Shahriar Rahman

Unaffiliated

What was your first professionally directed work and when was it?
Near the start of my career, I was the chief of production at a TV channel based in NYC. It was the most transformative experience of my life. As I explain in the following questions, difficult circumstances compelled me to take this job, as four years before I had “fallen out” of status due to an error by a government agency. While at STV, I had the good fortune to direct numerous shows for broadcast and commercials for small, local businesses. I have learned quite a bit about the “production triangle” of the art, the machine, and the resources. Though I was paid for this work, I do not consider it “professional” enough to count. So although I never have been a professional director, I have some meaningful experience.

How did you get into directing?
I never intended to go to film school or become a director – my childhood dream was to become a doctor. My parents were both doctors in Saudi Arabia, the country from which I emigrated to the U.S. at age 15. My student visa was the ticket and first step in my pursuit in studying medicine, I thought. But something unimaginable happened when I was 18. I stumbled upon a film display at college. Intrigued, I took my first Intro to Film course, and although I loved it and continued in the film track, I was not ready to give up my resolution to go to medical school. That all changed when the USCIS made an error in my green card petition, plunging me into an existential crisis. I was asked to leave the country in 4 months, and medical school became a non-reality. So I set my heart fully on a film directing career, although I was deprived of the normal pathway to this career.

In a sense, though, I was always a director. My most prized possession since 12 was my dad’s National M7 VHS video camera. I made 30 short films with it growing up, starring my brother and friends. I recorded Arabic commercials off the TV and dubbed them with my humorous English renditions. My family loved these “screenings.” I was already living the life.

What is your most recent project?
My most recent project is a spec commercial I directed for Black Opium, a YSL perfume. I am enamored by bold glamour, and this project was my first foray into LED volume and virtual production. The technique is typically used to save on VFX labor but in this case, non-intrusive CG integration and VFX will be used to bring it all together. Always the first to embrace merging technologies, I was infatuated with the LED volume since it was used in the 2013 feature Gravity, directed by Alfonso Cuaron. By the time The Mandalorian TV show was released, virtual production had been streamlined.

I am proud of our spec commercial because the shoot was thrown together in two days. The owner of the studio with the LED volume notified my producing partner of a last-minute cancellation, giving us the rare opportunity to use it for little cost. The entire crew and cast came together in two days. I was thrilled with the dresses our model got to wear and the hair and makeup design. There were small technical hurdles that we cleared on set, but what I learned from this process is invaluable. The piece will be finished by the showcase in December.

What is the best part of being a director?
I will answer this with two perspectives. Alfred Hitchcock has said, “In feature films the director is God; in documentary films, God is the director.”
Filmmaking is the process of literally creating a world that didn’t exist before. Unlike other arts which are bound by the confines of reality and substance, like painting, sculpture, and music, the artist in film -the director- rules freely in this world, setting the laws, the tones, and even the color palette. Though filmmaking draws from all the arts, it finds its only corollary in literature.

Andre Bazin, on the other hand, proposed the idea that film is the ultimate medium to depict realism. So while a director can play God, his/her primary instinct should be to arrive at or explore a truth, just like all artists. This could be narrative, spiritual, and even scientific or historical. Truth is what resonates with an audience, and creating work that connects is the task of the director.

The interplay between these two facets of this dream-making endeavor that we call filmmaking is the most exciting part of being a director. Exploring and finding the truth, that which connects with its audience, is most liberating. There is no other feeling in the world.

What is the worst part of being a director?
For me, this question points to the paradox of being a director. Filmmaking is something we all do naturally. We dream, whether asleep or awake, and create stories and make films in our minds. Yet something so natural is difficult to pursue professionally. It requires years of mastery of the technical means, endless cultivation of your personal vision, and difficult exploration of self. The dream that you produce in the real world requires money, people’s time that will never be returned, and must meet expectations – even if it is just your own. And this dream, be it a film, commercial, or music video, can fail. It can fail to one person, or everyone. Someone may feel cheated with their time spent on it, or have their expectations let down.

Dealing with this reality is the director’s biggest responsibility. How you conduct yourself and manage a failure is what I feel separates the veterans from the rookies. I lie somewhere in between. Rather than be completely crushed by a failed project, I strive to learn from it, and move on to the next one.

What is your current career focus: commercials and branded content, television, movies? Do you plan to specialize in a particular genre–comedy, drama, visual effects, etc.?
My current focus is commercials and branded content. My extensive background in both visual effects and color-grading, in commercials as well as narratives, makes me suited for this career path. I am also exploring moonlighting in music videos. I have designed the VFX or color-graded over 40 music videos featuring such artists as Brittany Spears, Eminem, Avicii, 21 Pilots, Panic! at the Disco, the Roots, Usher, and Marshmello. The Weeknd and Bruno Mars sought to work with me to design their concert video projections. I have built a network in the music video world which I am excited to collaborate with again. Although music videos push the envelope for creativity and out-of-the-box thinking, I feel it is in the world of branded content where the highest caliber of artisans and technicians thrive. I play well in that union between science and art, the technical and the creative. Commercials satisfy that itch in me to bring out stories, with the science working seamlessly behind the scenes. In retrospect, though, what drove me through film school was the desire to direct character-driven thrillers, like the films of Denis Villeneuve. I am writing screenplays. It is a dream to pursue after I gain more directing experience.

Have you a mentor and if so, who is that person (or persons) and what has been the lesson learned from that mentoring which resonates with you?
In my TV production days, I learned from a beautiful soul named Belal Beg. We met at Stamford TV, or STV, a 24-hour channel based in NYC. Belal Beg was not my mentor in a traditional sense; he was a creative force, acting as a founding producer. He has decades of directing experience and is quite well known. I studied him as he directed talk shows, magazine shows, and commercials. Our late-night discussions about the art of TV directing were sacred to me. In three years, I went from being a chief editor to chief of production. During this professional ascent, I learned from Belal that the filmmaker’s biggest magic is when his or her vision “works through” the perspective of the viewer. It cannot just come out of your head; make it such that YOUR idea is coming from THEIR head. Make the viewer feel ownership of your idea, as if it was their vision. When a viewer sees this vision unfold, it becomes personal. They connect with your piece and bring their own feelings -fear, joy, and anger- to it. I also learned to avoid the temptation to take your audience out of this spell with intrusive or indulgent flourishes. What works in the self-absorbed bubble of your mind often does not translate to audience receptivity.

Who is your favorite director and why?
I will mention two favorites, one for narratives and the other for branded content. Akira Kurosawa’s technical style, sensibility, and themes will always be close to my heart. He inspired the New Hollywood era of American directors whom I idolize. Among branded content directors, there is no bigger fan of Joseph Kosinski than myself. In 2003, I saw a CG short film he directed, called H2O, which got featured on a website I discovered, and over the next four years his company at the time, KD Labs, produced some of the most eye-popping spec spots I had ever seen. The Apple iSpec spot, an imaginary product at the time but last year came to being as the Apple Vision Pro, and the spot for Nike called “The Twins” (“Les Jumelles”) still resonate with me today, some 17 years later. They were quite far ahead of their time. All this work culminated in the spot he directed with the support from his first agency Anonymous Content, for the Saab “Blackbird” Aero concept car. Kosinski’s early work epitomizes my creative vision of seamless and creative integration of CG, VFX, and live-action – technical mastery and narrative clarity. He was the reason I discovered New Directors Search, as he was one of the directors selected for 2005.

What is your favorite movie? Your favorite television/online program? Your favorite commercial or branded content?
The movie that is among the dearest to me is In the Mood for Love. Wong Kar Wai’s rumination on the torment of unexpressed love was the subject of my film school thesis. After seeing it at the theater that one time for my assignment, I promised myself that I would not watch it again until I felt ready to direct a proper feature film. Yet, entire scenes from the film still play out in my head. Buoyed by this recognition from NDS, I will watch it again this weekend, for the first time in over two decades.

The TV show Succession is the highest expression of broadcast “literary” art I have seen, with Breaking Bad and Severance coming close. Succession is modern Shakespeare bound in a Tolstoy family saga. A must-study for new serialized TV screenwriters.

My favorite commercial is the one that had such a profound effect on me that it sparked me to quit my fledgling TV production career in New York and move to Los Angeles to start anew in the world of visual effects. Yet, it is a spec commercial – a fake commercial, featuring a fake product nonetheless. It is the Saab Aero-X “Blackbird” commercial, directed in 2007 by none other than Joseph Kosinski. No other single piece of art has altered the course of my life more.

Tell us about your background (i.e., where did you grow up? Past jobs?)
Born in Bangladesh, my parents and I moved to Saudi Arabia when I was 8 months old. My father and mother had gotten jobs as doctors in a rural and chilly mountain town. They enrolled me in the only American school there. I grew up with a rare privilege: to live and thrive in three cultures simultaneously. This has had a profound effect on my identity and life view, as on any topic I can grasp the perspectives and biases of Americans, Middle Easterners, and South Asians, simultaneously. On most days, I spoke three languages: Bangla at home, English at school, and Arabic when out. Naturally, these experiences inform my understanding of world events, such as 9/11 and the current Gaza war.

My storytelling, fittingly, is an examination of crisis. My life after getting a student visa to the US at the age of 15 had been tumultuous. A personal crisis occurred when, because of an error in the processing of paperwork by the USCIS, I fell “out of status.” I had been on the pre-med track, pursuing my lifelong ambition of a career in medicine, and this development devastated my family. Odd jobs and poverty followed the next 11 years, until 2011 when I got my first real job as a VFX artist on the last Harry Potter film.

Have you had occasion to bring your storytelling/directorial talent to bear in the Metaverse, tapping into the potential of AR, VR, AI, NFTs and/or experiential fare? If so, tell us about that work and what lessons you have taken away from the experience?
I love this question! As a technical artist with a strong science background, I was always quick to embrace and develop new technologies. This goes back to my first job in Los Angeles, marking the start of my VFX career, which involved the 2D-to-3D conversion of the last Harry Potter film. This arduous process involves many specialists, artists, and technicians.

I am a crypto investor, and when NFTs took off a few years ago, I was intrigued by how it has been used to monetize digital content.

The advent of AR, VR, and AI has opened horizons for storytellers. I wrote an unproduced short film for VR about 7 years ago. I had just finished designing the 360-degree visual effects on two short films promoting the features La La Land and Beauty and the Beast. The experience was a glimpse into what works and doesn’t work in a 360-degree VR or AR story. A source of inspiration for my VR filmmaking is also immersive VR video games.

What has been most directly relevant to my current work is AI. AI screenwriting doesn’t intrigue me, but I have tested AI-generated VFX imagery. I have mixed feelings about this because it will supplant VFX artists in the coming years, and at the same time, liberate constraints in filmmaking.

Contact

Website: www.shahrahman.com
Contact Shahriar via email here