A new competitive programme that will teach aspiring documentary filmmakers the tricks of the trade is being launched this week by Arab Film Studio (AFS).
Image Nation and twofour54 Abu Dhabi have teamed up for the four-month course of classroom and practical sessions, after which each of the eight competitors will be presenting their final seven-to-10-minute film for judging in January.
This is the debut of the documentary programme, though Image Nation’s marketing manager Gehad Darwish notes that there are many similarities between this and the narrative film competition that AFS has been running for four years.
The inaugural documentary intake includes four Emirati contenders, two Syrians, a Lebanese and an Indian.
The competition was open to all UAE nationals and residents and Darwish says that the quality of the entrants was so high that they were forced to increased the number of places in the programme from the originally planned six.
“Unlike with the narrative programme, which is open to anybody who demonstrates potential to make a good film, we tried to select people with some educational or practical background in filmmaking for the documentary programme, and the very high quality of entrants has led to us expanding the field to eight,” he says.
Although the successful applicants are in theory a little more experienced than their narrative programme counterparts, the course will still begin by teaching the basics, starting with a week in the classroom at the twofour54 BBC Academy to learn about development and pre-production.
It will then move on to handling and using the filmmaking equipment, before the contestants are given a small budget of about Dh9,000 to make their final short film.
They will also have access to the wealth of equipment, facilities and expertise at twofour54, including camera kits and vouchers to use the editing facilities, as well as further assistance and advice from partners and sponsors such as documentary specialists Anasy Media Productions, and even feedback from The National’s team, which shares the parent company of Abu Dhabi Media with Image Nation.
The formal coursework and production period will run until December 20, after which the competitors will have three weeks to work on marketing materials before their final cut has to be submitted on January 15, 2015.
The films will then be screened and judged by a panel of industry experts, with the winning documentary receiving a prize that has yet to be confirmed but is likely, says Darwish, to include some sort of development deal with Image Nation.
With last week’s announcement that the American actor David Hasselhoff will be joining the judging panel of the narrative programme, might there be any documentary heavyweights drafted in to evaluate the work of the hopefuls? Could the likes of Michael Moore soon be casting his eye over the facilities at twofour54?
“The programme is still developing and will continue to do so,” says Darwish. “But we’d love to have some big-name judges. It will keep on developing with time.”
We’ll be following the competitors very closely over the next few months, so you can be sure that if there are any new developments, you’ll read about them here first.
cnewbould@thenational.ae
