THE FOUNDING OF AN AMATEUR FILM MAKER
For many years, I’ve always been attracted to photography and film-making. It all started by accident since my father was a photographer. He was in photography for business. This is a practice where you take people’s pictures, print them on photographic paper and get paid. That is what triggered me to become an a film maker.
Digital forms of storage were non-existent! Selfies were only in science fiction movies. This was the time when the only type of mobile phones were walk-talkies used by the military and policemen as they patrol the streets in movies.
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The only type of telephony were landlines and they were only found in urban areas. The telephone booths were located only on major streets where people used to go and queue to get a chance to call offices and relatives in towns or abroad.
One day, I’d access to my father’s photography equipment. Camera. This was a defining moment for me. I wanted to discover everything about it. I opened it, one part at a time.
The section which holds batteries was fine. Then I opened the film compartment. Fatal mistake! The Kodak film was not to be exposed to sunlight. I did that unknowingly. To make matters worse, I unrolled the film to see what it contained. It became a pile on the ground. Returning it to the original form became a nightmare.
I decide to abort the project and hide the destroyed film where it won’t be found. I quickly put it together and hide it a spare room which had no window. It was dark inside so I expected that one will ever find it. It was terrible. For me I had satisfied my curiosity but for my father it was bad business.
I never knew what happened between him and his customers. One day I will ask him what transpired. But I guess they were bitter for losing their good memories which were stored in that unprocessed film.
During those times, family photos were highly treasured. I remember every family in our village had a huge album where photos which told the family’s story were kept. In most cases the pictures were kept under lock and key to avoid them being smuggled by visitors or family members.
Lovers also used to take photos as a form of documenting the progress of their relationship or for posterity! Importance of photographs lingered on up to the time when I was in high school. Nearly, every student in our school had an album. Most albums contained photos of family members and behind some of the photos were pictures of their girlfriend/s.
Now I’m a grown up man. Things have real changed. We are in the digital era where we do not need an album. Most people who are tech savvy do not print pictures. That notwithstanding, there is one constant love for taking pictures with friends and family. There are different forms of storage for photos. Phone internal memory storage, cloud storage, memory sticks, CDs, DVDs among others.
When I graduated from university I had taken a number of photos. I never printed even one. They are all in my Dropbox or Google Drive. These are forms of cloud storage. I can access to these photos anytime and from anywhere so long as there is internet. This means that I do not have to be moving around with a bulky album. It’s beautiful, convenient and efficient. Unlike in the past, I can share the pictures with as many people as possible. They are never depleted. That is the wonderful of having digital copies. It only involves clicking on the share button and there are many options.
How did I start Film making?
Current I take pictures and make films out of passion. I’m not a professional film-maker, I am an economist by training and practice. Ideologically I consider myself a global citizen. Widely traveled in thought and a defender of people’s rights. I love photography and film-making. Whenever I travel I take nice videos and photos to share with friends and enrich my stories.
I have also been sharing these videos on YouTube. In this, I was inspired by Casey Neistat. He is a YouTube sensation. Makes viral videos. He dropped out of high school and started working to support his pregnant girlfriend and child one he was born. He has been in the film-making industry for over a decade now. He has document his life and that of his family to the letter. I was particular inspired with the fact that having a powerful camera does not make you a great film-maker. Story-telling does. Basically, that means that you can even use your mobile phone and become a great film-maker! This is the straw that broke the camera’s back.
Since learning that secret, I’ve been making short videos for my YouTube channel (Geoffrey Kerosi) and I hope to continue doing this for many years to come.
What is the subject of my films?
I make films covering my work as a public finance and policy analyst. This is my way of telling stories of how policy and public finance affects the people who pay taxes and make a call-to-action. Mostly, I ask taxpayers to get more involved in the management of their money (taxes) on the other hand I urge the government to be more transparent. I interview people to get their point of view on finance and policy matters. I try to introduce satire or humor to make the videos attractive to a wider audience.
Secondly, I make travel vlogs as an amateur film maker. That is videos about my travels around the country and elsewhere. The nice things I see on my way and other entertaining videos.
He is one the videos I made recently on my travel to Mombasa City:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6c7w4Mu5m-4
My equipment
In order to produce quality work for my viewers I’ve invested in a number of equipment. I use a Nikon D320, a video light, a tripod stand, an external microphone for quality sound and a Joby flexible tripod for personal video blogging. The latter has a ball-joint head which makes my work easier to move my camera to any desired direction to get a perfect shot.
Editing videos is where the story develops and redefines whether you are successful or not. I use my personal HP Laptop with VSDC Free Video Editor. This is my complete editing suite. I can’t claim to be an expert video editor but my skills are improving every day. I believe in the fact that practice makes perfect!
Future Plans
I’ve plans to establish a web-based TV that covers different topics: Sports, entertainment, education, politics, travel, science, technology, agriculture, business and finance. This will require a full-fledged studio and staff. That time will come. One fine day. I may also lose the tag amateur film maker.
Now that you are here, please get in touch with me on Twitter @gkerosi, leave comments below or email: geoffrey.kerosi@gmail.com.
