In this episode of The Ajyal Show, director Mohammed Shams explains how an idea becomes a finished visual story. His route into directing was gradual rather than sudden. Photography, production and editing each brought him closer to filmmaking until the direction of his career became clear. He started out making films on his iPhone, because that was the camera he had, and those early films built his confidence, found him an audience and led to his first paid commercial.

Editing changed the way he directs. Because he thinks about the cut while shooting, he can tell which images the story actually needs and when a shot has already done its job. Moving from shooting everything himself to working with cinematographers also showed him where his own strength lies: holding the story and the direction clearly, while trusting the people around him to bring their own craft to it.

On creativity, Shams is practical. Rather than waiting for a brief to produce an idea, he collects ideas in quieter moments, often while driving, and saves them for when time is short. He sees the treatment as the tool that turns a vision in his head into something everyone can picture, using movement, pacing and references so that the client and crew see the same film before shooting begins.

He also questions every visual choice, believing that a camera move or a transition means more when it grows out of the story. He measures his progress against his own previous work rather than anyone else's, and he keeps a calm set, knowing that a director's mood travels quickly through a crew.

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