The story behind the inception of B-Roll Media Productions is a coincidence in itself yet very interesting. They began with their first project when they had nothing but just an idea and pure talent. Khalid Ibrahim is a specialist cosmetic dentist. For him, beauty was his thing (I guess it is the same for all the specialist cosmetic dentist's). And due to the same reason, he was familiarized with professional cameras during his course of study in order to document their cases and to present their cases in a better way. So he was basically familiar with professional cameras and was also very much interested in photography.During that time, he met with Mahmoud Kamal who is his current partner. Later on, they found out that they had some common interest in areas such as photography, videography and they identified that "they had a passion towards creation in general" in his own words. And then, Mahmoud Kamal had this extra knowledge in social media marketing, development and handling as well. They just had this common interest and this basic idea in their minds. They have not yet thought of starting a company as such.
Days passed and one day Khalid Ibrahim got contacted by a friend of his over his social network and she asked him if he knows someone who can do a photoshoot for food or may be a social media photography session as he calls it. At that time, it clicked in his mind, about the passion or idea that himself and Mahmoud Kamal shared and discussed. He told his friend that "Yeah, I know somebody, actually we have a team. Let me get in touch with the team and get back to you". But the reality was that there was no such "team" at all back then. But he had this idea and the drive or passion to do it. He soon picked up his phone and dialed Mahmoud's number. And Mahmoud was equally confident and thought why not give it a shot? It was decided to set up a meeting with their first potential clients. This happened around the beginning of 2017. The company they had the meeting with was a big one with a number of sub-companies under them and they were looking for a subcontracting company exclusively to handle their social media marketing.
The meeting was quite a big one and it also went well. And finally, they decided to go on with the project. The fact is that during this time, in reality, they had nothing. They had no proper team to begin with, they had no portfolio, and also, they have not even done any professional work as well. Even though they have done personal photography, they haven't even clicked a single snap for professional purposes prior to this. This is how the partnership between Khalid Ibrahim and Mahmoud Kamal began. This is how his journey from a cosmetic dentist into an entrepreneur began. Surprisingly, the company loved their work and they ended up getting the subcontract for all the sub-companies under that company. One of the sub-companies is Dose, the coffee shop.
B-Roll Productions is a small company. And the term B-Roll is actually a cinematographical term. There is an A-Roll which is the main footage and then there is the B-Roll which is the second, supplemental or alternative footage intercut with the main shot. In short, B-Rolls are more interesting than A-Roll and it brings the whole video into life. B-Roll Productions is a multimedia creator firm which mainly handles social media accounts, do photography and videography for social media marketing. They undertake anything that has to do with cameras like food photography, modern photography, product photography and obviously videography.
Before working on their first project, they had to do some trial work in order to understand their true potential and limits. So what they did was that they called up a local coffee shop and introduced themselves as photographers. And conveyed the message that they would like to take some photographs of their cafe and it's products as a part of their work. Khalid was following the social media account of this coffee firm and was aware of their interest in exhibiting their products in social media. They were more than just happy and agreed to do the photoshoot. They in fact had nothing to lose as well since the photoshoot was free of cost and also, they will get good photos and hopefully some promotions as well. They were very collaborative and made a lot of drinks and food for the shoot as well. Even though they did the shoot for free and had to give the photographs to the firm, they were able to identify their true potential and capabilities due to this step. They identified the fact that they had the skill to satisfy this need in the market.
In B-Roll production company, Khalid handles photography and technical parts and Mahmoud handles the social media and the business part. This division of labour aspect that they follow where everyone knows exactly what work one needs to do is the major success factor that helped in the success of B-Roll so far. At the same time all the employees are reliable to each other as well.
He believes that passion is a key factor in the success of any business. If one person is passionate about something, then success will surely follow. He also says that if you don't love what you do, then you'll not succeed as well. He says that he likes dentistry and also he is good at it. But what he is passionate about is photography and the "Art of Creating". He loves creating masterpieces from nothing. He loves going to sets and discussing with the client about their requirements, creating sets from what they have, the fact that they are unaware of what they are going to work with until the very last moment, the novelty and so on. He says that all these processes itself always manages to amaze him. And finally when the shoot and edit is over and the end results of their efforts are in their hands, it gives him pride and satisfaction. The way he describes the feeling and the level of enthusiasm with which he talks about it itself will make anyone who listens to him feel and understand what his true passion is and what this work is for him! He is confident and passionate in his works which is clearly evident from his speech.
He also says that the diverse thinking of minds is another success factor in their case. He says his partner and he shares the same passion yet they both think entirely differently. He says that he cannot think how Mahmoud thinks and vice-versa. And this diversity in thought also makes their pair great. By thinking differently, you can see the same thing from different perspectives and this will be very much helpful in shaping concepts into ideas and subsequently bring the ideas into plans and then action. This aspect helps them to perfect every task they do. It is something like pooling ideas. This also helps in understanding and convincing different clients. It is like the old proverb says, "Two heads are better than one".
They are facing two major difficulties in their business. The first one is that they are not able to devote their full time to B-Roll Productions since they have their first jobs to be taken care of. They find it difficult to juggle between both these jobs. It is not just a hobby but is a fully developed business idea for them but still they cannot give up on their first jobs. One main reason for this is that production companies are not stable and they don't guarantee a steady income always. And the second difficulty that they face is the market itself with its fluctuations. Clients tend to get bored often. They always want something new and often wanna try other companies even when we are giving the best services and also most of the time, after sometime they tend to come back to us. And due to the same reason, we don't usually prevent them from experiencing new things and experimenting. It is natural to experiment from their part. But it is a difficulty we face.
Khalid and Mahmoud have a lot of dreams and a great vision about the future of B-Roll Productions. They want to make it the best production company in the world. They also wish that someday soon, they will be shooting for big companies like Mercedes Benz, BMW and so on. During some of their shoots while using something like a technique or an equipment, they mockingly say that the day when we are shooting for Mercedece or BMW, we can make use of this technique or this is going to help us in that shoot. This is a method of mental confirmations or reassuring themselves that they will get to do great work for bigger companies soon. They also wish to create short films and enter the big screen in the future. In order to attain their vision, they have a 3 year goal which is to add freelancing and subcontract photographers and videographers and build a community where they can share and support each other, share equipment and knowledge and create a co-working space. Infact, it was one of the initial goals of B-Roll to be an umbrella for all the young generation content creators to come,collaborate and create together and build a strong team. They would like to diversify into animation and movies as well. They have recently done model photography and helped a government candidate in the campaign and social media accounts.
A word of advice that he would like to give to the younger generation is that doing something is better than perfectly doing it, at least in the beginning. He was a person who always postponed doing something fearing that it might not be perfect. But he says that we should take the first step in order to do something. In the initial stages it may not be perfect. But one day you will be able to perfect it. And not taking any step will simply mean that you will not make any progress at all. If you chase perfection, you will never be able to create, you will only procrastinate. And gradually with each project you undertake you will get one step closer to perfection and finally you will perfect and master the art. Fear of imperfection and failure will only paralyse you. He says that human beings are imperfect and our creations are not expected to be perfect also. So, take this chance and create something. In all these imperfections also we will surely find some elements of beauty. We humans have the liberty to do it, we fail, then we do it again and we may or may not fail again, but we move one step further. So accept it and take chances to attempt it.
He says that it is easy to be a boss but it is not that easy to be a leader. One of the best qualities of a leader is to manage people. More than 85% of the businesses under the sun are made or held together by the people. Whatever kind of business you are dealing with, you'll have to deal with people at some point. If you have the ability to manage people, good communication skills and empathy, it will make you a good leader. On the contrary, if it is the other way around, then you'll keep on hitting a concrete wall of misunderstanding between people until you figure it out. One of the greatest books that he read that inspired him was Dale Carnegie's book titled "How To Win Friends And Influence People". There is a saying that the greatest of all books are those that say something that we already knew. He read this book when he started doing his Master’s degree in dentistry in Egypt. He had faced this difficulty in making friends and handling people. He was very self-conscious back then. This is when that book helped him. He says that this book groomed him on how to deal with people.
Often while on sets and shooting, many young people are interested in knowing from where and how we can learn photography and videography. Also many youngsters like being photographed and doing photography as well. The simple answer is YouTube. YouTube helps you familiarize with many techniques of photography. And recently they are organising workshops and classes for learning the basics of photography through an institute called La Dolce Vita, Al Ain. These classes will help you to get a basic idea and which way you should be going through in order to know more about photography and videography.
He also believes that reading is power. The more you read, the more you get. And now in the modern era, we have the power of knowledge in our fingertips. We have the world wide web and internet. YouTube, Google and other search engines give you immense power. Please make sure to use it in a right and meaningful manner. Take full advantage of these technologies and do enough research before any work. Always try to gain more complete and correct knowledge about each and every project before you commit to the project and before going for meetings as well.
We are wishing Khalid Ibrahim, Mahmoud Kamal and B-Roll Productions all the very best wishes and hoping they are able to achieve more. We will soon publish an article about Mr. Mahmoud Kamal as well since he is also a very interesting entrepreneur with experience in a lot of fields. You may also check out the Instagram page of B-Roll Media Productions to view some of their previous works.
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