Video content has become a tool for business growth, yet many companies struggle to connect their stories with the right audiences. For Albuquerque entrepreneur Paul Jew, bridging the gap led to Moji Cinema, his company that produces professional videos for businesses and organizations with a story to tell.
Jew is an Albuquerque native whose roots stretch back a century. “My grandparents were one of the first Chinese families to settle in Albuquerque,” he says. They arrived in 1929, raising nine children during the Great Depression in the Burrell’s neighborhood. His mother was the second oldest, while his father immigrated from China at 18 and met her while serving in the military. He is the youngest of their three children.
After graduating from Highland High School, Jew earned a bachelor’s degree in psychology from the University of California, Irvine, followed by a master’s in business. His early career was in marketing research, until his brother, a photographer, invited him back to Albuquerque to manage the family photography business. “We eventually grew the business to three locations and diversified into school photography,” he says. In the early 2000s, he launched Moji Photography Studio to handle those contracts.
A workshop on micro-budget filmmaking changed his direction. “I was so captivated that I ended up forming a video division of our company,” Jew says. By 2018, he closed the photography studio to focus on video production. Today, Moji Cinema serves locally owned businesses and nonprofits, producing everything from anniversary films for restaurants to promotional pieces for law firms and community organizations.
Jew noticed early on that even great videos could go unseen online. “We realized that we needed to help our clients not only with the production of their video and telling their story, but also how to get their video out into the right audience,” he says. He adopted the “buyer’s journey” model that focuses on targeted distribution plans. “We want them to get seen by the right audience and make sure that it has an impact on their bottom line.”
According to Jew, many clients now sign retainers for ongoing content creation and distribution. “When we’re able to deliver results, people go, ‘okay, this is something we should keep doing,’ because it’s making money for them,” he says. His five-person team blends technical skill in cameras, lighting, and editing with expertise in digital metrics and ad placement.
Jew also has a passion for longer-form storytelling. He is working with a client, Rosario Roman, whose daughter was born without ears, to adapt her memoir into a feature film. “Her journey, I think, is very inspirational,” he says. “Hopefully we can impact millions of lives with it.”
He says the shift from photography to video production was his biggest professional challenge. “It was basically having to learn a new industry from scratch,” he says. Joining a network of other production companies provided guidance, but the learning curve was steep. “Eery year has been a learning experience for us.”
According to Jew, professional video is more than operating a camera. “Many people try and do it themselves, or they hire somebody that does a good job capturing things on camera, but they don’t know the other part of how to implement those videos and get them to the right people.” Years of trial and error have enabled Moji Cinema to guide clients toward a real return on investment.
To address New Mexico’s business climate, Jew focuses on youth crime through education, and fostering responsible business ownership. “Policies need to be made with that in mind,” he says. “We can’t continue to hamper them in their efforts to do the right thing because they have so many tools and things that make it difficult to make ends meet.”
According to Jew, it's about making sure stories reach the people who need to hear them. “We just continue to try and learn and develop the best practices for how to do things,” he says. “That’s the favorite part of what I do—helping our clients with their strategic objectives.”
