Television’s visual wizard Marcus Schumacher

When he is not on the set of a television or movie production, multitalented producer, director and all round creative Marcus Schumacher feels a bit lost.

Creating engaging visual tapestries is his life’s work, he says, and to date the Cape Town-based, dreadlocked film maker has hundreds of actuality and lifestyle inserts, features and online story telling to his long list of credits. Schumacher was in Johannesburg this week filming a 67-episode feel-good series in just three days – a record by anyone’s measure.

“It was exhausting but so rewarding,” says Schumacher. “We didn’t sleep for three days and by the end of it I felt like a zombie. But, as Johnny (Walker) says, keep on walking.”

The day after wrapping up the shoot, he was off to Emalahleni to shoot furnaces and hot metal at a smelter. Next week he is off to work on an Afrikaans feature film.

“It’s wonderful to be busy after the film and television industry went into hibernation for almost a year,” says Schumacher. “It’s still a distance from where it was pre-pandemic, but green shoots of hope for an industry destroyed seem to be sprouting up.”

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Travel, he says, is one of the greatest benefits to being involved in production. “Beyond the opportunity to express creatively, the sights and sounds of the world is an incredible byproduct of production.”

Schumacher has worked around the world, from Accra in Ghana to Zanzibar, Abu Dhabi, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Europe, Seychelles, Mauritius and the US.

“We were the first television crew from South Africa to film at the Smithsonian Museum in Washington DC,” he enthuses, remembering the hustle it took to get permission from the curators.

“On the ground, while travelling and even here at home, you need your wits about you at all times. Anything can go wrong, or anyone can impact what you’re doing, so sometimes hustling and rolling with whatever punches are dealt is part of the daily grind and the fun.”

He remembers once having an entire jet full of passengers delayed on the apron because a camera operator was stuck in traffic.

“It took a while, but we leveraged every single contact we had to get a 10 minute delay on an international flight so that we would not lose the television shoot. It was touch and go, but it is incredible how people will help in South Africa. We are truly a nation of friends and that is why I love this country so much.”

He recently had the opportunity to showcase South Africa in a series called the Beautiful News, showcasing incredible attractions, places and people around the country. “It was an absolute privilege.”

Journalism and television are in his blood. Both Schumacher’s parents come from a media background and he grew up in the industry. “My father was a German journalist covering apartheid era South Africa for many years. It was a curious time as there were constant eyes on our family from various corners.”

He says his parents often stepped in to help people who were being pursued by the regime of the time.

“Many of my values, about helping and being there for others, comes from my folks shaping my understanding of the world and the importance of being human from an early age.” His mother, still an active writer, publishes several features annually, many promoting South Africa as a tourism destination in feeder markets like Europe.

His other credits include a long-term tenure producing television on SABC3’s Expresso, Top Billing, Afternoon Express and a string of corporate documentaries. Production is a pressure cooker, he says, and “directing the ingredients inside”.

The final product is a stew of visual deliciousness. “Story telling is tough, capturing the right moments a challenge, but when you get it right and the final product, whether a few seconds long or a movie, lives forever. It is a permanent legacy. I don’t think I could ever do anything else.”