SOUTH AFRICAN FILMMAKING

Hoofmeisie

The story
HOOFMEISIE is a hilarious and honest family comedy about four primary school girls who, under their dominating mothers, go to extremes to be elected as the head girl of Laerskool Stumbo Pops.
Nadia van Heerden (12) is a loving and motivated orphan with an ambitious dream - to become the head girl of her school. Her hard work, however, is sabotaged time and again by the tomboy Hetwieg, the sly Susan and Nadia's best friend, Melissa - all of whom are also competing for the title. Disregarding the advice of her cynical grandmother, Nadia goes all out to win the coveted bronze badge. Nadia is convinced that becoming the head girl would have made her late parents very proud of her. Nadia quickly achieves success when she wins the debating competition, but disappointing failures in netball try-outs, entrepreneurial day and academics signify only the beginning of her problems. When she becomes convinced that her best friend, Melissa, is conspiring against her, Nadia turns on everybody who cares for her. She becomes a self-centred brat who will do anything to become head girl. The tension between the children reaches its climax at the Prefect Camp, when all rules are tossed out the window - to the bitter humiliation of the headmaster, Mr Gouws. He finds out on the prize giving evening that the competition is not limited to the girls and experiences first-hand the compulsive and obsessive behaviour of their mothers to ensure that their daughter wins the title. Eventually Nadia and her new friends learn that a true leader leads from behind and is an example of honesty and selflessness. The mothers, however, are another story…

Screenwriter
After matriculating in 2002 at Marais Viljoen High School, Samuel Arthur Ferreira studied drama at the Tshwane University of Technology. Whilst studying Ferreira starred in several stage plays including Chase me up Farndale Avenue, Our Country's Good and A Midsummer Night's Dream. He has also performed at Aardklop Arts Festival, sharing the stage with mime artist John Jacobs in his production Le Regard sur la Vie.
In 2005 Ferreira completed his National Diploma in drama specializing in Scriptwriting and Children's Theatre. The same year he received the Pretorium Trust Award for top drama student. Ferreira continued his studies in drama completing his Baccalaureus Technologiae specializing in Directing and Scriptwriting. The following year he formed part of the first group of students on the continent of Africa to potentially complete their Magister Technologiae in Scriptwriting. In February 2010 Ferreira was the first of this group, and so far only, to obtain a Magister Technologiae degree in Scriptwriting for the stage. He now owns if.studios, a drama school situated in Alberton.

Director
Born in 1982, Morné du Toit  grew up in Randburg, Johannesburg, where he also matriculated in 2000. After living and working in England for two and a half years, Morné returned to South Africa to study Motion Picture Production at the film school of Tshwane University of Technology. Here he completed his four year BA Honours degree, majoring in writing and directing for screen. After scooping up all the awards (director, writer, best picture, and best academic student) for the last two consecutive years of his studies, Morné graduated cum laude in 2007.
During his time as a student, Morné launched his acting career in numerous TV commercials, short films and feature films (All Gold 36'ss, Sony Playstation, Sprite, Standard Bank, Vodacom, Footskating 101, Spaarwiel, George, etc.). Being a strong believer in identifying, embracing and exploring his talents, Morné discovered the ability to react as an actor from a young age. This talent helped him to pay his way through film school and increases his potential when working with actors as a director/-writer. As an actor, Morné's most valuable characteristic is his effortless comic timing and broad character range. He has a great ear for accents. He recently jumped into the prankster's shoes, in the latest candid camera film on South African screens, Ek Joke Net, in theatres June 2011.
After his 2005 short film as director, Employee of the Month, his first commissioned short film as writer/director was the TUT award-winning film Spaarwiel (MNet 2006), after which he wrote and directed the multiple award winning, darkly humorous M-Net EDIT short film; Andre Metstrepie (18min) M-Net 2007. In 2007 Morné officially started his career as a freelance filmmaker. His destined path crossed with The Film Factory, when he was offered the job of 1st Assistant Director on the box office hit feature film, Bakgat! Through The Film Factory Morné did the majority of his work as a young professional writer, director and editor. In 2008 Morné wrote, directed and produced an independent short film titled: The Crazy Fight Beast Song.
To date Morné has conceptualized, directed and edited many music videos for artists like Glaskas, Ray Dylan and Revolusie. He has directed and edited promotional videos for famous brands such as Nike, Clover, aKing (FHM), Score, Mama Afrika Tikkun and REDKEN SA Fashion Week. He worked as Assistant Editor on Leon Schuster's Shucks Tshabalala's Survival Guide to South Africa. He has directed short films and been AD and 2nd Unit director on feature films. For Red Pepper Productions Morné has directed over 20 inserts for shows like Frenz-y, Craz-e, Sistahood and Shiz-Niz. For Homebrew Films Morné directs inserts for the magazine show: All Access. Amongst many other writing projects, Morne's most recent screenplays have been feature length: Lucky's Numbers - a romantic comedy that plays off in Soweto. (Working title): An Afrikaans 'all ages' detective/superhero genre film, based on a popular 1980's TV series, in development. In April/May 2011 Morné made his feature film directing debut with Hoofmeisie, an Afrikaans family comedy, produced by The Film Factory which will be released nationwide on 16 December 2011.
Morné is a born performer and artist. Acting, observing and telling stories is his life.

A note from director Morné du Toit 
I've always wondered what the big deal about "Head Boy" and "Head Girl" at school was, and whether it is still such an obsession today?
In February 2011 I was busy filming on Ek Joke Net - The Film Factory's first candid camera film where I, as an actor, received my share of shoves and smacks, especially in Tekkie Town Boksburg. Henk Pretorius showed up on set one day with a 90-page document. The cover page read: Hoofmeisie, by Samuel Ferreira.
By this time I had heard of the script, but on this day the story was ready to be read. Henk's words to me were: "Read it and let me know what you think. The comedy in your short films and recent music videos is strong and if you're interested we'd like you to pitch for the direction on this movie. It's very funny with a lot of heart and has the potential to become a huge film!" I could have kissed him!
My experience when reading the Hoofmeisie script was like a Tolla van der Merwe joke - it becomes more captivating, colourful and addictive the further the story is told. I kept saying to myself that this was my cup of tea. I had to make this film!
Long story short, I pitched, and pitched again and before I could say "Smile, you're on candid camera", I was pulled from the Ek Joke Net set and in front of the laptop screen with the planning and storyboard sketches for Hoofmeisie.
My first big obstacle was to find believable young actors to play these interesting roles. Because most of the main roles were children between 11 and 13 years, it was important to me to find young actors who can act naturally and not "try" to act. With the help of the Casting Director, Lelia Etsebeth, we auditioned almost 250 children and eventually decided on the five perfect actors: Mish'a el de Beer, Ruan Wessels, Annemicke Kotze, Jamie Lawrence and Melissa Massyn. It was as if they had been sent to jump into the characters of Hoofmeisie.
Eight weeks later I shouted "action" and "cut" in hilarious and heart-breaking scenes, with our country's freshest young talent playing opposite legends like Lida Botha, Marie Pentz, Hannes Muller and Karin Fourie…I had to pinch myself continuously.
There were new obstacles to face every day, but nothing stood in the way of fun on set. I think everybody felt like children again. We had the privilege to tell a story about a bunch of adults and children attempting to get their hands on that coveted bronze badge, who would do anything it takes.
I'm really looking forward to laughing about the antics of the characters with everybody who will be watching this film… and yes, apparently it's still an obsession in schools today.

South African Filmmaking

Home