Roberta Durrant, a showrunner at Penguin Films, has received her second Lifetime Achievement Award at the Silwerskermfees Awards for Film and TV.
Actor and director Jody Abrahams and multi-award-winning actress, singer and playwright Thembi Mtshali-Jones handed the award to Durrant.
Roberta created shows that many South Africans grew up on, such as “Madam & Eve”, “Stokvel”, “Ring of Lies”, “Sgudi 'Snaysi", and “Fishy Feshuns" to name a few.
She has two telenovelas on screens at the moment: “Skemergrond” and “Diepe Waters” and “Mince Jou Hare”, which is currently streaming on Showmax.
Durrant tells IOL Entertainment that she was “surprised” to receive her second Lifetime Achievement Award after receiving her first one from the National Film and Video Foundation of South Africa for her contribution to training and transformation in the industry.
“This one came from kykNET and I've been, in the last sort of six years, seven years, maybe the last eight years working being based in Cape Town working a lot for kykNET and kykNET & kie - with ‘Arendsvlei’, ‘Diepe Waters’ and ‘Skemergond’.
“I think also they took into consideration what I'd done before which was very kind. I was very surprised and obviously hugely honoured and I want to thank kykNET and Multichoice, it was a great honour.”
The last episode of kykNET’s “Arendsvlei” aired this year. The telenovela was only meant to air for one season but went up to six seasons, following the trend of more telenovelas going off screens.
Durrant was the showrunner and creative producer all six seasons for the Penguin Films produced telenovela.
When it comes to the South African TV landscape it does appear that shorter formats of shows are being consumed by viewers as opposed to long-running formats. Durrant shared her views of the exciting space.
“Showmax is commissioning more limited series and their telenovelas that they are commissioning are more like 45 episodes or 90 episodes and then really weighing up at the end whether they come back with the season two.
“I think that's all about popularity but it also is all about keeping it fresh. It’s supposedly a younger audience looking for something new, a new story.
“I can understand the strategy there, although I think it's a balancing act because if something is hugely popular then it makes sense to bring it back.
“But telenovelas are long dramas that have an end and also the difference between telenovela and soap is that it's designed to go on and on.”
Durrant explained that some telenovelas have developed into soaps but soaps traditionally are all studio based whereas telenovelas are happening in the studio but also on location.
“It's sort of a 60-40 split or a 50-50 split.
“It is also difficult to sustain the pace of like six episodes a week if you're shooting on location as well because you shoot less when you're on location than if you are in the studio.”
Local content is currently booming as audiences have a wide range of shows to resonate with. Local streamer Showmax is filled with original’s that are telling South African stories and produced by local production houses.
Throughout her career, Durrant has been telling stories that South Africans can relate to and are authentic, helping preserve cultures and heritage through storytelling.
“I think that Showmax is doing well because they are offering this local content and I think they're offering authentic local content too. Stories that are generated from South African stories and different cultures and different parts of South Africa as well.
“I think that we have to get away from repeating formats, because at the end of the day, I don't think the repetition of international formats and adapting them to this space is necessarily going to draw the audiences.
“I think the creation of original stories is what is going to read well and be well received on air. There's a difference when something is conceptualised by the people who live those lives.”
In September, the National Film and Video Foundation, released the nominations for the 18th Annual South African Film and Television Awards (SAFTAs18).
“Diepe Water” has received three nominations; Best Achievement in Directing, Most Popular TV Soap or Telenovela and Best Achievement in Sound - Telenovela.
Durrant is happy with the nominations that “Diepe Waters” has received but is sad over the fact that since the telenovela started none of their actors have been nominated but also described the list as being ‘fair”.
“I think it is sad because we have brilliant actors and we really have wonderful actors, especially with our leads.”
Having co-chaired two judging panels, Durrant understands all that goes into putting together the nominations list that celebrates the South African film and television talent productions and filmmakers.
She stresses that it’s important that judges are strict about the rules. “I think from the Saftas' point of view, it's very important to get a very good mix of people on those panels.
And I think they do their best to do that, it's not like they don't do their best. But I think that one has to be very strict about having a good mix of people on all the panels. Secondly, you have to be strict about the rules.”
As the South African entertainment industry continues to grow and more stories need to be told Durrant and the team at Penguin do train and up-skill the next generation.
Roxanne Blaise began as trainee director on “Arendsvlei” and then she moved to being the head director. Bobby Stuurman, Jarrid Geduld and Roberto Kyle are just some of the talent that has been mentored and doing well.
“Training is an ongoing thing and I mean we have to because in a way with all this potential of content, we need people to execute the content and in fact we need more directors.
“The interesting part of this is you can be an auteur writer, director of a film and make a brilliant film but can you direct a telenovela?
“It's a very different kettle of fish where you've got five weeks to shoot one and a half hours now all of a sudden you must shoot 20 pages a day with two cameras or 15 pages a day on location, minimum 17 in studio.
“That's a discipline and just because you've directed a movie doesn't mean you can step in and do that job. These are all different genres and all need their own training and development and it takes time.
“I'm a firm believer in the concept of doing your 10 000 hours you know to be able to be an expert at something.”
IOL Entertainment