Ready for Our Close-Up

Waheed AlQawasmi is one of Jeff and Ted's former film and television students. He was in Mr. Horrell's Introduction to Film & Video class as a sophomore and immediately demonstrated a passion for the art of visual storytelling. His family recently had immigrated to the U.S. from Jordan, and while still mastering the English language, Waheed starting making great strides in his artistic pursuits.

Now, not even two years out of high school, Waheed is off to a great start in his career. He is a skilled still photographer, graphic designer, cinematographer, editor and budding director. Waheed works with Running Pony Productions here in Memphis, but his true passion is working on his own indepedent film projects with a core of key collaborators. He's started a production company called WAFILMS, and he's embarking on a project in which he will shoot and edit three music videos for artists with widely varying musical styles.

And who might some of Waheed's featured artists be? Yep...his old teachers. Last weekend, Waheed and crew started shooting a video for "So Much Clearer" from our 2005 release Can't Remember the Last Time. While we've been featured in some television specials, this is our first "official" music video, and we're mighty flattered that Waheed thought to approach us with the idea.


So, where is the band, you ask? Well, Waheed thought it best to shoot the most important (and better looking) people first. Just kidding, Waheed! That's only partially true. Waheed shot the "story" part of the video first due to the band's erratic schedule right now. The actress, by the way, is a Memphian by the name of Micki Rogers. We're planning to shoot some performance sequences in the next month or so that will be intercut with what's already been shot. We haven't seen any of the video yet, but based on the looks of these behind-the-scenes photos, we can't wait to see what Waheed has in the works!

We plan to premiere the video at a special show this spring. In the meantime, keep it right here for updates, and keep up with the progress of a brilliant young artist at www.wafilms.com. Way to go, Waheed!