by Thinus Ferreira
The KwaZulu-Natal Film Commission's 10th Simon Mabhunu Sabela KZN Film and Television Awards came and went on Saturday night. You probably don't know about it or even who won because there's barely any coverage and a lack of real reporting about it.
It's what happens when you get starstruck, don't know how the media functions, and decides to work with social media influencers who are in it to promote themselves instead of what you're actually doing or trying to showcase.
For the record: TVwithThinus was invited but didn't attend. Also for the record: The KwaZulu-Natal Film Commission in its infinite wisdom decided that only people from Johannesburg would be flown to Durban.
On Monday morning the question is: Where exactly is all the coverage from all of these people from Johannesburg that the KwaZulu-Natal Film Commission took to Durban to cover the 10th Simon Mabhunu Sabela KZN Film and Television Awards?
Where exactly are all the interviews, the articles, the opinion pieces, the show-and-tell stories from the red carpet, what the awards did, how it was the same and different this year, or what the KZN Film Commission's work is and what this body is trying to do?
There's nothing about it because the KZN Film Commission apparently lacks an understanding of how to engage and work with the media, who exactly the members of the media are in South Africa who cover the country's film and TV industry, how they operate, and why influencers and their here-today, gone-tomorrow flash-snaps isn't something that truly builds an industry or has permanence.
Besides Daily News reporting about Saturday night's industry awards - in a general provincial newspaper, where exactly is the industry coverage? What did the KZN Film Commission and the award organisers do in the weeks prior to secure coverage like that?
Everybody wants South Africa's TV and film industry to be "more American" - meaning more professional and to operate closer to that model: With things running and happening and more people just generally doing things "right".
That should start with people actually doing things.
Dear KZN Film Commission and organisers of the 10th Simon Mabhunu Sabela KZN Film and Television Awards: You can't sit back and expect coverage and exposure for the awards and the province's work within the country's broader film and TV biz without actual ... effort.
Nothing is going to yield ... nothing.
Is it really too difficult, cumbersome, time-consuming and "expensive" to invite media to a Zoom meeting or interaction of half an hour to discuss the awards? To actually send press releases? To get to know actual journalists, what they would cover and want to cover and to help to get those articles done and to secure that earned media?
What's the real actual return on the investment from the influencers and people who were flown at cost from Johannesburg to Durban to "cover" the 10th Simon Mabhunu Sabela KZN Film and Television Awards? Selfies?
What was done and reported that build these awards and the KZN Film Commission and has some type of permanence and legacy beyond ethereal social media scrolling that lives for now and is gone and forgotten in a second?
While something like a provincial film and TV awards is laudable and the effort surely appreciated what does something like the 10th Simon Mabhunu Sabela KZN Film and Television Awards really mean if enough people -the public and the industry - don't really take notice, and if there isn't a real and tangible media presence to cover it?
When it comes to the Simon Mabhunu Sabela KZN Film and Television Awards the KZN Film Commission should really do some serious introspection - especially around proper media engagement, what it is, how it works, and how to foster and get it.
Work harder but also smarter.
