twofour54’s award-winning creative lab community celebrated the opening of #thelab, a new and exciting free space to bring their online community to life through socialising, seeking advice and providing technical facilities.
Based at the twofour54 campus in Abu Dhabi, #thelab was inaugurated by Noura Al Kaabi, Chief Executive Officer of twofour54, who welcomed the guests, Many of creative lab’s award-winning community members joined in the occasion.
The evening also included an inaugural Creative Lab Awards ceremony, recognising the community’s exceptional contributions to production across a wide range of projects.
The space allows other creative entities to host events such as screenings and workshops. The first of these is being hosted on behalf of Cinefinance. This is a three day workshop programme on the filming of the sci-fi thriller ’51’.
Designed as a space for community members to meet, collaborate, brainstorm or simply relax and share ideas, #thelab offers a number of specialist production facilities, which guests had the opportunity to view. Facilities include a sound lab, edit lab, ideas lab, gaming area, dry kitchen, stage area and hot desks equipped with PCs and Macs loaded with creative design software.
Noura Al Kaabi, CEO of twofour54, said, “During creative lab’s three year history we’ve grown to over 5,000 members, with 52 projects completed and 20 awards received to date. These remarkable achievements have led us to build a real physical space to allow the community to grow in new ways. I’m sure I speak for a lot of people here tonight when I say how much I look forward to seeing the film, music, publishing, new media and other projects which come out of #thelab.”
Noura Al Kaabi’s speech was followed by the first ever Creative Lab Awards ceremony. The awards were developed by creative lab to recognise the exceptional contribution that members have made to creative lab’s numerous projects. With 16 winners, the awards covered 11 categories including: Best Emerging Talent; Best Production Manager; Best Producer; Best Applicant; Best Volunteer; Best Intern; Project most selected at festivals; Best creative lab Ambassador; Best Screenwriter, Best Editor and Highest Achievement. The creative lab award winners included 9 UAE nationals and 7 members from various Arab countries residing in the United Arab Emirates. See appendix attached for winner details.
#thelab is open to all creative lab community members who apply for a creative lab membership card through creative lab’s website, and is open 10am-10pm, seven days a week. An online booking system allows community members to book the editing, sound and idea labs.
The Acting workshop taking place on 20th June, will be delivered by Navid Negahban who plays a leading role in the top US drama, ‘Homeland’ and Ali Al Sayed, founder of Dubomedy, the first and only urban art school in the region. More workshops are planned on the 28th and 29th June and include: Writing for Film with Ahmed Aishi, a recognized screenwriter and novelist; Pitching and Producing for Film with Michelle Nickelson, Co-Chairwoman and Founder of Women in Film and Television, UAE; and a session on Directing, with David Moore, expert lecturer at the UAE’s Higher Colleges of Technology (HCT). Further information is available on the creative lab website. ..
