Among his many achievements, Yassin Gabriel has served on the jury at the Tisa Film Festival in Tisa, Morocco; received the best picture, best sound, best editing, and best acting for his movie “Sanity” at the Yousef Chahine’s Film Festival in Cairo, Egypt; and produced five awareness films, two short films, four documentaries, a couple of ads,  and more than 120 music videos. In the following interview, Yassin shares what he learned when making “Place That Matters,” a runner-up in the 2017 MobileMovieMaking Memorable Places competition.

MMM: How did you develop your skills as a filmmaker?

YASSIN: I studied film in college and earned a achelor’s degree in Cinema Production and Film Directing?

MMM: So you focus on directing?

YASSIN: Yes, but I’ve also written a number of scripts, was director of photography for a TV show, and was sound engineer on two movies. Plus I created an online show and a TV show.

MMM: Turning your entry in our contest–“A Place That Matters”—what motivated you to make that movie?

YASSIN: Although I live in a big city, I wanted to show where I find feel ultimate serenity.  It’s where I can get in touch with the roots of my soul.

MMM: How long did the shoot take?

YASSIN: Four hours.

MMM: Did you encounter any unexpected difficulties?

YASSIN: I shot the movie using both an iPhone 6+ and a GoPro. The IPhone 6+ has amazing stabilization and the quality of the footage shot in the morning is amazing. The problem is the difference between the iPhone and the GoPro in terms of quality. I did my best to tune them in the postproduction. Also, the night footage didn’t come out as I expected so I tried to be creative about it at the end of the video.

MMM: Do you have any advice for a novice who’d like to start making mobile movies?

YASSIN: Chose the right time and frame your scene with a good depth of field. You will need  good lighting technique to shoot at night. And in general, try to avoid any automatic focus or adjustments.

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You can learn more about Yassin’s work at Facebook.com/YassinGabriel.