Mustapha Kseibati

It was the competition / scheme that allowed me to make my first short film back in 2009. It was focused on grass root support for diverse filmmakers and was run by B3 Media. The support was incredible both in development of the script, production and post production. It has to be said that at the time I wrote my first short film I was working in a call centre after having nowhere to leapfrog to, after my time at Vertigo Films editing. 

Going back though – After obtaining a BA in Multi Media Production I landed a job at Urban Music Station ‘Channel U’. This was off the back of a music video I directed as an end of year project. I spent three years there directing, shooting and editing shows like The Ace and Viz Show, The Tim Westwood Show, flying out to New York to meet various Hip Hop acts like Terror Squad, Jay Z’s label, Q-Tip and others. After my time at Channel U I started running over at production company Partizan as I wanted to branch out. At Partizan I began working behind the scenes on high-end commercials for Shell and music videos for Lily Allen and Mark Ronson to name a few. At Partizan, and from my time at Channel U, I met a friend (director Dan Sully) who worked over at MTV. They happened to be looking for interns and I landed the gig. I was producing, editing and directing content for people such as Scissor Sisters, Lethal B, Wu-Tang Clan, Plain White T’s and more. 

With digital online media taking dominance and changing the way consumers engaged with music, MTV’s advertisement revenue took a big hit and they had to scale down, meaning I was out of a job. But I met someone at my time there who knew people at Vertigo Films; he put me in touch and I found myself editing behind the scenes footage for some of their movies. That lasted a year and with nowhere to go, I got a job in a call centre handling angry customers over the phone. That’s where I wrote my second short film Skateboards and Spandex.

My third film Painkiller was also commissioned by B3 Media as well as the BBC Writersroom. It stars the rather brilliant Benedict Wong (Moon, Prometheus) and Franz Drameh (Attack the Block). I also worked with a great producer Michael Berliner. I think we both grew together over making those early shorts and we really complimented each other. He’s one of the most hardworking and honest guys I’ve had the pleasure of working with. We shot Skateboards and Spandex on £10k, and Painkiller on £3k! He’s put in so much hard work into all our films and there’s no way the films would be as good as they are without him. Surrounding yourselves with the right people is so important!

I feel incredibly fortunate to have been supported by B3 Media in making my first three short films. Off the back of Skateboards and Spandex I got picked up by an agent. However, I knew I still had to graft myself and keep making work, so off the back of Painkiller, I submitted a draft of my latest short film Mohammed for the BFI Shorts scheme. It was run by the good guys at Lighthouse Arts in conjunction with the BFI to help give standout filmmakers a stepping-stone toward their first feature. Sixteen films were selected in the end, including the outstanding SLR by Stephen Fingleton. After an interview, I was chosen to attend a workshop with my peers. Then we had to re-submit and I was lucky enough to be awarded funding. The BFI were so supportive every step of the way from script development all the way up to the shoot, production, post-production and delivery.