by Thinus Ferreira
A backer who gave his own house free for filming. Script rewrites. A R100 million dream budget that imploded with a show suddenly in search of more funding. And a train chase sequence too expensive to include - but maybe next time.
Here's the definitive insider story on the making of Deon Meyer and Scene23's Invisible and the people behind it who refused to give up on their TV drama dream.
The end result of Invisible, Deon Meyer's latest book-to-TV adaptation on M-Net (DStv 101) produced by Scene23, looks incredible.
But yet again, like so much of South African local television and film production, the what-you-see-on-screen, is successfully selling an illusion.
While it's fully of sterling international standard in production quality, cast, crew, acting chops, African bush scenery and a surefire adaptation of "guaranteed" IP book-to-screen translation, Invisible, like so many other productions, battled the same secret behind-the-scenes SA film biz "conspiracy" for months: Money and belief.
While South Africa's premium local television output very clearly rivals, and in some cases surpasses, that of comparable countries like the United Kingdom and Australia, South African production companies still battle behind-the-scenes against a quiet conspiracy that wants to strangle them.
Despite time and again definitively proving - like again now with Invisible - that South Africa's film production services industry, its crews, casting and talent, locations, directing, post-production services and story vault and creators are of world standard, local producers still fight an often unspoken battle.
It is the seemingly never-ending struggle to be believed and taken seriously by backers and broadcasters that they can stage and successfully pull of multi-million rand TV-making deals.
Now, with all indicators pointing to Invisible as another South African and export-content-worthy TV success, what people who just see red carpet glam photos don't know - or want to know - is that even a "success" like Invisible struggled to just get made.
With Invisible and its proven IP, and proven talent in front of and behind the screen, why is it still so damn difficult for South African television to be "believed" upfront, to be taken seriously on the world stage?
What more and what else must South African TV and film producers do to get the recognition they have collectively, and rightly, already banked and built up over years to show that, yes (White Lies! Shaka iLembe! Trackers! Outlaws! Silverton Siege! My Octopus Teacher!), you can give them the money, and that they can and will successfully do it and put it on screen?
'The scatter cushions had to go'
Deon Meyer, whose novels have been translated into dozens of languages worldwide, came up with the story of Invisible, published more than a decade ago, on the back of a BMW motorcycle.
"I used to consult for BMW motorcycles - this is 15, 20 years ago - and I got to spend a lot of time on the back of a BMW motorcycle. A lot of the elements in the book were shared with me during my travels in the Lowveld, or I saw it. And on the way back on the motorcycle, I envisioned the story and I sat down and I wrote it," he says.
On Invisible - a co-production between Canal+'s M-Net, ITV Studios, Berkeley Media Group and Dugga Boys Productions - that included filming on-location and included an international cast, post was 15% of the overall budget, of which VFX was half of that.
Then there was the international cast cost - paid in international currency - but that was stripped out of the local budget spreadsheet.
The original budget for Invisible's 8-episodes was over R100 million.
"It's easy when you work for M-Net or where there's a budget and they pay 100%," explains powerhouse producer and production finance specialist Cobus van den Berg, who was an executive producer on Invisible.
"But in a case like this where you first have to get funding, and the rest is investment and pre-sales and then all of a sudden the funding part doesn't happen the way it's supposed to, it's very difficult," he says.
"That's not a situation where you want to be, especially once you've already started shooting. You're filming and you realise that half your budget might not happen. You can't stop it now. Everything within you wants to honestly say: 'Listen guys, we might not be able to pay you anymore; let's stop this.' But you can never do that."
"It's the fine balance of being honest, but also being realistic."
That's where financial backers Johan Holtzhausen and Piet Mouton and their created Dugga Buys Productions came to Invisible's rescue. With actual money. And even a house.
"When our funding didn't pan out as it was supposed to be, they stepped forward and said 'Listen, we believe enough in this. Fortunately, with something like a Deon Meyer book, it is a trustworthy IP to make a TV series about," Cobus van den Berg says.
Piet Mouton explains that "It was highly disappointing and quite a stressful time when the funder who proimised funding didn't come through, but we we're already in by that stage".
"It's not a deal where you can just pull it in the middle. The cast is assembled. We're in the process of making this. So we would have lost all our equity in any event and it would be a tragic situation for South Africa. So Johan and I decided to see it through to the end in terms of funding Invisible."
He so bought in, that Piet Mouton even gave his house for filming, for free, as a stand-in for the villain's home, portrayed by actor Dougray Scott.
"Johan suggested the production use my house. Not being involved in the film industry before, you have this idea of 8 people are going to be in your house and a couple of actors."
"Then a legion of people - 50, 60 people show up. This is not what I sold to my wife, by the way. And then they decided my house was too homely, given that Dougray plays a villain. So they carried out most of my furniture, moved furniture and the scatter cushions had to go."
Actor Tumisho Masha says "I want people who watch Invisible to be 'wowed' by how well we do television in South Africa, and how well we tell stories in South Africa."
"Invisible is an uplifting story. It's really a story that's very hopeful. And it's a story that's being told with the best we have as a country in crew, and the best we have as cast."
Rewriting to budget
Amy Jephta, co-writer and director of episode 6, came in and did rewriter and rewrote Invisible to budget "once we figured out how much we were actually working with" she says.
Episode 6 is a so-called "bottle episode" that tells the origin story. DStv subscribers will meet the characters when they were much younger, with the story set in 1994.
"The episode gives us the backstory to everyone, reveals the conspiracy and is the heart of Invisible," she says.
Scottish actor Dougray Scott says the scripts and his character continued to evolve after he signed up for the role.
"It was interesting from an acting point of view to create a character who wasn't just a stereotypical villain but just enjoys what he does."
Jozua Malherbe explains that Invisible had to look good on screen because the characters are excellent.
"All of the characters, each of these individuals, are really competent people. They're really good at what they do. When you need a helicopter, there's a helicopter. When you need an island cleared, it's done. When Dekker has to look after someone, he does it with brilliance."
"What that tone did for all of us, is that we also had to give that on set as well. The production design of Invisible had to be on that level, because that's what the characters are. And everything around them had to support that in the world that they live in," he says.
"We have a genre show - it's a Deon Meyer. It's a heightened world where we deal with crime and cops and in this case, a bodyguard and international intrigue and a villain, but it's also grounded. So we're in Cape Town, and we're in Hoedspruit and we're dealing with animal sanctuaries."
"So there's a very real element to it all. Invisible is not just S.W.A.T. cars and S.W.A.T. teams driving around and shooting people. There's real drama taking place," Jozua Malherbe says.
"We landed in a place where the action in Invisible is really big and explosive and the highest of high I've ever made it."
"And yet Invisible doesn't feel like a B-grade action film where the action becomes so overwhelming and blown up that it's unbelievable."
"Invisible is big but believable. All of the characters are strong and direct to carry the genre forward, but without losing the heart of the story."
"After yelling 'Action' and then 'Cut', we have to move and get to the next set. In the meantime, that's our time to set up what the actor needs to do next in front of the screen, to be that good because we said that that is what the culture of the set is."
"The actors were bringing all of this work. The least we can do, is the same."
The promise of more
Tim Theron, who is both an executive producer and portrays bodyguard Martin Dekker, says the hope is there for further seasons of Invisible.
"We've already had conversations on where the story could go. Deon has a lot of ideas already. If you watch Invisible to the end, you will see we didn't do what so many shows do in terms of leaving you with questions".
"Invisible is self-contained as a show. This first season, when you get to the end, you will go: 'I love this; I got all the answers I wanted. But I want more. And there is absolutely the promise of more that is possible with the characters of Dekker, Jeanette, Colonel Jack and Quintus Wernich too, not to give away too much!"
Jozua Malherbe adds that nobody ever wanted to "dumb down Invisible in any way".
"I have great respect for the audience, and that once you engage with the story, you will watch it all and enjoy it. For me, Invisible is an audience-facing show. I don't want it to be so violent that it's off-putting for people who want to watch it for entertainment," he explains.
"So that was the balance: To give just enough 'gruesome' for the genre to be relevant but never to push the audience away. That's the same with the dialogue and number of swear words we used, and what violence we show and didn't show."
"Sometimes the camera looks at it and sometimes the camera looks away. Our audiences are not in a box anymore. We watch Netflix, we watch Amazon Prime Video, so the idea that we need to, somehow, reframe our point of view, I don't think is necessary."
The train that got away
A train chase sequence escaped Invisible. But there is still hope for it in the future.
"We killed so many beautiful things, unfortunately," says Amy Jeptha. "The biggest thing I think, is set pieces."
"There were some big action set pieces for Invisible that would have been incredible to film. One that I was sad to drop was an incredible chase sequence with a train. A moving train and a car and Dekker driving next to this train, and jumping on the roof of the train."
"It would have been incredible to film and would have taken half of our shoot. So we would never have been able to complete it."
"A lot of the rewrites were about scaling down the massive action pieces to still have great impact but still be executable - because we weren't shooting a feature film; we were shooting for months and months on a series," she explains.
"So what we had to kill off were some great action but what we got was some incredible action that is still quite mind-blowing and still to scale."
"The sequence that we ended up replacing that train with is a very long, continuous scene of about 20 minutes of episodes 3 and 4 and I think we ended up with something incredible."
Adds Deon Meyer, jokingly: "When we did Heart of the Hunter for Netflix, I wrote a scene on a train which I thought was a fantastic scene. And they took that out."
"Then we wrote this train scene for Invisible. And then they took that out. In the next show, I'm going to write a train scene again!"
