Daily Inspiration: Meet Umang Sampat

Today we’d like to introduce you to Umang Sampat.

Hi Umang, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today.
“Be it eating or studying – it’s close to impossible to have him sit in one place for more than 20 minutes” I’ve heard my mother describe me so, on countless occasions. She says I’ve been that way ever since I learned to walk. This exhilaration of being on my toes and visualizing everything that my brain thinks of has conjured up my love for being behind the camera to tell a story and make these visuals come to life as a director of photography. The beautiful part about being a DP in my opinion is that you get to visualize what someone else is imagining and you actually bring that to life.

My journey started fairly young. I was 16 years old when I first picked up the camera as an intern photojournalist for a local upcoming digital newspaper in Mumbai, India. Over the years followed and transitioned into a motion picture as I kept on taking projects which required me to make small films or commercials about small businesses I would come across as clients and also for my educational institution.

I moved to Los Angeles in late 2021 for my one-year Conservatory course in Cinematography and during and post which I’ve shot multiple short films, music videos, and commercials as a DP as most of us know, being in this industry is an ever-learning and growing process so here I am, just entered the room with the ladder learning and growing every single day with a dream to climb up the ladder in the years to come.

I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey has been a fairly smooth road?
The answer to if things or a journey was smooth is obviously pretty subjective. Although I consider myself pretty privileged because I got to pursue what I actually felt I was interested in at a very young age and for someone from my country to move out to study film is not an everyday scenario to witness.

However, everybody has their own journey and their struggles. In particular, I would say my struggle is having ADHD at quite a severe level and fighting such a condition, especially in a profession as demanding and hectic as I am things can get pretty stressful. Coming back to if it has been a smooth road, I feel it’s been pretty smooth on a macro level so far but it’s about to get bumpy as just like most of us I too have big dreams to live and as we know they don’t come in as easy!

Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
My background is as a freelance videographer and editor back in India and hence I’ve always been multitasking because of the nature of that job as a DP multitasking, management and communication are the most important in my opinion.  I firmly believe in “story first” and the rest can be worked on the basis of what the story demands. My first approach to lighting a scene is always visualizing how the said scene would be set in reality and I try and reach the said “natural” look with a tad bit of enhancement so that when a viewer is watching they can easily relate and believe what they’re watching on screen and that in my opinion really helps in making your viewers feel like a part of what they are watching and connect to your story easily.

I started working in media at the young age of 16 and by the time I was 20 I had already established myself among the small businesses around me with a few big clients on my resume as well like Hyundai, Bumble, Tata, Top Gear, and many more.

I was the first of the two Indians who were selected for “the not normal show” by filmmaker Dan Mace where one had to put in their unfinished idea to create a film on the show website and among thousands of entries from around the world and India, I was fortunate enough to be one of the two selected from India and director Dan Mace flew into Mumbai and we created a musical on my idea “turning the ordinary into extraordinary” which ended up garnering pretty good attention on the Internet.

I believe my consistency and the hunger to tell stories and be a part of as many stories as I can be a part of in any capacity puts me in a place setting me apart from others.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://m.imdb.com/name/nm13553227/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sampatumang/
• Other: Umang Sampat | Cinematographer +1 (747) 305 3784

Image Credits
Dilpreet Shah Singh