coverstory_cover story 26/02/2014 18:20 Page 5
Boutique Studios,
largely occupied by
fast-growing creative
businesses.
Jamal Al Sharif is
the passionate and
high-profile managing
director of Dubai
Media City and Dubai
Studio City, as well as
chairman of the Dubai
Film & TV Commission. He says there are 15
film and major TV productions in the
pipeline drawn from a mix of Hollywood,
Bollywood, Turkish and other international
productions.
Key to his overall strategy was
establishing a New York-style Location
Approval Services, a ‘one-stop’ permit shop
that now has considerable influence on local
suppliers, police and such, as well as more
than a little clout when it comes to getting
discounts on airline seats and hotel rooms.
“We have been very lucky winning good
support from India, which is shooting more
and more projects with us,” Al Sharif says,
explaining that Hollywood blockbusters such
"A strong wired and wireless
infrastructure combined with
investment pedigree gives Dubai the
capacity to become the major hub for
IPTV services throughout the Middle
East."
Tanya Vidmar, Vision247
The same question might be applied to
Qatar’s Es’HailSat, which launched last
August. Es’Hail is now formally working with
Arabsat to co-operate on frequencies at 26
degrees East, which had been subject to an
argument between the two operators.
CREATIVE. While the world’s politicians
are rightly focused on Egypt and Syria, both
normally responsible for a huge amount of
TV production, other creative centres are
taking up the slack. Sometimes only a cliché
will do in describing the boom town that is
Dubai. The happy problem is that the clichés
don’t begin to reflect the ‘go to it’ attitude of
the tiny Emirate. And, despite a hiccough a
year or two ago when the financing train fell
of the rails, all the clichés are back – and in
most cases stronger than ever.
And while most eyes look at the endless
sea of Manhattan-style skyscrapers in Dubai
the truth is that the message, at least as far
as broadcasting and the media is concerned,
continues to resonate well beyond the
immediate region. Dubai Media City (which
opened in 2001) and Dubai Studio City
(which began construction in 2006) and both
of which started out as straightforward realestate schemes, have succeeded beyond the
planners wildest dreams. The jobs that the
schemes have created are real, valuable, and
have become one of Dubai’s cornerstones in
the Emirate’s plans for its future.
The TV and movie stars are turning up in
droves. Whether it is Brad Pitt or Tom
Cruise, George Clooney, Eva Longoria, Oprah
Winfrey, Robert de Niro, or 'celebrities' such
as Paris Hilton, Dubai’s locations are suiting
filmmakers, the celebrities themselves and
even the money-men!
INVESTMENTS. Dubai’s media-related
investments continue. On September 2 2013,
Dubai Studio City’s latest addition opened. It
22z EUROMEDIA
is a 50,000 square foot soundstage complex
that is claimed to be the largest in the region
and comes complete with craft workshops,
dressing rooms and all the support
paraphernalia needed for production. The
‘MBC Stage’ (25,000 sq ft) has been leased
by the Arab world’s leading broadcaster for
five years and will be used for high-profile
drama production. Next door is a 25,000
square foot stage, both already with bookings
(one for a 103-day shoot, and the other for a
film’s 95-day shoot). More are planned, and
the desert is be [