A favorite location for advertising and commercial shoots for many years, Cape Town is now looking set for the big-time. With the new Cape Town Film Studios fully operational and attracting high-profile projects, we are now seeing more international movies being made in South Africa and more top stars discovering the delights of Cape Town’s cosmopolitan but laid-back lifestyle.

So what does Cape Town have to offer that has finally convinced Hollywood that it is a serious film production destination?

Cape Town Film Studios
Completed in 2010, the new film studio complex offers brand-new state of the art production facilities with four sound stages, set production warehouses and all the rest. The first big-budget movie to take advantage of the studios has been Judge Dredd, the comic book reboot, that has been made as a 3-D action movie, due for release in 2012. There are very few places in the world with the facilities to handle this kind of movie, 3-D action being more complex than just 3-D animation, and Cape Town Film Studios is on a par with any of them, according to co-producer Andrew MacDonald.

Experienced production companies, casts and crews
Cape Town has a well-developed infrastructure of production companies, post-production facilities as well as local cast and crew that have gained extensive experience of all aspects of film production over the many years that South Africa has been a top location for advertising and commercial filming and stills shoots. With South African made District 9 becoming an international blockbuster, the world has finally seen the home-grown talent on offer in South Africa.
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As a long form producer, producing 30, 15 and 10-second promos used to seem like a chore. But I’ve learned some tricks to help make effective promos while having a little fun.

• Choose your best sound bites. These sound bites do not have to be a complete thought but should carry a lot of feeling or action in a matter of seconds. They can even be exclamations like “wow!” The shorter the better.

• Choose your best shots, the “money shots” so to speak. Like the sound bites, these shots should quickly convey a sense of emotion or action. Think about your footage and then ask yourself “what is most fun?” “What is most gripping?”

• Choose some driving music that matches the theme of your program, video or promo. For sports themed promos, consider youthful music like rock or hip hop. They offer a lot of hard beats to cut the visuals to. If it is a comedy, try something fun or kitschy. If your piece is serious or emotional, you may want something a little slower. I must admit, choosing music is not my favorite thing to do. Most music libraries ask you to input key words like “solemn” or “funky” which may mean something different to me than it does to the person who developed the program. Because I want music with a good sting at the end, I sometimes listen to the end first. If the sting is weak, I quickly move on to the next selection.
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It’s already common for video editors to ask if what is the best video editing software. I’ve been asking the same question also before but I already stopped doing so when I already found the best one for me.

If you ask professional video editors if what is the best video editing software, chances are they have different answers. This is because each one has his or her own preferences. This means that this question has no definite answer. It really depends upon your opinion.

Rather than telling you directly if what is the best video editing software, let me just help you choose the one that works for you by giving you the following different situations.

1. Are you a professional video editor?

If you are a professional video editor then I really recommend having a professional software as well. When we say professional software, it must have the capability of doing the task that a professional video editing can accomplish. To mention a few, it must be able to import different kinds of video formats (specially the latest ones). It must also have the effects that you wanted to achieve. There are really many features of a professional video editing software and I’m sure you know them. If you think a software can have almost everything that you need, then that might be the right one for you.
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