It’s 1:30am, I’m Running on Passion, and Sleep Can Wait (For Now)
Unit Stills Photography by Ioannis Donev, AR Studios 2025. All Rights Reserved, 30 July 2024 - Athens, Greece
It’s 1:30am as I write this — a stupid hour to be banging away at a keyboard, I know. But when you’ve spent the whole bloody day immersed in website tweaks, fixing private investor sections, and preparing urgent documentation for collaborators, the concept of “bedtime” becomes a cruel joke. Sleep, apparently, is for people who don’t have an entire production company to run.
Now, I’m 31 years old. Ten years ago, I’d be diving headfirst into every project that so much as waved at me. But these days? I’m starting to see time as the fine wine of life: you can’t waste it on just anything. I’ve become obsessively careful about what I commission and greenlight because, honestly, who has the patience for mediocrity? Not me. Life’s short, AR Studios’ ambitions are tall, and I’ve got enough on my plate without adding “bad decisions” to the menu.
The photo I’ve attached above is a behind-the-scenes gem from AR Studios’ upcoming KINO Original film, Our Little Act of Rebellion. We shot it in Athens in July 2024, and it was very hot at the time, as you can imagine. We wrapped production at a heroic 1:45am on 31 July 2024. I remember it well: the cast and crew were shattered, their faces showing the tell-tale signs of someone who had just run a marathon (a bit of a silly exaggeration, I looked after my team well!). Me? I was far too excitable to notice, buzzing around like one of those random wild cats you see roaming at midnight on the streets, and I’m pretty sure that annoyed the hell out of my 1st AD (who I deeply admire, by the way). The adrenaline of creation has a way of blocking out fatigue, at least for me — I don’t even tend to eat on my sets, though I’ll admit I learned a lot about the value of sleep (and fresh seafood!) while in Greece.
Before that, I spent seven chaotic weeks in Greece prepping the film. It was a beautiful madness — the kind of madness where you sprint between meetings, fight with printers over script copies, forget where you put your glasses (I still have this issue, so I bought three pairs over christmas), and still manage to be dragged to a bar by your (Greek) crew for “just one drink.” The cast and crew were relentless workers by day and by night. And boy did they love to have fun. They sang, they laughed, they danced, I discovered Alfa beer, and some of them even tried to teach me a Greek move or two, which, let’s just say, Greece is still recovering from.
What stuck with me, though, was their sheer dedication. These people poured their hearts into the film. And that’s why intellectual property — the sacred DNA of everything we create — is so important. Protecting IP isn’t just about studios clinging to their ideas like Gollum with his precious. It’s about respecting the cast and crew who put so much of themselves into these stories. They deserve films that succeed, because if the film succeeds then they succeed, and success starts with ensuring our ideas are realised with the right budgets and teams.
2025, then, is shaping up to be a beast of a year for AR Studios. We’ve got a large-scale feature-length project entering production in the Middle East, and a self-funded TV pilot being developed with a sponsor spanning the UK and Europe this spring alone. These aren’t just projects; they’re adventures — ambitious, complex, and filled with challenges that make you question your sanity (in a good way!). The sheer scope of what’s coming makes my head spin. But that’s exactly why we’re doing them. AR Studios’ small but mighty team is here to tell bold, global stories, and we’re throwing everything we’ve got into making them unforgettable.
So, here’s to the year ahead. To the crew, the cast, and the teams who bring it all together. None of it is possible without a good loyal team, and the team get the ultimate credit here, and always should. Here’s to making every second count because time, like IP, is precious.
And now, as I look at the clock and it’s just gone 2:00am, I’ll leave you with this: sleep is a lot like filmmaking. You need it, you value it, but sometimes if you’re not careful, you might not get it.
Goodnight!
Ranw Aso-Rashid
Founder/CEO
AR Studios
