Music
Video Production

Music videos are permitted work in Dubai, the same as commercials and film. Filming in public areas is licensed through the Dubai Film and TV Commission, and only a UAE-licensed production company can file the application on an artist or label's behalf. That is the role we take, and it is not a formality that can be skipped by shooting quickly and leaving.

The part that surprises first-time artists is what goes into the file. Alongside the schedule, crew and equipment lists, identity documents and insurance, the application carries a synopsis or treatment. The concept is read before it is approved. That is useful rather than obstructive, because it moves every question about wardrobe, imagery and lyrical content to the treatment stage, where changing your mind is free. Discovering the same question on the day, with a cast standing in the sun, is the version that hurts.

• Private venues run on a no-objection letter. Hotels, clubs, malls, villas and office towers each grant access on their own conditions and their own timeline, on top of the filming permit rather than instead of it.
• Sensitive locations take longer. Anything near government buildings, mosques, airports or major malls runs on a longer review than a straightforward street or desert location. It is planned in working days, and the clock starts only once the file is complete.
• Drones need their own clearance. Aerial work is approved separately through civil aviation on top of the filming permit. A drone shot is a second application, not a line item added to the first.
• Night and street work carries conditions. Late calls, lighting rigs near traffic and any crowd on a public road come with requirements attached to the approval, and those requirements shape the call sheet.

This is the single most common way a music video goes wrong, and it has nothing to do with the filming. We shoot to playback of a locked master. Not a rough mix, not a version the producer is still moving bars around in.

The reason is mechanical. Every performance take is timed to the audio playing on set, so if the arrangement changes afterwards, the performance no longer lands on the track and no edit repairs it properly. A trimmed intro shifts every lip sync behind it. Slow motion has the same dependency: to over-crank a performance and still have the mouth match, the playback on set has to run faster in exact proportion, which means we need to know before the day which lines are going to be slowed. Nobody records usable audio on set; the location sound is a reference for syncing and nothing else.

What we ask for at the brief: the locked master, a lyric sheet with timings, references for tone and pace, the release date and where the video will run, wardrobe direction, and whether there is a featured artist whose appearance and clearance someone else controls.

We work backwards from the day the video goes live, never forwards from the shoot. Behind the filming day sit the treatment, casting, locations, wardrobe and permits, and permits cannot start until the treatment is settled and the file is complete.

Post has its own weight. A performance-driven cut with a clean grade is a different piece of work from a concept film carrying VFX or clean-up, and a delivery deadline that ignores that difference is the reason artists end up approving a rushed grade. Then there is the rollout: the main cut is one deliverable among several, and the teaser, the vertical edits, the stills and the behind-the-scenes material are usually needed earlier than the video itself, because that is what the announcement runs on. Give us the release date and the premiere or distributor deadline at the brief, and the schedule is built between those fixed points rather than negotiated at the end.

Independent artists releasing a single who need one strong visual and a set of social cuts from the same day. Labels and management running a release calendar that does not move. Regional artists who want production values that travel outside their market. Producers and DJs whose release needs a visual identity rather than a performance video. Brands and agencies building an artist collaboration, where the film has to serve a campaign and a track at the same time.

Direction, crew, studio, editors, colourist, VFX and CGI are one in-house operation in Dubai, and our studio in Dubai Investment Park 2 covers controlled setups when a concept needs a built environment rather than a found one. Where a location does not exist or cannot be reached in the schedule, our CGI production and AI production teams build it instead of the budget going into travel.

Related: commercial video production, fashion video production, event video production, video production. Work samples are at vimeo.com/slsdxb. Send the track, the release date and a reference or two, and a quote comes back in about fifteen minutes.