At only 22 years of age, Matthew Muscat Drago already has a lot of film experience under his belt, including a Masters in Cinematography from the MET Film School in London. Although his area of expertise lies within the camera department, he is also a director, editor and musician.  

"I was intrigued by cinematography from a very young age," says Matthew, "When I was around 12 years old, my father had bought me my first DVD from Dubai. It wasn't the actual film that 'got' me, but the 'Behind the Scenes' section. Seeing all those people behind the camera made me excited and I wanted to learn more. So I took it from there, experimenting with the basic camera technology at the time to understand the medium, and seeing how far I could push it to tell a story through the use of images."

Matthew is lucky that his family and friends supported his choice of career whole-heartedly.

"I come from a bubbly and creative family, although none of them work in film directly," he explains, "Although working in the arts is not the typical 'steady job', my family and I have seen the potential of growing a solid business out of offering different aspects of production from concept to delivery. In fact, due to their genuine interest in this industry, they have become an integral part of my production team. My friends are always enthusiastic about my job, however sometimes they might not understand the sheer amount of work involved in creating the simplest of productions!"

Before going off to study in London a little over a year ago, Matthew had been busy working on more than one production as a second camera assistant on projects ranging from feature film production to commercials.

One of the biggest productions he was involved in was local feature film Simshar, which was the first Maltese. He also led his own small projects for various clients. Running parallel to his freelance work life was his student life at the Malta College of Arts Science and Technology, where he was one of the first cohort of students to graduate with a degree in BA (Hons) in Media (Moving Image).

Matthew says that his experience studying in London was a life-changing experience.

"While I was attending the MET Film School, which is located in the heart of one of London's first studios - Ealing Studios, I felt as though I was on-set for 13 whole months. I was also busy working with my friends - and now work colleagues - on projects. The learning curve was immense, as not only did I learn from cinematography tutors, but we helped each other learn."

At the school, he also was involved in an array of various short film and adverts for actual clients in London. One of the adverts was 'Mia's Story' (made for a branch of the NHS) which was screened at London Short Film Festival 2015 and Mind Rights Festival. He also worked on a short film called 'Still Water', which was nominated for Best Sci-fi/Fantasy Film at Screentest: National Student Film Festival 2015. 

Another project he worked on was 'Sheila' - the story of a domestic worker in South Africa, which was shot in Johannesburg. Together with his colleague Vicki Kisner, producer Guy Horlock and a large team, Matthew worked for four months to plan and execute a film half way around the world and return back with a refined short film that, he says, the whole team is very proud of. 

Now Matthew is back in Malta and currently concluding two short film productions that he shot in London remotely from Malta, while simultaneously working on a number of projects, including adverts, music videos and a feature film. In five years' time, he says he wants to be able to support himself fully through film-related productions as a Director of Photography.

"Malta has, is and will always be the perfect destination for the foreign film market to work in," he asserts, "The mentality is to think that Malta is only a "service provider" offering technical crew to assist the foreign heads of department to do their work. However as the years go by, more and more people are refining their craft locally and I feel they have the potential to do much more. Luckily enough I am already seeing this happening with the current feature films shooting in Malta over the coming months by having colleagues of mine work in higher capacities, including me."