gadget he built for a tripod. Since we as actresses were also using the cameras and filming each other we were able to work closely with him as the viewer and the viewed.

This was very valuable because you get to see how movements are reflected through the lens of this particular device, and wonderful little details like skin tone and light come through.

Sometimes I could feel Eran literally 2 inches away from my lips while I was speaking lines and yet he was not even in my view because of the small camera and the angle of the shot. Amazing really!

Q: Why did your character Selene use the camera in her role?

Selene filmed her wallet scenes for Sugar Man, like the sugars do, but she had ulterior motives as well. Selene is a bit of a vanity goddess too so she would have liked filming herself for just about any reason.

Using the cameras, being shot by them, and then acting without realizing that you are using them…like the self reflecting upon itself and then again. Just the idea of each shot is multi-faceted.

Q: You did your own makeup and wardrobe. How do you feel about this and was it successful for you?

I thought it worked well for time scheduling and it gave me more freedom once again to create Selene. Selene had this flower in her hair that she wore some of the evening, which became a bit of a problem to get since all the florists were closed over the holiday shooting schedule.

It was interesting to realize all the details that you take for granted when someone else is deciding makeup, hair and wardrobe for you. I can tell you this me and the other sugars had quite a time whoring ourselves up each night…those damn nails were tricky!

You know as I remember now though, some of the most amazing sweet moments were when the Sugars helped one another apply her lipstick or fix her stocking.

Q: The cast and crew were a small group. About 12 people in all. How did you all work together?

Very carefully. Since it took awhile to get used to the night shoots, some of us turned into very different characters around 5am! (I think I would physically melt physically and emotionally) there were plenty of laughs when we would all look over and see Scorpion (julius moeletsi) sleeping right in the middle of a live shot while sitting up, or our stills photographer snoring in a corner.

I felt really comfortable during the shoot doing scenes that would have been very intimidating for me if we hadn’t had the first week of improvisation with the crew there as well.

By the time of actual live shooting it wasn’t only the quirks in the story that we had pretty much worked out but also the technical problems and how the cast and crew meshed together to get the best possible angles and shots and work in the quickest fashion.

I really learned a lot on Sugar Man not just about acting but by having such a close relationship with the crew and being encouraged to contribute so much creative input. The important thing to remember here too was that we shot this film over the holidays, right thru Christmas morning and literally had our wrap party and New Year’s Eve party on the last day, so we really did find a family in the most unusual circumstances - just as the story goes.

Q: Do you think this will revolutionize the future of film making, and if so, in what way?

Well it has for everyone involved so far. I think that anyone who was on this shoot and anyone who attempts to do something like this again will agree that it opens up possibilities that could never happen with traditional cameras and traditional scripts. We were doing something none of us had ever done before, totally experimental yet carefully orchestrated; it was by no means a simple film. SMS Sugar Man shows us that we have options, new ones everyday, and with little time and a small budget a story can be told.

Q: What would you do differently if you had to re-shoot the film?

Not a thing. How can I complain, I got a great love scene with…. well, you will see. We couldn’t recreate this film just as we did even if we tried.

Q: What hopes do you have for the distribution of the film?

I want everyone to see it and be inspired to take a chance in whatever they are doing especially if it is film making. Film and video have revolutionized how we view each other as much as cell phones have the way we interact with one another, whether good or bad, and so this film is really a beautiful marriage of those ideas.

What would we do without cell phones today is a huge question, and lets face it we are sick of them but we love them, are totally dependent on them.

Q & A with the co-lead actress – a conversation with LEIGH GRAVES, who plays Grace in the film.

Q: How did you become involved with the film SMS Sugar Man?

I was introduced to Kaganof by one of his close friends at his favorite hangout, the Bohemian, which is also one of the SMS locations. A few months later he called me for a meeting. I think he just believed I was right for the part.

Q: The film deals with sexuality in today’s fractured world. What is your take on the story?

The story is complex depending on whose angle you are analyzing sexuality from. Grace loves to use and abuse her sexuality, she wants everyone to be in love with her, even Anna. Her sexuality has much to do with power and status, for instance she taunts Sugar man with the fact that Selene wants to have sex with her. Selene on the other hand comes close to healing her clients through her next-to-godliness sexuality and a more nurturing quality. And Sugar man is a warped, cynical human being who has had a taste of love through a woman he has made a living out of exploiting. The master always falls in love with the talented genius of his class, and I guess this is the case with the Selene and Sugar man. Their love wills the destructive element in Grace, for her (or Sugar man’s alter ego) to succeed, love must fail.

Q: How does the film deal with female perceptions of gender, and specifically, sexual relationships; and power?

I think the film demonstrates that sexual energy used to gain, control, or manipulate power is a dangerous and very addictive game to play. Sex becomes synonymous with money, which equals power. As regards relationships, there is only one choice between love and power; love fails every time a relationship is based on power. This is the choice our characters face. It is clear that Grace’s choice is power, and Sugar man eventually chooses otherwise. It is easy for women to be lured into the underworld of sex and even be excited about it. I know that I even began to think it was exciting.

Q: The casting of the film was almost part of the improvised approach to the script. How was the casting of this film different to other films? How did you feel about the process?

The casting seemed to be a part of the improvising process that’s true. To the point, Aryan was investigating the characters but also the actors to see if they could handle this kind of material which requires one to be very comfortable with their sexuality and be able to portray that. I think some of the potential actors involved were uncomfortable with some things and Kaganof either used it to his advantage or simply said thank you but I cannot work with you if you cannot give me what I require. It was definitely cast through a process of exploration and intimacy.

Q: The film did not have a script – it was workshopped. Can you explain the process? Did it carry on through the shooting?

We spent a week finding the characters and then exploring them in various locations. Then we set up several improvisations to push the story, which was largely going to be based on the way these characters interacted with each other. When it was clear who these people were, we began weaving together the elements and the plot, which was completed only half way through the shoot, but ideas were still added, right till the very last second. Every time someone added something unique or Aryan perceived a moment that could be used, we shot it.

Q: How comfortable did you feel to contribute towards the creative process?

Very comfortable. I have worked like this before although it was not a cell phone shoot, but I was trained to create characters and story lines constantly at University so it came quite naturally to me.

Q: How did you approach the rehearsal process? What was different in this process to your previous roles?

Well, after we all got told to take our kit off I approached the rehearsal process with caution ha ha!! No, actually, it was easy because I clicked with the girls and I knew I could trust them and I knew that we would all be generous in giving as well as taking the focus, which is crucial in an improvisation situation. I was concerned about this beforehand because I knew that the other girls had no real acting experience, but they were great. What was different was that we had to get our kit off to get comfortable with nudity and intimacy. Yes, it did help. And yes, everyone felt a bit weird at first.

Q: Your performance as Grace is a tour de force. Grace is a hooker in the film. What is her attitude toward sex?

As I mentioned before, Grace’s attitude towards sex is wrapped up in her power issues. She uses her sexuality as a tool to gain power, but lust, ambition and greed, all products of power, slowly begin to eat away at her. She is spinning rapidly towards the direction portrayed by the crack whore. But she is feisty as a cat and loves to get at Sugar man by having sex with Selene. On a deeper level, it is Sugar man’s ego that is seeing Selene seduced by the power lust and greed that Grace personifies.

Q: Grace is in a certain way Sugar Man’s alter ego. How did you reconcile this in your role?

Every person has a male and female side to their being, and the film explores this idea through the sexual relationship between Grace and Selene. “I am not a woman” is a line I picked up from a quote read by Kaganof in our improvisations, and I developed this idea. I wanted Grace to reflect a strong masculine side, which is Sugar man, as well as a feline side that reflects the other characters in the story. She/He is a person of “nine faces” or “nine lives”, to use the cat metaphor, that become more and more distorted in her quest for power.

Q: How did you prepare for the role of Grace?

I dug into my sexual archives and brought out the grittiest aspects of my own sexual issues and explored them. I have been with both women and men so I know how sexual dynamics can switch and change, I know how to feel like a man and I know how to make another woman feel desired. My co-star Deja also knows how to do this very well. This has nothing to do with being gay, but everything to do with belief and imagination. The more you can believe, the better an actress you become. I reached for desperation, power and lust and believed in it so much I allowed it to make me high. True acting is getting high on emotions.

Q: What was it like to work with Kaganof?

Mostly amazing, sometimes a pain in the ass, but always an experience to remember. Kaganof asks a lot and I love that about him. I also always want to push to the extreme. Like Kaganof I like to control things, even story lines, so I get a bit pickled if its not going my way. But those are issues every actor has to deal with and what usually ends up happening is that the director becomes a father figure and you become the child that is ever willing to please and gain approval. So of course I want to please him and I am pleased when he is happy and I am a sulky difficult child if I don’t get enough of his attention. He was a good Daddy/Director, harsh, gentle, impulsive, demanding and comforting.

Q: The role is very challenging. How did you feel about the nudity required of you for the role? What is the extent of the nudity in the film?

Well, at first I was not worried at all, then I went through a brief worrying period during the rehearsal because some girls were very uncomfortable and then suddenly I thought, hmm maybe I should be more uncomfortable. But then I realized bugger that, I’m actually quite comfortable with my body, and for the sake of the story I think nudity is essential, I mean, we are hookers! Also I believe in taste, and I think Aryan will portray the nudity in way that it adds to the meaning of the story and is not merely a gimmick. There was topless nudity, nobody was required to remove his or her underwear, and mostly we were allowed to do what was comfortable.

Q: This the first feature film to be shot using mobile phone cameras. How did this technology work for you as an actress?

The most beneficial thing is that because the Director Of Photography is making use of the lighting that is natural, or quickly set up, it means it is easier to stay focused and in character. You get much more out of a scene, and there is much leeway for shooting quick scenes that one has just thought of. It is easier to maintain an emotional charge working this quickly.

Q: You did your own makeup and wardrobe. How do you feel about this and was it successful for you?

I am not great at applying make up so it was a learning curve. To be honest I do not think it’s a good idea to use items from your personal wardrobe. In building a character you want to move away from yourself and items that remind you of yourself. For example, every time I wear that shirt now I feel like Grace! But the costumes worked well for the characters we aimed for.

Q: The cast and crew were a small group. About 12 people in all. How did you all work together?

Wonderfully. It was a great crowd, and because it was small, the intimate scenes were made easier.

Q: Do you think this will revolutionize the future of film making, and if so, in what way?

I have mixed feelings. On the one hand I think people will watch the first cell feature for the experience, and then go back to normal film because its high resolution. However, cell phones and technology will only advance, and this will inevitably change things.

aryan kaganof in sms sugar man

THE SOLIPSIST CREATES WORLD FIRST ON A CELL PHONE

Solipsism (SOL-uhp-siz-uhm, SOH-luhp-siz-uhm) - The belief that all reality is just one’s own imagining of reality, and that one’s self is the only thing that exists.

Aryan Kaganof is possibly South Africa’s most prolific filmmaker (over 15 films and 30 videos); certainly our most avant-garde cineaste. Biographer Immanuel Stammelman in “The Solipsist – problems of meaning in the films and videos of Aryan Kaganof” says, “Kaganof does not seem to believe that films should be about something; he reproduces his central themes compulsively regardless of the ostensible subject. He seems to film for the glancer; even the earnest viewer who begins at the first frame has the constant impression of having started watching somewhere in the middle.”

In 1996 Kaganof made the ‘rave’ movie Wasted! (Naar De Klote) which was a hit in the Netherlands. For the film he pioneered the process of shooting a feature on digital video and blowing it up to 35mm. True to his visionary modus operandi Kaganof has recently completed another cinema world first. His film SMS Sugar man which wrapped in late December was shot entirely on Sony Ericsson W900i cell phones.

The film stars newcomers Deja Bernhardt and Leigh Graves as two hookers and Kaganof himself as the titular Sugar man, a pimp who grapples with his conscience while driving three of his ladies around one Christmas Eve.
The film took three months from concept to wrap and the entire shoot lasted a mere twelve days. At the time of going to press Kaganof was under severe pressure preparing a promo for the film for Rotterdam, his response to my e-mailed questions was typically witty and acute, “I deeply appreciate the opportunity to answer all those questions but right now I don’t even have the time to read them…my only statement about SMS Sugar Man is ‘I FILM WHAT I LIKE`”

The film which was largely improvised around a collection of Kaganof’s short stories – “Sugar Man and Other Bitter Stories”- which he calls a ‘novel in ruins’ had an extremely low-budget. They had a treatment, then workshopped with the actresses and developed character arcs before concentrating on plot and structure.

For post, the memory disk files were downloaded onto a laptop and then converted into a usable format for their edit on a G5 Quad Mac using Final Cut Pro. As for the look of the film, those who have seen rushes tell me they’re impressed and that it doesn’t look as pixilated as they imagined. Kaganof says, “It’s only a problem if you want the image to look like conventional 35mm, the point is that the image in this film will look like itself. In other words - a new direction, a new possibility for cinema. Perhaps only a tangent perhaps not, but we’re following it anyway.”

But Kaganof is not just a filmmaker; his creative gamut includes books of poetry, novels, collections of short stories, art exhibitions, live performances with his band Freedom Fighter, short documentaries and features. In a review of Kaganof’s anthology ‘Jou Ma Se Poems’ maverick filmmaker Anton Krueger remarks, “Kaganof is the foremost counter-culture revolutionary in South Africa. Often his virulently oppositional stance reminds us that that we have a culture at all. He’s ruthlessly extreme in his views; there is no middle ground for him, and it seems that people’s reactions to him and his work is similar: either people are mesmerised by his fiery enthusiasm and inspired by his prodigious energy, or they find him perverse and obnoxious. But love him or hate him, he’s impossible to ignore.”

By making SMS Sugar Man, Kaganof is once again tackling ‘film culture’ head-on and with the current boom in local content is determined to rumple more than a few cinema seats. In an interview in the Mail & Guardian last year to coincide with Film Resource Unit’s Awakening Film Festival he remarked, “The problem is “the lack of distribution of non-Hollywood propaganda movies in this country”, which, to a degree, the Awakening Film Festival is redressing. But “first we have to bomb the malls — they’re flattening our culture — and then we can talk about a solution to this problem,” says Kaganof. Perhaps the solution is in the palm of one’s hand or at least in the hand of this uncompromising cinematic solipsist.

Andrew Worsdale
(this article originally appeared in The Callsheet)

jurgen meekel, graphics & special effects editor on sms sugar man

Q: How did you get involved in the project, Jurgen?

I met Aryan some years ago in Amsterdam when he was doing post on Shabondama Elegy. After I decided in 2004 to go and live in SA for a while I met him again. When he invited me to play some pool, he asked me if I was interested in participating on SMS Sugar Man. When the project became more definite I got involved in devising the technical workflow of the film.

Q: How did the shooting of the film on mobile phones affect your approach towards the Visual FX and Design of the film?

I believe that VFX are mainly useful in feature films when they are applied in a supporting way. The FX should amplify the narrative, be preferably subtle. When we saw the results of the cell phone footage it became clear to us that the film did not need any special grading, de-noising or de-artifacting (cleaning up) treatments. I did however experiment on this. Aryan and Eran did hours worth of camera testing, and I spent many hours testing optional treatments for the film. We found out that the darker the shot the better they look coming out of the phone, so little light on an evening set gave far better result than daytime shots. The reason for this is quite logical; Cell phones have limited processing power and storage so the compression is very high. Today’s communication technology has developed clever codec’s to make the picture look as good as possible with a minimum of storage.

This means that the intelligent codecs actually compress the footage very efficiently, that’s why a daylight shot will look full of blocks (pixelation) After testing it came clear that night shots look much better, due to the simple fact that the encoder looks at the black or dark areas in the frame and compresses without using much information or writing too much data.

For that reason the rest of the frame looks very good. Aryan promoted shooting without artificial lights throughout the film, which his sometimes made Eran and me if a scene would be visible at all. But this turned out to actually work well for the film.

Thinking about the concept of the film and where it plays out, 4 whores and their pimp on one Christmas night in Joburg. The chosen place and time were just right for the limitations of the technology. I had a really good feeling about how the gory and dark look was relating to the subject matter.

Q: What exchanges did you have with Kaganof – how did the two of you approach the project? How did you collaborate?

I was first classified as the IT consultant of the production, a title that made me laugh. My background is not at all coming from a technical environment; but I have never labeled my self as anyone specialized in any specific field, because I feel that one doesn’t have to. My background is fine arts, graphic design and film.

Working for years in sculpture and installation art made me flutter through a great variety of techniques.

If you want to do something you just have to try and solve problems as they occur. So I went into the deep trenches of cell phone video technology and how to handle this type of footage. Another task was to find the best suitable phone for the project, and this just meant a lot of research. After testing several phones the W900i came out with the best results, especially because its high 30 fps frame rate. It took the manufacturers 1.5 years to come up with a phone with higher specs; the Nokia N93 shoots 30fps at VGA resolution (640×480).

I knew that Aryan would edit the film so we worked closely in getting a manageable efficient workflow. Eran (DOP) was very involved in this process. He introduced me to a good friend of him Yoav Dagan, who is a compositor/editor who has experience in post processes and has been very helpful as an advisor. With him and Nico Louw (sound recordist) we did a sound- video synch test, which taught us that the cell phone footage remained in synch for at least an hour with the recorded sound from the Aaton 8 track recorder. This was very important to find out because without synch sound the editing process would become highly laborious.

Frank Meyburgh from Digital film was also involved in this early process to help with the camera options. One of the first ideas was to use a DV camera fitted with a wide-angle lens in the front of the car for total shots. We dropped the idea to keep the production fully mobile. Nothing was shot on a higher resolution.

This film is most likely the first film were the camera used to shoot a making of had the superior quality to the production camera.

After we gathered all this knowledge I wrote a 6-page workflow manual so everyone involved would understand the production process and would understand the onset protocol.

Looking back at how the production went I feel that we had a great cast and crew. All understood that this was not a regular project but we were pioneering. Shooting went smooth, and everyone had a professional attitude. And I gained new friends.

Q: What excited you by the rather unusual approach towards the film, shooting on mobile phone cameras?

The fact that this project was pioneering in the field of low-fi film making made the participation very exiting. It’s a challenge to be part of something like this.
On one hand you shoot with the smallest camera’s and on the other hand there is no difference whatsoever with traditional filmmaking. One has to be just as meticulous to get the right shots. Sometimes even more.

The freedom of dealing with such small equipment gives a lot of creative freedom.
We were thinking in terms of: if we would mount the camera on a long bamboo stick, which is possible due to its weight we can accomplish impossible crane-like shots. The camera in side the car side mirror was a result of this. Tink from ‘the Camera Platform’ fabricated a custom-made tripod plate for the cell phone, to allow steady shots.

Eran was very inventive in this respect, resulting in his idea to get underwater housing for the cell phones.

Q: How did you and Kaganof collaborate with Eran Tahor, the cinematographer?

Part of the success of shooting a film like this lies in testing the equipment and seeing where the possibilities and limitations lie. In this preproduction process we shot many hours of footage (with and without the actors), which I took to my studio and applied different grading and de-noising techniques to. We came together at either Aryan or my place in Melville and talked about it. And when I found new info on compression phone specs we were all part of the discussion. There was a healthy exchange of emails.
I found this whole process for me one of the most valuable parts of the production.

Q: The images are very emotional. What specific look did you and Eran try to achieve, what emotional counterpoint did you aim for?

When you shoot a feature film and you test your tools well, then that gives you the creative freedom on set to use that in an intuitive way. All the tests were a result of that.

As I mentioned before, we spent a lot of time experimenting with a look, but in the end we just felt that the film on its own with its specific low-fi quality was the best grade we could imagine. But not before we had seen the alternatives.
I felt the look that we are having now is the look that tells the story in the best way.
The look and feel reminds me of the paintings of the late 19th century post-impressionists who were also trying to depict reality in an unconventional way by representing just the light and movement of their subjects.

Conceptually I see similarities with Toulouse-Lautrec whose favorite subject matter were provocative scenes in the Paris nightlife. Due to the quality the nudity scenes in SMS Sugar Man are pretty ambiguous, great. . . I feel that watching scrambled porn is far more exciting than a HighDef version. Our human imagination makes it more be beautiful. In this way I feel we used the limitations of the captured material to our advantage.

Q: What was your starting point – what did you and Kaganof try to achieve with your design?

When we started the project we just knew it was very important to go for a workflow process that would look good on print to 35mm. So I tested all the possible enhancing techniques, but after our first test by Rekorder in Denmark with different kinds of grades and enhancements we felt that the raw quality of material was the best way to get the right look and feel. The black regions (shadows) in the 3GP material came out beautifully on the film out test. We were extremely exited. Another person who got involved as an advisor at this stage was Søren Kloch from Molinare in London. He used to do the film outs for Lars von Trier and founded Zentropa in Denmark. Up to now we have done five 3 minute film out tests in Switserland, London, South Africa and Denmark.

I made various design lay out concepts how to tile the film on the screen, this had the obvious advantage that when you make your footage smaller on screen, the quality becomes better. This is used in many parts of the film to show the amazing side effects of shooting on mobiles. One can without great expense shoot with 2,3 or 4 camera’s at the same time and then sync them on screen in small frames.
Due to the fairly easy way to use mobiles suddenly actors and actresses can operate the camera, which is completely new approach of shooting feature film.
This allows the cast to interact with each other without the crew being there which results in a lot of freedom. I also did many title tests where I applied the same compression on high quality text to get a similar artifacting. Usually one tries to make things look better. Here my objective was to make it look worse.

Q: How did you work with the onset camera team?
During the shooting cycle I was mainly synching up the sound to the 70 hrs of footage and dump the synched up rushes to a DVD. So after every day Aryan had an idea if we had the material to tell the story. In my workflow document I wrote a whole section on how the footage coming from the flash cards had to be renamed. Mobile phones shoot footage with names like MOV00001, MOV00002 etc. So when you have up to six cameras you need to rename everything. These names have to then correspond with the sound takes.
I feel that part of the success of shooting the film lies in the work of both Nico Louw and Greg van Niekerk who maintained focussed on doing all this administrative work.
A shot not named is a shot lost, and of the 70 hrs of material we only could not retrieve less than 5 shots. This is a great accomplishment from both the sound recordist and onset logger. The high-end Aaton 8 track sound recording devise (at the time the only one in Africa) was an important tool in this process. Proving that good sound is worth half of the success of your film. After shooting through the night Nico would name his recordings and give me a DVD with the sound plus a detailed logging sheet.

Q: You were, together with Eran, instrumental in designing the technical route for the team. Can you explain the technical route you used?

The shoot
Phones are numbered A-B-C-D-E-F with permanent white marker.
1GB Flash disks: 2 per camera are numbered 1 and 2 with permanent white marker. Actresses keep the same phone all the time. So Camera ID can be affiliated to the actress or actor. Until now the rehearsals have shown however that Eran and Aryan will mainly shoot the footage.

MOST IMPORTANT: before Nico does a slate clap ALL CAMERAS are running and shooting the smart slate as visible as possible to capture time code and user bit. From then on cameras will keep continuously running until Aryan says CUT.
If not we will have a huge problem with these takes to synch them to sound.
Since the mobiles don’t record time code the Aaton is used as the time code generator.

• Nico opens smart slate. All camera’s record slate (digital time code Aaton recorder before the clap and handwritten scene/slate/take nr, and flash disk nr on the smart slate) see fig 1.
Nico closes the smart slate. NICO records 25fps.

• All camera’s record slate (digital user bit date and handwritten scene/slate/take nr, and flash disk nr on the smart slate) see fig 2.
Every camera has got 2 Flash disks named either F1 or F2 (the remaining flash disks are with Greg in the production car)

NO ONE PAUSES OR STOPS THE CAMERA UNLESS THE ARYAN OR ERAN SAYS SO. We need to keep the phones in synch

• Footage comes in on Powerbook from all flash disks at once.
(We will change all the flash disks in one go, so the files and their lengths will not differ too much)Greg will, if possible, keep track of the hourly time of recording and insert this into the log sheet as a safety to track footage.

Nico will provide us with a sound report which holds all the time code and user bit info and description of Scene an Take info created by the MAJAX software that comes with the Aaton

The dumping of the footage onto the Powerbook

• Greg dumps footage in similar to the smart slate named folders on Powerbook Laptop

• The other flash disks (F2) go into the cameras,

• We will change flash disks preferably 2 or 3 times per day simultaneously so Greg has the time to rename the camera files into a file name that relates to the sound files to save time in post.

• The naming will be as followed: ER 14/12/05/00 20-55-16-24 ER1 (example)
ER = Eran
14/12/05/00 = user bit (day/month/year)
20-55-16-24 = time code from smart slate (hrs/min/sec/frames)
ER1 = Eran flash disk nr 1
Once we will get the sound files we can add the file tag nr (e.g. CG6612) to the name to have an extra reference. The tag is a unique name for every take recorded on the Aaton.
The actresses will have a letter assigned to their name e.g. Grace A - Ulissa B - Sam C etc.
They will keep their phone

An example of a sound file coming from the Aaton is
CG6612==SLATE 6 t 1 ==_8
CG6612== = file tag CG6612
SLATE 6 = slate nr 6
t 1 == take nr 1
8 = track 8 (which is in this case a mix down from the tracks)
The actresses/actor will have radio mics and in some cases we will boom the sound.
Track 1=radio 1
Track 2=radio 2
Track 3=radio 3
Track 4=radio 4
Track 5=radio 5
Track 6=radio 6
Track 7=boom mix
Track 8=stereo mix

Nico will supply Greg with a DVD/CD with all the sound files from the previous day of shooting. Greg will copy and store both sound file DVD’s and Movie file DVD’s in a safe place like DV8 production office. One copy of each will go to Jurgen for synching sound to video

Aryan will be able to view the previous days rushes from the Movie file DVD given by Greg. The rushes have to be in at Aryan’s place in time for him to watch them. (We have to set a time for this to arrive to him)
Aryan agreed to watch the rushes in QuickTime 3GPP format. This solves the time consuming problem of converting to DV PAL up to this point.

Handling the footage in POST

Once the footage is in the conversion process starts:

All the footage will undergo a save as conversion in QuickTime

• Open footage in QuickTime

• Perform a save as self contained movie command meaning the file extension will change from .3Gpp to .mov

This action is necessary because Apple CinemaTools and Apple Compressor do not open 3GPP files, the footage will not recompress by this action and it is very quick.

• The 30fps footage will be converted in CinemaTools from 30fps to 25fps (again a very quick process) Up to this point the quality is exactly the same as the Master footage.

• We will batch convert the footage with Apple Compressor to DV PAL 25fps 3:4 for the offline edit.

This process will take some time but is necessary because we experienced synch problems over a longer period in tests. DV PAL seemed to keep synch

• At this point we can start importing the footage in FCP5

We will import the sound files and the movie files per shooting day and create Bins per day per camera in the file browser.
The organizing process is obviously very important.
All the footage has to get synched to sound, if we maintain to shoot the smart slate on set this is a time consuming but doable process. If there will be takes without this information the process becomes very time consuming.

The Aaton sound report, logging sheets and the movie file names will have to be put together to organize the browser bins.

Once a movie file is synched to all the tracks of sound by the smart clap we will address the sound time code to the movie file and link them and return the synched clips to a newly named bin.
We will synch all 8 tracks of sound and keep them in one bin and for off line editing we will duplicate this file but will only use the stereo mix (track to keep the timeline easy to use.

Offline edit

Once the offline edit has finished we will media manage the final sequence and replace the previous DV PAL files with a batch-converted version in Targa 2K format. We will replace the offline stereo mix for the separate mono tracks in the timeline.

The scenes that involve VFX can be exported separately as 2K files and manipulated in e.g. After effects, including titles graphics.
The sound will be exported as an OMF and send to Sweden accompanied with the DV PAL off line version.

Once the sound will come back from the mix we will online the sound to a Targa image sequence and separate the film in max 19 min segments according to the Delivery standards from Zentropa/Rekorder in Denmark.

The footage will be delivered on Hard disk as Targa image sequences.
The sound on DVD

Q: What planning did you undertake?

As I said before we did lot of testing to get the workflow as efficient as possible.
Before we started all the steps were tested until we had a workable protocol.
One of the most laborious jobs was organizing the video bins in Final Cut so when Kaganof would start editing he could easily find the shots.

There was synch to sound footage and footage without synch like the in side car mirror shots. Every shot had to labeled (color coded) according to this and who took the shot.

I added the Aaton time code to every shot, in this stage of the production I was still thinking that we were in an off-line stage and that the footage would be reconnected to a high (2K) online version and to do this you need time code. In the end this extra process became superfluous, the film- out to 35mm from the 3GP to DV PAL had an unexpected good result. Leaving the footage without time code would have saved me many hours of typing in the time code.

Q: How did you get the data out of the camera into the computer?

Greg would take the flash cards out of the phones after a certain time (the max recording time on a 1GB card would be 8hrs) and replace them with empty ones; he was also in control in charging all the camera batteries. Nico Louw made a customized suitcase in which all the phones were collected and charged.

Q: What size crew did you have working with you?

Just me and Greg to perform all the logging, charging and synching. So a technical crew of two.

Q: What was the extent of your equipment, in terms of FX and editing equipment?

For dumping on set we used an Apple Powerbook with a DVD writer and a flashcard reader. For the synching of the sound to video we used a PowerMac Quad 4 x 2Ghz with 6.5 GB RAM and two 20” CinemaDisplays LCD screens, a broadcast monitor, JBL speaker system and a DVD Recorder. For the conversion I used QuickTime / CinemaTools / Compressor.
For the edit Final Cut Pro 5. And for the FX mainly After Effects 6.5, Motion and Shake.

Q: What films did you reference?

I felt the film could be referenced to Dr Who, Blake’s 7, Twin Peaks. All of these film/series have this strange discomforting and alienating feel to them. I felt the same with SMS Sugar Man.

Q: Which VFX people do you like, whose work do you admire?

Luc Besson, Rodriguez, Mark Stetson and Saul Bass for titles sequences, but there are so many more unknown FX artists these days who aren’t famous and come passed in credit rolls with amazing ingenious contributions to films.
I enjoy the simple narrative enhancing effects, which you see more of these days, where just a simple glint or flare or a tuft of smoke can make a sequence highly intriguing. Every feature, even dramas, has in some way or another an FX artist attached to it. They are the suggestive invisible cherries on top that make films more engaging for an audience.

Q: How different is this approach to previous films you have worked on?

Completely different in style, work process and in the final objective to what the film should look like. Normally one would be able to reference films as in style or in work process. In the event of making a feature on cell phones nothing had been done before. So all the processes have to be invented or custom made to fit the production.

Q: Do you think this will revolutionize the future of filmmaking, and if so, in what way?

I think so. It will hopefully democratize filmmaking. Filmmaking should be freely accessible and spontaneous for anyone interested.

After this film no one can say I cannot make a film because I don’t have the equipment. With a cell phone and some hard and software anyone can make a film. The quality in this case is different maybe lower, but that is not important, the ability to creatively communicate your story is.

It’s a pity that so much talent will never make a film because they are not ‘clever’ enough to arrange a budget. The effectiveness on how you engage your audience is the same from Imax to Sony Ericsson. Just the format differs.
While working on the film I had visions of people sitting at bus stops shooting and directly editing their film. These new technologies enable us to be creative anytime anywhere. If you have an idea you can instantly produce and even broadcast by sending it to your friends or YouTube. And after doing that you will hopefully get an understanding of filming techniques and make a creative headspace for new films.

I think it is already happening also thanks to inspiring platforms like YouTube.
The existence of these platforms give us even more reason to create.
Sms Sugar Man is a milestone in cinematography, new devises like the Nokia N93 already shoot 640×480 / 30 fps, our camera shot 320x 240 / 30fps. So the higher the specs of the phones the more the footage will look like standard consumer quality, what defeats the point in shooting on mobile, if you go for a look that defines the status quo of technology. In that respect SMS Sugar Man is a milestone and is unique.

Q: Will you be making further films in this manner, and what would you do differently?

Apart from the attachment of time code which appeared not to be necessary in the end, I would do it the exactly same for now, for me it all worked well. But when you work with new media tomorrow’s news is yesterday’s news.
I think that we haven’t explored a 10th of the possibilities of shooting feature film on mobile yet.

jurgen meekel
visual/special effects
date of birth 1-7-1963
place of birth Amsterdam, the Netherlands

compositor-editor-animator-motion graphics artist-cameraman-sound
engineer-graphic and web designer-sculpture and installation
artist-painter-photographer-draughtsman-father-immigrant-son-special/visual
effects teacher-gardener-video workshop-leader-production designer-
italian translator-sailor-cyclist-air traveller-video artist-bass
guitarist-buider-composer-writer-poet-cook-student- and never
experienced a boring moment- born and bred in amsterdam and now living
in johannesburg since january 2005.

Jurgen Meekel
Rietveld Academy of Fine-Arts Amsterdam, audio-visual design (cum laude)

work
Producing autonome art installations and sculptures.
Free lance graphic design filming, sound-engineering, compositing,
post production, website productions and video-editing.
TV commercial, -leaders and bumpers, music-videos
Guest Lecturer on Rietveld Academy of Fine-Arts.
Leading video and animation workshops in the Netherlands
Teaching Special and Visual effects at AFDA Johannesburg since January 2005

Q: SMS Sugar Man is shot on Mobile phones, a unique approach to filmmaking. What was your initial reaction when asked to be part of the team?

A: My very first reaction was “you can’t be serious” !

Q: Nico, you are probably the leading sound person in South Africa, with many years experience, on a variety of films. Mostly big budget, traditional 35mm films. What attracted you to this specific film?

A: The challenge and the uncertain territory.

Q: The Mobile phones have small cameras, and even smaller sound recording devices. Effectively they are domestic devices. What was your starting point and attitude in relation to this technology?

A: I know that these phone’s sound recording devices are domestic standards and will not be able to stand up in a Dolby 5.1 mix. From the offset I knew that if I had get involved in this project, it will have to be recorded on a separate multi-track digital format and we will have to sync it up with the picture.

Q: This film provided you with unique challenges in relation to sound. How did you and the director approach the problems, and what solutions did you come up with?

A: I made Aryan aware of the sound problems, capabilities and limitations and he was always keen to help and improvise, not compromise, as in a picture of this nature, ADR is not a option.

Q: How did you approach the preproduction? What tests etc did you undertake?

A: We done interior driving tests with some of the cast mic-ed up as the 1966 model Valiant is not the most dialogue friendly car ever made !

Q: What changes did you make after conducting and reviewing your tests?

A: We installed more silencers on the car, to make it more sound friendly.

Q: What is the main difference shooting on mobile phones and traditional digital and film equipment?

A: These phones have fixed wide angle lenses and the camera movements are all inspired with their operator’s creative mood. So the “rehearsals” were not anything to go by.
The only way was to radio mic up everybody.

Q: What specific sound design look did you try to achieve, and what films did you reference?

A: It was to get everybody on their own discreet track, so that in post the editor/sound editor can control them as he/she wishes. It is very much the way a friend of mine in New York , Drew Kunin, works with Robert Altman, the master of multi track recordings.

Q: Kaganof ventured down a unique storytelling path. He and the actors worked off a brief story outline, and they workshopped the script in preproduction and during the shoot. In relation to this, what specific challenges did you encounter and how were they resolved?

A: They were firstly very keen on improvisations and ad libs, but I had to put a halt to that, or reduce it, as it creates it’s own can of worms in post.

Q: What specific equipment did you use?
A: I used a Aaton Cantar – 8 track digital multi-track location recorder, with Schoeps rifle mics and 6 x Micron radio mics.

Q: Can you explain the technical route you designed for this mobile approach?

A: It was to be flexible and mobile to do a “studio” setup in the Hotel foyer followed by a car interior, followed by a sunset rooftop location in Hillbrow. So everything was in carry bags over the shoulder, to move fast.

Q: What planning with your post production technical team did you undertake?

A: I will discuss the tracks and the preperation with the dialogue editor and sit in the dialogue pre mix, as I do all over the world.

Q: What size sound department crew did you have working with you?

A: 3, myself, a boom operator and one trainee/cable basher/smart slate operator.

Q: What was the reaction from traditional equipment houses in South Africa towards your approach? Did you get the support you needed for this unconventional film?

A: They were all keen to help, but this been a SA first, they were not to sure how to help.

Q: How different is this approach to previous films you have shot?
A: This is completely different, but catering for a Dolby 5.1 mix, all the other formats will be catered for.

Q: How did you manage to log all the sound dailies, and what was the process or system you designed?

A: I produced a 4.7 gb DVD-R at the end of each day of that day’s sound files (some days even 3 DVD’s) and then made a backup onto a ext HDD just as a safety copy.
At home I would then produce a PDF sound report sheet out of the Cantar with the ALE’s (Avis Log Exchange) files on that I would email to the office and assistant editor that did the hours and hours of syncing up.

Q: How did you get synch dailies?

A: We used a Smart Slate that ran TOD(Time of Day) time code that I jammed from my Cantar and all the phones / cameras had to run together and do the same slate / clap to get the same TC and not stop the phones until the sound recorder was stopped.
So it was synced up like a normal movie. Picture files and sound files were loaded into the MAC and were treated as normal.

Q: You shot an entire feature film in 11 days. What was this short shoot experience like for you and the sound department?

A: Shooting this fast I always have my predicaments about the quality, but that was the nature of the beast you were dealing with and yes, we made it.

Q: What was the biggest technical problem or hindrance that you encountered on the film?

A: The noisy interior 1966 Valiant and shooting in a Hotel that was operating with noisy uncontrollable air conditioners and guests in the backgrounds

Q: Kaganof feels it is important for you as location sound recordist to be involved throughout the process. How will you be involved in the post production process?

A: I will sit in the dialogue pre mixes.

Q: The film is designed to be distributed on a variety of different exhibition platforms. Will the sound be designed so that each platform, such as cinema, DVD and television, is catered for?

A: Yes, the cinema release will have a 6 tracks, 5.1 Dolby mix, The DVD version will have a 8 tracks, 5.1 Dolby plus the 2 track PCM Stereo mix for people that do not have 5.1 home cinema, and the TV version will only have the stereo mix. Contractually all this will be delivered with M(music) and E(effects) tracks.

Q: Do you think this will revolutionize the future of filmmaking, and if so, in what way?

A: I think cell phones are going to come out with better lenses and higher resolutions cameras with int HDD to record onto, because it is now proven to be possible. At least the producers will be happy, as they can make a movie for under R 1 million .

Q: Will you be making further films in this manner, and what would you do differently?

A: Oh yes, I am always ready for a challenge.

aryan kaganof and leigh graves in sms sugar man (photo eran tahor)

aryan
it’s half past four in the morning,
how can one sleep?
last night i’ve witnessed the most exciting thing: the beauty of these sumptuous, evocative images penetrates the walls of defense and goes straight into my gut
this is a raw, vulnerable and most powerful cinema
thank you for including me in your dream, your project, your film
your friend
eran

A journey up the arse of God

Sugar Man and Other Bitter Stories
Aryan Kaganof
2002
Pine Slopes Publications

Aryan Kaganof’s second novel begins with quotations from Puerto Rican singer Jesus Rodriguez and Baudelaire and is informed by a quotation from Heraclitus: “Nothing worthwhile is gained without strife”. Existing within the same essentially South African Hell which informed his earlier novel Hectic!, Sugar Man is a work of many levels. Hectic went for the gut with the clarity of a Charles Bukowski. Sugar Man plumbs the depths of a Hell that is on Earth with the precision of Georges Bataille or Edgar Allen Poe. The eponymous Sugar Man, a drug-dealer and philosophical low-life is searching for the drug lord known as the Dark Magus. To truly know the Dark Magus he must become the Dark Magus. This is a journey that leads to death or possibly to realising that he is dead already. Street girls with drug habits pepper the narrative with names such as Nameless Nobody. There is also an array of blondes, perhaps all of them one blonde, perhaps not. Their melanin deficiency is a sign of a particular form of vampirism.

And then there are the meetings with film producers. Kaganof as a successful filmmaker knows this world well, especially the bullshitters, liars, pretenders, sniffers and snorters that do penance in these halls of Karma. Sugar Man takes time out for three such meetings within the narrative. Many of the characters described are mighty close to real celebs of South Africa’s belicose film industry. For those who haunt the places where people with projects congregate, these narrative asides are worthy of note.

No easy read, Kaganof takes his search into the dark side, even unto the very ends of the cosmos, up the very arse of God. J.K.Rowling beware. Sugar Man is a mature Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets is the Chamber Pot of Secrets. The final revelations exist in the scatological

South African literature has been waiting a long time for the incisive brilliance of Kaganof. Only two South African authors I can think of are his equal. Etienne le Roux and J.M.Coetzee. The Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost. Amen.

Trevor Steele Taylor
this review originally published by African Review Of Books

eran tahor

Q: Eran, is this the first feature film to be shot using mobile phones as the cameras?

To the best of my knowledge it is. I know that a music video for The Presidents of The United States was shot on SonyEricsson k750i and that there are probably some short films shot on cellphones as well, but no feature films. SMS Sugar Man is the first feature shot on cellphones and transferred to 35mm film.

Q: Why did Aryan Kaganof come up with the idea of shooting on mobile phones?

As far as I am aware out of necessity, as much as out of creative inspiration. He and the producers wanted to make a no-holds barred film, starting from the premise of a no-budget strategy. He wanted to push the current available technology, even using that equipment which is available to the public. Also because the look is totally appropriate to the story we were making, a very emotional feel. Kaganof was the first director to shoot on digital for 35mm, on his feature Wasted! in 1996, way before Dogma did it.

Q: How did you approach the cinematography using this new technology?

Aryan wanted something visceral. He understood the limitations of the medium from the beginning, but somehow, with his approach to the film, they have all played to our advantage. I knew that with a cellphone camera I could have as much coverage as I wanted to, and that guided my approach to lighting. We ordered led lights and panel-lites and used practical lights almost exclusively. That’s how we chose our locations – predominantly for their lighting, or rather for the lack of it.

Q: How did you approach the preproduction? What tests etc did you undertake?

First of all we did a lot of testing. We tried different camera phones under a variety of lighting conditions and played back the material on monitors. We also shot a lot of tests with potential cast (that was before final casting), we looked at compositions and camera movement and different filming styles. What we wanted to find out was the limitations of the medium, a sort of set of boundaries within which we can create the film. Like a velvet box of sorts.

We spent a few weeks filming like this, mostly at nights. We knew that we were doing something new and it was difficult to come up with references from other films. There wasn’t a lot of discussions though, for us it was either there or it wasn’t. – it wasn’t about subtleties or gradual adjustments to lighting or colour, nothing like the process of film or HD. Simply like that – where we felt that shots don’t work we discarded with that filming style altogether.
We put all of our tests together on Final Cut Pro (FCP), cut a 3 minute piece together with our VFX expert, Jurgen Meekel, testing colour, black and white, fast motion, slomo, frame size and sent that to Rekorder in Denmark for TX to 35mm. It was a revelation!

Q: What changes did you make after conducting and reviewing your tests?

After choosing the camera phone for the film (Sony Ericsson W900i), we sent some test footage to Rekorder in Denmark for transfer to 35mm. When I viewed the material on film it exceeded my expectations. The pictures looked nothing like anything I have seen before. Highly saturated, dense, warm painterly pictures that hit you right in the stomach. I knew that we’re onto something very special.

We started revising our strategy of shooting handheld with lots of camera movements in favor of using tripods and other camera mounts where it would work for the story. Both Aryan and I realized that we can also have long static shots in the film and that with this look they would be very powerful.

Q: What is the main difference shooting on mobile phones and traditional digital and film equipment?

For me it was the lack of distance or separation from what I was framing – mostly the actresses and what they were going through. It created a level of intimacy that I have never experienced before on set. Where something happens I had to respond to it immediately, no two takes were ever alike. I mean sometimes I’d be as close as 10cm from the actress when filming close-ups, you can imagine how stressful it was for them performing like this. I could never be in their way, rather I had to flow with them and that created the rhythm of each scene, they had to trust me to respond to every change immediately. So I think that I was a lot more tuned emotionally to what was going on. You don’t have that with big cameras.

Q: What specific look did you try to achieve, and what films did you reference?

We looked at Alphaville for a reference but it was more for Johannesburg as an empty metropolis (we shot it over 10 days in Johannesburg during Christmas). Like I said earlier we knew immediately that we are dealing with a totally new medium and tools we never used before.

Sure everyone uses cellphone cameras daily, but we were going to make a feature film and work with a script or least an outline for a script. We had to sit down and revise everything we knew about the process. I think that the look came out of this process. I had to explore what this camera can do and create a cinematic style for the story. I went for high contrast and densely saturated colours. The colour palette was similar in the streets of Hillbrow as in the opulent rooms in the hotel, connecting these separate worlds of Johannesburg.

Q: What specific colour palette did you design?

For Hillbrow there was a lot of fluorescent green and yellow. I used every neon sign I could find to light the scene, and inside the hotel it was more washed out tungsten/straw colours with strong shadows. I framed the sources in a lot, so there was never worry about continuity or motivation. Some scenes were high key and in others you could hardly see people’s faces because it was so dark – and that worked perfectly.

The hotel provided more blue and red, the interior lights there were of different quality: cleaner and punchy. Although tungsten sources were equally warm as in Hillbrow, they do look very different, definitely cleaner. I think that the warm tones worked well for the film and I really pushed them deeper, you don’t get an orange face with this camera phone.

Q: Can you explain the technical route you designed for this mobile approach?

Technically we decided to record the footage to Sony Duo 512mb memory sticks, we had about two per phone. So 8 phones and 12 disks. We had a very serious approach to the sound, and Nico Louw is the top sound guy in the country. Nico used a digital smart slate to synch the sound.

Then Greg Van Niekerk, our whizzkid continuity/logger/mobile phone assistant, downloaded the footage from the Memory Disks into an Apple Mac laptop, which he had on set, renaming each take according to scene and slate numbers. Jurgen would take the footage night and synch it in the Apple Mac. The idea is to convert the footage to DV PAL and create an “offline”.

When the edit’s finished we will convert the entire film into high res (Cineon) files which will be used for the transfer to film. So we will transferring from Hard Disk to 35mm.

Q: So the film is originated on a Sony Ericsson W900i, which records images and sound at 30 frames per second (fps). You record onto Memory Sticks. Can you explain the process from there?

We used 512mb memory cards which could store roughly an hour of footage each. We had two memory sticks per camera phone so that every few shots we would replace the memory card and download the footage into a laptop. Greg was in charge of that and his job description just kept getting bigger. He had to rename the clips according to scene, take and camera. He had to keep records for continuity and sort out the clips in separate folders. His job was to sort out the footage during filming. Then he copied the material at the end of each night’s filming to CD’s which became our master source. We thus had backups of the footage on the laptop and on CD.

So for post we had video footage and sound separately. Jurgen Meekel digitized everything into Final Cut Pro – converting the original MPEG4 footage into DV Pal and started syncing audio and video. From there on it’s the same as any editing process, we had sync clips for the editor to work with. The film is currently being edited when it’s done, we’ll begin the final phase of grading and film transfer.

Q: What planning with your post production technical team did you undertake?

From the beginning we had to create a protocol for the entire process from origination to post production. We tried a lot of options. The main thing is that sound had to be recorded separately which means we had to use a clapperboard. It was funny using a traditional clapperboard and film with mobile phones, but the system is exactly like on any other set.

We looked at different options in terms of converting to footage from MPEG4 to a format that Final Cut Pro can work with. My main concern was to remain true to the look of the original pictures on the phone, I didn’t want to lose those qualities and I was hoping to use the original format in editing. But that wasn’t working and we could not edit on MPEG4.

We spent a lot of time experimenting and Jurgen Meekel had to find solutions to a lot of post problems, searching the net and consulting Yoav Dagan – an online specialist. He came up with the solution of converting everything to DV PAL before the syncing and editing but agreed to keep the original frame size (which is much smaller than normal DV PAL) and do a final conversion to large format Cineon files in preparation for film transfer.

Q: What size camera/grips/lighting department crew did you have working with you?

Almost none. I had a trainee assistant who helped with the lighting and grips. Just the two of us. I didn’t use many lights except some led lights and flexible panel lights for the car interior. Other than that I had on one evening a small underwater lighting setup, and I used industrial flood lights and 800watts for the rest.

It was easy to handle between the two of us and when necessary other crew helped. We had no grips because all tracking shots were hand held. I discovered new camera movements everyday - it’s amazing what you can do with a camera this size. In fact Alphaville was a good reference since it was shot by Raoul Coutard who created a new free-camera cinematographic style.

We worked very quickly covering long scenes in a couple of hours. We shot an entire feature in 10 or 11 days, shooting sometimes 6 hours a night.

On SMS Sugar Man we had to improvise all the time.

Q: What was the extent of your equipment, in terms of cameras, lighting and grip equipment?
In the grips department I had spoken to Tink Minster from Camera Platforms designed and built two lightweight camera support heads, especially for the cellphones, which worked brilliantly. I could mount the cameras to the tripod either horizontally or vertically, which helped me create more dynamic compositions.

I also had a suction mount which I used with this head extensively inside the car. This way I could attach the camera to any window in the car. I also took out the outside mirrors off the car and Tink made supporting brackets for the phones so that I could hide them in the mirrors, to get traveling shots at night while we were filming inside the car. This way I could get excellent footage especially in Hillbrow at night where you can’t just walk around filming with a cellphone.

In lighting I got the production to buy a portable LED panel designed by Litepanels. It worked with two batteries and was easy to carry around, I always had use for it especially in close ups as eye-light and fill. Inside the car I place two ELD panels which we got from the Canadian manufacturer Electricvinyl. They are electroluminescent displays: paper thin light sources that I could place anywhere in the car, the ELD panels gave off enough fill light when I needed it. I had to correct them with 1/4 straw and they were still strong enough.

Q: What relationship did you have with Sony Ericsson?

None. The producers however managed to get 8 of the mobile phones (W900i) from them, and we tried communicating with anyone in their technical department to go in and change the “brain” of the camera, but we never succeeded in getting any help. So we just used the camera phones as they are.

We designed a really cool small aluminium flight case for the 8 phones, with a kettle plug, so we could charge them all simultaneously, and store the Memory Disks carefully. Much like a high tech brief-case!

Q: What was the reaction from traditional equipment houses in South Africa towards your approach? Did you get the support you needed for this unconventional film?

The Video Lab in South Africa for one thought we were crazy. We sent some footage to them for film transfer tests and they run it through Inferno in attempt to up res it, before TXing to 35mm. You can’t really do that with what we shot, mpeg4 320×240 at 29.97fps, it’s all over the place very low quality and very little information, but that was exactly the look we were going for.

What I wanted was for them to use the original small frame and print it so that the result will be a 4:3 frame in the middle of a wide cinema screen, but they were reluctant to do it. In fact they were very rude and thought we were idiots. They never took us seriously, and eventually said it was not possible.

The producers had worked with Rekorder in Denmark previously and suggested we go to them again. When I spoke to Tomas Caspersen from Rekorder, he immediately got excited about the whole thing. We discussed the timing, colour and look over the phone and decided which stock to use for the tests. We sent him the tests (about 2 minutes) on mini-DV, they blew it to 35mm, and it worked perfectly. No problem.

Frank Myburgh from Digital Films and Julian were a great help as well. They helped with the camera and vehicle planning tests and offered technical solutions as well as equipment when we needed it. SMS Sugar Man is a low budget film and we had to rely on their kindness.

Tink from Camera Platforms built all our camera supporting systems. They all believed that we are doing something special, an experimental approach to cinema that we do not have much of in South Africa.

So the post production companies were very skeptical and did not help, but the camera and grips guys were amazing.

We are doing the offline and online on FCP in South Africa, and then all the post in Sweden (all the sound design, and mix) and the lab work in the UK.

Q: How different is this approach to previous films you have shot?

This film is like a roller coaster ride from beginning to end. We were all feeling our way in the dark guided by our belief in Kaganof, the story and that we are making something very special that has never been done before. I had to deal with this new format but so did the cast and everyone else.

I had a look for the film which was dark, grainy and very saturated. I wanted the viewers to be in there, in the rooms of the hotel outside in the streets and inside the car. I also wanted to show Johannesburg at night as a character in the film, to give it life and a personality. The entire film takes place during one night in Johannesburg. I think that being confined to the limitations of mobile phone cameras actually helped, I had to frame the light sources in and rely on neon lights and street lights a lot.

So mostly the difference is in planning around what is there, as opposed to creating sets and lighting them. We chose locations that had available lights, look and colour that worked for us and then Aryan wrote the scenes in the locations we had chosen. Working like this is very rare.

The actresses also used the phones too, as it was part of their characters. That was amazing as it takes you really into their POV’s. Sometimes we had up to 5 phones being used, covering a long and complicated scene then became wonderful and immediate.

Q: Do you think this will revolutionize the future of filmmaking, and if so, in what way?

I don’t know if we will but do hope so. I’ve experienced creative freedom on SMS Sugar Man that I haven’t experienced before. There was always this impetus to try something new without fear of failing because we were doing something that had never been done before. I think that in South Africa, which offers great stories and great locations, but hardly any budget for films, nor distribution, this approach will stimulate others to make their films.

Q: Will you be making further films in this manner, and what would you do differently?

Sure I want to make more films in this manner, for me it’s not about the technology. Using cellphones to shoot a feature film proved that with the right people, story and creative spirit we can make it happen.

Whether I shoot on cellphones, HD or film it’s about being creative, innovative and realizing that here in SA we can and must create a new kind of cinema, we must find new ways to transcend our limited resources and create something new as opposed to making low budget copies of what’s already out there.

Equipment used:

Mobile Phones: 8 x Sony Ericsson W900i
Memory Sticks: 12 x 512KB Memory Disks
Lights: 1 x LED by Litepanels
2 x ELD by Eletricvinyl
Grips: 2 x Camera Platform Cellphone Heads
1 x Suction Mount
Offline/Online: Apple Mac Duo and 16” Powerbook G4

Q: How did you get involved in the project, Warrick?

Right place. Right time. I was up from Cape Town, phoned kaganof at the exact time that he was having discussions over who to use to design the sound track. As a sound artist I had also exhibited audio works exhibitions like Faultlines , The Brown & theGreen, and Adelaide Arts Festival. I had also done special SFX , design and mixing for various TV and Film commercials as well as a few specialist things like Tobe Hooper’s “Mangler” and Boormans “Country of My Skull” – my interest lies chiefly in the area where between music and sound manipulation. It is more satisfying for me to take overall responsibility for the soundtrack rather than just the music composition. Some one needs to be a bridge between the actual and the invented. I like the skill that people like Chris Watson can bring to the field of super real audio capture but I am more interested in the manipulation of those events to enhance the given action (or lack thereof)

Q: How did the shooting of the film on mobile phones affect your approach towards the Sound Design of the film?

There were 2 versions of the film and the approach to each was different.
The first version was very free and experimental; the plot floated in and out of focus – we tried to see how far we could manipulate picture and story with sound. The brief was to do a big Dolby stereo soundtrack which would knock people out .. and it did. It was great, we had time to do a good job.
It didn’t, however, enhance the story.

Version 2 saw a completely different edit and a narrative emerge which was clearer and more linear. We stripped out all extraneous sound and rebuilt the track to underscore the emotional drama. The cellphone thing became a dialogue about whether or not to do a huge sound mix or something more in keeping with the form ie something that used not so much the very fine work of Nico but more of the cameras own sound. More camera sound made its way into this version and we downgraded things. I really like a voice over we had going for a while which sounded like it was coming from a phone – we played with this a lot. It felt like you were hearing the conversation Sugar man was having with himself as if he’d phoned himself.

Q: What exchanges did you have with Kaganof – how did the two of you approach the Sound Design? How did you collaborate?

He had already laid down everything he wanted onto tracks in Final cut Pro , some very detailed music tracks were built up from the composed score and found music. I like the way he often used 2 or 3 pieces of music over each other to create a new piece. We used this as a way of developing the sound track throughout. I found often that the composers string score worked better reversed and pitch shifted and abstracted. This was more the case in version 2 where we tried to work with and tried to create an emotional dialogue. I was left to my own devices for 2 weeks and then we got together for a week and hammered everything into place.

Q: You are known for being very thorough and detailed. That you go and record strange sounds that can be used in many unique ways. Did you do this on SMS Sugar Man?

I have an extensive library of my own sonic work both real and composed. I have an eidetic memory of where everything is on my hard drives so when I work I can solve problems very quickly. The source sound in the movie was very good

Q: The images are very emotional. What specific sound did you try to achieve, what emotional counterpoint did you aim for?

In version one the composed music was designed for this particular purpose. It was often a case of taking a piece and adding a low frequency drone to enhance the feeling.

Q: The film is part narrative, part emotional diary; the sound plays a vital part in layering the story, in giving the film its unique feel. It is clearly the sound in his head, as much as it is representative sound that you see. Is this correct in understanding your approach to the sound?

More so in version one where the “real world “ is always ambiguous. We tried to play that up through the sound track. Even the voice-over was treated.

Q: You are well known also as the “Kalahari Surfer”, an original musician of many years and fame. Did you use any of your own music in the layering of the sound?

There was a need for a new composition in Version 2 ( much of the original score was not working or was axed with the scene for which it had been written) so we had to swop things around a lot.
There was a song I had done a few years ago and had put a poem read by Lydia Lunch over it. We used that track. “ The Human Animal” a great piece and this probably the one movie in the world where it would work.

Q: Part of the film is set in a hotel, which has a distinct affect – the sound of the hotel, its disturbing and consistent hum and buzz. What was your thinking in creating an almost horror aesthetic underneath the reality of the characters lives?

One of the first things I did was to go through all Nico’s sound and pull out the atmos tracks. I then spent a few days making new compositions from them; enhancing frequencies, beefing bass. dropping pitch. Combining them etc .. everything I could think of in an experimental sense. I put all these in a folder and kept them there ready for use. Often to combat room aircon noise in a dialogue scene I’d run 3 atmos tracks simultaneously. The very first thing was to get all the dialogue working in a premix situation. I work on Digidesign Protools software which is an industry standard and has great strengths in the area of film sound. Much of this work was done on this platform. I did it all myself and spent weeks on it. Especially tough were scenes with live sound inside a moving car. I am a fan of post synch films. I believe Americans make great movies because they treat the soundtrack as 50% of the film. Everything is created afterwards and time is budgeted for that. I respect this movies producers however for going the extra mile in the sound department route. Getting a top sound recordist in to do it and giving me the time to work it all into shape. The really experimental time shift morphing sound work was done with Ableton Live software all working through a dual core Intel Xeon Mac

Q: What films did you reference?

All David Lynchs movies and television works , I feel, are still relevant to todays sound creators. (even his weekly cartoon Angriest Dog) I think his partner , the late Alan Splett, was one of the greatest sound designers and possibly one of the first to be credited as such (along with Walter Murch whose work on Coppolas Godfather and Apocalypse Now movies I also find inspirational ) . More than watching movies, though, I found the book “Lynch on Lynch” by Chris Rodley a good reference to following ones own vision (it is a series of long biographical interviews.)

By Rebecca Harrison

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - Eight cell phones, $160,000, and a good idea — could this be the future of film-making?

South African director Aryan Kaganof thinks so. And to prove it, he made SMS Sugar Man, which is billed as the world’s first feature film shot entirely on mobile phones.

SMS Sugar Man was filmed on eight phone cameras over 11 days with three main characters for less than 1 million rand ($164,100). As well as traditional cinema screenings, the film will be beamed to cell phones in 30 three-minute episodes over the course of a month.

Kaganof says the tale of a pimp and two high-class prostitutes cruising around Johannesburg on Christmas Eve is blazing a trail for a new, democratic approach to film that will slash the cost of both making and viewing movies.

“I thought cinema in South Africa wasn’t the appropriate medium to represent who we are … it’s a mostly white phenomenon. Then it struck me that a medium that Africans love more than any other is the cell phone,” he told Reuters.

Kaganof — who ironically bought his first cell phone last year to make the film — dismissed concerns over quality and said the footage looked “fabulous” when blown up to the standard 35mm feature film size.

While films made in or about Africa are grabbing the limelight outside the world’s poorest continent, small audiences at home — where most people cannot afford a night out at the cinema — make it tough for filmmakers to break even.

Finding a low-budget model like in Nigeria, where the homegrown “Nollywood” industry is hugely popular, is the only way of ensuring a future for South African film, said Kaganof.

SMS Sugar Man — which is due to premiere around May — cost just a fraction of the 6 million rand that many low-budget local films cost. By comparison, Hollywood pictures typically cost $40-50 million and often exceed $100 million.

AFRICAN AGENDA?

The cheap technology used to shoot SMS Sugar Man means the cameras are always rolling, making for a fresher, more dynamic and fluid movie, with room to experiment.

One problem is that film fans hoping to watch SMS Sugar Man on their phones will need an up-to-date camera-equipped handset, and while cell phone use has exploded across the continent, only a rich minority have the latest gadgets.

With all the talk of empowering Africa, it is surprising that none of the three main characters, including Kaganof who also acts in the film, are black.

But Kaganof argues that “we are past all that,” despite the deep divisions in South Africa 12 years after the end of apartheid. He says the technology behind SMS Sugar Man gives Africa a chance to stop copying the West and set its own agenda.

“What we are doing is exciting, it’s innovative and we are pressing the buttons that the world will follow. It is an African film,” he said.

The world’s first full-length movie to be shot entirely on cellphones has just been wrapped up in Joburg, writes Ryan Fortune

‘We are re-writing the book on cinema here. It opens up a whole world of possibilities for African filmmakers’

IT’S 3AM on Christmas morning 2005 and, while Santa makes his final deliveries to good children around the world, a bunch of filmmakers in the pool bar of Johannesburg’s Melrose Arch Hotel are accelerating the digital cinema revolution.

They’ve been shooting for over a week now, mostly nights. Everyone’s dead tired, so this particular scene is taking a bit longer than usual to get in the bag. “Action!” says the director for at least the 20th time in as many minutes, prompting the two female leads to start doing their thing at the pool table. As the girls hit the balls, chat and flirt, their movements are recorded by the cameras embedded in two of Sony Ericsson’s slick new W900i cellphones. That’s right: once this film, SMS Sugar Man, is completed, it will be the first feature film in the world to be shot entirely on cellphone cameras.

At this point, every tech head in the room will begin to sneer derisively and mutter words like “pixellation” and “let’s just wait and see”. None of them will have reckoned with the persistence of the film’s director, Aryan Kaganof, who loves nothing better than to disprove all doubters and naysayers. In 1996, just a few years out of film school in the Netherlands, he made Naar de Klote! (Wasted!), the world’s first 35mm feature film shot on mini-dv tape — and a Dutch box office hit. A week before shooting began on SMSSugarman, a Swedish lab returned the test blow-up to 35mm film. It looked great, rich in colour, grain and contrast. The doubters will be disappointed.

“We are re-writing the book on cinema here, Ryan, things will never be the same again. From now onwards, all you’ll need [to make a film] is a good idea, a cellphone, a laptop and you’re off. It opens up a whole world of possibilities for African filmmakers …”

It’s another long night on the shoot of SMS Sugar Man and Kaganof — film director, poet, writer, photographer, musician and, for the purposes of this project, a top-end pimp named Sugar Man — is waxing lyrical as he guides his gleaming white Valiant down a deserted Oxford Road. I’m in the passenger seat and the two “hookers” — Leigh Graves and Deja Bernhardt — are chatting and touching up their lipstick in the back. “I haven’t thought about film as much as I have in the past two weeks,” he says, “and I’m learning new things all the time on this shoot.”

That sounds a bit disingenuous, I think, coming from someone who has made nearly 40 films and videos in the past 15 years, many of them such radical breakaways from conventional form and structure that they earned him — besides international awards and critical acclaim — the label “underground cinema’s baddest bad boy”. “I can now shoot what I like,” he says, with the glint of the true believer in his eyes, so I don’t disagree.

Kaganof first hove into my field of vision towards the end of 1999. We were introduced to each other by a mutual friend, an actress. She told me he was a South African filmmaker just returned from exile and that I should interview him, but I never got around to it. His craggy features, hulking posture, combat fatigues and the Glock he wore on his ankle conspired to dampen my enthusiasm for the idea.

Having attended several of his many book launches and performances in recent years, read his online short stories and browsed his website, I have had cause to modify my initial impression, if only slightly. Kaganof is, indeed, a dangerous man, but only because, like the 20th century’s best artists and philosophers, he has a far lower tolerance for bullshit than the rest of us. Poured into art — visual, musical, literary — his particular kind of madness, if that’s what you’d like to call it, poses no threat to anyone on a personal level. Instead, like Ed Norton’s dual character in Fight Club, he is intent on bringing the whole damn superstructure down.

Apart from all of the above, SMS Sugar Man is emblematic of what anthropologists refer to as the “leapfrog effect”. This is when people in developing nations adopt new technology and use it in ways that allow them to overtake users in developed nations. To extract maximum value from leapfrogging, however, you must be an early adopter.

The future is right here, right now.