Check Out Questin Clay’s Story

Today we’d like to introduce you to Questin Clay

Hi Questin, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today?
I’m a freelance cinematographer & photographer. I started doing video production at my local church as a teenager. After high school I went to North Carolina Central University received my bachelor degree in Mass Communications with a concentration in broadcasting. After college I worked as a shift lead at a manufactory company & part time at a photography company. As I worked these jobs, I started filming music videos for local artist. This made me accumulate some reputation in the surrounding areas of producing high quality video for a reason price. I officially registered my business in 2015 as A Guy Called Quest Productions. I’m a big Hip Hop head so I played off the legendary hip hop group A Tribe Called Quest name. Since every one calls me Quest for short, I’m literally A GUY CALLED QUEST.

I was also apart of a local music/media group with friends I went to college with called The Port. We were a group that hosted local showcases for artist, created media content before social media was big thing. We were a combination of musicians, videographers and photographer. We look back now and realized we were ahead of our time. After a couple years we all separated and I concentrated on building my brand.

A few years later I had started making a reasonable income with my own business so I quit both jobs and went full time self employed. I made this decision 5 months before the pandemic, so when we were on lockdown I feared that I made a bad decision. Around March I did a live recording for a local gospel artist. Many people seen this recording and I was able to survive financially doing live recording, live streams, promo videos & photography during the pandemic.

After the pandemic a lot of people and businesses started hosting events. I started to get reputation of shooting great recap videos, which through some networking I started filming event for Toyota marketing team. This brought more commercial brands ( P&G, Comcast, Athlete’s Foot, Xfinity, General Mills & NCAA) opportunities to my business.

So now, I have a successful multi-media business that I operate solo. Where I offer photography, live production, film making and content creation. This has been a long journey to get where I’m at now but I was determined to never work for no one else but myself.

We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
This journey was very difficult, trying to established a identity for my brand, accumulating the funds to purchase equipment and over all trying to understand how to run a business. I was a average student growing up but I had a love for the arts. I’m a very laid back person, I think learning how to communicate with people and learning finance has been a struggle for me.

Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
I offer photography, live production, film making and content creation.

At one point of my career I specialized in music video, which now I shoot few of. However, I have had a few of my music videos featured on some well known platforms. I’ve recently won best Male Hip Hop music video in 2024 at the Carolina Music Video Awards. This year I have two nominations at the same awards event. Back in January one of my video was add to the BET JAM music video rotation on TV. So I still do music videos just not as much as when I first started.

My live productions has brought me a lot of business as well. Since I did major in broadcasting, live production is the easiest service I offer. I do a lot of national recording artist live recording. Production for conferences, concerts and ect. One production I’m proud of was when I was contacted by local production company to put together a video team for Ed Mylett’s book release event about 2 -3 years ago. The company loved our work so much that we still film for them to this day for their other clients.

A lot of my videos & photography has been featured in media platform like News Observer, Triangle Business Journal, WRAL 11 News and Source Magazine, There are many more I just can’t think of them right now.

What sets me apart from others is my style of shooting. Professional photographer & videographers usually has a style of how they do things that attract clients. Its almost like going to buy shoes, you a have a certain style or brand that you like as a consumer. My style is very cinematic. I like my photos and videos to look like movie scenes.

What does success mean to you?
I define success as reaching a point in life where you are mentally, emotionally, and financially fulfilled, bringing genuine happiness. Once you’ve achieved that, the only direction left is to keep rising higher.

Pricing:

• Branding Video Package – $1000
• 4hr Event Photography – $800
• Ultimate 6K Music Video – $1000
• 360 Booth -$125/hr

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.aguycalledquest.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/aguycalledquest
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AGCQProductions/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@QuestinClay