Flip through the latest issue of Gulf Weekly.
Writing, directing and working on his first film The Meeting was a crash course in film-making for intrepid creative Ahmed Ashour as he brought to life an idea he has had for nine years.
The comedy-drama The Meeting is set to be released in the next couple of months and was turned into a script during a screenwriting workshop early last year.
“It was inspired by Herman Melville’s Bartleby, the Scrivener, but as I adapted it to a more culturally relatable context, I started to base some of it on my own experiences,” explained Ahmed, 26, who studied theatre at Brown University in the US.
“When I came back from the United States, it was difficult to find work in my field of study, so I worked at the family business for a short stint, but I was quite miserable, but I did draw from the experience when writing and directing this film.”
Bartleby, the Scrivener, is a short story in which a Wall Street lawyer hires a new clerk who, after initially working hard, refuses to make copies or do any other task, always saying the words “I would prefer not to.”
He instead spends long periods of time staring out of the office’s windows at a brick wall, and even after being fired, the clerk, Bartleby, refuses to leave the building or office.
The Meeting revolves around a young man, who is torn between pleasing his parents by becoming a banker, and following his own passions.
The semi-fictional script was shot in November and December last year and is expected to be released before the end of this year.
Despite having acted and directed for the stage in the past, shooting his first film gave Ahmed an appreciation for the attention to detail that goes into every shot and scene.
The film also gave Ahmed a hands-on experience with the country’s filmmaking ecosystem. His biggest lesson – filmmaking is about more than just the film itself.
“There was this one scene, which is a five-second shot in the grand scheme of things, but it took us an hour of focused filming to get the perfect shot,” he explained.
“We had to reshoot it 12 times! And we had to do it with natural lighting right around sunset.
“So with every reshoot, we had to be careful to get every detail right, while also keeping in mind that our window was getting narrower and narrower. We kept yelling “The sun is setting!”
“Now, looking back, I realise that filmmaking is about more than just shots, dialogue or editing… it’s about these moments on set that bring us all together.”
For more details, follow @theahmedashour and @blusteelfilms on Instagram.
