A Creator Who Improvises, and a Track That Moved Before We Did.

Shady Abu Zaid works off instinct. يرتجل. Which is exactly why the format works, and exactly why someone else has to hold the through-line before he starts.

I produced the series, developed with Shady and Marwan Tarek, who co-directed it together. I found the people who would carry each episode, sat with them before the cameras rolled, and shaped the questions that got us somewhere real. Four days, a three-person crew, with Marwan Tarek and Mostafa Othman on camera.

The decision

Turn the assumption inside out rather than confirming it.

The angle came out of a gaming event: play with what people assume about gamers and cosplayers, then invert it. The alternative was the easy version, which is to film the subculture as a curiosity and let the audience feel superior. That version gets views and costs the people in it something.

Platforms

The other half of this is knowing when not to lead.

El Waili’s track “2010” trended organically on TikTok without any campaign behind it. Rather than launch something on top of it, I built on what the platform had already decided, partnering with TikTok’s regional music team on timely creative assets while the moment was live, and later collaborating with TikTok on live events in Cairo.

Four episodes, one three-person crew, and a track that told us what to do rather than the other way round.