By Kennedy Nyavaya
Popular newscasters McDonald Gurura and Rumbidzai “News Bae” Takawira have joined forces with a local film production company Invision Studios to produce Life in 5, a cutting-edge online daily life update show.
Revered for succinct delivery in local television bulletins and current affairs, the duo has been consistently keeping people informed on day-to-day goings-on since the beginning of the nationwide lockdown scheduled to end today.
Speaking to Standard Style, Gurura said the show, which airs on Facebook channel Pano TV, signifies their efforts to keep the nation credibly informed during this unprecedented period necessitated by the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic.
“This is a collaboration and we just thought let us donate something to the people in this scenario, so we decided to bring our voices as a way to deal with the lack of credible information and for us that is the most important thing,” said Gurura.
With the global scourge unrelenting and misinformation about it surging from the other end, Takawira believes their efforts detailing lived realities from different perspectives will count for something.
“It is a tough time for everyone. People do not know how the world will look like after this and some of the information is sensationalised, so we are saying let us hear real stories from all sectors since everyone is affected by the pandemic,” she said.
“We are trying to show that it is possible to get credible information and share it from home, through new media like social media.”
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Takawira added that the show was the beginning of a collaboration they had mooted, but had not implemented for long and it would unite people.
“We are bringing people together, you know how we [Zimbabweans] have been so polarised on many lines as a nation, so this is us trying to bridge that gap,” she said, while Gurura added that the “off-the-cuff” project was serving an invaluable purpose:
“I think the aim is working hard to get people to understand the dynamic that we are in and that is, this is a new normal,” he said.
Meanwhile, now on Episode 21 and in typical new age collaboration, the show, set to continue after the lockdown, is being recorded by cellphones with the content sent virtual to the producers who put it together before airing.
Invision Studios director Charles Mugaviri Jnr said although they have had to get used to working without meeting the hosts physically, the end product has been exceptional.
“We saw an opportunity for a good collaboration and since we have Pano TV, we decided to use it to give up-to-date information which people need at the moment and although it has been the first time we have had to work without meeting the people we are working with, they know what they do and it makes it easier,” he said.
