Rise of the Middle East
It’s nearly impossible to overstate the impact of the Middle East as a content creation hothouse when, at a time of scant funding, the region is pumping money into the film and TV world. Laine Lister writes.
Shaking off its date and pearl farming ancestry Abu Dhabi, the oil-rich capital of the United Arab Emirates has broken upon the entertainment world’s financial woes like a great wave.
In an effort to diversify its economy in recent years the Emirati government has invested $1 trillion to undertake a cultural overhaul of the city, allocating more than a billion dollars to establish a media production hub in Abu Dhabi.
It’s a ‘free zone’, named twofour54 after its geographical coordinates, conceived to create content for the Arab world.
And with more than 300 million Middle Eastern viewers crying out for sufficient content – combined with the advertising dollars to fund it – it’s little wonder
some of the world’s greatest minds are moving in to capitalise on the lucrative market.
Nowhere has its impact been felt more immediately than the mega news corporations of the Northern Hemisphere. Already installed in the zone are the news rooms of CNN and Financial Times.
“There are a lot of opportunities in this region; it is the next biggest growth area for the creative industries outside of what has traditionally been north America,” says twofour54 chief operating officer Wayne Borg, an Australian expat based in Abu Dhabi.
He claims that Australians too have a lot to gain by relocating to the world’s richest city (according to Time’s Fortune magazine), should they be able to overcome the geographical and cultural distance.
Evidently, several unnamed Australian firms are negotiating their way into the fold – Borg insists that in coming months he’ll announce at least two Australian businesses establishing operations in the free zone.
At the invitation of twofour54, Encore jetted into the sandy paradise to determine if it’s all that it’s been made out to be.
STUDIOS NOW OPEN
A sun soaked, T-shaped island jutting into the emerald waters of the Persian Gulf, Abu Dhabi is about a million frequent flyer points from magazine land and an unlikely place to find a film writer and a posse of international media executives.
It’s never attracted the sort of glittering global jetsetters that swarm its more ostentatious neighbour, Dubai (despite its various maritime agreements with Britain since the early 1800s, which pre-date even the UAE itself). Nor has it gained the word-of-mouth often generated around a tax haven that’s as rich in opportunity as it is oil money, until now.
And with the newly injected funds stimulating the creation of content in areas of television, film, digital media, publishing, music, gaming and mobile, this arid land is seeking the skills of global talent.
With more to offer than money, twofour54 is luring organisations and individuals with its technology, infrastructure and generous support network.
The final piece of which was installed in September 2009, when twofour54 unveiled the production facilities of ‘intaj’ and one of the drawcards to the region.
Comprised of five state-of-the-art studios and 22 postproduction suites, the centre is a first for the region.
There’s also a training academy known as ‘tadreeb’ and a support network, ‘ibtikar’, which make up the three ‘pillars’ of the business. All of which is supported by a business unit known as ‘tawasol’, founded to attract and sustain business partnerships.
“It’s no longer a case of just trying to make it on your own and trying to figure your way through it; you can come into a community like twofour54 and get the support of media and entertainment professionals who understand the industry and help to facilitate your business and open doors for you as well as help develop opportunities with other companies within twofour54 or other third parties in the region,” says Borg.
This purpose-built environment, combined with the region’s relatively recession-proof economy, is making Abu Dhabi a viable option for the world’s content creators.
“This is probably the only region right now in the world that represents a growth opportunity. We’re seeing heightened interest in what we’re doing here from a lot
of international organisations,” Borg explains.
Evidently, growth forecasted for this year is in double digits for all platforms including radio and television, print, online and mobile content.
“By and large you’ve got a Pan-Arab marketplace with relatively high disposable income and a propensity to consume, it all bodes well,” he says.
AN UNTAPPED SOURCE
One of the main goals set by the Abu Dhabi government is to incubate and facilitate the region’s own indigenous talent base.
It’s doing this with the aid of Imagenation, a subsidiary of the Abu Dhabi Media Company, which was conceived to develop, finance and produce full length feature films and digital content for Arabic and international markets.
Launched in 2008, Imagenation pledged a US$1 billion (over five years) toward the production of feature films and digital content and has set a target to fund up
to eight films per year.
In that time, the Imagenation team has been busy attracting filmmakers with its irresistible funding deals. Its first Hollywood venture (partly funded with Imagenation money) was the family action drama Shorts from Robert Rodriguez (Spy Kids). Sadly when the film was released in September 2009, it received mediocre reviews and grossed just over U$ 25.8 million worldwide, according to Box Office Mojo.
Imagenation and partner National Geographic had greater success with Cannes and Sundance favourite Amreeka, a drama centred on an immigrant single mother and her teenage son’s move from the West Bank to suburban Illinois, USA.
Encore spoke with Stefan Brunner, chief operating officer at Imagenation, which along with partner National Geographic acquired the US distribution rights for Amreeka.
According to Brunner, Imagenation’s goal is to reach Arabs and audiences everywhere with films such as Amreeka, which has Arabic themes.
“The film shows in a light and uplifting manner the normal life of ordinary people moving from the Arab world to the US.
“It’s surely something that could equally apply to Australia,” he says.
With a string of Australian film and television series featuring Arab themes released in recent years – from Cedar Boys and The Combination to My Tehran for Sale and Fat Pizza to name a few – why are so few Australians taking advantage of Middle Eastern equity?
Serhat Caradee, director of Cedar Boys says: “I did hear a little about the opportunities in the region, but got the feeling they were mostly looking for commercial projects, the Keanu Reeves types of films” rather than what is typically produced out of Australia.
And while the Middle East is only beginning to enter the Australian filmmaking consciousness, the Abu Dhabi movie industry has for some time had Australia (and the world) on its radar.
Brunner says: “We have an executive at Imagenation dedicated to developing Arab content and to monitoring the activities of Arab Filmmakers all over the world”.
As for twofour54, at the close of 2009 it announced a freelance licensing scheme for technical professionals, to encourage talent to the region.
The scheme will be phased in during 2010, but is immediately effective for people in the video editing, camera operation, production engineering, special effects and stying art fields.
Additional categories are expected to be announced later in the year as demand increases, particularly in the areas of talent, creative and administration.
At the time of the announcement, twofour54 chief executive Tony Orsten said: “Media production is a project based industry which is heavily dependent on freelance talent, matching people to productions, with crews often mobilised at short notice. As home to the Arabic creative industries, the freelance licence solution is an essential element of twofour54’s drive to provide impetus to the production and broadcast industry in Abu Dhabi.
“We want twofour54 partner companies to be well served by a skilled community of media professionals. We have developed a robust licence approach for qualified and experienced media freelancers to work at twofour54, which operates within the UAE employment and immigration laws”.
Annual licence fees have been set at 5,000 Emirati dirham (AED, approximately A$1500), with the first year licence fee discounted to AED 2,500 for those joining
the scheme before 31 October 2010. Licensees are also required to pay a one-off refundable deposit of AED 15,000, and once a freelance licence has been issued, twofour54 will apply for a UAE residence visa for non-Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) nationals for an additional cost of AED 1,900.
As for the wider regional movie industry, a number of film and broadcast events now exist under the new cultural plan. In October last year the inaugural Doha Tribeca Film Festival took place in the model of its New York namesake, Robert De Niro’s acclaimed event. The festival takes a community-based approach to engaging audiences through web-based activation. It’s in the same vein as Abu Dhabi’s decision to install local versions of the Guggenheim and Louvre museums in Saadiyat Island. The latter will receive U$520m for the rights to use the name, plus U$741m for management advice and art loans.
There’s also the Middle East Broadcast Show, which takes place in Abu Dhabi in November and is a place for content producers, broadcasters and distributors to
connect with free seminars and a large exhibition.
Dubai is also looking at international markets, and its International Film Festival (held in December) has a tag line to prove it; ‘bridging cultures, meeting minds’.
Mid-way through last year, organisers of the Festival approach Caradee to attend the 2009 festival, and he jumped at the chance to both show his film, and address the young UAE industry, as part of a panel discussion about debut filmmaking experiences.
At the time of press, Caradee was on his way to Dubai for the event armed with three new film ideas – including two feature scripts with Middle Eastern themes
– which he hoped to pitch to Imagenation.
“Definitely, I would love to be involved [with Imagenation],” he says.
TO GOOD TO BE TRUE?
It’s not an unlikely dream, given that Imagenation has partnered with a number of individual filmmakers and organisations from around the world in the last 12 months.
It established a US$10 m revolving fund to finance future projects from producers Walter Parkes and Laurie MacDonald (Catch Me if you Can, Gladiator, Men in Black) under their first-look deal with Dreamworks.
In a second deal, Imagenation and the Hyde Park Entertainment Group promised US$75m to a partnership with the Media Development Authority of Singapore to produce a feature film Street Dancing, which is set for a 2011 release.
On top of this, Imagenation and National Geographic Entertainment allocated a further US$100m in 2008, to develop, produce, finance and acquire between 10 and 15 films over five years.
The first film to benefit was Australian director Peter Weir’s (The Truman Show, Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World, Witness) latest project The
Way Back (with funds from Exclusive Media Group and Spitfire Pictures), which recently completed postproduction in New South Wales.
“There are no set guidelines to be met in order to be in business with us. It is rather about quality material and projects that have commercial potential throughout the world, regardless of their origin.
“That said we are, in parallel, fully committed to sourcing quality Arab content to develop in the region and to bring to regional and also global audiences,” Brunner says.
During Encore’s visit to Abu Dhabi and tour of Intaj, one resounding message was that potential partnerships are for the long term.
“It’s important we don’t just become an outpost to outsource here,” says twofour54’s Borg.
“We don’t want to become just another location option as has been the case in some parts of Eastern Europe, that’s not sustainable because once the incentives go, the next new city comes along with the next whiz bang facility to move onto. We want to avoid that if we can,” he adds.
Rather, the likes of CNN and Financial Times are helping to develop the local talent pool so that they can produce their own content independently.
“It’s about how you help stimulate young Arab businesses through incubation. Our role is to help that eco-system develop,” Borg says.
“This is a long term sustainable proposition for us, given the investments we’re making and in the overall twofour54 proposition,” he adds.
It’s certainly a content creation community to watch.
“There are no set guidelines to be met in order to be in business with us.”
The final quotation is the biggest load I’ve ever heard.
Of course there are all sorts of restrictions on creative freedom in the UAE. They just never admit it publicly.
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They said there were no guideliines in terms of business, not creativity… But you’re right, they can say anything but we won’t know for sure until the first international content creators start working on projects in the UAE.
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