Twenty young women between the ages of 12 – 29 attended a Wot-If? Trust and twospinningwheels’ “bootcamp” about Mobile Filmmaking on Saturday, 9 June 2018 inside eHub Diepsloot. Through word-of-mouth as well as a digital (WhatsApp, Facebook and Twitter) campaign, an impressive number of girls and women were attracted to attend the bootcamp. The bootcamp was an introductory measure to create awareness about videography to be able to select additional participants for phase two of Mobile Filmmaking.

Phase one of Mobile Filmmaking took place inside eHub Diepsloot in February 2018 with twospinningwheels’ Founder, Shelley Barry, as the facilitator. Shelley Barry also secured the funding to facilitate phase one from Ford Foundation. Additional funding for refreshments during phase one were secured by The Wot-If? Trust from T&W. From two face-to-face sessions and one month of post-production, the initial Mobile Filmmaking group (which started with ten participants) ended with eight participants who each created five-minute documentaries about their individual perspectives of life or a particular experience. The subject matter of these documentary shorts included albinism, single parenting, dark skin, LGBTIQ+ identification, depression, the positive side of Diepsloot etc…

Fast forward to our content development session on Saturday, 23 June 2018 where a multitude of themes were discussed as possible documentary films to be made during phase two of Mobile Filmmaking. The focus during phase two is more concentrated since the selected sixteen participants will work in teams to produce three documentary shorts. This phase will cover proposal writing, learning how to edit on Final Cut Pro as well as production techniques from other women filmmakers and industry heavyweights such as Sihle Hlophe and Bev Ditsie! The majority of funding for phase two has been secured from the French Civil Society Development Fund. We appeal to potential donors to email gail@wot-if.co.za if there is a possibility of securing the remaining funds for phase two of Mobile Filmmaking.

As an organisation, the Wot-If? Trust seeks to enable these sixteen girls and women to make good quality content that can be showcased on our planned Grassroots Online Media Platform and other platforms (local and international) with a view to assisting the filmmakers to not only tell their stories but also, monetize their content.

To achieve this goal The Wot-If? Trust is further enabling these women filmmakers by plugging them into:

1. The advice given during MTN Group 21 Days of Y’ello Care which specifically covered the following for “The Future of Film and Production”:

• Expose yourself to the film and television industry by interchanging roles to engage with the production value-chain
• Establish if your preference is LIVE content creation or pre-packaged content
• Use online platforms such as forums and tutorials because self-study of theoretical and practical knowledge is crucial
• Learn the language of film (tilting, mid-shot, pan, establishing shot etc…)
• Read fair use policy effective in SA and internationally to understand perimeters of re-using content
• Start with the idea and the script
• 1 minute of content-created is commonly understood as 1 page’s worth of script/dialogue
• MTN Shortz is an existing avenue to monetize content for filmmakers! MTN Shortz is a platform empowering video content creators to showcase their work and earn from it.
• Few resources to use for audio, pre-production planning and/or post-production:
  • Audio Network
  • Audio Jungle
  • LumaFusion (iStore app)
  • Sunseeker (iStore and Google Play Store app)
  • Magic Hour (iStore and Google Play Store app)
  • DJI Drones (requires the purchase of a drone to become applicable)
  • Adobe Premiere Clip (iStore and Google Play Store app)
  • Live: Air (iStore application for multi-cam dashboard)

2. Social Return on Investment (SROI) study that will gather information through questionnaires, group forums and one-on-one interviews to measure:

• Improvement to income generation (including diversification of income)
• Better quality of life
• Productivity Enhancement
• Access to Markets
• Increasing opportunities for women

3. Attending film screenings such as Euro Film Festival, Mzansi Women’s Film Festival and Jozi Film Festival to create awareness and aspirations around commercially viable film content.

Since phase two of Mobile Filmmaking is still in pre-production, we would like to appeal to technology businesses and/or individuals to donate mobile phones, tripods, selfie sticks and microphones to enable the creation of these three documentary shorts and much more practice content