Directed by Keenan Lam
This short cine-doc follows Faruq Balarabe, an 18 year old basketball player from London who was recently scouted to move to Canada to play for a college. The film explores his skills and mindset, delving into his thought process during games and intense training routines.
Sponsored by Lumix and shot on the S5 in BRAW.
READ OUR INTERVIEW WITH KEENAN
Tell us a bit about yourself and your filmmaking background
My name is Keenan Lam, and I am a 23 year old travel and lifestyle cinematographer and director based in London. I started my journey in filmmaking by making travel vlogs whenever I was fortunate to go on holiday with my family, and have since then been creating social media video content for brands across the globe. I’ve recently started to direct my attention toward sports based cine-doc films, as it allows me to get creative and produce high energy content that hopefully gets my audience excited when they watch it.
What drew you to tackling basketball as a subject and how did you find Faruq Balarabe?
Basketball was always been a sport I never got into until recently. My brother got into it last year, and has been going to play at our local outdoor court very regularly, so I joined him one day and found myself really enjoying it. I met Faruq whilst playing video games during lockdown, he was a friend of a friend. He told me that he played basketball, and I said that one day we’ll make a film together. Fast forward just over a year, Lumix came to me with a budget and a camera and asked me to create whatever I wanted. I knew this would be the perfect opportunity to film Faruq before he flew to Canada to play for a prep academy for the foreseeable future.
How did Lumix find you? Had you worked with them previously?
I had worked with Lumix previously on the launch of the S5 camera. I created a short film around a climber called Tom Gough and we shot it in the Peak District/Manchester. Lumix approached me with the idea of working together through a client I had worked with in the past who knew someone in the communications & marketing department in the Lumix HQ. With Above the Rim, they approached me again as they were a fan of my previous work, with the aim of me creating a film shot on BRAW. A new firmware update allowed the S5 to shoot in this codec via HDMI to the Blackmagic Design Video Assist 12G HDR monitor.
What obstacles did you overcome while in the making of this film?
Obstacle wise, the biggest thing to overcome was mainly time. The crew I wanted to work with were only available for 2 days, and the turnaround time for the final video was pretty tight (within 2 weeks). It meant I had to plan and organise the location, kit rental, shoot and edit within that timeframe.
The location rental costs were pretty high, and we only had 3 hours in the indoor basketball court to light it, shoot it and pack down. Initially, I was going to split the shoot into two days as I wanted to book another court, but as that was not available, we shot the whole film in a day.
Tell us about the journey of getting your film to audiences.
I posted my film onto Instagram and YouTube. I have a relatively decent following on Instagram, and used that to help get some exposure to the video. I was really pleased to see that a lot of people enjoyed the film and they kindly reshared it on their profiles to widen the reach. I then entered it into the Kino Short of the Week series as this was my first ever entry and my proudest video to date, and fortunately it was picked to be featured.
Any advice that you can give to other documentary filmmakers?
Tough one! I think my advice to documentary based filmmakers is to really focus on projects and ideas that you are genuinely in love with. Only then can you pour your best work into them and have the passion to develop interesting shot ideas and think out of the box. Another would be to bring people in on your project who you trust and love working with, because they get to see your process and filming from an outside perspective, and they can often offer up different framing and shot ideas that you might not have thought about because you’re so caught up in a shotlist you’ve created.
What are you working on now?
Currently, I’m working on developing an idea for a short film/commercial for an outdoor clothing company. I’d like to tie in a story to it, and document a creative who utilises the outdoors for inspiration or work.
Any film recommendations that we should add to our watchlist?
Film recommendations, interesting one! If we’re talking Hollywood, I’d recommend DUNE. Beautiful cinematography and the sound design is intense. Independent wise, I’d recommend checking out my friend Calum Currie, a London based DP. He’s recently created short films for Bertinet Bakery and Nokian Tyres, both incredibly encapsulating in terms of the story, shots and sound design.