What’s happening

Beccy Kellond

7th January 2022

The good news just keeps on coming as more countries open up travel to and from South Africa. In most cases, there is no quarantine for the fully vaccinated and / or on presentation of a negative covid test. Here is our updated travel grid with rules and links:

ALL YOU NEED TO KNOW about travelling to South Africa (updated 31 Jan 22)

Commercials General Remote Streaming Shooting in COVID

Beccy Kellond

21st October 2021

SOUTH AFRICA'S OMICRON PEAK HAS PASSED AND NUMBERS ARE DECREASING DAILY. MOST COUNTRIES HAVE RE-OPENED TO SOUTH AFRICA AND WE ARE SHOOTING!

Small is good

Beccy Kellond

1st June 2021

Live, transatlantic interviews with Charlize Theron and Andile Nebulane are two examples of how the scope of our work has expanded over the past 12 months. ...

May 21st is World Diversity Day. We’re proud to be using #diversitytype today

Commercials General Remote Streaming Shooting in COVID

Beccy Kellond

20th May 2021

In honour of World Diversity Day, we're proud to show off our Moonlighting logo in Diversity Type - the world's most diverse typeface that was created specially for World Diversity Day by UK agency Distillery with designs from creatives across the world.

DIOR: Charlize Theron interviews CTAOP scholars in celebration of International Womens’ Day

Beccy Kellond

14th April 2021

We were proud to work with Capisco (Paris) & Dior - partner of the Charlize Theron Africa Outreach Project (CTAOP) - to capture this inspiring conversation between Charlize Theron and 2 of the CTAOP scholars

HOW FRUSTRATION LED TO INNOVATION (Or How we learned to shoot in a pandemic)

Commercials General Remote Streaming Shooting in COVID

Beccy Kellond

24th March 2021

In February 2020, our Chinese clients could not be physically present at their Cape Town shoot ... what followed was our first remote production and the beginning of a whole new world in service production.

CNN: “South Africa reminds us what is possible!”

Commercials General Remote Streaming Shooting in COVID

Beccy Kellond

15th March 2021

At last - the media is acknowledging South Africa's low Covid numbers despite the so-called "South African variant"- and the success of wearing masks and social distancing. Thank you CNN! "This a reminder that basic public health measures work. South Africa reminds us what is possible"......

Facts on shooting safely in South Africa + client feedback from 15 shoots for UK, USA, France and Italy as South African daily average Covid numbers right down by 92%

Beccy Kellond

25th February 2021

As our 15th client team since November fly home after a successful shoot and fantastic time in South Africa, the news from South Africa is good. With all our clients and crew testing negative ...........

FACTS A-Z: Shooting safely in South Africa now: from flights to streaming, Covid testing & virtual safaris …

Commercials Films General Remote Streaming Shooting in COVID

Beccy Kellond

24th February 2021

Facts from first hand experience of shooting in South Africa in times of Covid. Find out about airlines, bringing Africa to the agency, covid testing, covid protocols, curfew, hotels and villas, restrictions, streaming, vaccinations, virus variants & more

TRAVEL REQUIREMENTS and visas (updated 24 Nov)

Commercials Films General Remote Streaming Shooting in COVID

Beccy Kellond

2nd December 2020

South Africa is open and it’s business as usual for film industry travellers from all countries. Read our walkthrough covering travel requirements for South Africa, visas and COVID requirements.

7 THINGS TO KNOW about shooting in South Africa in this new world

Beccy Kellond

2nd December 2020

It’s Summer! Our borders are open for all business&film industry travellers, our grass is green thanks to a wet winter and the exchange rate means 23% more production value than last year.

10 REASONS WHY South Africa is still the best production destination in the world

Commercials Films General Remote Streaming Shooting in COVID

Beccy Kellond

2nd December 2020

It would be hard to find a reason not to shoot your project in South Africa, even in today’s world. Rest assured, South Africa will look after you and justify your decision to come here 10 times over. As a quick reminder (because we love to boast), here’s the full click-baity checklist .....

SAFETY IS KEY: Pandemic-proof production protocols (updated 9 December)

Commercials General Shooting in COVID

Beccy Kellond

1st December 2020

You need to know that your production is a safe one. To put your minds at ease, here’s how we shoot responsibly.

THE EXCHANGE RATE ADVANTAGE: up to 23% cheaper than 2019 (updated 9 December)

Commercials General Remote Streaming Shooting in COVID

Beccy Kellond

1st December 2020

There has to be a silver lining out there and production value is it. Better exchange rates can make up for lost budget.

REMOTE PRODUCTION and its unexpected benefits

Beccy Kellond

1st December 2020

Now that we’ve solved the key issues like bandwidth and comms, we think the additional benefits of remote production are here to stay.

SHOCKPROOF: Moonlighting’s approach to a changing world

Commercials Films General Remote Streaming Shooting in COVID

Beccy Kellond

1st December 2020

COVID-19 is a speedbump. A big one. One of those sneaky ones that no-one was expecting. Read on to see how we’re staying on track in 2020 and beyond.

SOUTH AFRICA: praised by World Health Organisation for our Covid strategy

Beccy Kellond

30th November 2020

Here’s a quick summary of South Africa’s Covid strategy, our numbers, our strict protocols that remain in Level 1 and info on our world-class private healthcare.

South African travel regulations: a few new Covid travel requirements, same visa rules, no quarantine

Beccy Kellond

22nd October 2020

South Africa is open and it’s business as usual for film industry travellers from all countries. Read our walkthrough covering visas and COVID requirements.

South Africa is open for business: our borders opened on 1st October

Beccy Kellond

2nd October 2020

It’s been a long 6 months and we can’t wait to welcome you back. While there are still restrictions for tourists from high risk countries, these restrictions don’t apply to business travelers. We’ll have full details of all immigration requirements early next week and will let you know as soon as we can.

South African borders will open on 1st October! Here’s what we know so far:

Commercials General Remote Streaming Shooting in COVID

Beccy Kellond

18th September 2020

We are beyond excited to tell you that South African borders will open again to international travellers from 1st October! We're still waiting for the full details and any restrictions but here's what we can tell you so far:

Testing bandwidth and connectivity in remote locations

Beccy Kellond

17th September 2020

How far and remote can a producer, 2 VT operators and a technician get in a Jeep on a really rainy day?

What happens when you get 53 producers from 53 countries on a zoom call? Production gold, that’s what.

Commercials General Shooting in COVID

Beccy Kellond

22nd July 2020

Since the world went into various stages of Covid-19 lockdown, the 53 companies that make up the Global Production Network (GPN) have been meeting twice a month, sometimes more. ...... As Moonlighting’s Philip Key says “Put together, there is a serious amount of brain power with centuries of collective experience. What makes this uniquely powerful is that the service ethic is baked into the DNA of these companies so we all approach production issues from a common viewpoint.”

Our first remote shoot – Roman Rütten’s OPPO RENO3

Commercials General Remote Streaming

Beccy Kellond

4th June 2020

This is Roman Rütten’s OPPO – shot with London’s 1stAveMachine with Moonlighting in March – and our first remote commercial shoot. Shot on location in and around Cape Town in the heady days before social-distancing, with the clients and agency joining remotely from the UK and China. As Roman told LBBOnline, “it was pretty intense. But we did tests before, and it actually worked really well......

Latest remote test shoots

Commercials General Remote Streaming

Beccy Kellond

3rd June 2020

We've been running more test shoots with remote director, sync sound and full Covid-19 Health and Safety Protocols to streamline communication channels.

CPA South Africa Covid-19 Protocol for Commercial shoots

Commercials General Shooting in COVID

Beccy Kellond

4th May 2020

Read the full contents of the CPA Covid-19 Protocol for Commercial shoots here.

South Africa Film Open Again!

Beccy Kellond

4th May 2020

We are really pleased to say that we are open for shooting again. As long as our borders remain closed, we are able to shoot remotely using the expertise we developed on our shoot in March and which we have been refining over the past few weeks.

Art in Lockdown: Frans Marais and Karen Germishuys’ art recreations are pure genius

Beccy Kellond

23rd April 2020

Breathtakingly inspired recreations of art have been emerging daily from the home of Dreamcatcher’s Frans Marais and Karen Germishuys as they treat us to their #artchallenges.

Life in Lockdown

Commercials General Remote Streaming

Beccy Kellond

10th April 2020

Downing our PPM booklets and location recces to head home mid production season is just another of the many surreal elements of our current normal. As is happening all over the world, a team of active, busy, hard-working people suddenly find themselves at home in the South African lockdown that’s just been extended to the end of April.

Moonlighting successfully implements South Africa’s first virtual video village

Beccy Kellond

10th April 2020

Moonlighting has created a Virtual VT Village which we have just used successfully on our recent shoot with London production company 1st Ave Machine. Their clients were unable to travel so we took the shoot to them, enabling them to have full, real-time participation as normal.

Moonlighting implements first South Africa video virtual village

Beccy Kellond

13th March 2020

Moonlighting has created a Virtual VT Village which we have just used successfully on our recent shoot with London production company 1st Ave Machine. Their clients were unable to travel so we took the shoot to them, enabling them to have full, real-time participation as normal.

No more long wait for visas in the film industry South Africa

Beccy Kellond

24th February 2020

Film industry applicants for South African work-authorization visas will no longer have to apply in person but can send an agent or proxy to apply on their behalf. This is a huge step forward in the film industry visa situation and comes thanks to the team at FIVA .... Read More for the full list of amendments and improvements

What is the secret ingredient that makes South African media production services so good?

Beccy Kellond

14th February 2020

South Africa – especially Cape Town - is unquestionably one of the most consistently popular film locations in the world; it has a unique basket of advantages that gives us solid production relevance and places us right up there as a tough place to beat. But that’s not the only reason. There’s something else, something less tangible, that comes from having to ride the ever-changing tides of South Africa’s own unique journey .....

French Connection: de Paris à Cape Town

Beccy Kellond

1st February 2020

Forts de leurs nombreuses années d'expérience dans la production française, le producteur Vincent Roussel, et la directrice artistique Isabelle Longue viennent de débarquer au Cap, chez Moonlighting ! Ils y offrent désormais des services de production exécutive pour le marché français .... Ils ont aussi amené leur "French Touch" au bureau

French Media Connection

Beccy Kellond

31st January 2020

French Producer Vincent Roussel and Art Director Isabelle Longue have brought their many years’ experience in the French production world to Cape Town and Moonlighting where they are now servicing commercials and stills for the French market........you'll find something subtly French in the air at the office ..........

The days of hundreds of plastic bottles on set are on the way out. Sustainable production should be a given.

Beccy Kellond

17th January 2020

Those little plastic bottles are probably one of the main examples of why film sets used to be such waste-grounds.

Moonlighting embraces new technology with Africa’s first REMI studio

Beccy Kellond

10th January 2020

Moonlighting recently assembled the first multi-camera, remote studio in Africa through its sports content division Moonsport, significantly lowering the costs of production for remote & multi-venue filming.

Authenticity was key for US cheese brand Sargento’s 8 day shoot

Beccy Kellond

4th December 2019

Authenticity was key when casting the 240 ‘real’ people and 22 locations for the 30 vignettes we shot with Fiona Media and director Theresa Wingert ...

An “American” Arm for South Africa.

Beccy Kellond

4th December 2019

A useful addition to the armory needed for so many car shoots is the Motocrane recently bought to the country by Kevin O’Reilly.

Shooting with Bugsy Steel for lovepork.co.uk

Beccy Kellond

4th December 2019

Art department created an incredible movable set of a kitchen that opened out onto an Asian market ......

Life begins at 40! Shooting Jula with Traktor and Giants & Toys

Beccy Kellond

4th December 2019

We built a seriously steep skateboard ramp for our 40+ businessman that unnerved the best of them...

Marshall – Hit the Road: Shot on film by Dog Eat Dog & Kevin Castanheira

Beccy Kellond

3rd October 2019

Film gives you a depth of image and beauty that just can’t be recreated in the digital world” enthused Moonlighting producer Valentia Fisher after completing an intense 7-day shoot for Hit the Road

Talent Actor Rates and Casting Real People

Beccy Kellond

6th July 2019

We have had great success this season in negotiating competitive but fair talent rates based on the merits of each project. We have also seen a huge increase in the need to cast “real” people

Formula 1 comes to Cape Town

Beccy Kellond

6th July 2019

The Moonsport guys just had one epic weekend, being involved with the Aston Martin Red Bull Racing Event with David Coulthard and the RB7 as well as with Virgin Active for their Global Grid Games 2019 finals.

More commercial productions finding value in Cape Town Film Studios

Beccy Kellond

25th June 2019

One of the unexpected advantages of having the Cape Town Film Studios on our doorstep is the value that it adds to the Commercials Industry.

Marcus Svanberg’s “Apoteket – Outbreak”

Beccy Kellond

23rd April 2019

This has to be our favourite Apoteket ad ever! Brilliantly shot by Marcus Svanberg...

DubaiExpo2020 – Behind the Scenes shot by Frans Marais

Beccy Kellond

23rd April 2019

We covered just about every location shooting DubaiExpo2020 with the team from Joy Films - skateboard park, train station, National Library, classrooms, gardens, meadows, mountains, hospital, stadium, studios....

International Women’s Day

Beccy Kellond

8th March 2019

Celebrating International Women’s Day today. These are some of the phenomenal women at Moonlighting Commercials -

Right to Play – We Will Rise. Shot by Mark Zibert

Beccy Kellond

16th November 2018

We were incredibly proud to be involved with this production for the global NGO Right to Play and are grateful to all the fantastic South African crew who joined us. You can see some of the Behind-the-Scenes here.

Moonlighting Commercials shortlisted for Shots Awards 2018