02 July 2009
Experiments on new Arabic scripts for locally and regionally produced drama continue despite the global financial crisis affecting the production to a certain extent, said an industry representative.
Considering that script writing is less costly, O3 Productions, a subsidiary of the MBC Group, is carrying on with its search for simple and realistic works to raise the quality.
The need for fresh scripts was brought to light by the unexpected success of the Turkish drama, introduced to the Arab World by O3 three years ago.
The success of the Turkish drama posed a sort of a reality check for Arabic drama, mainly in script writing, Fadi Ismail, General Manager of O3 Productions, told Emirates Business.
He said the Turkish drama has also given directions for other segments such as documentaries, a field that currently has only few cheerleaders in the region.
Ismail also said there are great opportunities in commercial and corporate documentaries and films, and the company is planning to expand into the segment.
Your business is split between local production and acquiring foreign productions, what is the percentage of each in your over all portfolio?
We are more into acquiring right now. We have acquired a Turkish series, one of the biggest areas of focus right now, in addition to hundreds of hours of documentaries. In terms of production of documentaries, we are not doing a huge deal anymore. We have also been expanding into the corporate world, where there are vast opportunities in producing commercial and corporate documentaries and films.
We talk about financial crisis but companies still need to sell and to do that they need to have marketing tools, hence corporate documentaries and films.
Obviously, with the prices of Turkish drama going up, acquisitions are eating more into our effort, time and budget.
In terms of drama we are experimenting. That means we are experimenting on scripts, which is a small portion of the production. So it would be true to say that we are not spending a lot on production simply because we are still spending on the pre-production stage. That could be estimated in merely tens of thousands of dollars.
Based on all that, there is not a huge spend on production this year.
The total O3 Productions activities are more than $10 million in expenditure.
As you know every business has been affected by the crisis. Has the production gone down or is it maintaining its levels?
Our budget, like any other company, is based on cost and revenue. You forecast a cost but you cannot forecast the revenue.
Weathering through the crisis, we are trying to reduce our costs. Yet, in terms of revenues, we are currently trying very hard to work on corporate productions but obviously this part of the industry is also being affected due to slashes in marketing budgets. Therefore, this year, we have taken more effort for less results in terms of corporate productions.
We are still experimenting in drama, and the Turkish acquisitions are on going, because we are committed to long-term contracts.
As for documentaries, we were quite aware since the beginning of 2009, that we would not be doing much work in that area.
How are documentaries making commercial sense in this region?
There is no commercial viability. The documentary channels model is based on selling content through subscription to viewers. This model is lacking in the Arab World because there is no such thing as cable TV.
In addition, advertisers do not believe documentaries are a good medium for advertising. They would rather have their ads in the entertainment programmes, movies and drama. In their perception, documentaries are not for mass audience, probably because documentaries were never recognised as a high demand genre. TV stations used to broadcast documentaries to avoid having a black screen when there is nothing to show.
Yet, O3 has produced about 300 documentaries since 2003, some for Al Arabiya TV and others sold in markets such as Morocco, Egypt, Lebanon and Jordan.
Producing many documentaries, which cost hundreds of thousands of dollars, was not totally done by an in-house team. A majority of it was commissioned to young Arab filmmakers who are passionate and eager to express themselves through the lens of their camera rather than making money.
Due to high costs, we had a choice to either produce fewer documentaries with high budgets that were considered good quality budgets, or take our chances and produce more at lower cost by collaborating with those passionate young filmmakers. We chose passion, and that is how we were able to produce that many documentaries with very small budgets ranging between $20,000 (Dh73,460) and $30,000.
Definitely, the quality [of our documentaries] is nothing compared to [those made by] National Geographic and Discovery, and we do not claim that.
We have also been organising an annual workshop, providing an opportunity for enthusiasts to bring forward their ideas and proposals for documentary projects and we funded them.
Do you see a change?
I and many others would like to see a change, but the objective reality is against my wish because there was no economic justification for investing in documentaries other than the prestige.
Al Arabiya and Al Jazeera have been commissioning documentaries because they realise that it gives them an edge. But an industry cannot run on a couple of TV stations with limited slots and decreasing budgets, which is a fact, especially this year, and I believe the next year as well.
After all, acquisition of documentaries is much cheaper. It costs between one per cent and five per cent [of the total production cost] compared to producing one, and it will be definitely of higher value. So the local production does not have the financial attractiveness and appeal versus the acquisition.
Therefore, to fund a documentary we have to realise that it is to no commercial end. Government or NGO funding could make it successful. Having said that, I am realistic enough to know that in times of crises TV will go for what gets higher ratings, and that is drama and entertainment.
In drama, you have introduced the Turkish series to the Arab World, gaining unprecedented ratings. Did the Turkish series kill the Arab drama?
Turkish drama is characterised for various similarities with the Arab society. Acquiring it was cheaper than producing local drama and the quality is at the same level and even better than that of the Arabic drama.
After the ratings that Noor got, I think the Turkish phenomenon is now stabilised. The ratings that Noor got might never be repeated. Still we are receiving high ratings for the other series.
The Turkish genre of drama is now accepted as a part of the drama offering.
No, it did not kill the Arabic drama.
From a pure commercial view, if a production is receiving good ratings, and cheaper than Arabic drama, what is the reason for going for it?
In one way the Turkish was a reality check.
The Arabic drama had at certain points outstripped demand, especially with the huge number of Syrian productions hitting 40 to 50 each year. This is not making quality any better. But on the contrary, in order to be more competitive, prices might go down and so would the production quality.
There is a problem of script writing in the Arab World, and I think that now the Turkish success has presented the Arab drama with a challenge. The Arab World is missing a good romance, a simple naïve and pure love story.
Having realised the problem, what do you intend to do to improve the Arabic drama?
First, we need good realistic down-to-earth scripts that reflect reality or even better than reality.
Second, I think, we need a new generation of actors. We do not have stars in this region.
The stars whom we know are being recycled, appearing in more than one series at a time.
They are divided on different sets. How can you expect them to excel in acting while concentrating on three different scripts everyday?
Sometimes, I think that as a company, I would like to allocate some of the profits from the Turkish series to maintain the documentary productions.
In that sense, I would be doing the documentaries a favour by pushing the Turkish drama.
Are you trying to duplicate the Turkish formula by spotting productions from other markets?
We are experimenting in different directions and I don't know which one will reach the screen.
I think like any company in the world you have to innovate and offer the audience the best.
Turkish series are not going to disappear, and other experiments will take place parallelly.
Experiments on new Arabic scripts for locally and regionally produced drama continue despite the global financial crisis affecting the production to a certain extent, said an industry representative.
Considering that script writing is less costly, O3 Productions, a subsidiary of the MBC Group, is carrying on with its search for simple and realistic works to raise the quality.
The need for fresh scripts was brought to light by the unexpected success of the Turkish drama, introduced to the Arab World by O3 three years ago.
The success of the Turkish drama posed a sort of a reality check for Arabic drama, mainly in script writing, Fadi Ismail, General Manager of O3 Productions, told Emirates Business.
He said the Turkish drama has also given directions for other segments such as documentaries, a field that currently has only few cheerleaders in the region.
Ismail also said there are great opportunities in commercial and corporate documentaries and films, and the company is planning to expand into the segment.
Your business is split between local production and acquiring foreign productions, what is the percentage of each in your over all portfolio?
We are more into acquiring right now. We have acquired a Turkish series, one of the biggest areas of focus right now, in addition to hundreds of hours of documentaries. In terms of production of documentaries, we are not doing a huge deal anymore. We have also been expanding into the corporate world, where there are vast opportunities in producing commercial and corporate documentaries and films.
We talk about financial crisis but companies still need to sell and to do that they need to have marketing tools, hence corporate documentaries and films.
Obviously, with the prices of Turkish drama going up, acquisitions are eating more into our effort, time and budget.
In terms of drama we are experimenting. That means we are experimenting on scripts, which is a small portion of the production. So it would be true to say that we are not spending a lot on production simply because we are still spending on the pre-production stage. That could be estimated in merely tens of thousands of dollars.
Based on all that, there is not a huge spend on production this year.
The total O3 Productions activities are more than $10 million in expenditure.
As you know every business has been affected by the crisis. Has the production gone down or is it maintaining its levels?
Our budget, like any other company, is based on cost and revenue. You forecast a cost but you cannot forecast the revenue.
Weathering through the crisis, we are trying to reduce our costs. Yet, in terms of revenues, we are currently trying very hard to work on corporate productions but obviously this part of the industry is also being affected due to slashes in marketing budgets. Therefore, this year, we have taken more effort for less results in terms of corporate productions.
We are still experimenting in drama, and the Turkish acquisitions are on going, because we are committed to long-term contracts.
As for documentaries, we were quite aware since the beginning of 2009, that we would not be doing much work in that area.
How are documentaries making commercial sense in this region?
There is no commercial viability. The documentary channels model is based on selling content through subscription to viewers. This model is lacking in the Arab World because there is no such thing as cable TV.
In addition, advertisers do not believe documentaries are a good medium for advertising. They would rather have their ads in the entertainment programmes, movies and drama. In their perception, documentaries are not for mass audience, probably because documentaries were never recognised as a high demand genre. TV stations used to broadcast documentaries to avoid having a black screen when there is nothing to show.
Yet, O3 has produced about 300 documentaries since 2003, some for Al Arabiya TV and others sold in markets such as Morocco, Egypt, Lebanon and Jordan.
Producing many documentaries, which cost hundreds of thousands of dollars, was not totally done by an in-house team. A majority of it was commissioned to young Arab filmmakers who are passionate and eager to express themselves through the lens of their camera rather than making money.
Due to high costs, we had a choice to either produce fewer documentaries with high budgets that were considered good quality budgets, or take our chances and produce more at lower cost by collaborating with those passionate young filmmakers. We chose passion, and that is how we were able to produce that many documentaries with very small budgets ranging between $20,000 (Dh73,460) and $30,000.
Definitely, the quality [of our documentaries] is nothing compared to [those made by] National Geographic and Discovery, and we do not claim that.
We have also been organising an annual workshop, providing an opportunity for enthusiasts to bring forward their ideas and proposals for documentary projects and we funded them.
Do you see a change?
I and many others would like to see a change, but the objective reality is against my wish because there was no economic justification for investing in documentaries other than the prestige.
Al Arabiya and Al Jazeera have been commissioning documentaries because they realise that it gives them an edge. But an industry cannot run on a couple of TV stations with limited slots and decreasing budgets, which is a fact, especially this year, and I believe the next year as well.
After all, acquisition of documentaries is much cheaper. It costs between one per cent and five per cent [of the total production cost] compared to producing one, and it will be definitely of higher value. So the local production does not have the financial attractiveness and appeal versus the acquisition.
Therefore, to fund a documentary we have to realise that it is to no commercial end. Government or NGO funding could make it successful. Having said that, I am realistic enough to know that in times of crises TV will go for what gets higher ratings, and that is drama and entertainment.
In drama, you have introduced the Turkish series to the Arab World, gaining unprecedented ratings. Did the Turkish series kill the Arab drama?
Turkish drama is characterised for various similarities with the Arab society. Acquiring it was cheaper than producing local drama and the quality is at the same level and even better than that of the Arabic drama.
After the ratings that Noor got, I think the Turkish phenomenon is now stabilised. The ratings that Noor got might never be repeated. Still we are receiving high ratings for the other series.
The Turkish genre of drama is now accepted as a part of the drama offering.
No, it did not kill the Arabic drama.
From a pure commercial view, if a production is receiving good ratings, and cheaper than Arabic drama, what is the reason for going for it?
In one way the Turkish was a reality check.
The Arabic drama had at certain points outstripped demand, especially with the huge number of Syrian productions hitting 40 to 50 each year. This is not making quality any better. But on the contrary, in order to be more competitive, prices might go down and so would the production quality.
There is a problem of script writing in the Arab World, and I think that now the Turkish success has presented the Arab drama with a challenge. The Arab World is missing a good romance, a simple naïve and pure love story.
Having realised the problem, what do you intend to do to improve the Arabic drama?
First, we need good realistic down-to-earth scripts that reflect reality or even better than reality.
Second, I think, we need a new generation of actors. We do not have stars in this region.
The stars whom we know are being recycled, appearing in more than one series at a time.
They are divided on different sets. How can you expect them to excel in acting while concentrating on three different scripts everyday?
Sometimes, I think that as a company, I would like to allocate some of the profits from the Turkish series to maintain the documentary productions.
In that sense, I would be doing the documentaries a favour by pushing the Turkish drama.
Are you trying to duplicate the Turkish formula by spotting productions from other markets?
We are experimenting in different directions and I don't know which one will reach the screen.
I think like any company in the world you have to innovate and offer the audience the best.
Turkish series are not going to disappear, and other experiments will take place parallelly.
By Dima Hamadeh
© Emirates Business 24/7 2009
