Lighting The Scene with Matthew Yusuf

Speaker A: 00:00:03

You're welcome to Naija Filmmaker, a podcast about Nigerian filmmakers, their films and how I can build a diverse and functional industry. I'm your host, Sele Got. On this episode, my guest is Matthew Yusuf, also known as Matolight.

He is a gaffer and lighting designer and has worked on projects such as Suffer the Witch, Sugar Rush and Brotherhood. We talk about his formative years in theatre, how he prepares for a film shoot and the benefits of experimentation.

If you're a new listener, you're welcome and I hope you enjoy. Hi, Matthew. Welcome to the Naija Filmmaker.

Speaker B: 00:00:45

Hi, sir. Thank you for having me.

Speaker A: 00:00:48

You're welcome. Okay, can you introduce yourself?

Speaker B: 00:00:54

All right, My name is Matthew Yusuf and popularly known as Mato Light in the industry and I am a gaffer.

Speaker A: 00:01:03

Okay, you light for film and theater, right?

Speaker B: 00:01:08

Yes, I actually started from theater before I became a lighting designer for film also.

Speaker A: 00:01:17

Okay, so tell us that story. Story about, you know, how you got into this lighting job and you know, the transition from theater to film.

Speaker B: 00:01:30

shop. And yeah, that was year: 2000

And it's actually a one year course in theater where you learn various departments in the theater space from directing to stage manager to consumer to lighting to set design and also the administrative part of theatre. All these were actually in the bulk of a year and they all put up together in a year. So we actually had the opportunity to learn all those in a year.

During my time at Performance Studio Workshop, I had a lot of focus in acting and technicals.

Speaker A: 00:02:36

Okay.

Speaker B: 00:02:37

So towards the end of the training I had a conversation with my, my technical director which was my, who also is my mentor. His name is Tafio Yosi. So I had a conversation with him and he called me to site and said he actually sees first.

I was his best student in his class and we could have, we had proper, we had a flow of communication and he saw that I was going to have make prospects as a lighting designer and he gave me instances, he gave me some talks and he advised me on what to do and how to manage myself around it. And I actually picked up that advice and yeah, today we could see, we can see the testimony.

Fell Apart that went to Koja: 2002

ted working professionally in: 2003

I've been doing theater since: 2003

with Q's dance company since: 2015

to remember the year. I think: 2013

Speaker A: 00:05:14

Yeah.

Speaker B: 00:05:15

Where I. I had a stage production with Abion Kazim and Zainab Kazim, a play titled My Husband's Wife, played by Toyoshimake and Bimbo Akintola. It was a project that I sacrificed for after the project. It was a project that we didn't make any money out of.

We didn't make money at the end of the day. So we, I had a com. I had a relationship with the, with the company.

And after that, after that project, Zainab got a project to work with Jade, which was video too. So she recommended me to Jade and we, I, I got to meet Jadi. We had a conversation and she asked me several questions.

If I've done films, if I've done this. I'm like, oh, I've actually not worked on any film project.

I've been coming from psa and this is my very first opportunity to work on a film project, on a TV project. And she was like, okay, going to take me for like three months. And I'm like, yo, three months is a lot.

And it's actually going to take me away from the theater space. And yeah, I had a good offer and I was ready to face it after Giddy up too. I think the rest became history.

And that's why every room I get into, I always try to mention a name. I just tried. I always try to mention Jado Shibaru.

Because she actually gave me that platform and that trust and that opportunity to break through the space of film.

Speaker A: 00:07:11

Yeah. Okay, so can you talk about, you know, the, I guess, key differences with theater and film? Were there things you struggle with, like being.

Being on that set for the first time in terms of, I guess, you know, like the time constraint and all.

Speaker B: 00:07:28

Of that things on Giddy up or from theater or in theater.

Speaker A: 00:07:32

So basically working on Gidi up since it was your first foray to film.

Speaker B: 00:07:37

Yeah, yeah. So I think there was a lot of. Lots of situations that actually happened. It was my first. I was trying to give out all my best.

And coming from a space where I know I have actually had plans to do some kind of project in. In the future, I never knew was going to come that early. So it was like an attack for me to say, okay, yes, face it and face the reality of it.

Different. Different days. Day with different challenges, different day with different situations. First, I will start with the. The work hour time. We.

We hardly had time to rest. There were days we worked like 24 hours around the clock. There were. Period where we worked like almost 48, if I'm not mistaken.

But at least we're close to it because almost everybody on that project, we're coming from a fresh space. Not like super, super fresh, but we were not all that strong in the space.

But we're all coming with the effort of trying to deliver a fantastic project. At the end of the day, I would say. I would say we had. We had opportunities to see equipments that. To use equipment that I was not super used to.

I was only planned to see myself in the future to use them. So I got them at that particular period to say, okay, yes, this is an opportunity for me to make use of these equipment.

What I've tried to visualize in terms of mode, in terms of setups, how do I achieve all those things? I was able to work with the help of the director of photography, Mo Ata Mohammed Atta. We. We put a lot together.

It was quite challenging because we had days of locations that we didn't get to see, but we had to stumble into those locations on that very day of shoot and try and make amends. Try and find a way to minimize time, work with every availability of equipment that we have on ground to make things work.

Yeah, it was quite challenging. We had good energy. Every member of the crew came out with their positive energy. In as much as we knew what the task was ahead of us, we went for it.

We went full force with it. And yeah, today is. We can see a lot of them from actors. I would. I would. I would say a lot of actors that I know then that were just coming up also.

I can also see how they've also grown from that space to date.

Speaker A: 00:10:22

Yeah. Okay, so I mean, for, for people that don't understand the full extent of a gaffer's job. Can you tell us more about the gaffer's job?

Speaker B: 00:10:35

All right. Gaffer is actually the, the best friend to the cinematographer.

Now on a film set, the director has all the ideas in his or her head, and the director needs the, the cinematographer to help visualize it. The cinematographer needs the lighting designer, the gaffer to work close with him to help actualize those visions. And how does this happen?

After every conversation that the DP and the director must have gotten on a project, the very first, the closest person to the DP at that point is the gaffer. And why is it the gaffer?

Because the DP has already visualize everything that you want in terms of how he wants it in picture, in colors, in mood, and how he will portray the story regarding to what the director wants.

The gaffer himself also understands because most cases, after Reiki, after Reiki, you've seen spaces, ideas of how to make use of those lights is best known to the gaffer. All the DP wants is this is what I feel, this is what I want, and this is how I intend to get it.

Now the conversation now lays on the DP and the gaffer to come together and put those plans together. Look at every possibilities of how those, how to achieve those, how to achieve that particular picture, that particular mood, at every sin. Yeah.

The gaffer also is the head of the electrical department on a film set. From the best boy to the spark to the runner to the assistants to the cabler, he's practically the head of the electrical department on a film set.

Speaker A: 00:12:40

Let's say you're brought on a project. Okay, let's say three months before principal photography starts. What is your process in preparing for that project?

Speaker B: 00:12:52

All right, the very first thing we do is get a script. Go through the script, read and understand what the story is about. In your own way.

You don't assume for the director, you don't assume what the project is going to look like for the director. So you are reading in terms of, okay, this is what I feel. This is how I see this story, and this is where, how I see this story portrayed.

Now after having that, after going through the script, you have an idea of what you feel it's going to look like.

Then during the pre production, there will be time where you all are going to come together, have a script reading together with the technical team, where yourself, the dp, the director, the art director, the production designer, the costume department, everybody comes together to have technical reading. So during that technical reading, the director explains the vision of that project.

Now, once you get that vision, you now go back to your script again. Try to now start seeing how you want to help bring it to life in terms of lighting.

Now, after having that at the back of your mind, there will be Reiki. So Reki, what we do during Reiki is we go see those locations we intend to use to film. How does it work? How does it suit those spaces?

In some cases, you have every right as a gaffer to refuse some spaces because it's not going to work, because you might get to a space, and actually what you need in that space, you need the headroom of that room to be very high to achieve that mood or that lighting setup you want.

If you get to a space that's not going to give you that look or that feel, you have every right as a gaffer to say at that point, if the director needs to make an amendment, yes. If they don't need to make an amendment, then we need to get another location.

Now, after the Reiki process, already you know what we've seen, the vision we've seen, what's the space we intend to use? Now I go back to the DP already, the dp and the director has a full conversation of how the vision is going to look like.

So myself and the dp, sorry, during.

Directly, also, while I was checking and we having all those conversations, myself and the DP are also in a closer conversation of how we intend to do those work on those spaces. Then after that, we now come back to myself and the DP having a private conversation. Okay, this, this scene, how do we intend to light this scene?

How do we work around this scene? What and what colors are we looking at? To work with the color palettes of the project, myself and the DP will have an intense conversation.

Then after that, we now come down to equipment breakdown. So we break down equipment, the equipment, and also the crew list that we're going to have on that project, we're going to put all together.

So after that, we do a final checklist with the dp, and once the DP is ready, then we hit the set.

Speaker A: 00:15:59

Okay, so let's say you have a setup that takes, let's say, 10 hours for crew members or people that don't understand why you need 10 hours, can you give us, like, maybe a practical example of maybe scenario that needed that much time and what went into preparing the. Okay, the location.

Speaker B: 00:16:25

Okay, a space like that, that would take us longer Hours to set up is maybe when we're filming like a whole street at night. So now you can't come at that night because most times what we do in some as we shoot by the day, we have a schedule.

So imagine us shooting till like maybe 7pm today and we have another scene to shoot tomorrow at night, that night scene. And we're shooting a whole street at that night. We can't come at 5:36pm or 7:00pm because we want to shoot at night.

Okay, let's start setting up at 7. No, the fact that we need to make it look realistic, we need to make it look like. We also need to make it look cinematic friendly.

So there are so many detailed things that needs to be put together. Now I would use a. I will use a street for as an example. Now imagine yourself coming to a street at night where they usually have light.

And you want to see details in that space. There are ways you want to run. And in Lagos, you know, we don't really have lights all the time.

So in the story we want to believe that there was light at that particular time. So now what does that entail? It entails also. Now start prepping to make it look real. That okay, there is light in this place.

And for us to do that, we have to do it in a way that makes it very realistic. There are some shops in the front of the house that need to have a yellow bulb in that house. How do you run power from that point to that point?

The generator truck must not be on set for them to see. So maybe you have to park like three streets away.

Then you need to run cables from that three streets away to bring it down to where you have to hide your distro box. Then to light up those pockets. Light areas. Some shops, some. Some houses that have light. There's some. You want to take some light into some.

Some extreme corner of the house to throw it outside of the building. You need to gain access to those spaces. You need to run the cables, align those cables to look very realistic.

Not for you to fly cables around that they will notice that, okay, these are film cables around. Those cables need to be well aligned. Then we are also going to plant something like something we call a light setup. We call overhead lighting.

Most times to create like a moon lighting. Those lights are usually very big. Now you need to run a very powerful cable, very strong source of light, maybe to extreme end of that street.

Again, you need to roll those very heavy lights to that point. Then channel cables. How those cables are going to get to that space without making it.

Because you're going to film the moments where you film the ground. Imagine a point where they intend to shoot Manato running on the ground. You want to see the feet and you want to see the ground.

Now those cables need to be. You need to fly those cable, make it realistic as if it's the normal street cable on a Lagos road you get.

So all this process does not come in two hours, three hours, it comes in a very long hours. So most times we, we usually prep ahead for, for those kind of setup. And for a case like Christmas in Lagos, I had like a pre rigged scene.

So once, once we have the, the. The main crew on set walking to a particular time and we have an early setup, those ones will be there, they start.

I already have a design, a map, a floor plan for them to start ahead. So by the time we get on set, we'll meet them up and continue from. From.

We'll all join and continue from that point where they, where they are working from. So most times exterior shots, exterior building, to shoot at night are very, very hectic to light. And it takes a lot of hours to set up.

Speaker A: 00:20:19

Yeah. Okay. So I mean to be a gaffer, you need to understand light and darkness. For you, how did you train your cinematic or lighting eye?

Speaker B: 00:20:35

Yeah, so I am. I am more of an experimental person where. At my. At my very free moments.

So coming from where I was I trained, from coming from a theater background that I have actually learned to do a lot with light and playing live with light in terms of light and shadow and what contrast of light are from theater and moving to film.

I realized that most lights were being defined in terms of how hard and how soft those lights can come and how detailed you want to make some do some create some kind of light. So moving to that space in terms of filming, filming, I mean in, in the film space, you realize that there are, there are ways you want.

You want to feel if you watch, if you watch films. So I don't really go that I go go to a cinema that I want to watch a film for particular reason.

I just want to watch some details and if I have reference on some pictures I've seen, I go through it. I try to look for the process and see what they actually did on that and how they walked around it. Then I play around most times.

So every opportunity that I have, with every little light I have around me from my own free moment, I just create something and look at it and like, okay, I want to Try this. And I share those ideas with some DPs.

Most times when I get on set with DPs I come close to them and share those ideas with them and we put it into practice. In most sets that I get to.

I've been able to understand all this because most times when I play with those lights, I see those pictures and I'm like yo, this is actually looking like what I want to achieve. This is like actually like what I really want to portray. And I put it into test, I put it into action most times.

And yeah, I, I'm more of a self taught person.

Speaker A: 00:22:33

Yeah. Okay. All right. At this point, can you mention three random facts about yourself?

Speaker B: 00:22:46

When you say random facts. What, what, what are you.

Speaker A: 00:22:51

Things that make you. You like, you might be. You might like that type of music or you might like reading books, things like that.

Speaker B: 00:23:00

So, so three, three, three random things about me is. First, I really, I. I'm a happy person. I like being happy. Two, I like my. In as much as I love to be around where to see things. Things happen.

I try to create some quiet moment for myself where I go to the beach.

Speaker A: 00:23:21

Yeah.

Speaker B: 00:23:23

Though in a while I've not been able to do it because of the hazardous happening around the quiet moment of those early morning time. I drive to the beach, I just go to the beach and sit and have like a quiet moment for myself. Yeah. The third one is I love to drive. I love to drive.

Speaker A: 00:23:42

And are you a Legosian?

Speaker B: 00:23:46

Yay. This is a very strong question. So I am not a Legosian. I am from the middle belt of Nigeria. I am from Kogi. Both born and bred in Lagos.

So that makes me a bit illegal.

Speaker A: 00:24:02

Yeah. Because I mean loving to drive and then you know, with the Lagos traffic.

Speaker B: 00:24:08

Yeah.

Speaker A: 00:24:09

I mean do you have a particular road that allows you to drive freely?

Speaker B: 00:24:13

So, so when I tell people, okay, yes, I love driving. They're like, ah, why do you like driving in traffic? So, so the experience of. I like to use the word grass to grace.

Anyway, so the experience from coming from that street food where the days of there was nothing. You have to get to this point. How do you get to this point? Okay, you have to trek, you see.

But the moment you start trekking, you understand different areas, you understand different shortcuts. It is why you drive it. You know, when people that were able to see passport will tell you, okay, there's from. From Ikoyi to. To. What's it called?

To Ikeja. You just have to go through Todd Milan Bridge. Do you understand? But I will tell you there are different ways for you to get to Ikeja from Ikui.

Then I also tell you some faster route and shorter route to get to XYZ places. Because I've actually, actually been in the space of, okay, jump from this place to this place you want to go to.

You want to go see a show, you want to go. You want to go see, see an event. I have always been into different spaces and then there was, there was no car.

But you just have to get to that point. And not every time you have money to, to, to get a cab or to join to get a boss. Sometimes you have your.

Whatever amount you have on you might not be able to do the whole trip. So you have to make. Find a way to cut it short and say, okay, yes, I can get to this point.

Then I can get the next bus from this point to my destination.

Speaker A: 00:25:48

Okay, that's nice. So you've been in the game for long and with the advancement of lighting technology, how has that, you know, improved your work recently?

Speaker B: 00:26:03

So I, I have seen different lights. I have seen, I've used different light. And every day, everything. It keeps, it keeps, it keeps. We keep having new technologies.

Speaker A: 00:26:21

Yeah.

Speaker B: 00:26:21

I will still say I don't really want to put so people in the box, but I would honestly say ARRI still has a lot to give us in terms of light. But because we, how, like, how will I put it? It's, it's. It's super expensive.

Speaker A: 00:26:44

Yeah.

Speaker B: 00:26:44

And it's super expensive to maintain. We've been able to roll around with Aputure and the Nan Locks guys also.

Yeah, they have actually been doing good because a lot of them actually came in and they came with up with options of, okay, you can't do arri6k because, you know, it's very heavy. You have to. We have, we have an, an advanced LED light that looks like that is almost like the 6K.

You could use it and also achieve the same thing and less power consumption. So those are the, those are the advantages that they have.

But trust me, the durability of those lights when it still goes back to arri because RAC stays long and laster than all these lights. But again, in all, every light that has been coming out for the past, I would say for the past five years, it's been very helpful.

Since the invention of the Matlite, we're able to, we've been able to run away a bit from the kino flows. Like, okay, you need to suspend the light. That is very Light above your character. Those ones will help you. Yeah.

In all, I would say every, every opportunity that they've given to themselves to bring in, bringing all different kind of competitive light, they are very helpful, they've been useful. And yeah, it's, it's, it's a, it's a technology world. We keep revolving, evolving in everything they bring.

Speaker A: 00:28:12

Yeah. Okay, so how do you balance creativity with practical limitations of budget, location or equipment?

Speaker B: 00:28:25

I have been, I've always. There's, okay, first, there's never a project you hear that is, there's a budget. Every project here, ah, there's no budget.

Okay, how do we work around this? How do we make this xyz?

So far, in my entire production that I've done, I would say maybe Christmas in Lagos has been the project that whatever I asked for, whatever we asked for on that project, we got like 95% of it, which for me I feel it was, was a good one. But aside from that, every other project comes with the challenges. Like I said, say in a situation where DPs.

So this, this also goes to, goes to some DPs because some DPs would tell you they don't want to bend and some DPs will tell you, okay, we can bend to make this work. And I, I work with a DP.

Speaker A: 00:29:20

Yeah.

Speaker B: 00:29:20

And DP's conversation is my, I mean DP's agreement is my last.

Is my last agreement also because most times when we see, okay, this is what we intend to do and okay for us to light up a space like this, if we can't get this particular feel you want, if we decide to do it this way, picture wise, do you like it? Is it telling the same story of what you want? Once the DP approves it, it's fine for me.

But once the DP says it's not working, trust me, and the directors is not so happy with it, trust me, we can't, there's nothing we can do around it.

And some cases, like I always say, director and dp, they once, once director is happy with what the DP is giving the director, then we, we're good to go.

In some cases, I also have the right to also make, make some suggestion and tell them this picture is not looking like what we will get at the end of the day. And we come to terms most times.

Speaker A: 00:30:29

Yeah. Okay. Do you think there are enough gaffers in the Nigerian film industry?

Speaker B: 00:30:38

We have, we don't have enough gaffer. So we have a lot of trainees out There out there saying they are gaffer. But there's so many, there's so many requirements that makes you a gaffer.

Yeah, there's so many. You need some experiences to make you a gaffer.

But you know, most times once the gears are able to put up some gears and and some productions are like okay, unless somebody just come with the light and yeah, we can tell them what to do and what to do, what not to do and would still achieve things. Yes, in some cases it works. And number one, downtime in that production is very. Is very key. Number two hazard under production is very key number.

Number three, the trust me, the outcome of that project will not be as the same as when you have a professional gaffer on that stage.

In some cases I would not mention name but in some cases I've seen the production where a DP is asking a gaffer to go into the beach with an HMI light a stand and they're going to run the power to it. Thank God somebody was on that set and the person insisted that. No, I think it was the director that insisted that they shouldn't that the.

Because the director actually called me and said this was what was going to happen and I'm like how this is you killing a thousand people on the set. Now, now, now, now, now. And yeah, because some deep is like okay, yes. Yeah, this is my idea, this is what I want. Okay, make it happen.

Put it there, make it happen. You don't go extra mile to do some things if you don't have a professional.

There are ways you could actually put those lights in that spaces and also light those things. But as the fact that the person is not a professional gaffer, you are going to have a problem and there's going to be an hazard. Yeah, yeah.

So as with this, I think it actually calls for a lot of master class which I know some, some. Some guys are actually like Lagos light scene. What's it called?

Is it legal Lighting master class actually had a master class on lighting at some point where they had. Yeah, I think Justin came to Nigeria and I think they had it within a JAI studio Next Dot studio. Yeah.

If there is opportunity to have master class to train some of these guys, some of these best boys that potential that has potential to become gaffers tomorrow. Yeah, opportunities like that would definitely happen. If it's going to happen, I'm always happy to teach. I. I did a master class with CC Hub.

I also did for Multi Choice Talent Factory also. And yeah, with that I think some basic experience also Also needs to be passed to this young generation of gaffers.

We just, I mean electricians or runners or best, but we just feel. Or they just come up one day and say, yes, already they are gaffer.

Speaker A: 00:33:43

Yeah. Okay. So like, I guess more developed industries have this whole ladder you have to climb.

So to be a gaffer, you have to be a best boy before you move. Like for you.

What, what would you advise is like a good pathway for a gaffer to gain a certain number of skills, to be well rounded and, you know, be able to lead that department.

Speaker B: 00:34:10

So I feel, I feel the fact that we were not enough doesn't mean that there won't be spaces to learn. I could mention some names I own myself. I own a company, one house lighting crew. Stanley is also a gaffer. Stanley has a company called smoothshore.

Ismail has a license company also called Easy Film. Godwin Lawani also has a license company called GD Lighting. I think Femi Sway also has a company.

There's another gaffer called Muri that also has a lighting company. Another gaffer I know named Daniel also has a company.

I feel that there are opportunities in these spaces where these guys can learn through now what are they learning? They're learning all. I understand that a lot of them would have seen, okay, I understand how to plug this light to this light.

But there are tends to these things, their process to these things, their channels to when you get on set, how you work when you get on set, what you do in your own department when you get on set, are you starting to be. Let's imagine someone that is a runner. The runner comes on set and do every bit everything they do on that set in the lighting department.

So at that point, well, after, after Leonard goes around to see everything everybody is doing, Elena now starts to work with the spark. From the spark, it comes to the assistant. From the assistant, he walks up to. I mean, sorry, before the assistant works with the cabler.

But here, back here we don't have the cablers. So we just move from the spark. We move with this, with the assistant. Then the best boy. Most of all, these guys needs to work with the best boy.

The best boy is the. Is the other eye of the gaffer. So he knows exactly what the gaffer means. He knows exactly what the gaffer is trying to do.

So most times, once the gaffer finishes setting up, the next in charge is the best boy. So a lot of them used to actually work close to this best boy.

Understand all these lessons, all these experiment, experience that these guys are gathering before you could push up and say you're a gaffer. Because if you don't, if you don't cross that space, you can't just jump from an assistant and say you're a gaffer.

You can't just jump from a spark and say you're a gaffer because the spark is actually practically running cables. Making sure you have powers in that space, Making sure everything is fine in that space.

But again, you can grow from that space to become a gaffer tomorrow. A lot of like some gaffers, some gaffers were DPs. I mean some gaffers became DP at some particular time of their life. So it is a process.

And when there's a certain level of, of of that space, you will become a gaffer. You don't just jump to that space.

Speaker A: 00:36:51

Yeah. If you aren't a gaffer, what other rule on set would you probably enjoy? Ah.

Speaker B: 00:37:03

That would be a Steadicam operator.

Speaker A: 00:37:06

Okay. What is it about that role?

Speaker B: 00:37:09

So I, I kind of like the way the Steadicam operators operate and I kind of like the way the. They take their shots most times.

Honestly, if not for time's sake and for availability of my, of me as an individual, as a person, I would have actually take some time just to go play, have fun in that space to see what it looks like.

Because I've always imagined myself carrying that rig and taking a particular shot because I could most times when I see the dp explain what he wants to those guys and I see the way they, they take those shots, like it gives me joy. It gives me joy the way lighting gives me joy. Because once time, once I'm setting up, I'm happy setting up.

And once I see my picture of what I'm, what I create, what I create in, in a frame, I just go, I just go feel.

Speaker A: 00:38:03

Yeah. Do you have a favorite film or TV series that you'd like to share with us?

Speaker B: 00:38:11

They say your last job, your last major job is his best is as your best job. So I think I should pick Christmas in Lagos over any for now. And yeah, some are still in, some are still in post still coming up.

But Christmas in Lagos is the last. I think that is, that's out there now. And yeah, I would say for real first is for me. Yeah. I find myself in a situation where I asked for 100.

I got a 95 in terms of equipment.

Speaker A: 00:38:39

Yeah.

Speaker B: 00:38:40

So that for me gave me lots of, a lot of opportunities to play with, to play with lights and to play with Every ideas myself and the DP share together. And yeah, it was, it was actually a fantastic journey from the pre production. It was one of the projects I had more time to add a pre production on.

And you were engaged. When I say engage, you like the production engaged you, not like okay, you're prepping the production. You're not engaged.

The way we live back here, you need to focus on other things to keep you going. So the moments where you all feel like, okay, you're engaged, so why are you now distracting yourself too much not to achieve this.

So we had more time to prep and we had more time to put the lots together.

Like I was making example, I was telling stories where we have to work at times I need to make a call for the pre rigged team to always be on ground to rig up while we are prepping, while we are trying to catch some rest for the following day shoot. And yeah, we were doing our normal 12 hours and the 12 hours we're not meeting up the 12 hours.

At times we shoot for eight hours and we're done for the day. Sometimes seven hours are done for the day.

So those kind of projects, a project like this will give you more time to be very creative, will give you more time not to panic while trying to meet up time. Give you more time to also have the ad not to come hasten you and ask you what time, what time, what time? No, everybody knows what they want to do.

You plan for it, you're on point, you have your team on ground. And yeah, it was from the director space to the DP space to every department on that project.

Everybody came up, came up to their A game and yeah, I was, I was happy we did that. We did CIA.

Speaker A: 00:40:31

Okay, that's lovely. So now how about a film that you have watched that you really enjoy. It's like Brotherhood. Brotherhood. Did you work on that one?

Speaker B: 00:40:45

Yes, I did.

Speaker A: 00:40:46

What I was okay watching the film back. It was just like a, A movie you enjoyed.

Speaker B: 00:40:52

Yes, honestly, because Brotherhood also was a project I hold dear to my heart. Also like I was trying to explain that we had a lot of gears for, for Christmas in Lagos. Brotherhood. We had, but it wasn't enough.

It was, it wasn't enough. So we, we were able to make a lot of things work. We were able to put some, some difficult situations into an easy situation.

I could remember a day working with a DP that his energy is more as a soft energy. Like it's like someone that would shoot a Christmas in Lagos and be happy.

So because you need that less hour of shoot brotherhood, we were shooting to super late. Like we. We had our. The downtime where you get to space and area boys are out there disturbing you, eating out of the better part of the day.

The better part of the day. But you have to make things work. And there are some situation where locations were extremely far from each other.

I'll give an instance of a particular scene. Okay, no one is. One of the scenes that gives me more joy is where we had the. The police cars that were shot on CMS road. It was.

It took us, we started setting up from I think from around 9 in the morning till 9 or 10 in the morning to like 6 in the evening to put up that scene. It was. It was a huge setup. We had to set up lights from that CMS pedestrian bridge. I had to go down that if.

You know that if you are very conversant with that road. It's a very long road and major, major road. Major road to settle.

So we had time to make sure we run cables, create all the aesthetics we're looking for. And when we shot that scene, when I saw it during the premiere, I was like, yes, we made this come to life. I was so proud. I was happy. Okay.

The other one was where we had to help. The worst situation to make it a memorable one was we had a mad travel time.

We shot in Lekki phase one and we had to go to CMS to shoot the second part of that same scene. We shot in Lekki phase one. Then on that same evening which we were going to shoot till like midnight, like say like 2, 3. The DP was extremely tired.

All he needed was let's go home. We just have to just see what's going on. But we had to shoot that scene because production has already paid for extra gears.

We had an extra generator coming. We had an extra 12k lights coming. We need to light our entire bridge where we have the bunny camp and unicorn axis of that bridge.

So we have to put some light in that place. Also with the. In the park where you have that military park where going to the US Embassy, we have to light up inside that bit.

Also there's some particular parts we have to also put some lights in. At that point, the DP was extremely tired. He wanted to go home. He couldn't do anything. So I was like, bro, you know what?

This setup is going to take us like four hours. Yeah, why not go sit in the cab, get an ac. Lele put on ac, then you sleep.

Then we're going to set up and trust me, we, we had that set up at the end of the day, the scene to shut up, that scene within that, I'm not sure. We used up to an hour to shoot up that, to shoot the scene and we called it on that day.

But again, it was one of the most heaviest day that we had on that set. But what do we do? We have to make, we have to make things work.

We have to pull up, look and make every, utilize every opportunity we had to make that place so to make that scene come to life, which we did.

And I was happy at the end of the day because when I watched that film, each time I watched it, I keep remembering every scenario that happened on that project. But again, it was a good one at the end of the day. And that gave my second ambca.

Speaker A: 00:45:01

Yeah. Okay, let's go to the mvc. Congrats on your two wins.

Speaker B: 00:45:07

Thank you.

Speaker A: 00:45:08

Thank you. So, I mean there are not many award bodies that award gaffers or lighting designers. Why is that recognition important?

Speaker B: 00:45:21

So for me, I first, I want to keep thanking God that he actually came when I needed it most. The first one. We've been working for it. We've been working like we've been working behind the scene.

And I feel like there should be a way for us to get recognized.

And I didn't know how it happened, but I realized that when AMC started seeing the category and the very first ambc, I think I was actually there, but I was there to set up the, I think the walkway light. And I was saying to myself, this should be an award for me someday. So. And the first one actually came on a very, on a very good day.

We, I wasn't in the country. There was a project I was working on that was on Tour Reincarnation and we were basically premier premiering in, in, in France on that day.

And I could, I knew it was, it was that same day they were having the NBC.

I was trying to, I was panicking because I honestly wanted to feel the environment and also see what it looks like and also experience it because I was, I was actually looking forward to win. But again I also didn't want to get distracted so I had to put up my phone because it started almost the same time.

We started at 8 o' clock or the show started at 8 o' clock and the, I think the cycling also from 8 o' clock Nigerian time also.

Speaker A: 00:46:57

Yeah.

Speaker B: 00:46:57

So we, we. I put up my phone then after my show getting a cutting call and I put on my phone the next Thing I was saying was congratulations.

ar in the industry, which was: 2003

And to date, I keep thanking God and it was history for me. And it's something to always write to me about.

Speaker A: 00:47:33

Yeah. Okay. So you talked about, you know, your mentor when you started out at the workshop. What was some of the key lessons you learned?

What has guided you this far in your career?

Speaker B: 00:47:51

All right, so Tafi Oyewusi is his name and he's popularly known as Tafi, apparently is. He left lighting for his wife. He's currently in Switzerland. He left lighting for his wife. Now he's now a full time grip man.

He's one of the best grip guy in Zurich in Switzerland. Yeah. So learning under Taffy and seeing him as a mentor was actually part of my success story. I learned a lot, a lot from Safi.

Safi is this man that likes to pass knowledge. And in my team, my guys, my team guys are 16 in number. My crew are 16 in number.

And I'll tell you, I can gladly close my eyes and walk away from every space and ask them questions about me. And you would keep hearing everything. Maybe out of 100, you could learn 98 positive things about me.

So these are some of the things I learned from him. He was a very good and trustworthy leader that you never know is a leader when, except maybe when we're done with work.

That's when you now realize that, oh, I think that's the boss. He's never seen himself in that space. You see, once we get on set, we're working. Everybody works like we're here to work.

Then when we're done, the only reason or the only way you see him as a boss is maybe seeing someone sitting in front of us, advising or talking to us or mentoring us and telling us some things. That's when you know he's a boss. Some. Those are some of the steps I learned from him.

And some of the steps I also learned from him is also whatever you learn, pass it to the next person because you want everybody to grow.

Speaker A: 00:49:32

Yeah.

Speaker B: 00:49:33

And I've always been doing that. Any space I get to. I always try to. When I see what I know, what I really can pass at that moment, I. I don't let it go.

If it's for me to make, to advise you to get to the next space. And I know you Needed my advice, needed my own little knowledge to, to get there I would pass it on to you.

It's like you passing the button when you get to certain space. I've been able to learn that from and also try to be happy.

I'm always an happy person and when I met him he's is we had the same energy and that has always been my, my saving grace in my difficult times. You never know when I'm not in the space of getting angry but again most times when you see me, I'm always happy.

So you rather don't know where my downtime is. So when I'm happy you just look at this guy's a happy guy and he keeps moving and that actually keep him kept me moving. Whenever I'm having any slow.

But the fact that I try to keep up the happy mood and happy moment of my life, I keep myself moving. Safi has also been a very hard working person that never lets money come before his ideas, his creative moments, his delivery.

If I, if I agree to be on a project, I don't work on a project on pt. So once I'm on the projects, maybe for XYZ reason is a low budget project. I don't work on the project like it's a low budget project.

Take it as my personal project. I take it with all my art and I deliver. Because your last job is best as good as your best job.

So that lesson has always been been part of the things he has taught me. And yeah I think basically those, those are, those are the points that I learned from him. And honestly it has actually kept me moving till tomorrow.

Speaker A: 00:51:29

That's lovely.

Speaker B: 00:51:31

Yeah.

Speaker A: 00:51:32

So now for the Niger filmmaker tradition, can you share with the audience a film you recommend them to watch?

Speaker B: 00:51:47

Aside from, from the films I worked.

Speaker A: 00:51:49

On or the films generally speaking, any film it could be what you've worked on or totally unrelated stuff.

Speaker B: 00:52:01

I think I saw one second. This is you put him in a hot box right now. I'll pick a series for now.

Speaker A: 00:52:19

Okay.

Speaker B: 00:52:19

Because right now things are scattering for my day because I, I just saw, I just saw that like two weeks ago. I mean last month. Sorry. To kill a monkey.

Speaker A: 00:52:27

Yeah.

Speaker B: 00:52:28

My, my friend, my friend did an amazing job. Both of them did. I mean everybody did an amazing job. But the gaffer is also my friend. Also Stanley.

Stanley did a very good job as a director of photography with my very good guy. Also Cabello did a very good job on the project also.

Speaker A: 00:52:46

Okay, nice. Okay. So you know, as an industry we have you know, grown in strides. But there's still room for improvement for you.

Like, what was that one thing that you think should be a priority in us improving as an industry?

Speaker B: 00:53:10

I think one that would say. And I think some production projects have actually started working on it. The work time. The work hour for projects. Yeah, because trust me, we.

The 12 hour that we give, that we try to work on now is actually helping. Yeah, I did a project in a BookTube, I think, two months ago. Yes, no, sorry, in July. I did a project in July and. No, I think it was in June.

Yeah, June into July.

And the day one of that shoot, we wrapped at 3pm in the afternoon, which for me was that's a better way to work and go relax and get yourself ready for the next day of work. Because most times if we worked too late and we still have early call time, trust me, we're just. We're just pushing ourselves to work.

We're not being creative. We're not going to be creative to that work you get. So those are the. That's. That's my first. That's my first challenge. If we can.

If we can keep to that 12 hours of work, it is. It is going to help us do a lot.

So I feel in as much as, yes, we have the Netflix, the Amazon thing happening now, and we're actually trying to fight around budget on project. Again, if you want a lion look, then don't go. Don't go for a cut budget.

If you want a lion look, then be ready to go for a lion budget for you to really get what you want. But again, if you know you really want to do it well, then do it right.

Most projects want you to go extra mile, kill everything, bring gears, and they want to get a 50% discount on those gears. Yeah, getting a 50% discount on those gear is not a problem. But again, are you getting the quality gears at that particular time? Because some.

I don't want to say this, but again, in some cases, gaffers have been caught out of the conversations when they're having those.

When producers are having conversations with Gear House and say, okay, they say, okay, we're giving you all this equipment and they have a negotiation.

But when the negotiation happens, they realize that they can't give you all those things, then you are now in a trap because now you end up getting what the gear else is going to give you. So. So once the gearhouse gives you that, then they leave you to battle with it and find a way to make it work. Are you making magic?

You have to make magic. So in most cases, putting us into tight corner is not the right thing to do.

Speaker A: 00:55:43

Okay. All right. So how can people keep up with, you know, projects you're part of and just general updates from you? How can people keep up?

Speaker B: 00:55:57

My Instagram is always open for me. Yeah, I've actually not posted some things in the world just for some reason, personal reasons, but it's actually very active.

My story is always active because I'm trying to also compile some. Some pictures because those projects are not out and the BTS pictures cannot be released now. Some currently just waiting for them.

So some other things and some other things I'm doing are actually popping on my Instagram page.

Speaker A: 00:56:25

Okay, what's your handle?

Speaker B: 00:56:28

Mato Light. M A T O L I G H T at Mato Light.

Speaker A: 00:56:34

All right. Nice one. Thanks, Matthew, for coming on the podcast.

Speaker B: 00:56:39

Thank you, sir. Thank you so much for having me.

Speaker A: 00:56:44

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