Film fixers in Africa: production services on the ground

Cape Town is one of the great commercial shooting cities of the world. Between October and April the light is long and reliable, the city and the Western Cape can double for California, the Mediterranean, the Alps and the English countryside within an hour's drive, and the crew base has served international productions for thirty years. Johannesburg has the studios, the larger stages and the television industry. South Africa's rebate pays 25 percent, with a conditional 2.5 to 5 percent uplift, on a minimum spend of ZAR 15 million, and our fixers manage the application through the Department of Trade, Industry and Competition and the National Film and Video Foundation.

The South African crew market is unionised, English-speaking and deep enough that a feature film, a TV series and several commercials can shoot in Cape Town on the same week without competing for the same gaffer. Equipment houses in Cape Town and Johannesburg carry the same cameras, lenses and lighting you would find in London or Los Angeles. Our producers there handle documentary, branded content and commercials, and they coordinate productions that move north from South Africa into Namibia, Botswana, Mozambique and beyond.

The producers, directors and crews our South Africa production company works with have credits on international features, series and commercials, and the production services they provide, from development and pre-production through the shoot to post-production and delivery, are the same ones a Los Angeles or London production company would expect. That is the reason South Africa anchors our African film production, and why most foreign productions on the continent start there.

The reason South Africa carries so much of the continent's international work is that it is a complete production market, not only a location. Cape Town and Johannesburg have equipment rental houses stocking the same cameras, lenses, grip and lighting as London or Los Angeles, with rental rates that are usually lower, and our fixers hold accounts with them so that quotes are transparent and gear is confirmed early. Post-production is equally mature: offline and online editing, colour grading, sound and visual effects are all available at international standard, and a production can shoot and finish in the country if it wants to keep the rebate working on post as well as on the shoot.

Our production services in South Africa run from a single producer or location scout for a small documentary crew through to a full production company structure that carries payroll, insurance and the rebate application for a feature film or a series. Casting, with a deep pool of professional actors and presenters in both cities, is handled by our fixers with the local agencies. Transport, accommodation and catering for crews of any size are routine. For productions that arrive in Cape Town and then move north into Namibia or east into Mozambique, the same producer stays with the project and hands over to our partners in each country.

Morocco has been Hollywood's desert since Lawrence of Arabia, and Ouarzazate's studios, the Atlas Mountains, Marrakech and the Sahara remain the first call for Middle Eastern, biblical and North African settings. The Moroccan rebate pays 30 percent on eligible costs with a minimum spend of MAD 10 million, and the Moroccan Cinematographic Centre issues permits efficiently to productions with a registered local partner. Our Morocco fixers have produced commercials and brand films here, including motorcycle and automotive work in the Atlas and the desert.

Egypt offers the Nile, Cairo, the Red Sea and antiquities that no set can replace, with a permit process that runs through the Ministry of Culture and the security services and needs an experienced local producer. Tunisia has desert, Roman ruins and Mediterranean coast at lower cost than either neighbour, and a film commission actively courting foreign shoots. In all three, our fixers handle the government liaison, the crew, the equipment and the transport, and keep the schedule realistic about how long each step takes.

Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania are where wildlife, landscape and human stories meet, and our work in East Africa has been documentary and brand film for organisations working in the region. Our Kampala office manages permits with the national film boards and the wildlife services, arranges fixers and drivers in the field, and handles the practical side of filming people and communities with the consent and the paperwork that broadcasters require. Kenya's Film Commission licenses every foreign shoot and we apply on your behalf; the Seychelles, Madagascar and the Indian Ocean coast we cover from the same base.

Permits and filming licences, government and police liaison, local crew and equipment, drivers and transport, accommodation, casting and translation, wildlife and location access, and a producer who understands the difference between a schedule that looks good in London and one that works in the field. We work for production companies, broadcasters and agencies on documentary, commercial, television and branded content, and quote with local costs as separate lines. Our fixers in Africa have been working on the continent for well over a decade, and the projects below show the range.

The projects our fixers in Africa work on fall into three groups. Documentaries and factual series for international broadcasters, where the fixer's job is access, permits, security planning and the consent paperwork that filming people and communities requires. Commercials and branded content for agencies and brands, where South Africa and Morocco's crews and light do the work, and our fixers handle casting, locations and the production company structure the rebate needs. And brand films and corporate work for organisations operating on the continent, from health and development programmes to automotive and tourism, which is where much of our East African work has come from.

Across all three, the standard is the one we apply everywhere: the local side of the shoot should feel as reliable in Kampala or Marrakech as it does at home. That takes experienced local producers, honest schedules and a producer who stays with you from the brief to the final delivery. Our film fixers in Africa do exactly that, and the projects below show the range of what they have produced.

African cinema itself is part of why the continent works for international productions. South Africa, Nigeria, Egypt, Kenya and Senegal have directors, producers and editors with international credits, film schools and training programmes that feed the crew base, and distribution that now reaches global streamers. The directors and producers our fixers work with come out of that industry, and the production company structures they run are the ones the rebates and the broadcasters require. For a foreign production that means experienced local directors of photography, editors and producers, post-production at international standard, and a creative partner rather than a service desk.