Many people ask us where our Koffieboon journey started and how the idea came about, so we’d like to share with you our story so far.
A few years ago, Rene and I watched a South African television program and we were shocked by the really poor camerawork. So many basic photography/cinematography rules were broken and we were so upset that we were unable to enjoy the rest of the show, although we were really looking forward to seeing the content.
So, the next day, still upset about the whole experience and the fact that someone actually made a program with such terrible camerawork, I started thinking about what I would do differently, if I was behind the camera. I kind of figured it out in my head and for the next few days/weeks, I couldn’t stop thinking about this program and how to better it!
After a few days and with no television experience at all, I was thinking to myself what kind of program I would make if “I was going to make a television program”! At that point, Rene and I were still living in London and had just started exploring good quality coffee and we were learning more about the coffee scene around the world. This became a big interest and with coffee being the second biggest commodity in the world, it came as no surprise that the coffee culture was growing all over the world, and also in South Africa. So, my idea was COFFEE. At that point, it was the best and only idea I could come up with (and I’m so glad the idea stuck)!
One morning, after my first aeropress coffee (that’s how I make and drink my coffee at home), I was thinking about the coffee program again and decided to sit down and write out a few ideas. The format for “my coffee program” started taking shape and after a few hours, the idea actually started looking good on paper. Although we now had a really good idea of what we wanted to do, we had absolutely no idea what to do next or where to start!
I think the beauty and miracle of it all is that, under normal circumstances, I would just pass on an idea like this to friends who actually work within the television industry, but I had a “spiritual moment” where I just knew that the Lord was telling me that this was a project for ME to execute, and not a project for someone else.
So now that I at least had an idea on a piece of paper, I started doing more research online, just to find out that there’s already a similar Australian program with almost the same format as ours. In a way I was disappointed that my idea was already “out there”, but I was also relieved to know that I was on the right track! Even though nothing in life is really new and most things in life have been “done before”, I had a knowing deep down in my heart that this program could still be special.
A few months later, I plucked up the courage and was excited to share my idea with some of my closest friends (most of whom work within the television industry) and we all decided that the next step would be to get in touch with a well established Production House to test the water!
The first name that came up was Ronel Moodie, another friend that we met and worked with whilst she was still living in London. She came back to South Africa a few years ago and was working as a producer for a well established Production house when we first made contact with her regarding our coffee venture. We understood that the idea had to be kept in “safe hands” and an initial Skype meeting was set up with Ronel and some of her other team members. They all loved the idea and we knew that we were onto something special.
In Afrikaans we have a saying that not everything is always sunshine and roses and we soon had our first setback! We sent our proposal online to a tv channel that we believed the program was best suited for, and after waiting a few months, their answer came back as a no. We were extremely disappointed, but we knew that this wasn’t the end. We still believed that this show had potential and we weren’t ready to give up on our dream just yet!
But now we had to start all over again and grow ourselves some new skin. We were able to set up a meeting with kykNET, organised by Ronel, and unlike the previous online submission, we were able to see one of the Commissioning Editors in person. We believe that this really helped, they were able to see our passion, and at that point, we gave it our all to make sure they liked our idea. After our proposal, the lovely lady in charge sat back and we all waited patiently for the verdict! “I love the idea and I think this could be a great program!” – just what we needed to hear, because there weren’t many other options left! Soon after this, we received an acceptance letter from the kykNET boss, Karen Meiring, as a final stamp of approval, and needless to say, we were over the moon!
There was just one other hurdle – we now needed a sponsor to fund the production. What we thought was going to be a very easy ride, became our biggest stumbling block.
In my next post, I will tell you about our (long) sponsorship journey and introduce you to the rest of our team, including the presenter.
