Mock-up paper boats littering the stage and stage front area - and which had nothing to do with the theme of film or television - didn't add anything to the 7th South African Film and Television Awards - except maybe contribute to the overall sinking feeling that television viewers were once again being subjected to a below par production of a local TV awards ceremony which is still battling to just get the basics right.
The 7th Saftas which played out on TV screens on Saturday night on SABC3 (and played over - it was supposed to end at 22:00 meaning viewers who recorded it missed the end since it only finished at 22:17) remains stuck in the doldrums of disaster coverage.
The 7th Saftas was produced by the National Film and Video Foundation (NFVF) and Vertical Limit Productions this year with the help of the SABC TV Outside Broadcasts fascilities and crew as a live broadcast on Saturday night from Gallagher Estate.
Executive producers Delmarie Seaward and Sam September, Kai Masterson as floor manager and Eugene Naidoo as director were responsible for the broadcast.
The 7th Saftas was not as bad as previous years, but it was still pretty bad. And why a TV award show would continue to show panning camera shots of empty tables with empty chairs in the foreground as a live shot over and over will remain a mystery.
In hindsight the 7th Saftas' disastrous red carpet coverage employing clearly inappropriate people like Nthato Mashishi was the harbinger of the horribleness to come.
While Nik Rabinowitz surprisingly shined with real humour as Saftas co-host and was clearly well-prepared and worked hard at incorporating jokes into the script, a staccato Connie Ferguson came across as stilted, struggling to read and struggling to get her words out properly.
For the first time ever at the Saftas, the "In Memoriam" segment wasn't botched. The pace of the show and the flipping through categories were also quicker than in years before and was a marked improvement.
The bad overall awardcast however wasn't helped by the massive bungle which got worse when Nik Rabinowitz was given the wrong envelope to read for best writing team for a TV drama series. The result led to an even bigger embarrassment playing out live on air.
While 7de Laan won as best TV soap of the evening, I would say it's actually Scandal which took the top prize as far as the broadcast of the 7th Saftas is concerned.
Technically, the 7th Saftas was marked by shoddy and bad sound throughout - sound problems as well as sound mistakes, open mics when it should have been muted; loud singular hand clapping constantly audible and which should have been equalised everytime it occured, and sound distortion - especially from Nik Rabinowitz and Connie Ferguson's mics.
Inappropriately, unqualified people are used as presenters of categories. Inappropriately, government and other organisational figureheads are given airtime to drone on with incessant chatter.
Realise that if you make a TV awards show that it is for the viewers - they don't want and shouldn't be subjected to your bureaucracy, ministerial, and sponsorship fuelled "must include" blabbing binges.
Visually the unimaginable bland black stage with black backdrop and twinkly red stars was more evocative of a dinner theatre evening out than what is supposed to be a glamorous TV award show.
The stage was also not quite disabled people friendly - especially for the several old and frail and injured who clearly needed help and had to make an effort to climb the steps to accept awards.
The few musical numbers tended to more French burlesque circus acts than actually being related to film and television like the Oscars and Emmys do. The ZA News cast who won an award and started singing with the music as the music started playing to force them off the stage, was unintentionally funny and a good moment
Samuel L. Jackson from Snakes on a Plane and who was Jedi Mace Windu appeared to present the awards to the actor and actress in a movie. Sadly Riaad Moosa, the doctor who turned stand-up comedian and who won, didn't attend and Craig Freimond had to accept on his behalf.
The best pre-prepared and produced moment of the 7th Saftas came far too late - 5 minutes before the end of the awards ceremony. On it's own as a standalone segment, it was magical and beautiful.
In the taped piece, intercut industry faces from the world of South Africa's television and film spoke to camera about why they're doing what they're doing and what it's all really about. It was mesmerising, great television and well done editing, cut with excellent mood music to fit the theme.
As what would be a truly magical standalone public service announcement (PSA), that minute and a half which could be its own separate TV advert to promote South Africa's film and television industry was really of outstanding quality. That is what the Saftas should be, look like and showcase.
Sadly it doesn't.
