VCL Studios since 1993 remains the longest standing still operative production house in Kampala. The company is a long term side project of a wealthy lawyer and business magnet John Katende, who remains a decidedly unique figure in Ugandan cultural history. Katende has established himself as a renaissance man of sorts; the creation of VCL (Videographics and Cineamatrography Limited) came fast on the heels of the establishment of a theatre company, The Ebonies, for which Katende wrote the scripts and directed the productions. The Ebonies first appeared in the early nineties as a musical review or variety group with some comic sketches but soon they were appearing in full scale semi satirical plays concocted for maximum impact: elements of sex, violence, farce and melodrama were freely piled up.

They established VCL in order to begin production of Sitcoms for television with his large stable of actors. Katende will always be remembered as the creator of the first popular and effective Uganda sitcom, That's Life, Mwatu which was in production for fourteen years. Katende has continued to follow up and create variations on this basic template which has resulted in similar sitcoms: These Things Happen, Bibaawo (12 years on the air), Kitoobero, Ala Carte (8 years on the air). Currently he has two new programs on television updating the time honored approach entitled That's It, Kyekyo and OMG—Oh My God!  Katende was innovatory in several respects with his Ebonies Theatre group and its stage shows. He basically began to produce his stage shows as if they were television sitcoms. To accomplish this he videotaped sections of his play in actual locations and incorporated these pre-taped scenes into the play. Beyond this, Katende took the media interpolation one step further. He had his entire cast prerecord the spoken dialogue and the songs that they invariably sing throughout the show so that the live show resulted in actors mouthing in lip synch fashion to their own voices. Katende saw this as an efficiency measure which prevented actors from making mistakes and guaranteed himself complete control, little realizing that the outrageous distancing effect that occurs would be judged as fashionably avant-garde to contemporary Western sensibilities. The importance of this approach is two-fold: to a consideration of the development of video production in Kampala: first Katende conceived of multimedia projects that twisted theatrical events into live feature film hybrids before anyone had attempted a dramatic feature film in Uganda and, secondly, this represented a future trend in which theatre companies would gradually turn their energies toward getting their dramas on tape rather than performing them live and of course this could not be viewed as a positive development. It should be pointed out that in spite of these innovations, Katende has never considered making a feature project and has remained focused on the half hour sit com format in spite of the fact that his stage shows routinely run  over three hours in length, apparently with the idea that this is greater value for money. Katende now represents an older generation whose current work has been largely superceded by younger makers and audiences although his traditional comedies have remained popular. Technically, his comic sit com work has improved over the years but still represents a more conservative approach in comparison with more ambitious and trained filmmakers. Katende is unique in that these productions have always seemed to be somewhat of a hobby for him.