The Chairman of the Dubai Film and TV Commission (DFTC) and Chief Commercial Officer of Dubai Creative Cluster Authority talk about Dubai's movie business.
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00:00My name is Jamal Al-Sharif. I'm chairman of Dubai Film and TV Commission.
00:06Also, I work as a chief commercial officer for Dubai Creative Cluster Authority, for Dubai government.
00:13Well, the commission was established officially in 2012 as a decree from the executive council
00:20under the patronage of His Highness Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed Al Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai.
00:28The role of the film commission is basically to be or to become the one-stop shop for all filmmakers
00:35or any content maker in Dubai.
00:38And the reason that this film commission office was put up,
00:42really to ease up the business of content makers in Dubai or in general in UAE as well.
00:48In the past, before the film commission existed, you had to go through multiple channels
00:55to obtain a permit or to get services or to find your partner
01:01or I would say your provider or supplier of filmmaking services.
01:07Therefore, it was time-consuming. Plus, it was money, you know, cost.
01:13And of course, it was not the one-stop shop service that you could always imagine if you're coming to Dubai.
01:20Therefore, in 2012, we announced that officially.
01:23However, the activity of film commission existed before that under Dubai Studio City since 2006
01:30when we started with this project.
01:32We go back to Dubai Media City, the inception of this whole media cluster in early 2000.
01:39The Dubai government has thought very carefully about this project.
01:45Basically, if you go back to 1999 with the announcement of Dubai Internet City,
01:50the idea was to attract foreign investments in that sector to Dubai
01:55and basically look at, which I call it, the new form of revenue
02:03or, you know, the smart revenue that the city can generate.
02:08Therefore, Dubai Media City was established in early 2000 to attract media organizations
02:14from all over the world to consider Dubai as a hub for them, which it happened really quickly and fast.
02:20In a matter of years, from 2000 to 2005, I recall, the total number of companies reached by then 700 media companies.
02:29Today, we celebrate over 2,000 media companies in Dubai, in between Media City and Studio City.
02:35However, somewhere in between 2004 and 2005, we have noticed a big demand on production facilities.
02:43And it continued to grow within the Media City cluster.
02:49So, strategically, the TECOM group thought of developing a new city that caters into the back office of these media companies, which is the production.
03:04Many of those companies in Media City used their offices or used some part of Media City to film or to shoot or to broadcast
03:12or, you know, to carry their content.
03:15So, you have to have a film city that supports that type of business, not just the office space and the back office, but also the production side.
03:24So, it's a factory at the end of the day.
03:26So, strategically, we decided on placing Dubai Studio City to be the support business to these media companies.
03:36And this is what's happening today in reality, actually, which you see outside here in the boutique studios behind us over here or the sound stages that have been built.
03:45So, the project basically started after long research with the business partners and the companies who existed in Media City, which some actually expanded.
03:57And they have big studios here today.
03:59So, they have actually asked us to expand this infrastructure, add more value to it, give them the facilities and services that was missing in that part of town.
04:09That was one major point.
04:11And, of course, the second point, Dubai always been the pioneer in the business hub in many multiple industries.
04:22So, media was one of them.
04:23And we realized that the region, UAE itself and the region requires such infrastructure, advanced infrastructure that supports media development.
04:33And here we are.
04:34We have actually one of the largest sound stages ever built in Middle East and North Africa.
04:40It could be the largest if you look at it to Europe even, although there are few in Europe, but they are not considered a sound stage.
04:49They are just warehouses, but these are proper design sound stage for film, TV, multi-use with its offices and so on.
04:57Plus, we have the boutique studios.
04:59Plus, we have other facilities that are within the business park of Studio City.
05:04This is the challenge that every, I would say, entrepreneur city has.
05:10The media development and the media landscape is very entrepreneurial still in UAE.
05:17It's still a baby and it's growing.
05:19And it's growing, I would say, organically.
05:22You expect this in any city when it starts to attract new clusters such as media development.
05:32We start with the script writing, with the storytelling.
05:38There are so many stories.
05:40However, we haven't seen yet that story that we like out there on a film or a TV series yet.
05:48And I believe that to be discovered soon.
05:51The local talents are limited.
05:53They just got into this business in the past 15, 20 years, not much.
05:57Although the TV industry goes back in UAE to, I would say, probably late 60s.
06:04You will find black and white absolutely that has been produced here by local TV networks or even in the region.
06:12However, we have been pushing ourselves very slowly and organically, as I said,
06:18to develop that industry through different workshops and different activities around town in the past years
06:26to develop the skills of our local talents, Emirati talents, all the residents of UAE talents.
06:32And we're hoping that slowly we will pick up and in a few years we should see strong storytellers and scriptwriters in this region.
06:42However, the region has a strong base, not to forget Egypt, Jordan, Morocco.
06:51If you go a little bit to North Africa, you would find the strong storytellers and scriptwriters.
06:57But UAE still is very, you know, infantile. It's picking up, as you said.
07:05When it comes to film financing, film funding, again, another challenge.
07:10But it's slowly working out and I still see the light end of the tunnel really closer now, comparing to 10 years back.
07:20Because I worked on financing or raising funds for certain films in the past.
07:26Hollywood, Bollywood, and some Arabic films as well, too.
07:29The appetite is there. However, the structure is not there.
07:33And that requires not just the government, it requires also private sector involvement
07:38and the banking sector involvement, which is not there yet.
07:41Since the topic is very, how should I say, the topic is very not mature in these organizations yet.
07:52The topic of tourism, the topic of real estate, the topic of retail, it's something that we know of.
07:58But when it comes to the topic of funding films, it's a gray area to so many organizations.
08:05So let's not compare today what we have here to Hollywood or Bollywood.
08:13They are mature. They are 100 years old of history.
08:17They created themselves. Very strong.
08:19But I think we could learn a lot where we could focus on small films, small productions, raising small funds.
08:26And not necessarily millions or hundreds of millions, because that's not the case.
08:31The case is the story, a budget that could support the story, and a good promoter to promote that content very strongly to make that money.
08:41And that's the link, as always.
08:43I think we're getting there.
08:45As I told you earlier, we have worked on raising a few funds of films in Dubai.
08:51I'm hoping that in the years coming up, we should have a structure that supports young, talented filmmakers on their production.
09:01And there were a few organizations that they were providing like awards and funds to create small short films.
09:09That still exists.
09:11But that should grow, and I see that's coming.
09:14But again, we're growing very organically and slowly, and it's going to take some time until we reach where others reached.