Like the doomed Titanic the broadcast of the 6th South African Film and Television Awards known as the Saftas hurriedly edited and shown Sunday night on SABC3 had people decked out in glamorous clothes for a disastrous awards ceremony that kept sinking away deeper and deeper into sea of embarrassement the longer the sad show went on.
The sad and completely amateur way in which both the production was executed on Saturday night (the event was recorded and edited and shown on Sunday on SABC3), as well as the actual broadcast is a very clear and lamentable indictment of how spectacularly far South Africa's TV industry has fallen when it comes to the production and broadcast of big made-for-TV awards shows and ceremonies (Artes, Nelson Mandela presidential inaguration) we once mustered with standard and above standard quality and critical acclaim.
As the atrocious Saftas (and sister Samas and the others) show, South Africa has indeed fallen very far; willing to settle for mediocrity and subpar, stereotyped, ill executed showmanship. Is the Channel O Music Video Awards really all that can still pass the barrier of a passing grade when it comes to local television award shows?
The laughable production (and this is after the edited recording that cleaned up the live event for broadcasting) had people constantly walking around in front of camera and in front of presenters at the 6th Saftas during the actual ceremony. You will never see it from a polished well-produced show like the Emmys or Oscars.
It was embarrassing and cringeworthy to watch, making it painfully clear than all that South African wannabe red carpet interviewers really know of how to behave and how to supposedly do it, has been gleamed from watching third rate red carpet coverage on television without having any real experience of doing so.
The Michael Gill set design for the 6th Saftas was absolutely beautiful and possibly the only thing of the wholly sub standard production that stood out as magnificent, carefully crafted, beautifully designed and appropriately befitting of the stature of what the Saftas supposedly want to exude.
The Michael Gill Designs Saftas stage was miles better than anything else the production gave viewers at home to see or for the actually attending Gallagher Estate audience. Big video walls flanked a beautifully curved shield-like triangle sprouting into the audience and connected with a narrow walkway.Functionally and estetically it had the wow-factor and worked, although nothing that the humans who walked on it, sadly did.
Too sad that the first time viewers saw the stage the black high-gloss tri-side stage was also already dull and full of messy footprints. It's incredible. You'd think the producers or the seemingly inept Saftas organisers would wax and shine and clean it knowing footprints are going to show up on television after rehearsals or due to shown out-of-order re-edited segments.
So tedious and drawn out was the Saftas broadcast which started at 19:30 that the first award handed out viewers saw was only a full hour later at 20:27. Because first beaurocrats had to talk and talk and talk and viewers be subjected to ''the history of South African filmmaking complete with censor board quips'' inserts. You cannot make this up.
Unintentionally funny? The bald Riaan Garforth-Venter as presenter of the best hairstylist award.
The most shocking moment - which could have been the emotional cornerstone of the 6th Saftas award show broadcast - was when Siyabonga Radebe won the best actor award as Muzi in Intersexions. A beautiful could-be moment was tragically and amateurly prevented.
The jubilant actor wanted to rush off the stage to go and hug his crying mother sitting at a table in the audience. He was almost off the stage with his trophy when the dressed in black daft trophy model unprofessionally yanked him back, prevented him from going into the audience, and pushed him to the opposite side of the stage. What would have been a spontaneous and beautiful moment was akwardly killed.
Lets not even started with the pronunciation. The famed Robert Durrant won a lifetime achievement award but the ‘’industry’’ who did the Saftas seems confused as to how actually pronounce her name (after so many years!). Different pronouncements on stage and in the promo made it painfully clear that amateurs were everywhere (viewers heard ''Durrant'' as in ''currant'', and then ''Durrant'' as in ''due rant'' (Can the presenters please check pronounciations and practise reading names maybe before they say it one stage for seemingly the first time?)
The shocking In Memoriam segment was nothing short of a huge and sad embarrassement. Allthe dearly departed deserved so much better. The names and details of industry people who’ve died wasn’t even legibile on television. And if it wasn't made for people and viewers at home, why broadcast this then in the first place?
The oddest thing was the loud crowd applause and jubilant cheers of the 6th Saftas. The camera would pan with roarious applause while viewers would hardly see anyone actually clapping and people just sitting. Was there possibly a sitcom claptrack added? And what sounded like canned clapping would stop perfectly when presenters started talking. All too weird.
Then there's the horribly way the film awards got squeezed in as an afterthought. Vusi Kunene can you take your hands out of the pockets of your beautiful suit and please read through what you’re asked to read on the Teleprompter before you do it? How disrespectful of the audience both there and at home.
The Saftas which, when previously broadcast always ran far over, once again did so, although this time it wasn’t even an uncontrollable live broadcast but an edit recorded show. Still the producers couldn't get it to run on time. The 2012 Saftas that was supposed to end at 21:30 on SABC3 ran the end credits of the shoddy show at 21:48. Viewers who recorded the show wouldn’t have seen the inappropriate ''I'm hungry'' end. Which is probably just as well.
The wholly inappropriate musical acts for a film and television awards show supposed to be a glossy classy show doesn't even bear mentioning.
Sponsors on the stage? No subtitles for the un-funny comedy duo? Two female co-hosts in the form of Bridget Masinga and Jeannie D as nothing more than mere lip service while there's no category even for best actress in a film because there supposedly aren't any?
One can only sigh at the Saftas and what should be so much better.
