Jordan Daily– “Halaqat” project was launched today by The Royal Film Commission – Jordan (RFC) in partnership with The Drosos Foundation, with six Jordanian TV series projects, taking part in an intensive training program over the course of twelve months in Amman.
The RFC has initiated “Halaqat” with the aim of supporting teams of directors, producers and screenwriters in Jordan, and helping them develop their TV series projects under the mentorship of local, Arab and international consultants in the fields of scriptwriting, directing, production and marketing through eight training labs.
The selected TV series are: “Five Thieves” (directed by Mohammad Ali/written by Mohammad Ali and Karim Ariqat/produced by Mohammad Zghoul);“The Shopping Square” (directed by Samer Battikhi/written by Samer Battikhi and Hayat Abu Samra/produced by Aya Wuhoush); “The Night is Still Young” (directed by Naji Salameh/written by Moeen Masoud/produced by Mohammad Khamis); “Jordanian Tales” (directed and written by Ahmad Al-Khatib/produced by Mays Al-Reem); “The Cage” (directed and written by Mohammad Alhushki/produced by Yousef Abd al Nabi); “What Really Happened to Aisha?” (directed and written by Zaid Baqaeen/produced by Mais Salman and Batoul Ibrahim).
The participating teams will meet at the kick-off workshop, from 8 until 10 November, with the Lebanese writer/creator Nadia Tabbara, nominated for the Emmy Awards, and the American writer/creator and executive producer, Dave Holstein, nominated for the Golden Globe, in order to create a plan for the projects’ workflow. Whereas the Egyptian director and screenwriter Amr Salama and the American writer and producer Paul Foley will join virtually as guest speakers.
At later stages of the program, each team will develop its TV bible and the pilot episode script and will be granted up to 10.000 JDs to produce the pilot episode. The participants will be guided on location scouting, casting, budgeting, pre-production, going into production and post-production up until developing a professional pitch presentation for their TV projects. By the end of “Halaqat”, the RFC will assist with networking the six projects with industry decision makers from the TV and film sector, producers, production companies, investors as well as representatives from international and regional VOD platforms with the aim of securing funding.
Mohannad Al-Bakri, the RFC’s Managing Director, pointed out the importance of the new project and said: ““Halaqat” goes in line with the RFC’s vision to expand our scope of work to include the TV sector along with the cinema industry. What distinguishes “Halaqat” is that it’s a high-end comprehensive project that we trust will materialize in quality series. We appreciate The Drosos Foundation’s valuable support, which enabled us to realize this important project.”
Fyras Mawazini, from Drosos Foundation, commented on the new project: “We are proud to support this new initiative “Halaqat” and we trust the RFC to take up this new challenge and thus continue to transform the audiovisual landscape and TV series in Jordan while improving the competences and skills in the film industry, a very promising sector for the youth”.
It is worth noting that it is not the first time the RFC cooperates with the Drosos Foundation, which had supported the establishment of three film centers in Mafraq, Wadi Rum and Petra, between 2015 and 2019. The RFC had organized, in the framework of this project, a total of 27 workshops and 226 screenings at the three centers, all free of charge targeting the the local communities and school students.
