Get used to seeing the names Hloni Coleman and Johann ‘Vossie’ Vorster. These two filmmakers are now both available as commercials directors and come with the production support of the established team at Cake.

First up, this was not a case of ‘make the circle bigger’, as the team at Cake weren’t actively on the hunt to add more directors to their relatively newly launched production company. However, having collaborated with both Hloni and Vossie for years, Cake Co-founders Cat Lindsay and Nadezna Radcore, recognised an opportunity to offer these experienced filmmakers a strong production support and structure within the commercials industry. Nadezna says: ‘Hloni and Vossie share the same values and way of working as we do. By signing them to our team we have the opportunity to now continue our already established working relationship and friendship with them within the Cake family. Basically, we all get to hang out more.’

Executive Producer Cat Lindsay weighs in: ‘I think as an industry we are putting more importance on creating supportive production spaces that celebrate collaboration, as opposed to those that indulge in dictatorial leadership. That’s what our Cake philosophy is based on, healthy collaboration, and it’s one of the things that make our new directors such strong filmmakers.’

Meet Hloni Coleman

Hloni is an experienced action drone cinematographer, photographer, branded content creator turned commercials director, oh and he’s also a two-decade old Instagram influencer with over 46 0000 followers. Don’t be afraid, influencers don’t actually bite. ‘If you want to get your brand noticed, want something completely unimaginable, different and awesome, then Hloni is your guy.’ Says Cake. ‘Whether he’s shooting the Northern Lights in the Arctic or hanging upside down with his drone on the side of a mountain, by foot or by air, Hloni will get it done.’ A knack for storytelling, resourceful and a passionate collaborator, Hloni’s love for South Africa and his magical kind and open attitude really is one of a kind.

Q: You’ve built a diverse filmmaking portfolio, what kind of work do you want to create going forward with Cake?

Hloni: I like anchoring my work in a South African storytelling context, especially documentary-style storytelling. We just did a short film about a child from Cape Town who wants to become a magician and that ended up being, at the heart of it, something I didn’t get to see when growing up. The idea that a young black child could be a stage magician would never have crossed my mind, and I would love to share more authentic stories of our country that have previously been left untold.

I have been incredibly lucky to travel the world, but South Africa is still the most beautiful country to me. If you look at spaces like the US, the maturity of the industry there means they get to have such a diversity of stories about their country. I think we are moving toward that and I look forward to making an entire beer ad in the lagoons of St Lucia or a sports shoe piece on the cliffs of Coffee Bay. I would love to go back to all those spaces that I grew up in and share them with the rest of the world.

Meet Johann ‘Vossie’ Vorster

Working as a documentary filmmaker has taken Vossie across the globe earning him an impressive list of awards along the way, including a Cannes Lion, a Prism, Promax, SAFTA and a couple of Encounters. But he’s not only a doccie filmmaker, in fact Vossie is a director who really understands the whole production process. Starting at the bottom, Vossie’s very first job on set was making coffee, fast forward to 22 years later and Vossie is a skilled director, camera operator, editor, writer and adventurer. A look at his reel and you feel it throughout his work; Vossie’s storytelling beautifully cuts through the clutter and gets down to the essence of humanity, whether on the baked salt pans of the Kalahari or on set in Joburg.

Cake director and long-time friend and collaborator, Rob Malpage, weighs in on Vossie joining the team: ‘What’s amazing about Vossie is that he is a consummate storyteller who can quickly tell really engaging emotive stories and make them look beautiful. He is also just a really great guy who plays a large training and mentorship role on many of his shoots across Africa. He’s open, patient, cool to work with and someone who I have chosen to collaborate with for many years and I’m very excited that he’s joining our family.’

There’s no denying that Hloni and Vossie both bring a whole array of skills and experience to the Cake team, but they really are also both flippen lovely, and in this, The Year Two of The Global Pandemmy, working with incredibly talented people who are also incredibly nice means a lot! Wanna (s)talk some more? Cake on IDIDTHAT Profile and Company Website.