DewClaw Productions - Documentaries, Film Production and Commercials in South Africa

Sophie Vartan: Producer & Director

DewClaw Productions was created by Sophie Vartan (BSc Hons Env. Science, UK, and MSc Conservation Biology, SA) in 2002. Having travelled extensively around Southern Africa and spending much time researching lions in most of South Africa's premier game reserves, Sophia has a strong empathy for the wildlife and people she chooses to film. Many of her documentaries demonstrate the fine link between the community and its wildlife. Operating out of London and Cape Town, she spends her time producing and filming in Southern Africa. Sophie is the cheerful spirit amongst the crew. She injects positive energy, and is a keen motivator as well as an action girl who climbs rock faces for fun. Sophie has great skill in contract negotiation, liaising with clients to provide effective budget solutions whilst bringing together the best freelance crew committed to fulfilling any brief. She gets the job done quickly and efficiently with the minimum of fuss. Always looking for people and projects with potential, she is a visionary.

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Caroline Pryce: Post-Production Manager

Caroline joined DewClaw in 2004, from the Discovery Channel and Animal Planet where she worked on trouble-shooting, viewer relations and languaging. As well as overseeing sound on all DewClaw's wildlife shoots, Caroline is head of post-production and takes care of all DewClaw's marketing and public relations. She manages the two edit suites, a team of freelance editors and the dubbing room for commercials and overseas dubbing requests. Caroline is a competitive rower and advanced diver, she travelled solo across Africa, shoots and edits, and has degrees in economics and marketing.

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Geta Allemann: Production Manager

Geta completed a BSC degree at the University of Stellenbosch after which she spent two years travelling throughout the UK and Europe. She is now the Account Manager for all of DewClaw's commercials and services at least 4 productions a month. She looks after large freelance crews, manages equipment orders and tele-streaming, runs DewClaw's Casting and Locations subsidiary company and is constantly liaising with the commercials clients.

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Lianne Slegh: Production Co-ordinator

DewClaw is turning this young Dutch Film Student into a wildlife filmmaker!
As part of her internship, she works closely with our scriptwriters and has already helped to shape 26 episodes of our wildlife scripts. As part of her final project for her studies, DewClaw provides all the equipment and use of editing suites. DewClaw has also provided the opportunity for Lianne to work closely with some of South Africa's finest wildlife filmmakers, such as the Foster Bros. She recently helped to organise Wild Talk Africa, DewClaw's initiative with e.TV to raise the profile of wildlife filmmakers in Southern Africa.

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Little Monty:

This is Monty (after Field Marshall Montgomery, the Desert Rat!), the DewClaw sheepdog. He even has a dewclaw if you look closely enough! He insists on exercising the DewClaw team throughout each day and keeping them on their toes - as if production work isn't busy enough! DewClaw wouldn't be the same without him!

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Consultants and Experts:

Technical and creative consultancy from world renowned filmmakers Craig and Damon Foster, combined with
strong alliances with award-winning post-production teams and sound engineers, contribute to making each
of our productions not just informative and interesting but also a visual and audio feast.

Training and Empowerment:

The South African film and documentary industry target for every production with ten or more crew is to provide training opportunities for 10% (for 2004, and increasing thereafter) of individuals from historically disadvantaged backgrounds - we fully support and always exceed these targets on each of our shoots. We also insist that the companies with which we deal make a similar commitment.

Internships:

DewClaw believes on taking on interns from various film schools around South Africa and the rest of the world to give students the chance to see what it is like to work on productions and to run an independent company. If you would like to apply for an intern position please email us at info@dewclawproductions.com