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A FEW years ago it was a forgotten, disused cinema but before long they will be making films in the old Dilmun movie theatre rather than showing them.
Within months Bahrain will have its first independent media production studio and next year students will be able to enrol on a media production Bachelor of Arts degree course.
The facility, at Ahlia University, in the Gosi Complex, Manama, has taken two years of work by Art Jones who got involved after university president Professor Abdulla Y Al Hawaj saw a documentary he had made about successful Arab women.
Speaking from his office, in the old cinema's former ticket office, Art said: "This is the president's vision, he came to me and said 'come and see this building, I want you to tell me what you think, whether it is possible to turn it into a facility for our students.
"When I saw it my first words were 'this is funky' and that's not funky in a good way! It had been closed for a while and was very dusty and run-down and there was a lot of work to do ... but now we are almost there.
"We are already able to use the studio but a few more months and the last of the equipment will be in place making it the only full production studio outside of Bahrain Television and, as far as I know, the only one in the kingdom which is ready for 'high-definition' production which means that, when we get a signal installed, people will be able to pick up our programming on their TVs and we should even be able to broadcast to the US."
There has been major capital investment to the tune of around BD1.5 million to give the scruffy, old cinema a new lease of life and, once completed, it will offer students a range of practical skills in various aspects of mass communication.
The Production Media Centre, as it is known, has four key components, namely a photographic studio, a field production unit, a television production studio and a post production unit.
The photographic studio is equipped with state of the art digital cameras, strobe units and computing suites with highly effective photo editing software.
The field production unit offers students the technology for on-location video shooting, editing and production.
The television production studio proper comes complete with sound stage and has high-definition technology providing the opportunity to explore camera operation, lighting, audio and sound mixing, character generation for titling, acting, moderating, costuming and set designing.
There is also a traditional, brightly lit make-up section and even a hospitality area, or green room, where people due on screen will be able to see what is going on at the sound stage and relax with a soft drink.
And the post production unit spans graphic design, transferal of footage for editing using the latest computer software and film screening.
The university has already put on a short course for students who are majoring in other subjects and it was very well received. At the end of it the young people put together their own short film festival which was shown in the media unit with more than 100 people attending.
And in it is planned that the BA course, which starts officially next autumn, will have an initial intake of between 60 and 90 students.
