WATCH: Thando Thabethe chats to production boss Rethabile Ramaphakela

Thando Thabethe. Picture: Instagram

Thando Thabethe. Picture: Instagram

Published Feb 4, 2021

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In the latest episode of Thando Thabethe’s YouTube series, “TV&R”, she interviews Rethabile Ramaphakela, one of three sibling founders of Burnt Onion Productions.

The two chat about how an idea of a show is turned in to a concept, the making of the Netflix four part series, “How To Ruin Christmas: The Wedding”, the current state of the industry, and Ramaphakela’s journey to becoming one of the top producers in Africa.

Burnt Onion Productions has created shows like “My Perfect Family”, “Seriously Single“ and their latest “How To Ruin Christmas:The Wedding”.

“Being a producer means you are the person that brings everything together from the beginning till it appears on your TV scene.

“It sounds easy but it is not. There’s different kinds of producers, there’s creative producers, financial producers, so you can play on any side of the sphere, but it is good as a producer to understand the story, even if you don’t write and finance and budget as well,” said Ramaphakela.

Ramaphakela said the company started from her bedroom, and their first production was “My Perfect Wedding” which turned 13 in January.

The story was pitched to the SABC, but was only commissioned three years later because the SABC was in financial difficulty at the time.

“I was in my third year and said, ’I’m going to start a production company’ with no clue what that actually meant. And my brother was like, ’Ya let’s do it’,” she said.

About “How To Ruin Christmas:The Wedding” she said: “We were in lockdown and said ’let’s make a movie’.

“We thought we needed a comedy and coincidently we were in conversation with Netflix because of our movie ”Seriously Single“, so we pitched the idea of a Christmas special.

“We just wanted to spread some cheer after the rough year we’ve had,” said Ramaphakela.

The show is now one of the most streamed shows on Netflix.

Watch the full interview here:

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