When the team from Ambassador Pictures was tasked with making a short film in just two days, they put pedal to the metal.
“We did meet before the competition to think-up ideas, but you never know what’s going to happen. I was fortunate to have some dedicated and lovely people working with me,” said Nqobile Shoba, co-founder of Ambassador Pictures.
The team put together a short, dark, comedy film titled Death by the Glass for the 48 Hour Film Project contest.
“It’s a film that we shot and it revolves around a couple of college friends who play a practical joke on a friend. An unlucky young man wakes up to find both his kidneys removed and placed in low fat milk, as well as a note. The film revolves around him and what he does in the 24 hours he has to live,” said Shoba.
For the competition, entrants were given a genre and a character to write a story around.
“So when we met beforehand, we came up with ideas and worked really hard to do this. Forty-eight hours is such a short space of time.”
The Ambassador Pictures team drew dark comedy from a grab bag of random genres. They not only won Best Film, but also took home awards for best directing, writing, cinematography and best use of the compulsory character.
CREATIVE: Nqobile Shoba was the producer of the film. Picture Siphiwe Nkosi
The team is now trying to raise funds to attend the international festival, Filmapalooza.
The festival is the finale of the 48 Hour Film Project, where all the winning films from across the world are screened.
“The exact amount we need is R315 000 for the team to go to the conference, including accommodation and flights. It is quite a large sum; we have raised small amounts here and there through working projects for companies, including promotional videos for corporates in exchange for sponsorship.”
Shoba said people could go to their website, Thundafund, and sponsor them or visit their Facebook page and ask them to do something in return for sponsorship.
“We make videos, short films and offerings to companies that want to give us sponsorship.”
She said at Filmapalooza, they would get a chance to compete and potentially make it into the Top 10, which will see the best of the best films get screened at the Cannes Film Festival.
“Ambassador Pictures want to continue making films. We are in the process of putting together feature films for next year and will hopefully enter them into DIFF and festivals in and around South Africa.
“We just want to make our country proud and go to Paris. We hope everybody supports us in that.”
To help the team reach their goal, visit:
Thundafund - https://www.thundafund.com/project/5695930938425344
Facebook -
The team is due to attend Filmapalooza in March.
@mane_mpi