Interview: Ray Thabang Selthare for Leubeng, THN sponsored Film of the Month

Every month The Hollywood News sponsors a short film contents over at ReelShowInt.com, one of the premier online film sites for students. This past month, the super talented Ray Thabang Setlhare won the prize for his film Leubeng, which you can see over here. The film is about a man who makes a musical instrument during a drought. He then uses the instrument he built to make the rain come, and thus end the drought.

Here’s the interview.

Hi Ray, tell me a little bit about your background – where do you draw your inspiration and influences for filmmaking from?

Hi, let me begin by thanking ReelshowInt for considering my film and for hosting it. You guys have given me a wonderful platform. I’d like to also thank those who voted for my film as they’ve helped it win.

I’ve always been fascinated by story-telling. As a little boy I knew that I wanted to tell good stories particularly in the medium of Film & Animation. So my journey as a film-maker began from childhood. I draw my inspiration and influences from great stories. Great stories may be told in the form of music, sculptures, poems, paintings etc…In short, I get inspired by a lot of artwork.

Where did you get the idea for your film?

I’m from a culture that encourages recycling so that has been with me for years now. People back home inBotswanahave always been creating a lot of useful instruments with what they have rather than to throw things away. I needed to create a film where the character can create something with the little that he had. The story is also about sacrifice. The character denied himself the satisfaction of eating his last fruit during the drought but rather he created ankle shakers with it to dance for the rain. I’ve also been taught to count my blessings and to always be grateful for what I have. In the film I created a short character back-story to show that he once had plenty but now he has nothing. It’s the messages that my parents taught me that gave me the idea but also it’s from my culture.

What did you shoot the film on, and with which particular equipment?

I used Autodesk Maya for the production phase. For the post-production I used Adobe After Effects and Adobe Premiere. I cleaned up my sound with Adobe Soundbooth. The whole project was done on computer.

How long was your shoot?

The whole project took 22 weeks. Most of the time was spent on pre-production as I needed a good story. I learnt that ‘Story is King’ from John Stevenson (Director of Kung Fu Panda) at a conference inMalaysia. I spent about 10 weeks just focusing on the story itself and planning. By the time I began the production phase my story wasn’t complete yet. I continued to refine my story as I worked on the production. The production went well though because of good planning. The least amount of time was spent on post production since I had little compositing to do. I needed about a week to complete my post product

Where was it shot? Did you use college or University facilities?

Most of the project was done from home. However, I used the University facilities to record Foley sounds as they have a recording studio.

What did you edit the film on?

I edited it using Adobe Premiere and Adobe After Effects.

How are you finding things since winning the ReelShow competition? Do you find websites like ours useful to get your work out there?

Winning the ReelShow competition has given me more faith in myself and has increased my confidence. I’m really glad there’s websites like this because they offer film-makers a platform to show their content. I saw a lot of films from your website and I got to learn how other film- makers tell stories. It’s a platform where we can learn from each other and to get recognition as well.

What’s your ambition and what are you working on now? What aspect of the industry do you aspire to be involved in and in which part of the world?

I am currently working on my portfolio. My ambition is to become a character animator but one day I’d like to be directing and producing films. I don’t really mind which part of the world I’m working at. The most important thing is that I work around passionate animators.

You graduated from Multimedia University (I’m not sure which campus) – Malaysia this year. Can you also tell us a bit about your years at University. What course did you take- has the whole University experience been a valuable and worthwhile one?

I studied at Multimedia University, Cyberjaya campus. During my Foundation Year I learnt about design and its principles. On my First year I was introduced to animation. I did some projects on 2D animation, Motion Graphics and Visual Effects. On my second year I had to learn film language and I did some screenplays. I also learnt 3D animation which I then did for my final year project. I majored in Film & Animation. The whole experience has proved to be valuable because at least now I have an idea of how films are made.

Who is your favourite filmmaker?..and why

My favourite film-maker is James Cameron because his films have a lot of value. They are entertaining but they also have a lot of good content.

Finally, what’s the last film that you saw and the best film that you have seen in the last twelve months?

The last film I saw is Transformers 3 ‘Dark of the Moon’. The best film I’ve seen in the last twelve months is Kung Fu Panda 2.

Many thanks Ray – we wish you all the best with your future projects which we hope to get to see on ReelshowInt.!!