My name is Awori Moses and I’m 22 years old. I already moved out of my parents’ home, though, and I’m renting a place of my own in Gulu town. While growing up, I loved listening to music and I thought I’d end up a music producer, or just to do sound for music. Somehow, I have found myself here, doing sound for film, and I’ve started earning a little bit from it.
I studied driving and mechanical engineering at a technical institute in Kampala, and there are quite a few jobs in the transport industry that I could have taken up, yet I feel like my career is in film. Sometimes I do odd jobs, like in welding and at building sites, to earn a bit of extra income to survive, but I’m glad that I found a place to train in sound production for film and to find a firm foothold.
Before this training, I had been exposed to film in another organization, but it was a bit of a crude experience. They only showed me how to hold the boom pole and to press the record button and they thought that they had taught me how to record sound for film. Then I came for this training, and not only did I learn a lot of the technical stuff, but I’ve been given space to teach myself and access to equipment that has enabled me to master the craft.
This training has had a big impact in my life, as it has taught me how to talk to people. It has improved my communication skills. I used to be a bit short tempered, and a little bit arrogant, as I believed I could do things all on my own. Though it is not in the syllabus, the training creates an atmosphere of networking, for film is a collaborative industry. You have to work with other people. You have to learn how to handle fellow crew. That I see is the most important change in me. It has helped me to network with other filmmakers, and sometimes even when there are no classes or no work, we go and sit at the office and we talk. This helps to build a community, and it has helped me to find a few jobs in film as a sound recordist. I’ve not yet earned much money, they mostly just give me an appreciation, and it could be as little as twenty thousand shillings, but this gives me a boost that I’m in the right path.
My parents too have become supportive, having seen the change the training has done to me, and so they bought for me a laptop to continue learning postproduction. I’ve now worked in several projects, most notably a music video and a short film, and these gave me a lot of encouragement. Through networking with others, I’ve learned a lot, that there is money to be earned not just in drama but also in documentaries, and I’m positive that now that I have a community of fellow filmmakers, I’ll soon be on my feet.
Written by Awori Moses
Awori Moses was a participant in the 2023 Mobile Film School in Gulu.