Behind the Scenes footage from TNC PT 2

Bismillah ar-Rahmaan ar-Raheem,

In this snippet, you will see five clips:

Everyone was tired from staying up late shooting the movie from the night before except Rami with his powdered donut

Behind the Scenes Camera man, Hesam

Michael Jackson impersonation, Hussien

The Need for sleep, Adnan and Hesam discussing it @ 2am

Baba Ali's take on TNC

Jazakum Allah for your support.

"Ask Baba Ali" (New Video Intro)

Bismillah ar-Rahmaan ar-Raheem,

I'm put together a video intro for the new Ask Baba Ali show. The season starts Feb 1st 2008 and if the show takes off, then I will try to make the videos on a consistent basis InshAllah.

Pre-Production: The Vital Catalyst

Bismillah ar-Rahmaan ar-Raheem,

Assalam-u-alaikum (Peace be upon you),
cat·a·lyst : someone or something that helps bring about a change
This post is to backup a little bit and "start from the beginning."

There is a saying that goes something like "A journey of a thousand miles starts with one step!" This most definitely holds true to this day.
These days, it is very easy to find the basic equipment to make movies in order to tell your story. Just like, today, there is all the information you need at your fingertips to accomplish whatever you want. You obviously need motivation to make you do something. So, if you want to accomplish something, start now, open a text file on your computer right now, and write some ideas down, or grab your camcorder and shoot something, or sign up for a blog and document something awesome..Just DO SOMETHING! Many people nowadays would love to do something, or should I say, they love the idea of doing something. That first step is never easy, but someone has to take it. It might as well be you.

Enough lecturing, wow, now back to Pre-Production: The Vital Catalyst. As I have just explained, you need a first step, and that first step in making a movie is commonly called, Pre-Production. This could involve doing many things. Like, just shooting some clips and worrying about the rest later. But most of the time, it involves writing a script and getting a producer. For Tomorrow Never Comes film, UmmahFilms wanted to do this right. Therefore they wrote a script and got some more experienced individuals (check archives on that), to help them get the script up to par. From there, the blog was advertised to entice people to jump on board, which allowed people to come on, and helped in making this thing happens. The producer was already designated since UmmahFilms had the person who would be "in-charge". But they truly wanted to get as much experience on the team as possible so they kept searching and attempting to get things together. After a while, an undisclosed number of months, UmmahFilms got enough motivated individuals to put this project on the fast track. This was done with patience, believing in the project and continually working on getting the right team together. Meetings were setup weekly, on Sundays and most aspects of Production and Post-Production were discussed. For instance, location of the shoot is very important, so options for that were laid out and discussed, etc. After things settled, the script was analyzed and a Production schedule was made. The date of Production was ready to be set. Setting the date allowed the team to move forward and detail even further who, how, and when people would get together, and how and when this movie would be shot. The Producer is the person who is responsible of ensuring most of this to be happen. A director (or two) is/are usually brought on early stages in Pre-Production as well to layout how the movie should be shot, which constrains the Production Schedule. This sums up in a "big" nutshell how UmmahFilms got through the first and most vital stage in making a movie.

Takeaways:

• Pre-Production is The Vital Catalyst to making a movie.
• The only reason of anything to be happened is because of the first step (action!) It should be taken to achieve the goal, of making this movie, real.
• Subscribe to this blog so you can see how we progress :)
• Take that first step, and start your "Pre-Production" today.

"Ask Baba Ali' Show debuts 02-01-08

Bismillah ar-Rahmaan ar-Raheem,

The new "Ask Baba Ali" show will be premiering on Friday, February 1st, 2008 InshAllah

As the Reminder series became more and more popular, we started get more and more emails from viewers asking for advice on various situations. We couldn't answer many of the fiqhy questions (since those are best answers by scholars), but we did try to help with our advice of various situations based on our limited knowledge.

Many of these questions are the type of questions you would ask your friends. For example, the question for our first show which debuts 2/1/08, is "How do i get out of going to the office Xmas party...without making everyone think im a living ebeneezer scrooge?". As many of you know, many of the outside office parties deal with alcohol and other haram activities so its best to avoid such situations. Being that many Muslims work in the office environment, I thought this would be a good question to talk about for the first show.

Anyways, the show is just an experiment (just like the Reminder) so if you audience picks up on it, then I'll continue making them InshAllah

I'm having Iman Studios build the site for the new show InshAllah. For the time being, I just put up a temporary page where people can submit their questions

Ummahfilms DVDs & T-shirts at TDC

Bismillah ar-Rahmaan ar-Raheem,

I have few copies of the Reminder series & some ummahfilms T-Shirts. This will be a good Eid gift. Brother SaadImam from Dawahworks will be selling those DVDs & T-shirts for a special price. His location at the Texas Dawah Convention's Bazaar is Booth # 9. For more information check The 6th annual Texas Dawah Convention: Family in Focus

The 6th annual Texas Dawah Convention: Family in Focus
Friday, December 21, 2007
Monday, December 24, 2007
George R. Brown Convention Center
1001 Avenida de las Americas
Houston, TX

Eid Mubarak Everyone!

Bismillah ar-Rahmaan ar-Raheem,

In this month, on the day of Arafat, the Prophet (saw) gave his farewell sermon saying "All mankind is from Adam and Eve, an Arab has no superiority over a non-Arab nor a non-Arab has any superiority over an Arab; also a white has no superiority over black nor a black has any superiority over white except by piety and good action. Learn that every Muslim is a brother to every Muslim and that the Muslims constitute one brotherhood......"

We wish all of the hujjaj, Hajj Mabrour! We pray Allah (swt) accepts the fast of all our brothers and sisters who fasted on the day of Arafat.

Eid-Ul Adha is on Wednesday December 19, 2007. We wish all the Ummah, Eid Mubarak & we pray that Allah (swt) ends this disunity and division that plagues us. We pray Allah (swt) to remove the disease of nationalism and every other type of sectarianism. Ameen.

Ummah Films Blog wins "Best Multimedia Blog" Award (Brass Crescent)

Bismillah ar-Rahmaan ar-Raheem,

I just got a phone call this morning that the Ummah Films blog won the Brass Crescent Award for the "Best Multimedia Blog". Alhamdulillah.

I just wanted to say JazakAllah khair for all those who have contributed

More Reminder style videos

Bismillah ar-Rahmaan ar-Raheem,

When I record the videos, I'm alone. I just press the record button and sit down. I tried recording the pilot for Ask Baba Ali show last weekend and my lighting was terrible. Unfortunatley, I figurd this out when it was too late so I can't use the footage. Today, I'm going to give it another try and see if it works InshAllah.

In the meant time, here are some more Reminder style videos that I came across on the web. I'm sure once they sat down and did it, they realized how much time is involved in putting just a few minute video together. JazakAllah khair HappyHijabi for the video link.

Baba Ali Impersonator? (watch video)

Bismillah ar-Rahmaan ar-Raheem,

I was looking for something on the web and I accidentally came across a video called "Hrama Police". Yeah I know, it looks very similar to the title for my Season 2 video, "Haram Police" so I clicked on it to check it out. It was kinda hard trying to figure out what was going on since it was in french but soon I realized that this was a Baba Ali impersonation...haha. I was like "is that me?" haha...cool

Anyways, here is the video they made:

Hrama police lol
Uploaded by Ju-Jitsu4ever

and for those who haven't seen the original Haram Police video, here it is:

Behind the Scenes footage from TNC PT 1

Bismillah ar-Rahmaan ar-Raheem,

Here is some of the Behind of Scenes footage from the upcoming short from Ummah Films first short, Tomorrow Never Comes

In this snippet, you will see four clips. Three of which are from the first night of shooting; preparing for the scene with some guidance from Adnan (Director), then shots from the set itself with some lighting and crazy camera stuff. The fourth clip is from one of the last scenes we shot, the basketball scene. Here you will see Kashif (The lead actor), after horribly missing a shot, making three in a row. And then a random occurrence at the end. Enjoy!!

Ummah Films - Season 3 (Topics from YOU!)

Bismillah ar-Rahmaan ar-Raheem,

I often get asked how long it takes to my one Reminder video. So here it is!

Often times it take about 10 to 15 hours to put something together (yeah its tougher than it looks). "Hey Ali, all you do is just jump around in the videos"..."oh yes young grasshopper..if it was just that easy"

I’m not a writer or actor by any means so I can't “act” or “write about a random subject” on demand but rather I’ve been doing the videos by just being me and telling the viewers my thoughts of random subjects. I think the fact that I’m alone when I write, film, and edit the videos helps me to even more myself (that’s why you see me acting silly sometimes). Anyways, I live near a busy street so they only way I can film peacefully (least amount of noise) is at night so yeah, that’s why I look so tired in my videos. Its 2am people! Haha!

Ever since the videos have become popular, I have found myself traveling so much on my free time that I have had to delay the Reminder series again and again (currently scheduled for March 2008). Even then, I’m already getting booked for events in March, April, and even as far as August. Its crazy. Sometimes I miss doing the videos and I really want to get back to doing them so I have come up with a solution:

1. For the first two Seasons, the topics were based on subjects that wear dear to me and Alhamdulillah I got the opportunity to get plenty of topics off my chest. Now, I’m turning the table and making the series more interactive. The topics will now be based on viewer’s questions (send your questions to ask@ummahfilims.com and I try to answer at least one of the questions for each video). Note: I am not a scholar so please don’t send me any fiqh questions (in other words, i'm not answering questions about what is halal/haram in Islam unless it its universally known...which is like everyone and their mama knows....you know what i'm sayin'?)

2. I’m changing the name of the series to Ask Baba Ali InshAllah since the format of the show has changed. Don’t worry, its still the Reminder style which is basically random anyways so …uh…yeah…

3. Instead of having long 9min videos, I cutting down the video to 3 minutes. This will make it easier to put the videos together and allow me to make more videos more frequently InshAllah (did u know the last video was released back in July...dude that's like 6 months ago!...i know..i know..).

4. I’m opening the doors for sponsorships so that each video can be sponsored InshAllah. Ummah Films is growing and we want to make more projects and those projects will need funding. Since help and equipment isn’t always free, we will need to get some funds to put get the ball rolling on more projects InshAllah (going to best buy and telling them to give me a camera with a Fisibilillah Discount is going to get me but a funny look…especially if he’s a non-Muslim)

The goal is to come out more videos on a consistent basis InshAllah. If you have watched the series from Day 1, you will have notice changes as this entire experience has been nothing but a huge learning process for us. We are not different than any of the viewers watching and this whole film thing is brand new to many of us. Ummah Films started as just an idea and a blog. Alhamdulillah the idea has become something tangible and the blog has kept a record of our adventure since Day 1. I really hope it inspires others to make a positive difference because if we can do it…you can it!

The return of the blog

Bismillah ar-Rahmaan ar-Raheem,

Since Season 2 of the Reminder season has ended the blog has been kinda of dead. The fact that I’m gone almost every weekend doing events has a lot to do. Also, it has left a large time gap between Season 2 & 3.

The goal with Ummah Films was not to just make the Reminder series, which came kind of up by accident but rather to make a wide variety of films/videos. Alhamdulillah, recently we have crossed the bridge and have moved onto what maybe our first completed short film. A few weeks ago, a group of brothers who traveled from all over the US, came together to film the movie Tomorrow Never Comes. Now the Ummah Films team has grown to beyond just brothers (yeah sisters are helping out too) and InshAllah Ummah Films will continue to grow.

We started side blogs for these side projects and all the new posts have been posted on only those blogs (which is the reason while the Ummah Films looks kinda dead but in reality it has been very active). So for now on, we’re going to keep everyone in the loop of what’s going on with all the projects by double posting InshAllah (once on the UF blog and once in that specific project blog). If you are interested in just one specific project, you can subscribe to that and if you’re interested in all of the UF projects, you can stay subscribed to this blog. I hope that makes sense.

Until now, we've been volunteering and relying on volunteers to get stuff done and it has been very tough because this dunya isn't free. My goal is to raise funds so I can get bigger projects done InshAllah and so I won't have to rely on people volunteering their time on projects, which means that I have to more funding methods than just selling DVDs and UF shirts. Thus, I’m hoping to move Ummah Films to next level so we can afford the funding and proper equipment to make films InshAllah. I really want UF to get to a point that it won’t need assistance by just volunteers InshAllah. Is sounds tough because it is. I think if we put in the effort and have the right intention, it is possible InshAllah.

New Ummmah Films series: "Ask Baba Ali"

Bismillah ar-Rahmaan ar-Raheem,

Whenever I go to an event, I often get the "Hey bro, I know you but you don't know me" comment and then we both smile :) It’s weird because viewers know me and my personality through the videos (yeah that’s really me) but I don’t really don’t know them until I meet them in person. In the process of the show becoming popular, we started to get more and more emails from viewers asking for advice on various issues. Maybe there asking me because they feel comfortable with me or maybe its because of what I said above (they know me but I don’t know them), which for some people makes it easier because there is no history between us and they’re pretty much anonymous. Honestly, I don’t know exactly what it is but what I do know is that we get lots of emails from viewers asking advise. And then it hit me…why not make a new videos series based on this concept? You know what I’m sayin’ :)

We’ll call the show Ask Baba Ali. It’s kind of like the Reminder series but it’s interactive because the questions comes from the viewers. Will this idea work? I have no idea. The success isn’t in our hands. All we can do is put in the effort and rest is in the hands of Allah (swt).

Since I’m not a scholar nor will I pretend to be one, I kindly ask you not to send me any fiqhy questions. These series is more like friendly advise videos InshAllah. Oh yeah, one more thing, please try to keep the questions short so it doesn't become a "question reading video" if you know what I mean

If you got a question you want to be submitted for the show, just email
ask@ummahfilms.com

To keep things consistent, please use this format:

Nickname:
City:
Question

Ummah Films finally making films? Yeah!!

Bismillah ar-Rahmaan ar-Raheem,

For all those who don't know about the script that started Ummah Films, make sure you check out the Tomorrow Never Comes blog. Amazing enough, a team of people have been meeting and planning this film for many months now and just a few weeks ago, they finished filming the movie that Br. Sammy and I wrote over a year ago. Now the film is in the editing stage and once post production is completed, it will be posted up on the blog for all the Ummah Films viewers to see InshAllah.

Although this blog isn't as active as it has been in the past because we're between seasons (yeah Season 3 is coming in March) but the Tomorrow Never Comes has had plenty of progress and updates. Actually, if you're a subscriber to that blog, you're probably receiving the updates.

If you're interested in Ummah Films and you're not subscribed to the Tomorrow Never Comes blog, make sure you subscribe to Tomorrow Never Comes InshAllah. If you've been out of the loop, make sure to check out the TNC blog.