PROKSA
'RED CARPET, NOT RED TAPE' IS OUR MANTRA– WAYNE BORG
Neom’s media head honcho Wayne Borg is forging ahead with a raft of infrastructural investments and initiatives intended to make Saudi Arabia’s newest development an integrated media hub with all facilities, talent and state-of-the-art gear under one umbrella. In an exclusive conversation with Vijaya Cherian, Borg shares how he plans to make Neom a consolidated hub that will propel the region’s production industry forward Last month, Neom, Saudi Arabia’s newest and most attractive development, announced the operational opening of two of its main sites for production, Neom Media Village and Bajdah Desert Studios, following a celebratory launch with industry professionals in August. The two sites are 35 minutes apart by car and will be home to the Kingdom’s largest sound stages and film production support facilities. Three sound stages are ready, with another seven scheduled to open between now and the end of Q1 2023. More specifically, Neom Media Village features one 2,400sqm sound stage complete with back-of-house facilities comprising makeup rooms, green rooms and production offices, with three further stages under construction. At Bajdah Desert Studios, there are two 3,000sqm sound stages with a further four scheduled to become operational by the end of 2022. “These are our two main locations,” says Wayne Borg, Managing Director for Media Industries, Entertainment and Culture at Neom. “The media village will predominantly house the sound stages, while Bajdah will have a combination. There will be a lot of backlot facilities, big set constructions, prop shops and so on. We will have a volumetric stage of 850sqm up and running by the end of Q1. Those productions that are looking to
16 | www.broadcastprome.com | October 2022
utilise some dramatic landscapes will find Bajdah truly impressive. These are all part of our interim facilities which will in time move to our end state on The Line.” The Line refers to a 200m-wide, 170km-long strip of land 500m above sea level that will eventually accommodate Neom’s 9m residents on a 34sqkm footprint. It will have no roads, cars or emissions, and will run on 100% renewable energy with 95% of the land preserved for nature. All media facilities at Neom will eventually be on The Line, with a spine underneath holding the transport and utilities infrastructure for all production logistics. All of this will be automated and powered by renewable energy, as Neom claims to be 100% carbon-neutral. All studios are being built to be world-class production facilities with set production offices, construction warehouses, prop shops, wardrobe, SFX facilities, backlot space and so on to support complex set builds. Film and ancillary equipment including cameras, grip and lighting, shotover, heavy-lift drones, telehandlers, boom lifts, scissor lifts and trackway are available on both sites. If plans go according to schedule, Neom will have a full-fledged ecosystem in place by the end of 2026. “We're talking of a media hub of about 1m sqm by then and about 37 sound stages, studios, gaming studios, industry learning spaces, incubation startup facilities and so on. Our