On the other side of the camera

Wambui Kairo, the director and owner of One Boy Productions. PHOTO | JENNIFER MUIRURI  NATION MEDIA GROUP

In Summary

• My company provides production services for local and foreign projects like advertisements, documentaries, films, and TV shows
• This is my sixth year since I started One Boy

By Kinuthia Mburu
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Wambui Kairo is the director and owner of One Boy Productions, a film production company in Nairobi.

If I am having a shoot, I wake up before 4am, but on other days I wake up at 6am. The first thing I do is take a cup of tea as I respond to the most urgent emails. I leave the house at around eight in the morning and get to the office at around 9am.

At the office, I confirm the day’s schedule and plan for the meetings I need to attend. These include meetings with clients or with colleagues at the Creative Content Task Force, the Kenya Oscars Committee, and Kenya Film and Television Professionals Association where I sit in various capacities.

My company provides production services for local and foreign projects like advertisements, documentaries, films, and TV shows.

This is not an industry for the faint-hearted. Personally, I operate under the ‘ability to work long and odd hours’ cliché. I have worked my way up from a production runner all the way to a producer and a production company owner.

This is my sixth year since I started One Boy. I pride myself for having brought the Hollywood production crew for the movie First Grader – a film about Kimani Maruge, the oldest pupil in the world then – here rather than the destined production location in South Africa. It has not been easy and the biggest virtue I have learned is the art of working hard day after day.

HANDS-ON FILMAKER

I am a hands-on person and apart from being a professional filmmaker, I prefer to handle all aspects of production from administration to logistics. It is a demanding job and the working hours are determined by a production’s schedule.

Once in a while, we get caught up in an interesting scenario on the job. For instance, there was this time we got stranded in the middle of Amboseli National park while filming. I arrived at the park’s airstrip en route to our next filming location and while there, I realised that the chartered flight I had ordered was less two seats.

Given the situation, a crew member and I opted to stay behind, but after the plane had left it dawned on us that we were literally stranded in the middle of a national park full of wild animals. With no one in sight but wild animals, we decided to work out a way out of the park on foot and despite the danger lurking in the shadows, we went out safely.

Although I come from a big family, I do not have a family of my own yet. So, whenever I leave work early, you’ll find me dancing or eating out somewhere. On a normal day, I arrive home by 7pm and watch a movie or two. Movies are a must in my line of work. If I had a shoot, I work late into the night and get home at around midnight.