Introduce Yourself : From Africa with Love by Glen Eric Huysamer

Good day all, I hope everybody is just doing great. I am from Cape Town and I have been in the Cape Town Film Industry for twenty years. In Cape Town we are very much a service based industry, that needs foreign clients to come here and produce media projects. This is changing slowly though with more home grown projects actually getting off the ground in what is actually the second oldest motion picture industry in the world. That is just a strange fact I picked up along the way. I fell into the film industry through the backdoor really when I managed to find myself a gig driving a truck on a television serious way back in the early nineties called Sinbad. It was basically the very first co-production to happen between South Africa and Canada. And I can truly say that finding the industry at that time really saved my life, my sanity and my perspective on the world. It was a time when we had the collapse of Apartheid and I had left the military for civilian life. So you can imagine the mind blowing experience I had arriving on the set of what to me was a whole new world. On the third day, on my first set, while running around, still being 'orientated' my crewing agent made a turn on set and asked me how I was enjoying it and after a short conversation asked me if I have thought about getting into any particular field. What would I like to specialize in? At that point I decided my long term goal was to develop myself into a writer/producer/director. I remember his response, without batting an eyelid, he told me that I will be in for a long run, twenty years plus. Great!!!?? I also remember his second bit of advice, that once I started writing and developing a project of my own I must ensure that I never put my own capital into it. If you can't sell the project before you start producing it, it won't sell after you have made it. No matter how much you love and dream about successfully doing films understand that the creative side of producing movies is just as important as the business side. Plan cautiously, methodically and successfully to enjoy a vacation in the greatest art form of our time. From this point on I made my way through the field, from runner and became the props truck driver and from there on over the years continued to avail myself to various other designations through many different media projects. Unit, Location Scout, Action Driving, Set Building, Wardrobe, Lighting, Grips, 2nd-3rd-1st Ad, constantly learning all the bits and pieces of production. I have over the years made a moderate success of my 'vocation' in life. The 'film industry' is my vocation, I do not see it as a job or a career, to me it has always been a calling. When I started I had no thought or dream to make films or be part of the industry.(I just loved watching movies, loved it) I was an ex-military guy who had transitioned to long-distance trucking. In those days all movies were made in Hollywood and there was a spattering of a 'film-industry' in South Africa. Mostly through the public broadcaster which was more a propaganda tool for the government to which only the politically connected and vetted rich kids were able to find there way into. It was a very closed industry back in the apartheid days and was never an option for high school leavers back then. It was never even mentioned in career guidance. So I found the industry while it was in a new development stage right after the fall of apartheid. I can also say film making found me and I do not at any time look upon it as a career or a job as I prefer to call it my vocation in life. My trade, my love. I believe that everybody should strive to find their 'vocation' in life, to me, it is part of the secret to finding happiness. When I am on a project I am loving it, no matter what I am doing on any given day. So when the opportunity came along to fill the position of an International Production Chaperone about eight years ago (this is a designation unique to the South African film industry, and is basically a driver/come assistant/p.a./fixer and public relations liaison/guide) between visiting film makers, be they cast, crew, directors or clients, agency, Ceo's of companies in charge of advertising budgets and so on. A designation that I have found enabled me to once again grow. While still basically being a crew member, coming from the technical side and so on, now I was getting insight into the preproduction, production and post production. The position allows you to be in a very hands on situation, always around the heart of the entire project where-by keeping one's eye's wide open, you are able to learn the entire structure, process, understanding and the dynamics of producing successful projects be they film, television or advertising projects. It also pays reasonably well, and gave me enough to become stable financially(although this is always debatable, I mean, how much does one really need to be really stable) All I can say is that I am in a better place today from when I started out. When I started on set I was basically still living out of my military duffel bag living in the back of a horse pulling super-links(road-trains) across South Africa and Southern Africa. So I can really say, without a doubt that the film industry has had a fundamental change in my being. Another good thing while fulfilling my present designation as a international chaperone is that it provides me with enough spare time to chisel away at my own vision to become a producer/director while spending time in the company of all the best creatives in our local industry both locally and visiting, and when I say creatives, I include the crew, who while regarded as technical, are also in their own right creatives. I have worked with the best in our industry, from all over the world. From places as far as China, Korea, Australia, India, Nigeria, Europe, Russian, Scandinavia, USA, Canada, and South America. I have traveled to other countries and can honestly say that I have been blessed in abundance through the many opportunities that have come my way. In my humble position I have met super-star actors, singers, directors, producers, celebrities in sports and business from all over the world. Everyday while on contract is a learning experience, be it on set, in the company of a new p.a or runner student, or in a production office in the heart of Cape Town or driving some well known lead singer from a mega band every single moment I am busy with my vocation I submerge myself further into the my dream of creating my own master piece knowing that I am in the process of doing it. I started developing my first film project, researched and written the screenplay. Yep, my first screenplay. It took me seven years and I registered it a while back, called Emeritus. The story is based on the life of Africa's first Emeritus and I am chiseling away at creating a production that will give the subject matter the attention that it deserves. Emeritus is a look into the life of Emeritus Chris Barnard who amongst other things in his life performed the first heart transplant in Cape Town in 1967. It is an epic story, of how a poor Afrikaner boy came from the obscure central Karroo desert town of Beaufort-west with very limited means to become the most controversial and mysterious surgeon of the last century. His work revolutionized medicine across the world basically lifting surgery into a new age. He could very well be the 'Leonardo da Vinci' of Africa. Why did I choose this project. Well.... it is an important story for Africa in regards to how people perceive our continent as a whole. When the event of the first heart transplant happened in 1967 the world was flabbergasted that this was able to happen in Cape Town which the world outside Africa viewed as the end of Earth(So to speak). The debate raged at the time as to how it was possible. The ethics around the entire operation was brought into huge question, splitting the medical fraternity into two major points of opinion, so much so that nobody has ever gone into the detail that surrounds the life of the Doctor that ventured past the point that ethically prevented others from going. How did he do it, and how did he go from being a country doctor to become an Emeritus. Nobody can answer this mystery. So in an attempt to do this I decided to write an unusual screenplay(my first) that unlocks one of the greatest real stories of Africa, the results of which has benefited all of mankind, written from the sole point of view of the Emeritus Soul of Chris Barnard.(I hope this can be understood) It is my first project, I have started penning two more which I will complete after Emeritus is complete. It is not a small project, it can not be made on a small budget, the picture transcends various decades through the nineties. It involves planes, trains and classic automobiles, operating theaters, CBS, Face the Nation, TWA(Howard Hughes) Presidents, Nations, Churches and highest level politics. The story is about a simple promise that became a universal conspiracy in the search for the soul of man. In the process it changed the 'soul of mankind' a process we are still struggling to come to terms with. A century from now, who knows, we may have achieved what Emeritus Chris Barnard was pointing us towards. The Film Emeritus (Teacher of the Taught) explores the question; how are we Human? I have a big vision for the film Emeritus, it is large and a big dream to be fulfilled. It will need fantastic collaboration, the best talent, a big capital outlay. I am working on bringing it all together. What will I be saying in ten years from now? I can wait to find out. I say, I can wait because I do not want to get there without having enough time to say that Emeritus has been a success.