Happy Bloo Monday 👋

The weekly newsletter for business owners, organisations, team members, and solo entrepreneurs (freelancers) — designed to add some colour to the Monday blues and replace it with a touch of Bloo.

Off the back of your feedback, we’re starting something new. Over the next few weeks, we’ll be breaking down the top takeaways from our Fintech x Film Workshop which happened at Heatseekers Conference — into a series diving into their key points.

Transforming expert advice into practical and actionable insights. This week we’ll be starting with Jordy Sank, one half of the powerhouse duo behind Sanktuary Films, whose Producer’s Playbook gave our attendees tips on how to translate your first couple of projects into business success.

Here’s what’s inside:

🎬 Meet Jordy Sank: one of the duo behind Sanktuary Films
📖 5 Key Lessons from the Producer’s Playbook: actionable insights you can apply today
🚀 What’s Next: A South African blockbuster hitting screens soon and a South African Film Trivia Night

🎬 Meet Jordy Sank — A Creative Powerhouse

Kicking off our workshop was someone who truly embodies what’s possible for emerging filmmakers in South Africa.

Jordy Sank is a two-time South African Film & TV Award-winning director, writer, and producer best known for his feature documentary I Am Here (winner of Best South African Documentary at the Durban International Film Festival) and his award-winning short Leemtes en Leegheid (A Void). 

Together with co-founder Gabriella Blumberg, Jordy leads Sanktuary Films a production company specialising in narrative and documentary storytelling across shorts, features, and commercials.

Known for blending cinematic artistry with emotional resonance, Sanktuary’s work crafts impactful human stories that connect with audiences worldwide.

At Heatseekers Conference, Jordy joined us to share his Producer’s Playbook — breaking down strategies for getting your film funded, made, and seen.

📖 The Producer’s Playbook: 5 Strategies for Success for Young Filmmakers 

In his session, The Producer’s Playbook, Jordy broke down strategies for getting your film funded and made. From building credibility with smaller projects to mastering the pitch deck, his talk set the tone for practical, actionable insight on the business of film.

We’ve condensed the key lessons into actionable steps so you can apply them to your own projects.

1. Think Like a Startup Founder

Every film is like launching a new business.
✅ Identify your target audience
✅ Research what’s resonated with your target audience before, checking how similar films have
✅ Map the most effective ways to reach them.
✅ Plan how the film will be made (budget, timeline, resources).

Pro tip 💡: Your audience is your client build for them, not just for your creative idea. Too many filmmakers pitch a story without knowing who it’s for or how it will find them. Thinking like a founder forces you to be intentional about both the product (the film) and the go-to-market strategy of how it will reach your audience.

2. Define Your Intent Early

Before you shoot a single frame, decide what matters most what is the intention behind the film or project:

• Is it Financial Return 💰?

• Do you want to highlight an important social issue or spark discourse from the public 🌍 ?

• Or is it publicity aimed at putting your production company or yourself on the map 📢 ?

Rank your intentions in order of priority this will guide funding, partnerships, and marketing choices to ensure you reach your strategic outcomes.

Pro tip 💡: Funders and partners want clarity. If you’re chasing ROI, your pitch should look very different than if your main goal is festival acclaim or advocacy impact. Ranking your priorities upfront helps avoid misaligned expectations down the line.

3. Innovate What You Have

Constraints are your creative fuel.
🎥 Shoot micro-budget if needed (yes, even on an iPhone 7).
🌐 Build your own network and industry ecosystem that survives beyond one project.

💡 Why it matters: Some of the most groundbreaking films are born from tight budgets and creative problem-solving. South African filmmaker Jenna Bass proved this with her film High Fantasy — a body-switch drama shot entirely on an iPhone 7.

Instead of waiting for millions in funding or a massive crew, Bass and her team raised enough to shoot on a farm in the Northern Cape for three weeks with a mostly women-led cast and crew.

The movie explores themes of race, class, and gender in a South African context through the story of four young friends who experience a body swap while on a camping trip.

The film's use of an iPhone aimed to demonstrate that low-budget films can still achieve a high visual quality

4. Understand Different Funding Models

Don’t rely on a single source. Explore:

• Grants

• Crowdfunding

• Pre-sales & License Deals

• Commissions

• Tax Incentives

• Brand Sponsorships & Product Placement

• Private Equity

• Deferred Payment Models

• Co-productions

• NFTs / Blockchain (experimental)

💡 Pro Tip: Investors, grants, brands, and even experimental models like NFTs can all play a role in getting a film made. The best producers stack funding sources strategically, reducing risk and aligning each with the film’s priorities (audience, impact, or ROI).

5. Build Long Term Leverage For Your Projects and Your Film Business

🎯 Use one project to unlock the next — proof you can deliver is powerful currency.
📈 Get your work into the right festivals and markets.
🤝 Find the right partners (creative and commercial).
📰 Leverage PR and press to position yourself for bigger opportunities.

💡 Pro Tip: The film itself is only part of the journey — the reputation you build around it determines your future deal flow. Consistency, visibility, and strong relationships create a compounding effect, where each project makes the next one easier to finance and produce.

A New South African Blockbuster in Cinema: Hunting Jessica Brok 🔥🇿🇦

This past weekend we got to attended Afriquan Exclusives at The Artistry and Bloo Money got an exclusive 15-minute preview of one of the most anticipated South African action films of the year: Hunting Jessica Brok.

We had the opportunity to hear directly from the creative team behind this gripping new South African action-thriller on stage:

• Director: Alastair Orr

• Producer: Ariye Mahdeb

• Stars: Danica De La Rey & Richard Lukunku

They spoke about the intense process of bringing Jessica Brok to life from shooting in the wild, to Danica highlighting the challenges of delivering action sequences in the wilderness and how this pushed her to the limits of her creative talent.

This film promises to push the boundaries of local action cinema and is one to watch when it hits screens later this week.

A retired special forces agent must battle a group of vengeful psychopaths and the African wilderness to get back to her daughter.

Long before she was a single mother in a quiet South African town, Jessica Brok was one of the most skilled special ops assassins alive. But when a ruthless trophy hunter and his crew come looking for revenge, Jessica is thrust back into the fight of her life — hunted through the African wilderness with nothing but her training, her grit, and the will to save her daughter.

The 15-minute cut we saw at Afriquan Exclusives will give us all enough reason to go back into the cinemas and appreciate great local work. If the preview is anything to go by, this will be a defining local blockbuster.

🗓️ Hitting cinemas nationwide on 22 August 2025.

BAI x French For New South African Film Trivia Night

From Sarafina! to Shaka iLembe, it’s time to put your South African screen knowledge to the test.

On 27 August 2025 at Democracy Bar, the BAI Trivia Night (in partnership with French For New) brings together South African film buffs, industry insiders, and anyone who just loves to geek out about our local screen culture.

It’s more than a quiz it’s a celebration of the past, present, and future of South African film and television.

Expect nostalgia, tough questions, laughter, and maybe even a few bragging rights if you and your team come out on top.

It’s a chance to connect with others who are as passionate about South African storytelling as you are — from classics to cult favourites to the latest releases.

🚀 What’s Next

Stay tuned — over the coming weeks we’ll dive deeper into each of these workshop sessions with insights from distribution experts, film guarantors, and fintech innovators who joined us at HEATSKRS CON.