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 Naji Habib has just finished a late afternoon round at Beirut Hall, Future TV’s 12,000 square-meter production facility and home of the station’s flagship program, SuperStar. “When I walk around here, I want it to be even better organized than my own home,” he says with a smile of satisfaction.
Coming from a purely technical background in Tele Liban, where he worked for over 20 years, Habib joined Future TV (FTV) in 1997, becoming the administrative affairs manager for sites and production in 2001. One year later, the Beirut Hall project was complete. Originally designed as an exhibition center, it had to be refurbished into a production facility at a cost to the station of more than $20 million. Today, FTV runs the production complex, renting a small part of it to MBC. Rotana has also rented studio D (where SuperStar is usually shot) to produce its own talent show, X Factor.
On any given day, Habib heads a team ranging from between 20 and 300 people, many of whom commonly refer to him as “Boss.” The team’s size varies according to the number and types of productions being shot in the facility.
“Running this facility costs us around six million dollars a year; I’m always trying to cut back on expenses,” he says. Habib notes that his main spending concern is power, which creates a large dent in the budget. He admits, however, that most of the time there’s no cutting corners. “When you have rehearsal productions, it’s the same as going live. Every piece of equipment must be on.”
With night falling, Habib takes time out of the interview to go and inspect the lighting setup. He notices a slightly tilted water-fountain projector and bends down to fix it upright. “Better, isn’t it?” he asks. “I’m not shy of getting my hands dirty as I try to lead by example.” According to him, a regular working day spans up to 12 hours, most of which he spends running the project.
Because large shows such as FTV’s SuperStar and Rotana’s X Factor are crowd magnets, planning for those events starts taking shape on Thursday and continues right up until the night of the event on Sunday. Habib, however, does not stay the “extra hours” during the preparation. Sunday is the only day he remains until after the show is over and everyone has gone home. “If you really want to know whether you’re doing a good job, organize the event, plan it and leave,” he says.
On event nights, more than 1,000 guests pass through security checkpoints, metal detectors and physical searches. In fact, Habib and his crew must coordinate not only with their own security personnel, but also with civil defense forces, Red Cross and sometimes Internal Security Forces. Away from security worries, Habib faults the Lebanese mentality for not conforming to the rules, especially parking instructions. “Lebanese people don’t like to walk, we run into a lot of problems with people wanting to just park in front of the gates!”
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