7de laan takes up 24 hrs, seven days of my week …
HM: What advice do you have for writers and creators to come up with a project as successful as 7de Laan? What is the most important factor to consider when you create a new series? Language, characters, genre, setting?
DO: Do not try to imitate other successful series. Do not follow established formulae- producers receive dozens of proposals following the same patterns and hackneyed recipes. Try to find a concept that is original but still close to your heart, with characters and settings that you are familiar with, in a genre that you are comfortable in. And then stop dreaming- SIT DOWN AND WRITE!
HM: What is your opinion on the quality of writers in South Africa? What can WGSA do to make our writers more internationally competitive?
DO: There is too much drive to be“ internationally competitive”, resulting in our writers slavishly copying international models and formulae. We should concentrate more on telling local stories in a uniquely SA way.
HM: What is in the future for Danie Odendaal that we can look forward to? Will you carry on writing?
DO: The future? Wish I knew. Writing? Unfortunately yes- this old head is still buzzing with story ideas …
Danie Odendaal
Thank you so much for taking the time to chat to us, Danie, and here’ s to another 3000 episodes of 7de Laan.
7de Laan- 3000 episodes old!
The 3000th episode of 7de Laan was finally broadcast on Thursday, 9 May 2013 at 18:30 on SABC2.
7de Laan was created by Executive Producer Danie Odendaal. He got the idea for this soapie from a few of his favourite coffee shops in the Johannesburg area. That is the reason 7de Laan is centred around Oppiekoffie, a local coffee shop in the suburb of Hillside- very much like Melville in Johannesburg.
7de Laan is the story of a tight-knit community of friends and family who care deeply for each other. But, that also means everyone knows about each other’ s business. While life in Hillside is centred around the coffee shop there are also a few other businesses( Felicity’ s boutique Eclectic E, Herman’ s sports shop T & T, Vince’ s Deli, Altus’ events company Bruynwaves, the local newspaper The Hillside Times and Gita’ s travel agency) that are key and of course the group of young people who make the place tick. Also very important to the soapie are the elders of the community, Oubaas, Hilda, Matrone, Charmaine and no-nonsense cleaning lady, Maria.
The much-anticipated episode was recorded on 4 March 2013, during 7de Laan’ s 14th year on air.“ It is very exciting for our team to have reached such a great milestone. Many TV shows don’ t even make it to 1000 episodes,” said Tsholofelo Modise, 7de Laan’ s Publicity and PR Manager.
Although there is nothing spectacular happening in the 3000th episode it is still something worth celebrating.“ The producers and writers could not stop the‘ normal lives’ of the characters to celebrate 3000 episodes. It wouldn’ t make sense for the continuation of the storyline,” Tsholofelo adds. But the cast and crew of 7de Laan celebrated with some cake and champagne on the day they recorded the episode and they will have a crew get together soon.
7de Laan wishes to thank everyone who makes 7de Laan possible. And we would like to give a special thank you to our loyal fans who voted us Best Soapie at the South African Film and Television Awards in March.
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