Assistant Directors

Here is how this works in practice. Our team supplies assistant directors who run the floor on Moroccan shoots, keeping the schedule moving and the set safe and ordered. We brief ADs on the realities of the country: long days in desert heat, remote locations with tight access, and crowd sequences that draw on the skilled Ouarzazate extras pool. Examples have Berber background performers, riders and animal handlers. Assistant directors we place break down scripts, build and keep the shooting schedule, run call sheets, manage the set's pace, and set up background action and crowd movement.

Here is what we have to work with. On the ground, They work closely with the production manager, the second and third ADs, and the heads of department, and they communicate fluently in Arabic, French and English — key for directing crews and crowds drawn from across the country. They plan for the climate, building realistic days around heat, light and travel.

Here is the short of it. Morocco's assistant directors are among the most skilled anywhere at running large-scale and desert shoots, a depth built over six decades of hosting epics from 'Lawrence of Arabia' to 'Gladiator', 'Kingdom of Heaven' and 'Game of Thrones'. The Ouarzazate crew base — 'Ouallywood' — has produced ADs used at setting up hundreds of extras, horses and camels across tricky sequences. The ISMAC in Rabat trains film pros. Domestic cinema under directors like Nabil Ayouch sustains steady demand for skilled floor crews. All production runs within the CCM framework: foreign shoots obtain CCM authorisation and partner with a CCM-licensed local firm. The assistant directors we place set up with that firm and provincial authorities on the permits and clearances that govern crowd days and location access.