Meet the dynamic duo of homegrown YouTube channel, The Userguide! Say hi to Benji & Jon!
Hello The Userguide!
Hey there! We are The Userguide, we are content creators that produces digital advertisement as well as short films on the side.
Tell us your journey as a filmmaker! When did you first discover your passion for filmography?
Both of us come from very different backgrounds; Jon is from an accounting background and I was a dropout from an audio engineering school. It was in 2010 when we first talked about doing a short film together but never really gotten about it until 2014! After coming out with few films on YouTube we got to meet many of the awesome YouTubers that really help fuel our passion in what we do. I guess what really drives us as film makers are the friends that we make along the way; without the encouragements and friendships, we wouldn’t be where we are today.
What inspired the both of you to be filmmakers?
It was actually a good friend of ours, Roy Ajong, who we met while we were still doing our wedding gig on a regular basis told us that we have an eye for angles and telling stories. He encouraged us to start doing short films and you can say that the rest is history.
How would you describe your film making style?
We are really about telling stories; we aim to make it as interesting as possible without losing touch of what we want to convey to our audience. We do do a lot of films with the topic of romance, so if I could sum up our style in one word, it would be “warmth”.
On a daily basis, how are you inspired to produce content?
We are generally really observant people, we do take notice of what’s going on around us and that’s how inspiration strike us most times. Sometimes inspiration comes to us when we are going different things or phases in life. Oh! Hup Seng as well.
Tell us a random fact about The Userguide!
Well, A lot of people of know that we started this out together as friends but what they din’t know is that we actually didn’t really like each other in the beginning..
Describe The Userguide in 3 words.
Passion, Faith & “Hup Seng cream crackers”
Any upcoming projects?
We are currently focusing on really tuning up what we’ve done so far and taking our time to really produce films that we can be proud of. As of now, we are aiming to take part in a few foreign film festivals in the coming months, one of it being Tokyo international film festival to which we are shooting a short entirely in Japanese!
What is a typical day in your life?
Pitching for work, Texas Fried Chicken, thinking about our next short film, running pre-production and actual production, long editing hours, occasional silence.
What is your all-time favourite film?
Benji: Eternal Sunshine of The Spotless Mind! Kimi no nawa is my current favorite; all of Makoto Shinkai’s work!
Jon : Dark Knight, Forrest Gump, lately been more engrossed and drawn to Japanese films and Japanese animation.
Any life mottos?
Jon: “Trust the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding, in all your ways acknowledge Him and He shall direct your path,”
Benji: “Maybe the things that are most important in this life, you have to fight for.”
Who is your all time inspiration in life?
Jon : God and a lot of inspiring people, (I don’t have anyone in particular) I try to take in and learn as much as I can from anyone with amazing stories who are hardworking and through that lead to amazing achievements
Ben: I guess for me would be Jon Foreman from Switchfoot; a really amazing individual who really inspires me that there is more to what we are living for, to really push beyond what we can see or imagine.
Tell us what makes you smile the most? ☺
Jon : Family, friends, good food!
Ben: Family, friends and cookies.
Where do you see yourself in 2 years’ time?
Ben: We hope to be able to expand and really take on the creative side of things fully, we are aiming to join film festival as well teach/speak films to students!
Jon : Hopefully we will be able to be a part of film festivals and such.
Find out more about The Userguide here:
YouTube
