Study to be a film director
Fani Mathibela from KwaThema is proud of his experience in the film making, acting and directing arenas.
Mathibela is a film director, script writer and an actor.
He studied at Thuthuka drama school in Johannesburg.
He says in order to make a good director, one needs to be passionate about acting and be good at working with other people in a very professional manner.
The admission requirements to the Film and TV production course is a national senior certificate with an endorsement of a bachelor’s degree or a diploma.
To be considered for this qualification, applicants must have an admission points score of at least 18.
The course’s duration is a minimum of three years and the estimated cost for the first year is R38 500.
Subjects done in this course
1. Cinematography
2. Directing
3. Editing
4. Film theory and criticism
5. Motion picture production
6. Producing
7. Scriptwriting
8. Sound
9. Technology
Mathibela, who has produced and directed many short films, says his love for film directing came after he was introduced to the industry by the current Skeem Sam casting director, Putla Sehlapelo who also mentored him in his journey in the industry.
He says although all seems glamorous on screen, hard work is done behind the scenes.
He says one of the film director’s responsibility is to control a film’s artistic and dramatic aspects, and visualizes the
script while guiding the technical crew and actors in the fulfilment of that vision.
Adding that, directors need to be able to mediate differences in creative visions and stay in the boundaries of the films budget.
He says the challenges that the film directors come across is dealing with different attitudes from the actors.
“Some of the actors always find something to complain about and at times arrive late on a shooting set,” said Mathibela.
The young director encourages others to study to become film directors as he claims that the job gives a good salary at the end of the month.
