Imagine being asked to find an Asian person who can create origami with their non dominant hand? Believe it or not, we have been tasked with this project, and we succeeded.
In the last 24 years, we've cast 1000s of international and local commercials that require talent with a broad (and often unique) range of skills. We often see leading telecommunication, beverage and sport brands return to cast in South Africa ahead of major international sporting and World Cup events. This is because in South Africa, we’re deemed the rainbow nation for a reason - we have exceptionally skilled individuals and teams who come from all walks of life.
Because our country has such a diverse pool of talent, we can find people who practice specialised sports or professions with passion and commitment – at a social, professional, or Olympic level. Whether that’s a martial arts expert, stunt performer, high diver, circus performer, figure gamer, card gamer, board gamer, professional actors, model, characterful person, adorable child, real-life family – the list goes on (and on).
Where it can be challenging is to find people who practice a sport or activity that is specific to a certain country (for example, a Japanese Sumo Wrestler or an American Footballer). However, as always, we’re ready to meet the challenge. For example, to find an American Footballer, we had to be creative and collaborate with the relevant sporting bodies to find sportsmen who have the ball skills and the physique of American Football players.
Here are commercials we’ve cast that show our skilled actors in action.
Samsung Defiance
The brief was to find a range of inspiring, competitive sportspeople, each with a physical disability, and prosthetic leg or arm – fast (the project landed on a Friday afternoon, and was shot the following Thursday).
We extended the search for the sportspeople countrywide, and reached out to sports clubs, swimmers, and runners, among others. We asked each individual to send us a self-tape footage. It sounded like a tall order, but with the amazing collaboration of all sorts of people within the sporting world, we did it!
We sent a brief out on the Friday afternoon and followed up with various sports bodies and contacts. We collated all footage we received on the Monday and presented it to our clients. By Tuesday we had confirmed the cast and flights were being booked!
This commercial also required a charismatic young boy dancing in the street near his home. We received more than 100 self-tapes of talented, exuberant boys dancing over that weekend and presented them to our clients. The boy selected for the shoot danced with joy and rhythm, both in his self-tape and on set.
Producer: Peter Sherlock
Production company: Farm Film
Surya Pro Mild - The Chase
This commercial, with the feel of an action film’s high-speed chase, not only required talent with very specific skills, but also required them to have a Pan Asian and Hispanic look. We needed to find a talented skateboarder, drone flyer and parkour artist.
We opened the search countrywide. We also had to take a creative casting approach on this, since not everyone could get to the casting studio. So, we also worked virtually with talent, via self-tapes of each artist doing the relevant skilled activity.
Director: Dick Buckley
Producer: Nadia Boshoff
Production company: Navigator Films
Müllerlight Greek-style
We cast for a series of Müller yoghurt ads that showcased world champion, Olympic, British athletes. Our job was to find the supporting cast and athletes that looked athletically competitive (placed on the same field as the celebrity sportspeople), to create the feel of a real sports event with real competitors for the record-setting lead athletes.
In this commercial, Katerina Johnson-Thompson is seen in an ancient Greek style arena, and the comedy plays off around her with a powerfully built discus thrower and comedic actors. We scouted through sports clubs, sports agents and a broad range of contacts to find the powerfully built discus thrower seen in this story. The audience and king were also Cape Town based actors.
Director: Russell Bates
Producer: Skip Margetts and Candice McKay
Production company: Farm Film
#WhatIReallyReallyWant | Global Goals
An update of the Spice Girls’ Wannabe music video, this commercial showcases women from around the world, highlighting common issues that affect women in different countries.
We were tasked with finding dancers who could represent women from Africa and other countries, to create a unity in this vision that what “we really really want” is a world where all women are safe and empowered.
Producer: Kate Murray and Kabelo Seane
Production company: Farm Film
ŻYWIEC : EQUITY
We cast for stunt performers happy to sit on top of a moving car, piano-playing men and deep-sea divers. Luckily Cape Town has it all, and we were able to cast for all roles in the same city as the shoot location.
Director: Kuba Michalczuk
Producer: Marchant Bellingan
Service Production Company: Smokin’ Gun Productions
Looking for talent with a specific skill? Contact us – we cover almost anything requested.
