A Masterclass with veteran story maker Jans Rautenbach and music maker Riku Lätti
If there’s one event that will change your life, it’s a masterclass with veteran filmmaker Jans Rautenbach and composer Riku Lätti, who collaborated artistically on the masterful South African film Abraham.
The masterclass is presented by The Writing Studio and hosted by the Artscape Resource Centre and takes place on Sunday, November 22 from 9.30 am until 5pm. Booking is essential. Send us an email
”You cannot write a screenplay if you don’t live the art of storytelling…”
In his masterclass, Jans Rautenbach takes an intimate journey into what it takes to be a storyteller:
- Recognizing your own prejudices – likes and dislikes – and being an honest realist
- Recognizing your own inabilities – but especially also your own experienced strengths.
- Knowing and understanding the movie world
- The power of images, dialogue and directing
- Putting words on paper – the first step – painting the canvas – the first brush strokes
- Three types of screenplays
- Creating of characters
- Briefly emphasize and illustrate the importance for a screenwriter to constantly think “sound, silences, effects …and music – with and without lyrics” in the writing process.
”You breathe man and woman into life.”
Riku will talk and demonstrate – and live the mind process of a composer and his essential creative musical contribution during the final screenwriting stages.
He will play the notes – search the lyrics – harmonise word and music – sing the song – and take us along into a world where his genius hangs on the Washing Line of life to enthrall all that pass by.
The session ends on a high with the screening of the film Abraham, followed by a question and answer with Jans Rautenbach and Riku Lätti.
Riku Lätti is a singer-songwriter, producer, writer, who, once upon a time, studied philosophy at WITS. He then embarked on a career as IT specialist, and, after a few years in the corporate world, he succumbed to the allure of the financially unstable life of a musician. To try to box Riku’s music into a specific genre would be negligible, because, just like the man, his music is eclectic and encompasses a variety of styles, depending on the mood that he wants to create, always staking out new musical territory. He uses various instruments and anything else at his disposal. From chirping birds, whistling kettles, wooden floors, a toothbrush, raindrops, to the famous hekkie (gate), which he put to creative use on one of his outstanding tracks, on the album Radio Lava. His songs are uniquely innovative, blending many disparate elements imaginatively.
He has co-produced the soundtracks of the TV-series’ Hopeville (Nominated for an Emmy, Winner of Rose D’or) and Wie lê Waar (kykNET) with Jahn Beukes, and Vlug na Egipte with Leslie Javan. He also produced the soundtrack and sound design for the feature film Die Ongelooflike Avonture van Hanna Hoekom (for which he won a SAFTA) and most recently the critically acclaimed Jans Rautenbach film, Abraham.
Riku has released 10 albums which he has written, recorded and produced himself, as well as being the producer of 8 albums for other artists. He has won numerous awards including the GMT best male vocal for the album Aan’t sterre tel, plus his album Radio Lava was considered among the top 25 Afrikaans albums of all time by Die Beeld and singled out by journalist, producer and author Deon Maas, as one of the three most important Afrikaans albums ever made.
More recently Riku was called the David Attenborough of the music industry. He seeks out musicians in their natural habitats and then records them right there, without pretense. No nonsense. Just raw, honest music, captured, and then showcased as a beautiful protest to the current state of the music industry in South Africa. This musical movement is well known under the title Die Wasgoedlyn.
In 2015 Die Wasgoedlyn released 4 albums, all recorded and produced by Riku:
- Wasgoedlyn Volume 1 (24 songs by various artists)
- Kroeskop vol geraas – Churchil Naude
- 2 Ster Hotel – Bacchus Nel
- Abraham – Soundtrack for Jans Rautenbach’s film
Die Wasgoedlyn is currently being developed into a TV-series:
Riku’s aim is not to create pretentious art, but to create beautiful things. His music and lyrics does not just tell his story, but also empathetically convey the stories of other people and places, whether imaginary or real. In creating he becomes inspired and an inspiration to others.