LONDON: Film AlUla, the Royal Commission for AlUla’s film agency, has partnered with the UK’s industry-led Creative Media Skills Institute to host exclusive training for aspiring film industry professionals.
The two organizations have teamed up to give 25 local trainees from AlUla the possibility to attend a 10-day hands-on boot camp led by award-winning film professionals.
The training program, which will be held in AlUla, Saudi Arabia’s northwestern region, will prepare talents for employment in production, assistant directing, and the art, locations, costume, make-up and hair departments.
The training will be led by award-winning industry professionals including Ailie Smith, CEO of the Creative Media Skills Institute, who is known for her work on iconic titles such as “Harry Potter,” “Prince of Persia,” “Troy,” “Cold Mountain,” and “Mad Max,” and Iain Smith, a BAFTA-winning film producer who was awarded the Order of the British Empire title for his services to the film industry.
The boot camp will also feature Terry Bamber, an assistant director who worked on the films “101 Dalmatians” and “102 Dalmatians” with Micky Moore and Bollywood actor Shah Rukh Khan, and David Anderson, a director renowned for organizing outreach initiatives that offer free filmmaking instruction to young people from underprivileged backgrounds.
The inaugural vocational film industry boot camp, which is scheduled to run from Feb. 26 for 10 days, combines classroom study and hands-on, pragmatic workshops hosted in the scenery of AlUla, home to Hegra, a UNESCO World Heritage site.
The boot camp is part of a series of initiatives supported by Film AlUla to build a workforce and attract inward investors to AlUla.
Building on the enthusiasm for the Hollywood feature film “Kandahar,” which was filmed in AlUla in December 2021, the Royal Commission for AlUla’s film agency hopes to boost the growth and productivity of the film industry in the region by meeting the higher-level skills required to accelerate the flourishing sector in Saudi Arabia.
