How dreams came true for the lads who started up Dubai’s production company 815 Studios

It was the moment the genie came out of the lamp. A 20-year-old film student was introduced to a friend of a friend at a party.

“What’s your dream?” the stranger asked. “To open a film-production company,” the student replied. “Let’s do it,” his new friend said.

The student was Guy Mannion who, three years later, is the chief executive of 815 Studios, a thriving Dubai-based film-production business that has shot some of the biggest gigs and musical acts passing through the region.

Of course, getting to this point was not as simple as it sounds. When he met the genie who could make his wish come true, Guy was a first-year student at London’s University for the Creative Arts, who was on holiday in the UAE visiting his brother, a DJ.

“[The investor] said: ‘Go back, get a business plan together, and get packed,’” says Mannion, 23. “I’d just finished the first year of university and it was a big decision.”

Faced with such a dilemma, he chose the game-show route – and phoned a friend. Tom Mitchell, also 23, was a fellow student on the same course and a long-time creative foil. The pair had been making amateur movies together since they were 12 – and were eager to continue. Despite the fact that Mitchell had never set foot in the UAE before, the pair flew out to set up 815 Studios together.

Three years later, they have more than 100 professional projects under their belts in the UAE and abroad, for some of the biggest names and brands in the business. How did they do it?

Original article by Rob Garratt

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How dreams came true for the lads who started up Dubai’s production company 815 Studios