Conversations with Saied Ashour

Today we’d like to introduce you to Saied Ashour. 

Hi Saied, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstories with our readers.
My story is a bit interesting. Growing up my father was working at an animation studio, and I would go with him most days and meet the team etc. I fell in love with every part of creativity. I remember I would ask him to draw anything, and he can do it with his eyes closed. It was magic! Later on, he went on to open up his own design company and I was one of the people helping him move in and build desks. He really shaped and taught me more than he can imagine about business, art, software, IT, etc. I was never really a good student when it came to grades. I wasn’t dumb but I never understood the point of learning when the world was filled with so many other beautiful things. I later come to figure that learning is a key core essential part of life but anyway. Fast forward 16 years and my family and I moved to Doha, Qatar in 2011. I had a really hard time adapting to the climate and finding like-minded people to hang out with until I met my uncle from Aljazeera News. He opened up my eyes to fame and what it really is about since he was on TV on weekdays. Still feels weird to see him at family dinners. My uncle was generous enough to lend me his Sony Camcorder since he wasn’t doing as much journalism at the time. It kept me busy and the rest is history. At the time I made as many movies with every idea that crossed my mind. Learned how to mask and color grade. Edit sound effects, and layering. Codecs and format. Film and Digital. The most important thing I learned throughout the years is “to capture the perfect image, you must learn to slow down time.” Basically, never stopped learning about it while I did it all for money as a freelancer. 10 years of “practice” and I now own a Video Production and Photography company, Host The 2AM Podcast, and am a partner in a Large Print shop company called PhotoBoysinc. where I sell my photos and art! This journey is nowhere near ending but so far it has been a pleasure to meet everyone on my path and look forward to continuing to speak to my fans on the pod and continuing to connect with fellow humans! 

Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall, and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
As smooth as I like things to be, that was not always the case. Fun is a huge part of my work and lifestyle, but I learned quickly that most of your time goes to keeping things balanced and in order. For example, scheduling, meetings, and team/employee management all the way to having a strict sleep schedule to improve cognitive ability. All these things were necessary to later balance out my businesses then zoom out just a bit more and then comes my personal life. One of my most noted struggles was taking pride in my work over the years. I was too harsh on myself to see the beauty in my work to the point where I wouldn’t share and later stop doing it completely. I fell in a river of saturation. I had… imposter syndrome. Thanks to my lovely friends I was able to see why I stood out from all the visual craftsmen out there. I’m glad I listened and shared. 

Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
I am a man of many talents but one particular one is Cinematography. While I catered to businesses for so many years I eventually had to shift because I was losing myself to the money. The passion I started with was dying due to me not creating what I truly wanted to. I am a fanatic of film and storytelling mostly in the form of drama and rich character developments and visuals. I believe film is distinct from movies because it as a whole is a totally different feeling that ultimately determines the final experience as a viewer. As a cinematographer, I am in charge of leading the dance for the audience. I control how you feel based on the motions of the camera. In my personal life, I take pictures of everything all the time so much that it is beyond a hobby now. It is an extension of me. I love love love capturing people in their most dream-like state to create a feeling of “missing” or nostalgia. After all, a photo IS a memory. What I believe sets me apart from the others is my deep knowledge since starting early, I didn’t have nice cameras, so I decided to learn lighting and composition instead. It taught me the Philosophy of cinema rather than cool “cinematic” videography. I truly feel things and I truly bring it to life. 

What sort of changes are you expecting over the next 5-10 years?
My industry is going to thrive in the upcoming years seeing how everyone is in love with raw talent and movies. The biggest shift I see in the next 10 years is Podcasting for sure. I took it as an investment 3 years ago to consistently upload episodes to The 2AM Podcast and look where it got me. I am now Top 5% of podcast shows on Spotify and Apple Podcasts. Thanks to the help of my co-host Zaid K. Dahhaj for sticking with me through it all. Shout out to that guy. Keep your eyes on podcasting I definitely see the growth firsthand and it will soon have everyone hooked when there are enough niches and genres to cater to everyone. 

Contact Info:

• Website: the2ampodcast.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/visualcraftsmann/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/visualcraftsman
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCL7Q1LGhsp-49AuAw60Au4Q

Image Credits
Saied Ashour