Philip Olckers – Audio Restoration

April 23, 2014April 23, 2014 / The Starlit Path / Leave a comment

Photos by: Patrick Ryan

Shot on location at Waterfront Film Studios, Cape Town

Philip is an award winning audio engineer and sound designer, specializing in the final mix of sound tracks for feature films. This includes all aspects of post-production sound recording and mixing. He is also an accomplished score composer, having focused this aspect of his skill set on short films to date. Philip has worked on numerous international feature films, including “Fast and Furious 6” and “The Last Stand”. He was an assisting Sound Engineer and Foley Mixer for “Die Wonderwerker” which was nominated for a SAFTA for “Best Sound” (South African Film and Television Awards). He has assisted and worked alongside Barry Donnelly on a number of SA’s biggest feature films, and has final mixed a number of TV series and local feature films. Philip currently works out of the Waterfront Studios, where his knowledge of sound restoration & mixing is being applied to the Retro Afrika Bioscope project.

Reginald Pillay – Film Lab Technician

April 22, 2014April 22, 2014 / The Starlit Path / Leave a comment

Photos by: Patrick Ryan

Shot on location at Waterfront Film Studios, Cape Town

Reginald has been working with film since 1974. With training in printing, sound engineering and negative matching, he soon found his calling when he was accepted to study to become a film timer/colourist. This would include all aspects of film laboratory functions in commercials, television and feature films.

With the transition from film to digital over recent years, Reginald has become a rare commodity when dealing with expertise in film print knowledge. He has brought his extensive experience and love of film to the restoration procedure of these Retro Afrika Bioscope films, where he has been responsible for re-splicing and cleaning these old prints (some of them up to 40 years old) before they are ingested into the digital realm.

On The Expresso Show on SABC!

April 21, 2014April 21, 2014 / The Starlit Path / Leave a comment

CEO of Gravel Road Entertainment, Benjamin Cowley, and Producer/Director Tonie van der Merwe sat down with Expresso presenter Katlego Maboe to talk about the Mayibuye Film Festival currently running on SABC1. For more information on the festival and the films, read this article and join the conversation with us on Facebook here.

Benjamin Cowley and Tonie vd Merwe on the Expresso Show on SABC

Benjamin Cowley, Katlego Maboe and Tonie vd Merwe on the Expresso Show on SABC

Film Schedule for Mayibuye Film Festival

April 14, 2014April 14, 2014 / The Starlit Path / 1 Comment

A screengrab from the first film of the fest – “Ambushed”

The following is the film schedule for the Mayibue Film Festival on SABC:

13 April 2014
a. Ambushed
b. Ezintandaneni

20 April 2014
a. Joe Bullet
b. Bona Manzi

27 April 2014
a. Treasure Hunters
b. Isiboshwa

Screen grab from “Bonamanzi”

Ezintandaneni

April 11, 2014November 24, 2014 / The Starlit Path / 3 Comments

Produced in 1987, this 70 minute drama was directed by Tonie vd Merwe and produced by Oubaas Olivier. The cast includes Sizwe Dlamini, Popo Gumede & Gugu Mhlanga. Be sure to watch it this Sunday night on SABC1!

TAGLINE

A moving tale involving two orphans, a widower and a beautiful social worker, and how their lives all come together at the end.

SYNOPSIS

A touching story of two families – one poor, and the other rich. A young boy and his sister, raised by their cruel and vicious stepmother, live poor and difficult lives. Beaten and starved by their stepmom, the two children only have one another for comfort
and support. Meanwhile a prominent business man, and single father, has brought his mother to stay with him to help care for his ailing daughter. A beautiful Social Worker enters the scene and befriends the two abused children, and when the wealthy business man’s daughter sadly passes away, a series of events begin to unfold, entwining these people’s fates and bringing all them all together at the end.

We Bring You The Mayibuye Film Festival, Launching on SABC Sunday 13th

April 10, 2014April 10, 2014 / The Starlit Path / 1 Comment

The Mayibuye Film Festival launches on SABC 1 in South Africa this weekend on Sunday! Running for 3 weeks from April 13-27, watch two never-before-seen South African films every Sunday night on SABC1. Films that were lost for 20 years have now been restored by Gravel Road Entertainment in Cape Town. Working out of the Waterfront Film Studios, we are digitally restoring these magical films from the 70’s & 80’s. In partnership with Wabona, one of Africa’s premiere video streaming services, the public will also be able to stream the films through Wabona’s online website (http://wabona.com/) or through their cellphones via applications such as Mxit, thanks to Cinemo (Wabona’s mobile service). The films will also be running on TV screens in mini bus taxis via “Commuter TV”.