The Story

Rick finished his schooling at Hoërskool Gimnasium, Paarl (2007) and then went on to study as a pilot at Stellnbosch Flying Club. He qualified with his private pilot’s license in April and then went on to start his commercial pilot’s license at 43 Air Shool in Port Alfred. (June 2007)

Due to the 2008 recession and financial implications he finished the license with a visual flight rules rating (VFR) at the end of 2008. This meant that he had to either continue studying to obtain his instrument flight rules (IFR) rating or go do bush flying in Namibia or Botswana. These jobs were scare due to the recession and he resorted to waitering to save up funds and complete his license. This test date eventually arrived in April 2009 and due to going below the glideslope he failed the test. Without funds left to re-do the test, within a month, he had to resort to waitering once again to save up funds to complete the license.

Waitering it was for the next few years and he worked himself up to junior manager at the Val De Vie Winelands Lifestyle Estate. Once again with the help of family and friends he could re-do some of the flying hours needed and do the test flight. The test flight arrived on 11 March 2013 and he succeeded. He qualified as a commercial pilot with an instrument rating. (SACAA-CPL-IFR)

After job hunting for a year and being unsuccessful he was diagnosed with depression in March 2014. Which meant that he will be unable to fly furthermore. As long as he is using the medication. He had to keep on using the medication and resorted to waitering, working on wine farms as a wine tasting assistant, being a film extra and taught himself how to create WordPress websites. This led to the creation of Bioskoop.co which is an Afrikaans website about the South African film industry. Through this website he was fortunate to make great friends who helped him to meet filmmakers in the South African industry.

In 2017 his mother passed away due to cancer. Which was a great loss to Rick as she supported him throughout his journey. Yet, wonderful friends of his mother Stompie and Deon Zandberg offered to pay for his tuition at a film school as he was unable to do so.

In 2018 Rick enrolled at AFDA, Cape Town and completed his first year with a distinction but decided to rather continue his studies at City Varsity, Cape Town the following year.

He had to redo his first year as City Varsity is internationally accredited and follows a different curriculum. Having to resort to a student loan as his sponsors could not afford to help him anymore. Rick obtained his BA Film & Television degree with four out of six distinctions. He dreams of becoming a top Hollywood film producer and enjoys cinematography as well. Bioskoop.co in the meantime was registered as an NPO that wishes to raise funds for underprivileged students who want to study drama or filmmaking. Rick also started his own digital media marketing company Contour Media. Which offers social media marketing and digital video creation for the same sphere.

He looks forward to the future and can’t wait to one day produce that Hollywood film that would become the first of many.