They ask me what it’s like to work on SNL Saturday Night...
They ask me what it’s like to work on SNL Saturday Night Live Arabia.
Here is the answer:
* I thought it will enrich my experience as a director, but it did more, it taught me what it’s like to be an “Entertainer”, like Michael Jackson, he was not just a singer or a dancer, he was an entertainer, it’s way more fulfilling to learn how to fully entertain an audience.
* it’s scary and also pleasing to work with the biggest crew you can ever work with, it’s nothing like doing a feature film or a TV series, you are not just working with the same team, they are a big army of creative and passionate men and women, each of them can offer you something new to learn.
* When you do a film or a series you get to work with the same actors or stars for the whole project, but in a project like that you work on each episode with a new star, get to know him/her and know their personality and capabilities, it’s like the longest casting experience.
* Working with the new talents we have, that amazing cast formed of new actors who are full of talent and ambition is such an eye opening experience, it teach you that talent is everywhere, and you have to have an eye to notice them before anybody else.
* Writing, writing and writing, to work with such a creative creative writers who can solve any problem in a heart beat, come up with the best concepts and know how to design a joke is such a humbling experience and it teaches what a 100 films wont teach you.
* When you do a film, you work for more than a year or two only to show it once, but in this project you almost do a film/ a show every week, you get a totally different feedback every single week, from a live audience which won’t lie to you, and then on TV where you can measure the reaction of the masses on social media and such.
Feature films might still be my biggest passion of all but I’m extremely grateful and thankful I was assigned to work on this huge and ambitious project, I think this is the hardest format for a program in at least the Middle East and the most entertaining and enriching one as well.
I can’t be more anxious about how it will be received when it’s screened on TV.
20 Feb. OSN Ya Hala HD
