Visualising moving pictures, images and scenes alongside music is something familiar to us. However, one Bruneian took a step further with his visualisations; working his creative mind together with his hands, his imagination births his passion for videography. What started as merely a small hobby for Muiz Ali where he created videos for his family, soon became a side hustle in this age of fast sharing and exposure on social media. With a click of a button, or a touch on a screen, he starts his career as a videographer.
Muiz Ali takes inspiration from Robert Rodriguez; he shoots, edits, visualize, and conceptualize all by himself. Truly Mariachi-style. Although he does admit that occasionally, his brother helps with the lighting and sound for his videos.
Within the one year since Muiz Ali started his career as a videographer with no specific criteria, he had created various types of videos including travel videos, interviews, short documentaries, promotional videos, as well as event coverages such as weddings and birthdays. “I’m basically open to anything, even if it’s something different and new. I’ll do my best to deliver their [clients] expectations”, explains the videographer. He elaborates further that, “when Creative Space Brunei approached me, it was an automatic yes. I was very interested in creating something new and working with these amazing artists. Learning and working with them was such a satisfying creative experience. It also inspired me to adapt new artistic styles in my videos.”
The life of a videographer, however, isn’t always as sunny and bright as in the videos he shot. Curious on the behind-the-scenes of his videography, he reveals that, “personally, the challenge is that it takes so much of my time. I have to always prioritize time with my family and also my day job but at the same time keeping up with client expectations.” However, he manages to win his fight with time by turning it into one of things that drives him in his world of cameras. “Time […] is more valuable than money. So if I have to give up my time, it has to be at least for something that I love doing. And if I get paid doing it, that’ll be ideal. Hence I started this business. The driving force in this industry for me is social media and the online videography community. You get to easily learn from these professional filmmakers with online tutorials on YouTube and etc.” Muiz Ali also remarks that the other thing that keeps him going in his line of work despite all the challenges he faced is this:
“Remembering that we are only in this world for a short while and I prefer to do something that I love. That way you put your heart and soul into it and for me, that’s the key to success.”
He has done previous collaborations with analog photography enthusiast Shutterprone.bn and also a Polaroid film enthusiast Wallatlarge. In his collaboration with Creative Space Art Gallery and Studio for the current exhibition EMERGE 5: FOLKLORE, Muiz Ali produced three interview videos of three artists involved in the exhibition.
Aspiring to direct a full feature film in the future, Muiz is currently working his way with the practice and is still open to any enquiries and interesting projects.
Contact him or watch his videos on his social media;
Instagram: @muizaliy
Facebook: Muiz Ali