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Views: 0 Author: By Phida Lighting Publish Time: 2026-08-12 Origin: Phida China
On August 11, Once Upon a Time in the Middle East, directed by Muye Wen, produced by Hao Ning, starring Teng Shen, Qiming Jiang, Omar Sharif, with a special appearance by Aarif Rahman, officially premiered nationwide in China.
The film is Muye Wen's first feature specially produced for the IMAX format. During preview screenings, it received audience scores of 9.7 on Maoyan and 9.8 on Taopiaopiao, setting the highest preview-screening ratings among Chinese theatrical releases in the past three years. As of publication, combined preview and presale box office revenue had exceeded RMB 100 million, demonstrating exceptional audience reception and strong market anticipation.
[Official Poster]
[Taopiaopiao Preview Rating Poster – 9.8 (as of August 8)]
Once Upon a Time in the Middle East follows Xu Fu, a debt-ridden chef from Northeast China who travels to the Middle East to run a Chinese restaurant. When armed conflict shatters the peaceful life he has built, he finds himself protecting refugee children amid the chaos of war. Blending everyday humanity with the realities of conflict, the film moves seamlessly between intimate character moments and large-scale wartime scenes.
[Ensemble Character Poster]
[End Credits – Technical Support: PHIDA]
Behind every cinematic image is the pursuit of perfection—not only by the filmmakers, but also by the technical partners working behind the scenes.
For Once Upon a Time in the Middle East, the restaurant and Middle Eastern town sets were constructed as full-scale practical environments inside the Qingdao Oriental Movie Metropolis studios, while additional location filming took place in Morocco.
The production features numerous explosion sequences, flying debris, smoke effects, and frequent transitions between day and night interiors and exteriors. These demanding shooting conditions required exceptional lighting consistency, reliable performance, and robust equipment capable of operating under continuous high-intensity production schedules.
[Behind-the-scenes Photo – Middle Eastern Street Set]
[Restaurant Interior Still]
As one of the film's technical support partners, PHIDA supplied its PHIDA 1700 Framing Moving Head fixtures through rental partner Galaxy Starlight, while PHIDA's technical team worked alongside the production lighting crew throughout filming, providing comprehensive on-site technical support.
[PHIDA 1700 Delivery Photo]
[Concept Poster – Lion Dance Amid Explosions]
A war film is one of the toughest testing grounds for professional lighting equipment.
With repeated explosions, night battles, alleyway action sequences, and constant location changes, the production demanded equipment capable of maintaining stable performance under extreme conditions. Throughout the project, the PHIDA 1700 Framing Moving Head and other PHIDA fixtures demonstrated four key strengths.
Every controlled explosion generates shockwaves, flying debris, and intense vibration.
Designed with structural durability as a priority, PHIDA fixtures feature reinforced housings, securely mounted optical assemblies, and dual-safety rigging systems. Even after repeated close-range blast effects, the fixtures maintained beam alignment, focus accuracy, and structural stability—proving their reliability under real production conditions.
Explosion scenes create dense dust and airborne particles that can compromise lighting equipment.
PHIDA's cooling and sealing design balances efficient heat dissipation with effective dust protection. Even during extended operation at full output, fixtures maintained consistent brightness, stable color temperature, and reliable optical performance.
Control signals also remained stable in challenging environments filled with smoke, dust, and complex electrical systems, ensuring uninterrupted operation during demanding shooting schedules.
The film shifts constantly between warm restaurant interiors and cold, war-torn streets.
Lighting needed to transform instantly alongside the narrative.
Thanks to its high-speed positioning system and precise framing engine, the PHIDA 1700 allows rapid switching of colors, gobos, beam shaping, and framing effects with exceptional accuracy.
Preset lighting looks could be recalled immediately, minimizing reset time and enabling the crew to maintain a fast shooting pace. Whether filming the main scene during the day or pickup shots after midnight, lighting consistency remained highly repeatable.
War films often require far more frequent company moves than conventional productions.
Designed with compact construction, standardized flight cases, and quick-rig mounting systems, PHIDA fixtures can be transported, rigged, positioned, and commissioned efficiently.
As one scene wrapped, the lighting setup for the next location could already be in place—helping maximize valuable production time.
[PHIDA Technicians Supporting Location Change]
Behind these four strengths lies no marketing gimmick—only solid engineering in structure, protection, control systems, and operational efficiency.
[PHIDA 1700 Lighting Demonstration]
[Studio Catwalk Rigging Environment]
As an IMAX-formatted production, the film utilizes IMAX's expanded aspect ratio, revealing approximately 26% more image area on screen.
This places significantly higher demands on both set construction and lighting design. Every corner of the frame—including the upper and lower image boundaries—must remain visually complete, requiring uniform ambient illumination while preserving precise key lighting for close-up performances.
Working closely with the production team, PHIDA developed a customized overhead lighting solution.
High-output fixtures were distributed across the studio catwalk system to provide even coverage throughout the set, while adjustable color temperatures enabled seamless transitions between the warm atmosphere of the restaurant and the cold tones of war-torn streets—all within the same soundstage.
[Blue Screen Stage Rigging]
[PHIDA Technician Adjusting Lighting On Set]
The film features numerous close-up shots of Chinese cuisine and emotional character performances, placing high demands on color accuracy.
The vibrant appearance of chili oil, the natural colors of fresh ingredients, and subtle skin tones all needed faithful reproduction. Soft, controlled lighting also helped reduce harsh facial shadows, enhancing emotional storytelling on screen.
[Cooking Scene]
[Character Close-up]
PHIDA's high-CRI LED lighting system delivers accurate color reproduction with flicker-free, low-noise performance, meeting the demanding requirements of theatrical feature production, including long takes and synchronized sound recording.
By capturing cleaner images during production, the lighting workflow also provides greater flexibility for post-production color grading.
Throughout filming, PHIDA technicians remained on site to provide full technical assistance.
From equipment delivery and truss installation to fixture commissioning, maintenance, and rapid relocation between sets, PHIDA supported every stage of production—helping the crew maintain efficiency through continuous day-and-night shooting schedules and fast-paced scene transitions.
[Lighting Adjustment On Set]
[PHIDA 1700 Display & Delivery Ceremony]
From manufacturing in Foshan to supporting production on an IMAX-scale soundstage at Qingdao Oriental Movie Metropolis, PHIDA believes that outstanding images begin with dependable technology.
Looking ahead, PHIDA will continue advancing professional lighting solutions for film and television production, empowering filmmakers with reliable, high-performance equipment—and helping bring more compelling stories to audiences around the world.
See you at the cinema for Once Upon a Time in the Middle East.
