“With cinematography, I feel that there are no rules, only guides. For me personally, I believe the “rules” should be learnt to have a base of knowledge to start from, but they should never restrict you from experimenting outside of them.”
Homeplace Magazine: Introduce yourself and the work you’ve been up to!
Monique Siziba: My name is Monique Siziba, and I am a 17-year-old cinematographer from Hertfordshire, UK. I’m only early in my career, but my journey into filmmaking began when I chose Media BTEC for my GCSEs. From here, I’ve continued into studying at the London Screen Academy, going into my second year specialising in grip after I had left secondary school in 2025. From then, I’ve had the opportunity to work on multiple projects in and out of LSA as a DOP, most recently being “The Interview” directed by Emmanuel Kolapo, which has just recently wrapped, and “No Saint” directed by Denis Curej, which a group of 8 other young, talented filmmakers made whilst at the NFTS Academy.
HPM: What do you think draws you to cinematography specifically instead of another part of filmmaking?
MS: When I first decided to go into film, I originally wanted to be just a director, but then I realised that I firstly just enjoyed using cameras more, but that I loved being a part of building a story and meaning through the visuals with camera and lighting, and I found the most joy seeing the visuals develop from pre-production into production and, of course, the final result.
HPM: When you’re starting a new project, what usually comes first for you: the story, the visuals, a feeling, or something else?
MS: When working on a new project, the first thing that usually comes to me is little glimpses of what the visuals look like in my head and the general mood around the scenes I gravitate the most towards.
HPM: How do you balance learning the “rules” and technical aspects of cinematography in school while still developing your own style?
MS: With cinematography, I feel that there are no rules, only guides. For me personally, I believe the “rules” should be learnt to have a base of knowledge to start from, but they should never restrict you from experimenting outside of them. Being in school learning these guides was definitely helpful in giving me a place to start, but once I felt comfortable with them, I started to look outside of them, and that’s when my own style started to develop.
HPM: How do you know when a shot feels “right”?
MS: When I know a shot feels right is when I see my eyes being drawn to the right things and I’m able to give reasoning behind almost every aspect of the shot, even if some choices just feel intuitive and more towards being my style. I know a shot is right when I can take a step back and feel proud of what I’m seeing.
HPM: What parts of your own life or experiences tend to show up in your films?
MS: I think every emotion and part of my life is shown through my work. The films I’ve worked on always take some sense of influence from the collection of experiences I’ve had from birth, even if it’s not explicit. In the films I’ve directed, I tend to share stories that I feel have impacted me or seen affect others negatively. For example, on my last passion project/college FMP, I made a short film around the story of a young man who grew up isolated and later confided in AI chatbots to fill the void that stayed with him. Although the story is not from my life, certain aspects of mine influenced this short film. That being said, I have not developed projects myself; I only tend to work on films I feel a connection to in some way.
HPM: Do you think being young changes the kinds of stories you want to tell?
MS: Not the stories, but maybe the perspective I tell these stories from; I think these mostly come from experience rather than the age in years.
HPM: What’s a project you would make if you had unlimited time and resources?
MS: A film exploring the complex relationship between a mother and daughter.
HPM: If someone looked through your camera roll, what would they learn about you?
MS:
- Film obsessed
- Don’t know how to delete multiple photos that look the same
- Love my family, friends and being creative
- I love upcycling old clothes and painting
HPM: What’s something you’re curious about right now outside of filmmaking?
MS: At the moment I’m interested in the fashion industry and how it reflects society a lot more than I had thought.
HPM: What advice would you give to someone who wants to start creating but doesn’t know where to begin?
MS: Don’t let resources restrict you, whether it’s a phone camera, pencil, fabric, or paper; whatever you want to explore, just pick it up and do whatever comes to your head first. Take the most accessible action for you and build on it. The first thing you create does not need to be perfect; it just needs to come from you.