In April 2016, Flow Communications was awarded a tender to redevelop the Constitution Hill website, which included redesigning the site, rewriting its content and producing new visual footage.
This entailed that we be part of an initial digital strategy workshop where, based on the revisited vision for Constitution Hill as a brand, the direction of its digital presence was defined.
The Flow team conducted numerous in-depth interviews with key people in order to develop fresh content. We changed the tone of the website, lightening it through more vibrant colours and more expressive language. Our work needed to ensure that the “living, breathing museum” that is Constitution Hill was fully encapsulated in every aspect of the final product.
Incredible moments and adventures
This project surprised us all. I don’t believe any of us could have anticipated its enormity, or the incredible moments and adventures that this journey would take us on – particularly when filming the video footage.
Constitution Hill is a complex of buildings, most of them former colonial- and apartheid-era jails that are now museums. Anchoring the site is the Constitutional Court, South Africa’s highest court and the final arbiter in many issues.
The site has revealed itself as a living palimpsest of stories deeply entrenched in South African history that long preceded apartheid, and as an architecturally layered symbol of a historical landscape. We were lucky to be exposed to its layers.
Videographer Steve Lawrence agrees with me on this. “No matter how much time we spent filming at Constitution Hill, we almost always uncovered something new, be it a bit of graffiti, new information, the sombreness of a hidden staircase left almost untouched, or some unknown fact of prison life.
“The symbolism in the architecture of the Constitutional Court left me speechless – every brick, pipe, wire or bone represents some defining moment in the history of our country.”
Not too many people will understand the expertise, equipment and time it takes to make a high-quality, content-rich and relevant one-minute video. But during this endeavour, we also had fate and timing on our side.
The first, and in my view most important, variable in such an undertaking is listening thoughtfully to the client in order to get to the crux of their vision. The second is translating this vision into an ordered plan, where fresh, relevant and meaningful content ideas for each video are laid out, reviewed and reviewed again.
To add to this, the brief was dynamic and evolving business needs surfaced each week.
Winning with agility
The real art came in our team’s willingness to throw plans out the window when timing and fate stepped in to take the lead. We had to be agile and ready to race through to Constitution Hill at the drop of a hat if a not-to-be-missed opportunity presented itself – and this ultimately did the client’s overall vision justice.
One such opportunity came via a WhatsApp message from Steve, who was at Constitution Hill shooting material for the project. “Judge Edwin Cameron has just walked past! Please contact the powers that be so we can get an interview!” I did, and we got the video.
“While the cameramen were setting up, I gazed up at Justice Cameron – he's tall – and remarked that he had a perfect radio voice,” says writer Sue Blaine. "‘It comes with the job,’ he quipped.”
Sue continues: “There are many voices in South Africa, some 50-million of them and more, and the Constitution gives each one the right to speak freely. Some are stretched thin with emotion, some are calm and certain and, thankfully, some make us laugh with the relief that not everything has to be serious all the time, even if you are a judge.”
Voicing the Constitution
Sue says that driving up the hill to interview Cecile Palmer, a former political prisoner incarcerated in the Women's Jail, and former Public Protector Thuli Madonsela – plus Cameron, whose daily work is carried out at the Constitutional Court – was both exciting and intimidating.
“The interview with Palmer was particularly moving,” says Sue. “She was still visibly affected by the indignities she suffered in the jail around 30 years ago. Emotion kept her voice scratchy. At one point we had to stop filming to let her wipe away a tear, and tears tore at the edges of my eyes too.”
Another of these “real-time” opportunities arrived with Madonsela’s organised interview on-site at Constitution Hill with a German TV station, upon her stepping down as South Africa’s Public Protector. We were given approximately a day to get our team ready to interview her, with only a chance of a possible five-minute window period to “nab” her for an interview ... which we did. View the interview with Madonsela here.
But my personal highlight was when an email arrived, requesting that I secure time for interviewing former Constitutional Court Justice Albie Sachs at the court, and be his chaperone for an afternoon – in none other than my zippy blue 2007 Corsa Lite Sport.
Book launch
In this instance the timing was impeccable. Sachs was in the middle of launching his book, We, the People, a collection of essays offering insight into South Africa’s Constitution. As it turned out, he had not actually seen a copy of his book. It was only when we handed him a copy so that Steve could film him holding it, that he divulged to us this little nugget.
I felt like I was part of making of history – we all did – and we all had tears in our eyes as the realisation of the enormity of the moment dawned on us.
“We could only listen in awe when interviewing Sachs and recording him narrating the story of the location of the court and the wonderful art on display,” says Steve.
“Seeing the excitement of this stalwart of South African constitutionalism speaking about the highest court in the land was electrifying.
“As South Africans, we sometimes don’t fully appreciate the sacrifices so many made to pave the way for a better life for all. Constitution Hill embodies what makes this country of ours such a great one,” he says.
Goosebumps
The last phase of our filming journey was to complete voiceover recordings for several of the videos. And so it was that I met one of South Africa’s star actors.
His voice rumbled deeply as he introduced himself, and I finally heard (and understood) why our client was so adamant she wanted to use him for these voice recordings – it was none other than Sello Maake Ka’Ncube, the voice of Mufasa from the West End play The Lion King.
Even Ka’Ncube got nervous at one stage, and I realised how important this was for him, too, to have his name become synonymous with Constitution Hill video footage, as the narrator of the complex’s visual digital stories.
I felt goosebumps when I realised how important, and what an honour, this entire project had become for everyone involved.
