Sally Blundell for Frank Film
A moment of boredom, a 15-second capella, and #FliFlaFlo has hurtled one Christchurch teenager into instant fame.
It was school holidays, early 2020. Jamayne Feast was hanging out in Christchurch with two friends when they decided to record a song and post it on video-sharing social networking service TikTok. By the time he got home, he tells Frank Film, his phone was going crazy .
What s going crazy? asked his mother, Taipua Feast. My TikTok! he yelled. What s TikTok? she asked back.
Feast was an overnight TikTok star. The short capella, Fli Fla Flo - Kumbalala, Kumbalala, Kumbala savesta - has clocked up 10 million likes, rocketed his follower base from 3,000 to 600,000 and spawned an avalanche of impersonations. Within two weeks, the quietly spoken sports fan was being wooed by agents, managers and producers. Since his video blew up last year he has signed up with a French music label and released a remix of Savesta.
FRANK FILM
Rare gulls nesting in the ruins of a demolished central Christchurch office block may have a new home in the city s red zone.
Christchurch’s population of endangered tarāpuka/black-billed gulls may have a new home. The city council is hoping to fashion a new site for the gulls in what was once part of Bexley, now in the city’s red zone. Council ecologist Andrew Crossland told Frank Film the existing bank will be reshaped to allow shallow flooding of tidal waters during spring tides, leaving small “islands” to mimic the stony banks and islands of Canterbury’s braided river systems where the gulls naturally live.
Jack it up, slide it back, swivel the wheels 45 degrees then roll it 250-300 metres to the back door of the Transitional Cathedral. That s the intent, Lewis Bradford engineer Ashley Wilson told Frank Film last week. It sounds really easy. All we need to do is make sure it is well tied together and has got some good foundations. Easy may be stretching the point but the last-ditch effort to save the 1905 NG building in Madras St from demolition to make way for the new $473 million multi-use arena is, he says, a feasible option.
The historic warehouse, home to NG Boutique since 2005, has been on the knife edge of planned demolition since 2012.