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CONTENT IS KING FOR COLLECTIVE DREAM GENERAL INDUSTRY
Rudy, Danie and Sean
The Callsheet met with the three men behind Collective Dream to discuss the future of the studios and the company’s plans going forward.
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HE men behind Collective Dream, the company that bought the facilities that housed Waterfront Studios, are director Sean Else, his father-in-law, PE businessman, Danie Halgryn, and actor brother-in-law Rudy Halgryn. Sean started Mozi Records in 2005. He discovered and signed some of the biggest names in the Afrikaans music industry, including Bok van Blerk and Lianni May. Sean directed 2011 blockbuster Platteland, which was financed and co-produced by Collective Dream. The company is run with Sean as creative director, Danie as the CFO and Rudy, who will act as the company’s international director. The trio hit the ground running: in addition to two commercials, cleaning out the studios, strategising for the future and moving their lives and families to Cape Town, they also have two more feature films in pre-production. Danie explains that it was not their intention to buy the former Waterfront Studios, “We
were going to build something like this in Pretoria, and we decided we wanted to do our own post. We don’t want to have to deal with anyone else’s time schedules, so we decided to set up our own studio. It was at this time someone told us about Waterfront Studios, revealing that the company’s a business rescue, and suggesting we come and have a look at their facility as there might be equipment, or stuff for us to buy. When we ar-
rived we looked at it and we thought, ‘but we could actually turn this company around’. We decided there and then to buy it free of any sort of governances or liens, so we bought the equipment and then we rerented the facility.” Rudy adds that they re-appointed staff after an extensive interviewing process. Sean believes that having contented, productive staff on board is important to them. Since making their success-
ful bid for Waterfront Studios on 23 December 2011, Collective Dream has been hard at work. They have already upgraded three Flames to the latest 2012 software and are now in the process of acquiring a Baselight. They have also been busy with the actual studios. They started work at on 3 January 2012. Sean said: “The big thing for us was to settle in quickly. The immediate need was to clean house. The studios were in a mess, so we started
working out logistics for fixing it - half of Studio 2 was a storeroom, so we’ve created space for a technical workshop and a workshop for building sets and storing lights, to make it more functional and cleaner.” They have also had an architect in about a redesign of the building, as they look to create a space that reflects the company’s vision. Rudy added: “We did a massive Cadbury’s commercial in the first week of January. The clients are still coming to us with commercials and we’re able to facilitate that. We’ve just finished another commercial.” Sean explained that they are open to doing work across a variety of genres, saying: “The name Collective Dream is not just about making features, post, sitcoms or soaps; the space lends itself to what you want to create in it. It’s nice for us to have this facility with the post in place, with three great stages, and in a great location. With the artists we have over here and the potential anyone can come in here. With future media, we’re going to see more and more productions and channels springing up. Everything starts as an idea, and here we will be able to see that through from idea to end product.” Continued on page 16