Making Film in Egypt by Chihab El Khachab

Author:Chihab El Khachab [Khachab, Chihab El]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: History, Middle East, Egypt, Performing Arts, Film, History & Criticism, Social Science, Media Studies
ISBN: 9789774169854
Google: ydlSzQEACAAJ
Publisher: American University in Cairo Press
Published: 2021-03-02T05:18:27+00:00

3. First page of the sequential breakdown in Décor, made by Omar el-Zohairy. Photograph © New Century Film Production.

The actual adjustments involved in scheduling are best illustrated with a direct example from Décor. Nearly a month before shooting, I was sitting with the assistant director Zohairy and the general manager Badawy in New Century when Badawy asked Zohairy whether he had a shooting schedule in mind. Zohairy took out his location breakdown from his bag and started telling him about a shooting schedule orally, using his breakdown sheet as a guide to the locations that had been confirmed and the ones that still needed to be found. Badawy took notes, while Zohairy insisted several times that it was a tentative schedule. With this caveat in mind, he wanted to start with three or four shooting days in Sharif and Maha’s apartment, then three or four days in Studio Misr, followed by seven or eight days in Mustafa and Maha’s apartment. In between those shooting blocks, he said, the director Ahmad Abdalla would need three- to four-day breaks to edit his material. Badawy tried to convince Zohairy to get Abdalla’s editing breaks after longer shooting blocks, adding that Zohairy needed to be wary because the star actress Horeya Farghaly had signed on for another movie at the beginning of December and the star actor Khaled Abol Naga had signed on for another New Century production right after Décor. “This isn’t an independent company . . . there’s a capital turnover (dawrat ra’s mal),” he concluded.

A few days later, Zohairy made a calendar schedule in a Word document and sent it by email to all concerned crew members, including the line producer Farghalli, the director Abdalla, and the heads of each artistic team. When the art director Asem Ali next came into New Century’s office, Farghalli asked him if he had any comments on the schedule. Ali took out his computer, opened his emails, and looked at it. “Why is there set building in Studio Misr in between shooting at the two apartments?” he asked. “Ahmad Abdalla wants it this way,” answered Farghalli. After uttering a brief “okay,” Asem added that on January 17 he would only have one day to change the set completely in Sharif’s apartment. “It’s the only available time,” said Farghalli, because the star actor Khaled Abol Naga had booked a long trip between January 18 and 26. Ali looked unsure, but Farghalli reassured him by saying that they would pull an all-nighter and hire extra workers if necessary. The good news was that Ali would have plenty of time to build in the second apartment, because Horeya Farghaly would be away that week. Farghalli then asked Ali if he could estimate the time it would take to build the set in Studio Misr. The art director answered that it all depended on the location of Mustafa and Maha’s apartment (they had not finished scouting by then). The conversation concluded with brief exchanges about minor aspects in the schedule, all conducted based on the schedule on Ali’s computer.

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