We have our finalists

In our quest to produce South Africa’s next fearlessly authentic music video, the Jameson INDIE Channel put out an unprecedented call to the local filmmaking and music community: send us your concept for a video, and we’ll provide R100 000 in production funding to bring the boldest, most creative idea to life.

Within a few weeks we had amassed a total of more than 150 entries, comprising a track, treatment, and visual mood board. The effort that went in to preparing these was truly humbling. Hours of imaginative contemplation, research, meetings, discussions, and revisions clearly accompanied every single proposal.

More noteworthy than the quality of submissions was the diversity. We received proposals from across the country, in English, Afrikaans, Tswana, isiXhosa, isiZulu (and combinations thereof) across the full spectrum of musical genres – from metal to maskhandi. Some ideas were visually delicious, others concerned themselves with telling a story. A few even made us laugh out loud. Sea creatures, twerking tokoloshes, birds of paradise, samurai warriors, mermaids and rollerskating girl gangs all made appearances in the treatments we received.

Though the many hours spent reviewing treatments was loads of fun and truly inspiring, it also led to a great deal of impassioned debate. Choosing five finalists from more than 150 entries turned out to be impossible. We did however arrive at short-list of 12 finalists, all of whom we look forward to meeting next week when they present their treatments in more detail.

So, without any further ado, the finalists for the Jameson INDIE Channel Music Video Grant 2016 are:

INVIZABLE – Dir. Nick Matthews, JC Visser, Roy Zetisky

HAEZER – Dir. Quinton Lavery

CHAMBERS – Dir. Bevan Cullinan

DESMOND AND THE TUTUS – Dir. Shane Durrant

MOONCHILD – Dir. Mpumelelo Mcata

CASS feat. REASON – Dir. BlaQ Smith

MT SEAS – Dir. Jared Hinde

CARD ON SPOKES – Dir. Reinette du Toit

MIKE ZIETSMAN feat. MIKHAELA KRUGER – Dir. Tash Montlake

BETR GANG – Dir. Paul Yates

BYE BENECO – Dir. Ying–Poi De Lacy

LILLY MILLION – Dir. Lilly Million

Good luck to all of these directors and musicians for the final selection phase, and a huge thank you once again to everybody who took the time to get involved.

May the most fearlessly authentic win!