Nforche Gerald is a 26 years old Cameroonian Video Director who Hails from Bamendankwe, Bamenda in the North West Region of Cameroon. Since Primary School Gerald had the love for  arts,  and was already drawing pictures and cartoons  at his very youthful age. Amougst drawing were  also  reading habits as he developed much love for literature by reading novels, like Snow White. “Though my dad and headmaster werent in support of me ruining my books with these drawings, i still persisted; it was like madness in me, and i could not stop. i was flogged several times, my parents not really grasping what was really happening“. Some years later he went  to GBHS Bamendankwe for his secondary education. Though a rascal, he was respected by the school authorities because of those gifts they saw in him, he was consulted to write plays for the school and to represent the school in seminars on youth leadership. Already a famed cartoonist in school, he became something like a School celebrity.

At this time, each time he watched music videos on TV, he would watch with undivided attention, while trying to understand each shot, each movement of the camera and what the director was trying to pass across through the video. These videos, especially those from America left me in awe. Gerald’s  mind was very inquisitive, he wanted to know everything. He wanted to know the reasons behind everything, know how everything functioned. Like my dad who was an avid reader, his  reading zeal tripled and he was then redoing books like he was eating them. Later on in 2007, he stated  reading books on VIDEO PRODUCTION  without ever having held a camera in his hands. And from this book, the foundation of Telling stories through moving images was laid in him.

After High School Gerald decided to Continue with his studies to the University where he read FRENCH, LITERATURE and HISTORY. And  Gerald was not School kind of kid, he really wasnt interested in it, because he felt that he  was in the wrong place.  On the otherhand Gerald would have loved to attend an arts school or a school for children with special gifts because he saw that he had alot in him that he  wanted to enhance, but couldn’t. So  he became a rascal and stayed out of classes many times to the anxieties of friends and teachers. His  family and fiends had thought he would study PLASTIC ARTS, but upon arriving at the university, and seeing the environment in which PLASTIC ARTS existed, he refused to pursue that.

While in the university  Gerald was a writer and Publisher for a magazine  (Miraclaire Publishing Magazine in the  United States) and also featured in  Camer’s top literary review magazines.He had tons of  articles he had written, a few thousand poèms and hundreds of drawings.  After which he  was already contemplating on becoming a full time writer and poet, and this was thanks to his  mentor Prof. Labang Wang Kencholia and his  genius Sister, Dr. Lum Louisa. But he realised that in Cameroon , the reading Culture is very poor, writers aren’t respected that much, and few people can survive on writing Alone…so he had to think again and do something alongside that.

He knew actually nothing in Music Vidéos (shooting, editing, directing, lighting) “i didn’t even know what he would  become two years later.” he said.

In 2013, he met SOMEONE (Small Sea, a very kind and ambitious man) who looked into his  eyes and saw fire and the gifts in me, and he handed him a Camera…he then came under the mentorship of Tabi Zama, who  set his  first foundation….in a few months, he was already great in photoshop and première pro, and other editing softwares. He decided to put in alot of work and  has not become a pro in that field. NS Pictures, the leading Music video production company at that time took him as their editor and he worked there as a music video editor/graphic designer for a year and a half.

After Leaving NS Pictures in 2016, he then became a fulltime video director  because he believed he had understood all the techniques  and knew he was ready to be a Boss on his own and also do good Videos.

Gerald through this Journey Picked up his Artistic Name Geraldrico Guevara.  Still facing some challenges in the Biz, he has registered  an amazing progression already.  Still at the early stages of his Career, he keeps working hard daily till when his Videos Can beat those of Top Video directors in the international scene.

As an advice to any one who wants to get into the field, Gerald urges them not to Use your eyes, Learn by watching  as many vidéos as possible and try to pick something new, also use YouTube has  a huge catalog of everything. Being a good story teller, has eased his writing of scripts especially  for any music videos in a very short time.

Being a good music video director means using your eyes more than how much the average person uses his. Video directors try to look at things at different angles, tell stories, even stories we know, from different vintage points or so as to make them interesting or appealing to the eye. Every artist knows and understands this word ”ESTHETICS”, its all about artistic beauty, beauty in the art thats created. and a director who Has that Esthetique edge to his works, becomes an awesome director.

Before now Gerald spent a reasonable amount of time studying  lighting , coloring, and photography. Before now,  he practiced photography for more than a year with the pseudonym ”GeraldricoPhotography” and he did acquire some skills  in the training process.

Geraldrico Gueverra uses the Following Softwares for Editing:

– Adobe Prmeiere Pro (For cutting, non-complex effects and animations, coloring)

– Adobe Photoshop (For the creation of shapes and titles for animation)

– Adobe After Effects (For Complex effects and animation)

– Apple Final Cut Pro  (For cutting, non-complex effects and animations, coloring)

To Roundup our Meeting with Gerald…..he had this Conclusion to make

“Our industry  will get bigger when artistes believe in the bunch of directors and engineers. artistes just want to shoot their videos just with one or two music video directors. they have chosen Image resolution over art. There will be variety in music videos if different directors are used. There is alot lacking these days because artistes have crowded one or two directors and these directors cant take their time to work and deliver great videos. the videos all look the same or have nothing new in them. If the big 6 directors of videos of our country are used equally for music videos, there will be more competition in the art, more artistic content and alot of variety.

And i dont think this is the right time for awards in Cameroon, especially in music videos, because these awards have only come to honour mediocrity. Our videos still have to be improved upon, these awards have no merit, in my opinion, and if am called to one or nominated, it will only be a waste of time. Lets do dope videos and open our industry up to the external world. Our Videos may never be nomimated for those International awards if we dont redress this and change the style and level of our works.

We as music video directors have as duty to tell our story and reality to the world, in a visually esthetic fashion. The way we show our Country in videos, will be the same way foreigners will look at our country. We have to start showing our country in videos like a small paradise, colorful, beautiful. Even if we have to show our ghettos, it should be shown artistically. Companies will want to invest in our industry not from what they hear, but from what they see in the videos we do.””

 

Gerald has Directed the Following Videos:

BenZil – Party , Kikoh – Mukum ,  Neglect Buri –  Mercy A God ,  Laster Mad – Deranger , Lil Ponda- gimme the Lighter.

Geraldrico Guevara  is currently signed to Cameroonian Label Strangekings and is the Main Video engineer for the label. Hope you enjoyed the write up? Kindly share & leave a comment behind.

 

Emmanuel Mfon

#TheTrendGuru