< PreviousNATGEO KIDS ABU DHABI TO AIRS GREEN THUMB NEW ARABIC LOCAL ENVI- RONMENTAL SERIES PROMOT- ING SUSTAINABLE FARMING PREMIERED IN JULY National Geographic Abu Dhabi Kids will premier ‘Green Thumb’, a new environmental series produced locally that promotes sustainable farming. Through an educational approach delivered in an entertaining format, the show tackles diff erent farming methods, their benefi ts and applica- tions. The 16-episode series is inter- active, and aims to educate children while igniting their creativity in de- veloping their own environmentally friendly and sustainable farms. It features agricultural experts as guests, who discuss a step-by-step approach to building a farm, starting with understanding the evolution of the plant’s growth over a specifi ed amount of time. Using a practical approach, Green Thumb promotes ‘‘do-it-yourself ” techniques and skills to encourage children to apply the episode’s content in real life, such as assembling a crate as a plant- ing container. Green Thumb will be hosted by Razan Mohammed, a young environmentalist, and she will engages with experiential showcases that promote environmentally safe new ways to farm in the region. Dubai Studio City, the region’s leading community for the broadcasting, produc- tion and events sectors, announced its stra- tegic partnership with the National Media Council to support CineMENA, a dedicated platform that celebrates the art of content and fostering local and regional talent. Through a series of industry-specifi c workshops held at in5 Media, an innova- tion centre located in Dubai Production City, CineMENA aims to enrich the UAE fi lm industry through contributing to local content creation, and assisting Emirati fi lmmakers in developing and promoting cinematic content. Majed Al Suwaidi, managing direc- tor of Dubai Studio City, said: “Since the inception of CineMENA and our dedicated fi lmmaking workshops, we have seen a huge demand for fi lm and content creation facilities. We are immensely pleased to partner with the National Media Council to support the local and regional content creation industry with a focus on Arabic NMC PARTNERS WITH DUBAI STUDIO CITY FOR CINEMENA COLLABORATION AIMS TO ENHANCE UAE FILM INDUSTRY, LOCAL CONTENT CREATION content and Emirati fi lm. We look forward to expanding the platform that seeks to po- sition the MENA region as an international powerhouse in this strategic domain.” Highlighting the role of local fi lm production and its impact on the UAE’s national identity, HE Dr Rashid Al Nuaimi, executive director of Media Aff airs at the National Media Council, said: “With its world-class infrastructure, studios and technical equipment, the UAE has all the right elements to help the fi lm production sector grow and fl ourish. SAWA PARTNERS WITH HUAWEI FOR NEW VIDEO SERVICE Sawa Rights Management, a TV channel aggregator and content service provider, has announced a strategic partnership with Huawei. As part of the partnership Sawa and Huawei will implement a new cloud-based convergent video service. The service will see Sawa extend its TV channels portfolio and selection of encrypted channels to telecom operators in the MENA region. The use of cloud technology to launch the streaming ser- vice will have its set of benefi ts, Sawa and Huawei said in a joint press statement. The video service will give viewers ac- SAWA AND HUAWEI TO IMPLEMENT NEW CLOUD-BASED CONVERGENT VIDEO SERVICE cess to pre-integrated Sawa entertainment channels as well as features which many satellite services do not off er such as an Electronic Program Guide, catch-up ser- vices, a time shift function, and a network personal video recorder (nPVR) function. The service will also off er big data- based analysis function which gives users individualised content recommendations. This will be achieved using Huawei’s Converged Video Cloud solution; a one- stop shop for content consumers and for telecom operators. NEWS UPDATE www.digitalstudiome.com10 / AUGUST 2019SEVERAL ARABS SE- LECTED AMONG OSCARS ACADEMY MEMBERS THIS YEAR’S NEW ADDITIONS HAIL FROM 59 COUNTRIES The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has released its annual list of new members who’ll vote for next year’s winners. The 842 new invitees span a record 59 countries of origin, with 50% of them women. 2019’s list included accomplished names in fi lm from countries across the Middle East and North Africa. Egyptian icon Yousra, star of both TV and the silver screen since the ‘80s, has been invited in the ‘Actors’ category, alongside names like Gemma Chan, Alexander Skars- gård, Lady Gaga and Letitia Wright. Several directors and producers are also on board the new voting panel, including Sheikh Jackson’s award-winning director Amr Salama, president of Cairo Inter- national Film Festival Mohamed Hefzy and Red Satin’s Tunis-born director Raja Amari. Khadija Al-Salami, the pioneer- ing director and producer behind fi lms like I Am Nojoom, Age 10 and Divorced, which was Yemen’s entry for Best Foreign Language Film at the 2014 Oscars, will make history as the fi rst Yemeni member of the Academy. Telecom Egypt and Ericsson showcased two exciting demos based on augmented reality (AR), virtual reality (VR), and mixed reality (MR) – as well as AI object and face recogni- tion. By using these technologies football fans will get a glimpse of how the game-day experience will change to enable a world- class experience in stadiums. Eng. Adel Hamed, managing director and CEO at Telecom Egypt said: “Consumers are always seeking new ways to experience their favorite sports content. Through the evolu- tion of technology, we have the potential to push boundaries and take the consumer to the heart of the game itself. Alexandria stadium is a great venue to demonstrate how far we have come technologically, and why it will matter to fans.” Telecom Egypt and Ericsson are live with a full-stack telco cloud infrastructure with 5G TO ENHANCE STADIUM EXPERIENCE IN EGYPT DEMOS BASED ON AR, VR, AND MR ON A 5G NETWORK AL- LOW FANS TO ENJOY AN IMMERSIVE SPORTING EXPERIENCE the successful deployment of AI proof of concept, focusing on transforming the wire- less network and providing a 5G-ready core. Rafi ah Ibrahim, head of Ericsson Middle East and Africa said: “We are happy to join Telecom Egypt and inspire football fans with a sneak-peek into the future. This part- nership marks as a milestone in our long- standing partnership, bringing our innova- tive technologies to elevate the consumer experience and pave the way for 5G.” SAMAR AL SHAMSI TO MAKE DEBUT Emirati artist Samar Al Shamsi is set to bring her creativity to the movie screen. The renowned artist is transitioning from arts to movies after receiving many international awards for her work including famously painting HH Sheikh Zayed Bin A ‘TALE OF SHADOWS: ILLUSIONS’ IS BEING SHOT IN DUBAI AND AL AIN AND WILL BE PREMIERED IN JANUARY 2020 Zayed Al Nahyan, Sheikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Al Nahyan and US President Barack Obama who’s portrait is hanging in the White House now. In her fi rst feature fi lm, Al Shamsi is playing the role of Maitha in ‘A Tale of Shadows: Illusions’ the second install- ment of Emirati director Tariq Al Kazim’s chilling series. The sequel to the smash hit ‘A Tale of Shadows’ follows the story of a young girl who mysteriously appears in a hospital, her clothes covered in blood. The fi lm starts with Detective Hamdan, heading to a dangerous farm in a remote area seeking to discover answers in regard to the girl’s father mysterious disappear- ance. The movie, which is being shot in Dubai and Al Ain, will be out in cinemas at the beginning of Jan 2020 having a run time of 90 minutes. NEWS UPDATE www.digitalproductionme.comAUGUST 2019 / 1112 / AUGUST 2019 EDITOR’S COMMENT www.digitalstudiome.com t’s a whole new world for yours truly as I take over the editorship of Digital Studio Middle East. Introductions are an integral part of any successful relationship and so, instead of getting into broadcast jargon or complex systems information, allow me to give you a quick intro. I’ve been a journalist for a decade having studied mass communication and videography. So in a way it’s a strange homecoming for me to write about the industry I studied so much about. After I graduated I began my career in a television news channel. This is where I was truly exposed to complex studios, broadcast cameras and Chroma-key backgrounds. Nearly a decade later, and technology has changed for all three of these aspects. Today, studios can be constructed in a lot lesser space thanks to LED lighting addressing space constraints of smaller content creators. There has also been an ushering of virtualisation of studios thanks to augmented and virtual reality software systems. We have seen this pick up steam in sports and news studios. Speaking about content creators, the world is full of them today. And platforms such as YouTube have made it accessible for everyone to be heard. The region is slowly but surely developing its own identity and coming up with story tellers from Saudi Arabia, UAE, Kuwait and other countries in the Middle East. Budding content creators / filmmakers coupled with the accessibility of studios and equipment is a tasty recipe for the future in a region that hasn’t always been at the forefront creatively. In university I studied why Egypt was considered as the Holly wood of the Middle East. But can the UAE or Saudi Arabia rise to the occasion and become a major hub for local content, which is of prime focus for the likes of Amazon and Netf lix. For instance, Amazon launched its Prime service in India with an inverted model to that of Netflix. Amazon Prime became the chief aggregator of vernacular language content. That’s probably the best way of capturing a market such as India that doesn’t only have cultural diversities but linguistic ones as well. The Middle East, or more importantly the Gulf countries, shares similarities with India. In the sense, generalising the need for Arabic content can end up being an oversight in the larger scheme of things. Looking forward to working closely with you all. NEW BEGINNINGS NIKHIL PEREIRA I “AMAZON PRIME BECAME THE CHIEF AGGREGATOR OF VERNACULAR LANGUAGE CONTENT. THAT’S PROBABLY THE BEST WAY OF CAPTURING A MARKET SUCH AS INDIA THAT DOESN’T ONLY HAVE CULTURAL DIVERSITIES BUT LINGUISTIC ONES AS WELL” THE ONLY INTERCOM THAT... talks all audio standards including AES67 SMPTE2110-30/31 www.riedel.net Future-Proof Technologies / Reliable Solutions / Safe Investment / THAT... supports the SMARTPANEL concept THAT... loads a full confi guration in less than 3 seconds THAT... integrates BOLERO, the state-of-the-art wireless intercom See us at IBC booth 10.A31n a hot and humid afternoon in Dubai, a few students from Dubai’s Middlesex University are busy fi lming a short fi lm in the heart of Dubai’s Al Barari master community. It’s a small window for the team to fi nish fi lming and the crew, which is purely made up of students from the university’s fi lm course, is in overdrive. The students are working on a Stephen DOLLAR BABY CUBS O After winning the IP rights to reproduce one of Stephen King’s stories through the Dollar Babies programme, students of the Middlesex University Dubai have big plans on the horizon King book adaptation thanks to its team of astute professors who managed to win the attention of Stephen King’s Dollar Baby initiative. Afroz Nawaf, a fi lm lecturer at Middlesex University Dubai explains how it came together. “The Dollar Baby (or Dollar Deal) is an arrangement where best-selling author Stephen King grants permission to students and aspiring fi lmmakers or theatre producers to adapt one of his short stories for $1,” Nawaf tells Digital Studio ME. The term is used to refer to the fi lm or play itself, or the maker. For instance, ‘The Sun Dog’ was made as a Dollar Baby; writer / director Frank Darabont was a Dollar Baby who then went on to create movies like Shawshank Redemption, The Green Mile and many more. “I saw this is as an excellent opportunity for our students to experience a project of this scale,” 15 students from MDX Studios (Middle- sex University in Dubai) are adopting a Stephen King book into a short fi lm. www.digitalstudiome.com14 / AUGUST 2019Nawaf says adding that he found the contact information of the author’s assistant Margaret Morehouse, who gave him the requirements and processes to land a short story. Dr David Tully, head of the Film and Media Department and Daniela Tully, adjunct faculty, Middlesex University Dubai are working with Nawaf on the project. Dr Tully emphasises the importance of an opportunity such as this to the students. He says: “With property like this, working with a name like Stephen King in a prestigious Dollar Babies project, you are immediately thrust onto a global platform. Audience interest is immediately triggered due to the subject matter, and you are guaranteed an unbelievable fi rst night audience in Mr. King himself.” After carefully sifting through scripts the trio agreed on ‘Stationary Bike’ — a short story from one of King’s best- selling book Just After Sunset. Dr Tully gave an insight into the selection process. “We all read the King story and spent many hours in a large writer’s room, spit balling ideas of how to convert it into a workable screenplay that doesn’t deviate too far from the written short story, but also lives and breathes as a fi lm all its own. Too many prose-to-fi lm adaptations are hamstrung by trying to stay too close to the prose or going too far away in trying to be a fi lm that works as a fi lm; it’s a delicate art fi nding the balance that keeps it faithful but also eff ective as fi lm.” The resulting script was entirely the work of the students and Dr Tully was “amazed” when he read the fi nal script as it achieved that perfect balance. While Dr Tully, a successful script writer, brought the students up to pre-production fi nesse, Nawaf brought his expertise in the production and post-production disciplines. He is also The students, under the tutelage of their faculty, were assigned roles to produce and direct the fi lm in its entirety. MDX STUDIOS MDX Studios is a dedicated, custom- designed space in the Middlesex University, specially dedicated to the fi lm department. It is the only Blackmagic Design academic training facility in the Middle East and Africa and all students, on completion of their course, receive an end-user training certifi cate from Blackmagic. Afroz Nawaf says: “As for the studio itself, space has been constructed with a focus on three key aspect — pre-production, production and post-production. For pre-production areas are dedicated for students to do their key planning and pre- production documentation process like storyboard wall and paper edit area. Our production facility currently houses products from various industry giants like Arri, Kinofl o, Blackmagic Design, Edlekrone, Glidecam, Sennheiser and Rode to name a few.” IN FOCUS www.digitalstudiome.comAUGUST 2019 / 15 the one of the only Blackmagic Design Academic trainers for Middle East and Africa with certifi cation focus on Advanced Edit, colour grading, Fairlight and Fusion. “All three of us (David, Daniela and myself) have taken the role of executive producer to truly give the students the experience of a production house workfl ow. David took the lead in the writing department, Daniela on many aspects of producing and my focus overfl ows across pre-production, production and post-production,” Nawaf says. A year prior, the students underwent a course on production that would eventually help them in the making of the Stationary Bike. Daniela Tully says: “The detailed course introduced them to the world of fi lm production and helped them acquire all skills necessary to successfully produce a mini feature. I have been a consultant to the students in the months leading up to production, and I’m proud to see how well they are doing on set.” As part of their three-year course, students at the MDX Studio get a chance to use Blackmagic cameras and advanced rigging systems. Nawaf notes that the department has mapped out a plan to help students progress. “Students begin fi lming using their smartphones hooked up to a DJI Osmo 2 which them an understanding of movement and various fi lmmaking aspects possible through smartphones. BACK ON SET Abdulla Alomari, who will be starting his fi nal year of the fi lm course at the university, is the co-producer. He explains: “We got the news in December 2018 that we were participating in the Dollar Baby programme. A few weeks later we learnt that we had won the fi lming rights for Stephen King’s short fi lm and that the author was happy to receive this fi rst of its kind request from aspiring fi lmmakers in the UAE.” Aily Prasetyo, Alomari’s batch mate, is the director of the fi lm and sheds light on what the students had to do after winning the rights to participate in the programme. She says: “We had to pitch what role we wanted to do to our professors as part of the crew since it was open to all the students studying the fi lm course. Once the roles were assigned we began working on the pre-production phase of the project in February.” Alomari says the equipment at the students’ disposal are some of the most advanced industry standard products. “Due to the University’s existing partnership with Blackmagic Design, we have access to some of the best Blackmagic Cinema cameras. We’re using the Blackmagic Pocket Cinema cameras along with the Blackmagic URSA cameras. We also use the latest sound equipment from Sennheiser and Rode. At Middlesex University Dubai we are well equipped with all the theoretical, technical and practical skills and equipment required to work on a project of this scale,” he adds. The student crew filmed for 18 days after which they get into the Filming went on for 18 days at various different locations around Dubai. IN FOCUS www.digitalstudiome.com16 / AUGUST 2019post production phase — with all of the editing and all aspects of post processing done by the students itself. “We are looking into the possibility of a premier once everything is ready from our end given our university has quite a few partnerships in the region,” Prasetyo says. WARNER BROS & UNIVERSAL BRAND DEVELOPMENT PARTNERSHIP In November 2018, MDX Studio signed a partnership with Shooting Stars Middle East to produce local content for Warner Bros and Universal Brand Development. “It has been a great accomplishment for the Film and Media department as the partnership provides our students with invaluable exposure to various other brands including VOX Cinemas, Dubai Parks & Resorts, Ski Dubai and many more,” Nawaf says. In addition to producing local content, the partnership also provides internship opportunities for the three best- performing students from departments such as marketing, theatrical and licensing, along with opportunities for the students studying Bachelor of Arts Honours Graphic Design. “Students will be working on key franchise content over the coming years after which they are awarded a certifi cate of appreciation and will also have the right to include these as content in their portfolios. “The content produced by our students will also receive exposure through various marketing channels and brand partnerships in the region. It provides students with invaluable exposure to various other brands including VOX Cinemas, Dubai Parks & Resorts, Ski Dubai and many more,” Nawaf says. THE FUTURE According to Dr Tully the state of TV and fi lm industry in every region is precarious these days, thanks almost entirely to the technological revolution of streaming. “Nobody knows how to make money off movies and TV anymore. However that same revolution has led to an explosion of career opportunities for fi lm students that simply weren’t there even a decade ago, ensuring that their career opportunities, with the skills they’ve amassed, are anything but precarious. “There isn’t an industry in the world that doesn’t need video content in this day and age, and only trained professionals, schooled in the art of visual storytelling, can provide the sort of quality that social media demands in order to be noticed,” Dr Tully concludes. From left to right: Faculty members Afroz Nawaf, Dr David Tully and Daniela Tully have played a major role in enabling the student crews. IN FOCUS www.digitalstudiome.comAUGUST 2019 / 17 COVER STORY www.digitalstudiome.com18 / AUGUST 2019Words Nikhil Pereira Portrait photography Fritz Asuro AUGUST 2019 / 19 www.digitalstudiome.com COVER STORY Having been in the market since 2003, Front Row Filmed Entertainment is taking all the steps to create meaningful Arab content DISTRIBUTING SUCCESS he media industry is going through an array of changes across all sub-sectors. It’s not just network TVs but even the distribution and acquisition business has evolved in recent times. For Dubai- based Front Row Filmed Entertainment it’s about discovering new methods and business streams as it looks to forge partnerships and involve itself in more co-productions. Front Row, and its managing director Gianluca Chakra, shot into prominence when it acquired the rights to distribute the 2004 indie documentary film Fahrenheit 9/11, which shone the spotlight on the Bush administration in the aftermath of the September 11 terror attacks on New York’s World Trade Centre twin towers. The company began life as a distributor of feature films for the MENA region, but the shifting sands of the media sector has prompted Chakra to keep evolving the business. “There are new ways of distributing your fi lms, and we pre-buy a lot of the fi lms. When we go to fi lm markets or through our contacts that we have developed throughout the years with producers and sales companies,” Chakra says stating that his fi rm acquires anywhere between 90 to 110 titles annually. Previously, titles acquired by Front Row and its competitors enjoyed almost guaranteed success with its theatrical release. But streaming and OTT platforms have changed that trend. Chakra explains: “Today you aren’t restricted to titles being released theatrically, there are quite a few channels to do it that include iTunes, Google Play and VOD platforms. We can also now premier titles directly on subscription VOD platforms — Netfl ix, Amazon Prime and StarzPlay to name a few.” Piracy has also forced distributors to be creative and versatile, but more on TNext >