Security guards, pizza delivery men, motorists, a bride, restaurant owners, taxi passengers, businessmen and Kurt Darren 'bites the dust'' in the new candid camera movie Rainbow Skellums.

Well known movie producer Andre Scholtz and his experienced team travelled throughout South Africa to catch a few "victims". TV-cameras were cleverely installed in Johannesburg, Pretoria, Heidelberg, Ventersdorp, Strand, Cape Town, Eersterivier and Gordon's Bay while the three "skellums"", Kevin Ehrenreich, Alexa Strachan and Louw Venter tried to catch their victims.

The "victims" (people on the street) which were caught off guard, are the actual actors in this hilarious candid camera movie.

Corruption, safety, bribery, unleaded petrol, the bad economy, the changing of city names and stolen vehicles - these current problems all come to light in Rainbow Skellums.
The three Skellums constantly had to be on their toes to catch their unsuspecting victims off guard and besides that, also had to try not to annoy the victims too much.
Once the victims realised it was only a joke, they were so relieved that they could only laugh!

There are various funny scenes in the movie. In one scene, for instance, Louw locks up two unsuspected security guards in a factory...and suddenly they hear horrifying noises, explosions...oops!

And what happens when a pizza delivery man has to deliver a pizza at a home where the drunk husband (Louw) and the very pregnant wife (Alexa) argue..and shortly after that the drunk husband leaves and the pregnant wife goes into labour! Now that is what you call stress!

Imagine....you stop at the service station and ask for unleaded petrol...and in the meantime the petrol attendant (Kevin) has filled your car with diesel!

A wedding is usually a festive occasion. The bridegroom is usually on his nerves...but what happens when he lifts the veil and the woman he chose is another woman?

Times are tough and the economy is very bad....in Eersterivier a taxi driver insists every commuter must be weighed before he or she steps into the vehicle. This penalty is required due to the fact that most commuters are overweight and cause extra fuel consumption and additional wear and tear on the tyres. The passengers have to pay R10 for every extra kilogram....

There were so many rumours about aliens from other planets who visited the earth....the residents of Ventersdorp were really shocked when they heard that a space ship landed in the area. Some of the residents decided to observe for themselves....armed with traditional weapons like ''knobkieries". When they reached the spaceship, it was pumping smoke from underneath and there were screeching noises from within....and then the door opened....


Daniel Dercksen shares a few thoughts with filmmaker Andre Scholtz
Producer and director Andre Scholtz knows how to make South Africans laugh.

With the release of Rainbow Skellums, his sixth candid camera film, Scholtz and his three skellums, Kevin Ehrenreich, Alexa Strachan and Louw Venter, travelled throughout South Africa to catch a few "victims" off guard.

In the style of the American series Punked, South Africans were skelmed, with TV-cameras cleverely installed in Johannesburg, Pretoria, Heidelberg, Ventersdorp, Strand, Cape Town, Eersterivier and Gordon's Bay.

Scholtlz makes it clear that Rainbow Skellums is not a South African version of Punked, but an "original South African film."

The father of candid camera in South Africa is Jamie Uys, who has been a major inspiration for Scholtz.

Said Scholtz: "Jamie Uys started candid camera in South Africa  His success  prompted me to  convince Leon Schuster to join me and start  producing Candid genre films The first one being You Must be Joking."

Scholtz first skelmed South Africans in 1985 when he produced Leon Schuster's You Must Be Joking, followed by You Must Be Joking Too, Oh Schucks It's Schuster, Panic Mechanic Millennium Menace and Oh Schucks I'm Gatvol.

Although Rainbow Skellums might not be the best film ever made locally and is strictly for fans only, it is guaranteed to be a hit at the box office.  Since its release in 2004, Oh Schucks I'm Gatvol has made over R23 million at the South African box office.

Scholtz describes Rainbow Skellums as a "realistic funny evaluation of  South African life  today"  and "fun for the whole family."  

"South-Africans want to laugh and relax at the end of the year and forget all their worries and woes."

The seed for Rainbow Skellums was planted last year when Scholtz was commissioned by Ster-Kinekor to work on a candid camera film for Christmas 2010.

Said Scholtz: "The movie tries to include current dilemmas, like bribery, corruption and security, in the different themes."

It questions whether or not South Africans really prepared to pay bribes, how good the security companies we employ to guard our assets are, and how good the vehicle tracking companies are.

In one hilarious scene Kurt Darren 'bites the dust' while he is playing golf with his friends when a vehicle tracking company and the police swoop down on him as the owner of a stolen vehicle.

The majority of the gags in the film are Scholtz' brainchild, with input from his 'skellums'.

Said Scholtz: "Over the years many gags Leon (Schuster) and I devised could not fit into the respective "plots". I kept them on file and found some which I thought would work well in this specific film."

He is referring to is scene that takes a look at the tough times we are living in our current economic crisis.

A Eersterivier taxi driver insists that every commuter must be weighed before he or she steps into the vehicle. This penalty is required due to the fact that most commuters are overweight and cause extra fuel consumption and additional wear and tear on the tyres. The passengers have to pay R10 for every extra kilogram.

In another scene a pizza delivery man has to deliver a pizza at a home where the drunk husband (Louw) and the very pregnant wife (Alexa) argue..and shortly after that the drunk husband leaves and the pregnant wife goes into labour!

The residents of Ventersdorp were really shocked when they heard that a space ship landed in the area. Some of the residents decided to observe for themselves....armed with traditional weapons like ''knobkieries". When they reached the spaceship, it was pumping smoke from underneath and there were screeching noises from within....and then the door opened....

Scholtz  explains that the team did a lot of planning behind the scenes before they started filming.

"The three actors, Kevin, Alexa and Louw, are not so well known by the public and therefore could fool their victims easily. Identification is one of the most important aspects in a script. Every viewer will identify with one or two of the scenes and who he or she would have reacted on it."

"The creation of a scene must not only be unique, but the execution of the scene must also be a big challenge - the cameras must be hidden properly and the sound must be good. The latter was very important because a few scenes rely on dialogue and not only the visual impact. The gag also had to develop in such a way that the victim wouldn't feel too humiliated afterwards and would still give his or her permission to use it in the movie."

Scholtz' career as filmmaker began in 1969 when he joined Sanlam as a trainee manager. After finalising his MBL he was seconded to Kinekor's distribution division and moved into film production during the 70s with Elmo De Witt and later Jan Scholtz,  before teaming up with Schuster in 1984.

The rest is history.

For now, Scholtz is taking it easy, having recently completed an Afrikaans sitcom with Frank Opperman, 'Die uwe Pottie Potgieter', that will be televised by SABC 2 in July 2010.

Scholtz promises that Rainbow Skellums is only the first of many more to come, so South Africans are warned to be on the lookout for unusual encounters of the comedic kind.

"I thrive on the funny part of life," says Scholtz who enjoys laughing at original jokes and pranks.

"I believe the one aspect that does excite me is the fact that one has the opportunity to make a positive contribution to your viewers state of mind  I therefore have a very strong preference for comedy."

Copyright © 2009 Daniel Derksen

PROUDLY SOUTH AFRICAN FILMMAKING

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