by Thinus Ferreira
As the woman in the director's chair behind the new Afrikaans reality adventure show Plaasjapie, Nina Swart had to run the TV farm by day only to get home at night with dirt in her ears and thorns in her back - all part of the process of crafting a whole new competition format show for kykNET.
After moving behind the camera following her long stint as Wilmien in SABC2's 7de Laan, and since having worked on South African reality, drama and lifestyle series - from small to big-budget shows like Survivor South Africa - Plaasjapie as a new TV format for kykNET meant Nina once again entered strange new TV territory - filled with baby pigs, cow dung and contestants getting injured on a Swartland farm.
Nina Swart sat down with TVwithThinus to talk about how Plaasjapie, filmed on a farm in the Swartland, challenged her as director, the casting process, South African TV contestants becoming more reality TV savvy, and the sun - without shade - work of managing so many moving parts.
You've worked on so many other reality shows. How has that experience helped you to hold the reigns of Plaasjapie as director?
Nina Swart: I try to know as much as possible about each and every department on set.
I've worked on big-budget shows and also on lower-budget programmes like smaller lifestyle shows. There you learn over the years making plans. So to work with a smaller budget to try and achieve more and to get more bang for your buck is how over the years I've learnt to do on a very practical level.
The scale of Plaasjapie on screen is bigger than what was planned. It's the little farming adventure show that could. We had a fantastic technical team with people I've worked with before and people I've wanted to work with, and they all said yes.
When you make plans and have a great technical team and then bring their experience of working on smaller sets and having worked on bigger sets, to play with your eyes.
A strong format also helps so much. Plaasjapie has a wonderful showrunner in Albert Snyman (also the creator). He's also a plan-maker, he's a storyteller, and he researched the entire history of humanity's farming past. We were safe with Albert and his knowledge and had fun making an adventure reality show.
'more entries than what I have ever
seen for the first season
of an unknown TV format'
When Top Billing started and wanted to show inside private mansions Basetsana Kumalo told me tye struggled initially - until viewers see it. Years later she told me "They now call us". How did the entries look for Plaasjapie seeing it's an unfamiliar show and concept, what did you make of the type of entries, and will there be a lot more if kykNET renews it for a second season?
Nina Swart: I've been privileged in the past to often be involved with casting from the start - for instance several seasons of Survivor South Africa, Boer Soek 'n Vrou, Temptation Island and Trap Dis My Huis!, Op my Eish! - so I have a good idea of numbers.
Can I tell you, it was more entries than what I have ever seen for the first season of an unknown TV format. A lot of the entries I think was due to the show's title of Plaasjapie since we didn't even mention a prize at the beginning.
Of course, after the R1 million as the prize was mentioned later, there was another spike in entries, but the initial entries were unbelievable just based on the name of the show.
How difficult or easy was it to determine the mix of who you put in as contestants?
Nina Swart: The mandate from kykNET was "the more city slicker-ish the better" but I also didn't want to put purely one-dimensional South Africans in the show. What's the antithesis of a farmer? Is it a model, is it what?
There's more than just one "opposite", so to create the mix - and Albert also created the format in such a way - I wanted to prove that someone of my age in their late forties can also win.
Despite the fact that Plaasjapie might sound like a butch, young guy game, the point is that a middle-aged woman should also be able to win. Create a game where anyone can be the winner.
During casting you truly just get people who pop and stand out. Since it's a family adventure reality show I also wanted Plaasjapie to be relatable characters. I haven't been this excited about a cast of a show in a long time.
Don't judge a book by its cover. There's something interesting and a twist to each of these people and they're definitely not just what you think they are when you first meet them. It's been one of the most enriching casting processes I've been involved with.
Do you think South African reality show contestants are becoming "smarter" to know better what to do and say and how to behave and what's expected of them once the cameras are rolling to give the producers and the viewers the type of content that will make them stay longer in a show? Are local reality contestants levelling up on the reality TV intelligence quotient?
Nina Swart: I definitely that's the case, yes.
When we started with Boer Soek 'n Vrou in 2008 for kykNET - I mean, to try and find love or to expose yourself on television, it was a big thing. For many years I've been aware of that. People often say Afrikaans people are different, they're more reserved and it's exactly what you're saying.
I think - and I'm speaking about the Afrikaans kykNET TV market but also the broader market as well - I think it's led by the success of all of the Mzansi Magic (DStv 161) shows.
I don't think we're where the Americans are and I also don't think we'll ever get to that level since there's a tremendous honesty and earnestness under 95% of the contestants across all of the shows I've worked with.
There is a percentage of fake quality under contestants from other countries, a type of "I must say this to make good TV" but I find that the honesty of South Africans makes it more interesting and secondly, leads to longevity for characters with all of their shades.
If how they present themselves were just a gimmick, they end up not being complex characters and being multi-dimensional characters. I love the honesty of South Africans.
They are still somewhat reserved - there's a layer of "manners" - but that there are more and more local lifestyle and reality shows are making people understand what they have to do better. They're not always willing to give it, but they understand it better.
Plaasjapie takes place over 21 days, for 13 episodes and you did it on a farm in Philadelphia in the Swartland. How challenging was the process to find the farm, and to get everything there, and where did the production team stay?
Nina Swart: Philadelphia was very functional because it's not too far away from Cape Town so the production team transformed one of the sheds into a type of "one-night stand" technical base with a few beds and a working shower where you could sleep over if you were too tired after a day's filming.
But the majority drove home at the end of the end.
Production members long ago went to go make friends in that area and the hill on which the cooperation stands - that structure where Ewan Strydom as the host can look out across his "farms" and the arena - that layout was very attractive to us and that there wasn't a tree in sight.
The structures are still there which were erected specifically for Plaasjapie.
'an adventure show in which people
also learn something about themselves'
What was challenging for you specifically, and what was challenging in general to get Plaasjapie in the can?
Nina Swart: To produce any television during the Covid-pandemic was difficult with all of the challenges there's inherent within our industry. That's maybe the boring answer.
For me personally, it was in a positive way a challenge - to work with a new format and to make sure that the essence of the show, and what's different about it, shines.
It was doing a format in which it's an adventure show in which people also learn something about themselves, and in which farming is celebrated, but also making strong, competitive television that keeps viewers glued - and to keep all those things running at the same time, under sometimes difficult weather conditions.
There wasn't really any shade - not even for the crew. We had to build little houses with a bit of aircon inside. We worked breaks in for the crew just to go and feel a bit of aircon and to cool down a bit.
On something like Survivor SA there's at least a tree or something often to stand under but the crew stood with the contestants in the sun, in that dust for hours, with the wind. And people living in the Swartland, they know - it's wind, wind, wind!
You get home at night and you have dust in your ears. And when you sit there's a thorn in your back. The joy was experiencing the true grit of the technical team and the contestants.
A new format is a challenge and keeping it engrossing for the viewer means every day is a new challenge to remain fresh and creative and ahead of the game.
What did you personally enjoy and found enriching in terms of TV work where you felt Plaasjapie expanded your skills and knowledge set?
Nina Swart: Such a lot. I enjoy it a lot to be part of team instead of being "the boss". Through the years I became part of the content creation side of television and it's my forte and I enjoy it.
On a personal level it was so enriching to learn how to manage a big team and to work on a bigger platform. I also don't believe in produced content.
I've always believed in "I'm providing a proscenium, I'm doing observational reality". I interfere very little. I try to do an honest depiction of what's happening. To see that it works, that you can get great content if you don't try to "produce" it - that's very satisfying.
I'm not trying to make the most dramatic television. I believe people are interesting anyway. Just illuminate people and their character will shine.
Plaasjapie is on kykNET (DStv 144) on Thursdays at 20:00
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