December 3 2024 12:25
Garth Hamilton from HHH Achitects, Azania Muendane from CPFS, James Vos, Tristan Keyte from CPFS, Henry F Herring, and Tlhogi Dube from Unicorn Factory Finance
SOUTH AFRICA
Cape Town is set to have a new film studio. The city announced this week that it had signed a lease for part of a City-owned property in Paardevlei, Somerset West. This is welcome news as the city’s other main studio is the Cape Town Film Studios which is located in Faure which lies 13 km north-west of Strand.
The transaction will pave the way for a R900m film studio development by Cape Point Film Studios (CPFS). The deal follows a site visit by Alderman James Vos, the City’s Mayco Member for Economic Growth.
CPFS plans to upgrade existing buildings to create a cutting-edge studio complex that meets international standards. Plans for future expansions with the development include a dedicated sea and underwater sound stage precinct, promising unique opportunities for filmmakers.
“We thank the City of Cape Town for taking this journey with us because, as practitioners in the film industry, we know first-hand how fast the content and filmmaking industry is developing,” said CPFS director, Henry F Herring.
“The need for more strategic interventions, such as world-class sound stages to service this growth, not only helps filmmakers tell their stories, but also contributes substantially to the sustainable expansion of the film sector with its 1:4 multiplier effect to its value chain, all the while creating more jobs,” he said.
The project has the potential to stimulate Cape Town’s creative economy. According to the latest figures from the South African Cultural Observatory mapping study, the cultural and creative industries contributed R161bn to the country’s GDP.
“This lease carries the potential to create hundreds of jobs, generate almost R1 billion rand in the local economy, and boost tourism to Cape Town,” said Vos.
In August, Property Flash reported that The City of Cape Town’s Film Permit Office had recorded a steady increase in the number of filming permits issued during its 2023/24 financial year. The office is a critical port of call for attracting investment.
The Film Permit Office issued 4 757 film permits across Cape Town between 1 July 2023, and 30 June 2024, which is a 22 % increase on the 3 910 permits issued in the preceding financial year of 2022/23. This double-digit growth suggests that the industry has recovered post-pandemic and is now growing at a rate that enables it to match competing developing markets in eastern Europe, Africa and Asia such as Hungary, Morocco, Turkey and New Zealand.
Permits issued by the City include those for feature films, commercials, TV series, stills photography, documentary films, short films, student projects and music videos. The permit office has also received bookings for more than 9 317 film locations in the same period.
Commercials made up the bulk of the film shoots over the past financial year, with 1 604 permits issued. This was followed by micro shoots, at 962 permits. Commercial adverts dominate film permits globally as they tend to cost less to create and are produced more quickly than feature films.
A review of the office’s statistics showed that commercial shoots made up most productions but there was also an uptick in feature films. Cape Town and its city centre act as popular backdrops for film projects managed by local and international studios.
“The creative economy is one of the top-performing sectors in the city,” said Vos.
alistair@propertyflash.co.za
