deep focus

Burj Dubai, the tallest man-made structure in the world. Burj means tower in Arabic.

Brian Stelter wrote yesterday in the business section of the nytimes about the fallow film production studios in Dubai. Check the great lede:

When the heiress Paris Hilton traveled here in June and July to audition female friends for her show “My New BFF,” her producers had access to state-of-the-art studios and a government eager to import a touch of Hollywood glamour to the Middle East.

But to adhere to the region’s Islamic norms, many of the ingredients in reality TV were taboo: there would be no drinking, no cursing, no dramatic displays of affection. The producers thought about filming a scene at a water park, but passed on the option of dressing the contestants in religiously appropriate swimwear.

I do have to fault the article for relying on the simple equation of Hollywood/America = Sex. After all, not all American films revolved around sex–though if they are set in the Middle East, they’re probably about terrorism and oil.

“Syriana” and “The Kingdom” were both filmed in Dubai (though arguably, that was a win/win for both Dubai and the filmmakers, since it let the filmmakers approximate Saudi Arabia–while Dubai could make themselves look better, at the expense of Saudi’s flaws). But to date, they are the only Western films to be partially made in the Emirates.  I have to wonder, why was “Body of Lies,” a similar political thriller about terrorism, turned down in 2007? Maybe Dubai doesn’t want to get typecast …

This month, the government rejected the request from the producers of the sequel of “Sex and the City,” which was to be partially set in Dubai:

Dubai Studio City’s facilities have been used in 26 feature films, mostly from gulf countries and Bollywood. … In rejecting the request from the producers of the “Sex and the City” sequel this summer, Mr. Sharif said, the authorities took into account “the multicultural fabric of the society and its perceptions.”

According to a government official familiar with the script, its plot lines — with the women coming to Dubai, spending money lavishly and cavorting — were perceived to reinforce negative stereotypes about the region.

Good luck with that. When I was in Doha, and told female (khalijeeat) acquaintances that I had lived in New York City, they immediately asked if it was like “Sex and the City.” Some of them wanted nothing more than to move there and live like Carrie Bradshaw and the rest of them. So are the censoring authorities more afraid of stereotypes of the Gulf, or of their women following the Western example?

And so the article goes, assessing the hurdles to film production in Dubai, including failed co-productions (the abysmal “Shorts,” which just opened to pathetic box office returns in America). The articles focuses on Islamic law and censorship as the principal problem for the Gulf’s investments:

Dubai, its rival Abu Dhabi and other Persian Gulf cities face enormous hurdles as they try to diversify their economies by fostering creativity and becoming entertainment capitals. Chief among those hurdles: they operate under Islamic law. Hollywood does not. So far, the oil-rich countries have proved more able to pay for fancy media productions and to build expensive film facilities than to actually lure production to the Middle East, as economic efforts run up against their traditional values and censorship.

The article also ends on this note:

Even more than the staff issues, enduring issues of censorship may be the most stubborn hurdle for the gulf region — even if, as Mr. Hirschorn jokingly said, “our government censor turned out to be a really nice guy.”

Perhaps that’s part of the problem. Perhaps that’s why (DUH) a Paris Hilton reality TV show probably won’t have much to with the Gulf.

But the real problem in my eyes is not the strict moral codes in the Gulf countries, but the failure of their labor markets. The piece briefly touches on this point:

Some of the other hurdles are logistical. For instance, local requirements for full-time work visas mean that the country lacks a robust freelance market to support productions. Jamal al-Sharif, the executive director of Dubai Studio City, which was founded in 2005 to stimulate the regional film industry, acknowledged that “a vital ingredient for building the film industry is access to talent.”

The current business model of Hollywood is dependent on putting together “packaged” deals. Essentially, every film is established as a singular corporate entity, a one-0ff, a model that requires a lot of flexibility–negotiations must occur between every component part in a film production.

This essentially means that the talent–not just actors, writers, directors, but the production assistants, set designers, everyone beyond the camera and behind the scenes–must be brought in to Dubai for one movie. And then, once the production is over,  everyone goes home–because the countries’ visa laws won’t permit unemployed foreigners to remain in the country.

There is no efficiency involve. The Emirates doesn’t have taxes, but that doesn’t negate the expense required to move an entire production–full of all these moving parts, subject to shifting negotiations–to a country far away. And it’s not like someone can stick around after the filmmaking is done, or if something changes in the negotiations and participants need to shift around–visas in the Gulf countries are subject to strict regulations. Lose your current job, and you must leave.

The Gulf’s labor laws are one of the biggest problems in capitalizing on their outsized capital investments. Places like the Media Zone in Abu Dhabi or Education City in Doha won’t flourish on their own. Regardless of their stellar, expensive facilities, these places actually require even more, continuous investments in human capital. Skilled workers, whether engineers or educators or filmmakers or journalists, must be recruited from the West or other Arab countries and brought over on a case-by-case basis. And once again, it’s not terribly easy to change jobs once you’re in country–don’t count on an unemployment period for job hunting, because even as a Westerner or a fellow Arab, you will be deported.

This is to say nothing of the unskilled laborers, working in the Gulf. For more on them, read this lengthy investigative article I wrote while in Doha. It also delves a little deeper into the problems of the labor laws if you’re curious on that count.

In the end, if the Gulf countries want to make the most of their investments, it’s not the morality laws that need to be changed. It’s the labor laws.