February 11, 2025 • 30 mins
EventNewsDXB Ep.5 - Ean Thorley: From MTV to Mega Events! A 30-Year Journey in Entertainment.
EventNewsDXB is supported by Warehouse Four - Dubai's best independent event venue.
In this episode, Ean Thorley, founder of Whatever Live, talks to EventNewsDXB host, Ian Carless, about his journey from MTV intern to Executive Producer of some of the world’s biggest music award shows. From launching MTV Asia, Hong Kong and China to producing groundbreaking events like the Chinese Music Awards, Ean reflects on over 30 years in the industry.
Through highly entertaining anecdotes, Ean recounts the highs and lows of large-scale television event production, including handling crises like fires during Dubai’s New Year’s Eve fireworks and Snoop Dogg’s unconventional requests at the MTV Music awards. The conversation also delves into MTV’s shift from music videos to reality TV and its cultural influence, including projects like Dubai Bling.
Looking to the future, Ean discusses the Middle Eastern event scene, with Dubai, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and Abu Dhabi all competing for global recognition. And he highlights the need to balance local talent with international expertise while adapting to the industry’s evolving financial landscape.
Podcast Rundown
• Ean discusses his early career at MTV
• Insights into producing large-scale events and firework shows
• Crisis management lessons learned from past experiences
• Importance of fostering local talent in Dubai's entertainment scene
• Challenges of client budgets and managing expectations
• Future of events in the competitive Middle Eastern market
• The significance of personal connections through events
Production Credits:
Presented by: Ian Carless
Studio Engineer & Editor: Roy D'Monte
Executive Producers: Ian Carless & Joe Morrison
Produced by: EventNewsDXB & W4 Podcast Studio
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Ian Carless (00:00):
Welcome to Event News DXB.
Before we begin, I've got aquick favour to ask.
There's one simple way that youcan support our show, and
that's by hitting that follow orsubscribe button on the app
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It really does make a hugedifference in helping us get the
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Thanks a bunch.
Thanks a bunch.
(00:20):
Thanks a bunch.
Event News DXB.
You're listening to the EventNews DXB podcast.
Your behind-the-scenes lookinto the world of events in
Dubai, the UAE and the MENAregion.
I'm Ian Carlos and each weekI'll bring you the latest news,
(00:42):
industry trends and insiderstories shaping one of the
world's most dynamic eventmarkets.
From professional insights toDubai's most inspiring success
stories, we've got everythingyou need to stay ahead in the
ever-evolving event industry.
So, whether you're an eventplanner, a brand manager or just
someone passionate about thepower of events, you're in the
(01:04):
right place.
This week we're talking to,Whatever Entertainment's head
honcho, Ian Thorley.
After joining thethen-fledgling MTV at the tender
age of 19 in London, Ian wenton to enjoy a long and
illustrious career as anexecutive producer with the
music network in Europe,Singapore and Australia, as well
as spearheading the channel'slaunch in China.
(01:24):
Following a four-year stint inEurope, Singapore and Australia,
as well as spearheading thechannel's launch in China,
Following a four-year stint inShanghai, Ian relocated to Dubai
in 2020 to oversee televisionproduction for Expo 2020.
He now runs his ownentertainment production company
, Whatever Entertainment, Ian.
Welcome to the podcast.
Thank you, Ian.
This is going to be verystrange, isn't it?
Hello, Ian.
Hello, welcome to the podcast.
(01:45):
Thank you, Ian.
This is going to be verystrange, isn't it Hello.
Ian.
Now full disclosure, I guess,for anybody that happens to be
listening hopefully there's afew, not just our mothers Ian
and I first met.
How long ago God?
30 years, Was it 30?
Oh, yeah, no, maybe it's 40.
No, shush man, it's not 91.
No, yeah, yeah, 40 years.
Ean Thorley (02:02):
Okay, it's a long time ago.
Ian Carless (02:03):
For anybody that's good or better at mental math
than I am, it was a long timeago, Wow.
So, yeah, this episode.
I mean it's traditionally aboutevents, and so we're going just
slightly off-piste with thisepisode.
Ian's background is televisionevents or televising events, so
am I right there?
Ean Thorley (02:28):
Yeah, kind of big, big scale productions, events.
So we won't do the weddingvideos, but we do not even your
own.
No, no, gosh um, so yeah, solarge scale events that we
produce, so over the outsidebroadcast trucks, big cameras
and all that kind of stuff.
So that's kind of what we do.
There's enough people doing thesmaller events, yeah in them in
the world.
Ian Carless (02:44):
Well, let's just very briefly start at the
beginning.
How did you get into MTV?
Ean Thorley (02:49):
Ah yes, Many moons ago I was doing hospital radio
and they wouldn't let me have aradio show because they thought
I wasn't experienced enough.
I was 17 or 18 at the time andI found a book of all the TV
networks around the world and Iwas flicking through the pages
and I saw this thing called MTV.
Didn't have cable, didn't havesatellite at home, so I had no
(03:12):
idea what it was.
I thought that sounds fun.
So I wrote to the programdirector because I knew what a
program director was, because Iwas working at Hospital Radio
Anyway.
So I wrote this letter to theprogram director and this
beautiful lady called LaurenLevine at MTV Europe said Kate,
come and intern for four weeks.
So I went down, went to theoffice in London and I did the
(03:32):
job in two days and then I justwent around every different
department because it was like80 people.
It was a very, very small MTVEurope at the time, back in 1989
, because it launched in 87.
And I kind of got a job as anoperations assistant.
And then 87 and um, I kind ofgot a job as an operations
assistant and then at 19 theoperations manager went oh, I
want to go and do on-air promosnow.
So I was the operations managerat 19.
It was nuts right.
(03:53):
And I heard about mtv new mtvhong kong launching.
So I said I want to do that.
All my friends were like, butyou don't know anyone in hong
kong.
I'm like, yeah, but I'm sureI'll make friends.
I mean, you know, you've gotsome people who stayed at MTV
for 20 years in the same city.
I mean I moved every year, Imoved every two or three years
to a different MTV.
Now, with MTV Asia, as you know, we launched in Hong Kong as
(04:14):
part of the Star TV network.
Then Murdoch bought Star TV andViacom, which owns MTV.
We're like, yeah that.
So we relocated to New York andthen relaunched in Singapore as
MTV Asia.
Ian Carless (04:26):
And that was where our paths crossed wasn't it.
Well, actually well, in HongKong initially and then later in
Singapore.
Let's just get back on track.
So I'm going to sort of fastforward to your event days, and
I think a lot of that probablyhappened when you were with MTV
Australia, is that?
Ean Thorley (04:42):
right, no, no, we started with MTV Asia.
So MTV Asia, rmt.
We were.
Basically we were launchingflags.
We launched India twice becauseit was more of a star TV, and
one was for Viacom.
Then we launched MTVPhilippines, mtv China, mtv
Indonesia, malaysia.
We had a four-hour play out onMalaysian TV.
So we decided to produce thefirst ever Chinese music award
(05:04):
show, so CMAs or VMAs, and thatwas interesting.
We hired a director out of theUK.
We had some people come fromMTV Europe.
I produced it and exec producedit, and we originally were
going to do it on the 4th ofApril, but in Chinese numbers
that means death.
So we changed that.
Yeah, so, and then we were toldwe couldn't use a production
(05:26):
company in beijing.
We had to choose.
We had to work with cctv andthe red army were our security
detail.
So we produced this.
I mean it was mental right, butone of the things that was
great about it is is this youknow we had.
So we had an english director,a chinese director from cct,
lovely guy called Zhao, and thisis back in 1997 or 98.
(05:48):
But me and my co-producer,thomas Sevenhagen, I think you'd
remember, we had the design ofthe show and they brought a
model of the show, which wegenerally do for our big shows.
We have a model.
I mean we can look at cameraangles and what works and what
doesn't work.
Now you can do it all digitally.
And I mean we can look atcamera angles and what works and
what doesn't work.
Now you can do it all digitally.
And they had all this kind ofsplattered paint over the
aluminium and we're like, no,that's great, but all the
(06:11):
splattered paint we don't wantthat because that's not the
design.
But we had, like some big-nameartists playing.
We then ended up.
Then this Chinese opera singer,a very famous opera singer,
came out and my lightingdesigner director were kind of
giggling and all the Chinesestaff were just transfixed with
this amazing woman who was justlike singing, amazing.
I said, guys, this is their nobe culturally sensitive.
(06:34):
But the show was a greatsuccess.
The president of MTV was there,bill Rohde, yeah it was good.
Ian Carless (06:40):
Do you see more events or do you feel that the
appetite for these big awardshow kind of things and music
events, televising them, hasgone a little bit now?
Were you doing more of themback?
Ean Thorley (06:51):
in the day.
Yeah, I was doing a lot moreback in the early 2000s,
mid-2000s, I think.
The appetite, the Golden Globes.
I think the Golden Globes, theOscars, will always be televised
, but they're not going to getthe huge numbers that they used
to get.
For example, the Oscars willalways be televised, but they're
not going to get the hugenumbers that they used to get.
For example, the VMAs.
Why is MTV doing the VMAs?
Because they don't play music,and that was a cultural shift
(07:12):
with MTV, because we didn't ownthe IP anymore, so all these
music videos were owned by therecord label.
Ian Carless (07:20):
So, when you're planning out these big shows,
what's the process?
I mean, where do you begin?
Ean Thorley (07:25):
So, the first thing we do.
Obviously we pick a date.
But then I would sit down withour production designer and say,
right, this is what I want.
And when we did the MTV VideoMusic Awards in Australia in
2008, I remember we were in LAand we went through this very
amazing bookshop and we saw thisstage design for an opera.
(07:48):
I went that would be wicked.
So we used the basis of that tobuild the stage design for the
MTV Awards.
So we do that.
Then the designer makes a model.
We then start working with TARabout talent and about bands we
want, and if I suggest, oh,there's a band I saw or whatever
, we bring them on board.
And then basically, yeah, westart getting all the crew
(08:13):
together lighting designers,director and then we spend five
days building and then two daysrehearsing one day show and then
it's all over and generally thepress are happy, and then it
takes two days for the negativepress to hit.
So we do a show on a Thursday.
It's a red carpet and all thesocials going in the paper in
those days on the weekend.
(08:35):
So we get the weekend press.
So we do the show on a Thursday, get news on a Friday, then
Saturday and Sunday is the kindof glitzy papers on the weekend,
and then the following Mondayor Tuesday is the bad press hits
.
Ian Carless (08:46):
So when you're talking about in terms of the
size of the production, what arewe talking here?
How many cameras?
Ean Thorley (08:55):
So typically for MTV I would imagine, I think
we'd use anywhere between 15 to20 cameras, we'd have a Jimmy
Jib, which would be a crane,we'd have a Steadicam, we'd have
a no, we'd like the green room,and then we have backstage
hosts, which is our sponsorshipcommitment.
So when we go to a commercialbreak we would go to one of our
(09:16):
presenters and they'd bestanding in front of a Coca-Cola
or a Branded doing links andinterviews with artists, and
then they would go to acommercial break and then we'd
come back.
But generally it's a large crew.
I mean it's anywhere between120 to 400 people.
So when we did the YouTubeSymphony Orchestra in Sydney, we
had a thousand production staff.
It was a big show, it was anamazing show, and we did that
(09:37):
with Google.
And what's the kind of leadtime would you say?
That was about six months.
But this year actually, or lastyear, when we started working
on New Year's Eve for EMAR, forBurj Khalifa, I started in March
, nine months pre-production.
Ian Carless (09:52):
So, for those that aren't familiar with Ian and his
company, whatever Ian's beenresponsible for, how many of the
last 10 years of Dubaifireworks, you've been doing it
10 years, 10, 12 years, 12 years, right.
So, and just to clarify so,your role in that is obviously
you're not out there arrangingall the fireworks show You're
very much responsible fortelevising the fireworks.
Ean Thorley (10:15):
So there's a fireworks company that are hired
by EMA.
There's a lighting company whodo the visuals on the Burj
Khalifa.
We just do the broadcast and wework with Dubai TV.
So we bring a team of about 12to 14 people from the production
side from my side, and that's aproducer, graphics producer, et
cetera, et cetera and then webring in Dubai TV with their 400
(10:37):
staff of cameramen, engineers,and we basically spend about
four days setting up and then wehave rehearsals and then we do
the show.
Ian Carless (10:47):
So I have to ask you, though were you in charge
during the year that theydecided they weren't going to
have any fireworks, Mm?
And if so, how did that go down?
Ean Thorley (10:56):
So I said, well, that's silly, because a birthday
cake you have on your birthday,fireworks you have on New
Year's Eve.
So the marketing chap, who'sthere?
They want you to do somethingdifferent.
And I'm like, well, birthdaysand New Year's Eve, you
shouldn't mess with that.
But the more interesting onethat I did was when the dress
(11:18):
hotel burned down.
Oh, so it was 9.34.
We'd just done the fountain show, camera 6, which is on the
opposite side of the lake.
There's a fire above your head.
We're like what?
And our tech director steps outof the OB van, looks up, goes
holy shit.
And then so we basically packup.
The army comes in, rips the OBtruck out, takes the ob truck
(11:39):
out, takes the generator trucksout.
We've got generators there,right, yeah, all full of diesel,
yeah and uh.
So we then go to the media tentand we're just going wow is
that just went up so quickly.
It was amazing.
Then we went to crisismanagement.
We took over red lobster cafein dubai mall to be our crisis
management center.
Then we got kicked out of dubaimall because they thought the
building might collapse.
(11:59):
Then we moved to anotherlocation so we had no cameras.
But luckily that year we'd beenasked to do all the firework
shows uh across the whole ofdubai right so we started
business bay.
Obviously they went down tojumeirah, so I had two
helicopters flying and I alwayssay recording camera and uh,
(12:19):
thankfully they did.
So they, they landed, we gotthe, we got the content.
And then we spent the next nextday editing a show together,
trying to cut around the fireand the smoke because obviously
it's not just the local marketthat you're doing the show for.
Arguably it's not even the localmarket you're doing the show,
people you're doing it for theworldwide audience yeah, so
we've got the news organizationsAP, reuters we have individual
(12:40):
channels taking it.
This year we worked with acompany called TVU and they did
all the digital as well asfree-to-air content distribution
, so it goes around.
I mean, we had got the reportyesterday and they're just
channels that you think reallyyou know, especially across
Africa and Asia, and it's Reallyyou know, especially across
Africa and Asia.
(13:01):
I mean, wow, okay, because youhave the general stuff, bbc and
all that kind of stuff.
But yeah, about 1.1 billionpeople watch it worldwide.
Ian Carless (13:08):
What did you take away from that in terms of, like
you know, emergency planning orcontingency planning?
That's the word I was lookingfor.
Ean Thorley (13:14):
Yeah, so we work with the command center, with
EMAR command center, which isDubai police, dubai EMAR
security.
So we have a range ofprocedures that we take, so we
have content that we play on thescreens.
If there's people missing, wehave slides.
We also have a backup plan.
We have a backup OB truck so wecan relocate that with
(13:36):
different cameras.
Ian Carless (13:37):
Is that something that you've had in place?
Ean Thorley (13:40):
post the fire.
No post the fire, so post fire.
Ian Carless (13:42):
So pre-fire, you didn't have that, no, wow.
Ean Thorley (13:44):
So we have a backup OB, we have backup SNGs, which
are satellite trucks, so we canget content out, because last
year, for example, there was nobig thing bad, but the fireworks
were delayed by 48 seconds.
Yeah, so we're in the OB truckand we're delayed by 48 seconds.
Yeah, so we're in the OB truckand we're going.
Did we go too early?
And we're like no, it'smidnight.
(14:05):
So there are sometimes thereare technical issues and we
react accordingly.
So you know, if it's somethingthat's really serious, we'll go
to a wide shot.
If there's a crowd managementissue which there has been for
many years, but now it's allbeen sorted, which is great, so
which there has been for manyyears, but now it's all been
sorted, which is great, so it is.
So, yeah, we have procedures inplace and that's for any event,
really, apart from the one wedid but certainly taken more
(14:27):
seriously post that year.
Ian Carless (14:29):
Yeah, backtracking to your MTV days.
Yeah, what are some of thethings that perhaps the public
don't know that were going onbehind the scenes at some of the
award shows that you were partof?
Ean Thorley (14:41):
that you can talk about when we had Snoop Dogg at
the MTV Awards.
We had it in this huge arena,right, but we had to turn off
all the fire alarms because hewas getting Mr.
Snoop, mr Snoop, he was gettinghis wacky-backy on, so we had
three huge dressing rooms.
(15:01):
So we had one dressing room forhis security guards, one
dressing room for his mates,another dressing room for Snoop
and we had to have a fireattendance around the whole,
like way more than we'd normallyhave the fire department just
in case there's a fire breakingup because Snoop wanted to smoke
some weed and I was like, okay,that's cool, what are you gonna
do?
But yeah, but right down, rightdown the board.
(15:23):
It was a, it was an interestingtime, but I wouldn't exchange
it for the world.
Ian Carless (15:26):
I mean, it was, it was amazing experience so, as I
think most people know, mtv wentthrough quite a big
transformation, didn't it?
Where it, as you alluded to it,it moved away from playing
music videos and very much intothe genre of reality television.
You know, 16 and what was it?
Up the duff, or whatever,whatever it was called 16 and
pregnant.
(15:46):
Was that?
Yeah, close, yeah, it hasn'tgone away, has it?
Reality television?
I mean, we've got a show herein dubai, don't we?
Dubai bling, what?
What is it about realitytelevision?
Do you think that?
Ean Thorley (15:56):
I think it's just I think reality tv really took
hold probably about two decadesago, right.
I think people are justconsumed by this pop culture of
content and it's they just needit super fast.
If there was a terrible storythat came out about a
personality the next day, thenews cycle works so quickly
(16:17):
they'll be got be forgottentomorrow, right.
But I think with with shows,I'm glad that dubai bling's
being made.
It's being made by rise studios, who I'm a big fan of, with
amanda who runs the company.
Ian Carless (16:27):
I think it's great that they're making yeah, yeah,
who I love and I think you knowwhat's great.
Ean Thorley (16:32):
Whether you like the show or not, at least
they're making content andthey're making local content and
I think this is reallyimportant.
And this happened with mtvyears ago, where we were mtv
europe.
We're a pan-european networkand suddenly this countries were
like germany.
Right, we were on mtv.
We don't want to play.
We had music from all differenteuropean countries or play on
the same playlist, so thatpeople wanted their own, their
(16:55):
own kind and their own music.
And I think that, with countries, and certainly with the GCC,
saudi's making films now, whichis fantastic.
A friend of mine's produced ahorror movie for Saudi that came
out last year, based on a veryfamous book.
Now Rai Studios is in themarket of producing local
content for the local market,and that could be anywhere, be
(17:16):
arabic, or could be indian, orpakistani, uh, or subcontinent.
So that's a good site.
That, for me, that's just.
That's a great site.
I don't do long form content.
I don't produce long formcontent.
The only we did what we did.
We produced a chinese kid showin shanghai, all in mandarin,
which was amazing, but I thinkfor for blint by bling it's
(17:40):
whether, as I say, whether youlike it or not, it's local
content with local people, localcrew.
They're not bringing flyingloads of people in from the uk
or from the us.
I think that is.
Ian Carless (17:50):
That's a great thing so, speaking of local
content and local crew, you'vebeen in dubai five years now.
Well, yeah, five years back onyeah five years now.
Uh, you have your own companynow.
Whatever entertainment.
Tell us a little bit about that.
What kind of shows are youhoping to do with whatever?
Ean Thorley (18:04):
so whatever was born in 2007 in sydney, uh,
straight out and with with a,with a mission to create big,
big, big events, big shows.
We actually came to Dubai tolaunch the cricket stadium and
then 2008 hit and thatdisappeared.
Generally, we produce a lot ofawards.
(18:25):
We've produced a lot of awardshows around the planet.
We do stuff for Google,whatever now in Dubai.
The GCC is certainly a.
It's probably the last placewhere it's a new frontier, new
opportunities.
So obviously we're doing stuffin Saudi, we're doing stuff here
.
So what we envisage for whatever, we have kind of three main
(18:48):
components.
One is entertainment concerts,award shows, et cetera.
New to us at the moment issport.
So we haven't really done a lotof sport.
We've done.
I mean sport.
We've done.
I've done the cricket in thecaribbean for three years, the
t20 championships.
We did a whole bunch of stuffwith nike.
I did the porsche career cupchampionships in asia, um, but
now we're getting a lot moreinvites from clients to cover
(19:10):
sporting events, um.
And then the other is kind ofmore business business, which is
kind of now we did the Google36 hour live broadcast for their
, for their, their hard drivebusiness, which is called next.
I think that was nice, I wasalive 36 hour show across five
continents.
So so for us, whatever we, thereason we call the name whatever
(19:32):
is a.
We sell it.
We say a lot, but it has twomeanings whatever we can do for
you, we can do if we don't likeyou, whatever.
So that's kind of the, that'skind of the marking of what we
with under the brand whatever.
Um, we've got a new guy onboard, uh, patch khan, who's an
ex broadcast expert, uh v I,senior vice president of
warner's ex warner's sonypictures, and so he's coming on
(19:56):
board as our technical andtechnology director.
Yeah, so we've done some prettygnarly shows since.
Ian Carless (20:04):
How tough a market is it to break into?
Who's your competition?
Ean Thorley (20:08):
Well, actually well , there's a lot of competition.
What we do, our maincompetition, is probably Done
and Dusted or ex-MTV colleaguesof ours competition is probably
done and dusted, or ex mtvcolleagues of ours, um, but in
the region, no, we are.
We're not cheap because we comewith experience, right, and
it's always the same clientswill say, oh well, can you do it
for x?
You're like, well, you're not.
(20:28):
The price point for me is notthe issue.
You're buying, like by 40, 30years of experience, right.
So we generally get recallbecause we we have that
experience, certainly on theshows that are coming up in the
next couple of weeks and months.
The market is tough and peoplealways know we want to budget
(20:48):
for a show and they want to chopit in half, right, so you go,
well, that's fine.
But you have to work out, youhave to sacrifice something
because, no, the money is themoney.
Ian Carless (21:00):
Now, one of the shows I know you did last year
as well was Untold.
Tell us a little bit about that.
Ean Thorley (21:05):
We came across Untold through a personal
connection.
We had a chat with them.
They'd been talking to seriousproduction companies about doing
their broadcast, their livestream, and it was across across
four days, starting at 5 pm andgoing to like 5 am it was.
It was gnarly for us.
It wasn't about making money onthis show.
(21:25):
We.
I love house music, I love edm,I love concerts and it was the
biggest edm festival in in thewhole of dubai, backed by the um
, dubai government or dubai uhtourism.
Ian Carless (21:37):
So I know you were also involved in Expo as well.
Can you talk to me about that?
Ean Thorley (21:42):
Yeah, so I did Expo twice.
So the first time I came out in2020 or 2019, and then that
pandemic thing happened thateveryone got scared about I did
a month's work at Expo.
Ian Carless (21:56):
That short period of time where everybody sat
twiddling their thumbs.
Ean Thorley (21:59):
So we did so.
That was shut down, so the Expowas delayed for a year.
We came back in 2021.
I was the head of productionfor Dubai TV, so my job was to
ensure that I did all the livecontent.
So we were producing, onaverage, 10 live shows a day, so
that would be anything from a.
Every morning we did a nationalday for a country, then there'd
(22:21):
be some another thing that wedid, a talk, and then we'd end
the day with a massive concert.
So but I've done a lot of showsat Expo and I think that's it's
an interesting site thatthey're trying to do.
Ian Carless (22:31):
Where do you see this side of the industry, of
the event industry, going inthis region?
Ean Thorley (22:36):
Well, I think in this region we're quite lucky,
unlike, say, the UK or Asia orAustralia.
You've got competing markets.
So you've got, say, saudi aretrying to take over everything.
Right, sports, qatar are tryingto do it, dubai and Abu Dhabi
are trying to do it.
So you've got this greatcompetition between all these
countries who are trying to getthe customer's dollar or the
(23:00):
tourism.
So there are going to be theselarge-scale events, there are
going to be these opportunitiesto produce content because these
countries need it.
So I think the market is stillstrong.
What these companies are doingnow, or these countries are
doing now, is okay.
If you want our dollars, if youwant our local currency, you
have to have a company in mycountry.
So we've set up Well Ever Livehere in Dubai.
(23:23):
It's a Dubai media company.
We are going to sell up Saudiat some point, but we're just
seeing what the market doesfirst, because everyone's
flocking to Saudi and I thinkwe're just going to hold back
and go and our chairmen are likejust hold back, just let's see
what happens.
Ian Carless (23:37):
Talk to me about talent.
I mean, how easy is it to getthe people that you need in
order to do these shows?
Because I mean, I'd love to beable to sit here and say, all
the talent that we need is onthe ground here in the region
well, some of it, some of it is,but the reality is yes, some of
it is and some of it isn't, soI'm going to take it back.
Ean Thorley (23:55):
Step up, a step back yeah, what we did at mtv
and our job was to go into thesecountries, these cities and
create a new media landscape sothat that's training.
I hate using the word locals,but the, the, the local people
generally young kids coming outof university or some kids who
(24:16):
got some media training or nomedia training.
Ian Carless (24:18):
Which is well.
Yeah, which is exactly what Iwas doing with MTV in the
Philippines, exactly so so we'vefor our whole career.
Ean Thorley (24:25):
We've always been nurturing talent.
We've always been looking anddeveloping that skill set so we
could get kicked out and theywill run their own media network
for their own country, fortheir own nationality.
I think that was what we'veachieved.
Now that's kind of happeningwith us at Whatever, with who
we're, we know who we can hire.
We know we've got fantastic EBSoperators.
(24:46):
We have fantastic VizRToperators, so we're capturing
fantastic vision mixersoperators.
We have fantastic uh viz rtoperators, so capturing um
fantastic vision mixers.
We have fantastic cameramen.
Yeah, we had this one particularcameraman on new year's eve for
the budget for this year orlast year, this year, last year,
uh, who, I was just blown away,um, and the camera team were
amazing this year, I meanabsolutely flawless, yeah.
(25:06):
So what I do when I, when weget asked to do a big, big show,
we'll we'll probably do 50 or60 local crew and then 40 and
it's international,international, which would be
the kind of the heads ofdepartment, head of lighting,
head of uh, or the head ofcameras, head of uh broadcast
truck, um, but generally whatwe're trying to do is bring you
(25:27):
know.
For example, when we were doingCOP28, I was asked to hire all
these people and I'm like, yeah,we've got fantastic people.
We had people coming in fromIndia, we had people coming from
Pakistan.
We had fantastic people who weknow have worked with and were
fantastic.
And then in the end, the clientwent no, no, I'm just going to
bring everyone from the UK.
Ian Carless (25:47):
I'm like, oh, that's so shit, you've got to
develop the local market, whichis a shame, because then there's
not that transfer of knowledge,is there?
No?
Ean Thorley (25:56):
So in terms of managing it, for other
productions, for New Year's Eve,for example, I bring one person
from international.
That's the director.
I do have directors here, butthe client wants to have a big
international name director buteveryone else is local.
Ian Carless (26:14):
Let's talk a little bit about finance and budgets,
just briefly.
I know certainly from both theproduction work I've done in the
past and also now from havingWarehouse for the event venue
clients aren't too happy aboutpaying much upfront.
In fact, there was a certainperiod up until about 2008, 2009
(26:37):
, where we got no depositwhatsoever for any kind of
production, and it was only sortof 2008, 2009, when obviously
the financial crisis andcompanies just didn't have any
money, so clients begrudginglyhad to put up 50%.
So how does a company, likewhatever, manage its cashflow?
How are you getting past thestumbling block here of clients
(27:02):
being reluctant to put too muchmoney up front?
And then not only that, it'sthen the long tail in terms of
often getting paid as well,because 30 days I wish I didn't
have to say this, but in thisregion 30 days is never 30 days.
Ean Thorley (27:16):
Well, we've been very lucky.
So for New Year's Eve we getpaid one month after the event
and we get paid on time.
We used to get paid three daysafter the event, so we've been
quite lucky in that regard.
In terms of the other shows, wewill demand either 100 up front
, 70, 70 or at least 50, butit's structured so 50 on signing
(27:38):
, yeah, 30 on on onpre-production, then show day
the remaining so we we at themoment touch wood.
We've been very, very lucky, weget paid on time or we get paid
in advance.
So, for example, because oursuppliers will go well, we want
100% upfront.
Yeah, absolutely so, forexample, when we went to another
(27:59):
.
If we go to another country,we're taking crew from here and
a kit.
No, we have to come out withinsurance, insurance for the
team and then basically the feeupfront.
But it's a challenge and whenyou're in your own business
there's peaks and troughs ofcash flow always hard.
But I think so far we've beenokay.
Ian Carless (28:17):
So, before we wrap up, I absolutely know that you
love your music.
I mean, both of us cannot workfor MTV without loving our music
.
I love my music.
As you know, I'm now restockingmy vinyl collection.
What's on your playlist?
Ean Thorley (28:31):
So at the moment it ranges and there's three types
of genres I listen to.
Generally, more often than notI listen to it's a podcast
called Deep House Moscow housemusic 90s and 2000s gangster hip
hop.
Okay, and Beethoven's FifthSymphony.
Ian Carless (28:49):
Big discrepancy there.
Ean Thorley (28:50):
So on.
On the day-to-day it's housemusic.
I love house music and if I'min the car I want to get I mean
dr dre, I named my dog snoop dog, right?
So I had this beautiful whitegolden retriever and we called
him snoop, so he goes.
Respect to snoop dog d-o-dG.
Gangsta hip-hop all the way G.
Ian Carless (29:12):
So, finally, what are you looking forward to in
2025?
Personally and professionallyNow, personally, I know you have
a new addition to the family.
Ean Thorley (29:20):
Personally, I have a new addition Number 554 baby
has been born Amira, who wasborn a few days ago.
Congratulations.
Ian Carless (29:28):
To my lovely wife, thank you.
Ean Thorley (29:30):
Amira, who's born a few days ago my lovely wife,
thank you, I think,professionally, what we're
looking at we we are moving intokind of the sporting side.
So we're working with a bigclient at the moment in America
on a sporting, some sportingstuff.
So I think this year probably afew more shows in Saudi and a
few more sporting events as well, with all all the other stuff
(29:50):
that we do as well asentertainment.
But I'm kind of really pushingto do more sport.
Ian, it's a pleasure as always,Always mate, Thank you sir,
thank you for joining me.
Ian Carless (29:59):
Thank you.
Event News DXB was presented bymyself, ian Carlos, the studio
engineer and editor was RoyDeMonte, the executive producer
was myself and Joe Morrison, andthis podcast is a co
-production between Warehouse 4and W4 Podcast Studio Dubai.
And if you haven't done soalready, please do click that
follow or subscribe button.
See you next time.
Welcome to Event News DXB.
Before we begin, I've got aquick favour to ask.
There's one simple way that youcan support our show, and
that's by hitting that follow orsubscribe button on the app
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(00:20):
Thanks a bunch.
Event News DXB.
You're listening to the EventNews DXB podcast.
Your behind-the-scenes lookinto the world of events in
Dubai, the UAE and the MENAregion.
I'm Ian Carlos and each weekI'll bring you the latest news,
(00:42):
industry trends and insiderstories shaping one of the
world's most dynamic eventmarkets.
From professional insights toDubai's most inspiring success
stories, we've got everythingyou need to stay ahead in the
ever-evolving event industry.
So, whether you're an eventplanner, a brand manager or just
someone passionate about thepower of events, you're in the
(01:04):
right place.
This week we're talking to,Whatever Entertainment's head
honcho, Ian Thorley.
After joining thethen-fledgling MTV at the tender
age of 19 in London, Ian wenton to enjoy a long and
illustrious career as anexecutive producer with the
music network in Europe,Singapore and Australia, as well
as spearheading the channel'slaunch in China.
(01:24):
Following a four-year stint inEurope, Singapore and Australia,
as well as spearheading thechannel's launch in China,
Following a four-year stint inShanghai, Ian relocated to Dubai
in 2020 to oversee televisionproduction for Expo 2020.
He now runs his ownentertainment production company
, Whatever Entertainment, Ian.
Welcome to the podcast.
Thank you, Ian.
This is going to be verystrange, isn't it?
Hello, Ian.
Hello, welcome to the podcast.
(01:45):
Thank you, Ian.
This is going to be verystrange, isn't it Hello.
Ian.
Now full disclosure, I guess,for anybody that happens to be
listening hopefully there's afew, not just our mothers Ian
and I first met.
How long ago God?
30 years, Was it 30?
Oh, yeah, no, maybe it's 40.
No, shush man, it's not 91.
No, yeah, yeah, 40 years.
Ean Thorley (02:02):
Okay, it's a long time ago.
Ian Carless (02:03):
For anybody that's good or better at mental math
than I am, it was a long timeago, Wow.
So, yeah, this episode.
I mean it's traditionally aboutevents, and so we're going just
slightly off-piste with thisepisode.
Ian's background is televisionevents or televising events, so
am I right there?
Ean Thorley (02:28):
Yeah, kind of big, big scale productions, events.
So we won't do the weddingvideos, but we do not even your
own.
No, no, gosh um, so yeah, solarge scale events that we
produce, so over the outsidebroadcast trucks, big cameras
and all that kind of stuff.
So that's kind of what we do.
There's enough people doing thesmaller events, yeah in them in
the world.
Ian Carless (02:44):
Well, let's just very briefly start at the
beginning.
How did you get into MTV?
Ean Thorley (02:49):
Ah yes, Many moons ago I was doing hospital radio
and they wouldn't let me have aradio show because they thought
I wasn't experienced enough.
I was 17 or 18 at the time andI found a book of all the TV
networks around the world and Iwas flicking through the pages
and I saw this thing called MTV.
Didn't have cable, didn't havesatellite at home, so I had no
(03:12):
idea what it was.
I thought that sounds fun.
So I wrote to the programdirector because I knew what a
program director was, because Iwas working at Hospital Radio
Anyway.
So I wrote this letter to theprogram director and this
beautiful lady called LaurenLevine at MTV Europe said Kate,
come and intern for four weeks.
So I went down, went to theoffice in London and I did the
(03:32):
job in two days and then I justwent around every different
department because it was like80 people.
It was a very, very small MTVEurope at the time, back in 1989
, because it launched in 87.
And I kind of got a job as anoperations assistant.
And then 87 and um, I kind ofgot a job as an operations
assistant and then at 19 theoperations manager went oh, I
want to go and do on-air promosnow.
So I was the operations managerat 19.
It was nuts right.
(03:53):
And I heard about mtv new mtvhong kong launching.
So I said I want to do that.
All my friends were like, butyou don't know anyone in hong
kong.
I'm like, yeah, but I'm sureI'll make friends.
I mean, you know, you've gotsome people who stayed at MTV
for 20 years in the same city.
I mean I moved every year, Imoved every two or three years
to a different MTV.
Now, with MTV Asia, as you know, we launched in Hong Kong as
(04:14):
part of the Star TV network.
Then Murdoch bought Star TV andViacom, which owns MTV.
We're like, yeah that.
So we relocated to New York andthen relaunched in Singapore as
MTV Asia.
Ian Carless (04:26):
And that was where our paths crossed wasn't it.
Well, actually well, in HongKong initially and then later in
Singapore.
Let's just get back on track.
So I'm going to sort of fastforward to your event days, and
I think a lot of that probablyhappened when you were with MTV
Australia, is that?
Ean Thorley (04:42):
right, no, no, we started with MTV Asia.
So MTV Asia, rmt.
We were.
Basically we were launchingflags.
We launched India twice becauseit was more of a star TV, and
one was for Viacom.
Then we launched MTVPhilippines, mtv China, mtv
Indonesia, malaysia.
We had a four-hour play out onMalaysian TV.
So we decided to produce thefirst ever Chinese music award
(05:04):
show, so CMAs or VMAs, and thatwas interesting.
We hired a director out of theUK.
We had some people come fromMTV Europe.
I produced it and exec producedit, and we originally were
going to do it on the 4th ofApril, but in Chinese numbers
that means death.
So we changed that.
Yeah, so, and then we were toldwe couldn't use a production
(05:26):
company in beijing.
We had to choose.
We had to work with cctv andthe red army were our security
detail.
So we produced this.
I mean it was mental right, butone of the things that was
great about it is is this youknow we had.
So we had an english director,a chinese director from cct,
lovely guy called Zhao, and thisis back in 1997 or 98.
(05:48):
But me and my co-producer,thomas Sevenhagen, I think you'd
remember, we had the design ofthe show and they brought a
model of the show, which wegenerally do for our big shows.
We have a model.
I mean we can look at cameraangles and what works and what
doesn't work.
Now you can do it all digitally.
And I mean we can look atcamera angles and what works and
what doesn't work.
Now you can do it all digitally.
And they had all this kind ofsplattered paint over the
aluminium and we're like, no,that's great, but all the
(06:11):
splattered paint we don't wantthat because that's not the
design.
But we had, like some big-nameartists playing.
We then ended up.
Then this Chinese opera singer,a very famous opera singer,
came out and my lightingdesigner director were kind of
giggling and all the Chinesestaff were just transfixed with
this amazing woman who was justlike singing, amazing.
I said, guys, this is their nobe culturally sensitive.
(06:34):
But the show was a greatsuccess.
The president of MTV was there,bill Rohde, yeah it was good.
Ian Carless (06:40):
Do you see more events or do you feel that the
appetite for these big awardshow kind of things and music
events, televising them, hasgone a little bit now?
Were you doing more of themback?
Ean Thorley (06:51):
in the day.
Yeah, I was doing a lot moreback in the early 2000s,
mid-2000s, I think.
The appetite, the Golden Globes.
I think the Golden Globes, theOscars, will always be televised
, but they're not going to getthe huge numbers that they used
to get.
For example, the Oscars willalways be televised, but they're
not going to get the hugenumbers that they used to get.
For example, the VMAs.
Why is MTV doing the VMAs?
Because they don't play music,and that was a cultural shift
(07:12):
with MTV, because we didn't ownthe IP anymore, so all these
music videos were owned by therecord label.
Ian Carless (07:20):
So, when you're planning out these big shows,
what's the process?
I mean, where do you begin?
Ean Thorley (07:25):
So, the first thing we do.
Obviously we pick a date.
But then I would sit down withour production designer and say,
right, this is what I want.
And when we did the MTV VideoMusic Awards in Australia in
2008, I remember we were in LAand we went through this very
amazing bookshop and we saw thisstage design for an opera.
(07:48):
I went that would be wicked.
So we used the basis of that tobuild the stage design for the
MTV Awards.
So we do that.
Then the designer makes a model.
We then start working with TARabout talent and about bands we
want, and if I suggest, oh,there's a band I saw or whatever
, we bring them on board.
And then basically, yeah, westart getting all the crew
(08:13):
together lighting designers,director and then we spend five
days building and then two daysrehearsing one day show and then
it's all over and generally thepress are happy, and then it
takes two days for the negativepress to hit.
So we do a show on a Thursday.
It's a red carpet and all thesocials going in the paper in
those days on the weekend.
(08:35):
So we get the weekend press.
So we do the show on a Thursday, get news on a Friday, then
Saturday and Sunday is the kindof glitzy papers on the weekend,
and then the following Mondayor Tuesday is the bad press hits
.
Ian Carless (08:46):
So when you're talking about in terms of the
size of the production, what arewe talking here?
How many cameras?
Ean Thorley (08:55):
So typically for MTV I would imagine, I think
we'd use anywhere between 15 to20 cameras, we'd have a Jimmy
Jib, which would be a crane,we'd have a Steadicam, we'd have
a no, we'd like the green room,and then we have backstage
hosts, which is our sponsorshipcommitment.
So when we go to a commercialbreak we would go to one of our
(09:16):
presenters and they'd bestanding in front of a Coca-Cola
or a Branded doing links andinterviews with artists, and
then they would go to acommercial break and then we'd
come back.
But generally it's a large crew.
I mean it's anywhere between120 to 400 people.
So when we did the YouTubeSymphony Orchestra in Sydney, we
had a thousand production staff.
It was a big show, it was anamazing show, and we did that
(09:37):
with Google.
And what's the kind of leadtime would you say?
That was about six months.
But this year actually, or lastyear, when we started working
on New Year's Eve for EMAR, forBurj Khalifa, I started in March
, nine months pre-production.
Ian Carless (09:52):
So, for those that aren't familiar with Ian and his
company, whatever Ian's beenresponsible for, how many of the
last 10 years of Dubaifireworks, you've been doing it
10 years, 10, 12 years, 12 years, right.
So, and just to clarify so,your role in that is obviously
you're not out there arrangingall the fireworks show You're
very much responsible fortelevising the fireworks.
Ean Thorley (10:15):
So there's a fireworks company that are hired
by EMA.
There's a lighting company whodo the visuals on the Burj
Khalifa.
We just do the broadcast and wework with Dubai TV.
So we bring a team of about 12to 14 people from the production
side from my side, and that's aproducer, graphics producer, et
cetera, et cetera and then webring in Dubai TV with their 400
(10:37):
staff of cameramen, engineers,and we basically spend about
four days setting up and then wehave rehearsals and then we do
the show.
Ian Carless (10:47):
So I have to ask you, though were you in charge
during the year that theydecided they weren't going to
have any fireworks, Mm?
And if so, how did that go down?
Ean Thorley (10:56):
So I said, well, that's silly, because a birthday
cake you have on your birthday,fireworks you have on New
Year's Eve.
So the marketing chap, who'sthere?
They want you to do somethingdifferent.
And I'm like, well, birthdaysand New Year's Eve, you
shouldn't mess with that.
But the more interesting onethat I did was when the dress
(11:18):
hotel burned down.
Oh, so it was 9.34.
We'd just done the fountain show, camera 6, which is on the
opposite side of the lake.
There's a fire above your head.
We're like what?
And our tech director steps outof the OB van, looks up, goes
holy shit.
And then so we basically packup.
The army comes in, rips the OBtruck out, takes the ob truck
(11:39):
out, takes the generator trucksout.
We've got generators there,right, yeah, all full of diesel,
yeah and uh.
So we then go to the media tentand we're just going wow is
that just went up so quickly.
It was amazing.
Then we went to crisismanagement.
We took over red lobster cafein dubai mall to be our crisis
management center.
Then we got kicked out of dubaimall because they thought the
building might collapse.
(11:59):
Then we moved to anotherlocation so we had no cameras.
But luckily that year we'd beenasked to do all the firework
shows uh across the whole ofdubai right so we started
business bay.
Obviously they went down tojumeirah, so I had two
helicopters flying and I alwayssay recording camera and uh,
(12:19):
thankfully they did.
So they, they landed, we gotthe, we got the content.
And then we spent the next nextday editing a show together,
trying to cut around the fireand the smoke because obviously
it's not just the local marketthat you're doing the show for.
Arguably it's not even the localmarket you're doing the show,
people you're doing it for theworldwide audience yeah, so
we've got the news organizationsAP, reuters we have individual
(12:40):
channels taking it.
This year we worked with acompany called TVU and they did
all the digital as well asfree-to-air content distribution
, so it goes around.
I mean, we had got the reportyesterday and they're just
channels that you think reallyyou know, especially across
Africa and Asia, and it's Reallyyou know, especially across
Africa and Asia.
(13:01):
I mean, wow, okay, because youhave the general stuff, bbc and
all that kind of stuff.
But yeah, about 1.1 billionpeople watch it worldwide.
Ian Carless (13:08):
What did you take away from that in terms of, like
you know, emergency planning orcontingency planning?
That's the word I was lookingfor.
Ean Thorley (13:14):
Yeah, so we work with the command center, with
EMAR command center, which isDubai police, dubai EMAR
security.
So we have a range ofprocedures that we take, so we
have content that we play on thescreens.
If there's people missing, wehave slides.
We also have a backup plan.
We have a backup OB truck so wecan relocate that with
(13:36):
different cameras.
Ian Carless (13:37):
Is that something that you've had in place?
Ean Thorley (13:40):
post the fire.
No post the fire, so post fire.
Ian Carless (13:42):
So pre-fire, you didn't have that, no, wow.
Ean Thorley (13:44):
So we have a backup OB, we have backup SNGs, which
are satellite trucks, so we canget content out, because last
year, for example, there was nobig thing bad, but the fireworks
were delayed by 48 seconds.
Yeah, so we're in the OB truckand we're delayed by 48 seconds.
Yeah, so we're in the OB truckand we're going.
Did we go too early?
And we're like no, it'smidnight.
(14:05):
So there are sometimes thereare technical issues and we
react accordingly.
So you know, if it's somethingthat's really serious, we'll go
to a wide shot.
If there's a crowd managementissue which there has been for
many years, but now it's allbeen sorted, which is great, so
which there has been for manyyears, but now it's all been
sorted, which is great, so it is.
So, yeah, we have procedures inplace and that's for any event,
really, apart from the one wedid but certainly taken more
(14:27):
seriously post that year.
Ian Carless (14:29):
Yeah, backtracking to your MTV days.
Yeah, what are some of thethings that perhaps the public
don't know that were going onbehind the scenes at some of the
award shows that you were partof?
Ean Thorley (14:41):
that you can talk about when we had Snoop Dogg at
the MTV Awards.
We had it in this huge arena,right, but we had to turn off
all the fire alarms because hewas getting Mr.
Snoop, mr Snoop, he was gettinghis wacky-backy on, so we had
three huge dressing rooms.
(15:01):
So we had one dressing room forhis security guards, one
dressing room for his mates,another dressing room for Snoop
and we had to have a fireattendance around the whole,
like way more than we'd normallyhave the fire department just
in case there's a fire breakingup because Snoop wanted to smoke
some weed and I was like, okay,that's cool, what are you gonna
do?
But yeah, but right down, rightdown the board.
(15:23):
It was a, it was an interestingtime, but I wouldn't exchange
it for the world.
Ian Carless (15:26):
I mean, it was, it was amazing experience so, as I
think most people know, mtv wentthrough quite a big
transformation, didn't it?
Where it, as you alluded to it,it moved away from playing
music videos and very much intothe genre of reality television.
You know, 16 and what was it?
Up the duff, or whatever,whatever it was called 16 and
pregnant.
(15:46):
Was that?
Yeah, close, yeah, it hasn'tgone away, has it?
Reality television?
I mean, we've got a show herein dubai, don't we?
Dubai bling, what?
What is it about realitytelevision?
Do you think that?
Ean Thorley (15:56):
I think it's just I think reality tv really took
hold probably about two decadesago, right.
I think people are justconsumed by this pop culture of
content and it's they just needit super fast.
If there was a terrible storythat came out about a
personality the next day, thenews cycle works so quickly
(16:17):
they'll be got be forgottentomorrow, right.
But I think with with shows,I'm glad that dubai bling's
being made.
It's being made by rise studios, who I'm a big fan of, with
amanda who runs the company.
Ian Carless (16:27):
I think it's great that they're making yeah, yeah,
who I love and I think you knowwhat's great.
Ean Thorley (16:32):
Whether you like the show or not, at least
they're making content andthey're making local content and
I think this is reallyimportant.
And this happened with mtvyears ago, where we were mtv
europe.
We're a pan-european networkand suddenly this countries were
like germany.
Right, we were on mtv.
We don't want to play.
We had music from all differenteuropean countries or play on
the same playlist, so thatpeople wanted their own, their
(16:55):
own kind and their own music.
And I think that, with countries, and certainly with the GCC,
saudi's making films now, whichis fantastic.
A friend of mine's produced ahorror movie for Saudi that came
out last year, based on a veryfamous book.
Now Rai Studios is in themarket of producing local
content for the local market,and that could be anywhere, be
(17:16):
arabic, or could be indian, orpakistani, uh, or subcontinent.
So that's a good site.
That, for me, that's just.
That's a great site.
I don't do long form content.
I don't produce long formcontent.
The only we did what we did.
We produced a chinese kid showin shanghai, all in mandarin,
which was amazing, but I thinkfor for blint by bling it's
(17:40):
whether, as I say, whether youlike it or not, it's local
content with local people, localcrew.
They're not bringing flyingloads of people in from the uk
or from the us.
I think that is.
Ian Carless (17:50):
That's a great thing so, speaking of local
content and local crew, you'vebeen in dubai five years now.
Well, yeah, five years back onyeah five years now.
Uh, you have your own companynow.
Whatever entertainment.
Tell us a little bit about that.
What kind of shows are youhoping to do with whatever?
Ean Thorley (18:04):
so whatever was born in 2007 in sydney, uh,
straight out and with with a,with a mission to create big,
big, big events, big shows.
We actually came to Dubai tolaunch the cricket stadium and
then 2008 hit and thatdisappeared.
Generally, we produce a lot ofawards.
(18:25):
We've produced a lot of awardshows around the planet.
We do stuff for Google,whatever now in Dubai.
The GCC is certainly a.
It's probably the last placewhere it's a new frontier, new
opportunities.
So obviously we're doing stuffin Saudi, we're doing stuff here
.
So what we envisage for whatever, we have kind of three main
(18:48):
components.
One is entertainment concerts,award shows, et cetera.
New to us at the moment issport.
So we haven't really done a lotof sport.
We've done.
I mean sport.
We've done.
I've done the cricket in thecaribbean for three years, the
t20 championships.
We did a whole bunch of stuffwith nike.
I did the porsche career cupchampionships in asia, um, but
now we're getting a lot moreinvites from clients to cover
(19:10):
sporting events, um.
And then the other is kind ofmore business business, which is
kind of now we did the Google36 hour live broadcast for their
, for their, their hard drivebusiness, which is called next.
I think that was nice, I wasalive 36 hour show across five
continents.
So so for us, whatever we, thereason we call the name whatever
(19:32):
is a.
We sell it.
We say a lot, but it has twomeanings whatever we can do for
you, we can do if we don't likeyou, whatever.
So that's kind of the, that'skind of the marking of what we
with under the brand whatever.
Um, we've got a new guy onboard, uh, patch khan, who's an
ex broadcast expert, uh v I,senior vice president of
warner's ex warner's sonypictures, and so he's coming on
(19:56):
board as our technical andtechnology director.
Yeah, so we've done some prettygnarly shows since.
Ian Carless (20:04):
How tough a market is it to break into?
Who's your competition?
Ean Thorley (20:08):
Well, actually well , there's a lot of competition.
What we do, our maincompetition, is probably Done
and Dusted or ex-MTV colleaguesof ours competition is probably
done and dusted, or ex mtvcolleagues of ours, um, but in
the region, no, we are.
We're not cheap because we comewith experience, right, and
it's always the same clientswill say, oh well, can you do it
for x?
You're like, well, you're not.
(20:28):
The price point for me is notthe issue.
You're buying, like by 40, 30years of experience, right.
So we generally get recallbecause we we have that
experience, certainly on theshows that are coming up in the
next couple of weeks and months.
The market is tough and peoplealways know we want to budget
(20:48):
for a show and they want to chopit in half, right, so you go,
well, that's fine.
But you have to work out, youhave to sacrifice something
because, no, the money is themoney.
Ian Carless (21:00):
Now, one of the shows I know you did last year
as well was Untold.
Tell us a little bit about that.
Ean Thorley (21:05):
We came across Untold through a personal
connection.
We had a chat with them.
They'd been talking to seriousproduction companies about doing
their broadcast, their livestream, and it was across across
four days, starting at 5 pm andgoing to like 5 am it was.
It was gnarly for us.
It wasn't about making money onthis show.
(21:25):
We.
I love house music, I love edm,I love concerts and it was the
biggest edm festival in in thewhole of dubai, backed by the um
, dubai government or dubai uhtourism.
Ian Carless (21:37):
So I know you were also involved in Expo as well.
Can you talk to me about that?
Ean Thorley (21:42):
Yeah, so I did Expo twice.
So the first time I came out in2020 or 2019, and then that
pandemic thing happened thateveryone got scared about I did
a month's work at Expo.
Ian Carless (21:56):
That short period of time where everybody sat
twiddling their thumbs.
Ean Thorley (21:59):
So we did so.
That was shut down, so the Expowas delayed for a year.
We came back in 2021.
I was the head of productionfor Dubai TV, so my job was to
ensure that I did all the livecontent.
So we were producing, onaverage, 10 live shows a day, so
that would be anything from a.
Every morning we did a nationalday for a country, then there'd
(22:21):
be some another thing that wedid, a talk, and then we'd end
the day with a massive concert.
So but I've done a lot of showsat Expo and I think that's it's
an interesting site thatthey're trying to do.
Ian Carless (22:31):
Where do you see this side of the industry, of
the event industry, going inthis region?
Ean Thorley (22:36):
Well, I think in this region we're quite lucky,
unlike, say, the UK or Asia orAustralia.
You've got competing markets.
So you've got, say, saudi aretrying to take over everything.
Right, sports, qatar are tryingto do it, dubai and Abu Dhabi
are trying to do it.
So you've got this greatcompetition between all these
countries who are trying to getthe customer's dollar or the
(23:00):
tourism.
So there are going to be theselarge-scale events, there are
going to be these opportunitiesto produce content because these
countries need it.
So I think the market is stillstrong.
What these companies are doingnow, or these countries are
doing now, is okay.
If you want our dollars, if youwant our local currency, you
have to have a company in mycountry.
So we've set up Well Ever Livehere in Dubai.
(23:23):
It's a Dubai media company.
We are going to sell up Saudiat some point, but we're just
seeing what the market doesfirst, because everyone's
flocking to Saudi and I thinkwe're just going to hold back
and go and our chairmen are likejust hold back, just let's see
what happens.
Ian Carless (23:37):
Talk to me about talent.
I mean, how easy is it to getthe people that you need in
order to do these shows?
Because I mean, I'd love to beable to sit here and say, all
the talent that we need is onthe ground here in the region
well, some of it, some of it is,but the reality is yes, some of
it is and some of it isn't, soI'm going to take it back.
Ean Thorley (23:55):
Step up, a step back yeah, what we did at mtv
and our job was to go into thesecountries, these cities and
create a new media landscape sothat that's training.
I hate using the word locals,but the, the, the local people
generally young kids coming outof university or some kids who
(24:16):
got some media training or nomedia training.
Ian Carless (24:18):
Which is well.
Yeah, which is exactly what Iwas doing with MTV in the
Philippines, exactly so so we'vefor our whole career.
Ean Thorley (24:25):
We've always been nurturing talent.
We've always been looking anddeveloping that skill set so we
could get kicked out and theywill run their own media network
for their own country, fortheir own nationality.
I think that was what we'veachieved.
Now that's kind of happeningwith us at Whatever, with who
we're, we know who we can hire.
We know we've got fantastic EBSoperators.
(24:46):
We have fantastic VizRToperators, so we're capturing
fantastic vision mixersoperators.
We have fantastic uh viz rtoperators, so capturing um
fantastic vision mixers.
We have fantastic cameramen.
Yeah, we had this one particularcameraman on new year's eve for
the budget for this year orlast year, this year, last year,
uh, who, I was just blown away,um, and the camera team were
amazing this year, I meanabsolutely flawless, yeah.
(25:06):
So what I do when I, when weget asked to do a big, big show,
we'll we'll probably do 50 or60 local crew and then 40 and
it's international,international, which would be
the kind of the heads ofdepartment, head of lighting,
head of uh, or the head ofcameras, head of uh broadcast
truck, um, but generally whatwe're trying to do is bring you
(25:27):
know.
For example, when we were doingCOP28, I was asked to hire all
these people and I'm like, yeah,we've got fantastic people.
We had people coming in fromIndia, we had people coming from
Pakistan.
We had fantastic people who weknow have worked with and were
fantastic.
And then in the end, the clientwent no, no, I'm just going to
bring everyone from the UK.
Ian Carless (25:47):
I'm like, oh, that's so shit, you've got to
develop the local market, whichis a shame, because then there's
not that transfer of knowledge,is there?
No?
Ean Thorley (25:56):
So in terms of managing it, for other
productions, for New Year's Eve,for example, I bring one person
from international.
That's the director.
I do have directors here, butthe client wants to have a big
international name director buteveryone else is local.
Ian Carless (26:14):
Let's talk a little bit about finance and budgets,
just briefly.
I know certainly from both theproduction work I've done in the
past and also now from havingWarehouse for the event venue
clients aren't too happy aboutpaying much upfront.
In fact, there was a certainperiod up until about 2008, 2009
(26:37):
, where we got no depositwhatsoever for any kind of
production, and it was only sortof 2008, 2009, when obviously
the financial crisis andcompanies just didn't have any
money, so clients begrudginglyhad to put up 50%.
So how does a company, likewhatever, manage its cashflow?
How are you getting past thestumbling block here of clients
(27:02):
being reluctant to put too muchmoney up front?
And then not only that, it'sthen the long tail in terms of
often getting paid as well,because 30 days I wish I didn't
have to say this, but in thisregion 30 days is never 30 days.
Ean Thorley (27:16):
Well, we've been very lucky.
So for New Year's Eve we getpaid one month after the event
and we get paid on time.
We used to get paid three daysafter the event, so we've been
quite lucky in that regard.
In terms of the other shows, wewill demand either 100 up front
, 70, 70 or at least 50, butit's structured so 50 on signing
(27:38):
, yeah, 30 on on onpre-production, then show day
the remaining so we we at themoment touch wood.
We've been very, very lucky, weget paid on time or we get paid
in advance.
So, for example, because oursuppliers will go well, we want
100% upfront.
Yeah, absolutely so, forexample, when we went to another
(27:59):
.
If we go to another country,we're taking crew from here and
a kit.
No, we have to come out withinsurance, insurance for the
team and then basically the feeupfront.
But it's a challenge and whenyou're in your own business
there's peaks and troughs ofcash flow always hard.
But I think so far we've beenokay.
Ian Carless (28:17):
So, before we wrap up, I absolutely know that you
love your music.
I mean, both of us cannot workfor MTV without loving our music
.
I love my music.
As you know, I'm now restockingmy vinyl collection.
What's on your playlist?
Ean Thorley (28:31):
So at the moment it ranges and there's three types
of genres I listen to.
Generally, more often than notI listen to it's a podcast
called Deep House Moscow housemusic 90s and 2000s gangster hip
hop.
Okay, and Beethoven's FifthSymphony.
Ian Carless (28:49):
Big discrepancy there.
Ean Thorley (28:50):
So on.
On the day-to-day it's housemusic.
I love house music and if I'min the car I want to get I mean
dr dre, I named my dog snoop dog, right?
So I had this beautiful whitegolden retriever and we called
him snoop, so he goes.
Respect to snoop dog d-o-dG.
Gangsta hip-hop all the way G.
Ian Carless (29:12):
So, finally, what are you looking forward to in
2025?
Personally and professionallyNow, personally, I know you have
a new addition to the family.
Ean Thorley (29:20):
Personally, I have a new addition Number 554 baby
has been born Amira, who wasborn a few days ago.
Congratulations.
Ian Carless (29:28):
To my lovely wife, thank you.
Ean Thorley (29:30):
Amira, who's born a few days ago my lovely wife,
thank you, I think,professionally, what we're
looking at we we are moving intokind of the sporting side.
So we're working with a bigclient at the moment in America
on a sporting, some sportingstuff.
So I think this year probably afew more shows in Saudi and a
few more sporting events as well, with all all the other stuff
(29:50):
that we do as well asentertainment.
But I'm kind of really pushingto do more sport.
Ian, it's a pleasure as always,Always mate, Thank you sir,
thank you for joining me.
Ian Carless (29:59):
Thank you.
Event News DXB was presented bymyself, ian Carlos, the studio
engineer and editor was RoyDeMonte, the executive producer
was myself and Joe Morrison, andthis podcast is a co
-production between Warehouse 4and W4 Podcast Studio Dubai.
And if you haven't done soalready, please do click that
follow or subscribe button.
See you next time.
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