I Wanted to Become a Soldier Because I Was Surrounded By Soldiers

Buari Olalekan Oluwasegun, popularly known as Unlimited LA, is one of the biggest music video directors of repute in the music industry. Unlimited LA, who is responsible for Olamide’s “Motigbana”, 2face’s “Amaka”, and others, is also a renowned filmmaker and cinematographer. He talks to Tosin Clegg about his business

ADreams as a child

s a child, I wanted to be a soldier and that’s because I was surrounded by soldiers. Then later, I switched to aiming to become an engineer because I was also in love with tech stuff. At the end of the day, I’m a film maker but it is still tech stuff. I believe God has given us the grace to be and do whatever we choose. So, when I set my mind to do something, I get it done. For my primary education, I went to Command Children’s School in Mile 2 and for my secondary school I attended a small private school called First Zion International School. From there I ended up in the Lagos State University (LASU) where I studied computer science and

Mathematics. I’m from a family of five, one girl and four boys.

How Music video directing started

Back then in 2005, my cousin happened to be DJ Tee. I was always going to his place from school. On weekends, I would always go to his place and follow him on set. I used to be the errand boy. I did that for five years while in school. After I was done with school, the situation of the country where you go to serve during your NYSC year and join the labour market wasn’t for me because I hate waking up early in the morning. It was then I realised that it was simple for me to operate the camera and I already had knowledge of most things, when it comes to video production. I just started out being people’s camera operator, D.O.P and gaffer.

The Nigerian music industry

I would say the Nigerian music industry is the only thing that Nigerian youths look up to. It’s the only thing that’s being self-financed without government intervention, but I also think we’re not there yet. We have our own space, we’re not saying we want to be the next Chris Brown or anything but we have our own African sound, our Nigerian sound, we’re putting it on the map. We want to rub shoulders with real American music, the Latino music, the country music. I think we’re growing and the speed is really rapid. You can’t really tell how creative you are until you work on a project and you’re as good as your last project and the last project is yet to come because I’m shooting something today and I’m shooting another one tomorrow. There’s a lot of room to grow for creatives like me.

I’ve seen it all

I had about 10 years of work experience before I started working on my own. I would say I’ve seen it all. I’ve seen the ones that would misbehave; the ones that are not very serious, the talented ones, the serious ones, etc. So, working with these guys is just a normal work environment for me, it’s just business you know, I get paid then I deliver the work.

My Best Moments

The best moment for me is when I move with an artiste on a project from point A to point B. I wouldn’t call myself a selfish music director in the sense that I’m only concerned with how great I want people