Qatari studio first to deploy Flame Premium

Qatar-based production and post house ADabisc recently installed Flame Premium at its facility. The studio claims that it is the first Flame installation in the country. MediaSys, Dubai-based Autodesk distributor supplied the solution.

The studio selected Autodesk Flame Premium to assist with the TVC and film projects it will be working on in the region.

Speaking about the new install, Riad Makdessi, chief creative director and managing partner of  ADabisc said: “We work on a gamut of projects ranging from providing 360-degree solutions and covering all bases of commercial communication to projects that focus on specific media solutions. The expertise of ADabisc as a group is spread across digital, branding, public relations, events, photography, television and motion picture production.”

Flame Premium combines several Autodesk elements including Flame, Smoke Advanced and Lustre in one package thereby enabling post-production companies to expand and diversify their creative services more cost-effectively.

“It took us a year of research to find the right solution. We’ve been using Final Cut and After Effects for composition, Autodesk Maya for 3D animation and Avid Pro Tools for sound. We needed to move to a high-end solution when we began post production two years ago,” explained Makdessi.

To ensure its team is up to speed with the new software, ADabisc has employed an Autodesk certified Flame trainer.

“ADabisc has a rich talent pool of composition artists and colourists; so having a Flame trainer on board is a good way of enriching skills and developing the team. Our team has experience using multiple platforms and they are familiar with solutions like Autodesk’s Lustre for colour grading, Flame for composition or Smoke for editorial finishing. So we are excited for our clients, filmmakers, for ourselves as professionals and for Qatar actually, about the possibilities that lie ahead.

“We are not looking at the future narrowly by categorising ourselves as ‘renters only’ so to speak, of a powerful editing suite but rather professionals who can offer complete production and post production solutions from start to finish,” added Makdessi. 

“It is not easy for people to invest in these systems but Autodesk’s creative tools bundle delivers workflow benefits. A lot of post houses are cutting costs but still need to deliver projects.

Makdessi explained that until now, clients went outside of Qatar for post production solutions as the country simply did not have high-end post production skills.

“The post production industry in Qatar is still fairly young so gaining access to Flame Premium here is sure to be a real boon to the industry and to production companies, television commercial directors, film makers, amateurs and professionals who genuinely struggle to balance elements like the quality that they dream of with budget or time constraints.

“To us at ADabisc, having Flame Premium on board exponentially expands our capability of original content creation. That is something we have been passionately engaging in for a while now, be it motion pictures, television dramas, short films, or commercial communication. A project that used to take us one month now can be done in three to four days,” Makdessi added.

ADabisc presently employs 60 people with a team of 10 in its post production department.