TV REVIEW: "Heist" Pre-Season Finale

It is really with sadness that I am writing this post. Not because “Heist” was the greatest production ever made but it was a good show and it is now near end. You will remember that in previous reviews I might have gone on a bit of a rant about how the plot started off quite slow and dragged along for a while, but boy oh boy, did it all end with a bang! And the laughs, oh my God, the laughs!!! 

So talent finally managed to put his squad together (as I narrated in "Heist" So Far ) and as a unit they put together a plan. They were going to insert a bomb right above the vault where Irvin and his people kept the money and open up a big hole through the ceiling. Hence why they needed a “silent bomb” (which nobody, not even the viewers, has ever heard of) to avoid setting alarm to any of the people at the venue on the night; especially Irvin or security. Talent would then go down the opening into the vault to pack up all the money and have Cosatu and 5 Bob pull it back up to the ceiling. Well, that was the plan, until Talent hurt his thumb and 5Bob had to be the one going down into the vault despite his fear of heights. Mark on the other hand was the mastermind that kept an eye on everyone and informed the guys if the coast was clear and when to go since he had access to the CCTV as well as inside pass as part of security personnel. Even though this whole plan was the brainchild of 5Bob, it was very interesting to see Mark take the ropes and pretty much lead the team. I mentioned before that Mark was really the intelligent and logical one of the bunch. Merci would then take the money bags, put them into a mobile dustbin and take them out of the building without looking suspicious, hence her cover as one of the cleaning staff at the Justin Bieber concert. Flash was expected to come through to the parking area where Merci would be waiting for him and pick up both the money and the girl.

Well, that was basically the plan, but plans don’t always go smoothly or according to order. When the Cosatu and Talent went into the building to plant the bomb prior to the day of the heist, the last thing they anticipated was a bomb sweep. Imagine the shock when they heard that the police bomb squad was coming in to search the entire location for bombs; canines and all. They were this close, I mean this close, to getting busted and it was the witty Merci that saved them all from the mess. I loved Merci by the way. She was clever, she could think on her feet and a good actress too. No I’m not talking about Mbali, I mean MERCI!!! Yes, she was like an actress by an actress. The act she put on in order to get her job as a cleaner for the concert, the stunt she pulled to save Cosatu and Talent and then putting on a show with her supervisor to get back her confiscated phone were all just too brilliant. But then I guess, there isn’t really a Merci without Mbali KaNgwenya, so yes, the actress did an amazing job of portraying the character.

Then there was the incident where 5Bob went racing with the getaway car and brought it back leaking oil and almost falling apart. In true 5Bob style, he goes and parks it without telling the guys. We have all just hated to love 5Bob. He really would just make the most stupid mistakes and decisions often times and I guess it was Wright Ngubeni’s adorable charm that just kept us blinded to still loving him. It is only during the heist when Flash had to drive the car off that it wouldn’t start at all and he realized that it is dead. So now they have committed a robbery and have no car to get away with. 5Bob, 5Bob, 5Bob!!! It was the most hilarious yet nerve wrecking moment when Merci was standing there waiting for what seemed like forever for Flash to drive through and when he finally does, it is in a cart. I almost died! How were they going to get out of there without looking suspicious? Someone might be able to spot Merci who had gone and undressed from her cover clothing! How fast or rather slow can that thing go even! And I guess that is what gave this final episode so much life. It was suspense after suspense and as things were at times falling apart, we were kept on the edge of our sits almost constantly holding breathe. That is where the writers might have hit the jackpot. They didn’t just tell a story about a heist, they showed us obstacles and gave the characters challenges, which all really breathed life to the story.

The acting ensemble all did a magnificent job and it was quite a pleasure to watch them give great performances throughout the season. Solomon Twalo started off with a rather shaky performance but in the end, he came off beautifully. Cosatu by Waren Masemola was such a star, but then again, Warren has never been one to fall short. He always delivers. It was very interesting that at the end how most of us released sighs of relief when they made it out with the money, not paying mind to the fact that they were actually the bad guys. The entire time, the show had us rooting for the villains and we fell for it. We grew to love the characters and resonated with each of them. The writers made sure to have them wrap us around their fingers and they did! 

What did you think of the show? Leave your comment below

FEATURE: How To Become A Great Screenwriter - Part 1

So I recently published a post on how to sell your screenplay, which I felt would be a great read for budding writers that are looking to get into the industry professionally and make money out of their talents. However, it was an interesting twitter discussion initiated by leading director, Adze Ugah this past weekend about the writing skills (or rather lack of) of most film graduates in South Africa that had me thinking that I might have jumped the gun with my previous feature and prompted me to write up this post. He shared his recent experience about how he had read a few scripts from recent film graduates and was disappointed by how they were all poorly written. He then expressed his concern with the future of the South African film industry, pointing out that some kind of intervention is needed in order to address this matter. I completely agree with him. And while his main focus at the time was on the South African crowd, I thought that this is actually a problem that the whole of Africa is currently facing.

Also see The Biggest Mistakes That African Filmmakers Make

The continent has a lot of amazing talent and we do see a number of creative filmmakers that are rising to make their mark in the global sphere. However, I also feel that we are still lacking in various areas and the concept of “filmmaking business” is still quite foreign to most of us. One of the biggest mistake that is made by most people, especially training institutions, is concentration too much on the technical side of things and neglecting the non-technical areas such as writing, production design, etc. I am a recent film graduate myself and after interacting with a few other graduates, one of the things I have noticed is that most lecturers will focus so much time on getting their students to master the skills of camera work, lighting, sound, and editing than all the other aspects of filmmaking. It’s as though they still feel that is what defines a filmmaker and assume that writing should just come naturally (what could be so hard about telling a story, right?). Wrong! There is a certain technical and creative skill that goes into screenwriting. When I was in film school, we only had two semesters that had screenwriting modules in all our three years of study, which is not nearly enough if you want to graduate to become a professional writer. Bare in mind that in those two semesters, writing is not the only thing you are concentrating on as you have to juggle a number of production assignments, so you only write just to meet the bare minimum standard in order to  get a decent mark. This is also what has lead me to believe that if you truly want to major in screenwriting, attending film school and taking up an entire film course might not be the best option. I would rather have you enroll for a screenwriting degree instead and focus on honing your skill right from the start. Even though there are some great writers internationally that have come out of film schools, it is not everyone that can cut through the clutter. You may also note though that there aren’t that many options for individuals that want to study towards screenwriting degrees in Africa, which is where our governments and training institutions make a mistake again. There needs to be more concentrated studies focusing on screenwriting and creative writing; or we can run the risk to continue having bad and poor writers getting filtered into the industry year after year.

I can already imagine you shaking in your boots and probably throwing in the towel; thinking to yourself, “that’s it! I don’t stand a chance”. Again, you’re wrong. You do stand a chance of becoming a great writer as long as you know what to do (which I’m about to share with you just now) and are willing to put in the time and effort.

First things first, you need to have passion; lots of it. Writers have various reasons why they write. Some may write because it is a way of expressing themselves or they have certain fantasies that they want to bring to life; any strong drive that will always lead them to put pen to paper (or fingers to keypad, whatever). Great writers would rather do nothing else but write. They will wake up in the middle of the nigh and write, hide away during the day so they write without any disturbances or even sleep for two weeks straight because they have been up for a whole 6 months doing nothing but writing. They absolutely love it and are driven each day to become better. It’s like an obsession. Many of the best writers we know today didn’t become great overnight. It probably took them years to get to where they are yet they never stopped because it was what they wanted with all that’s within them. If you do not have that much passion and ambition as a writer, then maybe writing is not exactly what you want to spend your entire life doing. You will certainly not survive once you start hating it (because believe me, at some point the line between love and hate becomes very solid in this kind of profession).

I always say that writing is a skill that you are born with, however, how successful you get to become through its use is highly determined by how well you hone it. I said it in how to sell your screenplay and I will say it again, write write write!!! The more you write, the better you become at it. If you want to become the best writer you can be, you have to be constantly writing (now you know why I discouraged you from attending film school and suggested that you take up a writing degree instead). Make writing a priority. Let it be the one thing you do the most in life. Go out and find inspiration; every writer finds it differently, figure out your way. You can never be too busy to write when you want to be a successful writer because you are too busy writing. Successful writers are very disciplined. Set goals for yourself; number of hours, number of pages, or number of scenes. Even when writers block hits, don’t give up, find your way of writing through it. The difference between great writers and average writers is that great writers never stop writing, and that is how their work keeps becoming greater.

Great writers also value excellence. I have noticed how most young African writers do not pay much attention to the quality of their work. They don’t care to make sure that the material they produce is up to international standards. I feel like while we have been too busy fighting to create the “authentic African” filmmaking legacy, we forgot about excellence. I can literally show you so many writers that don’t even follow the simple standard format of writing a screenplay and yet expect to compete in the global spectrum. If you are still typing your script on Microsoft Word then you are not serious. Successful writers pride themselves in being better than the rest and that is how they have come to the top. Their reputation means a lot to them and therefore they cannot allow even a simple thing as a typo let alone missing headings or scene numbers to ruin the quality of their work. It doesn’t matter how African your story may be, at first glance your work should at least look exactly like any script that would be produced by a Hollywood screenwriter. Read scripts from other established writers and compare them to yours. Read screenwriting books. Make sure that the quality of your work is nothing of sub-par standard.

One of the most irritating things about African writers is how they have all literally become like one person. They write about the same thing, in the same way and even at the same time. Like we can now predict without hesitation how a production will go within the first two minutes that it is on screen, most probably because we have seen something exactly like it too many times before. Let your work be unique. Come up with different ideas. If you feel that a subject that has been tackled before can still use your touch, make sure that it is from a different angle. Forget about trends. I know a lot of times writers are encouraged to follow trends and give audiences “what they want”. But audiences cannot want what they don’t know. Be the first to show them the unknown and make them want it. Evoke their feelings and connect with them emotionally. Make them laugh, cry, get angry, excited, think, etc. That is the trick of great screenwriting; when a viewer can resonate with your work in some way. This can be best achieved when you write about what excites you, not what the marketplace dictates for you to write.

Lastly, play by rules of the game. Yes, I know I just said you need to be unique and come up with different ideas, but you cannot be totally out of touch with what the rest of the world is up to. Nothing eeks me like a screenwriter or filmmaker that has absolutely no idea where anything currently stands in the industry, locally or internationally. Read other writers’ works, watch as much productions as you can and stay updated with the latest industry news. This will give you relevant inspiration to do your job better that anyone else while keeping up with the new age. You will also learn how the system works and therefore will be in a better position to know what your next best move should be, on both a local and international level.

Get in the right headspace, develop the right attitude and adapt the relevant behavior to be the great writer you want to be. I cannot emphasize it enough how it will NOT be easy, but with patience, persistence and passion you will get there. Screenwriting is not for the faint hearted and I hope you will be really sure that is what you want to do with your life before you embark on this journey. You will be rejected, discouraged or even used before you can make it. However, the trick is to never give up and keep writing!

Have anything to say? Comment below

TV REVIEW: Umlilo S03E04 Recap

We opened up this week’s episode with a scene of Mnqobi struggling through a bad dream. He is talking in his sleep. Could his troubles be finally catching up to him? Yes, we have all seen how Mnqobi wants to leave his dodgy past behind and start on a clean slate, which has proved to be quite difficult for him to do; and now the question is could he finally be succumbing to the guilt of all his sins? He goes to visit Cebsile’s grave perhaps in search of peace. We have seen him consult with his dead wife quite a number of times when he was in a tight corner before. It is quite saddening though how the writers have stripped Mqobi’s character into an overly vulnerable and almost weak man. It is a habit that most of these African productions seem to have in common. One minute a man is the most feared villain and the next he is the biggest woos there is.

Mnqobi gives quite a dramatic reaction when he hears on the news that Thembi wasn’t killed by the bomb he had planted in the car. It is even more intriguing that he went on to celebrate like that in front of Andile; not worrying that it might raise questions with her. He then asks her to have dinner with him. While we know how much of a family man Mnqobi is, and how much he loves his children, it is also no secret that he and Andile are not that close. So it was very interesting to watch them reconnect in this episode. He tries to bribe an administrator to give him Thembi’s address (which I thought was quite a funny encounter) but the officer will not have any of the corruption behaviour. So he decides to follow Vuyo home and stalks his house, waiting for him to leave so he can go in to see Thembi. He is caught by Vuyo who comes back for his forgotten briefcase and finds the two in the middle of their confrontation. While Thembi covers for Mnqobi (which I also find interesting that even though they are sworn enemies, Thembi and Mnqobi will still protect each other from other people. It is like they would rather kill each other than have other people attack them), Vuyo is obviously not happy about this and Thembi teases him of being jealous. She herself feels threatened by Mnqobi though as she quickly makes a call to a PI as soon as Vuyo leaves. Is she looking for more dirt on Mnqobi, is she trying to ensure that he doesn’t catch her off guard again or is it an assassination plan? 

Andile receives a text from Zuko inviting her out for dinner, but she declines and says she would explain later (and we assume that it is because she had agreed to dinner with her father). It is to the shock of her life (not so much to ours, I never trusted that man from day one) that she busts him making out with another girl in his office. I liked how she didn’t just run off crying like we are used to seeing these kind of scenes play out a lot of the time. She confronted the two, with the girl just walking off and not paying mind to Andile’s name calling tactics. The nerve that Zuko had to go on and make excuses after being caught red handed like that just had me seriously baffled. Later when the two bump into each other on campus, Zuko informs Andile that he broke things off with the girl, she doesn’t seem to believe him (neither do I) and compares him to his polygamist father. However, she is not that harsh in punishing him as the two go on to have an interesting discussion about polygamy. She doesn’t take him back but she certainly seems to be softening up rather too easily. This makes me wonder that could growing up in a polygamous family have led her to consider taking into a polygamous relationship herself. She talked a bit negatively about it in this episode but didn’t seem to be totally against it either.

Dumile pays a visit to Palesa Thlali’s office. She tries to get information on Mnqobi and the case, but Palesa is professional enough to respect the confidentiality promise she made to Mnqobi. The two however, go on to have a nice long chat about the Simelane family and Dumile’s lack of children with Mnqobi (which seems to be a touchy subject for Dumile). They are interrupted by Palesa’s assistant, Brenda, who reminds her that she has a court appearance. Palesa is dressed casual and borrows Dumile’s formal jacket. The two suddenly get into a heated friendship with hook up drinks and home cooked dinner dates. They let each other into their lives and share so many stories about themselves. I found it quite strange but Palesa has continued to proved to be way different than I first thought her out to be when she debuted on the show. Her impromptu liking to Dumile made me question if it was her way to get into Mnqobi’s polygamy (she and Mnqobi have seemed to be getting close in previous episodes) or was she trying to dig for some kind of information? I never, however, expected her to be lesbian as we eventually find out. Dumile walks into Palesa’s office and finds her making out with her assistant Brenda. Now this has gotten me very suspicious of their friendship. So was Palesa really just interested in making a genuine friend out of Dumile or should we expect a love affair to get started between the two? From Mnqobi to Spikiri to Palesa (plus the college sweetheart we have heard her telling Palesa about), is Dumile even capable of holding on to a romantic relationship for long enough?

Mnqobi continues in his quest to “do things right”. He pays a visit to his cousin Mthandeni to ask him not to kill Spikiri as he had ordered before. He then requests him to organize a cleansing ritual to cleanse him of all his current bad luck. Mthandeni walks into this with his own motives. He tells the sangoma that he is not pleased with how Mnqobi has turned out and would like to have him go back to his old self. The sangoma gives Mnqobi a baboon’s hand and a gun, saying no one would be able to dodge a bullet from it. Mnqobi goes to see Thembi with the intention to kill her (so much for a man trying to change), but is stopped in his tracks when Thembi tells him that she has his daughter Phindile, who is away at boarding school, watched and the killer is under strict orders to rape and kill her if he does not hear from Thembi every two hours (this answers our questions about the call she made earlier). Mnqobi is now desperate to get to Phindile before anything happens to her and take her back home. 

The games are only just beginning for Mnqobi and Thembi, and I cannot wait to see where Palesa’s story goes from here.

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