Article on Shafilms by Voyage Houston Magazine

Meet Shareef of ShaFilms by VoyageHouston magazine

Today we’d like to introduce you to Shareef Wright.

Shareef, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far. Well, my story actually starts when I was very young. I always knew in some form or fashion I wanted to be involved in media, even from a very young age. But I think it really got serious when about a month or two after the attacks on the World Trade Center my brother suggested we drive there and put together a documentary on the events that were going on at the time. So we did and I got some much footage and interviewed quite a few people. At that moment I realize how serious this was and this type of work is exactly what I wanted to do.

However, I ended up losing all the footage from the few days we spent in New York.

However, I was not deterred. I decided that freelance videography and Journalism were fields in which I felt I loved and would enjoy doing. So from there, I started freelancing my services. Fast Forward to today I have been fortunate to film such things like commercials and interviews with politicians, astronauts and entertainers among others.

Has it been a smooth road? It is never a smooth ride. You have to look at it as a process and you have to be willing to learn the process. In this line of work, you are constantly dealing with different personalities from all walks of life which for the most part is a great thing because you can learn so much from people. I tend to like interactions because they always help you grow as an individual in your everyday life.

However what comes with dealing with so many people is that you get your fair share of people who do not understand or respect the process of filmmaking. So they do not value your work as you do or others who do understand. At times that can be a constant battle with people who want to hire you but really do not take the time to understand how the process works because of the age of social media where everything is pretty much a “right now attitude.

So let’s switch gears a bit and go into the ShaFilms story. Tell us more about the business. As of right now, besides doing freelance work for companies or individuals. I mainly concentrate on creating stock footage content were as I can create the content and put it on the market for others to use it in their production work.

A lot of people recognized me for my drone work. It is becoming a bit popular here in Houston. People now refer to me as “The drone guy” I actually create more content that does not involve drones but that is pretty much what I am becoming known for now. What I am most proud of as a company is that I am able to interpret what people are looking for and give them a lot more than what they actually expected.

I think what sets me apart from other companies is that I do not view every time someone hires me as just transactional. I work very hard to build a relationship with them and I go over and behind what most people are looking for. When I leave a client or wrap up a project I want them to be totally satisfied with the work I have done for them.

How do you think the industry will change over the next decade? To be honest I see ShaFilms taking on bigger projects in the film industry. I am moving towards just doing documentary work and/or providing high-quality stock footage for documentaries, movies, commercials or other types of film projects.