SAFO

SAFO

South AFrican Film
Orchestra

Welcome to the South African Film Orchestra, the only dedicated media scoring ensemble on the Continent, supplying traditional and hybrid score services to the music, TV and Film industry since 2012. All our musicians, arrangers and technical staff are experienced not only in classical and contemporary performance, but the rigours of music-to-picture.

Let us assist you in any of these Services:

  • "Fixing" the best ensemble for your project
  • Arrangements of your compositions for our players
  • Converting your MIDI parts to scores
  • Using "hybrid" techniques to blend live players and MIDI samples to get that blockbuster sound you’ve been looking for
  • Composition with our multi award-winning team
  • Orchestration
  • Conducting
  • Albums, TV, commercials, trailers and Film Scores
See more SAFO

SAFO

South African Film
Orchestra

Welcome

The South African Film Orchestra offers world-class live recordings at remarkably low cost through a combination of competitive rates and various tax incentives. An initiative of conductor and arranger Matthijs Van Dijk music & cinema audio engineer Simon Ratcliffe and scoring specialists Pressure Cooker Studios, all of whom are musicians in their own right, the orchestra is comprised of hand-picked players which SAFO has nurtured in the art of playing to picture over years of productions.

The SA Film Orchestra can vary in size to your needs from intimate quartets to full scale ensembles, with a core “Chamber Orchestra” of musicians covering strings, brass, winds and percussion, all of whom are experienced not only in film and album performance but in full scale symphonic performances.

With the ability to deliver the Orchestral performance in Stereo, 5.1, 7.1, Auro® or Dolby Atmos®, recorded and mixed to exacting standards by Sound & Motion Studios, SAFO has been recognised with awards including a New York Short Film Fest Programme Award, the Tokyo "Short Shorts" Rising Star Award and a SAFTA Nomination amongst other accolades.

Recording

All recording services are undertaken through our sister company, Sound & Motion Studios. Depending on your requirements, scores can be delivered unmixed or premixed in stereo or most surround formats, thanks to our Dolby accredited final mix studios.

Our facilities include:

Personnel

Matthijs Van Dijk-Fixer

Recipient of the 2006 SAMRO Overseas Scholarship for Composition, van Dijk is a composer, arranger, and orchestrator regularly performed locally, internationally and for the big screen. A classically trained violinist, Matthijs has also performed, composed and conducted for a wide range of award winning productions. His credits include Catch A Fire (orchestration) Loot (NYC Short Award and Tokyo Short Shorts "Rising Star" winner) and through his work with Sunrise Animation Studios, recognition at the Emmy’s, Palm Springs International Film Fest, Mon Premiere Film Fest, and Academy-Award qualifying Chicago International Film Fest, to name but few.

With several international qualifications and studio experience spanning the UK, USA and a host of African & EU countries over the last 18 years, Simon is as comfortable engineering contemporary and orchestral music as he is mixing Post and surround content and has won many awards in both disciplines, including SAMA, SAFTA, DIFF, Festival De 3 Continent, Loerie, New York Short Film Fest, Tokyo Film Fest and a range of other accolades. Although still actively involved in mixing albums and films as owner of Sound & Motion Studios, his recent specialisation in Score engineering is well supported by his training in France with Alan Meyerson (Hans Zimmer’s score mixer) and at Dolby Labs in Soho on the new Atmos® standard. Simon is also an author, lecturer and performing artist.

Simon Ratcliffe
Daniel Matthee

Since founding Pressure Cooker Studios in 2009, Daniel and James have hand-crafted music and sound design for numerous agencies and film companies from around the world. The main focus at PCS is on story telling through music, having scored numerous features including the worldwide release 'Vehicle 19' starring Paul Walker and a number of TV series, documentaries and shorts.

The composing duo have also had the pleasure of bringing their ability to unravel a story to the small screen while composing music for such brands as VW, Mweb, Old Mutual and Procter & Gamble. As well as writing for picture the studio also produces artists and were lucky enough to be the studio behind the production of the 2013 SAMA award winning 'Best Alternative Album' for 'Iscream Chocolate Stix. Other awards include a SAFTA for the duo's first feature 'Retribution'. As co-founders of SAFO, Dan and James now set their sites on bringing the international film scoring market to the shores of South Africa through their collaborative venture 'Atmosphere.'

James Matthes

Personnel

Matthijs Van Dijk-Fixer

Recipient of the 2006 SAMRO Overseas Scholarship for Composition, van Dijk is a composer, arranger, and orchestrator regularly performed locally, internationally and for the big screen. A classically trained violinist, Matthijs has also performed, composed and conducted for a wide range of award winning productions. His credits include Catch A Fire (orchestration) Loot (NYC Short Award and Tokyo Short Shorts "Rising Star" winner) and through his work with Sunrise Animation Studios, recognition at the Emmy’s, Palm Springs International Film Fest, Mon Premiere Film Fest, and Academy-Award qualifying Chicago International Film Fest, to name but few.

Simon Ratcliffe

With several international qualifications and studio experience spanning the UK, USA and a host of African & EU countries over the last 18 years, Simon is as comfortable engineering contemporary and orchestral music as he is mixing Post and surround content and has won many awards in both disciplines, including SAMA, SAFTA, DIFF, Festival De 3 Continent, Loerie, New York Short Film Fest, Tokyo Film Fest and a range of other accolades. Although still actively involved in mixing albums and films as owner of Sound & Motion Studios, his recent specialisation in Score engineering is well supported by his training in France with Alan Meyerson (Hans Zimmer’s score mixer) and at Dolby Labs in Soho on the new Atmos® standard. Simon is also an author, lecturer and performing artist.

Daniel Matthee

Since founding Pressure Cooker Studios in 2009, Daniel and James have hand-crafted music and sound design for numerous agencies and film companies from around the world. The main focus at PCS is on story telling through music, having scored numerous features including the worldwide release 'Vehicle 19' starring Paul Walker and a number of TV series, documentaries and shorts.

James Matthes

The composing duo have also had the pleasure of bringing their ability to unravel a story to the small screen while composing music for such brands as VW, Mweb, Old Mutual and Procter & Gamble. As well as writing for picture the studio also produces artists and were lucky enough to be the studio behind the production of the 2013 SAMA award winning 'Best Alternative Album' for 'Iscream Chocolate Stix. Other awards include a SAFTA for the duo's first feature 'Retribution'. As co-founders of SAFO, Dan and James now set their sites on bringing the international film scoring market to the shores of South Africa through their collaborative venture 'Atmosphere.'