Discover the winners of the #AnimateCT Challenge in Cape Town, as well as exciting future plans teased by Scene It. Explore the best animated entries, mentorship sessions, and upcoming routes involving cosplayers, animation, burlesque, and more.
The inaugural #AnimateCT Challenge drew took place in Cape Town, having drawn a wonderful response from the city’s creative community. With over 3 500 votes cast, public votes were tallied, and an esteemed jury of top animators and placemakers put their heads together to choose the best entries in three categories. Even a voter prize was awarded, with one lucky subscriber presented with a year’s worth of stays at The Heriot City Apartments.
We chat with the #AnimateCT team about animations, the awards and expanding the animation space.
How can people view the animations? Is it only on the website or are there places to view sights?
All the videos can be viewed on www.sceneit.app, and clips can be seen on our Facebook, Instagram and TikTok channels. There are currently postcard-sized QR codes in place at each of the Scene It hospot stages, and we are negotiating to keep those in place for as long as possible!
How will people be interacting with these animations going forward?
Ideally we’d like to create an on-foot treasure-hunt-style Animation Route around these videos. All the QR code cards are in plain sight, but given that they are relatively small, there is definitely a fun challenge in finding them! We certainly want to run another #AnimateCT Challenge next year. In the meantime we’ll be pursuing all sorts of options to grow this further, and will of course be accepting more submissions.
How did the judges select the winning scenes?
Each of the judges was given a scoresheet, awarding each animation points on a variety of aspects. Opinion varied quite a bit across the board, but for the winning animations the judges were unanimous.
Do you have a personal favourite animation?
Shew, what a question! I love them all. The very first one that came in was Dewald del la Rey’s ‘A Ladybug’s Journey’ at the Waterfront Canal. For me, that was when the whole #AnimateCT dream became real, so that video of @animator.boi will always hold a soft spot in my heart.
How do you hope to see this initiative growing and expanding?
#AnimateCT was very much a trial run and we’re super keen to double down on what we learned. We want to open more hotspot stages and run more challenges. Each of these new challenges will have a different angle, for example we’re currently exploring the idea of one which would be open to dancers and fashion designers etc as well as animators, but all videos must sample opera – specifically works produced by our own award-winning CTO. As before, the idea is for creatives to showcase their wonderful work to the world at large, and at the same time show off the beauty of Cape Town.
What was the highlight of this year's event for you?
It has to be those first few animations coming in. We’d obviously done some surveys beforehand, but until you actually see hard evidence of people’s enthusiasm for your idea, you are essentially living on hope. We’ve started something big here, and that is super exciting.
The following awards were given:
Public Favourite: Garth Sanders with ‘Peek-a-boo’ at the Radisson RED
Jury Favourite: Anelissa Nkanyuza with ‘Unexpected’ at Sea Point Pavilion
Best Use of Animation Principles: Tolonambinina Rakotoarivony with ‘A Quick Dip’ at Camps Bay Tidal Pool
Best Use of Space: Cabblow Studios for their Nando’s Kloof Street, City Hall, and CTICC entries, featuring Rorisang and the Gurlz
Mentorship sessions: Anelissa Nkanyuza and Stephen Van Wyk
The ever-playful Scene It team then took their ideas to Comic Con Cape Town, treating cosplayers to the opportunity to capture their characters ‘on holiday’ in Sea Point, Langa, the Castle and more. The rumour mill hints at an ‘As Seen at Comic Con’ route soon to be made available to viewers who enjoy seeing Cape Town landmarks joyfully reinvented.
With a successful debut campaign under their belts, Scene It is shaping up for many more ideas with which to challenge Cape Town’s creative community. With planned routes across Cape Town involving cosplayers, animation, burlesque, dance, classical music, comedy and more, audiences can expect the unexpected from this up-and-coming new platform. Watch this space!
To see the winning entries, go to sceneit.app/all-hotspots/, and to stay in the loop with Scene It, subscribe here: sceneit.app/#subscribe