Commercial
Video Production

A commercial is three jobs that happen to share a budget line. Most of what decides the final film is settled before a camera is switched on.

• Pre-production. Concept and treatment, script, storyboard, casting, location recce, permits, schedule, shot list. This is the stage that is cheap to change and the only stage where changing things is cheap.
• The shoot. Crew, camera, lighting, art department, talent, sound. Usually one to three days, occasionally split across locations, always run against a call sheet that everyone received the night before.
• Post. Offline edit, then colour, sound design, voiceover, music, motion graphics and subtitles, then versioning for every placement the film has to live in.

The films themselves fall into a handful of shapes: a brand film that says who you are, a product commercial that shows what the thing does, a service explainer for a proposition nobody can see, testimonial and case-study pieces, and short vertical cutdowns for paid social built from the same shooting day. Deciding which of these you actually need is a conversation worth having before the treatment, not after the first cut.

Commercial filming in Dubai is licensed. Media production for advertising, branded content and photography in public areas requires a permit issued through the Dubai Film and TV Commission, and it has to be applied for by a UAE-licensed production company on the client's behalf. Filming without the right paperwork is not a technicality: productions that go ahead anyway risk being shut down on location, and footage shot that way cannot be published safely.

A typical application asks for a commissioning letter from the brand appointing the production company, passport copies for cast and crew, the shoot brief or storyboard, and a no-objection letter from the property owner if any part of the shoot is on private premises. Scripted work is submitted for approval in full. Public-space applications are usually planned around a lead time of several business days, and anything aerial needs its own additional permit rather than an amendment to the first one.

We handle the applications as the licensed production company on the file. What we need from you is the commissioning letter and the cast and crew documents early, because that is the part of a schedule that slips when it is left until the week of the shoot.

1. Brief. What the film has to achieve, who it talks to, where it will run, in which languages, and by when. A media plan is more useful to us than a reference reel.
2. Concept and treatment. The idea written down with visual references, tone, structure and runtime, so everyone is approving the same film in their head.
3. Script and storyboard. Locked before casting opens, because casting and locations follow the script rather than the other way round.
4. Prep. Casting, locations, permits, art department, wardrobe, schedule and call sheets. Client sign-off happens here, on paper.
5. Shoot. Monitored on set with your team present or watching remotely, so approvals happen while the set is still standing.
6. Post. Offline cut for approval first, then grade, sound and graphics. Story fixes belong to the offline stage; asking for them after the grade is the expensive way to work.
7. Delivery. Master plus every version the campaign needs, reframed rather than blind-cropped, with subtitles and language variants cut from the same edit.

Three things quietly decide whether a film can still run next year. Talent releases define where and for how long a face may appear, and a release written for social media does not cover a billboard. Music licences are bought for a territory and a term, and the cheap route usually turns out to be licensed for everything except paid advertising. Location agreements say what may be shown and whether a brand visible in the background is a problem.

We put all three in the quote as written terms rather than assumptions, so a campaign extension is a renewal conversation instead of a reshoot.

Brands launching in the UAE that need one anchor film plus a season of cutdowns. Companies replacing a corporate video that has aged badly. Real estate, healthcare, hospitality and retail businesses whose service has to be shown rather than described. Agencies looking for a production partner with a studio and a crew rather than a freelancer with a camera. Regional teams that need Arabic, English and Russian versions built from one shoot instead of three.

Our crew, studio, editors, colourist and CGI team are one in-house operation in Dubai Investments Park 2. Nobody hands a drive to a stranger halfway through. When a set cannot be built or a product does not exist yet, our CGI production and AI corporate video production teams build the shot instead of the schedule absorbing it.

Related: video production, product video production, event video production, commercial photo production. Work samples are at vimeo.com/slsdxb. Send the brief, the deadline and where the film will run, and a quote comes back in about fifteen minutes.