Confessions of a Technophobe, New Series 29
Part 2 continued
1956–1966
Having devoted the previous four years to learning the business of television, then assimilating the craft of script writing, I experienced a sudden and very abrupt change of direction as a learner farmer! While lifting heavy boulders into place to create a dam across the Crocodile River, I wondered if I could adjust to life working on the land and whether I would miss the helter-skelter, adrenaline-pumping experience of managing live television or the more sedate days of writing film commercials (no TV as yet).
My farming days were a useful means of trying to regain full physical fitness for my beloved rugby. However, although I made the Wanderers First team, I found that the nearly three years I spent without any sport while working in television had taken the edge off my game. I was no longer the fittest person in the team, nor quite the fastest. I still played a good game but in my heart of hearts I realized I was unlikely to make the next steps up the ladder, namely provincial rugby. Despite my hard work on the land, I failed to regain the edge of fitness I previously had over other players.
Derrie had an idea. Every evening after finishing work, he and I would make our way onto one of the ploughed fields and wrestle each other. In terms of weight, I was about 170 pounds, Derrie was over 200 pounds. He was six foot four and a half and I was six foot one. Over the many weeks of grappling and gasping I failed to beat him even once. However, it did increase my upper body strength considerably.
You may wonder why I put so much attention on the physical side of my life, when at heart I am a creative person with an aptitude for writing and (later) filmmaking. I happen to believe that a physically fit person has greater mental clarity than an unfit one. The trouble with so many fitness freaks is that they ignore and often even suppress any creative thoughts lest it should interfere with their worship of the body beautiful. In my case, fitness was a means of freeing up my mind to think creatively. My fellow rugby players would laugh at me when sometimes I sat on the edge of the field, waiting to play and writing a poem. They mostly had the fixed idea that a “rugger bugger” should concentrate on rugby and a poet should waft among the daffodils and think beautiful thoughts. Sorry to disappoint, it didn’t work that way for me!
My somewhat idyllic life as a farmer came crashing down when the acres of onions we had planted failed to appear. Not a single onion. Derrie and I were devastated. Our dreams of catching the early market with our Texas Giants turned into a nightmare of failed intentions. Derrie had been on the point of resigning from his day job to join me full-time on the farm but the onion disaster occurred before he put in his resignation.
I, however, was in limbo and I realized that my best bet was to go back into some form of writing whilst looking for another job in the movie industry. A friend told me that a leading advertising agency was looking for a junior copywriter. I applied, got an interview and, brushing over my farming career, I concentrated on the fact that I had written numerous film commercials as well as having production experience. I was offered the job and presented myself at the offices of Grant Advertising, at the time one of the biggest ad agencies in the world with its headquarters in New York and branches in many countries.
I quickly discovered that copywriting had its own set of skills and other than having the experience of writing film and later TV commercials, I was a complete babe in the woods. Fortunately, I had a very good copy chief, Trevor Kallus. He was an Englishman presumably of Greek heritage who had worked in South Africa for some years. When he got to know me, he would often tell about his tough childhood in London. One story has always stayed with me. His father was a hard man. To Trevor’s surprise one day, he was given some pocket money. His father said that the boy should put it away and save up to buy something worthwhile, rather than waste it on sweets and so on. The father showed Trevor a special place to store the money and the boy obediently complied. After some months he asked his father if he could access the money to buy a football. The old man laughed and said “You see that slot where you’ve been putting the money in? It/s a meter for our gas heater and thanks to your pocket money we’ve kept warm this winter!” Trevor never got his football. Although I grew to dislike copywriting, Trevor’s advice to me provided the basis for numerous writing skills I developed over time.
An example of the way in which copywriting could be enormously frustrating was the Coco Cola account that Grant Advertising had held for some years. Coke published a book in which the only words or phrases permissible for the account’s copywriting, were contained in the book. We writers could not use any word not found in the book. I understand the need for maintaining a style of copy that would be instantly recognizable as saying “Coco Cola” but trying to be creative with this limitation was infuriating, to say the least. On another occasion I wrote up an idea for a campaign for another product, not Coke. Trevor was impressed and forwarded the idea to one of the senior executives. The response came back to say that the idea was excellent but please fire the writer for making some grammatical errors in his presentation. Trevor bravely defended me but I could see the writing on the wall. I looked around for another job.
I discovered that Lintas Advertising (who were originally created specifically and solely for advertising Lever Brothers products) was looking for someone with both film and copywriting experience. Levers at the time produced many of the top foodstuffs and condiment brands in the world but Lintas was about to expand into advertising non-Lever Brothers products as well. Two things about the advertised job appealed to me. They wanted a film production executive who was also a copywriter. With a bit of a stretch I could tick both boxes.
The other thing that appealed to me was that Lintas was based in Durban, not Johannesburg. It was one of my favorite cities and was right on the sea. I quickly applied and, given my mix of film production and copywriting experience, I got the job.
“Weak beginnings will be followed by better fortune” is the translation of the Latin on the former Coat of Arms of the City of Durban. (Image from www.ngw.nl – Heraldry of the World)
My former High School Michaelhouse is situated eighty miles from Durban so many of my contemporary schoolboys came from that city or the surrounding districts. Shortly after arriving, I made contact with a number of old friends. Furthermore, Durban has more of an English culture than cities like Johannesburg or Pretoria.
The job itself was interesting but to my surprise it did not include producing film or TV commercials. As a copywriter I would certainly write commercials, but the productions would be handled by established teams and would often be actually filmed either at Killarney or Alpha film studios in Johannesburg. The film production side of my job was to research, write and produce ten- to fifteen-minute films shot on 16-millimeter film specifically for the rural African market. These films were sent in vans into some of the most remote of what was then known as Kwa Zulu (the home of the Zulu) and were shown, usually out of doors with a projector and screen.
Before writing my first of these films I was warned that one had to carefully consider the unsophisticated audiences that would watch them. Many of the viewers would never have seen a moving picture before. A classic example of a film that went wrong before I joined the team was a film which showed the advantages of using Lifebuoy Soap when bathing a baby or small child. Lifebuoy was one of Lever Brothers’ biggest sellers. Despite this, when the film extolling the virtues of the soap was shown in the rural areas, sales of the product dropped alarmingly. Horrified, Lintas sent a team to find out why the film had created such an adverse effect on sales. They quickly discovered that when one filmed the washing of an African baby, the child’s wet skin suddenly appeared darker than before. As a result, word went around that Lifebuoy made the children darker. It was considered by the mothers that it was more desirable for their children to be lighter, not darker! For a while this killed the sales of Lifebuoy in the rural areas.
My growing dislike of copywriting was enhanced by one of the senior copywriters telling me that he had just spent eighteen months devising the sparse copy on the box containing a popular soap powder. Nevertheless, I was thoroughly enjoying living in Durban. I had been invited by Nick, a school friend, to crew on his sailing dinghy during the racing season. A circuit had been created within the confines of the large Durban Harbor, so that we did not have to battle with the tougher conditions of the open sea. Nevertheless, we still had some hairy moments. One day, we were one of eighteen yachts and dinghies that started a race in windy and rainy conditions. A huge storm built up and conditions were really scary. As we battled with the elements, we saw our competitors capsizing one after another, with a couple of rescue launches frantically dashing from boat to boat picking up the crews from the water. Somehow, Nick and I managed to stay upright. I had spent more time baling than sailing and thanks to Nick’s skill we were the only boat to finish the race!
I also joined the Berea Rovers Rugby Club, one of the best and oldest clubs in Durban. After a couple of weeks of training I was in the 1st XV, largely based on my reputation for having been part of the Wanderers team in Johannesburg, which had won the prestigious Pirates Grand Challenge cup for the first time in years. However, I found that I simply could not get as fit as I was in my pre-UK television years. The first match was against a Zululand XV to be played in Empangeni, the main market town in a farming community, in the heart of what was then known as Kwa Zulu just over a hundred miles from Durban. Our opposition was mainly comprised of rugged farmers. It made for a bruising game, which we managed to win. This was followed by a fabulous braai (barbecue) and a staggering amount of alcohol, with the emphasis on staggering! I’m not much of a drinker, but on that occasion I truly overdid it.
The party continued until dawn and our hosts suggested that they take us to the nearby port and lagoon of Richard’s Bay where some of us might like to go water-skiing. I was one of about three Berea Rovers players with any experience on water skis. Just before I set off, one of the hosts grinned and remarked, “By the way, our skiers don’t fall off here.” I asked him why and he replied “It’s one of the few places where you get both sharks and crocodiles together. Falling off is not an option!” Had I not been still slightly drunk from the night before I would probably have said “Thanks but no thanks.” Anyway I took off and did a couple of circuits without becoming shark or croc bait. It was also my last match in a 1st XV team. I was relegated to the 2nd team, correctly so, and retired at the end of the season.
I had always continued to play field hockey as a second sport. This now became my major game and I continued to play hockey until I was 54. At age 53 I was awarded provincial colors for the over-35 players, something I had failed to achieve with rugby. When I got married in 1965, my wife Hero was delighted I had retired from the rough and tumble of rugby but what she didn’t realize was that I was now armed with a stick!
At Lintas, I continued to be frustrated by the strictures imposed on us copywriters. I accepted the need to maintain brand images but felt that far more creativity could be applied. I did find the making of the product knowledge films for the African market more of a challenge and I settled into what I expected would be a lengthy career in this field. However, as the work expanded, Lintas hired Ronnie Kasrills as a young assistant for me. He was friendly and amusing. We quickly became good friends. Little did I know where this new development in my life would lead me.
As I continue to learn more about the technology of ExoBrain, I have discovered that words and – more importantly – the meanings of words have a radical effect on the ability of this unique computing system. This brings me back in a circle to my advertising days where every word is considered to have an important impact on the customer. The major difference being that with ExoBrain it opens up a whole new world of creativity, as opposed to the restrictive use of words in so much of advertising.
An ExoTech Ltd shareholder, Chris is currently authoring two of the four books to be published the day ExoBrain launches and has helped to create ExoBrain’s introductory video to the Confidential Technical Briefing. Chris has spent his working life in the film and television industry, starting with BBC Television in London, then ATV in Birmingham becoming, at the time, the youngest Studio Manager in Britain.
Later, in South Africa, he wrote and directed film and TV commercials, having four South African entries at the Cannes Advertising Festival. After a number of years of writing and directing or producing documentaries (eight international awards) and corporate videos, he concentrated on writing feature film screenplays (five screened) and television series (seven screened). He has a novel, ”Pursuit of Treachery,” with a literary agent and is currently obtaining finance for an action adventure feature film he has written and is co-producing. He is a published poet and has given many readings.