Adrian Alper
as Director & Dr Vosloo
BIO
Director Adrian Alper has had a hard-working and diverse career in entertainment. He has worked for more than two decades in the film and television industry in very nearly every capacity from admin to pre-production to set (both on and off camera) to post production to promotion. If it is a job done on a movie or TV production, you name it, he’s done it, from being the PA to one of South Africa’s leading film and TV producers to building sets for soapies and everything in between – but never the producer himself: with much love and respect, you’d have to be nuts to actually want to be the producer! All kudos and hats off to those blessed ones who keep the shop running so the rest of us can enjoy making the pretty pictures, but that’s where the fun stops, and to an outsider that particular job just seems to be one long headache...
However, his love of conceptual thinking, systems and logistics has always prompted him to explore many different areas of expertise and experience and see how everything fits together and contributes to the whole, hence his drive to try and learn about each function that goes into making a movie. It makes sense therefore that he would eventually be drawn to the position where all of the above comes together to be executed. The director’s chair...
He enjoyed early success as an actor, and his inquisitive nature soon drew him into helping out in other departments on set from continuity to lighting to props and wardrobe. He soon began to write scripts and over the years contributed in that capacity to several TV productions where his contact with the production office opened up new avenues for exploration. It wasn’t long before he had added several more functions to his bag of tricks, from dialogue coaching to cast coordination to publicity. By now gaining
a firm grasp of the bigger picture of film making, it was obvious to him that at the centre of all this industriousness there was one person to whom the whole puzzle was delivered to be shaped into the final product. And Adrian does love puzzles and challenges.
So in 2002 he was trained as a multicam director on a popular soapie which found itself temporarily short-staffed. It was a miraculous stroke of luck, and was the launching pad from which he moved on to other soaps, as well as sitcom and drama. Then came single cam drama, which was an eye-opener for its very different approach and challenges, but also its awesome freedom and demand for constant innovation.
Being such a sucker for a challenge, then, it was impossible for him to resist when he was offered the script for Desperate Measures. An independent film with drama, action, gunfire, robbery, sex, hospital emergencies, police arrests, prison scenes and set in four different periods of time? More than a dozen different locations and over 100 scenes? Tons of extras needed, but only four or five available at a time because it’s a no-budget movie? Wait a second, you mean low-budget... Nope, we mean ‘no budget’! Wow, that sounds impossible – I love it, sign me up.
And indeed, with many unpredictable problems, disappointments and disasters that lay ahead, it has by no means been an easy journey getting this film made. It has however been an immensely valuable and instructive one. The team was cajoled and carried and held together through each setback, and every obstacle was surmounted with passion, tenacity and fierce love so that this story could be told. Adrian for one is proud of what was accomplished within such severe limitations, where nearly every day compromises had to be made and where the name Desperate Measures was often more than just the title of the movie – it was the daily ‘to do’ list!
Thus the rollercoaster ride through his past productions like Generations, Isidingo, Madam and Eve, Egoli (both the series and the movie), Sterlopers, Munisipaliteit van Gwarra-Gwarra, Scandal!, Terug na Egipte, Shado’s and others now swings through the loop-de-loop that is Desperate Measures. Enjoy!
