MP May / June 2010

Issue #08 May - June 2010 25 AED, 2 KD, 26 SAR, 2.5 BD

WHAT IS CENSORSHIP?

Interview with Mr. Khalid Al-Muquaisib Football Under Cover and more Interviews Showcases Tutorials

Registered at International Media Production Zone

CONTENTS 3

Welcome

4

NEWS

7

Book Reviews

8 10

12

Brand Identity Now! Art Cinema

KNOW WHO

Adobe Launches CS5

KNOW WHO

What is Censorship?

Interview with Mr. Khalid Al-Muquaisib

KNOW WHO

Animation Academy Interview with Mr. Wayne Borg from twofour54

Team Managing Partners Hamad Al Saab Ali Sultan

54

KNOW WHO

58

KNOW WHO

Project Manager Sylvia Voss

62

KNOW HOW

Sales and Marketing Manager Hamad Al Saab

66

KNOW WHO

Content Ali Sultan

72

KNOW WHO

Copy Editor (English) Lysa Warren

76

Operations Director Arch. Amera Al-Awadhi

Optix Digital Emirates ice Film

ADFC Shasha Grant From Stills to Motion Rita Dhankani

Boomtown Productions 3D Metro Commercial

Copy Editor (Arabic) Hamad Al Saab

KNOW HOW

PR and Client Relations Hamad Al Saab

Holistic Audio

16

KNOW WHO

91

Creative Director Ali Sultan

20

KNOW WHO

95

Creative Designer Lezanne Swart

24

KNOW WHO

30

KNOW WHO

34

KNOW HOW

42

KNOW HOW

50

KNOW WHO

Bader Al Bassam Fayez Al Harthy

Tyrone Menezes

Publishing and Advertising ThinkTank Publishing & Creative House FZ-LLC UAE OFFICE

ArtBus to Al Quoz

Under Cover Censorship Cover Tutorial Adobe Photoshop Creating a Stamp Effect Football Under Cover

Dubai Media City Building No. 5 - OfďŹ ce G14 Dubai, UAE Voice: +971 4 4347683 Fax: +971 4 4343926 Email: ofďŹ ce@thinktank-me.com www.mp-mag.com

Kuwait OfďŹ ce Yousef Al-Shallal Email: yousef@mp-mag.com ofďŹ ce-kwt@thinktank-me.com

PR Consultant Kuwait Ibtesam Sultan Ibtesam@mp-mag.com The opinions and views contained in are not necessarily those of the publisher’s. No part of this publication or content, thereof maybe reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form without the permission of the publishers in writing.

Printed at Emirates Printing Press, Dubai Distributed by Abu Dhabi Media Company

We accept Arabic and English scripts Call for entries April 1 st thru July 1 st 2010

WELCOME

Dear creative readers,

We have dedicated this issue to censorship. This is a widely discussed topic that seems to paralyze designers here in the Middle East.

Designing is about problem solving and not just producing something pretty. A successful design is about presenting a creative solution, which is functional and meets the design brief, irregardless of any restrictions.

Censorship is one of these creative challenges which many people consider to be the enemy of creativity. If this was the case, then what kind of designers are we?

Isn’t mastering this challenge and still making effective designs that speak to our targeted audience exactly what we are hired to do as designers?

that reach fame and accreditation.

Therefore, we spoke to Khalid AlMuquaisib, former GM of Kuwait Channel 2, about the importance of censorship here in the Middle East and the reasons why it is applied in this manner.

Let’s try to not let issues like censorship restrict our creative thinking, but rather use it as a challenge to continue designing, producing movies and making music, that reflects who we are and what we want to express.

Football Under Cover is a good example of how creatives can express their ideas in an environment with strong censorship presence like Iran and still produce extraordinary movies

I think we should embrace this censorship issue and work with it rather than against it.

Till the next issue...

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COVER ART WORK

ork r W r u Yo ur Cove on O your work at

it .com Subm nk-me a t k n i @th office

By Ali Al-Shobbar Cover Material and execution by Emirates Printing Press

NEWS Pro Tools Instrument Expansion Pack Featuring Structure, Velvet, Strike, Hybrid, and Transfuser.

Avid is pleased to announce immediate availability of the new Pro Tools Instrument Expansion Pack, featuring a collection of all Pro Tools virtual instruments: Structure, Strike, Velvet, Transfuser and Hybrid. This allnew bundle includes new features added to all of the previous versions of these individual instruments, and makes them more accessible than ever with an incredible new, low bundled price.

What is Pro Tools Instrument Expansion Pack?

It’s the ultimate professional virtual instrument collection designed and optimized specifically for Pro Tools. This collection of five bestin-class virtual instruments delivers incredible sound quality, feature innovation, performance, and musical playability—all at an outstanding bundled value. The Pro Tools Instrument Expansion Pack includes Hybrid high-definition synthesizer, Strike virtual drummer, Structure professional sampler workstation, Velvet vintage electric pianos, and Transfuser groove creator. All of these instruments comprise more than 55 GB of world-class sounds and samples that cover practically every musical instrument imaginable. All virtual instruments have been updated with powerful new features.

Pro Tools audio workstations: · Structure 1.1 · Strike 1.5 · Velvet 1.3 · Transfuser 1.3 · Hybrid 1.6 In addition, the incredible low bundle price makes these virtual instruments more accessible than ever. All virtual instruments have been updated and optimized to include more features, sound content, and improved performance.

Product Benefits · Perfectly complements all of the virtual instruments included with Pro Tools 8, heavily expanding the creative composition power of Pro Tools · All virtual instruments are thoroughly tested along with Pro Tools, ensuring they’re available when new Pro Tools software versions are released. · All virtual instruments offer much deeper integration with Pro Tools, supporting audio and MIDI region drag-and-drop functionality directly from Pro Tools (and much more). · Many of these instruments offer unique functionality—enabling customers to more easily obtain creative results fast. · All of these instruments are very easy to use. · Single, unified installer makes setup and authorization a breeze.

Visit www.avid.com for more information on the Pro Tools Instrument Expansion Pack.

Product Features The Pro Tools Instrument Expansion Pack includes five high-performance virtual instrument plug-ins, all designed and optimized specifically for

Adobe CS5 Beach Bash

The beach is calling!

Forget what plans you had for Saturday May 8th 2010.

Remember to register now or you won’t be able to join in the most anticipated event of the year - the launch of Adobe® Creative Suite® 5.

Together with HP, Adobe promises a Beach Bash filled with lively music, refreshing drinks and a cocktail of experiences.

Showcased will be a glamorous fashion show, including an exclusive CS5 collection designed by Alia Bin Drai and Mariam Al Mazroui, mixed in with live movie creation on Production Premium by Jason Levine, Senior Worldwide Product Evangelist at Adobe, and all shaken with a Flash station where developers create games in front of your very eyes.

Spaces are limited so sign up now to avoid disappointment and please remember to bring your registration confirmation with you.

Visit www.adobe.com/mena/special/ cs5beachbash/ to register for free to be part of the experience.

UBMS is launching the new and cost-effective Libec RS-250 tripod system UBMS announces the May 2010 launch of Libec’s new tripod system - the RS-250 / RS250M and the fluid head RH25, a third shot in the RS series of tripod systems.

The RS-250 series is a full-fledged tripod head equipped with equivalent panning & tilting capabilities and low and high temperature

characteristics similar to higher-end models in the same series, but at a more attractive price, making it extremely cost-effective.

Providing a counterbalance range of 1.8 – 5kg / 4 to 11lb (height of the center of gravity at 100mm / 3.9”) The “variable counterbalance system” enables the tripod head to accommodate many different types of cameras, including hand-held / semi-shoulder HDV, XDCAM EX, P2HD and AVCHD cameras.

Libec is solely distributed in the Middle East and Africa by United Broadcast & Media Solutions.

To find out more about Libec’s RS Series and United Broadcast & Media Solutions, please log on to www.unitedbroadcast.com or send an email to info@unitedbroadcast.com.

NEWS

JVC introduces its new GY-HM790 ProHD camcorder JVC introduced the new flagship of its ProHD camcorder line, the GY-HM790, at the 2010 NAB Show in Las Vegas, April 1215. With an innovative modular design and a full complement of accessories, the new camera supports multicore or fibre-based studio production. Plus, as a shoulder-mount camcorder, it delivers outstanding ENG and sports production performance with more features than ever.

The GY-HM790 features three 1/3-inch CCDs, which allow a lighter, more compact form factor for better manoeuvrability in the field and more flexibility with robotic camera control systems in the studio. It produces 1920x1080 images and can record in 1080i, 720p, and even SD (576i) for operations that have not yet made the move to HD. The camera records at 35 Mbps.

(HQ mode/variable bit rate) or 19 Mbps/25 Mbps (SP mode/constant bit rate). Although the camera ships with a Canon 14x zoom lens, it can accommodate a variety of lenses with its 1/3-inch bayonet lens mount.

Adopting the successful tapeless workflow introduced in the GY-HM700 camcorder, the GY-HM790 features a dual card slot design

that records to low-cost, non-proprietary SDHC Class 6 or 10 solid-state media cards.

JVC’s native file recording technology allows recording in ready-to-edit file formats for Apple Final Cut Pro (.mov) and other major NLE systems (.mp4) that are compatible with Sony XDCAM EX workflow.

An optional ASI output module provides a direct feed from the camera to a satellite uplink or microwave transmitter via BNC – no ‘black box’ interfaces required – for live HD video from the field. Other ENG features on the GYHM790 include an analogue SD pool feed input, 4.3-inch LCD screen, and a high-resolution, 1.2 megapixel LCOS viewfinder. Two XLR inputs with phantom power offer uncompressed LPCM audio recording with manual level controls.

“The excellent image quality of the GY-HM790, coupled with its versatility for both studio and ENG use, makes it an attractive camcorder for broadcasters in any DMA,” said Craig Yanagi, manager of marketing and brand strategy, JVC Professional Products, USA. “Plus, our optional ASI module makes it easier than ever to produce true HD reports from the field.

The GY-HM790 does more than shoot great pictures; it literally changes the way live news reports can be produced.” With its HD/SD-SDI

port, the GY-HM790 provides an uncompressed 4:2:2 full HD signal for live monitoring, and a FireWire port provides output of SD signals or the HDV transport stream, so footage can be backed up economically with an HDD recorder. An optional SxS media recorder module attaches directly to the camcorder and allows simultaneous recording to SDHC cards and SxS media. The new GY-HM790 also builds on the studio capabilities of JVC’s popular GY-HD250 camera with its improved picture quality and cleaner studio integration. Its redesigned studio adapter sled incorporates a modular approach to multicore or fibre connectivity for a cleaner interface. Modules connect directly to the camera without external cabling, so they can be used either with the studio sled or handheld. Plus, JVC’s modular approach allows the creation of additional modules to accommodate future technologies.

Other new features for studio or multi-camera use include built-in time code in/out and genlock. JVC also offers a full complement of accessories, including a remote camera control unit, remote shader panel, 8.4-inch studioviewfinder, and multi-input special effects generators.

The GY-HM790 will be available this summer. For more information, please visit www.jvc-me.com.

ADACH launches 3rd session of the Sounds of Arabia on May 6th, 2010 The Abu Dhabi Authority for Culture and Heritage (ADACH) said that this session will be rich with surprises, and a host of major music labels from around the Arab World will be in attendance.

They stressed that the great success of the Festival will continue to attract thousands of fans, just as it did during its first and second sessions. This time the Festival will be held over a longer period of time.

Abdullah Al Ameri, Director of Culture and Arts Department at ADACH, said: “Music is

a universal language that addresses the heart and captures the soul.

The ‘Sounds of Arabia’ Festival is an excellent example of the success that the Abu Dhabi Authority for Culture and Heritage have had in achieving their objective of reviving the popularity of original arts and music. This elevated type of art is a long way from having a reputation for inferior form and content.”

“Previous sessions of the Festival have succeeded in attracting the top artists, and the third session will continue this tradition by introducing new surprises and attracting yet more big names. New programs will be introduced that will place an emphasis on the importance of the role of music in our lives. The Festival will continue to be seen as a hallmark of the revival of the rich artistic heritage that is being enjoyed in the Arab region,” he added.

Al Ameri stated, “The ‘Sounds of Arabia’ Festival has, over the past two years, created a world of understanding and has worked to build cultural bridges that have helped to bring together civilizations from the East and West. It has also supported and encouraged Arabic art, and has embraced senior and famous Arabic artistic symbols. This work in itself is both refined and important.”

Please visit www.adach.ae for more information.

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NEWS RIM Introduces the New BlackBerry Pearl 3G Smartphone ADFF launches a US $500,000 fund for filmmakers from the Arab world The Middle East International Film Festival (MEIFF) announced that the annual event is adopting the new name Abu Dhabi Film Festival to strengthen the connection between the festival and its home. The festival also announced the launch of Sanad, a film fund to support outstanding productions from the Arab region through grants totaling $500,000 each year.

Sanad (which connotes support in Arabic) will provide grants in two categories – development and post-production – for feature-length narratives and documentaries by filmmakers from the Arab world.

Development grants will be up to US $20,000 while those for postproduction will be up to US $60,000. The selection committee will be composed of members of the Festival’s programming and management teams along with highly qualified film industry professionals.

The fund’s selection committee will seek out bold and remarkable projects from both new and established filmmakers with the aim of encouraging artistic innovation. As the first fund to be launched by a film festival with the specific aim of supporting filmmakers from across the Arab world, Sanad also aims to build stronger networks within the region’s film industry.

“Sanad is a concrete way in which the festival can support the region’s filmmakers in developing their own voices and taking their place in the international film community. There’s an amazing amount of untapped and unrecognized creative potential in the Arab world and these grants are an important building block in the creation of a vibrant and viable cinema here, especially since they come with the kind of international opportunities and support we can offer,” said Peter Scarlet, the Festival’s Executive Director.

Applications for the fund are now open until July 15, 2010.

Full Rules & Regulations along with the Application Form are available for download at www.meiff.com/industry/sanad

What do you want in a mobile phone?

Small? Stylish? Fast? Full-featured?

How about all of the above?

Research In Motion (RIM) (NASDAQ: RIMM; TSX: RIM) has introduced the new BlackBerry® Pearl™ 3G, the smallest BlackBerry® smartphone yet. Despite its impressively compact and elegant design, this stylish new handset is a powerful 3G BlackBerry smartphone with uncompromising performance and top–of-the-line features, including all the industry-leading BlackBerry® email, messaging and social networking capabilities that so many people love.

“The BlackBerry Pearl 3G is unlike any other smartphone in the world and we expect a broad range of new and existing customers will be drawn to its powerful features and compact design,” said Mike Lazaridis, President and CoCEO, Research In Motion. “Considering the fast growing consumer interest in smartphones and the fact that more than three-quarters of the people in the global mobile phone market are still buying handsets with a traditional alphanumeric keypad, we think the new BlackBerry Pearl 3G addresses a substantial market opportunity. It allows consumers to upgrade their traditional mobile phone to a full-featured, easyto-use and fashionable 3G BlackBerry smartphone that supports BlackBerry Messenger and many other apps while maintaining a handset design and layout that is familiar and comfortable.”

The new BlackBerry Pearl 3G smartphone is a marvel of engineering and design excellence. It’s as powerful as it is compact. Measuring less than two inches wide (50 mm) and weighing only 3.3 ounces (93g), it still manages to pack in support for high-speed 3G (UMTS/ HSDPA) networks, Wi-Fi® (b/g/n) and

GPS along with a powerhouse processor that drives visually stunning images on the sharp, high-resolution display. It also features an optical trackpad for smooth navigation, dedicated volume and media keys for added convenience, a 3.2 MP camera with flash for quality pictures on the go, and support for up to 32 GB of personal content.

The new BlackBerry Pearl 3G smartphone will be available in two models and several lustrous colors. The 9100 model features a 20-key condensed QWERTY keyboard and the 9105 model features a 14-key traditional phone keyboard. Both models include SureType® software that can complete words as the user types, making texting fast and accurate.

The BlackBerry Pearl 3G smartphone is expected to launch with various carriers beginning in May. Check with individual carriers for details about availability and pricing.

For more information visit www.blackberry.com/pearl3G.

Book Reviews Brand Identity Now! Edited by Julius Wiedemann and published by Taschen Books The nice compact size, the crack-proof spine, the easy-to-follow, clean layout. What’s not to love about the Brand Identity Now! book, displaying successful brand design from around the world?

The book is divided into two sections, i.e. case studies and projects.

The case studies are insightful and well-written, each showing enough images to give a good overview of the project. The projects section doesn’t disappoint either, featuring a broad spectrum of work, with

some refreshing solutions to design briefs.

There also seems to be more of a focus on sustainable design, which is good to see.

In a oversaturated market, where we see a new brand book making its appearance every other week, this one is definitely a must-have and designers will spend many happy hours referring to it for inspiration.

1 Print Material for the Museum of Arts and Design in New York 2 SNOG, pure frozen yogurt food outlet 3 Still from The Whirlpool (1997) 4 Still from Steve Buscemi (2006)

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Art Cinema Written by Paul Young, edited by Paul Duncan and published by Taschen Books ‘Movies should have a beginning, a middle, and an end, but not necessarily in that order.’

– Jean-Luc Godard This provocative book offers a fascinating and comprehensive look into the evolution of art cinema from the early 20th century up to the present day. Each chapter explores a different genre, by featuring prominent filmmakers and films that have shaped this art form.

If you’re curious about this form of cinema, prepare to be shocked, delighted and for your mind to be opened to experiencing cinema as art. If you’re involved in filmmaking, this book is definitely a valuable source of reference, beautifully illustrated with film stills throughout.

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For more information and to purchase these and other Taschen publications, please visit www.taschen.com

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Code Less, Design More Adobe Creative Suite 5 This month Adobe released the new Adobe Creative Suite 5 (CS5), which was not totally unexpected but not expected that soon. After testing the Beta Version of Adobe Master Collection, which is THE Adobe package, containing almost every application Adobe has to offer. We spoke to Joe Karkour from Adobe Middle East about new features, web design and cross platform applications.

Media Production: What is new in Adobe CS5?

Joe Karkour: With this installment, Adobe, added over 250 new features, upgraded all 14 Adobe products and added some new applications to the Adobe array of software.

One of the most exciting applications CS5 has on offer is ‘Flash Catalyst’. Adobe Flash Catalyst is a new professional interaction design tool for rapidly creating expressive interfaces and interactive content without writing code.

This means, that you can design an interface in design applications like Adobe Photoshop or Adobe Illustrator and import the design seamlessly into Adobe Flash Catalyst. Once opened there you will find all layers and layer styles created in Photoshop or Illustrator in the exact same organization.

This design can now be transferred into an

interactive application using behaviors and actions, without needing to write code.

At the same time Adobe Flash Catalyst can export the ready application to almost any format available to the media consumer and so create a stand-alone App that can be used on computers, video game consoles and even iPhones.

MP: Which features would you like to highlight in CS5?

JK: Photoshop continued to enhance its 3D capabilities by adding new tools to create simple 3D animations in Photoshop CS5. The ‘Puppet Tool’ works similar to the ‘Bone Tool’ in Adobe Flash CS4 and so, allows the designer to create and animate a 3D object entirely in Photoshop. With the ‘Puppet Tool’ you create anchor points on the joints of hands or legs for example and by changing the anchor points’ position on keyframes, Photoshop generates the animation for you.

Another interesting helper in Adobe Photoshop CS5 is the ‘Content Aware Fill’.

Where the the ‘Healing Brush’ was used to remove or retouch small artifacts in an image, the ‘Content Aware Fill’ gives you the freedom to remove major parts of an image and recreate the background as if the object was never there.

Adobe Illustrator’s 3D section was topped up with new features as well. Now, you can create a 3D plane and draw on it directly, all on your art board in Illustrator. For interior designers or architects, Adobe Illustrator now imports AutoCAD 3D natively.

MP: These days internet and mobile internet are becoming more relevant to the design industry’s work life. How does Adobe cater to this need with the new Creative Suite 5?

JK: Adobe’s mission with the new Creative Suite 5 is to give designers more freedom

NEWS

Adobe Creative Suite 5 Design Premium software

Adobe® Creative Suite® Adobe® Creative Suite® 5 Production Premium 5 Web Premium software

gives you powerful new creative tools for crafting artwork that stands out. Finish work faster with numerous enhancements to the tools you use every day. And with new Adobe Flash® Catalyst™, you can extend the reach of your designs to new media without writing code.

software delivers industry-leading performance, including native 64-bit support, GPU acceleration, and expanded tapeless camera support.

Speed up production and postproduction through integration with Adobe Story, a new Adobe CS Live online service*, for collaborative scriptwriting. CS Live online services are complimentary for a limited time — visit www.adobe.com/go/ cslive for details.

to design cross-platform, following the ‘design once, publish anywhere’ concept.

Now, Adobe Dreamweaver offers simulations for different devices, to preview a project on as many platforms as possible, before publishing. With the Adobe Browser Lab you can test websites on all conventional web browsers to compare how each browser interprets your online project.

A great advancement in open platform online publishing is the Adobe Air 2 software.

With Adobe Air 2 you can make your online project a stand alone application that can be downloaded to computers and mobile phones. All content will then be available to the user even without an active internet connection. Once the user is online, all content will be updated and saved on the user’s local hard drive.

makes it easier to create standardsbased websites and immersive digital experiences. Use Adobe Dreamweaver® CS5 to develop with content management systems, including WordPress, Joomla!, Drupal and powerful CSS tools. With the complete Adobe Flash® family of tools, including Flash Catalyst™ CS5, Flash Professional CS5, and Flash Builder™ 4 Standard, you can design and develop content for delivery virtually anywhere.

With this installment Adobe, added over 250 new features, upgraded all 14 Adobe products and added some new applications to the Adobe array of software.

Conclusion

Joe gave us a great insight into Adobe CS5 with all it’s great features. I am looking forward to seeing in which direction designing for the cyber world will develop and which new potential in CS5 is yet to be discovered.

We will keep you updated on new features and developments in Adobe CS5.

Joe Karkour

Regional Business Development Manager, Middle East & North Africa, Adobe Systems Joe is the Regional Business Development Manager for the Creative Products for Adobe Systems Middle East North Africa Offices in Dubai. In this role, he drives the market development for MENA including KSA and UAE markets and is responsible for channel management, client service and business development.

During his tenure at Adobe Systems, Joe has been a succesful product evangelist, specializing in Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, Acrobat and print solutions.

Prior to joining Adobe Systems, Joe was the General Manager of Layout Middle East in Dubai, master distributor of Quark Inc. in the Region. He helped develop the first localized Right-to-Left version of QuarkXPress and was recognized for his work creating several of the most commonly used Arabic Fonts.

Joe has extensive experience in graphic design applications, press, pre-press and color management solutions, and is an avid photographer in his spare time.

Born in Beirut, he holds a Bachelor Degree in Computer Science from EPSIL University in Lebanon, and is a board member of the Program Advisory Committee of the Higher Colleges of Technology and the Sharjah Women’s College.

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WHAT IS CENSORSHIP? Media Production Magazine speaks to Mr. Khalid Al-Muquaisib about censorship and rating systems.

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irstly، I think that it is best for me to begin by saying that censorship is a huge area for discussion and one that can only be touched upon briefly in this article. Let’s begin though by looking at the different ways that it affects the media and hopefully get a clearer picture of the power and privilege of censorship.

What is Censorship?

Censorship is all around us, in our home, at work, in many areas of our lives. However, censorship in the mass media is determined by that particular media as to what they deem we should or should not see. In other words, they decide what to cut, erase or scratch from the information before it reaches, us, the receiver.

mentioned that monster that is the Internet yet? Now, that is media at its most powerful and least censored.

leads me to ask the question, should the individual be responsible for censoring their own work or should they follow their creative urges and then leave their passion in the hands of the state executor?

Let’s look at the rating system that is applied to media in the West.

Of course, it goes without saying that the Department of Censorship could destroy the passion and delete the real message if it conflicts with the censorship guidelines. If so, where does this leave the media? For example, on occasion, in movies the censurer will not translate a word that is deemed ‘foul’ and yet the listener can still hear it in the original soundtrack. Should a scene be entirely removed from the story if the censurer is to meet his objective, and if so what should happen to the storyline?

• Rated G means General Audience - no nudity, no drugs, no sex but strong language might occur.

• Rated 13 – some material may be inappropriate for children under 13.

• Rated R – restricted, no children allowed under 18 to see without parental guidance.

With reference to the Middle East region, I would suggest that if the material is for general or public viewing, then censorship is required due to respecting the nature of an Islamic society. However, if the material is for personal viewing, then adults should be allowed to be adults and be responsible for self-censorship and not be answerable

• Rated NC 18 – no children 18 or under.

They use our belief systems to control how we respond to the message that they are transmitting. Such emotive images and or audio are sent to us using subjects such as children, women, the poor or the rich, the disabled or the visually impaired. Repressed ethnic groups and religious poundings are all methods of getting the message across – the message that they want us to see and feel.

Change one emotive picture and completely change the message.

So what media do we have out there? We have television, which consists of picture, sound and text. Radio, which is voice only.

We have the massive film industry with the even larger picture, sound and text. We have print and the press, containing pictures and text. Advertising and commercials, use pictures and text, at different sizes focusing on the direct target audiences. Have we

• Rated GP – all ages admitted, parental guidance suggested.

This rating system is enforced by the F.C.C. (Federal Communication Committee).

In the Middle East, however, we do not have a systematic rating system, so censorship committees control the media, however, there is a list of guidelines for the censurer to use on the released media.

Now, the question is, do we have a censurer or a gatekeeper, on the censorship itself?

How much freedom does the newscaster or radio presenter actually have? Where does the censorship issue begin?

Creativity is the driving force behind the people who work in the media industry. This

In the Middle East, however, we do not have a systematic rating system so censorship committees control the media, however, there is a list of guidelines for the censurer to use on the released media.

KNOW WHO Khalid Al-Muquaisib

to the man with the scissors or black marker pen. If you want to end piracy then allow people the right to vote on what they should and should not see.

Now, let’s discuss how media and propaganda created the need for censorship.

It is said that media is a weapon, but is it?

Censorship, if truth be told, is thought to be the enemy of democracy and freedom of speech. Most of the Media is controlled by very powerful sources, and are often politically motivated. In a democratic media environment, sentences like ‘this is from an official source’, are used to influence the media consumer to believe and accept the validity of a story. On the other hand, sentences like ‘this is form an unknown source’, are more likely to lead the consumer to reject and mistrust the information. For me, this leads us to the real censorship out there.

Should hiding information from people be considered censorship or should this form of censorship be considered a crime?

Let’s consider how an event is reported.

If you see an accident on the street, then you stop, you look, you listen and you create your version of the event based on your facts. Now, let’s consider a reporter in a newsworthy situation. Do they report precisely what they see or what they think will sell more media time? Why is it that the same version of events is reported very differently in media outlets that have

Khalid Al-Muquaisib

studied in the USA earning his Bachelor of Arts degree majoring in TV, Radio and Films. Since 1987, he has worked as a director and producer for all kinds of programs, including documentaries, musicals, scientific educational and religious programs.

differing political agendas? How can we trust another person’s version of events when we are not there to approve it?

That is why media has the incredible power to change our lives and how we view the lives of others. Media does, and do not underestimate this, have the power to influence people to think what it wants them to think and behave in ways that it wants them to behave. If you still doubt this, take a bird’s-eye view one night over any industrialized country. What you will see is the ever-present flicker of a TV screen, or the ongoing glow from computer screens informing eagerly awaiting listeners and viewers of the many different ways to improve their lives. The audience is so occupied with the constant flow of information, that they do not have time to stop, turn off the chatter and think “But what do I think?” Have you ever wondered why every time you meet with family or friends, the main topic of conversation is; “Did you see this or did you hear that?”

So, what was the battle for democracy all about? It was about the right to be able to choose. If you don’t trust a source then don’t refer to it. If you want to see something for yourself then go to it. Remember, once you recount what you have seen, question whether or not you are honest enough not to embellish the facts just that little bit to entertain your listener? Is your version of events influenced by your own personal beliefs? Who among us is clean enough not to want just that little bit of censorship?

With reference to the Middle East region, I would suggest that if the material is for general or public viewing, then censorship is required due to respecting the nature of an Islamic society. However, if the material is for personal viewing, then adults should be allowed to be adults and be responsible for self-censorship and not be answerable to the man with the scissors or black marker pen.

He was appointed as the General Director of all KTV channels from 1993 - 1998.

Khalid is currently the General Director for programming and production at Kuwait Cable Vision and is also involved in an ongoing archiving project to preserve material for future generations of the GCC.

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ANIMATION ACADEMY

Abu Dhabi’s media content creation community twofour54 located in Abu Dhabi, has announced the launch of an Arab animation academy in cooperation with Cartoon Network.

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he ambitious plans announced by Wayne Borg COO of twofour54 at MIPTV in Cannes, will see the development of a number of projects focused on the development of Arabic animation and content creation.

Media Production: What skill set will the Cartoon Network Animation Academy and development studios, which will launch in September 2010 at twofour54 tadreeb, offer aspiring Arabic animators?

Wayne Borg: With the Cartoon Network Animation Academy we offer students from the region a chance to develop their animation skills with the overall goal of providing future job opportunities.

Additionally, we provide a platform for young people who we believe have great animated creative concepts that they could present to a development studio. Furthermore, taking some of those concepts, both those developed in-house, by students, or presented by people from the region, to go into full production and to be realized into full Cartoon Network studio productions. For us, it works at a number of levels as it all contributes to the eco-system that we’re developing here at twofour54 to make Abu Dhabi a hub for Arabic content creators in the region and a place where creative people can come together and feel stimulated and supported to do what they do best, which is create content.

Our Cartoon Network Animation Academy offers students a combination of technical skills, in terms of the art of animation, particularly CGbased work. It’s also about some of those core skills that pertain to any creative content, which is about character development, story development, script writing, editing and it’s about bringing all the various components that go into a production.

Over time, we create and train individuals who have the potential to start their own animation businesses and can go on to form working partnerships with successful animation broadcasters. This will be the key indication to the success of the courses for us. So it’s not purely the skill of drawing or CG-based, but it’s also the full process from a creative side.

KNOW WHO Wayne Borg MP: How are you planning to find and attract potential Arabic content creators from the various regions of the Middle East and North Africa to participate in the training programmes which will be offered at the Cartoon Network Animation Academy?

WB: Firstly, what we’ll be doing is promoting the course, so we’ll be looking to work with school-leavers and graduates and young people who have an interest and passion in pursuing a career in animation. A next step will be to develop those individuals and look to provide internships at development and production studios. We will also reach out to Arabic animators from abroad who currently may be in other parts of the world with a passion for animation but couldn’t pursue it in the region because there was a lack of infrastructure and a lack of opportunities. We are keen to attract those individuals back to the region so that they can work with young people but also further their own projects.

MP: What was the reason for setting up such a programme?

WB: We recognized that children’s content and pre-teen content is a huge area of the content industry, particularly in television and film. When you compare this region which has a population of 340 million people and that 60% are under the age of 25 and a further 50% under the age of 15, the number of children’s characters that originated in the area is very small compared to North America or Western Europe, where there are the equivalent of hundreds if not thousands of characters that make up children’s content. For us, this is a key part of the infrastructure that we’re building here that’s contributing to the eco-system. Many of the skills which are developed in this particular field are transferrable to many other parts of the content industry.

MP: What will the master classes entail and how will the international accreditation of the classes work?

WB: The master classes will be conducted by some of the senior animators and studio heads from Cartoon Network who will be coming out here on a periodic basis to hold the classes at twofour54. For those students attending the animation academy we will give additional support for the best-in-class, to mentor and

instruct them in the finer points of animation. Our animation classes are advanced courses, with leading-edge equipment and thinking when it comes to animation in technical terms as well as in terms of technique. This way we can ensure these young talents, who are starting to establish themselves in the industry here, have access to that thinking and the latest trends in what audiences and broadcasters are looking for.

In regards to accreditation of the master classes, we are currently working on this issue given this is the first time that Cartoon Network and twofour54 have ever done anything like this. Initially, it will be a vocationally-based course and then in time we’re in discussions with the authorities in terms of how we take the course and make it accredited.

MP: What is the duration period of each course?

WB: It will be a year course, basically starting in September and running through to the end of a standard academic year.

MP: What will the criteria be to be accepted into the Animation Academy, if I understand you correctly, it will be mainly targeted at graduates or will it also be open to professionals that would like to improve their creativity and animation skills?

WB: Our focus will be graduates at the outset but again we’ll look to see where demand is coming from and we’ll try to develop the course in order to meet all that demand.

We’re very much a regional proposition and today our focus is on our nationals. It’s not just about the UAE though, it’s about the broader region but clearly it represents a great opportunity for local Emiratis to participate if they wish to pursue a career in the creative industry.

Our vision is to create a vibrant animation industry in the region, engaging a strong talent pool of animation graduates who work as professional animators, resulting in putting quality productions in place.

MP: Do you have a pilot study group together yet?

WB: We haven’t trialled the courses yet but with the courses starting in September 2010 we have already completed about 90% of the curriculum.

MP: How will the internships to Cartoon Network’s international studios be awarded to students?

WB: The internships will complement the courses so as the production studio starts to ramp up, the Cartoon Network will be providing a number of positions available for interns who are students from the course, as we want to give them priority. Over time, after their internships finish, we’ll look to offer a number of those individuals permanent positions.

MP: Are you still looking for supporting companies who would also offer job opportunities and internships?

WB: Absolutely, for us it’s about skill development, job creation and also creative output. The more people that we can engage in full-time employment and provide with stimulating careers the more opportunities we generate for individuals to become part of the creative community and part of the eco-system, basically to help support the companies that are establishing here. Many of the companies want to recruit locally and recruit Arabs in particular, given that the focus is very much Arabic content.

MP: What is twofour54 and Cartoon Network’s vision for the future of Arabic animation in the region?

WB: Our vision is to create a vibrant animation industry in the region, engaging a strong talent pool of animation graduates who work as professional animators, resulting in putting quality productions in place. For us, it is important to create great Arab animation content for the region which hasn’t happened extensively so far.

From all accounts, the feeling is that there’s no doubt that we can achieve that given the strong talent pool that exists. It’s about giving them the opportunity and providing them with the right skills to realize their passion and their dreams.

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CAPTURING THE MOMENT

Meet Kuwaiti photographer Bader Al Bassam MP spoke with the Kuwaiti photographer Bader Al Bassam about capturing moments, inspirations and photography.

Media Production: When did your passion for photography start?

Bader Al Bassam: I believe that creativity and passion begins in a person as soon as his mind matures enough to grasp life around him.

We all admire nature and its beauty, our souls breathe and taste life often. I believe that in our hearts we are all photographers as the word does not only imply for a person with a camera but for one who captures the beauty of a moment, be it in a machine or in his mind.

My second birthŘŒ and I call it a second birthŘŒ because my life changed after it, was when I was 17 years old. I had always loved life and its little details and I wanted a way to keep this beauty from turning into a fading memory, so I discovered photography.

KNOW WHO Bader Al Bassam

I have never deleted any of my pictures... I still have my first shots with it. In fact, my first shot ever is one I love so much.

MP: Tell us a bit about your creative background?

BAB: Since I began on this path, I took pictures even before knowing that I loved photography. It was my way of freezing my beautiful moments in time, my trips to rallies, my traveling around the world among other things. However, since photography came into my life and became an important and a serious part of it, I dedicated all of my time to it. Now, my traveling around the world is for the sole purpose of capturing life through my lens.

MP: What was your first camera? Do you still have shots taken with your first camera?

BAB: My first camera was Lica 8 mega pixel.

I have never deleted any of my pictures, I love them all. So yes, I still have my first shots with it. In fact, my first shot ever is one I love so much.

MP: Do you have a favorite moment you like to shoot?

BAB: I never think of it that way. It is true

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Bader Al Bassam

was born and raised in Kuwait and has lived his whole life in defiance to all that is ordinary.

I create my moments, but when I hold the camera and prepare for a shot, I do not let my thoughts form and interfere. Think of it this way; some people get into their cars to drive to a certain destination; others get into their cars and just drive.

Growing up, he dropped out of high school to join the institute of music and Fine Arts. After four years of study, he wanted to expand his experience in life.

Seeking adventure, he left the institute to join the Kuwait Navy Force. At the age of 26, he retired from the navy. Seeking life elsewhere, he began to see life through the perspective of a camera lens.

MP: Which situation or place triggers your ‘I need to capture this moment’ gene?

BAB: When I feel that city life is taking its toll on me, I choose solitude, my silent friend, nature.

Now a full time photographer, Bader AlBassam continues to show the world the beauty of how he sees life through his own unique perception.

MP: The big question in photography circuits is, analogue or digital? Which one do you prefer and why?

BAB: Digital photography because I like to live in the present, enjoying its privileges, like the photographers of old who enjoyed theirs (analogue).

Abridged biography by Abdullah Shubbar

MP: Where do you prefer to shoot, indoors in the studio or outdoors?

BAB: Outdoors. The sky is the limit.

www.flikr.com/people/baderalbassam MP: How would you describe your style?

BAB: I don’t think of what I do as a style. It’s my audience that categorize and name what I do.

For me, photography is simply imagination.

MP: What is a typical Bader Al Bassam camera setup?

BAB: It really depends on what I’m taking, the weather, where I’m taking it and how, so I can’t really say, except for the tone, which is usually black and white. Otherwise every time I’d move the lens I’d have a new setup.

MP: Every artist has his own touch, his own style, what would you say is your trademark?

BAB: “Still-unusual-moments,” or that’s what my audience say. I don’t think an artist can know these things for we can only feel and produce our passion into pictures. It’s the viewer that can distinguish a certain pattern in every artist.

MP: Looking back at your work as a photographer, which would be your favorite shot and why?

BAB: One night, during winter, I decided to take my camera and go to my favorite spot at the

KNOW WHO Bader Al Bassam

beach. It was a windy and dark night and the sky was trembling with lightning. I remember spending the better part of the night waiting in the darkness for lightning to strike and when it did, I captured it, resulting in a picture I love so much.

Every time I look at it I remember the majestic creation of the universe and that I am just a human being.

MP: Which role does the camera play for you? Do you think camera quality is a key factor for a good photograph?

BAB: A camera represents a way for me to capture my imagination within a frame, one of the many tools that a real photographer has.

I do believe that the quality of the camera complements good photography, however, in order for one to produce beautiful photography, one that comes from the human mind, which is limitless when it comes to imagining things, one needs to use an external tool that can barely capture his passion, even if it is not as good as he imagined it. A camera to a photographer is like a knife to a butcher, you need a sharp knife in order to earn your living.

A camera can produce an excellent photo but it cannot produce an excellent photographer.

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Fayez Al Harthy Saudi Arabian freelance graphic designer Fayez Al Harthy comes from a background in architecture and draws his inspiration from by nature, music and traditional arts.

Media Production: What is your creative background?

Fayez Al Harthy: I started doing graphic design in early 2002. At the time, I was wondering if I could create something like what I used to see on the Internet. So, I decided to become one of those creatives. Majoring in architecture, gave me a lot of opportunities to enhance my design skills. Graphic design is all about problem solving like architecture. In architecture you must follow a procedure to come up with the final product. This procedure begins with brainstorming, conceptualizing, case-studies, analysis, design stage and ends up with the final presentation. Besides my major courses, I also took many elective courses related to design.

MP: How did you start your career as a freelance designer? Do you have some advice for designers out there who want to step into the design industry?

FAH: In the beginning I used to do a lot of free work to gain more experience, until I could build an identity for myself and with the help of friends, I was able to get some commercial work. I always advise designers to work for free or work for the top price but never work for cheap, however, at the beginning they have to work for cheap to gain more experience and understand this industry.

MP: Where do you find inspiration?

FAH: I’m usually inspired by nature, music, architecture and creative designers. There

are many things that give me indirect ideas like traditional markets.

I’m used to seeing things from different angles.

MP: How do you start a project?

FAH: Before the design stage. I start every project with studying similar projects and writing the guidelines. Then I draw some sketches for different ideas, until I choose the clearest idea. Next the digital design stage follows.

MP: What is it that fascinates you with logos and branding? Do you have other favorite fields you like to work in?

FAH: With logo and branding designs you can express your ideas in a simple way. But at the same time it is very challenging to deliver a message with each logo design. Besides logo designs I like to work in fields where I can express my ideas like advertising and abstract art.

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KNOW WHO Fayez Al Harthy

With logo and branding designs you can express your ideas in a simple way. But at the same time it is very challenging to deliver a message with each logo design. Besides logo designs I like to work in ďŹ elds where I can express my ideas like advertising and abstract art.

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Every project I design with passion. Fish Market Identity is one of my favorite projects that I did recently because I delivered a message in a minimal package.

MP: Since we are talking about censorship, how do you see censorship from a freelance designer point of view? Is it actually hindering your work or forcing you to work more creatively?

FAH: Censorship is a challenge and design is always a challenging job. Censorship is forcing designers to come up with new and unusual ideas and indirect messages.

Sometimes these indirect messages are much better than the direct messages.

MP: When you look back at the projects you were involved in, which one is your ‘master piece’ and why?

FAH: Every project I design with passion.

Fish Market Identity is one of my favorite projects that I did recently because I delivered a message in a minimal package.

MP: Where do you see yourself 5 years from now?

FAH: Although it’s certainly difficult to predict things far into the future, I know what direction I want to develop toward. Within 5 years, I would like to specialize more in branding and identity building because I’m very passionate about branding.

KNOW WHO Fayez Al Harthy

Fayez Al Harthy

Saudi Arabian graphic designer, Fayez Al Harthy was born in October 1984. He majored in architecture at the King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals architecture. He currently works as a freelance designer and amateur photographer. Fayez is passionate about visual arts and loves designing logos. Many of his works began by experimenting with software such as Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Photoshop, Adobe InDesign and AutoCAD. He ďŹ nds inspiration in nature, music and traditional arts. www.behance.net/Fayez

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Tyrone Menezes MP catches up with Tyrone Menezes, a self-taught man of many talents, not least of which is his digital artwork and conceptual photography.

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Media Production: You have quite a diverse range of skills! Tell us a little bit about your background and how you got started as a multimedia designer.

Tyrone Menezes: It all began back in 1999, when I showed keen interest in music and my parents gave me a Yamaha keyboard as a gift. I started making my own music with it, and one of the great features of this keyboard was the floppy drive, which led me to start using a computer. From there on, I composed music on a PC – making my own drum loops, synth patch and sound effects.

Around 2001, I got bored of simply composing music and directed my curiosity towards website design – and that is where things really took off. Initially, I would write html pages, test animations on Flash (version 4) and create hideous, amateur designs on Paint Shop Pro. Partly, my inspiration for these animations was due to a magazine that provided tutorial and demos for their readers which, back then, was the only magazine you could look forward to, providing technical related news.

One of their tutorials introduced Photoshop’s filter effects the almighty ‘Lens Flare’, which I practically used in all of my early designs. Looking back, I shudder to look back at those first pieces of amateur art.

KNOW WHO Tyrone Menezes I worked for several years in the online and print design industry, but was lacking depth in this field after some time. One of my decisions to plunge into 3D animation, was triggered by the movie Finding Nemo

by Pixar. Having found this new interest I ended up spending most of my college years and a massive amount of hours learning about 3D. I was so fascinated, that I would stay up all night trying new techniques, then head straight to class for another batch of lectures. I was only able to survive with the help of strong coffee to pull me through those days, so much so that I was even nicknamed ‘Coffee’ once I had become an addict.

Welcome to Motion Graphic and postproduction.

By the time I was familiarized in the 3D world I was not yet satisfied. I was looking for something more, as I am a pursuer. One of my main questions was, ‘How do I get those professional looking renders? This time, I had a couple of friends who had been using After Effects and Shake extensively on their commercial projects. They showed me what post-production could do to my lifeless renders and that’s when I said – ‘Motion Graphics it is’. From there on I started creating matte paintings to be incorporated into my renders.

But here’s the best part of my entire learning path. When I left a particular topic, such as music composing or print designing, it never really left me. It just enhanced my learning curve for the next ‘type’ of technology. I now have a huge array of music compositions sitting on my hard drives, ranging from piano ballads to hip-hop, rock and a some really solid house tracks that I’ve been working on really slowly as mastering tracks for maximum punch takes time. I don’t have a release date for it yet, but it’s definitely in the pipe line.

You see, everything that I touched base on, pushed me onto the next level and each discipline just merged so well with the other. I still have a lot to learn and it will never stop, but with this extensive skill set, I’ve managed to create a vast range of related media for my clients. In short – I design prototypes, create the audio mood for the project and eventually put things into motion. The entire project tends to have this kind of uniformity and unique identity as it’s all coming from one source.

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Around the same time, I also felt the urge to learn photography, as this increased and improved my skills with Motion Graphics.

What is particular about photography, apart from just clicking the ‘button’ is, that it’s got a lot of science and art mixed into just one device. Learning my shutter speeds and apertures were as crucial as using the ‘divine proportion’ and ‘rule of thirds’. From there onwards, photography has just been an evolving unseen talent in my skill set. As of now, I enjoy doing corporate shoots, but what really pushes it to the next level is my conceptual photography. That’s where my photography is headed in.

A fact about me is, that I have never been through any formal training what-so-ever.

Although I always wanted to, but looking back at how much I’ve learnt by myself it motivates me to learn even more – by myself.

3 1 Burnt Out 2 Wet Situation 3 Overxhausted

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Here’s a very simple logic – you can’t learn to dance without having heard the song. With that same analogy, I can’t seem to set a theme on a project if I can’t gauge the mood of it. Usually that mood is interconnected with music.

In a year, I usually end up touching base on all of my skill sets - at least once. I don’t know how it happens, but it keeps me from rusting.

The best part of it all is that it’s always improving my skills in both quality and speed. Something that the industry heavily relies on.

MP: What would you say inspires your digital art?

TM: Essentially my main inspiration comes from music as it usually paves the mood for either my commercial or personal projects. I listen to a huge array of music genres, ranging from the Beethoven’s era to today’s modern electro funk and house type transfigurations. Over the last couple of years, I’ve been particularly monitoring how music has been evolving over the spans of various decades. The 70’s had their retro, funk and disco, the 80’s with their synthy age and electro rock, 90’s with the bubble gum pop and groovy boy bands, the 2000’s just had an enormous outbreak of various sub genres. Of course, rock has always been there, it’s just evolving with concern.

Here’s a very simple logic – you can’t learn to dance without having heard the song. With that same analogy, I can’t seem to set a theme on a project if I can’t gauge the mood of it. Usually that mood is interconnected with music. Whenever I’m at a meeting, my mind visualizes the entire scene as a musical, by automatically creating a musical score for the ‘scene’. This intensifies my focus during the client meeting.

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Apart from music, movies would come second in line. Most of my conceptual photography is based on getting that cinematic or that very dramatic look.

MP: Can you explain in brief what the working process is to produce a finished piece of digital artwork and how much time a project takes you from concept to completion?

TM: I can say that I am not a traditional artist by nature. My digital artworks are mostly influenced by my surroundings at a particular point in time. My ideas might occur while commuting from one place to the other, or be triggered by a song I am

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listening to. In these moments, I quickly outline the concept on paper, which most of the time is not really fancy – from there I begin modeling the structure in Maya.

Once I’ve managed to set my proportions and perspective right, I continue to define the minute details. It’s those small nuances that bring the whole artwork together, but it is also one of the reasons it usually takes a lot of time. From there after, it’s just basic texturing in which I rely heavily on lighting. I believe that without proper lighting your image just doesn’t sell. Overall, it takes me around a day, maximum two to put everything together and tune things up.

KNOW WHO Tyrone Menezes

6 4 What have I done? 5 Intimate Irradiation 6 The Assault

MP: How do you put together a conceptual photograph, such as ‘The Assault’?

TM: In comparison to my digital art my approach to conceptual photography is entirely different and cannot be compared with each other.

Speaking of ‘The Assault’, I have to admit that the idea for it came about in the blink of an eye when I was testing some lighting with one of my colleagues. In this moment the idea of flying through Dubai came about.

Normally, I would lay out the entire concept in my mind, building props to proceed with a proper shoot. For this project, however, it was the other way around. I chalked out a quick overview of the final image and it was during this process in which I decided that the scene should look dangerous. Initially,

it was supposed to be the pilot just flying over the city. With the theme set to ‘risk’, I incorporated related elements that I had gathered from my stock images of Dubai collected from my vacations out of which I selected reasonable and usable images.

Quickly I put them into a composition and built my ground. Since I wanted something iconic, I simply incorporated the Burj Khalifa as a focal point to indicate the height of the machine itself.

I had a rough model of the Burj Khalifa built for one of my personal projects, but it was in a cruddy shape. So I spent some time modeling the building very roughly and added on some textures to make it convincing. I was able to utilize my 3D background combined with my knowledge in camera projection, to get the job done. Afterwards I set my focus

on photographing my main subject, for the simple fact that I needed to know my source of real life lighting in order to emulate the same when photographing my subject. To sell the effect, I had him wear a janitor’s suit, propped him up with some of our cableorganizers to emulate oxygen pipes and laid other miscellaneous props.

I photographed one of my model F-16’s from my childhood aircraft collection in direct sunlight to get those nice natural highlights. The final touches were simply compositing everything together to make it look believable. Overall, the entire process took around three days.

Lastly, I took some time to color correct all the elements and added a little bit of grain to emulate film, just to wrap the final image.

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MP: You’re also involved in producing motion graphics and crafting music. Do you feel that the experience acquired in working in all of these different disciplines ultimately enhances your overall creativity?

TM: Definitely! There’s no way I could have ever progressed without connecting bits of knowledge from different disciplines and merging it with my creative process. Music in particular is something that will always stay with me. Most of my motion graphics are created in sync with my audio tracks as most of my inspiration derives from music. Rarely do I start my motion graphics without a solid musical score. Music drives my audience into a CG drama, so when there’s a buildup of the score, the visuals depict that nature as well.

The best example to describe the connection of music with pictures is the well-known cartoon, Tom and Jerry. It is a simple cartoon that actually does not have many dialogues. But have you ever considered watching the cartoon with the audio turned off? Some parts could look extremely dangerous and serious – but due to the ragtime music scores and clowny sounding Foleys, it turns those hand drawn images into a funny cartoon.

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What is particular about photography, apart from just clicking the ‘button’ is that it’s got a lot of science and art mixed into just one device.

Another recent example would be Pixar’s Wall-E in which the entire first segment of the movie was pure Foleys and musical scores. It is only over the course of time that you eventually recognize that there hasn’t been any kind of dialogue exchange, but somehow you’re still in flow with the situation and have this emotional connection - leaving alone the animation. Once again, if the audio was turned off, you would not understand the essence of the movie.

Since I have a firm background in print, I’ve learnt typography skills along with it. This in turn, helps me by applying similar concepts of grid layouts for my motion graphics. My photography skills come into play, when I’m emulating my depth of field for my videos, or using motion blur and z-depth to its most to create an awe-inspiring visual experience.

MP: What do you feel is your next big challenge?

TM: I consider most of my personal projects the most challenging, as all of them push me to my limit. My last project, for example, led me up all the way to Jabel Harim, Mussandam – to approximately 3500 feet where even at mid-day, temperatures were really frigid.

I visited these small villages that reside at these apexes, just so I could photograph them in their natural surroundings. I didn’t know Arabic well, so I learnt a few words a week prior to my mission so I could communicate with the residents and get acquainted with them in a friendly manner. I was overwhelmed when I was approached by one of the Shihu Tribes who acted as a personal guide around the area and took care of me.

Apart from these backpacking missions, I do have this massive personal project which I’ve already outlined. The entire concept has been already laid down on paper. I am currently scouting for locations and accordingly chalking out my schedules for each shoot, so that I can use my time judiciously. The key to successful shoots is always time management.

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KNOW WHO Tyrone Menezes

9 7 Modern Warfare 8 Refraktive 9 Blaze 10 Emerald Chambers

Tyrone Menezes

is a self-taught multimedia designer, motion graphic enthusiast and an avid photographer. With an experiment and learn attitude, he has been constantly tweaking millions of virtual knobs to produce engaging effects to enrapture audiences.

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www.enraptur3.com hello@enraptur3.com +971 50 159 0051

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All aboard the ArtBus! B

oarding the ArtBus at 10 am on a Thursday morning at the Madinat Jumeirah hotel, the other artlovers seem to be quite a diverse group.

Which is of course exactly what art is meant to do; bring different people together and intitiate healthy debate.

The schedule is jam-packed and each stop is often limited to 10 or 15 minutes spent at a gallery. After all, we need to visit 16 galleries in the space of 7 hours on the Al Quoz Route, which is no mean feat. The objective of the ArtBus is to give one a taste of what’s on offer as opposed to exploring exhibitions and artists in-depth and at one’s leisure.

We start off by visiting the MinD exhibition (Made in Dubai) at the Dubai Community Theater and Arts Center (DUCTAC), Mall of the Emirates, offering up the work of artists from all over Dubai and the UAE.

Media Production Magazine hopped aboard the ArtBus to Al Quoz to have a hands-on experience of Art Dubai 2010.

which features two decades of this Syrian artist’s work. There is also the ‘I’ll huff and I’ll puff’ exhibition by Iranian artist, Ramin Haerizadeh, in which he reclaims the history of Iran since the Revolution, through the use of collage and symbolism.

Shirin Aliabadi, in her first international solo exhibition at the Third Line, called ‘Eye Love You’, explores the dreams and aspirations of a young girl’s visual diary by showing drawings of Iranian wedding eye make-up, which is beautiful in it’s youthful innocence.

One of our last stops is at Tashkeel, an independent gallery, which also offers artists and designers facilities and resources to do

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After this, we head deep into the industrial area and as we drive from gallery to gallery, I’m grateful to be on the bus, since I don’t think I would be able to have found half of the galleries otherwise. At first glance, dusty Al Quoz looks like a very unlikely place to find as many good art galleries as we do on the ArtBus. Stop after stop reveals little hidden gems, with an extremely diverse range of art, which is sure to pander to everyone’s taste.

On display are artists from India, the Middle East and even as far afoot as Europe and the Americas. The art scene seems to be thriving in Dubai, which is great news if you’re an artist or an art enthusiast.

A few of the exhibitions which really stand out for me is the Moustafa Fathi 2 1 VIDEO’APPART Paris-Dubai International Video Art Biennial, Mojo Gallery, Kitchen 2 The ArtBus Retrospective Exhibition at Ayyam Gallery,

KNOW WHO ArtBus to Al Quoz

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At first glance, dusty Al Quoz looks like a very unlikely place to find as many good art galleries as we do on the ArtBus. Stop after stop reveals little hidden gems, with an extremely diverse range of art, which is sure to pander to everyone’s taste.

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6 3 Approaching DUCTAC 4 Outside of ArtSawa with their arty Mini’s 5 MinD exhibition at DUCTAC 6 Curator at Gallery Isabelle van den Eynde explaining Iranian artist Ramin Haerizadeh’s work

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KNOW WHO ArtBus to Al Quoz

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8 7 Moustafa Fathi Retrospective Exhibition at Ayyam Gallery 8 Inside the B21 gallery 9 Flight by Rebecca Rendell at DUCTAC’s MinD exhibition 10 Eye Love You exhibition by artist Shirin Aliabadi

their creative work. The work on display here is titled, ‘Portrait of a Generation’ and show a fascinating array of portraits, or the idea of what a portrait is, as interpreted by a variety of artists, based both locally and abroad.

At selected galleries throughout the journey, videos which are part of the VIDEO’APPART Paris-Dubai International Video Art Biennial are also shown. Sometimes in completely unexpected spaces, such as the kitchen area of the Mojo gallery.

We return to the Madinat at around 5:30 pm, exhausted, but crammed with inspiration.

In retrospect, I can definitely recommend spending a day in Dubai exploring the art scene in this way. Perhaps learning a little bit more about the art which is produced in the region and how people are influenced in different ways by the world they live in.

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The ArtBus is part of ArtintheCity, which is a comprehensive guide to arts and culture in the UAE, for more information, visit www.artinthecity.com and for more information about Video’AppartDubai visit, www.videoappartdubai.com

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Let loose to your favourite hits!

It’s time! Get into weekend mode and move to the rocking bits of DJ Amigo at The Terrace every Thursday and Friday night featuring rhythms from your favourite R&B, Funky House and Electro. There’s more! Kick back and relax on Saturdays with DJ Amigo setting the tone while you lazy it out at the terrace enjoying our BBQ from 12 noon to 4 pm.

The weekend is not over yet so just enjoy your evening at The Terrace before starting off your week!

Al Barsha South-TECOM P.O. Box 503030, Dubai, UAE. T: +971 (0)4 435 0270, F: +971 (0)4 435 0011, fb.media@rotana.com

UNDER COVER

Censorship is a word which often ďŹ lls creatives with apprehension, as an original idea comes under threat of being cut to pieces. In this tutorial, Ali Al-Shobbar shares with us how he created this issue’s censorship cover.

KNOW HOW Under Cover

1

As a first step, I doodled a few sketches until I got close to the idea I had in mind. Then I chose the best of them after consulting some friends and colleagues, as it is always helpful to use the extra set of eyes to point out details that might have skipped your attention.

2

Next, I refined the character and defined the line art that I will eventually color.

3

On a new layer I created a texture that would express the theme and mood of the illustration. Basically, I chose one of the rough-edged brushes, set it to scatter and ran it all over the canvas, with the darkest colors on the edge and the lightest in the middle. Then I chose a rough-edged brush for a smudge tool, set it to scatter and tried to blend parts of the colors you splattered on the canvas.

4

I set the texture layer as a background.

5

I chose a new layer and created the foreground (in this case, the branches). Then I used a round brush and set it on airbrush and other dynamics. I picked a light brown color and a dark one. With long strokes I played with the opacity of the brush, which then resembled a tree texture.

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6

Then, I created another layer and set it as background. The branches and trunks are done in the same manner.

7

In this step, I made a new layer and placed it on top. I filled it with blue color (the theme of the illustration) and set the layer blending mood to ‘color’ and the opacity to 28%. The reason for this is to give all colors a unified blue tint. I also filled the ground with a sandy color and set the opacity to 60% to show a hint of the texture behind it.

8

At this stage, I made a new layer and chose a grass brush, set it to scatter and ran it all over the edges of the canvas.

Then I set the same brush to multiply and ran it over the edges again, to give the contrast of the light and dark grass leaves.

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9

Here I used the same technique of the grass to do the bushes, chose one of the rough-edged brushes and set it to scatter.

I did the bushes on the edges and then set the brush the ‘multiply’ and ran it over to do the shade, and then set it again on the ‘Screen’ to create the light.

11

At this stage I merged the layers of the tree trunks, grass, bushes and ground to get a unified layer (background).

KNOW HOW Under Cover

12

Now the fun begins! I fill the character’s colors. Some of you might ask “isn’t that supposed to be the 1st stage?”. Well, the reason why I prefer to make it last, is due to the fact that I want to see how well it all blends in the whole illustration. I need to see if the color needs to be brightened more or desaturated and if it supports the theme or cross it.

13

15

14 I set a new layer’s blending mood to ‘screen’ and put a source of light, in order to estimate where to place the shade.

With the Lasso tool I selected the spots where the light should be. Then I erase the spots I selected.

After that I use the smudge tool to smoothen some of the rough edges.

I created a a new layer, set the blending mood to ‘multiply’, opacity to 74% and chose a dark blue color. Why blue? Because the overall theme of this illustration is blue, so it’s best to stick to the same color, in order to create shade or light. We aim for harmony, if you are going to shade, use a dark blue. If you are going to lighten, use a light blue. Always follow the illustration’s theme.

16

I created a new layer and added the flesh tone to the character’s skin, as well as the color of the bread crust in the basket.

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17

19

I created a new layer and then set the blending mood to ‘screen’ opacity to 70% or 80%, and used it to put the highlights on the character.

I deleted the unnecessary parts of the shadow and smoothed the tip. We don’t want the shadow to be too sharp because it would mean that the light source is a prison spot light and it’s cast right on her face.

18

I made another layer and put the blending options to ‘multiply’, opacity around 50 – 60%, then I used it to cast her shadow on the ground.

20 21

After that, I used another layer to add shades to the background, tree trunks and bushes.

I wasn’t quite happy with the look of the ground.

Therefore, I made a new layer, chose a rough-edged brush, set it on scatter and set the blinding options to ‘multiply’ and opacity 50-70%. Then, after scattering patches of color here and there, to make the contrast visible on the ground, I went to filters to add noise, in order to create a grainy, realistic looking ground.

KNOW HOW Under Cover

22

In this step I further refined the face and added eyelashes.

23

I lightened the eyelashes a little bit, to bring it in harmony with the rest of the colors. We don’t want a jet black color to break the harmony of the illustration.

24

In this step, I chose the leaf brush and set it to scatter.

Then I created a new layer and set the blending options to ‘multiply’, opacity to 40-50%. After that, I applied it to make patches on the shadow cast by tree leaves to make it more realistic.

over

Final C

Ali Taher A.A. Al-Shobbar is a thirty-two

25

After that, using the same technique, I created another layer. This time, I set the blending options to ‘screen’ and the opacity to 50-60%. Lastly, I added the patches of light on the ground.

year old Kuwaiti, all-in-one comic artist; penciller, inker, colorist and occasional writer. His interests include comic art, concept art, the art of storytelling, WWI, WWII, history and myths.

Art.Monk@hotmail.com www.ali-shubbar.deviantart.com

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KNOW HOW Creating a Stamp Effect

Adobe Photoshop

In this Tutorial Romain Danger will explain how to create a stamp effect using Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Illustrator.

1

Create an Adobe Illustrator file (50 × 50 px with grid 10 px subdivision 5).

3

Copy it every 2 px (Cmd + D).

2

Draw a wave with the ‘Pen Tool’ starting from the left corner to the right with the height of 10 px.

4&5

Try to get enough waves to cover all sizes of document.

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6

9

7&8

Draw a square 50 × 50 px.

Select all and use the pathfinders (shift+Cmd+F9), click on divide to cut the line with the shape of square .

12

Select all and copy it (Cmd+C).

13

Select all (Cmd + A) and select in the menu (object-expandok) to create an outline. Select the square and ‘send it to back (shift+Cmd+[)’.

10&11

Create a new document with the ‘Clipboard Preset’.

Select top and bottom line and delete it.

14&15

Paste the drawing from Illustrator to the new document (Cmd+V).

KNOW HOW Creating a Stamp Effect

16&17

18

Select ‘Edit’ in the menu and ‘Define Pattern’. Give a name to your new pattern and ‘OK’.

Open a picture in Adobe Photoshop at 300 DPI.

19&20

Make a selection with ‘Pen Tool’ and delete the background of your selection.

21&22

Change the ‘Mode’ of your picture to ‘Bitmap’.

First, go to ‘Image-Mode-Grayscale’ in the menu. And again ‘Image-Mode-Bitmap’. selection.

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23

Select your Custom Pattern and ‘OK’.

24

25

Create your final document (size of MPMAG-CMYK, 300 DPI).

26

Now, you get the picture with an engraving effect.

Bring a picture of a piece of a paper for the background.

27

Bring the picture with the engraving effect.

28&29

Select the black area with (Cmd+one mouse click) on the ‘Black Layer’ in the ‘Channel Window’.

KNOW HOW Creating a Stamp Effect

30&31

Go back to ‘Layer Window’ , select one front color and one back color. Use the ‘Gradient Tool’ to apply the color in a new layer.

32&33&34

Bring a round design made by Adobe Illustrator, select it (Cmd+one mouse click) on the layer. Then, apply the color with ‘Gradient Tool’ in a new layer.

Romain Danger

Twenty-six year old, French graphic designer, Romain Danger, graduated with honors from Pivaut and has been living and working in Kuwait for the past two years.

He thrives on challenges and tries to keep up with new trends, by incorporating these influences in his work. He finds inspiration in arts and crafts, typography and graphics and feels that he is able to find his place in the world through creativity.

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Romain is currently working as a designer for Kuwait National Cinema Company, where he tries to bring a vibrant, young and funky feel to the brand.

Apply vector mask on your colored layer and use ‘Brush’ to make a decayed effect on the final picture.

www.romaindanger.blogspot.com

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Submit your artwork for the cover of our summer edition of MP Magazine!

For more information, please visit www.mp-mag.com

VIDEO

Football Under Cover

Synopsis

Tehran in April 2006: The first official friendly match takes place between the Iranian women’s football team and a local Berlin girl’s team, in front of more than 1000 cheering female fans. The entire stadium is electric, charged with a high voltage of girl power. A couple of men hang around in front of the gates, trying to sneak a peek over the fence.

They are barred from entering today. It has taken a year’s hard work on the parts of both teams of young women to make this happen. But now, after overcoming numerous obstacles, they are really playing. And these 90 minutes are about more than just a football game. Both the desire for self-determination and equality are being expressed here and it is clear: change is possible.

Interview with Ayat Najafi, David Assmann, Marlene Assmann How and where did you meet?

Marlene Assmann: We met at the Talent Campus at the Berlinale in 2005. We were both taking part in the short film competition with films on the subject of football and culture. My brother and myself had entered a film about my women’s team and Ayat had also made a film about a girl who played football. He told us later that this girl was in the Iranian national team but that this team had never actually played, only ever having trained. That was when we said: let’s head out there and compete against them.

The DVD of Football Under Cover can be purchased at www.flyingmoon.com

That means that you set the wheels in motion for events in the film yourselves? You initiated the game in order to be able to shoot it?

Marlene Assmann: Exactly. Those were the two projects. On the one

KNOW WHO Football Under Cover

What I really liked was the fact that the difference wasn’t really that great. The players whom we met got into football in a similar way to us. hand, we had the idea of organising a game.

On the other hand, it was clear from the start that we also wanted to capture it on film.

David Assmann: Making a film about it gave us the chance to organise the whole thing within an official framework. We suspected that we wouldn’t be able to rely on the authorities agreeing, but if we caught that agreement on film, then perhaps that would increase the pressure on them to stick to arrangements that they had made.

I found it hard to believe, as will no doubt many other people, that such a thing as a women’s team even exists in Iran. As an Iranian, Ayat, were you already aware of this?

Ayat Najafi: I’m actually a big football fan but it still came as a surprise to me. I found out by accident from a journalist, who was Spanish actually and not even Iranian! The topic really interested me and I wanted to find out more about it. I met with a few female football players in Iran and quickly learned that football had a very different significance for them. For them, it’s a means of fighting and of showing that they won’t be tied down.

Women’s football in Iran represents a battle for freedom.

Marlene Assmann: What I really liked was the fact that the difference wasn’t really that great. The players whom we met got into football in a similar way to us – they kicked a ball around in the park as kids and then couldn’t understand why they weren’t allowed to play anymore when they were older. It’s the same in our team. Of course, in Iran it’s more difficult for women and girls to play football,

but they do it and in such a self-assured way!

The fact that they don’t allow themselves to be restricted is really impressive. They also don’t see it as conflicting so sharply with their religion. The families, which we met, had absolutely no problem with it. It is not a homogenous society but a very diverse one, where great differences exist.

How did you find living in Iran for a while?

Marlene Assmann: At the beginning, during preparations for the shoot, we spent most of our time with Ayat’s family. Living with his brothers and sisters, cousins and parents was obviously very nice, but as soon as we left the house we were in another world. As long as we lived with him, we had somewhere to retreat to and to give us a bit of balance. We lost that when we went off with the team in Iran. We lived in a hotel and that was just like being in public the whole time. You have to obey the rules at all times and that was really limiting. We couldn’t move around freely at all, we couldn’t even go to the car park. Two women were assigned to us and they watched everything we did. When you got up from the table to go to the toilet, one of them walked behind you, stood in front of the door and waited. Unfortunately, this was largely the impression that our team received.

David Assmann: The difference between life in public and private there is like that between day and night. The Iranians know too just what a bad image their country has abroad and they do everything they can to improve this. The warmth with which one is received privately is indescribable.

>>>

In 2008 the warm-hearted and spirited ‘girl power’ documentary Football Under Cover، was screened at the Berlinale to both popular and critical acclaim. The following year, the shorter TV version won the 2009 Prix Europa IRIS award as best Multicultural Television Programme.

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Stills from Football Under Cover

Many things which one sees in the film are more onerous for the Iranian team than for you – for instance, the regulations on clothing, the covered stadium, the attempts at politically instrumentalising the match.

Ayat Najafi: At the beginning, it’s just as Marlene said, as long as the girls play on the street or in the park, it’s fine but as soon as they want to organise themselves, then the problems start. There are so many girls who want to be footballers that the government was forced to give them a stadium where they could play but obviously no one was allowed to see them or hear from them. However, things still continued to grow, so that a league had to be organised for them. Women’s football is a constant battle for their dreams and everything that they love. It’s certainly easier for someone living in Germany to do what they want – it is different in Iran. And for girls and women, it’s even more difficult because they are subject to more restrictions than men.

The film follows very closely the process of organising the game, the difficulties in initially setting it up. Was there a point where you thought it was never going to

happen; we’ve come a long way but it won’t actually take place?

Marlene Assmann: We reached that point several times. We didn’t even know initially which path was the right one to pursue. We were working in a hundred different directions. There had never been a game like it and we didn’t know what to do to make it happen, so we flew to Iran without a visa, without it even being clear that they would let us in at the airport. There were often moments where things seemed pretty hopeless but we thought we can’t just give up like this and we’re not going to let others decide whether the game should take place or not.

We just kept on going, somehow.

Ayat Najafi: A few of our problems began with the change in government and it was really hard to explain some of these problems to the German team. For instance, we had this Iranian civil servant who refused to send faxes to England and Germany because he thought these countries were against Iran’s nuclear plans but not sending this fax would have meant us not being able to fly. I tried to make clear to him that there was no connection between Iran’s nuclear plans and our project.

As men weren’t allowed in during the game, how did you manage to film it?

David Assmann: We made an agreement with a satellite broadcaster that they would shoot the material professionally and then make their material available to us. So from the start, we accepted that we would shoot outside the stadium with our cameraman and inside the stadium with our camerawoman and other colleagues whom we had organised on the ground. They were to concentrate on the audience, the security staff and the teams in the changing rooms. But as so often happens,

things did not go according to plan and we didn’t get the material from the broadcaster.

We then had to fall back upon the stuff that our camera team had shot inside the stadium, more or less by accident.

It must be a bit of a ludicrous situation for a man to appreciate what discrimination means, to suddenly find himself standing outside? What was that like?

Ayat Najafi: During the game, I said to David that I thought for the first time since the revolution women could do something together over which we men had no control.

Inside they were playing the game, we were standing outside and had no influence over things. The more men who appeared in front of the stadium, the stranger things got. That was a unique social experience for me.

Marlene Assmann: The next day, Ayat translated a few articles from the newspaper.

One newspaper wrote that what was unique about the game was that something which was forbidden for men was permitted to women.

As we were promoting the game in front of the place, a lot of men said to us – what are you on about, women have the same rights as men. If

KNOW WHO Football Under Cover

So from the start, we accepted that we would shoot outside the stadium with our cameraman and inside the stadium with our camerawoman and other colleagues whom we had organised on the ground. they want to play football, they should play at home. I was astonished at how ignorant a lot of people were and that they simply accepted these restrictions.

Inside the stadium, the women expressed themselves on the situation very freely.

Weren’t they afraid to do so?

Ayat Najafi: I would say that the women whom we see protesting at half-time are like the characters in the Iranian feature film Offside which was at the Berlinale in 2006. There are a group of women who go to men’s football games and demand to enter the stadium because they say that is their fundamental right. Everyone knows them and I wonder why it should be dangerous because demonstrations like this take place every day in Iran, in universities and elsewhere.

Does one consider, at the moment of filming them, whether or not you are putting people at risk?

David Assmann: We gave a lot of thought to the question of what kind of responsibility we have to our protagonists, in particular to Niloofar, the football player who does not censor herself at all and was adamant that she wanted to appear in front of the camera without a headscarf. Many women in Iran do not wear a headscarf at home but to do that on film is quite another thing. She didn’t want to disguise herself, neither generally nor in the film.

Has the film already been shown in Iran or will it be shown there?

Marlene Assmann: There will certainly be the opportunity to show it to the players some time, but the censorship rules are much

stricter if you want to make a film that can also be shown generally in Iran.

David Assmann: Our protagonists and everyone who took part in our film will all certainly receive a copy of it, but the film will definitely not be publicly screened.

Ayat Najafi: It was clear from the beginning that we would only get the necessary shooting permission if we did not show the film in Iran.

We had to agree to this in order to be able to shoot anything at all there.

Were you happy with the result of the game, 2:2?

Marlene Assmann: Yes, the issue of the possible impact of the final result had been discussed at the FIFA meeting. The Iranians were scared that we would win, because if the Iranian national team lost against an amateur team from Berlin, how would they look then?

They were also afraid that they would win this, their first game, as then we wouldn’t have been worthy opponents for them. So it was agreed that in the event of a draw, the game wouldn’t go to penalties or extra time.

At half-time we were in the lead, 2:0. Then they evened the score. When you are playing, you get really annoyed about any goals you concede, that’s obvious but as soon as the game was over, we all celebrated and that was brilliant. If someone had lost, then one team would have been hurt but this meant we could all celebrate together.

Excerpts from an interview with Knut Elstermann for Radio Eins, Berlin, 18.1.2008.

Director’s Statement Our documentary film is an integral part of the story, which it tells.

What is simultaneously paradoxical and unique about it is that it does not document something, which others do but rather accompanies and illustrates, even makes possible, what we ourselves do. The game in question would never have taken place without this film. The film lent things an air of authority and put pressure on the powers that be to not to simply cancel things at the last minute again.

The film both motivated us and made us immune to the pressure from the authorities who kept trying to call things off. The financing for the film also covered the costs incurred in organising the game. The film therefore depicts an event, which would never have occurred without such depiction. This is not primarily a film about football.

Our main goal (as it were) was to convey an image of Iran that goes beyond the usual clichés and stereotypes. We want to show another side to the country, a different one to those which are largely prevalent: the strict and religious theocracy, the joyless ‘terror regime’ or even the decadent society, obsessed with fun, parties and cosmetic surgery. By creating a cultural dialogue via football, we are trying to put across a more realistic image, one that is not ideologically warped from the outset. No politics, just passion.

The personal environments of individual players in both cities, Berlin and Teheran, lie at the heart of things. These are revealed as having a lot in common, more than the different natures of their surroundings would immediately suggest. Perhaps the familiarity of home and the strangeness of the orient are themselves nothing less than prejudices.

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The Making of the Emirates ice Film Emirates Overview

M

aking a unique film such as this for Emirates involved several challenges. The one that really stood out was how to cover such a wide range of subjects: information, communication and entertainment in a very short space of time.

We then linked them into a single piece that covers the many facets not just of ice, but also of the overall experience onboard an Emirates aircraft. That was just the start, once you add to this the international demographic of Emirates passengers plus brand ideals of quality, modernity and innovation; you realize how big an area you have to cover.

We had to dedicate various slots to each service or product area that Emirates offer. A lot of people just assume ice is there so they can watch movies but having understood how much ice really does offer, music, shopping, live text news and the latest in passenger communications, it became apparent that animation alone would not work, it lacked

engagement. We needed to see passengers interacting with ice, as well as being physically involved with areas such as Duty Free and Skywards.

The solution was to combine a small amount of live action with a lot of animation. This balance allowed us to keep to two key aspects of the original brief. Firstly, make it busy so that it remains entertaining. Secondly, allow the piece to be easily updated, in order that it stays fresh.

To get from entertainment to information and so on we had to group activities, time did not permit us to show games and movies separately, or one after the other. So, when you see the clapper board chasing a PacMan and Tetris blocks being built from seat back screens, with the occasional dinosaur in the background, it’s a combination of the areas that make up entertainment. This provided us with the originality, bustle and flow that we needed.

Having a client that allowed us such creative freedom was fantastic, we knew with the animation that we could go pretty much anywhere and their ideas and input from beginning to end became invaluable, adding much to the final product.

Firas our head of 3D and Amin our art director set about the first storyboard. Unusually we begin with a very loose script in place, it was one of those cases where the words could be fitted around the images afterwards. Of course, it did raise some timing issues but allowed us more creative flexibility, rather than being locked into a strict script.

We have worked several times with David Ward (Director) from London and he was an ideal choice considering his talent to direct people, in this case it was very important because all the scenes to be shot were green screen and required interaction. Shane Daly’s (DOP) expertise in lighting was critical too.

We wanted to do as many live camera moves

KNOW WHO Emirates ice Film as possible to keep it natural and when you’re doing a 180 degree track around someone against green walls, the last thing you want is shadows everywhere. We’ve all experienced the pain of rotoscoping badly lit shots, fortunately we had a great crew throughout and the extra post work was kept to a bare minimum, allowing us to focus on the CGI. For casting we took a slightly different route, inviting friends and colleagues who were willing to be filmed as well as agency models. This gave us a nice match of natural, yet professional people bonding the piece from beginning to end. The first phase, after 3 days of filming on RED at 4K, was to build an edit that had as few cut points as possible. Our aim was to stitch shots together, in order that they could flow in a seamless fashion from one to another.

In the end we had only 22 cut points over a 2 minute period. The next objective was to complete theCGI interaction with actors, using our resources of Maya, After Effects, Flame and a powerful render farm.

Each shot had its own varying degree of difficulty. One of the trickiest to complete was the man and boy walking on the glass. We needed reflections, but we couldn’t simply flip the original. Because they had walked into shot, it meant that when inverted onto the glass they would appear cut off. The solution was to have them walking on real glass and then rotoscope the reflections off. This posed some secondary problems, those being the width of the glass would not support that weight and also hiding the camera in the mirror. Two pieces were placed side by side and some clever Flame artistry by Pietro ensured we had a perfect end result and avoided seven years bad luck from a cracked mirror.

It soon became clear that we had a lot of space to fill, even after the first and second pass of animation it didn’t feel like the shots were half as busy as they should be. We were also wary that both 4:3 and 16:9 versions were required, ultimately limiting our width of field. It was therefore important to centralize the main sections

>>>

One of the trickiest to complete was the man and boy walking on the glass. We needed reflections but we couldn’t simply flip the original because they had walked into shot, it meant that when inverted onto the glass, they would appear cut off.

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opinions

of each shot, so nothing would be missed.

More ideas came to light and were gradually added until one by one each scene became full but not cluttered with animation. The idea to overwhelm as opposed to confusing the viewer was key here.

For the aircraft we agreed to move away from conventional shots of taxiing, takeoff and landings and have a camera move that could not be performed using any air to air shots.

A head on that passes just over the engine and wing of the aircraft is quite a dramatic opening and Florins photo realistic modelling of the plane really gave us that dynamic impact. Also the idea of going in through a window was thrown out, as it’s been done so many times before. Disappearing into the contrail and mixing through to our surreal world of ice was a much more effective and simpler transition to begin the journey.

On average there is anything between 60-200 layers in every scene and in order to heavily reduce render time all of these shots were completed at 2k. This is ample resolution

for any current viewing format and should Emirates and ice switch to HD then it’s already future proofed.

The final music mix an original composition from The Eggplant was laid down together with voice and after a busy few months we were finally ready to upload to all 140+ Emirates aircraft.

Our 3D and compositing guys at Optix Dubai have proved their worth in both the design and creative field of this project. It’s a service we have expanded and developed in the last 12 months so that all clients may benefit from having a pool of talent that can convert their ideas into the mechanics of stunning animation and compositing. This is the first in a 2 part project for Emirates by Optix. The next film to follow will be a new Safety Video, again with a fresh innovative style that raises the bar. The Emirates films, we are sure, will be one of many modern original pieces that emanate from Optix Dubai.

By Brian Shepherd (Creative Director)

One of the most satisfying things we took from this project was that the entire process was completely undertaken and executed here at Optix Dubai. Several additional staff were drafted in so that we could meet the deadlines and work as a closely knit team on our biggest job to date.

Handling this project from start to finish gave us a real insight into the entire process, from initial concept to final master. From that we gained an invaluable amount of experience and are able to pass this onto future clients.

Our ability to offer a service comparable to any high end post house in the world has been achieved with the delivery of Emirates. Neither do we underestimate the value of exposure this will give us, which over the next several years will total 10’s of millions of views worldwide. This could prove to be more lucrative than the budget itself.

Brian Shepherd

KNOW WHO Emirates ice Film

excellent and highly detailed boards but a full animatic detailing the exact timings and nature of the camera moves, so that we could mirror these exactly on the shoot itself. These aspects, alongside having the team on set at all times, allowed us to stay on the same page on a technical level and gave me the time and space to concentrate on the performances of the talent (something that can easily fall by the wayside when a shoot is technically a tough one).

Emirates ‘Facility’ and ‘Safety’ Films – The Director’s View The boards looked fantastic. They often do. But realising a seamless blend of liveaction and 3D animation is never, ever easy.

And this was my first collaboration with Optix Digital on something of this scale and ambition. However, I already had a very good working relationship with Brian Shepherd and Andrew Durning at Optix and I was happy to have my long-term collaborator, Director of Photography Shane Daly on board too.

the studio (but would be added in post), with critical timing, and with working out the camera moves. This last element was perhaps the biggest challenge; we needed to work out and plan very precisely when we would track or crane ‘in-camera’ and when a move would be made in post-production.

At times, there would be combination of these moves – stating in-camera and then continuing in virtual space in post.

Green screen shoots always pose potential difficulties. These scripts had their own particular technical challenges, especially in the way we would require the talent to imagine interacting with foreground elements that were not really there in

Happily our head animators Amin and Firas, and the entire Optix team, totally understood all of the technical requirements from the outset. Half the battle here was in the planning and happily we got that part right, thoroughly working through not only

Shooting on RED was also a major decision but ultimately the right one. By shooting 4K we maintained the quality we wanted throughout (with latitude for rescaling and resizing at times) and by having access to the raw files on set we could immediately check the quality of keying (especially important with the more complex scenes with combinations of real foreground props and background and foreground 3D elements).

In terms of the final films we hope the work speaks for itself. Via a real collaboration, stunning post and 3D work and through very thorough planning, I believe we succeeded in creating two films that engage the viewer and maintain a consistent fluidity and the sense of journey that we were after. If you’re on an Emirates flight anytime soon, I hope you’ll agree.

Credits Producing | Grace Magsino Grading | Daniel Mitre Offline Editing | Andrew Durning Compositing / VFX | Tallen Chow / Pietro Marchoni Head of 3D | Firas Ershead Art Director | Amin Faramarzeyan 3D Animation | Ramtin Ahmadi 3D Animation | Geoffrey Dela Cruz 3D Animation | Nicholas King 3D Animation | Halle Faramarzeyan 3D Animation | Florin Besleaga Director | David Ward Creative Director | Brian Shepherd Director of Photography | Shane Daly

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Shasha Grant

ADFC International Screenwriting Competition

The Shasha Grant international screenwriting competition is entering it’s fourth year. MP caught up with ADFC to find out a little bit more about the logistics of this competition.

Once six finalists are selected from the entries, they’ll travel to Abu Dhabi to attend the Circle Conference and pitch their projects to a panel comprised of top producers, agents and executives.

Media Production: What does the Shasha Grant Screenwriting Competition entail?

Abu Dhabi Film Commission: The Shasha Grant is Abu Dhabi Film Commission’s $100,000 international screenwriting competition designed to identify, develop and launch the careers of outstanding filmmakers. One winner is chosen from the finalists who are required to pitch their projects to a panel of industry experts during the Circle conference in Abu Dhabi in October.

MP: What does it take to launch a competition on this scale and what role does The Circle Conference play once the finalists have been selected?

ADFC: Annually, the Shasha Grant is one of many initiatives administered by ADFC to support emerging filmmakers from the region. All entries are assessed by vetted ADFC staff and a group of international script editors, who evaluate the scripts for the quality of the story and commercial viability. Once six finalists are selected from the entries, they’ll travel to Abu Dhabi to attend the Circle Conference and pitch their projects to a panel comprised of top producers, agents and executives. The finalists will also be coached by a handful of industry professionals attending the Circle Conference to fine-tune their pitches. Finally the winner is announced at a gala event on the closing night of the Circle Conference.

MP: What do feel have been some of the growing pains that you have experienced during the first 3 years of running the competition?

ADFC: One of the main challenges has been to develop the importance of the Shasha Competition within the film making community. However, we have seen an increase in the number and quality of the scripts being submitted to the competition each

KNOW WHO ADFC Shasha Grant year. Additionally, it is also a challenge to bring the winning project into production. In 2008, we achieved this goal where the winning project has been backed by Fox and is going into production in 2010. The winner of 2009 is currently in advanced discussions with producers in the USA and Europe to finance the project.

Winner 2009

Nominees

Haifaa AI Mansour Wajda (WHYDA)

Nadim Tabet A Lebanese Family

MP: Do you receive entries from all over the world, or is it largely from screenwriters in the Middle East?

ADFC: We receive international entries, however, one of our main criteria is that one of the key team members of the creative team (writer, director or producer) must be Emirati or a resident of the Middle East for more than 5 years, or have Emirati, Middle Eastern parents.

“As Saudi Arabia’s first female filmmaker, I strive to penetrate the wall of silence surrounding the sequestered lives of Saudi women and minorities. I hope to provide a platform for their unheard voices. I believe through art, especially film, we can foster political, social and economic change in the world.”

Born in Beirut, Nadim Tabet showed, at a young age an interest to cinema, first by watching numerous movies, then by shooting short fictions Caravan (1997) and Kodak Color (1998) in video. In 1999, he moved to France to pursue his studies in human sciences and cinema at the Sorbonne University. While studying, he directed and number of shorts filmed in Super 8mm and in DV: Histoires extraordinaires du cinematoqraphe (1999), Martine et Alia (2001), Passe present futur (2002), L’Arche de Noe (2003), Violante (2005), Le Liban en automne (2006) and Jeunes et innocents (2007).

MP: Once you’ve selected a winner, what is the process from there to produce a film from the script which has been selected?

ADFC: The winner of the 2009 Shasha Grant received a $100,000 development grant and a first-look deal with Imagenation Abu Dhabi. ADFC remains in close contact with the winners and fulfills the role of an Executive Producer and is involved at every step of the development process to help move the project into production.

MP: What has the feedback been from winners from the previous years?

ADFC: The feedback has been phenomenal. Our 2008 winner, the Moroccan filmmaker Hicham Ayouchis, signed on with Fox to produce his project Samba Du Mazouz which is going into production this year as one of the studio’s first Arabic-language productions.

MP: What is your future vision for the Shasha Grant?

ADFC: We hope that the Shasha Grant will become part of the fabric of the burgeoning Middle Eastern film industry as we work with our partners in the UAE and other countries to nurture the careers of a new generation of filmmakers and launch them on the world stage.

We also hope that it continues to break new ground for the global entertainment industry, forge new relationship with the Middle East and bring more Arabic-language films and TV stories to the international market.

Haifaa is Saudi Arabia’s first female filmmaker. Her Documentary and feature films have screened in many festivals around the world. In 2004, The Only Way Out screened in Abu Dhabi, Amsterdam, Rotterdam, and the Beirut Festival for Documentaries and Shorts. Since 2006 Women Without Shadows has screened in over 16 festivals and private screenings around the world and won 6 festival awards and jury prizes.

Haifaa has also worked as a presenter and host of A Woman and More, a weekly talk show on Lebanese Broadcasting channel in 2007. Since 2005, she has contributed to a weekly Arts and Entertainment column for Al Waten Newspaper in Saudi Arabia.

In 2001, Nadim Tabet was a founding member of THE LEBANESE FILM FESTIVAL, and in 2003, he partnered with Wadih Safieddine, Danielle Arbid and Pierre Sarraf to establish Beyrouth Productions SARL, a production company in Lebanon. Nadim Tabet also holds a Documentary Diploma from ESEC (Ecole Superieure d’Etudes Cinematographiques), and a Master of Cinema from Sorbonne Paris I.

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KNOW WHO ADFC Shasha Grant Annemarie Jacir When I Saw You Palestinian filmmaker and writer Annemarie Jacir has been working in independent cinema since 1994 and has written, directed and produced 12 films, a number have won international recognition and awards. She was named one of Filmmaker magazine’s 25 New Faces of Independent Cinema. Most recently, Jacir premiered her first feature length film, Salt of this Sea, an Official Selection of the Cannes International Film Festival and Palestine’s Official Oscar® Entry for Best Foreign Language Film this year.

Her short film, like twenty impossibles (2003), was the first Palestinian short film to be selected In Competition at the Cannes International Film Festival (Cinefondation), and went on to be a Student Academy Awards Finalist. It has since won more than 15 awards at international festivals.

Jacir is chief curator and co-founder of the groundbreaking Dreams of a Nation Palestinian cinema project (www. dreamsofanation.org) dedicated to the promotion of Palestinian cinema, and has taught courses at Columbia University, Bethlehem University, and Birzeit University and in refugee camps in Palestine, Lebanon and Jordan.

Engi Wassef The Beautiful Game Engi Wassef was born in Cairo, Egypt. She is a graduate of Harvard University, where she received a B.A. degree Magna cum Laude in Government with a minor in modern standard Arabic. She also holds an MFA in film directing from New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts. During her time at NYU, Engi wrote and directed two short narrative films, including Breathtaking Views, winning top prizes of Best Student Short, and Best Horror Short at the New York International Film and Video Festival.

She also wrote and directed a documentary called Social Work, which was selected by Academy Award winning director Robert Epstein to be screened at UCLA. Engi‘s most recent project, Marina of the Zabbaleen, is a feature documentary, developed at the Tribeca Film Institute’s All

Access Program. The film premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival in 2008 where it sold out all five of its screenings. Since its premiere, Marina of the Zabbaleen has screened at major international film festivals around the world, including the Dubai International Film Festival, where it won the Silver Muhr Award for Best Documentary. The film was recently acquired for theatrical distribution, and will be making Academy qualifying runs in New York and Los Angeles.

Rezah Abi-Rafeh Zahra Rezah grew up in the United States, Europe, and Asia. After studying Middle Eastern Studies at Columbia University in New York, she specialized in Media and Entertainment at New York University and went on to work with some of the most prestigious production companies in the entertainment industry including Participant Media, subsidiaries of the Weinstein Company and Imagine Entertainment. She has collaborated with various production companies, and consulted in film and TV development on upcoming projects such as The Originals, and several non-scripted reality shows that are currently in development.

Cherine Khoury

Comments from Sasha Nominees Reza Abi Rafeh Being part of the Shasha grant was an invaluable experience. We developed relationships in the film industry that we hope will last our entire careers. As young Arab filmmakers it inspired us to work with and from our culture. It gave us incredible optimism about the future of film in the Middle East which is vibrant and so promising. It was such a wonderful opportunity and we were very grateful to have been a part of the competition and the Circle Conference.

Cherine grew up between Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. In 2003, she returned to her country of origin, Lebanon, where she studied Film Making in ALBA (Academie Libanaise des Beaux Arts). In 2006, after directing Plume et Feuille, she graduated and moved to Canada to continue her film-making career. While attending INIS (National Institute of Image and Sound in Montreal) she directed her award winning short movie Tinh Tu. Cherine also studied at the Mel Hoppenheim School of Cinema where she worked in animation and directed Mikado, a stop-motion homage to Wonk Kar Wai’s In the Mood for Love.

Haifa Al Mansour Winning the Sasha Grant proved to be a pivotal point in the development of my first feature film Wajda. The exposure, as well as the endorsement, opened up so many doors for me and for the project. I’ve since signed with a leading European producer to manage the project and will begin shooting by the end of the year.

Please visit www.film.gov.ae for more information on the Shasha Grant.

Annemarie Jacir The Shasha conference was a wonderful way to meet new people and share ideas. We were happy to receive a prize and it helps us move one step closer to realizing our next production.

I am especially grateful for the ongoing support of the ADFC and everyone involved with the grant. I would like to especially thank David Shepherd, Director of the ADFC, and Daniella Tully from Imagenation. They have been with me every step of the way, offering constant support and encouragement, to help me find the right tools and resources to develop the film up to the highest international standards.

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FROM STILLS TO MOTION Create a dancing character in After Effects

Animating your character brings a whole new level of personality.

Martin Galabov unveils the secrets of creating a 30-second stop motion animation from just 18 still images.

KNOW WHO From Stills to Motion

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Come to life!

Animating the stills images to emulate a living character

Martin Galabov

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PROPER PLANNING is essential. Take a pen and paper and plan out your visual story’s logical progression. Choose where to begin and how to end.

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DECIDE on the main shots and basic movements.

Sketch roughly how your character will move in each. If you create your character in 3D software, you can just render out the key positions as was the case here.

is Creative Director at Virgin Megastore Middle East. He is in charge of Virgin’s visual communication ranging from corporate campaigns, branding, marketing promotions, window display, animation, web, and in-store branding. Martin is also passionate about his personal creative projects, such as animation, car design and custom vinyl toy design. www.somartin.com

Scene B Scene E

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GET ALL THE STILLS ready as a set of sequences.

They can be drawings, photos, doodles, 3D renders or anything else you wish to experiment with. Make sure the point of view stays static inside each set. Once done, you are ready to begin animating. Your character’s personality will really be the result of the speed and motion technique you choose to go with in the next steps.

Scene D

Scene C

A Stop Motion Scene Can use a minimum of 2 character positions (scene D on the right). Three or more positions will give you greater intermediary movement control and make for smoother transitions.

Scene A

N t ANIMATIO SEE THE .com/virgin-robo in t r soma

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IN AFTER EFFECTS, import your 1st scene sequence set.

SELECT all your layers, right-click over one of them and choose Keyframe Assistant > Sequence Layers from the right-click menu.

Experiment with the options until you get the effect you like. I used the settings shown above.

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CEATE A NEW COMP, give it a descriptive name, and bring all the stills you just imported into it.

HIT PREVIEW (spacebar) to see the sequence transition. You should get an overlapping effect like the above to emulate movement, but experiment until you’re happy with the speed of the transition.

REPEAT steps 4 to 7 for all your other scenes. Then, create a new comp, call it Main and drag all your scenes onto the timeline in the desired order.

KNOW WHO From Stills to Motion

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In step with the beat For complete impact, you will want to sync your animation to your soundtrack beat. Now that you have your basic sequences animated, it’s time to bring it all together to a convincing result. Make sure your selected sound clip has a clear beginning and ending so that it guides the animation progress for a strong audio-visual effect.

IMPORT YOUR SOUND clip and drag it into a new comp called Main with Sound. Also drag the Main comp here. If your soundtrack is long, you can duplicate some of your scene layers and position them later on the timeline to fill up space, but animate them with different movements and scaling to avoid repetition. To add interest, I have even overlapped them to create many robots dancing together.

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SELECT YOUR MUSIC layer, listen to your track, identify your beat and main sound effects and indicate them by layer markers (asterisk on the numeric keypad).

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TIME REMAPPING Select the animation layer and press (Alt+Cmd+T) to enable time remapping. Next, add time remap key frames at each marker point on your animation layer.

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IDENTIFY the main dance movements, motion changes and mark them with layer markers on the animation layer.

You will see that there is most probably a discrepancy between the audio and animation layer markers. We fix it by...

THEN, for each of these layer markers, make a matching time line marker (use Shift+1, Shift+2 and so on).

TIME REMAPPING ALLOWS YOU TO CHANGE THE FLOW OF TIME FOR A LAYER. APPLYING TIME REMAPPING IS A SNAP: SELECT THE LAYER, THEN SELECT LAYER=>ENABLE TIME REMAPPING (ALT+CTRL+T).

CONTROLLING TIME REMAPPING TAKES A LITTLE EXPERIMENTING, BUT IT’S WORTH THE EFFORT.

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FINAL STEP to syncing the movement to the sound, is to drag these key frames to match the markers on your audio layer.

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24 frames/sec.

Animation is an illusion; beautiful and phenomenal. Often a byproduct of our imaginations, dreams and fantasies. A real image of the unreal parallel universe, often developing in our minds, almost every day.

Media Production: How did you first become involved with animation?

Rita Dhankani: I had applied for further studies in animation at the National Institute of Design, India (NID), while I was still in my final year pursuing Graphic Design in Applied Arts. To prepare for the entrance, I used to cycle down to buzzing markets in

order to find interesting scenes where people were busy in their respective occupations, to sketch them ‘live’. It happened during one such sketching session that I noticed my regular human sketches had started looking more like characters. I was emphasizing their physical features so as to sync them with their ambience. It was then that I realized I was turning to the whole idea of animation.

NID followed and I received a legal license to create life! To create animation films.

MP: Do you feel that the creative industry has evolved in the UAE in the 6 years that you have been working here?

RD: Most certainly, yes! There has been a growing demand for wacky design solutions be it television, print, video or web. A constant movement to stand out, stand loud; the tallest, biggest or largest.

MP: How do you go about creating a character design?

RD: A character leads a story and communicates the purpose. Hence, it’s very important to have a complete idea of the character, what is its purpose in or for the story before one starts creating it visually.

For me, as an animation film designer, script writing & visual-scripting play a vital role in making an impressive character and consequently a successful story.

These basic fundamentals of animation help me to visualize the characters in their wholeness and then it becomes much easier to draw them on paper.

For instance, we have an idea: A cobbler on a busy street complains that he seeks to get his hands onto an Adidas shoe but never gets a chance.

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For designing such a character, I will initially scribble words to describe his characteristics, such as ‘enthusiast, hardworking, funny, anxious, seeker’. While visualizing, I will give emphasis to his eyes and hands since he uses them the most. Then, I will add more value to the whole idea of a cobbler, for example, he is perceived as meticulous keeping his

KNOW WHO Rita Dhankani surroundings organized including his hair that has a consistent hair-dye-outline to emphasize his meticulousness. So on and so forth, the character builds on until I am sure he is complete enough not only to speak of the story but to make an impact and a full impression with recall value.

cover timing and audio details so as to get a clear idea of how the story will finally unfold. Character designs follow next, which is one of my favorite parts. Usually I present character designs along with treatment sheets, allowing the clients to actually see how 2-3 frames from the animation film will look like. ‘The look & feel’ like we say in our media language. Once the client and I think the look & feel of the animation and character designs are justifying the purpose or story, I start creating animation frames.

Basically, it’s a fun trip into your imagination, then to visualize it so as to make it functional for the respective purpose/client and then design to animate it.

MP: What inspires you?

RD: It’s nature. In fact, nature in both its definitions inspires me. That is, the natural world growing around us and the nature, personality growing within us. You will find both these in all of my works.

I draw on paper or in flash software or in Maya and create animation frames using various tools like After Effects, Sound Forge, Photoshop, Premier, etc. depending on the style or treatment sheets.

VO recording and sound design come next.

I hire sound studios & VO artists for the former while the later i.e.; I usually do the

MP: Do you have any tips for anyone wishing to become an animator?

RD: Sure. Two tips for the aspiring animators and animation film makers: To observe and to absorb. Sketching can really help you to practice these. Make it a habit. It can take you places, fictionally and physically!

>>>

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MP: What kind of medium do you use to create your animations?

RD: My animation mediums are conceptdriven. The concept guides me to known and unknown visual terrains. Till date, I have created 2D, 3D & stop-motion animations using clay, beads, buttons, cloth, wire, oil pins, colored pencils, mixing the classic and those generated on computer animations, Flash, Premier, After Effects and Maya, as 3 my hardware and software tools.

MP: Can you explain what the working process is to create an animated feature, such as the promotional advertisement you created for Standard Chartered Bank?

RD: Not many here know that an animation script is very different from that of a video script. Just like the Standard Chartered Bank promotional script, most of the scripts I get are video oriented. Hence, it has become a foremost duty to rewrite and refine these scripts from animation film perspective before I start visualizing it.

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A visual script and a storyboard is created based on the brief. This phase also has to

1 Illustration for Team International calendar 2 Still from short film Peeki 3 Design, animation and direction for Movie Media, Standard Chartered product promotion 4 Animation, direction and production, 2D and 3D EMOTICONS for Windows Live MSN Messenger

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KNOW WHO Rita Dhankani

Two tips for the aspiring animators and animation film makers: To observe and to absorb. Sketching can really help you to practice these. Make it a habit. It can take you places, fictionally and physically! sound design in-house. I love it! Sound design comes naturally to me. Genuinely speaking, I know if I was not an animation filmmaker I surely would have been a sound designer.

Unlike live action, animation requires sound to be designed for each and every action or no-action for that matter. The same stands for designing the characters and backgrounds. So you see, just when an animation filmmaker enjoys complete control over their product, they also have to design and create every pixel with its respective resonance simply from ground zero! >>>

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9 5 & 7 Illustrations for UNICEF Children’s Book 6 Clay illustration for UNICEF Children’s Book 8 Adobe Acrobat Machine, design, animation direction and production with Wunderman 9 Stop-motion characters and raw materials

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Till date, I have created 2D, 3D & stop-motion animations using clay, beads, buttons, cloth, wire, oil pins, colored pencils, mixing the classic and those generated on computer animations...

MP: In addition to animation, you are also an illustrator and designer. Do you feel that working in all of these different disciplines enhances your overall creativity?

RD: Totally! It’s a pure chicken and egg scenario for me, continuous and ongoing.

Factually speaking, designing is not limited to a medium. It comes to be a wholesome solution to be called ‘a design’. Hence, be it illustration, graphic designing, branding, photography, animation, painting, while creating or enhancing a video, animation, commercial, a film or even a website, I get into it. To seek the design solution to vivify. 11 MP: What’s next for your company, Vivi5?

RD: Since 2006, Vivi5 and I have come a long way when I first used it as my brand name for all my freelance design services in Dubai.

Presently, it has grown into a small creative team and we have been working on projects from the UAE and India. I will be officially launching Vivi5 in India this year! I sincerely hope to get the same upbeat response from this overseas venture. Please wish me luck!

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KNOW WHO Rita Dhankani

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Rita Dhankani

graduated as an Applied Artist from Maharaja Sayajirao University (MSU) and then went on to specialise in Animation Film Designing at the National Institute of Design (NID).

Rita is an animator who works in 2D, stop-motion and 3D character animation.

She is also a concept designer, storyboard artist, photographer, illustrator, character designer and a ďŹ ne artist.

She is inspired by human nature and by mother nature.

16 11 Illustrations for NGO Insaan 12 & 13 Cow Illustrations for Publinet Agency for a print advertisement

+91 901 330 3567 +91 931 311 8718 +971 50 366 4552 www.viviďŹ ve.blogspot.com www.vivi5.net

for milk 14 Illustration titled, Gap 15 Illustration titled, Huge 16 Film still from Peeki

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Boomtown Productions

Omar Abbas

– Head of Post Production at Boomtown and editor of the 3D Metro Film. (Palestinian) Putting together the Dubai Metro project in stereoscopic 3D was an interesting challenge, aesthetically and technically, and it involved learning a new set of skills. From a storytelling point of view, the shots needed to take their time so that the audience could appreciate the stereoscopic illusion, and the variation in space between cuts had to be kept minimal so as not to jar. As such, the offline was done by the time the shoot had wrapped, since we were cutting simultaneously.

I can assure you that the next four weeks were not spent fine-tuning the story.

Finishing the project in stereoscopic 3D required learning a new set of skills, and a lot of attention to detail. I built the cut entirely using our Avid DS v10.1, which comes with stereoscopic capability, though lacking a toolkit. This meant that I had to build a workaround for every technical process, and there were many.

Essentially, you’re working with two simultaneous streams of footage shot by two parallel cameras that are supposed to mimic the horizontal variation between the left and the right eye. The only difference that there’s supposed to be between the footage shot by Camera A and Camera B is the horizontal position of the camera.

Of course that’s far from reality.

As such, the process of minimizing aberrations between the two streams is painstaking.

You have to make sure there is no vertical variation, that there is no color variation, and that there is no variation caused by lens imperfections. Even under optimal conditions, there’s bound to be many details to address before playing with the stereoscopic illusion at an artistic, aesthetic level.

sees the right camera. This in layman’s terms means that your left eye and right eye see slightly different images and then they mix in your brain and you get the 3D effect, much the same as in real life your left and right eye are in slightly different positions so they will both see a slightly different image.

Once you get there, it’s a matter of considering where you would like screen space to be, and where you’d like objects to pop out at the audience, or seem to be falling away into the distance. It’s a crazy trick, and a lot of fun to play around with. Seeing the final result playing out seamlessly, belying all of the detailed work that went into it, is hugely satisfying, though getting there is not for the faint of heart.

Now going onto the shoot; once we had shipped all necessary equipment over and it was all gear checked, we began on Day 1. The rig itself with the cameras on presents a challenge as it’s large and quite heavy, so we had to use a geared head to support the weight.

Daniel Kilalea – Production

Manager (Zimbabwean)

When we started working on the 3D production of the Metro, we knew it would be a big undertaking. Of course we heavily researched different 3D rigs and camera systems to go onto the rig.

In this case we settled on the Hines mirror rig and 2 Arri D21 cameras. Of course, shooting in 3D you need 2 cameras one is the left eye and one is the right eye, the reason you have the glasses is to make sure your left eye sees only the left camera and the right eye only

As you need both of the cameras to have the same image quality and to be as closely matched as possible, we had to match sets of lenses.

Otherwise you will have a nightmare in post production.

Being that this film was the launch film for the Dubai metro, we knew that it had to be epic and of course on time. So the locations we went to were great and iconic Dubai – MOE, Atlantis, DIFC, Burj Al Arab, Dubai Creek and of course on the Metro. Our next challenge came with the trains, when we were shooting the Metro wasn’t open, so we had to work with them and hop onto trains that were doing testing. Ideally of course we would have wanted to be able to have complete control of the trains, but there was no way that was going happen. So we had to get on a train and go round and round until we were done. We did manage to get some control of the trains on a testing area of the track to get some of the shots we wanted, so in the end it all went well.

Doing the first 3D production in the Middle East was a huge challenge and a learning curve, but extremely rewarding. Once you see all the hard work on the screen in true stereoscopic 3D, it is truly an amazing and immersive experience.

Now that we know about 3D, we are in talks with people all over the world as new technology is coming out all the time, you can even shoot 3D on a Steady cam or a helicopter! So if any of the readers want to come and view the Metro film in true 3D or find out about the process, contact us and we can set up a meeting.

KNOW WHO 3D Metro Commercial

Shane Martin – Executive Producer/Director (Irish)

Directing a film in 3D stereovision was a series of challenges, but challenges are what we like. Previously we were the first in the region to shoot using Time Slice technology (the Matrix effect) and Motion control technology in 2004 and 2006, so it was about time to do something new!

The Dubai Metro film was briefed to me in early August 2009 by the wonderful Daz Jamieson of HQ creative who was responsible for organizing the entire event. The film had to be ready for showing at the glitzy launch ceremony for the metro on the 9/09/09, (not only an Auspicious but an unmovable date!), to a very exclusive VIP audience.

So the first challenge was time! If this had been a normal 2D production it would have been a very tight production schedule, so to do it all in 3D in the time available was an epic challenge. Firstly we had to research and identify the key resources we would need, both in terms of equipment and more importantly people. After a lot of searching around the globe, we decided to partner with V3 from London and their very experienced stereographer (a new vital title on the set!) Chris Parks. Once we had all the technical aspects and personnel in place we drafted a wish list of shots and locations.

Our very ambitious production schedule was based on shooting 3 locations per day over six days all over Dubai in August, never an

easy month to shoot here with 50 Degree temperatures, So to be shooting with a 2 camera package weighing over 70 Kilos on cranes and dollies and in moving trains only added to the excitement.

Chris arrived in Dubai 2 days before the shoot and over a meal I ran through my location pictures and our storyboard. He took a deep breath…or two. What became very clear immediately was that all of the normal shooting techniques that we employ in a 2D shoot like tracking shots, crane shots and extreme angles are actually 2D techniques that we employ to add a third dimension to the 2D image, creating depth and perspective etc. and in 3D the same applies, only more so. Camera motion is good and makes everything more immersive and 3D. The other slightly more worrying thing that became apparent was that the motion of the camera and the cutting pace of the film also had to be gentle in 3D or else you risk the audience getting motion sickness and potentially throwing up! Which given the nature of the audience and the event would not be a good thing. In fact after the launch event when the film was open to the public there were a few incidents where people did actually throw up on the cinema floor.

(I’ve seen the pictures)

to keep throwing imagery into the audience in every shot. This is the first thing the uninitiated viewer thinks of in terms of 3D, and this was one of the reasons 3D in the 50s and 60s failed. They used to concentrate on monsters and stuff coming into the cinema (what is referred to in 3D parlance as ‘theatre space’) and in my view this can be cheesy and cheap if overused. We concentrated on creating well-composed, rich, exciting and multilayered imagery that would keep the audiences interest and show them things they had seen before but in a new way. The end result was well received and the VIP audience and the subsequent public audience seemed suitably impressed. As a creative directing experience, I would have loved to have more time but that is not always the way. All in all, it was very inspiring and rewarding from a directorial perspective.

So we then had an intense and inspiring six day shoot of 16+ hour days and due to the train testing schedule (they kept stopping!) we had to add a seventh day. Another thing that we learned very quickly was that the 3D effect of any shot was much more pronounced on wide-angle lenses (as you would expect) and so my thinking in terms of organizing action and lenses had to change to accommodate this.

Basically, anything longer than 70MM was virtually useless in 3D terms and that 18/24/35 MM were the key lens sizes, particularly in view of the large screen projection.

3D as a format and viewing experience is here to stay. Now digital camera and projection technology has developed to a point where 3D is a reality not only for cinema exhibition a la Avatar and Alice in Wonderland, but also as a broadcast technology. This year’s World Cup will be shot and broadcast in 3D opening up lots of interesting opportunities for broadcasters and advertisers. For anyone involved in the film production business it is an exciting time.

In terms of the 3D effects we made a conscious decision to not try

www.boomtown-productions.com

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Nicolas Kyvernitis Electronics Ent. Ltd. P.O. Box 3191, Sharjah, United Arab Emirates Telephone: +971-4-2665244, Telefax:+971-4-2626682 Email:info@nmkelectronics.com Web:nmkelectronics.com

Holistic Audio

Sound Design is the conscious manipulation of audio to achieve a desired result. In the film world this almost always comes in the form of hyper reality style sound that captivates the audience. The intent is to bring them that much closer to an emotional tie in the story that is unfolding on screen. It is important to note that this tie is with the protagonist or antagonist in mind.

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ound Design, or a sound designer, can encompass many individual skill sets and talents so it is hard to pinpoint in its entirety. Sound Design skill sets range from radio sound engineers, to live sound engineers, to Foley recordists, to synthesizer manipulation pros, to musical composers, to location audio and many more.

I consider myself a Sound Designer for visual media. My auditory path in life began on my 11th birthday when my parents bought me a simple home stereo system that had a multiple disc changer with a flanged and echo effect.

With this, I disc jockeyed my birthday party with no concept of mixing. From then on, I was the sound engineer for every school play or live event that I could get my hands on; I had a personal small business of DJing corporate events and birthday parties. I was the live sound mixer for all charity events and musical performances occurring in my neighborhood.

Back then, I had no idea what phantom power was or how to calibrate mixers to outboard gear properly, besides playing around with what I knew and comparing the differences.

It was, however, the basis of knowledge that is my career today. The most important lesson that I have taken from all of this, is the tremendously powerful effect that sound can have on audiences, whether they be dancing at a club or watching a movie. The simple choice of changing tempos, genres, loudness, etc. can make the floor bounce harder or make everybody clear the area!

Visual media sound is used in movies, television shows, shorts, animations, games and websites among others. Sound is the one and only tool that is constant throughout the entire performance as well as interactive with the target audience. It glues the story together, fixes the gaps, transitions time, makes you cry for joy and sympathize deeply. Unfortunately, sound is very often underappreciated and not used to its full potential.

The accepted work flow which has been in effect since the early days of film sound involves entirely separate crews for production and post. Consideration of Sound Design often starts during the early phases

KNOW HOW Holistic Audio of production, when producers and directors are in the final stages of pre-production and are starting to crew the shooting days for the multitude of locations.

The crews for production are audio fanatics and arrive in the form of location audio specialists, which involve boom operators, recording mixers and cable guys (second boom operators). Their main and vitally important job, is to capture acoustically the onscreen action of the story with the best possible quality, while controlling numerous variables.

These guys combat the elements, dodge lighting, shadows and crew, anticipate actors’ movements and speech, control the massive amounts of unwanted background noises (airplanes, air conditioning, compressors, cars, people) all the while keeping the shotgun microphone carefully positioned in the ideal spot, capturing great audio levels and dynamic range.

The next phase of this flow is the audio-post production department, which takes the thousands of on-set recorded sounds, adds thousands more and mixes them down from hundreds of tracks to just 6 for Surround Sound Discrete 5.1. This is a very brief overview and there are lots more considerations to note, such as the final delivery formats; stereo for TV/radio and encoded 5.1 for theaters/DVD,

M&E mixes, censored versions, director’s cuts, compressed internet versions, musical soundtrack versions to name but a few.

However I would like to talk about the ideal situation for achieving an excellent well rounded auditory experience starting from the very beginnings of the project at the pre-production stage.

Regrettably, sound departments very rarely get involved during the pre-production of any sort of film. Due to this, numerous possible auditory experiences, subtleties and emotional ties are lost. It is very hard to fit in creative ideas into a film that has already been shot, edited, picture locked and well into the post process. Of course, there are thousands of things that can be done, but this detachment from the entire project other than the final processes, forgoes creative activities that can help elevate the project to a much higher status.

The ideal situation for the director is to seek out a Sound Supervisor when the script is nearing its final draft. This allows for numerous possibilities of vision and creativity to positively impact the overall project at every stage.

This begins with the Sound Supervisor reading the script privately, grasping the whole story with raw impressions for intent and emotion.

>>>

Visual media sound is used in movies, television shows, shorts, animations, games and websites among others. Sound is the one and only tool that is constant throughout the entire performance as well as interactive with the target audience.

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This allows them to create a unique vision of the story, providing the power for them to creatively and actively interact with the director about possible ideas, which even the director may not have considered.

With this done, the director and Sound Supervisor can then meet, each with their own visions, and consult about the emotional intents and drives of each scene throughout the entire movie. Importantly, this permits discreet revisions to the script in order to accommodate possible auditory transitions or emotional cues for the actors and other details that may have been neglected or over looked in previous drafts. This also allows for the director to convey his vision to the Sound Department so that any other considerations have forethought to support the story in every way possible.

Finally, being able to make this battle plan early on with the director, allows you to get inside the head of the director. The importance of this being the main characters of the movie.

Each develops uniquely in reference to their auditory movements and style. What type of footsteps do they have? (heavy, light, hard, soft, dragging, relaxed, jumpy, etc.) What type of clothes will they be wearing? (nylon, cotton, silk, leather, jeans, etc.) What objects will be in their pockets? (keys, phone, coins, wallet, pens, paper.) All of these details help to bring across emotion on screen that can support the plot and story all the more.

Additionally, this further development may spark subtleties with the director that can positively impact the treatment and style of each shot made during production.

All of this planning makes for much greater enthusiasm and involvement with the sound team, giving them purpose and commitment, which in turn provides the project with a far greater chance of your intended audience being captivated by the film. As an added bonus, this planning allows for the sound supervisor to strategically budget for the project, in turn saving thousands, if not

At this time it is also ideal to involve the composer of the film score.

Composing a soundtrack for a film can be immensely complex; music is one of the main emotional cues for the audience that has the power to completely change the feeling from one scene to the next. But consider the challenges to the composer themselves, who are working with material which usually has no normal editing tempo or time, that accommodates normal music development.

Involving the composer at this early stage allows them to develop their own vision along with the director and Sound Supervisor. Most importantly, it allows the Sound Supervisor and composer to map out their battle plan for the entire movie, planning instruments and sounds that support the emotional direction of the story in the best possible way, so that the music, dialogue and sounds are not in any kind of conflict with each other. This is especially important during moments of high emotion.

For example, having a fantastic action scene with a full symphony orchestra blaring may sound great but leaves no room for the sound effects of explosions or gunfire or key character actions to be heard in the final mix. They will essentially be in competition with each other, leading very quickly to music that sounds out of place due to being turned down or effects that sound muddy.

Avatar:

Great Sound Design effects creation. This film is other worldly, there is very little that actually exists in reality in the movie. So numerous creatures, vehicles, plants had to be created from scratch and be believable to the audience. The post-Avatar depression in the news can be seen as the belief of this reality. Take note of what has been combined together in order to create the creatures themselves. Like the flying Mountain Banshee screams, it has been manipulated with air noises, purring, hissing, and other animals to create the ear piercing sound.

Saving Private Ryan:

The opening 15 minutes in an incredible experience acoustically. The composition of the music particularly in the graveyard scene is outstanding. Notice that each time a gravestone passes by the camera a snare drum roll accompanies the interaction. Also notice, how there is not much coverage of sounds besides the main character so that all focus is on him.

Once the war scene begins to unfold notice the juxtapositions created by the camera going above and below water, showing the calmness chaotic sides. Finally, notice which sounds are kept on screen and which sounds seem to disappear even though you know they would still be blaring, this is to keep clarity in the mix, too many sounds quickly become muddy.

KNOW HOW Holistic Audio

Composing a soundtrack for a film can be immensely complex; Music is one of the main emotional cues for the audience that has the power to completely change the feeling from one scene to the next.

tens of thousands of budget money that otherwise could have been wasted on expensive reworking time.

Next time I will be discussing the trials and tribulations of production audio in detail, with references to post production. If there are any questions or queries that you would like to be addressed please feel free to contact me at Media Production Magazine by visiting www.mp-mag.com.

Sound is never noticed until there is something wrong with it; our art form is a hidden one, where our goal is to take the audience on a hidden journey through an emotional roller coaster ride.

Star Trek:

Great Sound Design emotional development. In the opening 10 minutes of the movie، the key antagonist is presented with an eerie build-up to the event.

The sounds of the ship and following battle are very forceful and clear. Particularly take note of how the sound effects and music are treated when Kirk’s mother is fleeing in the shuttle and Kirk’s father is fighting off the ship, so that everybody can escape. The treatment of alternating between these key acoustic areas and how they are manipulated brings out a large amount of emotional development and connection with the audience.

Up:

Up is an entirely animated film.

Animation is always a nice challenge for the sound team as there is no basis or guide track to base the environments on.

Everything, every little detail, has to be consciously added to create the illusion of reality and fullness. Take note of the tiny details that are present throughout the entire movie, not so much the big sounds, concentrate on the tiny finger scrapes on wood, tiny footsteps of varing in the house, the wind, the dirt.

John Kochanczyk

is a Sound Designer residing in Abu Dhabi. He has been practicing sound design projects for over 10 years covering the spectrum from live performances, to on-site capture, to post production. He holds a degree in Sound Design from Vancouver film school and he is currently the Post-Production Supervisor and Production/Post Sound lecturer at the New York Film Academy in Abu Dhabi. He is always eager to share his experiences with students and media professionals and can be contacted through his profile on www.mp-mag.com.

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