New kids on the block

Digital acquisition and editing technology is offering freelancers the opportunity to improve their output while lowering costs. Digital Studio speaks to a producer/director team that is using technology and technique to make a little money go a long way.

A yacht sailing past the Burj Al Arab ... cars zipping past on Sheikh Zayed Road at night ... a construction in progress and multi-storey car parks are all everyday features of the Dubai landscape that now feature in music videos on MTV Arabia.

Hip-hop videos, largely from the US, have a reputation for vulgar displays of wealth from the artist and little-to-no concept.

But here in Dubai, we see a team of freelancers getting together to produce the emirate's first hip-hop videos armed with a wealth of concepts and ideas and little-to-no budget.

Director David Zennie (D Zennie), producer Hrag Jansezian and post engineer Hanoz Navdar have had to be clever with their production techniques in order to make a small budget go a long way.

In one scene, we see Dubai-based rapper Kaz Money approaching the camera, then we see him briefly from the side walking forward. The camera rolls smoothly along with him.

With a third cut, he is still progressing, this time from the front. The impression we get from this video is that at least two cameras are shooting continuously with one mounted on a dolly and moving down a long track. The reality is a tad different.

"We shot all of these videos using a four-piece light kit, a tripod, one digital HD camera and a micro dolly with just one piece of track," says D Zennie.

"We have given the end product a completely professional and slick finish though. You just have to be a bit clever with the kit that you have. The trick is in repeating the same sequence and filming it from different angles and then editing them together. Our videos look like we had a team of twenty or thirty crew."

This technique is repeated later on with shots taken on board a yacht matched with shots of the same yacht taken from another boat. The result, again, is the illusion of several cameras shooting simultaneously.

Creating a product that looks like it has been produced with a far larger budget is possible with careful planning in both pre-production as well as some clever editing.

"We don't rush into a shoot. We dedicate a good amount of time to 'pre'. It's very important to have a strong foundation for any project," says producer Jansezian.

Securing the use of the yacht, a Rolls Royce and the plush penthouses, which feature in Omani singer Sham's video, continue to lead the viewer into thinking that they are watching a music video created with a significant budget, while the contrary is true.