CAIRO: With a simple mini DV camera and a modest spotlight lamp for an assignment, Youssef Mahmoud and Dani Hasecic, students at the faculty of mass communication in Cairo University, achieved something that was far from simple.
A public service announcement they produced to impress their professors, soon became a prelude to a bigger project that impressed a whole of other people, earning them the top award at the MBC’s short movie competition – an annual competition organized by the leading regional satellite broadcaster for the best amateur two-minute movie in the Middle East.
With two high definition cameras and an advanced lighting system they transformed their script into a two-minute movie titled “I Am Earth.
“Me, Dani and my brother were brainstorming for ideas; I wanted do something about homeless children, Dani wanted to tackle drug addiction and my brother wanted to talk about Palestine so we decided to combine all our ideas in one movie, Youssef Mahmoud told Daily News Egypt.
Icons of peace, ecological problems, political oppression, human cruelty, HIV and the self-annihilating actions mankind are some of the issues touched upon in the short film.
“To produce a comprehensive movie covering all the problems we isolated, we would have needed at least 15 minutes, so we chose eight scenes that would be the easiest to shoot, and Dani came up with a storyboard and a script for them, Mahmoud said.
The film competed against 100 others representing more than 35 universities and schools from six countries in the Middle East. Mahmoud and Hasecic were the only ones representing Egypt.
“It all came randomly, said Hasecic, a native Bosnian studying in Cairo University. “We were watching television and saw the announcement of two movie competitions so we decided to participate.
“I had experience as an assistant director for more than three years and Youssef had experience in graphics and video editing so we decided to combine our talents, Hasecic said.
When their story board and script were approved they were told that a representative of the competition will provide equipment for them to shoot on Jan. 5.
But they did not foresee the challenges they faced during the shoot.
“For starters, one of the cast members broke the tripod and the set was ruined, Hasecic said.
But that was nothing compared to what they faced later.
“We were shooting inside the university when we were suddenly surrounded by crowds of students. We didn’t have enough room to move. They kept asking who we were and what are we doing and almost picked a fight because they didn’t want ‘foreigners’ to shoot on their campus, Mahmoud said.
“Security personnel also asked to see our shooting permit. Everywhere we went inside the university we were asked to flash our permits, he added.
Despite having sent a copy of the Dean’s signed permit to the security office, Mahmoud and Hasecic had to issue more than 15 extra copies to show on demand.
“By the last shot, we had run out of copies and were afraid that security would notice us so we finished up in a hurry even though it was the most important shot, he said.
Bureaucracy also played its part with the university only giving them 15 minutes at the studio to finalize the color correction (chroma), so it didn’t turn out the way they wanted.
“We were disappointed because and didn’t expect to win anything at all; we even forgot all about it, Hasecic said.
To their surprise, however, and on the day they completed their mid-term exams, they received a call from MBC telling them that they were among the three finalists and inviting them to Dubai to attend the ceremony.
“They were amazed at the quality of the movie and couldn’t believe that an amateur can make a film of this quality, Hasecic said.
“We were told that we won even before the ceremony, he said. “They also pledged to air any work we give them in the future on MBC.
“Moment of Nidal by Jordanian Darin Sallam, a student at the Applied Science University in Jordan won second prize while “Text Book Hero by Jessica Rae from the British School of Al Khubairat in the United Arab Emirates came in third.
The judges committee was made up of professors and media experts and handed the prizes which consisted of a 2009 Cadillac, an MBC internship, laptops and mobile phones.
Mahmoud and Hasecic will fly to Dubai this month to attend directing and production courses that cost $15,000 and are provided by Dubai’s SAE institute for multimedia studies.
They plan to enter their winning movie in the Middle East film festival held in Abu Dhabi next October.
“We now have plans to start a creation workshop and production office to produce advertisements and TV shows, Mahmoud said.
For the two of them, the sky’s the limit.
