From backstage at a community theatre to on location for a commercial TV production, Qatar 365 explored several sides of the entertainment business - from those who produce it, to those who perform it.
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00There's an increase in interest in coming to produce and shoot in Qatar.
00:06It's early days, but you can definitely see the trend moving in an upward trend.
00:11We're celebrating 70 years of goofballery in the desert, really.
00:17Seventy years of Doha players putting on plays, doing music, creating a family of theater
00:24people in the desert.
00:28Hello, welcome to Qatar 365 with me, Adil Haleem.
00:33On this episode, we continue to explore entertainment options across the country.
00:38Yohanna Hoos went behind the scenes with Qatar's longest-running English theater group, the
00:42Doha Players, and I sat down with old-school R&B singer, Case, during his first visit to
00:48the region.
00:49But first, I went on location with Katara Studios, the ambitious production house set
00:54to be the audiovisual leader in the Middle East.
00:59This is a behind-the-scenes clip from one of Katara Studios' TV productions, a multilingual
01:04English and Arabic sci-fi fantasy series called Medina.
01:08Now, the Qatari film and music production house is scaling up its filmmaking and original
01:13Arabic content production with four feature films and two TV shows in the pipeline.
01:18Well, look, you have 450 million Arabic speakers in the MENA region.
01:22You have another 50 million that live internationally, the diaspora.
01:25So we have half a billion Arabic speakers, and we don't have nearly enough content for
01:31them, and especially not premium content.
01:34So we've really sort of entered the golden age of content creation for the Arabic-speaking
01:39world.
01:40They want to see the blockbusters.
01:41They want to see those drama TV series.
01:44So all of that currently is, you know, there's a race on at the moment, and the race is to
01:48create that content that's going to sort of satisfy that market, but also break through
01:52internationally.
01:53So that's the gap we're trying to fill right now.
01:56Hussein Fakhri believes Katara Studios will be able to produce those blockbuster films
02:01in the next three to five years.
02:03The full-service studio builds itself as a one-stop shop for premium content, from ideation
02:09to writing, development, production, and post-production.
02:13What's next?
02:14Develop more homegrown talent.
02:18We have some great talent here already, but there's not enough.
02:20We need a bigger pool of talent.
02:22There's definitely a bottleneck when it comes to writing and development for Arabic-language
02:25content.
02:26We need more writers.
02:28We need more developers.
02:29There's a shortage.
02:30This commercial production is one of many ways Katara Studios is diversifying its offering.
02:35After putting itself on the global entertainment map by producing the FIFA soundtrack and the
02:40opening and closing ceremonies of the Qatar 2022 World Cup, the content studio is keeping
02:45the momentum going by producing feature films, TV series, docu-series, and even music videos.
02:53Cynthia Abu Khalil and her crew are in the midst of a four-day commercial shoot for a
02:57real estate company.
02:59Creating narratives and telling a story is a lifelong passion project for the executive
03:03producer.
03:04For me, I have been in love with commercials since I was a kid, so this is my passion,
03:10to be honest.
03:11I've been doing music videos, starting from the World Cup, Asian Cup, all of the above.
03:17So it was something that's nice as a twist because it's super fast, super interesting,
03:23super stressful, but it's the adrenaline rush.
03:27Cynthia believes Katara Studios is not just a production house, but a creative hub.
03:32And that creativity gets put to the test, whether it's always trying to find new filming
03:37locations or figuring out workarounds during Qatar's scorching summers.
03:42Challenges aside, she's seen more and more international brands look to Qatar, even well
03:47after the 2022 FIFA World Cup.
03:50People are coming to Qatar to film.
03:53People are here not because of the World Cup only.
03:56They saw Qatar and it has everything.
03:58You can do anything here.
04:00And the filming industry here also is growing.
04:03And it's beautiful to see that even after the World Cup, we saw an actual like growth
04:08in the media and people coming here, brands they want to come film here, like international
04:13brands, you know.
04:15You couldn't find that before.
04:16We are self-sufficient in terms of media.
04:22In the 90s and early 2000s, American R&B singer K.A.C.E. was a certified hit maker, making
04:28timeless classics that have stood the test of time.
04:31I recently caught up with the Grammy-nominated singer during his first visit to the region
04:35for a nostalgic trip down memory lane and to find out what he's working on now.
04:48K.A.C.E., welcome to Doha.
04:50It's your first time here.
04:52What are your first impressions?
04:53I love it.
04:54It's beautiful.
04:55It's a little hot for me, but it's real pretty.
04:57I like it.
04:58I'm having a good time.
04:59Now, it's also your first time in the region.
05:00Were you surprised to see so many K.A.C.E. fans here?
05:03I was extremely surprised.
05:04I was surprised it was my mother, because she was like, well, they don't listen to R&B
05:09in the Middle East.
05:10So, when I got here, I was showing her little stuff, like I had notes from the hotel.
05:14I'm like, see?
05:15She was like, oh, I guess that answers my question.
05:17So with the love that you're receiving from the fans from the hotel, what does that tell
05:20you about music's ability to bring people and cultures together?
05:23It tells me what I've always known, that good music brings everybody together because everybody
05:27has the same feelings, no matter what you believe, no matter where you're from, no matter
05:31how much money you have.
05:32We all have the same feelings.
05:33We're all human.
05:34And if you can translate that into music, you'll touch people from all over because
05:40we all have the same feelings and emotions that we go through.
05:42Early in your career, you said you hoped your music would last 20, 30 years, and clearly
05:47it has.
05:48What's the secret to making timeless classics?
05:49Well, for me, it was to not follow trends.
05:52It was to be honest with it, and not do what's hot right now, but to deal with real feelings,
05:57real emotions, real situations, because those things never go out of style.
06:01People are always going to miss somebody, people are always going to be in love, people
06:03are always going to fall out of love, they're going to break up.
06:06Those things are always going to be part of the human condition.
06:09So if you can capture that, then I felt like I could do that.
06:16You've done that.
06:17You got two Grammy nominations.
06:19You worked with Mary J. You worked with Faith Evans.
06:21You had a Young Beyonce in your video, a Grammy nomination with Ja Rule.
06:26That's an incredible career.
06:27Yeah.
06:28Right?
06:29Yeah.
06:30Yeah, I'm blessed.
06:31I'm thankful for it.
06:32Yeah, a lot of it's more than I expected, but I'm thankful for all of it.
06:35Speaking of first time, what was it like the first time you heard your music on the radio?
06:39You know, it's funny.
06:40People ask me that all the time.
06:41It didn't matter to me.
06:43It still doesn't.
06:44It's more exciting for me to be standing somewhere in a car driver's pass playing the music.
06:48Because you can pay to get something on the radio.
06:50But you can't pay for people to like it and ride around playing it.
06:53So that's more exciting for me.
06:54And you're still recording.
06:55So tell me what you're working on now.
06:56Well, I'm done.
06:57I have a new project called Love Jones Vol. 2 and a new single called Naked that's out
07:02now with R.L. from Next and Raheem Devon.
07:05And so we're going to put out another single probably about the end of the year.
07:13What advice do you have for young musicians watching on how they can navigate their career?
07:18I would say the first thing they should know and have in the front of their mind is that
07:23to have an idea of who they want to be and make sure that you stick to that.
07:27Because there's going to be tons of people who have an idea of what you should be.
07:30The problem with that is a lot of those people, if it fails, they can go get another person.
07:35You only get one you.
07:36So you have to know who you want to be and kind of try to stick to that as much as possible.
07:40All right, Casey.
07:41Thank you for joining us.
07:42Thank you, man.
07:43Appreciate you.
07:44Welcome.
07:45Thank you, Adoha.
07:47From world-class film and TV productions to an internationally acclaimed musician and
07:51actors for whom performing is a passion, not a profession, Yohanna Hu's caught up with
07:56the Doha Players, the amateur theater group that has been stealing the spotlight in Qatar
08:00for the past 70 years.
08:06Tonight's applause looks a little different for the Doha Players.
08:10Members of the theater group are on stage, but there are no costumes or even a play.
08:16Instead, the audience has come to this ballroom to celebrate not one, but seven decades of
08:20performances at the amateur drama community's 70th anniversary gala in Qatar.
08:26The 70th anniversary of Doha Players.
08:29Go, Doha!
08:31We're celebrating 70 years of goofballery in the desert, really.
08:3770 years of Doha Players putting on plays, doing music, creating a family of theater
08:44people in the desert.
08:46An expat plus local community that everybody can feel at home.
08:52With a black-tie dress code, banquet dinner and ballroom backdrop, the scene is set for
08:57a glamorous anniversary night.
08:59But the Doha Players' beginnings were much more humble.
09:02When the theater group first took to the stage in the 1950s, it did so in an old furniture
09:07shop in Sukwakiv.
09:09Much has changed since those early days, but what hasn't is the Doha Players' penchant
09:14for performing.
09:17In 1954, some expats who were working here with one of the oil and gas companies said,
09:23why don't we get together and put on some plays?
09:26And so they kind of eked out a little space down in the suit and started doing plays.
09:33Nowadays, of course, the costumes and the special effects and lighting and everything
09:38is so much more advanced than what we would have had in the 50s.
09:43With volunteers from over 40 different countries, the Doha Players are a creative melting pot,
09:49welcoming theater enthusiasts from all walks of life.
09:53From set designers and sound operators to actors and makeup artists, the non-profit
09:58group offers a community for Doha residents wishing to dedicate their time to drama.
10:03Doha Players has an increase of volunteers from all nations and that's been a real joy
10:15because they have so much to offer, not just as what they can culturally give to us, but
10:22also individually of what they can give to us.
10:25People working on set, people working on props, people working on costumes, people working
10:29on light and sounds, where you have the directors, the choreographer, the musical directors and
10:36it's a great family.
10:38Whether it's classic plays or modern musicals, the Doha Players stage performances of all
10:43theatrical genres.
10:44Neil McBride is the director of Little Shop of Horrors, one of the group's upcoming productions
10:50about a man-eating plant that tries to take over the world.
10:53Little Shop of Horrors is a horror comedy, I think it can be described as.
10:59Doing different shows is just an amazing experience because you meet so many people from all over
11:05the world, you have a laugh, you have shared experiences, you have long days, you have
11:11tough challenges, but you all come together at the end of it and there's no better feeling
11:15than seeing an audience go out of this theatre having had an amazing experience and you know
11:21all of your hard work was worth every effort.
11:24And if it's up to the Doha Players, that hard work will continue for decades in their final
11:28curtain won't fold for another 70 years to come.
11:36From backstage at a community theatre to on location for a TV commercial production, we
11:41explored several sides of the entertainment business, from those who produce it to those
11:45who perform it.
11:46We hope you enjoyed this episode, but that's all the time we have for now.
11:50For more, check out euronews.com and connect with us through our hashtag.
11:53Thanks for watching and we'll see you next time on Qatar 365.
11:58Qatar 365
11:59Qatar 365
12:00Qatar 365
12:01Qatar 365
12:02Qatar 365
12:03Qatar 365
12:04Qatar 365
12:05Qatar 365
12:06Qatar 365
12:07Qatar 365
12:08Qatar 365
12:09Qatar 365
12:10Qatar 365
12:11Qatar 365
12:12Qatar 365
12:13Qatar 365
12:14Qatar 365
12:15Qatar 365
12:16Qatar 365
12:17Qatar 365
12:18Qatar 365
12:19Qatar 365
12:20Qatar 365
12:21Qatar 365
12:22Qatar 365
12:23Qatar 365
12:24Qatar 365
12:25Qatar 365
12:26Qatar 365