ahmad.TV

Last Thursday I was at Souk Sharq, volunteering for Al-Watan Promo, the production company is ZEE FILM established by the Director of this promo Ziyad Al-Husaini, also with the help of a production company called Flying Cam – awarded an Oscar for Technical Achievement for the helicopter, they worked on several films including Harry potter 1-3, Van Helsing, Mission Impossible to name a few.

One of my friend’s told me that they needed volunteers for the Promo, and I wanted to be on set especially because I never saw a remote controlled cam-attached-to-a-chopper before. So I arrived on set at around 11:00am, it was hot, the sun was burning, thank god I bought my Ferrari baseball cap with me:), So after a short introduction from the Production Manager to the whole crew, we were ready to begin.

The scene that we shot was for the upcoming Al-Watan Sat Channel, the idea behind it is to shoot several famous places in Kuwait, Kuwait Towers, Marina Mall, Souk Sharq, and others with a camera attached to a remote controlled helicopter, then after the shots have been taken, The editing process begins, where those shots are montaged in a post production facility according to the Director’s vision.

Here’s the baby! – notice the High Definition Camera inside the red helmet-like holder

What I did as a volunteer is that I was asked together with 5-6 other volunteers to clear Souk Sharq’s bridge during the take-off of the Helicopter. We all had Motorola Walky Talky’s with us, it gives a touch of professionalism as well as function, during the shot the bridge must be clear, we had to stop all cars that come across, it was really fun, because when the 1st Asst. Director says clear the bridge, I walk in the middle of the bridge, hands waving to all cars to stop, then just to add to the fun, I head towards some of the cars and tell them we are shooting a Promo for Al-Watan, and we are going to fly a helicopter over this bridge while pointing at it, And their faces were saying whoa, they seemed so anticipated in seeing the helicopter fly over them.

Bridge totally cleared

After the bridge becomes clear, the Director shouts “Action!”, I just love these moments because in these few seconds the Director has total control of everything, he owns the scene !

It was nearly 1:00pm now, I’ve been moving about for a while, and I remembered that i didn’t pray Al-Zuhor Salat, so just listen what happened, I went to the 2nd Asst. Director, told him that i wanted to pray ( o yaraitni re7t salait wala geltla), i expected an answer like OK sure, just come back in 5-10min or so, instead he looked at the ground, thought for a while and said hmm wait, I was saying to myself shfee hatha, he headed over to the line producer, OK so procedures whatever, and he told him the “shabab” meaning the volunteers want to pray, as i walked to them I heard him saying “No I don’t give permission to the guys to pray”, What was he thinking of himself ?! I looked at him and said “I must go to pray” pointing at myself in a are u trying stop me tone, I prayed afterwards as he couldn’t say no.

It’s really sad realizing the fact that the production environment in our region, in general, given the personal smarts, educated backgrounds don’t give a damn to their own religion, why couldn’t there be breaks during Athan! so whoever wants to pray can, I got really frustrated.

So after 10 min I was back, still the same scene, where the helicopter takes off from the bridge and passes by the marina and comes back again, we shot that specific shot several times just to get the timing right.

Remi Epron – Pilot

A quick 10 sec clip I took using my phone, quality is very bad:)

It was interesting meeting with the Oscar awarded Flying Cam team, I did some shmoozing with the Director before leaving, and with the pilot, never know when they could be of assistance later:) After that I called it a day.

Now could someone be generous and donate to me so I can buy one of these helicopters, just a few grands will do, thanks:P