Canon Southern Africa announced its alliance with Multichoice Talent Factory (MTF) to promote the creative art of filmmaking through a series of workshops and trainings for the 2021/22 MTF cohort of students. The MTF Academy is an education programme that develops emerging TV and film talent in Africa, through an accredited 12-month immersion programme including both theory and hands-on experience in cinematography, editing, audio production and storytelling.

“The MultiChoice Talent Factory partnership with Canon is an exciting and important opportunity for the African film & TV industry. These training sessions enable us to equip industry professionals with practical and time-relevant skills. Most African film-makers and content creators are self-taught, and access to masters and technical skills development is hard to attain – this is why collaborations such as these are crucial for upskilling and development of the industry.” -Nwabisa Matyumza, MultiChoice Talent Factory Director

Canon continues to roll out its several creative initiatives that are focused on promoting job opportunities and future livelihoods for the young population in Africa to enhance and support their skill sets, under its prodigious Miraisha programme. Falling under the umbrella of Canon’s wide-spread Miraisha initiatives, the company plans to support MTF Academy students to hone their filmmaking and technical skills through a three-month series of workshops that focus on developing a strong foundation of technical know-how, filmmaking basics and introduction to different cameras and lens types.

TAKING THE TRAINING TO THE NEXT LEVEL

“We are thrilled to provide these next-level training sessions to MTF students, these sessions are key to sharpen their existing knowledge and skills to make them future-ready for the big wide world out there. It makes a world of a difference for students to understand what products are currently being used by ace photographers and filmmakers in the industry and the tips and tricks behind creating their best work using such products. Canon has always been a visionary company that has created some of the best imaging products taking the work of photographers and filmmakers from good to brilliant to exceptional. We are delighted for the students to have this extraordinary opportunity. – Nicola Mungle, Sales and Marketing Director at Canon South Africa

The training programme will kick off with an introductory session on the brand and the best-in-class technological line-up catered for photographers and filmmakers along with technical training on other Canon products. Moving into the physical trainings, the students will have the opportunity to get hands on training whilst delving deep into filmmaking incorporating a thorough overview into DSLR and Mirrorless, XA & XF and Cinema EOS Filmmaking Cameras along with other sessions on the art of shooting.

NURTURING THE NEXT GENERATION

The company plans to take these training courses in time from a virtual set-up to a physical in-person set-up, based on the safety compliance guidelines for the COVID-19 pandemic. The trainings will encompass a total of 60 students from 13 different African countries with physical trainings taking place in the hub countries at the MTF Academies in Nigeria, Kenya and Zambia.

MASTERING THE ART

In a bid to further encourage the art of filmmaking, Canon has organised four Miraisha Masterclasses that will be open to the general public as well as MTF alumni. These classes will be based on various industry topics and cover introductions to video and lens basics along with some advanced classes, thereby providing people an opportunity to learn the basics when it comes to technical aspects of filmmaking, as well as have the option to do the advanced workshops. The Masterclasses will commence in June 2022 and continue through August 2022.