How David Udenna makes money from film-making

David Udenna is the chief executive officer of Cliq Studios Films. The Anambra State-born 24 year-old entrepreneur is in the business of professional filmmaking. David started his business by making simple videos for friends with his phone and using editing phone apps.

He attempted to make his first film in 2011 but failed. Thereafter, he decided to improve his craft by taking online classes and went further to acquire his first DSLR camera with N60, 000.

The cinematographer got his first client in 2015 to edit a simple job, which he did perfectly, making way to other jobs. Today, he has numerous music videos and movie shots edited by him.

The young entrepreneur was motivated by the work of Clarence Peters, a renowned music video director, filmmaker and cinematographer.

“Whenever I watch a video shot by Clarence, I always say to myself that one day I will be where this man is,” the young entrepreneur says.

His friends are patronising him today and he always delivers conformably. In fact, it was such patronage in the past that motivated him to take cinematography as a profession. And he is living his dream today.

Over the years, his business has grown incredibly bigger. “I have grown from one client into several clients a week,” he confirms. “I moved from editing very simple videos to shooting, directing and editing professional music videos, films, TV commercials and events videos.”
“Basically, finance is the major challenge,” he says. “Our working equipment are very expensive and limit our creativity totally,” he explains.

Speaking on the challenges he faces, the young entrepreneur says he needs more funds and state-of-the-art studios for video shots.

“Those of us in my field need access to state- of-the-art studios. In order to access very professional big video studio that can contain a large number of people, you might need to travel out of the country,” he says.

He urges the government to look in the direction of providing large studios such as the ones in Hollywood.

“It will make our jobs better, and also if we have access to loans and grants, we will do much better.”

On his long term goals, David says, “I plan to get a bigger work space, own bigger camera gears, and also extend our customer reach across Africa. I also work with more celebrities all over the world.”

David has two employees and they are being paid according to the number of projects they work on.

Advising other entrepreneurs and youths, he says “The best way to start is to start. So start now with what you have and never stop practising. Never give up.”

Jonathan Aderoju