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To facilitate O3’s filming of the 30-episode drama series, a second 6500 square-metre backlot, located at Khalifa Industrial Zone (KIZAD), was built by O3 in partnership with twofour54 and takes the shape of a small village based in the 1970s. Facilities within the backlot include costume, make up and dressing rooms, along with a canteen and production offices.

O3 will also use twofour54’s studios and post-production facilities, which offer the latest in colour grading (Baselight and DaVinci), sound (Pro-Tools HD) and editing suite software (Avid Media Composer). twofour54 is providing production services for the project while O3 takes advantage of Abu Dhabi Film Commission’s 30 percent rebate incentive, which is designed to encourage industry growth through increased production activity and increased opportunities for local talent development.

Maryam Al Mheiri, Acting CEO of twofour54, commented: “twofour54 continues to help Abu Dhabi cement its reputation as a hub for production in the region. The addition of a second backlot to our industry infrastructure is another milestone in twofour54’s journey to build the end to end ecosystem that attracts local, regional and international projects to the UAE’s Capital.

She added: “Supporting quality Arabic content creation is one of our key objectives at twofour54 and Al Asouf is another example of rich and engaging Arabic content originating from the UAE. This project will also create talent development opportunities for our local talent that are vital to the growth of the industry.”

 

Fadi Ismail, General Manager of O3 Productions said: “We believe that this is the golden age of drama in this region, and Saudi Drama deserves from us at MBC Group and O3 in particular, to put all possible efforts and resources to produce a top project with what we hope is a captivating script and high production value. twofour54 has been, and will continue to be, a reliable and trustworthy partner in supporting and facilitating our projects and ensuring we have the best possible environment and facilities to produce top notch drama series”.

Al Asouf was written by Dr. Abdulrahman Al Wabli and is being directed by Al-Mothanna Sobh. It features renowned Saudi actor Nasser Al Qasabi in the lead role, alongside Abdul Elah Al Sannani, Habib Al Habib, Mohamed Al Mazeini, Layla Sulaiman, Remas Mansour, Reem Abdullah, Elham Ali, and Zara Al Bolushi, and many more Saudi talent.

Filming Al Asouf in Abu Dhabi in partnership with twofour54 comes following the success of Haret El Sheikh, which went to air during Ramadan and was filmed in Abu Dhabi over 75 days earlier this year. Last year, twofour54 and O3 Productions signed a three-year deal securing 300 production days a year in Abu Dhabi.

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