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The Dubai International Film Festival (DIFF) provides the perfect opportunity to showcase Dubai Studio City, an initiative by Dubai Media City to foster the growth of the broadcast and film production industry in the region.
- By Jyoti Kalsi, Gulf News Report
- Published: 23:35 May 3, 2009
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The Dubai International Film Festival (DIFF) provides the perfect opportunity to showcase Dubai Studio City, an initiative by Dubai Media City to foster the growth of the broadcast and film production industry in the region.
The project, developed by the Dubai Holding Group, is spread over an area of 22 million sq. ft. within the Dubailand complex and aims to offer a complete technical and community infrastructure for the film, TV and music production industry.
This includes production companies, support service providers with production and post-production facilities, animation studios and services like dubbing, makeup, costume designing, stage designing and building, casting, telnet agencies as well as telecine and lab facilities. The first phase of the project is scheduled to be ready by early next year.
“We conducted extensive surveys in Dubai Media City to understand the requirements of the companies based here and every feature of Dubai Studio City has been designed to cater to these needs. Our ultimate goal is to attract production companies and filmmakers from around the world to set up base in Dubai.
“DIFF gives us the opportunity to interact with filmmakers from around the globe to understand their needs and interests and to show them what Dubai has to offer in terms of locations, facilities and infrastructure,” said Dr Amina Al Rustamani, executive director of media at TECOM Investments.
“After DIFF 2005, we received several proposals from Hollywood, Egypt and other countries for the shooting of films here, setting up of regional distribution offices and investment in production facilities,” she added.
World-class
The hub of activity in the Dubai Studio City will be a world-class production studio complex. It will house film, television and audio production and related facilities, including sound stages, warehouses, production support spaces and backlot facilities. The core production area of the complex will accommodate 14 sound stages ranging from 15,000 sq ft to 40,000 sq ft, support facilities and a backlot area of 3.4 million sq ft. within a walled campus. The first phase, set to be completed in the first quarter of 2007, will have three sound stages with a total stage area of 65,000 sq ft, warehouses and support offices.
Public centre
At the heart of Dubai Studio City will be the Village Centre, the public focus of the development. This community area will have restaurants, festival retailing, movie theatres, an IMAX theatre, black-box performance theatres, two outdoor amphitheatres with seating for 1,500 and 3,500 people, a large 10,000-seat indoor amphitheatre and two hotels, all within an exquisitely landscaped park-like setting. Film and television academies for aspiring film professionals from the region are also planned.
Dubai Studio City will also offer a host of services designed for the convenience of international filmmakers such as a single window for applying for production permits, approvals and visas, a fast-track immigration process for crews to enabe companies to recruit talent easily and flexible labour laws to ensure that the industry's needs for part-time and temporary requirements are met.
It has already launched a “Location Approval Service” to help expedite and facilitate all aspects of film and broadcast production in Dubai and the UAE. The service includes location scouting, quick access to the best talent through agencies in Dubai Media City, arrangement of visas, airline bookings and affordable accommodation for crews, arrangement of all necessary approvals and permissions for production and filming.
“Thanks to these attractive initiatives, we have already approved 70 projects, including commercials, television productions and films. We expect many more filmmakers to make films here after DIFF 2006,” said Dr Amina.
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