“…aiming for excellence even in the little things we do” Siemawi Jerry

“Amore,” a video clip of Onesimus Michael’s song, has recently won The Global Music Award (GMA)’s bronze. GMA promotes its honorees through social media and press releases to its proprietary list of over 2000+ musicians, music managers, record labels, industry contacts, and media and distribution outlets. Following is an interview with Siemawi Jerry, cinematographer, and director of the music video.

Congratulations on your success. Tell us about the competition.

GMA is a top-tier international music competition held in Los Angeles (California, USA) to honor talented musicians around the world. It is a platform for rewarding musical gems and unique voices. GMA is the music industry’s golden seal of approval, a stamp of credibility for gifted musicians. The video clips entered at the competition were more than 2000 that came from all over the world, and they mostly were Latino’s and songs in English. For our work, Amore, we were given a bronze award at the festival.

What is the video clip about?

It shows two youngsters, from different classes, falling in love in the blink of an eye. The young girl is the wife of an old rich man while the boy works as a waiter and singer at a club where they accidentally met. It shows the power of love in bringing two together despite the risks it entails.

Where did the inspiration for the project come from?

‘Titanic,’ the movie. It has one storyline, love bringing together a young man and woman who were at two extremes of the social strata. I believe that a work should have an identity. This identity can be based on the past, present, or future.

The song of the music video has a modern melody and Italian lyrics, and in the music video, we wanted to show the clothing style, the looks of the people, and the cars used in Eritrea during the Italian colonial period. With the project, we wanted to explore a little part of our history and present a love story.

What was the process of making the video clip like?

The pre-production period was time-consuming. After discussing with the team, we all got involved in getting the necessary materials for the video clip. I would like to thank Sabrin, a designer, for her hard work in collecting all the clothes from many people and the market for used clothes. Finding suitable actors was a challenge because they had to truly represent the people of the times, including their skin color.

The video clip features 25 to 30 people. When we were done with the pre-production stage, we had a two-hour arrangement of all the casts at Mocambo Club, and filming took an hour.

What do you say is the key to making a good video clip?

We all know that production cannot be done by one person. It’s teamwork, and we tried to put to good use the talents of our artists. I am saying this because I have seen incredible abilities in many Eritreans. What matters most is working with full responsibility and aiming for excellence even in the little things we do.

I would love to remind everyone to explore our treasures, such as historical sites and centuries-old buildings. We have events and stories waiting to be told. As we all know, in other countries, to get information, you are obliged to pay but, our society does it with pleasure. And this is one of the biggest treasures we haven’t well used yet.

Any final messages …

It is much better to impress the world with our own works instead of only being always impressed by others’ works. Ours has the richness of culture, history, identity, and many more that not only the world but also we, Eritreans, haven’t yet fully explored.

Thank you for your time, Siemawi.