If Cairo is the Hollywood of the Middle East, Beirut might aptly be called the region’s Vancouver, where canny filmmakers regularly recreate glamorous locations for a fraction of their on-location price. Lebanon may not churn out the cinema blockbusters that Egypt does, but it has successfully cornered a large section of the Middle East’s market for producing television commercials and music videos.
“I would say Lebanon has 60 percent of the whole region’s market share, excluding North Africa,” said Gabriel Chamoun, chief executive officer of The Talkies, a major Beirut-based production house, opened in 1988, which primarily produces television commercials. In North Africa, added Chamoun, commercials are generally produced locally.
Sten Walgren of The Gate — Lebanon’s only film processing center — told Executive that Lebanon produces as many as 80 music videos and 300 commercials annually. Before the worldwide economic recession took hold of the region, Walgren said those numbers were around 120 and 400 per year respectively.
“Ninety-five percent of the production houses here in Beirut are for television or commercials or music videos,” said Pierre Sarraf, founder of production house ‘..né.à Beyrouth.’
Sarraf’s company — which also organizes the annual Lebanese Film Festival in Beirut — is one of the few in the country to make other film products, such as documentaries and feature films, though it finances these projects through producing between ten and fifteen high-paying music videos and television commercials per year.
Despite its narrow focus, the Lebanese film industry has prospered, attracting a large volume of business from around the region. While filming and editing takes place in Lebanon, the clients of television commercials are generally advertising agencies based in Saudi Arabia or Dubai. Similarly, music videos are commissioned by record labels in the region, such as the $700 million Saudi-owned conglomerate Rotana.
Big budget productions
While there are no official figures, the film production industry in Lebanon easily rakes in tens of millions of dollars annually.
Chamoun said that at The Talkies, which films some 50 commercials annually, budgets for these projects can vary widely, between $60,000 and $500,000 depending on the client. Some shoots, he said, can bring in upwards of $1 million — though these have become rare in the current economic climate.
Leila Kanaan, a young director from Sidon who gained fame filming music videos for such Lebanese pop divas as Haifa Wehbe and Nancy Ajram, said music videos for A-list stars in the region can range anywhere from $150,000 to $400,000 or more. Her latest music video, “Wavin’ Flag” — a collaboration between Ajram and Somali-Canadian rapper K’naan for the World Cup — easily cleared the $1 million mark.
“It’s a big industry and managers and singers are investing a lot in music videos because they do not just help to sell the CD: they also market the singer,” said Sarraf, whose firm often works with Kanaan. “The real revenue for the singer comes from the live concerts rather than selling CDs.”
For less prominent musicians, Kanaan said that music videos can cost between $60,000 and $100,000. For her own pay, Kanaan said that she charges $50,000 per music video or $10,000 per day of shooting for television commercials. Chamoun said most Lebanese directors he works with make between $2,000 and $10,000 per day of shooting. Mid-range salaries on set — such as for a focus puller, whose job is to keep the camera’s shot in focus during a shoot — run to around $350 per day. Even low-end salaries, such as for a helper, are around $75, higher than daily wages for similar work in Lebanon.
Why Lebanon?
While prices for those 30-second TV spots and four-minute music videos might seem staggering to those unacquainted with the industry, they are significantly cheaper than the industry standard elsewhere. Chamoun said TV commercials can cost some two-thirds less to shoot in Lebanon than other locations, making Lebanon an attractive option for clients.
“We tend to give priority to Lebanon because it’s easier [to film] here and less expensive,” said Sarraf, whose company occasionally films abroad.
When the financial crisis hit Dubai in 2009, some established Beirut production houses saw an increase in business as clients stopped opting to film in the emirate.
“When there used to be a lot of money in the market, they would rather go for convenience rather than savings,” Chamoun told Executive. “So they would shoot a lot in Dubai because the client happens to be there, the agency is there and it’s just more convenient.”
While on paper Dubai could look like a more attractive base for the film industry — with Abu Dhabi’s TwoFour54 and Dubai’s Media City providing a centralized infrastructure for film production — in the fallout of the economic crisis some Dubai firms began relocating or opening additional branches in Beirut.
Besides cost-saving, people in the industry say shooting in Lebanon has additional perks.
“I think Lebanon is the perfect place to shoot in the Middle East; we have the talents, the know-how and good taste in general,” said Kanaan.
Lebanon’s varied geography gives the country’s producers another edge, allowing them to film along the coast or in mountain villages that can sometimes pass for Europe, against the backdrop of Beirut’s skyline or among Roman ruins. Such diversity is lacking in the United Arab Emirates, where locations are confined to the desert and cityscapes.
Shaky footage
While Lebanon’s film production industry has survived the economic crisis thus far — with some production houses even benefitting — Lebanon’s occasionally unstable political situations continue to loom as a threat to its viability.
“We need to keep political stability — this is the worst thing that affects the industry,” said Sarraf. During the 2006 war, work came to a stop for production houses across the city. From the start of the war to the end of 2006, The Talkies produced only four commercials — an amount that would be created in just weeks during times of peace. The war and its aftermath quickly had clients looking to film elsewhere, afraid of what Lebanon’s future might hold.
“Even Lebanese people living in the Gulf were reluctant to come and shoot in Beirut,” said Chamoun, “every time there is a war we start from scratch again.”
Before the political situation worsened in 2005, the country was a favored destination for some European clients who wanted to use some of Lebanon’s more picturesque areas to replicate a European setting on screen at a much lower cost. According to Chamoun, such clients accounted for between 30 and 35 percent of his company’s business in 2004. However, the political turmoil which took hold of the country the next year would scare these clients away. While Beirut film production houses have largely regained business from regional clients, jobs ordered from Europe are still few and far between.
And as the financial crisis pushed Dubai-based film production houses to set up shop in Beirut, Lebanon’s political instability has pushed some local outfits to open branches in more peaceful cities — such as Cairo — as a fallback for a worst-case scenario in Lebanon.
Across the country’s film production industry it is agreed that stability in Lebanon is the key to maintaining business. If peace holds and prices can be kept competitively low, the industry should keep its starring role in the region. If not, other countries, notably Turkey and Morocco, are waiting in the wings to take Lebanon’s spotlight.
“We tend to give priority to Lebanon because it’s easier [to film] here and less expensive”
