Disciplines

A director is someone who holds a crew together, someone who interacts with every department, someone who spends as much time with the cast of the film as they do the crew. The Director initiates the process of translating a written script into a film. The end-all goal of the director is to entertain an audience by structuring compelling narrative material. At AFDA, Directing students are trained in all aspects of this vital craft.

AFDA students acquire and develop skills by applying what they’re taught in class into their term projects or into material given to the student for the sake of the exercise.

Students embark on their directing journey in first year by first learning, and then demonstrating how to call shots; how to identify narrative structure; how to analyse a scene; and how to direct actors. Students also become familiar with overhead shot design through floor planning/staging;
directing actors through blocking; and basic shot design and storyboarding. Once students have shown competence in these aspects, they are introduced to directing TV presenting; shot composition; rehearsals; and technology specifically used for directing. Towards the end of their first year, students illustrate their understanding of mise en scène; the world of story; and dramatic atmosphere.

Students venture into second year through being introduced to, and later showing an understanding
of the value at stake as well as character beats, binary and arc. Students also learn how to work with the post-production departments; line a shooting script; assistant direct; and create a directing treatment.

Towards the end of second year and onwards, students only participate in the disciplines they intend on majoring and sub-majoring in. Directing is only available as a major and not a sub-major. Students who choose to major in directing are advised to take either producing or screenwriting as their sub-major.

Students who complete the BA in Motion Picture have the opportunity to advance their skills and produce more film work by taking part in the one-year Honours degree in Motion Picture degree offered at AFDA. If the student completes an Honours degree and wishes to ‘Master’ the art of Directing, there is an opportunity to do that too! The MFA (Master in Fine Arts) is a part-time two year degree offered at AFDA to students who have completed an Honours degree.

Some notable AFDA alumni who have thrived in the field of directing include: Jonothan Liebesman, Tristan Holmes, Justin Head, Alastair Orr, Daryne Joshua, Henk Pretorius, Nosipho Dumiso, Travis Taute, Dean Blumberg, Kyle Lewis, and Rob Malpage.

Some of Jonathan’s most successful pictures include The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning (2006), and Battle Los Angeles (2011). He has most recently worked on the Paramount+ series Halo.

While a student at AFDA, Tristan won the best Foreign Film Award at the Student Oscars for his film Elalini (2006). Currently he manages and co-owns The Star Film Company, which represents several industry heavy-weights and produces feature films, music videos, and commercials. Most recently, he has worked on the El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie.

Justin’s film Black Out (2019) was nominated at the Prisma Independent Film Awards. Apart from this, Making a Killing (2015) which was directed, scripted and edited by Justin, won four awards at the Rugged Phoenix Underground Film Festival. His first debut feature film, Night Drive, has arguably become one of the most controversial and publicized films in the country’s history. Following Night Drive, he produced several documentary inserts for one of South Africa’s premium current affairs TV shows.

Alastair works as editor, writer, and director. His most recent work includes his film Triggered (2019). After leaving AFDA he directed his first film, The Unforgiving, which was distributed worldwide and was one of the top sellers on Red Box in the US in 2012. Following this, he produced Rancid, a zombie film. After the success of these two films, he got a call from the producers of Sin City 2,
Machete Kills and Cut Bank, to make Indigenous (2014). The film premiered at The Tribeca Film Festival in 2014 where it was picked up for worldwide distribution by XYZ Films.

In 2016, Daryne directed his debut feature film Noem My Skollie, which was South Africa’s official entry into the 89th Academy Awards, in contention for Best Foreign Language Film. Noem My Skollie went on to win numerous accolades at various international film festivals including the Pan African Film Festival, De Cannes and Black Star International Film Festival. He is also the director and founder of Gambit Films, a film production company which produces the Netflix series Blood & Water.

Nosipho has achieved great success as Head of Commercials at Gambit Films. Her most recent project is the Netflix series Blood and Water. In 2014, Nosipho co-directed the short film, Nommer 37 which won Best Film at the South African Film and TV Awards (SAFTA) in 2016.

Kyle is one of South Africa’s most acclaimed music video directors, where his instinct and flair for African youth culture has been in demand by everyone from Absolut and BMW to Nike and Volkswagen. He has also worked with local superstars like Cassper Nyovest, Riky Rick, Spoek Mathambo, Khuli Chana, and The Parlotones.

Your content goes here. Edit or remove this text inline or in the module Content settings. You can also style every aspect of this content in the module Design settings and even apply custom CSS to this text in the module Advanced settings.

Your content goes here. Edit or remove this text inline or in the module Content settings. You can also style every aspect of this content in the module Design settings and even apply custom CSS to this text in the module Advanced settings.

Your content goes here. Edit or remove this text inline or in the module Content settings. You can also style every aspect of this content in the module Design settings and even apply custom CSS to this text in the module Advanced settings.

Your content goes here. Edit or remove this text inline or in the module Content settings. You can also style every aspect of this content in the module Design settings and even apply custom CSS to this text in the module Advanced settings.