The A to Z to Shooting in South Africa

Accommodation: Magic Mountain Productions has negotiated preferential rates for a full range of accommodation, from modest bed and breakfast establishments to luxury and boutique hotels and self catering houses.

Casting: Magic Mountain Productions provides a full casting service either online prior to arrival, or locally once the team arrives in Cape Town.

Catering: Magic Mountain Productions will take care of the most sensitive palate. We will organise on-set catering according to your budget and make sure that everything is fresh and healthy. Every production vehicle is equipped with cooler boxes, hamper baskets with cutlery and crockery, as well as tables and chairs, umbrellas and ladders.

Communications: Three cellular networks provide full coverage, including GPRS and Multimedia services. One cellular network has launched a 3G service. International cellular phones will work with a local SIM card or with roaming. Visitors can also hire cellular phones throughout the country, and South Africa has the latest Internet connectivity technology, including high-speed ADSL services.

Equipment: Magic Mountain Productions can source all kinds of flash equipment, photographic lighting, light shaping tools and accessories to facilitate your shooting requirements. Cape Town also has several digital support companies that offer the latest camera bodies and lenses with maximum mega pixel specifications as well as Apple Mac PowerBooks and multiprocessor workstations with gigabytes of RAM and software and professional large format LCD monitors to fit your workstation or laptop, external hard drives, optical media writers, memory cards and card readers of the highest quality with the latest and fastest technology to rent for your convenience.

Foreign Exchange: South Africa's unit of currency is the rand, which is divided into 100 Cents. With a favourable exchange rate for many international currencies, you will find South Africa a very inexpensive destination.

Import, export and custom carnet: South Africa uses the ATA Carnet that is recognized in over 60 countries. Magic Mountain Productions will arrange your Carnet through shipping and freighting companies. A Carnet exempts you from paying duties or VAT. Neither will you need customs declarations nor deposits and guarantees by the forwarder and exporter.

Insurance: Magic Mountain Productions holds insurance for public liability plus personal accident insurance, as well as packages for rental vehicles that include passenger liability.

Language: We at Magic Mountain Productions speak German, English, Xhosa, Afrikaans and French.

Locations: We have an extensive choice of accurately catalogued locations, for the clients to view on-line or we can put together a tailor made presentation with Location suggestions.

We can also organize location scouts that will find anything the client may be looking for.

Models: South African model agencies offer local representation for some of the world's most sought-after models at day rates that are very competitive. This gives clients the added advantage of not paying for flights, accommodation and per diem. Although some clients bring their own talent, this rarely happens. Indeed, this only occurs if they are unaware of the significant financial benefits and the full range and calibre of models available locally. Let Magic Mountain Productions help you to find the right models for you.

Props & Set building: Cape Town has several Prop houses for hiring anything you are looking for. We also have professional set-building companies in Cape Town as well as Set dressing companies.

Safety: The streets of the central business districts (CBDs) of all major cities are monitored by closed circuit television and patrolled by police. A huge of amount of street crime has been stopped thanks to this. However, as in any popular tourist destination, visitors should take safety precautions, particularly at night. In the major cities it is advisable to avoid walking alone, particularly in unfamiliar areas. You should always keep valuables such as wallets, cellular phones, laptops, etc. as inconspicuous as possible.

Talent: Talent is one of the main advantages of shooting in this part of the world. We can offer a great selection of local and international talent, models and actors. More and more international models are coming to Cape Town during our summer season. Whole package deals and buyouts can be negotiated by us up front.

Time: The whole of South Africa falls into one time zone that is: two hours ahead of Greenwich Mean time and one hour ahead of Central European Winter time.

Vehicles: Magic Mountain Productions has a good relationship with all the major car rental companies. We negotiate preferential rates for our clients and offer a variety of production vehicles depending on the client's request and needs. There are location vehicles available with ceiling-mounted wardrobe racks, hair and make-up stations, a generator, and many other features designed to facilitate the successful completion of your shooting.

Weather: Because South Africa lies in the southern hemisphere, the seasons are reverse of those in the northern hemisphere - the benefit of course, being that international photographers can make use of our gorgeous weather when their countries rainy and grey. Cape Towns Mediterranean climate is one of the most pleasant in the world. The long summer has its peak between November and March, with temperatures averaging around 28 C.

The winter season peaks between June and July, but due to global warming the rainy days have reduced in number and Cape Towns winters often produce perfect summery days. As a result, winter in Cape Town has become known as the "secret season".

Industry Info

SA 5TH BUSIEST PRODUCTION INDUSTRY

South Africa is the world's fifth busiest production industry (and rising), offering a winning combination that is hard to beat. Attracting projects of all sizes, South Africa provides world-class models, innovative crews, an exceptional value for budget, the most glorious, easily accessed locations and a strong stable Rand that ensures reliable pricing.

South Africa is dubbed 'The Rainbow Nation' for a reason. A rich diversity underpins every aspect of our society - our geography, wildlife, people, language and culture. We have eleven official languages and our community leaders range from Anglican bishops to Muslim mothers, returned exiled politicians to rugby players, marathon runners to poets, and rabbis to traditional healers.

Twelve years after the transition to democracy, South Africa has shattered any pessimistic expectations by transforming into a vibrant, economically stable country. South Africans - from farm labourers to business executives - live assured that the world's most advanced constitution protects and upholds their right to human dignity*.

South Africa has arrived as a player in the world arena. Backed by a buoyant consumer economy, an accountable government and a first-rate communications infrastructure, South Africa is the one country in Africa that has the economic and political standing to expel some of the negative perceptions that continue to beset this continent.

Although South Africa is by no means a perfect country, it is making admirable and successful strides in redressing the ills of the past whilst still maintaining an internationally competitive economy. The government is determined to halve unemployment and alleviate poverty by 2014. It plans to invest EUR 50 billion in infrastructure spending over the next few years, paying particular attention to expanding public works in preparation for hosting the 2010 World Cup. These strategies are intended to boost growth, alleviate poverty and bridge the economic divides still present in South Africa.

As a competitive production company, Magic Mountain gives true value for money by consistently dispensing quality in every aspect of its production delivery. We consistently rise to every challenge imaginable and the excellence of our expertise, knowledge and infrastructure is only matched by our friendliness and personal service. The country is at the top of its game and we are proud to be part of the growth of this dynamic industry.