Advanced Media Trading showcases commitment to sustainability at CINETomorrow event

Advanced Media recently concluded CINETomorrow, the 2024 edition of its biannual digital cinema community event at its showroom in Dubai, with all workshops running at full capacity and the team welcoming around 300 guests each day from January 11-13. Besides attendees from the UAE, this year’s iteration also attracted digital cinema enthusiasts from Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Algeria, Somalia, Zimbabwe, Sudan, Kenya, Oman, Tajikistan and Lebanon.

As the distributor of more than 150 international brands, Advanced Media has routinely hosted workshops over the years to ensure that end users are able to maximise the potential of the kit they purchase. The CINE series, however, has raised the profile of the distributor as a company that has also nurtured the digital cinema community through networking and conducting bilingual workshops with a raft of reputed professionals including DoPs, gaffers, editors and sound experts operating in the region and cognisant of its unique challenges.

CINETomorrow was not just a showcase of various elements within digital cinema and virtual production; it also reflected the distributor’s own CSR roadmap, which includes a robust sustainability element on multiple levels.

Three themed sets – two dedicated to cameras and lighting, and one focusing on virtual production with unique lighting and camera systems – were created at the showroom, reflecting the company’s attachment to various projects in the UAE. The first showcased a rich green patch with soil created from the food waste produced by the distributor over the year. The second, a virtual production set titled Nation, themed around the UAE’s fishing past, paid homage to the nation’s heritage while also demonstrating a sustainable form of production that could realistically show the movement of talent between countries. The Knowledge set featured a library with shelves lined with books on Palestine. The sets were used throughout the event to demonstrate the capabilities of the RED and Sony camera ranges.

The 2022 edition of the CINE showcase included the MENA debut of the Sony Venice 2. This year saw the MENA launch of the Sony Burano, a more compact version of the Venice 2. Timothy Fare-Matthews, co-founder of First and Ten Productions in Dubai, as well as Sony ambassador for the MENA region, was at the event to show attendees some of the features of the Burano and take people through the Sony Cine Line.

Martin Munyua, a well-known director, cinematographer and producer from Kenya, commented: “This is a necessary event because even after all these years of being in the field, I need a refresher. I attended all the workshops.”

Abdullah AlAtlas, a Saudi director and DoP, remarked: “I am really happy to be here because not only did I have the chance to meet many filmmakers and industry professionals from different backgrounds, but I also had the opportunity to meet with representatives from brands such as Sony and Easyrig.”

Andrew Smith, Manager of the Raindance Film School Dubai, added: “The students really enjoy the Cine events because they are engaging and interactive. This time they have gathered to make a documentary about the event, so thank you for giving them a platform to experiment and be creative.”

One factor that stood out in this edition was how Advanced Media has taken sustainability to new heights, as part of the company lifestyle as well as in its operations and technologies. The event served as a platform to showcase some of the fruits of that effort. For instance, the fully immersive virtual production set, powered by Zero Density’s graphics engine and running on Unreal Engine, enabled the team to make quick transitions from one landscape or country to the next. Mustafa Suphi Ünsal, Regional Sales Manager of Zero Density, was at hand to explain its role within the project.

The aim was to show how virtual production can help reduce the carbon footprint, explained Parnian Farnam, who helms Advanced Media’s CSR department. The green patch of land used in the nature set, for instance, was covered with soil and compost created from food waste collected from the company daily over the last year.

“We have a partnership with The Waste Lab, which collects our food waste every week and converts it into compost. And then they deliver the compost to MyFarmDubai, from where we have brought the soil and created this green patch to showcase our set. Typically we produce around 12-15kg of waste every week.”

The company has also gone big on e-waste collection in partnership with Emirati company Efate and has urged partners in the media industry to take a similar approach. The company collected 190kg of e-waste in 2022 and 450kg in 2023. With a warehouse in Jebel Ali and a raft of pick-up and deliveries each day, the distributor is also looking to transition to electric cars.

“We are part of several important alliances that enable us to raise awareness. This is why we have made sustainability a huge part of this event,” said Farnam.

CEO Kaveh Farnam spoke about some of the technologies that the distributor is touting specifically as part of its sustainability drive. One that caught our eye was the line of EcoFlow portable power stations, rechargeable portable batteries that charge via solar energy or power outlets and produce AC and DC power that lasts several hours.

“EcoFlow has a range of solar-powered battery chargers that can be used to light up your HMI lights and even your whole set,” he explained. “This has several benefits. For one, there is no noise at the time of shooting. If you want to go to the high-rise building, it’s possible and you don’t need to take a cable there. If you are going into the desert, you don’t need gasoline. This is one of the key products that we would like to highlight among our accessories. It comes in a carry-on bag. There’s a whole range, from the smallest size which you can take camping to the big one that is about 6,000 kilowatt-hours.”

He added that EcoFlow also has a freezer section, an actual fridge that caters to the needs of a makeup artist to keep the cosmetic section cool in the desert. “EcoFlow’s mission is to reinvent the way the world generates, stores and uses energy through creative, environmentally conscious innovation.”

By hosting the event entirely at Advanced Media’s purpose-built showroom in Dubai, the distributor has had the flexibility to showcase the technologies it represents as well as its sustainability efforts under one roof.

“We have done so many workshops, events and product launches,” said Pooyan Farnam, Head of Marketing. “I’d say CINE events are our favourites, since it is hosted in our own premises, and we offer a different experience to our customers. It is always a pleasure to offer training and hands-on experience to people who are new in the world of filmmaking and content creation.”

Alaa Al Rantisi, cofounder of Advanced Media, commented that the CINE series has raised the distributor’s profile and helped the market see it not just as a seller of off-the-shelf products but as a more integrated player in the media and entertainment (M&E) market. “The success of CINETomorrow serves as a testament to our commitment to fostering a vibrant and collaborative community within the industry, showcasing our dedication beyond conventional product sales. With this and the various CSR alliances we have undertaken with various bodies, we believe we have become an influential player within the dynamic landscape of the M&E market,” he concluded.

Filipe Pereira, Sustainability Advocate

My background is in film, but I have become a strong advocate for sustainability over the years. Film and TV productions usually leave a big mess behind. A tentpole film like a Hollywood film typically emits about 2,000 tons of CO2. An average hour of TV can emit up to a hundred tons.

Just to give people an idea, each ton of CO2 emitted above what our planet can absorb results in three square metres of ice melting in the Arctic.

It only takes one hour of TV production for the area where we’re standing right now to disappear. The solution is to change behaviours. The biggest emitter in drama is usually travel and energy consumption. Small changes can make a significant impact. For instance, 80 out of the last 100 highest-grossing films were shot in only two countries. Is [lots of travel] really necessary?

Perhaps you can use virtual production, because it significantly decreases the footprint of filmmaking. There are now people who specialise in helping people on the development and preparation of a film. Prep helps to lower your footprint and save money, but if you do it right you can save a lot of money doing this and save the world at the same time. So it could be a win-win situation.

Timothy Fare-Matthews, Co-founder, First and Ten Productions

The Sony Burano comes with an 8.6K sensor. It’s quite similar to the Venice 2 but is more cost-effective, with a better ergonomic form factor. The main difference between the Venice 2 and the Burano is that the former is designed for larger productions like dramas, OTT content and feature films, while the latter is ideal for high-end lean/solo shooting of documentaries, music videos and so on. It doesn’t have all the functionality of the Venice 2, which comes with the full RAW codec. But it is more than enough for the majority of productions today. This is also the first full-frame 8K cinema camera with in-built auto functionality.

Simon Battensby, Gaffer

I conducted two workshops at CINETomorrow, one about lighting for drama and the other for XR. When lighting an XR set, people think they can just use the LED wall to light the whole scene because it’s got colours and lights on it. That’s a myth. You can’t really do that. You do need lighting as well as the wall behind, so the main job is to try to match the foreground lighting that you’re adding to the background wall scene lighting. It’s important to know how to do that.

You want to avoid shining lights towards the wall, unless it’s a very large wall and you can be a long way away from it. Otherwise you’ll get reflections or lower contrast, or you’ll wash out the colours of the LED wall. So it’s important to use flags, cutters, grids and things like that to stop the light spilling onto the background wall.

The other thing that LED walls have a problem with is mimicking hard, hot sunlight, because by their nature they’re a fairly soft source and the light spreads out. Typically, you rig lights from the ceiling, behind the wall, or sometimes remove a few panels of the screen and shine a hard light through the wall itself through a hole, and then you can have the hard light falling on the actors should you need it. You’re guided by the scene that you’re shooting and the cinematographer’s choices. You might want a warm, romantic feeling for a candlelit dinner, or you might want a cold, creepy look for a horror film.