We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Rahim Handy a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Rahim, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Let’s kick things off with your mission – what is it and what’s the story behind why it’s your mission?
After spending the last 10 years developing the craft of Documentary film work. Rahim Handy has been able to fine tune the art of documentary story telling and develop a filming style that transcends the standard talking head documentary into more of a raw real life experience where the viewer gets to becomes a witness of the story. Rahim Handy has been able to incorporate the real true reality of being there and wants to make sure that I tell stories that matter to the people that matter. How do I do that? I make sure that I attach myself into a story that connects to someones heart. I can’t make something important to others thats not important to the person whose story that it belongs to. With that Clear Motion Films has helped to produce so many stories across the United States with many partners that includes Commercial Banks, Non Profit Organizations as well as Celebrity Clients. I always wanted to make sure that Clear Motion Films never got stuck in the entertainment branch and produced just music videos. That was always supposed to be a small part of our company and I leveraged that more as a digital billboard. With Clear Motion Films, My mission is to give a voice to those who have none and to show the world the courage and determination of people who struggle every day to overcome adversity. As an entrepreneur, he has faced many challenges, but his passion and determination have led his company to success.
How’d you meet your business partner?
The day I met Dominic Fondon he was working with All Star Magazine taking photos for Doughski G a popular Rap artist with a hit single at the time they were in the Clear Motion Studio in Dallas off of mockingbird. I watched Dominic take 400 photos of the artist in the same spot with the same outfit and I pulled him to the side and told him he was doing it wrong. From there I was able to mentor him to become one of the premiere cinematographers in the industry based out of Atlanta and he now runs Clear Motion Films Atlanta location. We traveled all across the United States offering visual services for artist at the BET Awards and Community organizations affiliated with Potters House as well as Kingdom W.A.R. Church.
How did you put together the initial capital you needed to start your business?
Initially I was able to purchase my first camera in 2010 from a church who had upgraded their equipment and from there I was able to use credit to by another camera in 2011. The biggest camera purchase I made in the early days was when I was able to purchase a Ursa Mini 4.6k by leveraging my student loan refund. It was rough but I was able to get that camera and some accessories that changed the trajectory of my company at that time. I was now able to provide industry standard visuals for customers. The only problem I had to figure out after that was how to escape the 100-500 per project market. Now to purchase 100k worth of equipment in a fiscal year is something that happens when we make upgrades to our current gear packages. So that early purchase is more like a small purchase or a annual insurance policy now.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.clearmotionfilms.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rahim.cmf
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/clearmotionfilms
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rahimhandy/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/RahimCMF
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/user/clearmotionfilms
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/clear-motion-films-dallas
- Other: https://vimeo.com/clearmotionfilms
Image Credits
Cameron Sweet, JMcClure, FlyoverFilms