John returned to SA and initially deployed his skills making music videos, documentaries and, finally, a feature film: Bunny Chow, which he co-wrote, co-produced and directed. A challenging labour of love – which occasionally necessitated stealing his wife’s credit card – the film won acclaim internationally, featuring at several festivals, including the Toronto Film Festival, premiering in New York and scooping up honors at such prestigious ceremonies as the Tiger Awards.

During his time in South Africa John began directing commercials and shot work for, amongst others, Nando’s, Mugg and Bean and Converse. In 2011 he focused his energy on directing his second feature film: 31 Million Reasons, which was released in Jan 2012 through Nu Metro.

John has recently teamed up with Catapult to pick up where he left off in directing TV commercials.

Bunny Chow: Trailer

31 Million Reasons: Trailer

SupaQuick

Nandos

Danone

Converse: Monster Truck

He has directed music videos for EMI Records, Sting Music and worked with many celebrities such as Leon Schuster, Albert De Wet, Sorina Erasmus (Flooz) and Christina Storm.

Marthinus worked in Los Angeles at global powerhouse Anonymous Content as an assistant to Directors Mark Romanek, Jonas Akerlund, Samuel Bayer, David Slade and observed the works in progress by David Fincher, Guy Ritchi and Alejandro Ganzales Inarritu.

His Spec Spots certainly have been mistaken for Broadcasted execution and one got a short-listing nod at the 2010 Cannes Mofilm festival.

Narrative drives all his projects, his classical approach enables him to communicate with various audiences on a personal level.

Marthinus is excited to be back in South Africa and we are happy to have him onboard the Catapult team.
 
Please contact Glen to view additional work

Client: RIM
Agency: Leo Burnette

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Client: Nestle’
Agency: McCann Group

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Client:
Agency:

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Client: Cadbury
Agency: Saatchi & Saatchi
In July 2009 I was sent the original script for Cadbury ‘Ostrich’. It had come to me through a contact of Glen’s in London, someone who knew it was just the sort of thing I love doing.
At that time I had no idea who the client was, there was no product shown, the script didn’t even have a title, but I could tell it was great idea, and in an industry where great ideas have become a rare commodity I was immediately hooked.
When I discovered the film was to be 90’ long and was the next in the ‘Glass and Half Full Productions’ series, which began with ‘Gorilla’ I was over the moon – opportunities to direct a film like this come along once or twice in a career (if you’re lucky).
As to whether the finished film will be as fondly remembered as its predecessors – only time will tell, but the early signs are good. The shooting process went like a dream and the performances and production values are already looking great, a couple of weeks of post production will finish what has been an incredible journey. Watch this space…

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Client: DSTV
Agency: Studio Zoo

Client run a series of promo’s every year to promote certain of their channels.
This was to encourage viewers to rather stay at home and watch their array of bouquets offered across various price options(it can get expensive out there in a depressed market) but keep it amusing and real.
Good direction and casting helped bring it home and the spot took home an orchid in March 2010. Your thoughts?

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