RUTV 3

Need to know how to get back into the lovers good books or even just what women want from their men? Watch this instructive video for an easy step by step guide on how to get yourself out of trouble and capture your girlfriends heart.

You may have watched  our video on the Get home safe project.

                      AND NOW JUDGE FOR YOURSELF

This is what your kids get up to  when you send them to study at university.

What’s the remedy, give us your comment

The first thing I did upon arriving at the Rhodes Drama department to film a rehersal of Die Bannelinge was to set up my camera and tripod. Carefully levelled and bubbled, I was set to go. And then the rehearsal started.

The actors flew around the stage at the speed of light, grabbing each other, leaping on tables, falling to the ground and spinning around. Having been drilled in all my practicals NEVER TO TILT THE CAMERA, I was stumped; in interviews, we had learned to carefully sit the interviewee in the shot, eyes placed perfectly on the cross point of the imaginary grid of thirds. But now, subjects shot in and out of my line of vision like loose cannons, and soon poor autofocus was fuzzing up trying to keep track of the expressive faces. Eventually, I improvised. With a worried look, I took the camera off the tripod and began to go freestyle. My brain overflowing with remembered advice: “Keep your knees bent, don’t ever zoom in, get close”, I inched towards my subject, who was lying down, humming loudly. As soon as I managed to bootleg a shot, she stopped. So I took a deep breath. “Zanne, please, if you don’t mind, could you do that again?” And she did! With my new found authority, I discovered how pleased people were to be on camera, and thus how accommodating they were to my requests. Cool.   Click to view video

  The positive thing about filming rehearsals is that the actors always repeat their actions, which allows you to predict their positioning and thus get good shots, as well as different angles and close-ups, which can be used to build up a sequence. Another pro is that drama people tend to be rather expressive and are not shy of making a fool of themselves. This led to great shots of the director crawling on the floor with her bum in the air, and the cast leaping up and down laughing, as well as attempting to push their protruding tongues back it not their mouths with their fingers.  Click to view video

The main difficulty I had with the filming of this project was the amount of movement it required from the camera.  There were many level variances in the drama department, ranging from the seats, the steps into the auditorium, the stage, and the platform of the stage, all of which I had to clamber over holding the camera, with interesting results.  Click to view video

By the end of the filming, I had got many interesting shots, some of which sadly we had to edit out due to the length limits. I had a lot of material filmed, mainly because, as a result of all the climbing, I often forgot to turn off the camera as I was moving between shots. The action was unpredictable and made for great visuals, but this meant that at the end of the day we had a lot to edit out, and a lot of potential sequence shots which we just weren’t able to use.

Overall, the experience was great; I felt like a real pro, learned a lot from being shoved in at the deep end, and realised the great power that comes from brandishing a camera. I am TV3, hear me roar!

Die Bannelinge is the Rhodes Drama Department’s latest production and a brand new creation from new writer Bauke Snyman. After it’s first unofficial closed showing last night, Audience feedback was extremely excited. Some members of the audience however were left feeling sick and dazed. So much blood, so much violence, and so much of a mess left to deal with.  What is the play all about? Where did the idea’s come from? Who is responsible for these vicious acts of bloodshed?

Well it all started long, long ago, in Greece. Die Bannelinge is loosely based on the Oedipus targedy. Ani, the lead character is based on the greek tragic heroine Antigone. Greek Tragedy’s have always dealt with issues of Violence, poverty, land ownership, love and power. These themes seems to be a perfect platform on which to base a modern day contemporary play based right here in South africa.

As Snyman puts it, ” In our country many people are the living characters of a South African tragedy ( Crime and poverty)  but what is the issue on which our play is based? Well, it begins with the question of ‘Who does the land belong to’?  I have been inspired by the intense love that South Africa exudes through its land, earth and dust.”  

This play is rated 16 for violence, Language and Nudity.

Things to watch out for…

For more on the KKNK festival: http://www.kknk.co.za/ check out this link.

Coming attractions at the Rhodes Drama Department:

May 19-23               Moments with Minghella Co-Ordinated by Acty Tang/ A Tribute to Anthony Minghella

June                          National Arts Festival Student festival

August- September  Young Directors Season 09′ Annual showcase of young directorial talent. Honours and Masters students select cutting edge productions which examine, expose and entertain.

Digs Formals are a relatively hidden part of life at Rhodes, despite the fact that many students do participate in them. When you breathlessly tell people that you’re going to a ‘digs formal’, the reception in often decidedly less excited, often met with uncomprehending blank stares.  However those that know about them either warn you off or give you a knowing smile. Let me attempt to explain what ‘digs formals’ are.

At some point during the year, a digs will decide to have a party, where each person living in the house gets a date (either someone they know or a blind date). It is the responsibility of each digs mate to ensure they all have dates, even if this means asking a random person in the photocopy room to attend a few hours before. With the dates secured, a theme must be chosen, i.e. ‘Dress to get laid’ (one of the more controversial ones). More alcohol than is humanly possible to consume (except in a Rhodes context) is bought and the stage is set. Everyone nervously arrives, drinks some punch to settle the nerves and ‘let the games begin’ so to speak. It is these games that give ‘digs formals’ their notoriety and often cause those participating (especially female students) to feel highly uncomfortable the morning after. These games include ‘group lunge’, where you are expected to kiss your partner (who you must likely won’t even know), body shots, and lap dances et cetera. Click here to read a student’s perspective on digs parties.

While this may be to most the most interesting aspect of ‘digs formals’ (especially since we’re all so sex obsessed), we identified another aspect as noteworthy: race. The trend seems to be that mostly white students attend these parties, with black students being mostly among those unaware of the tradition. At first we thought this may be because more white students live in digs. However, statistics compiled especially for us by the university said otherwise.

Interestingly, digs life is more popular amongst women at Rhodes, with more women than men in digs across each race group.

Warden Gordon Barker, who oversees students living in digs thought it might be due to the fact that economically black students rent rooms, instead of a digs with friends for the year. Therefore, the vibe needed for a digs tradition might not be present.

[podcast]http://rutv3.ru.ac.za/wp-content/uploads/gordon-filled.mp3[/podcast]

The issue needs more research for a conclusive answer. Until then students will continue to get drunk and debaucherous at ‘digs formals’.

 Pirates Pizza is a student-run business started by Geoff Waugh, Daniel Hocutt, Karim Dhanani and Chris Marshall. They were all students studying at Rhodes, and some are currently finishing their degrees here. As the boys themselves put it on their website : 

 “The enterprise was started in Dan’s bedroom in Cullen Bowles res, it quickly grew to the point where the university waved its big finger at us and demanded that we cease and desist any and all mind-blowing pizza making operations on university property, which we completely understood, as they of course we’re just jealous because they didn’t know our secret recipe… Erm and we were breaking every rule they had written about residences and businesses on campus.”

After Rhodes forbid Dan to continue making and selling pizza in their bedroom, they moved their enterprise to a small venue next to Maxwell’s restaurant in Somerset Street. To raise the capital to sub-lease this property Geoff sold his old Mercedes, Dan sold cows that their family owned and Chris “begged, borrowed and stole,” which in Pirates terms means he loaned some money. Karim joined the team as a partner, and the new Pirates was opened.

 Since they opened in 2007 Pirates has been a hit amongst Rhodes students. As their fan page on Facebook dictates they are a:

“Student run, owned and consumed boot leg pizza venue. Always hard to draw the line between the crew and the customers as they generally are the same bunch…pretty ‘ridiculously good looking people in it that know how to have a good time and make pizza, open till 3:30am on the big nights.”

 Their cheap pizza and lively atmosphere have drawn in a great deal of customers and created some avid Pirates Pizza fans. In fact, they have done so well that they are expanding to a larger premises in African street in May 2009.

This venue will not only sell pizza but operate as a fully functioning, hip and happening new party spot for Rhodes students. The owners have been notoriously secretive about developments happening in the club in order to keep it a surprise for opening day. But stripper poles on the bar and a “fun police” have been promised.

Initially Pirates only employed students, but with their expansion more employees from the greater Grahamstown community are joining the crew.