DFI starts advertising films workshop
Aspiring filmmakers zoom in on a career in advertising
By Peter Townson
Claude el-Khal with one of the participants
Aspiring filmmakers in Qatar have been taking part in an advertising workshop over the past two weeks, giving them the opportunity to learn about producing advertisements as a career, and also to create an advertisement which will be used by the Doha Film Institute (DFI).
Six young filmmakers took part in the programme; Jawaher al-Kuwari, Nada al-Saad, Abdullah al-Emadi, Ahmed Ghazah, Mufeed Ahmed and Mohamed Usman Ghani, who have all been working together to create two short film advertisements.
The workshop has been organised by the DFI, who invited the renowned expert from the world of advertisement and filmmaking, Claude el-Khal, to lead the activities.
El-Khal, who is a former creative director at the international advertising firm, BBDO, explained that over the course of around ten days, the participants had been involved in activities designed to represent the exact process of creating and shooting an advertisement for a business.
The aspiring filmmakers had to come up with ideas to fulfil a brief described to them by a DFI executive, and then they had to go through the process of selecting the best two ideas for the films, before presenting them as concepts to their ‘client’.
The six participants, who were split into two teams of three, then had to prepare the shoots, cast the extras to be in their advertisements and direct the shooting of the films.
El-Khal explained that the main difference between making an advertisement and another film is that an advert always has an objective, and that is to sell a product.
“Some people think that advertising is art, but it is not – it is there to sell something,” he argued, adding “no matter how creative it is, if it doesn’t sell then it is a failed ad”.
The brief for this project was about the audience becoming active film enthusiasts as opposed to passive viewers, something DFI aims to encourage.
Speaking about DFI, el-Khal could hardly contain his enthusiasm. “I think it is amazing – finally somebody is doing something!” he exclaimed, “the guys here are actually doing it, and I have huge respect for the vision behind the initiative”.
He described Arab filmmaking as “talent waiting for finance” and bemoaned the fact that filmmakers often have to travel to Europe for financial backing, where producers often attempt to limit the intentions of the director.
“They just want to see the evening news on the big screen,” he complained.
But DFI and the young filmmakers participating and receiving support from its programmes indicates a major step forward in el-Khal’s opinion, and he expressed his desire to be involved with the institution in the future.
“I have been very impressed – they are fantastic,” he said, talking about the participants in the workshop, “they are passionate, motivated and creative”.
“There is amazing new talent here – they are so hungry and keen to learn,” he said, “and it is really very beautiful to move away from the usual clichés”.
“When you see the results, you will realise that they want to do it, they are doing it, and they are loving it,” he added.
source : http://gulf-times.com/site/topics/article.asp?cu_no=2&item_no=375592&ver...
