Category: Film/Television

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District 9 success and 19 Emmy nominations boost Africa as emerging TV & Film production locale

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With the recently released South Africa-based filmed District 9 heating up conversations online and smashing box-office numbers Southern Africa is strongly maintaining it's role as a popular destination for Hollywood motion picture production. Not one to forgo the cost-profit benefits of filming in Africa, television networks are following suit, ramping up their hiring of crews in Southern Africa for program production. The results are a record 19 Emmy nominations for Africa-produced programs this year. I predict that the trend will continue rapidly as media companies struggle for new ways to generate revenue, and Africa nations learn to take advantage of marketing opportunities such as the upcoming 2010 FIFA World Cup.

Southern Africa is emerging as a destination for runaway TV production, as the 19 Primetime Emmy nominations for shows shot in the region prove. HBO's "Generation Kill" miniseries about U.S. troops in Baghdad filmed in South Africa, Namibia and Mozambique via Out of Africa Entertainment; Fox's "24: Redemption" shot in South Africa with Moonlighting; while "No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency," the BBC adaptation of Alexander McCall Smith's bestselling novels, filmed in Botswana with Film Afrika. Approximately 90% of the cast and crew on all three productions were South African — indeed, four Emmy noms are for local crews…

And with Cape Town Film Studios scheduled to open a Hollywood-style studio on the tip of Africa early next year, the volume of TV projects coming to South Africa is only going to increase.

More at variety.com

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Trending Africa Aug. 12, 2009: Tony Hawk & Zulu skateboarders, World’s 1st solar-power phone, H. Clinton tours Africa

• Tony Hawk meets "fearless" Zulu skateboarders on South Africa trip

• If a mosquito bites in Sub-Saharan Africa, grab your cell phone

• Could Ghana be Africa's premier outsourcing destination?

• African businesses to invest in sustainability

• Hillary Clinton says "We're committed to Africa's future" during her Africa tour

• Kenya’s Safaricom releases world’s first solar-powered phone

• Ghana invests $150m in nationwide broadband infrastructure

• Kenya to build Africa's biggest windfarm

• Google announces G-Africa Initiative, a series of events in Sub-Saharan Africa for software developers

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Corporate America’s Changing Views on Africa

Baird, the management consulting firm, recently asked senior officers of 30 American Fortune 100 corporations about their current attitudes on investing in Africa. While some of the results showed that not much had  changed, the study also revealed that corporate America was increasingly optimistic about Africa’s role in their future business strategies. Three of the key points of the study, “Inside the Boardroom: How Corporate America Really Views Africa” are:

• USA Inc. is more interested in Africa than before, because the African market appears increasingly attractive, but Africa has tough competition and high hurdles for US investment. Education is at the top of the US corporate wish list for Africa; “educate your people so that we can employ them”

• The African countries that hold most interest are South Africa and some countries in the North, like Egypt; there are also some pockets of interest in West Africa, most notably Ghana, Nigeria and to some extent Angola; while some in the South (Botswana and Mozambique) and East (Uganda and Kenya), are also being watched

•To make itself more attractive for US investment, Africa should:

  • Invest in education , health and infrastructure
  • Ensure the rule of law and a business-friendly climate for all investing companies
  • Show it is serious about attracting foreign investment
  • Market itself as aggressively as other regions of the world
  • Demonstrate opportunity cost of not investing

A recent CNBC broadcast from Lagos, Nigeria (video below) also expounded on what Africa has to offer corporate America.

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Focus Features launches Africa filmmaking program

California-based Focus Features, a division of NBC Universal, announced that it is launching an African film making program. The Africa First Program, spearheaded by producer Kisha Imani Cameron, will award 5 African filmmakers $10,000 in financing for post or production work on a narrative short that makes use of local African film industry resources. Filmmakers selected for the grants will retain the copyrights to their projects as well as artistic, budgetary and editorial control with support from a team at Focus. The winning filmmakers will retain global distribution rights to their shorts, excluding North America, which Focus will retain. Focus also holds the right of first negotiation to any productions derived from the shorts. Focus Features has produced and distributed award-winning films including Traffic, Gosford Park, The Pianist, Lost in Translation, The Constant Gardener, Brokeback Mountain, and Atonement. The company also produced the 2006 film Catch a Fire which was set if Apartheid-era South Africa.
via Variety

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Africa 2.0, 2 yr anniversary, growth

Africa 2.0It seems it’s been about a month since my last post. Wow! How timees fly when you’re running around. I guess I’ve been neglecting my duties here on Annansi Chronicles, but hey there’s much more to life than posting to blogs. Some readers might not have missed me since we communicate regularly online, but I’m sure many of you were beginning to think I’d abandoned Annansi Chronicles. Not true! Here’s some updates of what’s been going on:

The Africa 2.0 panel at South by Southwest Interactive went pleasantly well. Besides getting to finally meet a few of my fellow African bloggers/entrepreneurs/innovators, SXSW was one of my best conference experiences to date. The energy, people, and information was well worth the effort of organizing the panel. For a roundup of what went on read my review at the newassignment.net website. Also read Erik, and Uduak’s perspective. The panel was well attended and we got to talk to some really great people. Thanks to the SXSW crew especially Hugh and Christine for allowing us a great opportunity. Below is some video of an interview I did with Sunny Gault of Veoh TV’s Viral channel right before the panel. In the video I talk about the topic of Africa and technology as well as the work I’ve been doing as a board member of the African Film Commission.

Online Videos by Veoh.com

In some other news, Annansi Chronicles passed it’s 2 years anniversary this month! Thanks to all the readers and the brilliant Africa-focused minds who have helped me keep the blog inspiring. It’s been great connecting with people all over the world and building business and personal relationships through Annansi Chronicles. I had no idea what I was doing when I started 2 years ago and to see the response has been very motivating. As a result of the good people I’ve met through this blog, I have been able expand on ideas which I never would have had. I am currently working on a bigger project which, building on some ideas I’ve explored on Annansi Chronicles, will hopefully add to the efforts of innovation in African business and community development. Hopefully I will be soon announcing this new project, but in the meantime, I am looking for writing contributers for this and other projects. Please contact me if you or someone you know might be interested in working with me and my company Annansi LLC.

Finally, for those reading Annansi Chronicles using rss make sure to visit the site itself to see the new re-design. Going forward Annansi Chronicles will have featured posts of in-depth analysis of news items. For those familiar with the content of the blog, the features will be the longer in-depth posts I’ve been doing periodically here. I’m looking forward to providing more inspiration for you all.Thanks again for reading Annansi Chronicles.

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Puma’s love affair with African football deepens

Puma Ghana Peace OneBeing the No. 4 sporting-goods brand is tough. But Puma is betting that backing African football (soccer to Americans) will differentiate the brand and win it a significant increase in market share. Continuing with the company’s commitment to African football made during the 2006 World Cup Games, Puma put some serious resources together for product and marketing efforts behind the 2008 African Cup of Nations held recently in Ghana. As a sponsor for 9 out of the 16 African teams, including tournament hosts Ghana and champions Egypt, Puma worked hard to make the brand synonymous with African football, even going so far as buying the Ghana team a top-of-the-line Mercedes-Benz bus for transport between matches. The company began it’s Cup of Nations efforts with a sponsorship deal for Eurosport’s live coverage of the games and then a press conference at the brand new Puma store in Ghana’s Accra Mall. The press conference was held to announce several activities on the ground during the tournament, including a youth exhibition game co-hosted by the Peace One Day charity and edun Live and featuring African football legends Roger Milla and Anthony Yeboah. Continue reading “Puma’s love affair with African football deepens”