Director: Toby Macdonald
Production Company: Partizan Films
Client: EDB Bahrain
Locations: Bahrain
Location Brief: Scouting locations across Bahrain for a series of eight TV commercials

Location Scouting Bahrain for EDB

This project took me to the Kingdom of Bahrain to location scout a series of eight TV commercials for EDB Bahrain, directed by Toby Macdonald and produced by Partizan Films.

With eight separate scripts, the brief required an enormous range of locations across the country — modern offices, financial districts, airport environments, traditional streets, cafés, coastal locations and high-end residential properties.

I had never scouted Bahrain before, so the first challenge was simply getting out and understanding the country visually.

Eight Scripts and a Lot of Locations

The scale of the brief quickly became apparent.

Each commercial required a different side of Bahrain and, over several intense weeks, I travelled across the country building up a location library for all eight scripts.

At first, gaining access to some of the locations proved surprisingly difficult. Modern offices and commercial buildings that looked perfect visually weren’t always interested in filming, so a large part of the early scout was spent finding alternatives and working out how to unlock the locations we needed.

Once the production gathered momentum, the range of access became extraordinary.

We filmed in modern business environments, traditional areas of Bahrain and even an airport business-class lounge — not normally the easiest location to secure for a full day of filming.

Scouting Bahrain in Extreme Heat

The other major challenge was the heat.

Temperatures were well into the 40s°C and scouting all day on foot and by car was physically demanding. Bahrain can look geographically compact on a map, but with eight scripts running simultaneously, the days were long and the location list never seemed to get any shorter.

Visually, however, the country offered an incredible range.

One minute I could be scouting contemporary glass-fronted architecture and modern financial districts; the next I was walking through narrow historic streets and traditional neighbourhoods looking for cafés and characterful local environments.

Finding a High-End Bahrain Residence

One of the final briefs required a high-end villa-style house with a swimming pool for a family scene.

While staying at the Ritz-Carlton, I noticed a group of private residences at the far end of the hotel site and asked to see a brochure.

They were exactly the sort of location we had been searching for.

After some negotiation, we eventually secured one of the residences for filming and it worked beautifully for the commercial.

Sometimes location scouting really is as simple as noticing something on a hotel map that you weren’t originally looking for.

The King Fahd Causeway

Towards the end of filming, Toby wanted one final wide establishing shot of the King Fahd Causeway stretching across the sea towards Saudi Arabia.

The causeway is an extraordinary piece of infrastructure and incredibly cinematic, but filming around a sensitive international border naturally required careful access and permissions.

We eventually secured the shot.

Standing there looking across the water towards Saudi Arabia was one of those moments that reminded me why I had always loved international location scouting.

You arrive somewhere knowing almost nothing about the visual possibilities and, a few weeks later, you’ve travelled across the country finding locations for eight completely different films.

Filming Business-Friendly Bahrain

The finished campaign showcased Bahrain through eight different commercials, each capturing a different side of the country.

It was a fast-paced and challenging international location scout, working through extreme heat and an enormous variety of briefs.

But from modern business districts and airport interiors to traditional streets, private residences and the King Fahd Causeway, Bahrain gave us an extraordinary range of filming locations.

Here are some of my original Bahrain location scout photos from the campaign.

Final TVCs: