Through the lens

Making of Suman Shrestha’s music video

by EMMA SCIANTARELLI

FROM ISSUE # 153 (September 2008) | IN THIS ISSUE
	REFER TO FRIEND		PRINT THIS ARTICLE

ANUP PRAKASH

The name of Suman Shrestha's album Far Away depicts the long road of struggle it took for him to succeed in pursuing his dream of making music.  While personal success started out as a far away dream, after directing the album's second video himself, it seems like Suman's holding everything he ever wanted in the palm of his hand. Together with the band Splash, he's recently finished making the video, Aankha and gives us details on what it took to make it. 

The Process
1. Get the money. In order to get the finances he needed to make his first video, Mero Mutu, Suman made a personal sacrifice and sold his motorbike. This time around, his recording company foot 50% of the expenses.

2. Secure the back-up band. Suman pulled instrumentalists with a reputation of their own to be his new back-up band.  Shisha Terrace's house band, Splash, not only played for the video, but is also slated to play with Suman in upcoming shows.    

3. Plan the concept:  Suman thought of a storyline for the video and ran with it. The video combines drugs, love and misunderstandings to tell a story unique to the Nepali music scene.

4. Draw a storyboard: Suman laid the entire concept out on paper, shot by shot, so as not to waste time on the set during the actual shooting.

5. Look for actors: He picked two of his friends to play the druggies lurking behind the building, but using a foreigner to play the part of his girlfriend wasn't part of the plan. "I met Maliaka by chance and she told me that she had taken acting classes in France for three years," Suman explains, "She was enthusiastic to be in our video, so I was really pleased to have her." 

6. Hire the production team: Suman found an experienced cameraman through word of mouth. His label, Rayaaz Music, took care of finding the rest of the behind-the-scene hands that helped make the magic happen.

7. Endure the bureaucracy: Because the location Suman chose to shoot at was a government building, it required filling out a lot of official forms and selling out a decent amount of cash.  A friend with connections helped him cut through all of the red tape.   

8. Shooting begins: Time is money when shooting a video. The team worked from 8AM till 11PM on day one in order to finish within two days. 

9. Cut and paste: Editing clips is the longest part of the creative process.  Suman collaborated with the editor to make his vision complete. 

10. Dubbing: Sound dubbing takes place right after editing. In order to save on cash, Suman used a friend's home studio to dub and mix sound.

11. Release: Rayaaz and Suman delivered the video to all major TV stations in Nepal hoping to convince them that the video was worth their airtime. They agreed and now you can catch Suman and the fellas from Splash in Aankha on your favourite Nepali music programs.