Sasha Vybz is a cinematographer popularly known for his art in music videos. Film is something that that he grew up with and he finds it big being part of a team that visually tells a story.
He defines a cinematographer as a visual storyteller who reads a script and puts the story in a visual form using cameras. It involves telling a story that no one can tell. If it’s a jib or drone shot you have to tell your story in a jib or drone shot.
He says the Ugandan film industry has come a long way but it needs to take more big steps. Currently, you can’t find a local movie making out financially or premiering in Hollywood. The industry needs a more technical team, finances, people educated about film making and more government support.
Sasha has worked on several projects mainly music videos for Ugandan artistes in which he incorporates the art of movie story telling. With such creativity he is able to tell a story and influence the society which he considers this to be a great achievement.
Being an artistic person, Sasha is challenged with the government’s banning of drones yet drone shots are on the trend. Other challenges include restrictions on what to shoot, finances and poor structure of the film industry in terms of piracy. To mitigate such challenges government support is needed, more investment in the film industry is needed and people should accept the Ugandan filmmakers and stories.
In his opinion, mitigation of such challenges will save more people from unemployment since the industry has a lot of untapped opportunities like producers, goffers, makeup artists etc.
Currently, western films dominate the biggest percentage of the Ugandan market, in order to increase local consumption, it’s the filmmakers’ job to either upgrade on their books or invest more in film making i.e. equipment, lighting since we are competing with the western side.
Sasha advises fellow filmmakers to shoot staff daily and learn from their mistakes and improve on their work. Film making is a gradual growth which requires art, passion, and love for the game, money comes as a bonus.

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