Director's Note
Building films and frames the way engineers build systems.
Gerald Kamau is a Kenyan director, cinematographer, and founder of Freeze Frame Productions. His work lives where documentary honesty meets cinematic control — carefully designed frames that still leave room for real, unplanned emotion.
Before the studio, there were borrowed cameras, school plays, church events, and late nights cutting short films on a laptop that overheated after every render. That scrappy season shaped a director who respects both the craft and the constraints — time, budget, people, and the weight of the stories being told.
Today, Gerald leads productions that range from intimate weddings and Ruracio ceremonies to music videos, TVCs, and campaign films — always with the same obsession: stories that feel honest, look premium, and age well.
Story so far
From school corridors to set calls.
Gerald's first "sets" were school auditoriums and dusty fields — shooting drama festivals, music performances, and sports days with whatever camera was available. Those early years were less about gear and more about instinct: where to stand when someone laughs, how to anticipate the big moment, when to stay wide and when to move in.
In higher education, he studied a blend of media, design, and technology, constantly slipping between edit suites and computer labs. While classmates were producing assignments, Gerald was already treating each project like a client brief: structured timelines, clear shotlists, and deliverables that felt "real world".
Outside class, he volunteered on passion projects — short films, spoken word videos, worship nights, and campus events. Every shoot became a testing ground for new lighting setups, lenses, and story structures. That relentless experimentation laid the foundation for the visual language he uses today.
Early milestones
- • Shot and edited school and campus events long before "content creation" became a job title.
- • Directed first short film using borrowed gear and a crew of friends from class.
- • Built a reputation for delivering on time, even when timelines and budgets were tight.
- • Started attracting paying clients while still a student — small businesses, churches, and artists who needed visuals that felt intentional.
Years in the field
A decade of learning by doing and shipping.
Gerald's journey spans more than 10 years behind the camera evolving from solo shooter to director leading multi-person crews across weddings, commercial sets, and documentary projects.
Freelance shooter & editor.
Covering weddings, church events, and small brand shoots often handling everything from pre-production to final delivery alone.
From solo to small team.
Building a network of camera ops, sound techs, and editors; learning how to lead sets, not just survive them.
Stepping into bigger briefs.
Directing music videos and branded pieces where story, visual language, and performance all had to align with a larger campaign.
Formalizing the studio.
Turning years of hustle into a production house with defined processes, repeatable quality, and a clear creative direction.
Directing Philosophy
Quiet confidence behind the monitor, loud emotion on screen.
Gerald believes the best sets feel organized but not rigid; structured, but not stiff. Actors, couples, CEOs, and kids all perform better when they feel seen, not managed. So the work starts long before "Action" in conversations, references, and aligning on what the story should feel like.
Technically, he leans towards clean compositions, controlled movement, and color that supports emotion instead of distracting from it. Narratively, he's drawn to tiny details: hands, glances, reactions on the edge of frame moments that audiences remember even if they can't explain why.
Above all, Gerald treats every project like something people will look back on years from now, not just content for the week. That long view shapes how he directs, edits, and delivers.
Selected Highlights
- • Directed and shot dozens of weddings & Ruracio ceremonies with multi-camera coverage and cinematic edits.
- • Led production on music videos and performance visuals for emerging and established artists.
- • Developed brand and campaign films that shipped across social media, YouTube, and internal corporate channels.
- • Built Freeze Frame Productions into a repeat partner for clients who return year after year for new projects.
- • Mentored younger shooters and editors, helping them adopt a structured, story-first approach to client work.
In his own words
"My job is simple: protect the story and protect the people in it. If we do that well — with craft, patience, and a bit of courage — the images will take care of themselves."
— Gerald Kamau, Director & Founder, Freeze Frame Productions