bloggery

There are myriad things I don't blog about for various reasons - which probably creates a huge disparity between what appears here and what I (script)write about - which maybe some blog readers grasp and some don't - but who cares? I don't tend to blog about muti, black psyche/white psyche, AIDS, alcoholism, political shenanigans, bi-polarity or grimy crime - all of which however are intricately and intimately woven into the foreground of (my) life here.

Occasionally significant TV news seeps into the blog - such as the upheavals of the past week - and I start to wonder whether lurching from horoscopes and woolly sweaters to politics makes any sense at all - does it?

Anyhow last week's writing schedule became a little sidetracked (now behind by 10 pages - agh!) but other stuff cranks forward slowly.

Laters.

Recent page count: catching up. Mood: buoyant

SASFED statement on SABC crisis

Press Statement 8th May 2008.

In view of the present crisis within the SABC, the South African Screen Federation representing 17 professional bodies in the film and TV industry:

1/ Support the role of the SABC as a public broadcaster committed to quality local programming

2/ Believe political interference has undermined the original public service mandate of the SABC

3/ See the existing crisis as symptom of a long standing operational disfunctionality

4/ We independent filmmakers who make most of South Africa¹s TV programmes, experience daily the ineffective management which has undermined our capacity to produce quality and challenging programmes for the South African public.

We wish to see the SABC fully functioning for the entire public and all key stakeholders who make this possible.

Rehad Desai
Chairperson

Meltdown

The local broadcaster SABC appeared to be in meltdown today after the suspension of the CEO early this morning - following his earlier suspension of the Head of News.

The unfortunate timing coincides with Input2008 currently underway in Johannesburg and attended by a host of international TV commissioners and execs.


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Today's page count: 9. Mood: distracted

thatandthis

Bits and pieces really this one. February's whizzing by with much happening under the radar and intriguing opportunities opening up here, there and everywhere. Is that vague enough to deflect blog karma?
Lately have been budgeting and re-budgeting. Once in a while, every scriptwriter should perhaps sit down and minutely cost a film (any film - short or feature) - if only to realise how much more gratifying the process of scriptwriting is - ha!

What else? - interesting post over at WC Martell's blog today He suggests that the key to writing successful films that are both political and mainstream - is subversion. I would agree.

Local news for those who may not have spotted it is that the briefs are up - that's the SABC'S latest request for proposals - a hefty document at 126 pages) so if you want to save paper, then probably better just to print out those that are of interest. There are only a few drama briefs.

That's it for now. Laters.

Strike

There's a strike on - an on-going strike by public servants across South Africa that's expected to peak today when solidarity action from other unions kicks in. Teachers (and other professionals) here are badly paid and are holding out for a 10% pay increase across the board

So daughter is at home - therefore not much writing today. The school is actually open, but yesterday she brought home a letter containing this worrying sentence:

"If it should happen that protesters gain access during class time then we should sound the alarm intermittently and teachers will lock the children and themselves into their classrooms."