Simon James Gill

Simon James Gill (born August 14, 1990) is an independent filmmaker living in New York, USA. After getting a diploma in video production from National College of Arts (NCA) Lahore, Pakistan in August 2013, his passion for filmmaking became like a beast that could no longer be imprisoned. While working as a project manager at an international firm, his focus remained on camera work and learning new editing skills on after effects. He started working with his close friend to get some practical knowledge of the camera and sat late nights learning editing techniques online. He did his first project to practice visual effects stuff behind the camera, which later made him ambitious about Science Fiction and whatever goes behind making it. In order to market his work, he started to work with college students of media as a freelancer to help them create videos for their grades. This helped him gain experience. However, working as freelancer and a project manager didn't work for long, so he decided to quite his white collar job and started getting his hands real dirty. But things always don't work out as planned. He struggled to get commercial projects but all he kept getting was short films, news packages and short TV ads for different university students. On November 17, 2015 he got his first commercial project for Diamond Paints Pakistan that became a turning point for his work and confidence as an independent film maker. Other than that, his work includes conceptual videography and wedding highlights. "Learn until your lungs breath out" was his moto. Having practical experience but less theoretical, he decided to choose film making as his graduate program at Beaconhouse National University, Lahore on February 1, 2016. His study on filming techniques and practical experience on visual effects, led him to choose science fiction as a final project which helped him convince himself and the faculty that science fiction is a genre worth teaching in Pakistan because due to lack of technology and awareness, science fiction has always been neglected and never been properly used on commercial scales. Later on June 13, 2016 he moved to USA, New York for further studies and pursue filmmaking as his career. New York has been a great blessing for him. He has worked with various local artists and have helped direct music videos for them. He has also worked on different short films for upcoming actors and directors. He co-produced his first Short film "Silent Road" which was very well received at a private screening in Brooklyn on July 23, 2018. His work has "the feel good" factor but his thirst for more and achieve something big will always remain.