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Commercial film · Durban, South Africa

More than a video.
More than an ad.

Director

Discipline

Based

Status

Derwent Stopforth

Strategy, script, shoot, edit

Durban · shooting nationally

Booking Q4 2026

Visual storytelling anchored in rhythmic movement and dynamic cadence — built around a strategy first, so the film has something to actually carry.

Switch Energy · Heineken · BMW · Coca Cola · Mercedes‑Benz · Savanna · Nivea · Jägermeister · LEGO · Virgin Active · Chery · MRP Cellular · MRP MONEY · Vuse · Hunter's · Nawty Water

The position

The video is just proof the strategy worked.

Most production quotes start with a camera. Mine starts with a question: what is this piece of film supposed to move, and for whom? Get that wrong and no amount of grade, gimbal or grain will save it.

​

So every project opens with a paid discovery, a diagnostic and a creative strategy. We agree what the film has to do before anyone books a call sheet. The edit that lands at the end is the evidence, not the product.

​

It's one person the whole way through: I run the strategy, write the script, shoot it and cut it. Nothing gets lost in a handover, because there isn't one.

The position

The work
keeps running
after delivery.

108 films cut for brands, distillers, breweries and agencies then counted where they actually played. Platform view counts, pulled post by post. Not impressions, not reach estimates, not a media plan.

2,768,376

VIEWS · 108 FILMS · 14 CHANNELS

BIGGEST SINGLE FILM

ON CLIENT CHANNELS

ON OURS

1.11M

54

54

6

yrs

Commercial and brand work, from design bench to director's chair

13

National and global brands trusted with their footage

1

Person on strategy, script, camera and edit, no handovers

7

Workshops taught to South African creators and in‑house teams

Selected Work

Let's see if there's
a story here.

01

Heineken

Events

2026

02

Manyoni

Brand story

2025

03

Savanna

Events

2026

04

Jagermeister

Activation

2026

WHAT I MAKE

Three things,
done properly.

No menu of forty services. If it isn't one of these, I'll tell you and point you somewhere better.

60–180 SEC

1–3 SHOOT DAYS

A

Film

Brand film

​The hero piece. Founder stories, manifesto films, launch films, the one asset everything else gets cut from. Scripted, directed and graded to survive a big screen.

60–180 SEC

1–3 SHOOT DAYS

B

Social

Paid social

Built for the feed, not squeezed into it. Hook-first vertical cuts, variant sets for testing, subtitles and sound design that hold up on mute.

60–180 SEC

1–3 SHOOT DAYS

C

Post

Edit & grade

Footage that already exists and isn't working. Recut, colour graded, sound
designed, motion graphics and subtitles, DaVinci Resolve end to end.

LEARN IT YOURSELF

Workshops for
people
who've plateaued.

Small rooms in KwaZulu‑Natal. Your own laptop, your own footage, and the specific thing that's holding your work back, found and fixed in a day.

See all workshops

01 — 3 December 2026 · Ballito

Make the cut

A full day in DaVinci Resolve. Cut, grade, sound and deliver a real
piece before you leave the room. 20 seats.

​02 — 1 December 2026 · Ballito

All The Gear No Idea

One day on camera. Exposure, movement, lenses and light — why
your footage looks flat and theirs doesn't.

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