This short cinematic video captures the PPA – Pakistan Polo Association’s flagship annual event, the National Open Polo Championship for Quaid-e-Azam Gold Cup 2018. The week-long championship was held in March 2018 and boasted an impressive roster of Polo teams with many accomplished international players. This was the first time, Sabeeh Ahmed a young director captured the most prestigious tournament in a visually arresting manner.
Sabeeh calls this video a passion project, one that led his team to pack their bags and land in Lahore, home to Pakistan’s most picturesque polo grounds – The Lahore Polo Club. Working in close collaboration with Pakistan Polo Association, the Khayaal Studios team crafted a thrill-infused showcase of the highs and lows of Pakistan National Polo.
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“Polo is a remarkable game of skill, speed, finesse and raw power”, according to Sabeeh, “and to do justice to the sport and capture its spectacular beauty, we used high frame rate cameras and telephoto lenses. Although we very much wished to use drones to capture a swooping bird’s eye view of the matches, security restrictions kept us from that. We can do that, perhaps, in next year’s tournament!”
“Filmmakers today can contribute immensely to sports culture” he adds, “With better representation, sporting events and teams can garner a larger audience and sponsorships, and bring improvements to how the games are played. Filmmakers, on the other hand, can find the most compelling narratives in sports – the back story of the teams, the players that comprise these teams, the titans, the underdogs, the fans, and the lore that surrounds a game!”
Sabeeh of Khayaal studios has previous experience of making sports related videos. The first major challenge came up 2014, when Khayaal Studios produced for Pakistan Cricket Board a 15-minute documentary – the Homecoming, on the return of international cricket to Pakistan.
Khayaal Studios led by Sabeeh Ahmad, a filmmaker who since graduating from LUMS has worked in film and advertising before founding his own company and dedicating himself to telling “stories that matter”. Prior to starting Khayaal Studios, Sabeeh Ahmad has also produced and directed a 90 minute film feature-length independent film.
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