ABOUT THE WORK
I grew up thinking making was basically messing around.
The serious paths were obvious — doctor, lawyer, scientist. Making things felt like the stuff you did on the side. Drawing, building, pulling things apart, trying something because you were curious.
As I’ve grown, I’ve realized that play is the work.
You need space to mess up. You need the right tools in your hands. You need to try things before you know what they are, or what they might become.
That’s still how I make anything.
Try. Fail. Adjust. Try again.
And eventually something that only existed in your head is suddenly sitting there in front of you.
And talking to so many friends + collaborators – they’ve used AUTODESK to do just that – Oli Millar built the HD video taps for a couple of my film cameras, designed in AUTODESK for crying out loud!
Getting to make this one back home, with so much talent on our doorstep, made it all the sweeter.
THANK YOU CAPE TOWN! 🙏🏽
– Salomon Ligthelm
NOTE FOR THE JUDGES
Making Autodesk with Salomon was a trip and a real gift. Eighteen locations, three camera teams, 35mm and 16mm, over seven jet-fuelled days in Cape Town. From newborns and prosthetics workshops to construction sites and stadium crowds, a small universe to bring to life. A masterclass and a baptism of fire.
From the production side, the challenge was building something that could hold all that ambition and still leave room to play. Time to chase an image. Space for an idea to get a little stranger. Getting to do that on home soil, alongside PRETTYBIRD and some outrageous South African talent, made it especially close to our hearts.
That spirit of collaboration started with Sal and swept across the call sheet. Every detail was iterated on, tried, tested and repeated, obsessively. Everyone brought something, and you could feel that care finding its way into the work. Making this ode to making was a sharp reminder of why any of us got into storytelling in the first place.
Endless love to our stellar crew. What a thing to have made together.
