Isibaya
It takes days’ of work for minutes of screentime on Isibaya.
Isibaya Weekdays Mzansi Magic (*161) 20:30
Every weekday at 20:30, viewers tune in to Mzansi Magic (*161) to see the drama unfold on soapie Isibaya (2013- current). The 30-minute episodes are jam-packed with action, excitement and tragedy but the amount of work that goes into producing an episode is a lot longer and more complex – days are spent in front of computers and digital equipment making sure that sound is synced, the video quality is perfect and that the episode flows. tvplus was on the set earlier this year for the scene where star- crossed lovers Zama and Jabu (Linda Mtoba and Pallance Dladla) were hunted down by the Ngwenya family and it took weeks of planning and days of filming to get right. Here are some of the trade secrets we learnt…
PROPS SO REAL
The Ngwenyas don’t do things in halfmeasure and never back away from a fight with the Zungus, so the scenes had to have guns. Real guns, as it turns out. Gun specialist Tim Killshaw from prop company Hire Arms trained the actors and says that “the guns are real, working AK- 47s and Uzis. The barrels
have to have a fully restrictive system in place to allow the blanks to work”.
EXTRA EXTRA
The Ngwenyas brought a violent mob for the clash to take down the Zungu homestead. Isibaya brought in a number of extras who were on location at 06:00 on the day of the shoot, which lasted well into the afternoon. They were given gun tips from Tim, as well as coaching from director Adze Ugah on how to behave like an unruly mob.
MAKE IT UP
Each character had to look the part and that doesn’t just mean clothingwise. There were also gun wounds and blood – Zungu taxi driver Fezile (Andile Mza-kaza) had loads of special effects and prosthesis added for the close-ups and the make-up artists got tips from real-life bodyguards who know what real gun wounds look like.
DRONE ABOVE
The scene only lasted about 10 minutes onscreen but it was vital to drive home how much power the Ngwenya family have. Isibaya hired a drone camera for the day that gave high-def overhead footage, adding to the drama of the confrontation. The drone isn’t just a cheap tool either – the licence to operate them costs hundreds of thousands of rands and the operator charges a fixed hourly rate that’s as scary as the gunfight the drone was capturing. The overhead shots give viewers an added look at the valley where the show is set – the location was in Soweto, not KwaZulu-Natal as the soap would have us believe. And yes, drone pilots have to go to flight school and earn a licence – those drones could cause serious injury should they fall on someone.