Thinus Ferreira
Two films of the 2024/2025 class of MultiChoice Talent Factory (MTF) student filmmakers - Ditaba and Gogo's Heist - were shown in October on M-Net's Mzansi Bioskop (DStv 164) channel.
It's already too late to report on both of these since their dates were 19 October and 26 October - which both came and went - but it is still important to highlight these films, as well as what is happening here that is really bad.
On Tuesday, I saw a mention of these films for the first time and since I didn't get any advance communication or even a press release about it, I immediately asked MultiChoice about it to try and track down information.
MultiChoice passed my media query to its one PR company, JR Communications, which sends out press release email blasts to the media on behalf of MultiChoice.
Apparently, a press release was sent out by JR Communications on 17 October, two days before the first film was going to broadcast, but I didn't get it. (JR Communications apparently also doesn't check whether media sent an email blast from MultiChoice actually received it.)
The result is that a PR company, getting paid to communicate, sends out stuff, that media don't get, the media remains none the wiser, MultiChoice thinks there isn't media interest or traction, people like the MultiChoice Talent Factory students don't get the exposure in the press for their work, and the whole cluster-mess wash, rinse and repeats.
This happens All The Time with content marketing and public relations regarding TV shows and content, with various PR companies who literally sends out press blasts on email with no real media liaison or actual media interaction or media liaision taking place. And it's constantly getting worse.
Anyway, the first film was Ditaba, publicised with the very bad bad image above that was sent by JR Communications.
It's ridiculous that press images are sent out by anyone with logos on them like "Mzansi Magic" and "MultiChoice Talent Factory". Where have you ever seen these in a publication, like a newspaper?
Media don't run these types of images - i.e. media require a so-called "clean image" - but I'm inserting both these images to illustrate how bad it is, and how (unnecessarily) difficult things are made for media to actually be informed about, get, and then use basic information and visuals to bring attention and exposure to something.
In other words, how are media helped and how is the "friction" or "resistance" lowered as much as possible, to try and get media, like the news media, to engage with something and run a story or a report?
In this case, again, you want to throw your hands up in the air out of desperation and ask: Why is everything so difficult and made so seemingly impossible? This is not rocket science.
Back to Ditaba. The MultiChoice Talent Factory Film was described as set inside "the high-pressure world of a national newsroom" that follows "veteran anchor Sizwe, who
is pushed aside for a rising star — only to storm the studio on live television
in a desperate attempt to reclaim his voice and expose the network’s
corruption".
"What unfolds is a tense, emotionally charged standoff where truth,
power, and ambition collide."
The Ditaba cast includes Les Made, Gontse Ntshegang, Keneilwe Matidze, and Abulele-Nicky
Peterson – an MTF alumna of the class of 2023/24.
The second MultiChoice Talent Factory film, Gogo's Heist was broadcast on the Mzansi Bioskop TV channel on DStv on 26 October.
Laugh again (and cry) but this is what MultiChoice and JR Communications sent out as a visual - the film poster. And nothing else:
Again, the open-ended question: Where exactly in news media do you see this? And if you don't see this, why send this? Are there no film stills, no publicity images (without logos plastered on them)?
The log line for Gogo's Heist reads: "A Soweto-set crime film featuring a group of
legendary grandmothers who reunite for one last mission".
"When a beloved
granddaughter is kidnapped by a notorious crime boss, these retired struggle heroines
dust off their old spy skills – and a few vintage weapons – to pull off a
daring rescue."
The cast of Gogo's Heist includes Sannah Mchunu, who also starred in the Mzansi Magic telenovela Gomora and the Showmax youth series Youngins. Also part of the cast are Dieketseng Mnisi, as well as Nomsa Buthelezi-Shezi.
Just my humble opinion but the MultiChoice Talent Factory students really deserve much better than these very bad attempts to try and bring publicity and media exposure to their work.
