National Day

Tomorrow in National (Dec. 2) in the UAE. It is their fourth of July or Cinco De Mayo. As a country the UAE doesn’t have a long history. They will be celebrating their 39^th year of Unity. Before they were governed by the British (who wasn’t?) But in 1971, Sheikh Zayed, a forward thinker united the Sheikhdoms (or states). The UAE consists of seven states, termed emirates, (because they are ruled by Emirs) which are Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Sharjah, Ajman, Umm al-Quwain, Ras al-Khaimah and Fujairah. Dubai is the largest city and the most well known globally. The capital and second largest city of the United Arab Emirates is Abu Dhabi. It is also the country's center of political, industrial, and cultural activities. Abu Dhabi, according to CNN is also the richest city in the world. When Dubai was in trouble from the financial crisis, it was Abu Dhabi that bailed them out. Interestingly (at least to me and my father anyway) the UAE first invited Bahrain (a short 45 min. flight away) to be the centerpoint of the union. At the time of 1971, Bahrain’s economy was thriving because of oil reserves and a strong financial sector. Bahrain turned the UAE down, thinking it didn’t need them. My how things have changed. Many Bahraini’s rue that decision while others like the small island aspect.

Im pretty excited because we are going to do our first shoot tomorrow. We are going down to the corniche (waterfront) to tape some of the festivities taking place. Unfortunately I probably won’t be able to post them like I wanted to. I took my Iphone into the mall to get it unlocked so I could use it with a UAE number. After months of waiting the software was finally ready. Im not sure how legal this is but im trying not to ask too many questions. So the guy in the shop said it would be four hours. So I waited at the mall for four hours, watched a terrible Jackie Chan Movie, and had lunch. Normally I like Jackie Chan, Jet Li, Chow Yun Fat and Hong Kong films. However, instead of subtitles they dub in English voices for the actors. Its horrible. It completely ruins the movies as usually the voice over artists are very sucky actors just trying to get the lip placement right. I tried to write a script a few years back for some anime project. I had to time the syllables with the lip moment. It was tedious and difficult.

We had a dinner meeting tonight with Lady Lebanon and Ali. This is the fourth or fifth type of meeting we had like this. It was over dinner at a French restaurant called Paul, Im not sure if that is a chain in the US or not. The food was fantastic. But as I was sitting their at a very trendy spot on the JBR strip it dawned on me. Im having a session/dinner with the producer, star, and Im the director. Im really a director! They are treating me with that type of professionalism and respect. This is something that I have aspired to become my entire career. I have directed plenty of projects before, but usually as a writer-producer-director, not solely as a director. Plus most of my other projects have been documentary or corporate based. This is one of the first times I’ll be able to implement my vision along with Ali’s to create entertainment programming. Its very exciting. Im not that nervous, especially having Lady Lebanon on board to handle all the details. There are tons of details on projects like this, but we have a small lean crew since we are not big budget yet. We are having to be extremely efficient and resourceful. Its an exciting day, as this is why I came over to the UAE in the first place.

It’s the dawn of a new era in my career. I couldn’t be more excited.