When the country went into lockdown, Shane Comley-White lost the income he relied on as a martial arts teacher.

What followed was not a return to his old life, but the start of a new one in filmmaking. “Lockdown was the worst time in my life, but it was the best time for my future,” he said. “I lost everything that I was doing workwise. I lost all of my students. I lost all of my income, but it gave me an opportunity to open a door that I never thought I would.”

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Comley-White tried online martial arts lessons, but they did not take off. A local radio show based in Cape Town then gave him an unexpected platform, hosted remotely from Johannesburg, where he interviewed actors about movies. Those conversations led him into stunt training and, eventually, into filmmaking. “I got into actually making movies, making short films, making content,” he said, adding that each actor who trained with him could get themselves on camera.

That idea became HSD Productions, which Comley-White describes as a community-based company designed to give people a space to build their skills and develop themselves, particularly within the film industry. The company’s biggest project began small. Comley-White set out to make a short showreel for five actors, built around an object passed from one person to the next – a gun – which gave the project its name, The Passing. “It’s focused around a gun. Person A does something with a gun. They could throw it away. They could shoot someone. They could hide it,” he said, adding that the next person finds it, so it passes from one character to the next.

Interest in the project grew quickly and what was meant to be a short film became a full feature film, then a seven-part miniseries, after 28 actors signed on, each taking a lead or featured role. “I’ve got a very bad habit of taking something and making it bigger than what it actually should be,” Comley-White said. “It went from a short film to a full feature movie and has now landed up being a seven-part miniseries.”

The production runs on a zero-rand budget and is filmed wherever the team can find space, including one night shoot at Emmarentia Dam where the use of toy guns drew a visit from the police. “We even got the police called on us because we were running around with toy guns,” he said. “They got a little bit concerned, but it was all a prop, so it’s all good.”

With no studio, no wardrobe department and no paid crew, cast members and volunteers bring what they can find to fit each role. “We don’t have wardrobe, so everyone who is there is bringing in whatever they’ve got that will suit the role,” Comley-White said. “They’ll go dig in their grandparents’ clothes that looks all messy and tatty, and then they’ll put those on.”

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Volunteers travel from across the greater Johannesburg area to take part, including from Alexandra, Soweto, Fourways, Pretoria and Midrand, with one cast member driving in from White River each time he is needed. Comley-White, who writes, directs, films and edits the series himself, said he has drawn on advice from contacts in the international film industry, including actor Eric Roberts, whom he described as his main mentor. He said other established names in the industry are following the project, though he was not able to share details at this stage.

For now, HSD Productions continues filming scene by scene, hoping the finished series will draw wider interest, with Comley-White stating they are far from finished.

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