Today we’d like to introduce you to Abdul Sesay.
Hi Abdul, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
How I started as Filmmaker/Writer began writing as child in middle school. In high school, I used to be in several Hip-Hop groups. After some time, I started to realize that most of my rhymes were predominantly conceptual and story-oriented. Opposed to my group members, which were typically more of the braggadocios kind. By the time I was in the 12th grade I was a subpar student and a self-proclaimed class clown. One day, my English teacher Mrs. Brown gave all of us an assignment where we could write essay on anything that we wanted to. So, I decided to write a story regarding a relationship that touched on the subject matter of AIDS and the aftermath of that situation. She was so enamored by the story that she entered it into a writing competition. That’s when I kind of knew that I had a penchant for writing.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way? Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
No, it has not been a smooth road, but to be honest it hasn’t been a grueling one either. The thing is, when you’re doing something that you’re passionate about, you’ll find out that there are other skills that you have to acquire to realize that dream. I heard an example on Film Courage (a YouTube channel for screenwriters) and I’m paraphrasing here. When you open up a pizza parlor, in order to succeed, it’s not enough just to say I have the best pizza in town, so this business is going to be a success. It may be true that you have the best pizza on the block, but if you don’t know how to market, hire the right people, set up payroll, etc. you won’t be able to run a successful pizza parlor. The same can be said with filmmaking. If you don’t know how to lead a team, galvanize your target audience, and market your projects. Then how are people going to know that you even have a film or TV series out? So, wearing those additional caps makes the road bumpy at times, but once you stay locked in, just know that all of that hard work pays off when work is being seen by the masses. Which as a creative makes it all worth it.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
I’m a Filmmaker/Screenwriter. I specialize in formulating thoughts/ideas and putting them onto paper. Then taking what’s on paper and transferring those ideas to a visual medium like the movie theaters and television sets. What I’m most proud of is my ability to follow through. There are times when things just aren’t syncing. Whether it’s pre-production, production, or in post. However, no matter what the situation is or how it may arise, I continue to push through and make sure that I complete the task at hand. What sets me apart from others? That’s a great question. Well as the saying goes there’s no idea original under the sun. So, I would say that what separates me from others is how I present those ideas. How I go about reinventing those concepts to make them my very own. It’s all about perspective and your vantage point. It’s like we all could be at the same event, let’s say a concert. But at the end of the day, we’d all tell the story differently based on our backgrounds, who we went with, what time we arrived and left, and so on. So that’s my mindset. How can I tell this story differently, so it’s interesting and compelling enough to resonate with my audience.
Before we go, is there anything else you can share with us?
I like to add that I’m a part of a writing team that goes by the name of The Collective Writers Group. We have a project that is in pre-production called Blindsided, which is a TV Series that touches marital issues, involving economics, infidelity, and much more. You can follow our pages on Facebook and Instagram @thecollectivewritersgroup. Also, my partner Darren C. Murray and I have a short that we co-produced and directed called It Could Be You. The Director of Photography was Charlie Knott and features talented actors such as James Ingram, Jonathan Balagizi, Phil Ramos, and AB Johnson. Finally, I’d like to thank VoyageATL Magazine for this opportunity to shed some light on what we do here at Sa-Loan Productions. This is such a wonderful platform to showcase up and coming as well as established creatives and businesses. Thank you!
Contact Info:
- Website: saloanpro.com
- Instagram: @sa_loanpro
- Facebook: facebook.com/tejan.sesay.31
- Twitter: @ASesay78
- Other: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm8310981/?ref_=fn_al_nm_1
Image Credits
@231media
@photo_sensai
