Dubai has become one of the major destinations for film shoots, with its ease of access to a regional pool of talent and material as well as exclusive facilities. The comment was made during Filming in Dubai, the inaugural session of the information forum series, hosted by Dubai Studio City, the dedicated film and broadcast production free zone and a member of TECOM Investments Media Cluster.

The session focused on the different kinds of permission and services facilitated by LAS, particularly special shooting requests, best shooting locations in Dubai, travel assistance, production support, and local infrastructure for production purposes. LAS success stories were also offered as case studies.

Attended by a cross section of film professionals and production companies, the session also included a question-and-answer segment with the team from Dubai Studio City.

To be held every month, DSC's recently launched information forum series that aim to bring together industry experts and representatives from government departments to draw from their experience on film and production-related processes.

Jamal Al Sharif, Managing Director of Dubai Media City and Dubai Studio City, said: "The increasing number of film shoots strongly indicates the preference of a vast majority of film directors and producers for the compelling locales in Dubai and the UAE. This special preference by film industry professionals demands efficient processes and services to support the burgeoning indigenous film industry and increasing interest from international production studios.

"As part of Dubai Studio City's endeavour to offer wide-ranging facilities to encourage film shoots, we have launched this initiative to enable professionals to directly share their challenges with us and interface with the LAS team, government departments and location owners."

One of the attendees at the session, Jana Barnard, Production and Research Coordinator, VIP Films, said: "We gained exhaustive information on the current aerial permit situation and learned that LAS could help arrange for feature films' permits and co-ordinate the logistics that go with it.

"As producers of some of the most successful advertising films in the local and international landscape, we will continue using LAS services for TV commercial and corporate video location permissions as well as for feature films should we get the opportunity."

The second session of Filming in Dubai series involved processes for shooting at unique locations across Emaar properties such as Burj Khalifa and Dubai Mall. It also offered a face-to-face opportunity for interaction with Emaar representatives.

The Location Approval Services department that oversees all aspects of production and filming in Dubai facilitated 888 film shoots during 2010. Dubai Studio City's LAS department mobilised its capabilities and expertise to give logistics support to the team from Paramount Pictures for the latest sequel to the globally renowned action thriller 'Mission Impossible' starring Tom Cruise. Around 150 support crew and 500 extras from the UAE participated in the production.

TECOM Investments' Media Cluster - Dubai Media City, Dubai Studio City and International Media Production Zone - provides a complete value chain of specialised offerings that have created an established community hub for the media and content creation industries in the region.