kagablog

Director
ARYAN KAGANOF

Writer
ARYAN KAGANOF

Writing Additions
DEJA BERNHARDT LEIGH GRAVES

Music
MICHAEL BLAKE

Director of Photography
ERAN TAHOR

Sound Designer
WARRICK SONY

Visual Effects Editor
JURGEN MEEKEL

Editor
Aryan Kaganof

Cast

Sugar Man – ARYAN KAGANOF
Grace – LEIGH GRAVES
Selene – DEJA BERNHARDT
Anna – SAMANTHA ROCCA
Scorpion – JULIUS MOELETSI
Attila – ATTILA BARNA
Crack Whore – PATRICIA BOYER
Wallet # 1 – JERRY MOFOKENG
Wallet # 1’s – Son NORMAN MAAKE
Wallet # 2 – JOHN MATSHIKIZA
Wallet # 3 – LUTHULI DLAMINI
Wallet # 4 – RYAN FORTUNE
Wallet # 5 – BILL CURRY
Jacky – ZHOUIE BERNHARDT

Production Team
Production Manager SHIREEN WILLIAMS
Production Coordinator THANDI ZWANA
Production Accountant BUYISILE KUBHEKA
Production Accountant AMELIA LEA

Camera
Director of Photography ERAN TAHOR
Consultant FRANK MYBURG
Trainee Camera Assistant THABISO MOTLHAKOANE

Technology Team
Continuity / Logger GREG VAN NIEKERK
Visual Effect Editor JURGEN MEEKEL

Sound
Sound Recorder & Boom Operator NICO LOUW
Assistant Sound Recorder SANDILE NGCOBO
Assistant Boom Operator BASIAMI SEGOLA

Sound Design, Edit and Final Mix WARRICK SONY

Cross Media Guru CHRISTY DENA

Web Master MARCEL MEYER

Behind the Scenes Director & Editor GARRETH FRADGLEY

Security MASHODAN TSENEKELA

Film Score
Music played by THE MICHAEL BLAKE ENSEMBLE
Recording, Editing & Mixing Engineer CORINNE COOPER
Music Assistant CLARE LOVEDAY

Trailer Created by Aryan Kaganof

Publicity Stills BEN CORNFORD

Production Assistant ALBERT MAPHOSHO
Production Assistant RAYMOND NKONYANE

DV8 Staff
Communications LIPHUMILE GODUKA
AGNES DITSHANTSHO
Driver PIKA MLANGENI

Legal Representation
ROSIN WRIGHT ROSENGARTEN
MARK ROSIN

Film Insurance
CGM
HANLIE CARSTENS

Auditors
S.W. FEINSTEIN AND CO

Catering PEPPER TREE CATERING

Production Vehicles U DRIVE

Sound Equipment NICO LOUW

Lighting Equipment SOUTHERN LIGHTING

Camera & Grip Equipment SONY ERICSSON
THE CAMERA PLATFORM RENTALS

Filmed with
Sony Ericsson W900i Mobile Phone
Cameras and Lenses

The Producer would like to thank the following people
Pierre Rissient, Abderrahmane Sissako, Jacques Akchoti, Doug Allan of Melrose Arch Hotel, All the staff of Melrose Arch Hotel, Sharon Gordon from Lola Montez, Capt. Jagwa from SAP, Inspector Chris Lourens from SAP, Shahn Mott from Helta Skelta, Renier Lambaard, Minah Daweti from Carwash @ Corlett, Belinda Farger, Ewan Burger from Burger Brothers, Mr. Maphalane at The Ridge Hotel, The Bohemian, Fuzigish & Fans, Armin at Lancet Laboratories, Giana

A
SMS Movies & Reflex Motion Pictures
Film
www.smssugarman.com

The story, all names, characters and incidents portrayed in this
film are fictitious. No identification with actual persons, places,
buildings, events or products is intended or should be inferred.
Copyright: 2007
SMS Movies

this narrative belongs to sugar man
who is falling apart
his psyche is unravelling
all his elements
his archetypes
are manifesting
and turning against him
he is an inferno

Christmas Eve in Johannesburg. A classic white Valiant cruises the deserted streets of the vast metropolis. Inside the car, Sugar Man, a pimp with perverse principles, shepherds his flock of working girls from client to client. As the film unfolds we find out who these tough women are, why they’re working on Christmas Eve, and what Sugar Man’s niche market is. The trade in sex wrecks emotional havoc on all players, and Sugar Man must face his deepest fears.

The gritty resolution of this contemporary urban Christmas Story is feel good cinema for the urban realist.

“…in Johannesburg…on Christmas Eve….bad things happen…”
 

SMS SUGAR MAN is a project steeped in the rich South African dramatic tradition of actor’s workshops. A strong dramatic premise is introduced to the principal cast who bring to the project their unique histories, their particular takes on the characters. In this way a character fueled narrative evolves, with each day’s improvisations and discoveries polished at night into tightly scripted situations for the next day’s work. Day by day the work-shopping evolves a continuity and tension that is impossible under usual film making conditions.

Great South African theatre voices like Gibson Kente, Athol Fugard and Barney Simon worked consistently in this way and SMS SUGAR MAN marries this rich indigenous way of crafting dramatic narrative with the evolving technology available to the feature film medium.

SMS SUGAR MAN is a feature film that incorporates new cell phone technologies in a highly innovative manner.

The film is not only actually shot on cell phone cameras, in itself a revolutionary breakthrough, but the cell phone plays a vital role in driving the film’s narrative – in effect functioning as a dramatic character.

All the lead actresses carry a cell phone and constantly film each other. Thus the traditional cinematic practice of having a “cast” who are invisibly filmed by a “crew” of technicians – is radically subverted.

In SMS SUGAR MAN cast and crew fuse – the actresses are in control of filming each other – and in monologue scenes, -themselves.

This conceptual leap mirrors the tremendous empowering effect that cell phone technology has had on our every day lives.

The plot of the film is entirely driven around the potential that cell phones have to enable us to explore new forms of communication and new ways of representing ourselves. The consequences of these innovations are hardly studied as yet, and SMS SUGAR MAN makes a contribution to our understanding of how significant cell phone technology has been on the evolution of our social development.

Cell phone media have become so much part of our daily living that it would be impossible to conceive of an urban environment without them. SMS SUGAR MAN is a prescient glimpse into the near future when all our most basic relations with each other are informed by cell phone use, including sexuality and spirituality.

SUGAR MAN is a pimp with vision. He sees himself as a service provider. His niche market is successful black businessmen and politicians who desire white women. Sugar Man regards himself as post-political, his only concern is business. However his aplomb is disturbed when his desire for his lost family surfaces, and his development is from a hard-boiled cynic, only in it for the money, into a man who realizes that love and innocence are the only redeeming forces.

SELENE is an Indonesian American woman who has been working for many years with Sugar Man. She tends to mother the group, both because of her age (she’s in her early thirties) but also as a way of masking her own insecurities and the increasing disgust that she feels with herself.

GRACE is an ethereal creature from an obviously wealthy, upper class background. Her plummy accent and slightly affected mannerisms belie the fact that she is a real sexual enthusiast, who approaches her work with dedication and glee. But her descent into hell mirrors that of Sugar Man’s, who is Grace?

ANNA is the newcomer to the group. This is her first night in the car, and forces all of them to remember the value of innocence and purity. At the end of her first night “on the game”, she decides to quit.

Deja Cresencia Bernhardt, a newcomer to this side of the camera’s lens, joins the “Sugars” all the way from Bali, Indonesia. With her experience growing up between Asia and America she adds a different ingredient to the gang. She was particularly interested in SMS Sugar Man when she first heard about the film at the Cape Town World Cinema Fest where she was interested in pitching her own film, currently in post production, “Guerilla Midwife”, a documentary filmed in Indonesia before and after the December 26th tragic Tsunami off the coast of Aceh, Sumatra.

Deja was intrigued that SMS Sugar Man was unfolding, a very sexy subject and mixing it with not only innovative camera techniques, being a cameraperson herself, but also a heartfelt, comedic story at the core and a new way of filmmaking all together. Deja’s past films that she has directed include “Ubuntu”, an award-winning story of AIDS and Orphan resolution in South Africa in 2004.

Deja and her mother Robin Lim were recently elected Asian-American of the year 2005 from the Iowa Asian-American Association for outstanding volunteer work done in Asia related to medicine and disaster recovery. She recently wrote and directed her first play performed with South-east Asian Shadow Puppets and Master Puppeteer Pak Tunjung of Bali Indonesia, which portrayed images, and stories she gathered through her documentary work done specifically in Aceh after the Tsunami.

Deja has been a long time apprentice in Midwifery with her mother and is a certified Lactation Consultant herself. Deja also served as the Asian American Caucus representative in 2004 for the U.S. Democrats in the State of Iowa where she graduated from MIU in Iowa with a Bachelor of Fine Arts.

I was born and raised in Zimbabwe on Amajuba, a tobacco and game farm.
After studying in both Germany and Zimbabwe, I moved to South Africa and attended Rhodes University where I majored in Drama and TV Journalism.

I started a theatre company called Makendast in 2001, which was sponsored by the National Arts Council, and put on several productions until the end of 2003. The stories performed were inspired by the political situation in Zimbabwe as one by one my friends and family lost their farms and homes. The company also taught theatre workshops at various schools in the Western Cape, including disadvantaged community schools and started a Physical Theatre curriculum at Vus’Abantu in the township of Langa. Mime and clowning was my forte as I had trained with the legendary Andrew Buckland.

I have acted in Charlie Jade for Canada, Cavegirl for the UK, Deprogrammer for India and America, 13th Street for the UK, as well as performing in several theatre productions.

My most memorable experience was Reza De Wets “Crossing”. Recently I played a short role in The Triangle with Eric Stolz playing the lead, and then landed a role in the latest M-Net production, Known Gods. I recently moved from Cape Town to Joburg to work at Muti Films.

Born in 1984, I’m the youngest of the sugars. I’ve lived in Johannesburg all my life but have been lucky enough to enjoy travelling to many parts of the world.

My mother says that I started acting in the womb, so I guess it was no surprise when I decided to make a career out of it.

I’ve been acting in play productions since I was 10 and went on to achieve the Best Junior Actress and Best Senior Actress awards at Northcliff High School. I have also received a couple of awards from the amateur theatre group, “The Franklin Players”.

In November 2005, I completed my BA Degree in Live Performance at AFDA. It was in my last couple of days there that I was introduced to Kaganof and given the challenging role of Anna.

Jerry came from humble beginnings at Orlando West High School and Youth Alive Ministries in Soweto in the 1970s. He went into acting as a past time in community theatre during the turbulent years of the students’ unrest. Jerry graduated from Wits University majoring in drama.

During the 1990s, his career spanned from teaching at Wits, to an Associate Artistic Director at the Johannesburg Civic Theatre to the Chief Director of Mpumalanga department of Sports and Culture, and finally the Artistic Director of the State Theatre, Pretoria.

Jerry is an actor investing his varied skills in the arts – acting, directing, writing and teaching. Besides playing the “baddies” roles on television, Jerry has also portrayed other varied roles in films such as ‘Cry the Beloved Country’, ‘One Man, One Vote’, ‘Rhodes’, ‘Bones’, ‘Max and Mona’ and more recently in ‘Tsotsi’.

Norman Maake attended the South African School of Motion Picture Medium and Live Performance (AFDA). In addition to numerous commercials, his television credits include Cha-cha-cha (2001). His other work includes the short film Home Sweet Home (1999) and the video Miyela Africa (2001).

Soldiers of the Rock (2003) began as Maake’s fourth-year project at AFDA and, after several years in production, grew into a feature version which saw him rated as one of South Africa’s most promising young directors.

John Matshikiza was born in Johannesburg in 1954 and grew up in Lusaka and London, where he trained in drama between 1974 and 1977. While in England he worked in theatre, television and film, as an actor, director and writer. He worked with the Royal Shakespeare Company and the Royal National Theatre, among others, and on BBC, ITV and Channel 4 television channels.

He returned to South Africa in 1991 where he has directed plays at the Market and Windybrow Theatres; written and directed documentaries and dramas for television, such as the six-part documentary series “Africa Salutes Mandela,” and two episodes of the historical drama series “Saints, Sinners and Settlers”, as well as appearing in various films amongst others, ‘Wah Wah’, ‘Beyond Borders’, ‘Hijack Stories’, ‘The Air up There’ and ‘Cry Freedom’.

Matshikiza is currently an associate editor and columnist for the Mail & Guardian based in Johannesburg . His published works include South Where Her Feet Cool on Ice (poetry), Prophets in the Black Sky (drama), and a collection of his and his father’s columns entitled With the Lid Off.

In 2002 John Matshikiza was the winner of the Regional and National Vodacom Journalist of the Year Award in the Specialist Category for his column With the Lid Off. After being Director of Culture at the Goree Institute, Senegal, Matshikiza recently became a Fellow at the University of Witwatersrand at the Institute for Social and Economic Research (WISER).

Born in Zimbabwe, Luthuli’s parents moved to the UK in 1967. This was where most of his love for the theatre was cultivated. After a few stints in various theatres around the UK, Luthuli decided to move to South Africa. He landed the role of a young black South Londoner with mental problems in Maralin Vanrenen’s theatrical masterpiece Blue/Orange. “That was such a fantastic challenge and I got a chance to work alongside Ashley Dowds and Ron Smerczak whom I credit as my mentor.” Luthuli finds the stage more rewarding that TV. He says that TV is more of a challenge because, unlike on stage, he has to wait a while for the audience’s reaction. “Although it may seem as though I’ve always been into acting I also wanted to be a million things like all other kids. At some point I wanted to be a boxer, an astronaut, an engineer, an investor, a doctor, an actor, a filmmaker and lots of other things…”

Bill Curry was born in Cape Town. His first stage appearance was a “walk-on” role in The Tempest in 1946. He became a teacher and was active in local amateur theatre, appearing in musicals and light comedy. In 1956 he went to London to study at the Central School for Speech and Drama. He returned to South Africa in 1962 and danced in David Poole’s ballet, The Square, and played Archibald in Genet’s The Blacks. In 1965 he won his first Three Leaf Award for the best supporting player in JB. He then studied at the University of Cape Town and received a BA (English Literature). He later joined the Space Theatre and received good notices in the title role of Horowitz’s “The Indian wants the Bronx”. Curry was kept busy performing, directing and running the printing press at the Space Theatre. He has been highly acclaimed for his many performances in theatre productions that include The Maids, The Caretaker, Of Mice and Men, Endgame, Exit the King, The Gin Game, A Lesson from Aloes and many other. He has also acted in films and television.
He is unique to this cast line-up as being the only member of the cast to have previously worked with director Aryan Kaganof – in the film ‘Nice to meet you, please don’t rape me!’(South Africa, 1995).

Q: What motivated the idea of adding cameras to mobile phones? How and where did the trend start?

A: When you think about it, it’s a very natural evolution. Mobile phones are all about communication. Voice and text messages can only go so far in relaying information. As the saying goes, “a picture says more than a thousand words”. Actually, I may not agree fully on that statement, but often a picture can convey information much more effectively than words or text.

Philippe Kahn is generally attributed with inventing the mobile phone camera in 1997, although one should perhaps note that his invention was a camera accessory for mobile phones. Sharp was the first company to develop a mobile phone with a digital camera integrated in 2000. At this time it was popular amongst youths in Japan to use photo machines, similar to common ID photo machines, but aimed at printing “fun” pictures. The quality of these prints were rather low, but they were still very popular and available nearly everywhere.

The first cameraphones were rather expensive and aimed at a more “mature” group, but the image quality was rather poor and the resolution low. So the high-tech buyers were disappointed in them. But the youths, who were used to the lower quality of the photo prints, didn’t mind much and soon they were popular in this demographic group for which they weren’t originally intended.

Even though the success of cameraphones in Japan can be attributed to that it’s a country where new and advanced tech is adopted early, I don’t think that’s necessarily the only reason. Cameraphones have been a success worldwide with very little variations. I think it’s more attributed to the basic appeal of images, of how they can be used to capture a moment. Mobile phones have two big advantages over digital cameras, and that is that people normally always carry one so they’re always at hand when something happens that you want to record. The second advantage is that the mobile phone is of course first and foremost an communications device, so it’s possible to send your pictures or videos to friends as soon as you’ve recorded them.

Q: Video recording requires instantaneous processing of enormous amounts of information, how does SonyEricsson overcome this obstacle on such a small unit?

A: The W900i has a dedicated chip that allows for recording and playback of 30fps QVGA video. It does make the W900i a little more expensive, but it also gave it an edge that few competitors could rival at the time it was released on the market.

Q: Can you explain the technical elements of the phone of the specific Sony Ericsson W900i, that was used to shoot SMS SUGAR MAN? Both video and audio?

A: Sorry, no. But we do have white papers available that covers the technical aspects in general terms.

Q: To the best of my knowledge, at the time of filming Smssugarman, the Sonyericsson w900i was the first mobile phone camera to feature adjustable/auto focus. How did you achieve that?

A: Well, that’s one example of when we’ve had great help of one of our mother companies – Sony has a long experience in digital cameras. It’s definitely an advantage that they are able to provide us with a lot of technology and insight in that area.

Q: Can you describe the optical part of the camera? The choice of lens size and glass quality?

A: I’m afraid that’s outside my area of expertise. We have an dedicated optics team that are responsible for the camera and lens so I’m not directly involved in that.

Q: Can you describe briefly the compression (H263) and recording format that you chose to use in the W900i (frame rate, file size, compatibility, etc.)

A: H263 is a low-bitrate encoding that was originally developed for video conferencing, but later was found to be suitable for video in phonecams. The file format, .3gp is a standard that is supported by all the market’s big phone manufacturers and operators. Part of it’s purpose is to ensure compatibility, so that a video recorded in one mobile phone can be sent and viewed in another regardless of manufacturer or net.

Q: Most phones do not record at 30 fps. The Sony Ericsson W900i does. Why did you go for such a fps design?

A: Besides being an Walkman-branded product and thus audio-focused, the W900i was also created with the intent of giving an (at the time it was released) unparallelled imaging experience that could do the large 2.2 inch display justice. It was to that end that the camera components were chosen. Like I mentioned before, the W900i makes use of a dedicated chip for encoding and decoding video for better image quality.

Q: Today, most editing software come with codecs used in mobile phones video recordings. Does Sonyericsson collaborate with post production software creators such as Final Cut, Avid or Adobe?

A: Yes. For example, current Sony Ericsson camera phones ship with PC software from Adobe for editing and organizing photos. We don’t include any specific video editing software right now though – or maybe I should add, “as far as I know”, because we produce a lot of phone models, and in different parts of the world, and I’m not personally involved in all of them.

Our application planners are constantly talking to partners, potential partners and other interesting third-party developers to see if there are interesting software we could include, and also to help them support (for example) the codecs and formats we use in our phones for better compatibility.

And of course, some of the larger operators supply their own customized software packages.

Q: LG already have a 5 mega pixel camera out. What significant improvements in terms of the quality of the optics used and picture resolution are you planning in the near future?

A: That’s a sensitive area, so I can’t mention any specifics. We are looking into a number of interesting techniques and hardware.

In more general terms, you can see that the mega pixel race is still ongoing. You mentioned the 5 Mega pixel LG phone, but Samsung have a 10 Mega pixel phone that is sold in Korea.

Also, camphones with optical zoom are starting to appear, which is nice although it does require more space for the camera lens in the phones. I’ve also seen that several vendors employ various real-time or post processing image filters to help improve image quality.

Q: Most of the design is around amateur users. Have you or will you be looking at professional users in the future?

A: We have a wide product segment – from basic phones that are mostly for talking and sending SMS as well as advanced smartphones that are more like mobile computers and are aimed mainly for business professionals. Cameraphones are available on nearly that whole spectrum, and how advanced they are varies depending on the price range and whether or not they’re mainly aimed for imaging use or not.

Still, the vast majority of our customers are amateurs users and that is something we must take into account when designing the products. And as a result, it’s mostly also that kind of people we perform studies and product tests on, since they’re usually chosen to be representative for the overall market.

That said, I have occasionally consulted professionals and semi-professionals when doing the design. I think it’s them that has has the best potential to give me insight into the problems, advantages/disadvantages and workarounds that they need to consider on a daily basis.

Q: Seeing that there is a growing use of mobile phones in professional image recording what channels do you have available for professional users/cinematographers/filmmakers to communicate with you, give feedback or get help?

A: Aside from our normal support functions such as call centers and webpages, we don’t have any forum specifically for professional filmmakers.

Q: In relation to the above question how can you create a forum where filmmakers collaborate and interact with independent developers to design applets and modify the recording settings on the phones?

Q: Is the video recording software of the W900i and its predecessors open to modifications – such as manual aperture control, gain and effects?

A: On the W900i, no. But in our later models the camera can be controlled by Java programs, so it’s fully possible to develop your own customized camera interface and controls, given that you have the programming skill. More information is available at: http://developer.sonyericsson.com/site/global/techsupport/tipstrickscode/java/p_camera_control_jsr234_jp7phones.jsp

And since the Java interfaces is constantly being updated and extended, I dare say we can expect a lot more control over the camera to be added in the future.

Q: Do you think that in future models the camera part of the phone and especially its optics will work as a detachable unit, so that users could use different lenses with the camera?

A: Right now I don’t think that’s very likely. It is a little too specialized use case, and generally people aren’t too keen about having detachable parts on their phones since they’re apt to be lost.

I still wouldn’t rule it out entirely though, and there might be solutions that circumvents the problems. For instance, Kodak recently released a compact digital camera with two lenses – one normal and one for wide angle shots.

Q: What is your vision of cellphones as viewing platforms for movies and mobile TV?

A: Well, first of all I think it’s important to understand that viewing a movie or tv on a mobile phone is a new way of experiencing media. It is not done in the comfort of your home – or at a cinema. Occasionally people might want to view a full lenght movie or a longer tv-show – for example on a longer train trip. But the main use case for viewing media in a mobile phone is as a short timekiller. Most operators and tv-producers are starting to realize that content needs to be formatted – and produced – specially for the smaller screen. In a way, it is perhaps more similar to teather than movies in that the actors need to make sure gestures and expressions are very visible (or audible).
Another thing to note is that much of what is called Mobile TV today is actually streamed media, which generally has a rather low quality since it’s highly compressed and this affects the viewing experience. “True” Mobile TV, DVB-H, is broadcast much like ordinary TV, which allows for better quality and higher framerate. In recent tests conducted in Stockholm, it became evident that people actually viewed Mobile TV for longer periods than was previously expected – 15 minutes in average.

Q: Can you comment on the revolutionary idea of users being in control of the production and distribution of their own mobile content?

A: Wow, that’s not an easy question to answer shortly. The success of such websites as YouTube has proven that the need for people to express themselves by moving pictures are almost as big as that for still pictures. And not to forget Podcasts and video blog sites as well as sites devoted to fanfilms. And these are just a few of the ways basically anyone with the time and interest can publish their own works.

It is also interesting to note that the costs for equipment needed for producing at least near-professional-quality movies or shorts have dropped to price ranges that amateurs can afford. You can even find free alternatives that in many aspects are on par with professional software. Two examples that comes to mind is Jashaka (editing and effects system) and Blender (3D modeling and rendering), both of which are open projects.

Q: Many short films and user generated content have been shot with Mobile Phones. Is this the first feature film to be shot using mobile phones as the cameras?

A: I’ve seen a music videos shot with cameraphones (SonyEricsson K750i phones actually) – and films including short sequences shot with cameraphones – but to the best of my knowledge SMS Sugar Man is the first feature film shot entirely with cameraphones.

Q: The phone has become a universal tool, with the camera as an integral part of it. How did you approach the design of the phone with cinematography in mind, bearing in mind that it was shot in December 2005?

A: To be quite honest, cinematography wasn’t our first priority when designing the W900i. Our main concerns was that it should be easy to record a video and to send it. But nowdays, almost all our cameraphones has an video editing application integrated called VideoDJ. With it you can do some basic editing, like cutting, mixing different clips together, adding text and sound et cetera.

Q: What tests etc did you undertake whilst designing the camera?

A: At Sony Ericsson we employ a user centered design philosophy. In essence, we design the interface, test the design on real users in our usability lab and then iterate the design according to the feedback. In parallell to this the technical teams conduct their tests on the hard- and software, such as the camera optics, the interface responsiveness et cetera. It’s a always ongoing process that continues even between projects.

Q: And where do you want to evolve to, what is the future of recording sound and picture on phones?

A: I don’t expect we’ll ever be truly able to compete with professional camera or video recorders, because unlike those devices a mobile phone is not dedicated to a single task (recording video or taking pictures), so we always will have to make compromises in the design. For example, phones are expected to be as small and light as possible, but it is an advantage for a camera to have a little more weight and size, since it makes it steadier to handle.

But image resolution and quality will inevitably increase, as well as FPS and overall capabilities.

We can certainly compete with small compact cameras. Like I’ve mentioned previously, two big advantages of mobile phones is that you always carry them with you – so why bring a second camera? And the possibility to instantly send your pictures and videos to your friends that makes it more than just a camera, but also a communication device. Or even publish on-line if you like to.

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

A: I think that SMS SUGAR MAN is a pioneering effort that is important since it proves what is possible to achieve if you just dare to do something a little different, hopefully leading the way for others to follow. Time will tell, but it could very well be the start of a wave of new indie films.

On an more artistic level, I do admire the way you’ve managed to make use of the limitations of the medium and turn them into advantages. From what I’ve seen of it, SMS SUGAR MAN has a very distinct look and feel to it.

Joakim Martensson
Interaction Designer
Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications

Joakim works as an interaction designer at Sony Ericsson, and is responsible for the usability – or, in other words, the usefulness and ease-of-use – and design of the camera interface. He spends a lot of time thinking about how to make the camera phones easier to use and how to best add new features and functions.

first published here: http://www.filmfestivals.com/cgi-bin/shownews.pl?obj=ShowNews&CfgPath=ffs/filinfo&Cfg=news.cfg&news=general&text_id=29476

this article first published here: http://www.cubacine.cult.cu/revistacinecubano/digital1819/articulo24.htm

South Africa 2008 – 81 minutes
Director/editor/Script: Aryan Kaganof
Photography: Eran Tahor
Music: Michael Blake
sound design: warrick sony
sound recordist: nico louw
Cast: Leigh Graves, Deja Bernhardt, Aryan Kaganof, Bill Curry, John Matshikiza, Samantha Rocca,Jerry Mofokeng, Norman Maake

Johannesburg – an evil, ugly city on a Christmas Eve. This is the turf of the lonely and the damned and no more damned can they be than Sugar man (Kaganof) cruising the streets in his Valiant ’66, continually on his cell phone, peddling his girls, white and Asian, to wealthy black punters. This tongue in cheek inversion of the apartheid-years scenario of Afrikaans business men popping off to homelands to sample black girls is delivered with ironic force. From hotel to hotel to palatial apartment, the girls and he journey like Joseph and Mary looking for a manger. The process of the night will awaken something in Sugar man that will be born on Christmas Day, witnessed by no Wise Men nor sheep and cows but witnessed instead, by those who, like him were lost. Strangely romantic, consciously transgressive and aesthetically audacious – shot on a battery of cell phones – the film is in addition a homage to Jean Luc Godard’s Alphaville. A checkered production history, plagued by disagreements between director and producer, almost accepted for Cannes but rejected after Kaganof refused to institute alterations, insisted on by the Cannes selectors, the film is destined to share the same floor as Citizen Kane and El Topo in the great Cinematheque Hotel of the Akashic Records.

trevor steele-taylor