Local cinematographer beats world to Hollywood award
FORTY-EIGHT hours to plan, shoot and edit a movie – certainly a challenge, but not an impossibility for Cape Town cameraman Wayne de Lange.
De Lange and his team did their job so well last year that their film Threadwon the best cinematography award at Filmapalooza 2015 in Los Angeles, US, recently.
The event honours the best short films made in 48 hours from the previous year.
Thread, produced by Best Light Films and Silver Bullet Productions, won 11 trophies at the Cape Town 48-hour film project awards last November.
The movie runs for seven minutes and 52 seconds, and portrays the story of a mother-daughter relationship under strain in the wake of the death of a family member.
In Hollywood, the camera work for the film outshone productions from more than 100 cities worldwide.
“We were happy about our prizes on a local basis, but this one is special,” said De Lange, who is also the owner of Silver Bullet Productions.
He grew up in Jeffreys Bay and learnt the ropes behind the camera at the age of 16, filming surfers. Soon, he got into the water to shoot surf footage up close – which was the start of his career as a sought-after water cinematographer.
In 2010, he directed the water photography for Universal Pictures’ surf movie Blue Crush 2.
Due to work commitments, the cinematographer was not able to attend the awards gala. Thread director Diana Keam accepted the trophy on his behalf.
“I got an e-mail the day before saying that our film did not make it on to the shortlist.
“So I was really surprised when Diana called me in the middle of the night and told me that I had won,” said De Lange.