An innovative new Cape Town video platform is giving creatives a showcase for their talent – and businesses an opportunity promote their message – with the Mother City’s iconic venues playing a starring role.
Think of it as Tinder for creatives and brands. Scene It is a short video platform designed to create adventures for tourists and locals using the creative arts as a springboard while incentivising local businesses to join the fun. A key detail is that each video must “star” a local place, whether a café, street bench or building.
Instead of finding a significant other, artists such as poets, designers, SFX artists, acrobats, magicians, musicians, singers, storytellers, influencers, animators, educators, dancers and videographers can be linked with businesses or brands looking to promote themselves or their offerings through user-generated content.
Many people, for instance, are making fabulous short videos for Instagram or TikTok but are still not growing a decent audience. Via Scene It, their videos will be shown to locals and tourists who visit Cape Town’s scenic spots, destination eateries or cultural venues. At the same time, they will help bring new eyes to the places where they have created their videos.
While ultimately Scene It aims to be an app, for now it resides on the Scene It website and is focused on gathering videos and testing how those can be linked together to form curated routes, viewable by scanning QR codes installed in participating venues or places. The idea is also to make the videos available on the Scene It website to encourage people to visit these areas or spaces.
BRIDGING THE ARTS AND TOURISM
The platform is the brainchild of Daisy Ions, founder of What’s on in Cape Town, What’s on in Joburg and the National Arts & Tourism Information Hub (Natihub). Scene It developed from a lockdown idea that was, essentially, a local version of YouTube. By featuring the city as a prominent character, she figured she was onto something unique, and could bridge the arts and tourism.
Two decades of working in these sectors have made her aware of the amount of untapped creative talent, and that most businesses – under the strain of trying to promote themselves – overlook the inherent benefits of promoting others.
Ions explains: “I have always felt that art and tourism should and could work better together. But Scene It can also offer value to education, social messaging and all sorts of wider public good initiatives that can employ the arts to engage attention in a particular space. For instance, animation is a fantastic way to get a message across. How cool would it be to challenge content creators to come up with their own anti-littering videos? You can get that message across with animation or fashion or comedy or even acrobatics.”
THEMED CAMPAIGNS
Ions is in talks with potential sponsors over a range of themed campaigns and challenges which can be run as competitions and then be developed into established routes. The most recent campaign, AnimateCT, was open to all animators who animated 10 well-known spaces in Cape Town, such as the Cape Town International Convention Centre (CTICC 2), Cape Town City Hall, Guga S’Thebe Arts, Cultural & Heritage Centre, Sea Point Pavilion and Camps Bay Tidal Pool.
One of the prize-winning submissions, which can be viewed on the Scene It website or by scanning a QR code at the spot, features the Cape Town City Hall and shows a high school student, Rorisang and her bandmates, arriving in style to perform for their fans in Cape Town.
Says Ions: “We want to create a platform that allows creatives from musicians to magicians, and business or brand owners to work together so we can have routes around the city that people can follow on foot, by bike or by car.
“On a simpler note, visitors attending an event at the CTICC, for example, can scan a QR code while on a break and see the little videos that have been created in the space that they see around them. In the case of the CTICC, we have also explored relevant activations. At Comic Con Cape Town, we filmed cosplayers against a green screen so that their characters appeared as tourists in Cape Town. That ‘As Seen at Comic Con’ route is now viewable on Scene It.”
EXPLORE THE CBD ON SCENE IT
There are 20 prominent places highlighted on the platform at present. Those in the CBD include City Hall and the CTICC, featured as part of the AnimateCT Challenge. The two City Hall QR codes can be found in the window at the left entrance of the building. Viewing the clip is as simple as using the QR scanner available on any smartphone, following the link that pops up and watching the video, which also has a small description.
In early June, three CBD routes will be introduced, including a Burlesque Route taking place at Bodega Ramen (Wale St), Cape Heritage Hotel inside Heritage Square and The Athletic Club & Social (Buitengracht St). There will also be a Bars Route taking place at Clay Café In The City (Bree St) Gorgeous George (St Georges Mall) and Iron Steak & Bar Restaurant (Bree St). The third route (Heritage) will feature the Dutch Reformed Church in Buitenkant Street, House Union Block (Commercial St) and the historic Sir Herbert Baker building that is home to 6 Spin St Restaurant and Gallery.
Says Ions: “What is wonderful about the platform is its accessibility. Anyone with a smartphone can view or create a video and submit it. Contact us and we can find the right artist for you. Brands and businesses can also sponsor a challenge or a route and have their name behind it. Events such as festivals and street parades can create a legacy project to keep their spirit alive until their next event.”
Ions is encouraged by the way people have received the platform and is confident it will grow. She has had interest from potential sponsors, artists, the public and the media.
“We are having to test, test, test all the time and navigate our way along the journey but there are a lot of people who are interested in taking this journey with us, and we’re hugely excited,” she concludes.
For more info: Scene It website
IMAGES: SceneIt, CCID