The guys over at Coffee Beans Routes started a one to two minute story strand for Cape Town Tv called ‘My Cape Town’. Living and working in Cape Town, and a supporter of Cape Town Tv, I thought this was a brilliant idea. I decided to produce a ‘My Cape Town’ insert for the strand and contacted the Cable Station that looms mysteriously over the city to find a willing candidate to tell us what Cape Town means to him / her.

I imagine that someone who works on the imposing, resilient and (thank goodness) immovable Table Mountain will have a unique perspective on the city that flanks it. A perspective that I would like to hear and I imagine others would be interested in, too.

Ticket to the top

On Wednesday, 23rd September, as the image on the left will varify, I met with the suggested Capetonian and did a recce of the Cable Station.

Everyone is keen for the shoot to happen and the little film to be released on Cape Town Tv, youtube and of course on our own web site.

The main complication with this shoot is the weather. Working in Cape Town in winter, you grow accustomed to the wind and the rain and somehow you learn to work with the elements. When you’re shooting 1 000m above sea level, however, and your means of transport is a cable car, the weather is all important. Clear skies with light moody clouds are what we’re after, not dark skies and thunder clouds. A gentle breeze will keep us cool, while gale force winds (like the one howling as I type) will blow the sound away and make for a messy shoot all around. Imagine the crew pictures!

The other minor complication, further complicated by our reliance on the weather, is crew availability.  Our team is small, with just me (the director), a DOP and a sound person. All of us working on this project are doing it for fun and for the love of making movies. Our compensation will be the completed product for the world to see on the internet. Of course, this means that when a paying job arrives, crew members have to respect the demands of the real world, put this project on hold and feed their bank balances.

So, when the first warm, sunny, windless day arrives, keep your fingers crossed that there is crew available to take that trip to the top. Or just keep your fingers crossed that there will be a sunny day.