by Thinus Ferreira
Paramount Africa and BET Africa boss Monde Twala are remaining silent on the unpaid crew and cast production scandal of Clive Morris Productions' Queendom without any answer on why Paramount Africa and BET for a second time signed off on filming to start on a South African series before all the funding was 100% secured.
A high-ranking crew member who worked on Queendom says it is unheard of and extremely unusual for a show to start filming, noting that "Prior to any minute of any footage being filmed all the money should have been in the bank".
Clive Morris Productions (CMP) entered into a deal where the production company had to come up with a very large part of the overall production cost to make Queendom - money it didn't have from the outset.
This derailed and collapsed production of Queendom when Clive Morris Productions, after filming had already started, failed to get the money required when an investor no longer wanted to pay.
Neither Natalie Mdladla, Paramount senior director of communications, nor Kgaogelo Mohlala at the Total Exposure PR company responded to or acknowledged multiple emails, phone calls and messages after TVwithThinus made a media query on Queendom a week ago with questions for Paramount Africa and BET.
The Queendom cast and crew are owed months of salaries after Clive Morris Productions abruptly stopped filming of the local telenovela at the beginning of June because it failed to pay the workers.
In mid-April, Paramount Africa and BET threw a splashy media launch bash at Kings Kraal in Bryanston for some media, while the cast and crew were already rumbling and angry behind-the-scenes among themselves about the challenging production conditions, delayed payments and Clive Morris Productions' ongoing promises that they would get paid.
On 26 April, just a week after Paramount Africa's Queendom media launch event, the show's crew and cast got paid the last time after they had already complained bitterly about not getting paid and delayed payments by Clive Morris Productions, with Paramount Africa that was aware of the issue.
The show's production crew and cast continued to work during May but when they were again not paid at the end of May, they decided in unison not to return for any further work from 3 June.
People within South Africa's TV and film industry now want to know why Monde Twala, senior vice president and general manager of Paramount Africa and BET International lead, signed off on Clive Morris Productions to start filming for Queendom when the production didn't have all of the money secured upfront.
Paramount Africa was asked on what date the last episode of Queendom will be shown on BET (DStv 129) and how many episodes there were supposed to be, but there's been no answer.
Paramount Africa and BET were also asked why Paramount Africa apparently allowed filming to start on a production before the money to make it, was 100% secured, and who at Paramount Africa and BET authorised pre-production and principal photography to start even though Clive Morris later admitted, after Queendom's shut down, that CMP didn't have their side of the money in the bank.
So far this has also gone unanswered.
This is the second time a production of Paramount Africa and BET suddenly shuttered - from the same production company - since Clive Morris Productions was also forced to suddenly shut down ISONO that it produced for BET, over exactly the same reasons when it didn't have the funding in place for it's side of the budget contract.
This also raises the question of why did Paramount Africa and BET for a second time enter into a similar type of contract with Clive Morris Productions after it saw what happened with ISONO.
It's another one of the questions that were put to Paramount Africa last Thursday a week ago and not being answered.
"Typically shows like telenovelas and soaps are commissioned by TV channels and financed 100% by the channel. Queendom wasn't," the insider who worked on the show, explained.
"Clive Morris Productions entered into a deal where an onus was on them to raise a significant portion of the production costs, which are far too onerous for most producers."
"The fact that we haven't been paid is a testament to exactly how overly onerous those conditions were. Very few production companies, if any, would be able to raise that capital for a show of this size like Queendom."
"I had never heard of such an arrangement in the context of a telenovela. They exist for films or a very short miniseries. Prior to any minute of any footage being filmed all the money should have been in the bank. That wasn't the case, hence we find ourselves in the position we're in."
