Rising Stars: Meet Shyam Kumar Nair

Today we’d like to introduce you to Shyam Kumar Nair.

Hi Shyam Kumar, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
Movies always fascinated me. However, it was in my teenage days I discovered that I’m truly passionate about filmmaking. But I couldn’t pursue my degree on that, as none of my kin was optimistic about it. So I completed my graduation in software engineering and even worked in corporates for few years. Later I realized that I wasn’t happy with my profession and badly wanted to relive my passion. So I decided to quit my job and from there, the journey began. Me along with some of my friends started making short videos in the beginning and even uploaded that to our YouTube channel KEEP CALM STUDIOS. There were no equipment, not even a DSLR with me. It was all shot on mobile in natural lights. So the quality wasn’t upto the mark. However the team doesn’t last long and we all parted our own ways. I always dreamt of making a horror short film. And this time, I decided to invest on equipment and locations, as it will improve the quality of my video. I started working in Amazon as a delivery boy and saved every penny to make my dream come true. Once it met my requirement, I started my inquiry for location and equipment for rent. Building a team was the most hardest part. With the help of my friend Gokul, I managed to build a team including the cast and crew for shooting my horror short film ABIGOR. Everything was finalized. We faced many problems like replacement of the protagonist, makeup artist and Assistant Director at last moment.

And finally, it was the D-day. We had a ‘mahurat pooja’ as per our ritual and we began the shoot. Once we started the shoot, we understood we were not able to complete our shots on time as per our plan. We all were amateurs and faced a lot of problems. We shot for two days continuously and somehow completed the shoot. Once we were all set to sit for the post-production work, the VFX artist that we hired got a job and abandoned us in between. He stopped responding to our request of showing the footages that we handed over to him for VFX. We looked for other VFX artists but none of them were ready to work at a reasonable budget. Later lockdown was announced as the pandemic hit the world. I was drained mentally and financially and even lost my confidence on the short film as I started re-watching the shots again and again. I felt that the footages lacked in quality as well the actors haven’t performed well at all. I felt like it was the end, and I put an official message to everyone saying that Abigor won’t be releasing and the team is dismantled till any other project comes up. However, to my surprise, none of the members were ready to give up and continued to support me and said they are ready to work with me in a different project. It gave me courage to fight again and started to brainstorm on what can be shot while we are in quarantine. So I came up with the idea of shooting a series called COUPLES IN QUARANTINE in three different languages namely Malayalam, Marathi and Hindi. The actors were asked to shoot the clips from their own homes based on the script that I gave.

Later I edited the footages as if it happened in the same place. It was very challenging but still we managed to upload the videos to our channel during lockdown. We got good response from public as well. Later we even shot a webseries ASSERTION which is currently releasing in our channel. The whole series was shot on an iPhone and a single Osaka light. By the time we understood the importance of equipment and invested nearly three lakhs on it. Now we are not just YouTubers but a production house with enough paraphernalia and manpower. But up to this date, what we lack is a DSLR and a sponsor. We are still fighting every single day to live our dreams. Many left our team at difficult times and many joined us during our struggling period as well. But I’m happy that even though we were hit with storms several times, we managed to survive together, no matter how difficult it was. And I’m sure once we will achieve all those things for which we are struggling and working hard right now. Movies always fascinated me. However, it was in my teenage days I discovered that I’m truly passionate about filmmaking. But I couldn’t pursue my degree on that, as none of my kin was optimistic about it. So I completed my graduation in software engineering and even worked in corporates for few years. Later I realized that I wasn’t happy with my profession and badly wanted to relive my passion. So I decided to quit my job and from there, the journey began. Me along with some of my friends started making short videos in the beginning and even uploaded that to our YouTube channel KEEP CALM STUDIOS. There were no equipment, not even a DSLR with me. It was all shot on mobile in natural lights. So the quality wasn’t upto the mark.

However the team doesn’t last long and we all parted our own ways. I always dreamt of making a horror short film. And this time, I decided to invest on equipment and locations, as it will improve the quality of my video. I started working in Amazon as a delivery boy and saved every penny to make my dream come true. Once it met my requirement, I started my inquiry for location and equipment for rent. Building a team was the most hardest part. With the help of my friend Gokul, I managed to build a team including the cast and crew for shooting my horror short film ABIGOR. Everything was finalized. We faced many problems like replacement of the protagonist, makeup artist and Assistant Director at last moment. And finally, it was the D-day. We had a ‘mahurat pooja’ as per our ritual and we began the shoot. Once we started the shoot, we understood we were not able to complete our shots on time as per our plan. We all were amateurs and faced a lot of problems. We shot for two days continuously and somehow completed the shoot. Once we were all set to sit for the post-production work, the VFX artist that we hired got a job and abandoned us in between. He stopped responding to our request of showing the footages that we handed over to him for VFX. We looked for other VFX artists but none of them were ready to work at a reasonable budget. Later lockdown was announced as the pandemic hit the world. I was drained mentally and financially and even lost my confidence on the short film as I started re-watching the shots again and again. I felt that the footages lacked in quality as well the actors haven’t performed well at all. I felt like it was the end, and I put an official message to everyone saying that Abigor won’t be releasing and the team is dismantled till any other project comes up.

However to my surprise, none of the members were ready to give up and continued to support me and said they are ready to work with me in a different project. It gave me courage to fight again and started to brainstorm on what can be shot while we are in quarantine. So I came up with the idea of shooting a series called COUPLES IN QUARANTINE in three different languages namely Malayalam, Marathi and Hindi. The actors were asked to shoot the clips from their own homes based on the script that I gave. Later I edited the footages as if it happened in the same place. It was very challenging but still we managed to upload the videos to our channel during lockdown. We got good response from public as well. Later we even shot a webseries ASSERTION which is currently releasing in our channel. The whole series was shot on an iPhone and a single Osaka light. By the time we understood the importance of equipment and invested nearly three lakhs on it. Now we are not just YouTubers but a production house with enough paraphernalia and manpower. But up to this date, what we lack is a DSLR and a sponsor. We are still fighting every single day to live our dreams. Many left our team at difficult times and many joined us during our struggling period as well. But I’m happy that even though we were hit with storms several times, we managed to survive together, no matter how difficult it was. And I’m sure once we will achieve all those things for which we are struggling and working hard right now.

Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
It’s never a smooth road. The major obstacle is financial crisis. We still make no profit but invest everytime when we have a shoot. Another major obstacle is to meet the commitments. At times we just can’t complete the shoot on time as per our commitment due to technical reasons and retakes as well. Since we have amateurs to act, it takes in extra effort and time to make them pull off that character. Scheduling shoots only on the weekends is another major challenge. Since most of our teammates are working in corporates, we could only shoot during holidays. Thus deciding a date when everyone is available is a major challenge. Members leaving us in between the shoot or at difficult times do make our moral down. It takes time for us to get up again and find a replacement for them as not everyone will be willing to work freely. Expounding the problems that we face to other teammates is of another major task. To convince them to come for shoot for an extra day and even asking them to stay a bit longer and even convincing their parents on the same are major challenges that we face.

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
I’m a cinematographer, director, writer and an editor as well. I have learned everything online, all by myself. I spend everyday learning new techniques and experimenting new camera angles. I even watch movies, all of them, the hits and flops to learn what made the movie so. I’m proud that I have enough patience and courage to fight for my way to fulfill my dreams. I believe that one must constantly endeavor in order to achieve success.

One of the proudest moments was when one of our horror short films ‘The Evil’ got officially selected to a national film festival and was also the official finalist of one international film festival. I just can’t explain how happy I was.

Is there a quality that you most attribute to your success?
I think the most important quality that I have is accepting criticism. I can listen to someone pointing out every mistake that I made and usually ponder on it so that I won’t make the same mistake again. I’m very adaptive in nature. I can adapt to the situation pretty well and find a solution whenever a problem arises.

And finally, the patience to build a team.

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