Journal / Production Guides

Planning Your Shoot from Europe or the Gulf

Working with an Istanbul production partner from London, Paris, Dubai or Doha: remote pre-production, time zones, travel and projects in Dubai.

Aircraft wing above the clouds at sunset, seen from the cabin window
Photo: Jack Cohen / Unsplash

Draft — written, needs fact-checking and LSS review before publishing.

Many of our clients only travel for the shoot days. The weeks before are run remotely, and the better that works, the shorter and cheaper the trip becomes.

Pre-production at a distance

Location options arrive as photo and video scouting packages, so you can shortlist before anyone flies. Creative, casting and wardrobe approvals happen on video calls, and the schedule and call sheet live in one shared document. When a location is decisive, a short in-person tech scout before the shoot is usually worth it.

Time zones

Türkiye stays on UTC+3 all year. That puts Istanbul one hour behind the UAE, level with Qatar and Saudi Arabia, and one to three hours ahead of the UK and western Europe depending on the season. In practice the working day overlaps almost completely, so decisions don’t wait overnight.

Getting the team in

Istanbul is a major hub with direct flights from most European and Gulf cities. We plan travel so the core team lands the day before the shoot, and we look at what kit genuinely needs to travel: specialist items fly in, the rest is sourced locally to keep customs paperwork light.

Projects in Dubai

LSS Film is based in Istanbul and produces in Dubai on a project basis. A core team travels from Istanbul, and permits and licensed local support are scoped for each project, so the plan is specific to your shoot rather than a fixed package.

Tell us about your shoot.

Base
Istanbul, Türkiye