Five dudes from Durban, South Africa: playing music, being kiff, feeling forever inspired by the works of Bill Murray… that pretty much sums up the City Bowl Mizers.
No surprises then that we welcome in 2013 with an ‘evolutionary’ new iKind Studio-produced music video featuring an action-packed ‘day in the life’ of a rather unusual character - ‘the missing link’ - a chimp who thinks that acting mature is for the birds.
Launched this week on the ‘revolutionary’ comedy and music website, Lechop TV, ‘Growing Old’ is making waves on the web and will be hitting commercial TV stations soon!
Shot partly on a Red One MX camera in sunny Durban SA, this upbeat, light-hearted take on life is iKind’s ninth music video collaboration with the City Bowl Mizers. Enjoy!
“CODED has three different types of revolution” explains Executive Producer Anthony Stonefield, “A movie storyline describing free citizens revolting against consumerist enslavement, the pioneering usage of wrap-around (3D) audio within a feature film, and the manner in which the audience will ‘plug into’ the movie - using an internet connection and earphones - and become immersed within its medium. The movie will be brought to audiences where technology first-adopters have already moved: to a private video-on-demand environment on PCs, tablets and smartphones connected to the internet, in addition to traditional four-wall movie theatres.”
“The story is set in the near future where new subliminal advertising technology has heralded the rise of sinister corporations that carry out mass surveillance on consumers; tracking their every move, collecting, collating and analysing their data,” explains an upbeat Gavin Humphrey who makes his debut as a scriptwriter on this film. “A subliminal mind-control organisation, is on the forefront of this commercial revolution, using a secretive pattern recognition technology they have created ‘The Grid’, a network of key social influencers, bloggers, media personalities and event promoters, all tagged with sub-harmonic technology that allows them to be tracked and ultimately controlled. Key to this organisation’s master plan is the shifting craze, an underground party scene, where shifters use audio narcotics to achieve altered states. Dayne is a notorious shifter and designer of digital drugs and a key node on the Grid. Plagued by tone deafness and which he feels prevents him from mastering the art of audio design, Dayne isn’t about to be a pawn in anyone’s game.”
“New generations will spend increasing proportions of their lives in ever more immersive, networked and interactive media environments - both seductive and useful,” says Stonefield. “This course of human evolution is inevitable. The critical unknown is to what extent our children will become masters or slaves of such artificial reality. Whoever controls the Grid controls reality itself. In the real world, this mass social experiment in neurochemistry has already begun. CODED casts a light on the types of moral and emotional swings and balances that increasingly characterize the live of the internet-worked generation. It is a reflective movie for a modern generation whose reality is already shattered and up for grabs.”
Toni Monty, who heads the Durban Film Office, said the movie was an exciting and innovative story that was sure to take the youth of the country and the world by storm. “CODED is a project we have seen grow from strength to strength over the past few years,” said Monty “I am very proud that this project has been born in Durban by Durban, and cannot wait to experience it on the big screen. This new concept of filmmaking goes hand in hand with the Durban Film Office’s objective to establish Durban as a digital innovation hub and will stand testament to the awesome opportunities that new technologies offer to the world of filmmaking. Congratulations to the creative team for their perseverance in bringing this story to life.”
Pre-production for the film is scheduled for the second half of 2013 with principal filming set to take place around August/September 2013.
Here’s a facinating story of singer / songwriter Tresor Riziky (aka Tresor), an artist from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, who five years ago left his hometown of Goma, deep in heartland of Eastern DRC, for greener pastures and hopes of a music career in sunny Durban, South Africa. With nothing more than the clothes on his back and a fire in his heart, Tresor traversed the length of Southern Africa in pursuit of his dream… to become a celebrated, professional musician.
In order to make ends meet upon arrival in Durban, Tresor worked as a car guard (security guard) in the bustling streets surrounding Durban’s City Hall. Five years on and a huge amount of perservearance later, the talented musician has reached yet another of his goals with the release of a ‘world class’ music video… ironically filmed in the selfsame Durban City Hall.
Filming inside the iconic City Hall, in the heart of a buzzing Durban, was needless to say a ‘momentous’ experience. The architecture, lighting and pure size of the location offers the film-maker genuine cinematic scale. A big ‘thank you’ from iKind Studio to the energetic cast who danced their hearts and souls out for hours on end, to Media Film Service for their generous supply of production equipment and to eThekwini Municipality for the opportunity to shoot in this ‘National Treasure’.
As a professional musician Tresor performs regularly on the local and international stage, and this upbeat single off his new album displays the energy, passion and perseverance of a unique and talented individual.
‘Complete’ won’t be the last collaboration between iKind Studio and Tresor and with his new album set to be released early next year, we’re sure there’ll be many more great singles and music videos to come! In fact, we’ve heard the next single already, and plans are in the works. Let’s just say… it could be epic!
Devin on 
