New SA comic series uses social media to find audience

As frustration with South Africa’s national broadcaster continues to grow, many young film-makers find themselves giving up on their dreams of ever finding an audience for their work. FireStorm Productions, a new local production house, has taken matters into its own hands and used the power of social media to broadcast and publicise their new series entitled “(Almost) Legends”.

It tells the story of seven different South Africans and how they hope that the 2010 Soccer World Cup will change their lives forever. As they are followed around by a camera crew we are exposed to their interesting and strange ideas and, ultimately, their failures and character flaws.

The end result is a comical and tongue-in-cheek glimpse into the lives of very “normal” South Africans searching for ways to break out of the mundane and live their dreams. The theme song was recorded by popular local rock act, aKing, which adds a stamp of approval and indie credibility to the series.

Five webisodes of the series have already been shot, edited and uploaded onto YouTube and have developed a cult following, attracting rave reviews from fans of their Facebook page.

Firestorm Productions is a collective of young and talented individuals from Cape Town and Johannesburg who “love making awesome videos and finding cool & intelligent ways to use it [sic] on the internet”.

The group has embraced the social web as a medium where they can grow and develop as film-makers and find an audience, in a broadcast environment where experimentalism is unlikely to ever find its way onto the traditional media outlets.