Omar Kassem BIO
I’m a Passionate Multitalented Filmmaker. Worked as TV producer, Creative Director and Film Director. I have more than 20 years experience in the Entertainment and Media Industry. My vast exposure in the field of advertising in addition to my diverse experience in Television content creation enabled me to master the art and workflow needed for Developing, branding and promoting a wide range of TV genres.
I started as an account planner in 1993 and was a junior in the strategy and business development team in TN communications. I moved to DDB (part of TN holdings) in 1995 where i was responsible for the Henkel portfolio in Egypt Launching brands such as Fa cosmetics, Persil HS detergents, General APC, Bac and Schwarzkopf. The experience with Henkel and working with DDB Dusseldorf gave me the corporate and international exposure to understand how Big brands plan operate and work based on insights.
In 1999 was a major shift in my career as I joined Bates Equity Cairo as a managing partner and a creative director. Bates Equity was one of the most upcoming creative boutiques in Egypt, specialised in brand building. Through my 10 years journey I was able to move up in the creative department to become the Executive Creative Director, building a strong creative team Overlook all film production projects acting as Agency Producer. Campaigns included Print and TV ads such as Fayrouz malt beverage, Telecom Egypt, KFC, Pizza Hut and many CSR award winning campaigns.
In 2009 I started my own Production company “O Production”. My fascination started with how the industry was changing, at the time Digital cinema was unheard of in Egypt so i decided to introduce Red Digital Cinema to the Egyptian Market and had a fully fledge production company and post facility equipped with Autodesk Lustre dedicated to servicing this Market. I provided a variety of production & post services for agencies from all around the world such as Cairo, Beirut Dubai, Los Angeles, Milano, Munich, Sudan. I also managed post production workflows for TV series and Tv shows.
In addition I directed consumer Behaviour campaigns such as:
Anti corruption campaign Egypt 2015 – UNODC (Idea Development, Directing & Producing) – Egypt Election 2013 – UNDP (Idea Development, Directing & Producing) – Iraq Anti terrorism campaign – BPG (Directing & Producing) – Family Violence – UNDP (Idea Development, Directing & Producing) – Egypt Anti Drugs campaign – Ministry of social solidarity (Idea Development, Directing & Producing)
By 2014 I ventured into TV content creation, from supervising the writing and execution process to negotiating with TV channels. My work also included shows branding , packaging and promo production. My first project was in collaboration with Big Productions where I was the Co-executive producer on a show called “Oxygen” for Abou Dhabi TV – Medical lifestyle show – 30 episodes . Then I produced “Mid Night Gov” CBC Egypt – Political late night show – 50 episodes. in 2015 I produced “Big show” for CBC Egypt – Late night weekly comedy show – one season.
Today, after 20 years in the business, I look forward to embark on a new Journey of Filmmaking exploring new ventures and cooperations for features, mini series and more of what I’m good at.