City of Life

Brierley also switched lenses for this film to give Dubai greater authenticity. “Dubai is very dusty and you want to show some of that. Initially, I shot with the master primes but ditched it because it was too sharp and cut through all the dust here. I needed something softer to create the right look for the city so I went with the ultra primes,” he explains.

The production team used standard gear including Arri cameras, roll cages, high-speed tracking vehicles, steady cams, stabilised camera heads and a technocrane.

Perhaps one of the biggest challenges of this shoot was location scouting as this film was shot across more than 42 different locations in Dubai within a span of 34 days with 80 cast members. This forced the production crew into a punishing 16 to 18 hour schedule for each day of the shoot.

Producer Tim Smythe, CEO of Dubai-based production house, Filmworks, without whom this film could not have been shot so efficiently, justifies the schedule.

“No doubt, we worked long days and long nights but the production value has been very high — as high as we see on some big international projects. Films of this size can easily be twice the size but we managed very well with the budget we had. We also shot at 42 different locations within 34 days. That is very ambitious,” explains Smythe.

Smythe would know. In the past, Filmworks has helped facilitate several international productions in the UAE including feature films such as Syriana and The Kingdom.

Smythe also tightened the script to keep the budget down. “The film was longer than it should have been to be within budget. My job as a producer is to try and make the film work within a budget. We could have been more indulgent had we had more finance,” he explains.

In the meantime, filming in several different areas from small apartments to locations like the Dubai Duty Free, Dubai Airport, Sheikh Zayed Road as well as at the Dubai International Financial Centre was one of the biggest challenges on this shoot — one that Filmworks handled efficiently thanks to its location manager, Lyall Gardiner. He dealt with everything from logistics and permits to power, parking and getting a base camp set up every day close to the location.

“We had to secure initial approvals from Studio City and get the relevant permits from the Municipality and the Roads and Transport Authority (RTA),” explains Gardiner. “After that, we went to each location, met the location owners and explained what we wanted to do. We pre-plan on how much impact we are going to have on an area in terms of traffic and also, how to get the equipment trucks there. We also often need to find a place to put up the crew. Normally, it’s a base camp further away from the location because you need a common area where crew can meet and have their meals, set up the wardrobe and so on.”

Gardiner points out that some locations were more difficult to shoot in than others.

“In an apartment, for instance, you can only have x number of people. You need to sort this out before the day of the shoot so that when you walk into a location, no questions are asked by the building manager. Generally, in residential areas, we shoot during the week to ensure minimum inconvenience to residents while during the weekend, we shoot in public areas when people are not likely to be at work,” he says.

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