This Report of the Dubai Professional Coaching for Producers’ workshop includes information on the objectives of the workshop, brief notes on each of the sessions during the five days, and a list of the participants and tutors.

The Workshop was aimed at producers and producer/directors in the Arab countries. Applicants were invited to apply with a fiction or documentary project they wished to develop at the Workshop. The Workshop offered the participants professional development through intensive work on the development of their projects.

The three major objectives were:

• to strengthen the producing capacities and professional level of the participants
• to assist in the development of their projects
• to enable the participants to extend their professional network in the Arab countries and towards Europe

Since its inception in 1988 EAVE has developed and refined a widely imitated pedagogical methodology which consists of placing project development at the centre of the learning process and then working with the participants and their projects in group and individual contexts.

During the Dubai Workshop the participants were involved in:

• Group analysis and discussion lead by Group Leader Roshanak Behesht Nedjad. This began from an analysis of each project to which the whole group was expected to contribute and broadened to include many issues relevant to the professional development of producers.
• Individual meetings with fiction script consultant Jacques Akchoti, documentary consultant Marianne Khoury, pitching and presentation consultant Sibylle Kurz, marketing consultant Fiona Mitchell.
• Plenary sessions: three sessions which were also open to other professionals attending the festival events. These sessions were: ‘Approaches to script development’ (Jacques Akchoti),
  Introduction to marketing’ (Fiona Mitchell) and ‘Arab Cinema Today’ (Nabil Ayouch).
• Group focus sessions in which guest experts made presentations followed by discussion in the areas of ‘Finance in the Region’(Marianne Khoury), ‘Finance in Europe’ (Catherine Buresi), ‘Distribution in the Region’ ( Hala Galal, Gabriel Khoury).
• Case study: a case study exploring the production of ‘Cartouches Gauloises’ (Salem Brahimi).

The ten participants joined together with Group Leader Roshanak Behesht Nedjad and EAVE Head of Studies Alan Fountain. Each participant introduced themselves, their work as a producer (producer/director) and their projects.
This began the group activity for the week which lasted over several sessions (additional group sessions were added to the schedule in order to facilitate full discussion of all projects).

During the week’s group work each participant was asked to present their project to the group.Roshanak lead response and discussion on a diversity of issues including:

• the objective of the project
• stage of development
• script structure and characterisation
• script strengths and weaknesses
• director, crew
• production practicalities
• budget and principles of budgeting
• financing plans
• co-producing with Europe
• legal issues of co-production
• the role of the producer

Plenary sessions were open to media professionals attending the Festival in addition to the Workshop participants.

Approaches to script development (Jacques Akchoti)
This was a challenging interactive session exploring the basics of story telling, characterisation and relationships within scripts, relation to the audience, the types of stories it is possible to tell, analysis of script structure.

Introduction to marketing and distribution (Fiona Mitchell)
Fiona began with a broad assessment of the current state of world cinema and the challenges presented to anyone aiming to market a film and continued with an analysis of how to approach marketing and the types of materials required for a successful marketing campaign. The session moved on to discuss the role of sales agents in the marketing process, the producer’s role and responsibilities and the function of festivals and markets and the way to successfully access them.

Arab Cinema today (Nabil Ayouch)
Following the world premiere of his latest film, ‘Whatever Lola Wants’, Nabil Ayouch took part in an interview and discussion session with EAVE Head of Studies Alan Fountain. Nabil took questions about his new film, in particular discussing why he made the film and how he conceives of his audience in the Arab world and elsewhere. He then moved on to discuss issues relating to the current state of Arab cinema in several different countries, notably his own country of Morocco.

Group Focus sessions were attended by the Workshop group and expert guests.

Finance in the Region (Marianne Khoury)
Marianne began by surveying the financing situation in the Region, noting in particular the continued dominance of US films, the strength of the Egyptian industry and the role of financing institutions notably in Morocco and Tunisia. She also explored the absence of funding in several countries and the increasing role of television as a potential funder.

Finance in Europe (Catherine Buresi)
Catherine Buresi (Euromed) presented and discussed the European sources of finance available for Arab films. Her presentation included the major financing funds, useful events, festivals and markets. She also discussed the essential role of co-production and building relationships with European producers in accessing European funds.

Distribution in the Region (Gabriel Khoury and Hala Galal)
Gabriel gave an overview of distribution of films from the Region in the Region and pointed to the difficulty of films crossing borders. He explained, for example, that although the Egyptian industry is the largest in the region very few non Egyptian films obtain distribution in Egypt. He also explored the difficulties facing cinema distribution for independent films and looked at the increasing role of new pan Arab television channels in both production and distribution of regional films.

Hala discussed her experience with Caravan and the success of non commercial distribution in Egypt and other countries in the region and the success of Caravan’s links and partnerships with Europe.

Case Study Cartouche Gauloises (Salem Brahimi)
Following the Festival screening of ‘Cartouche Gauloises’, the film’s producer, Salem Brahimi, joined the group for a case study – a detailed presentation and discussion about the development, financing and production of the film.

Individual meetings on script/project development with Jacques Akchoti and Marianne Khoury enabled participants to go into considerable detail in discussion of their projects. This, in conjunction with group discussion and the input of Roshanak, offered participants new perspectives, ideas and concrete plans for the development of their projects.

Individual meetings with Sibylle Kurz and Fiona Mitchell enabled participants to think clearly about their projects and to focus on presentation and the appropriate marketing tools and package to take the projects to the next stage of development.  

The ten participants selected for the Workshop were:
Baher Agbaria ( Palestine)
Kamal Aljafari (Palestine)
Ahmed Atef  (Egypt)
Mohammed Amin Benamraoui (Morrocco)
Hazim Bitar (Jordan)
Iman Kamel (Egypt)
Vrej Kassouny (Syria)
Ilham Raouf (Morrocco)
Ghada Saba (Jordan)
Tharwat Jacqueline Sawiris (Egypt)

Jacques Akchoti, script consultant
Nabil Ayouch, director and producer
Roshanak Behest Nedjad, Group Leader
Salem Brahimi, producer
Catherine Buresi, Euromed
Alan Fountain, EAVE Head of Studies
Gabriel Khoury, producer
Marianne Khoury, documentary consultant
Sibylle Kurz, pitching consultant
Hala Galal, producer and distributor
Fiona Mitchell, marketing consultant

Jane Williams
Sandra Pappas, Industry Office

Alan Fountain, Chief Executive
Silke Schönfelder, Workshop Manager