We were lucky to catch up with Sam Veeramachaneni recently and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Sam, thanks for joining us today. To kick things off, we’d love to hear about things you or your brand do that diverge from the industry standard.

As a Director working out of Los Angeles, I’ve had the opportunity to produce films, documentaries, music videos and more. All of the projects I’ve worked on – I have either pitched, directed, written, shot or edited myself and sometimes all the above. Unlike many of my peers I did not go film school, receive formal training or grow up wanting to become a filmmaker. My training comes from either being self-taught or working various roles on different productions. It is a “Hands-on, All-Encompassing, Swiss-army-knife” type of training that has been my own Film School thus far. While it has pulled me in different directions – I’ve grown laterally and established a foundation of knowledge and craft that’s only served to strengthen me as a director, leader, and collaborator. I’m never too esoteric for my crew, too technical for artists or too estranged for business.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I never thought I’d get into film-making, or even thought of anything remotely close. For a large portion of my life I inherited the Asian-American ideal of becoming either a Doctor or Engineer. Thankfully, reality slapped me hard because I was never a great student nor could I listen to an Organic Chem lecture without falling asleep within 10 minutes. Faced with the fact that I’d fail out of college, I decided to move into Psychology and pursue film-making. Though seemingly different, the two fields are quite the same, both study Humanity its just that’s one’s canvas is a Note-pad and chair and the others is a silver screen.

My journey so far has taken me coast to coast and back. I got my start by making small films in my backyard or around town in Tampa, Florida and working on friends projects for free. Eventually I got an internship at a news company in San Francisco, when the pandemic I moved back to Florida working Full-time as a Video Production Specialist, all the while still making independent Narrative films and Mini-series. Eventually in early 2022 I quit my job and finally moved to Los Angeles with no prior contacts or visits.

Since being here I’ve shot, directed, and edited a few music videos, commercials, and documentaries as well as developed and shot a few my next narrative ventures. The work I’m the most proud of would be my Short Film, Shock Value, which will be releasing this year, Summer 2023 – we’ll be premiering in Los Angeles & Florida as well as making our rounds in the Film Festival Circuit. Based on real psychological experiments it blends my two loves in life, Psychology and Cinema. The film was a huge learning opportunity for me and it crossed out many ‘firsts’ for me – it was the first time I had written a full short-film feature script, first time casting SAG-Certified Actors, first time receiving funding, and it will be the first I premiere a movie in Theaters and attend film festival screenings. I am beyond excited at its release and how audience will react.

If there is a consistent through-line in my body of work over the years, it would be “Capturing humanities oneness through our differences”

Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can provide some insight – you never know who might benefit from the enlightenment.

That being “creative” isn’t some Arts and Crafts class where the most ‘talented’ will shine and everyone else ends up broke and useless. If you want to sell your art, being a creative is very much entrepreneurship whether its prospecting clients, pitching ideas, developing projects, outsourcing technical or collaborating on notes.

Producing a film, especially at the independent level, is basically a startup; You have the initial mock-up (Pitch Deck), minimal viable product (Script), funding process, team assembly (Cast & Crew), development (Shooting), iteration (editing), and launch (Release).

The real difference lies is the lack of established resources available to young artists, there isn’t a “TechCrunch” or “Y-combinator” equivalent for us but even that is changing theses, many studios like Netflix, HBO, Coca-Cola have initiatives and programs for upcoming artists.

But I will say – being a creative isn’t something you “want to do” or “can do”. I genuinely believe it must be a need or else one would just be tempted by every other alternative on the rigorous journey as an artist

Any resources you can share with us that might be helpful to other creatives?

Writing and Networking!

Even though growing up I was a voracious reader, I’ve always been a visual person and often neglected my writing skills. I wish I had the courage/confidence to write creatively when I was younger as it would’ve helped in many instances of writing & literature later in life. When I was in school we were never taught to express ourselves freely in writing it was always just following prompts. Its a real shame because this Millennia-spanning tradition of human transcription is more than just research papers or deep analysis of grammatical correct verses.

Networking has been a challenge for an introvert like me. I would say if you’re in school the best thing is to learn how to make friends, build relationships and maintain connections because that is very much a skill in the professional world and it translates in many different ways. Networking isn’t some business card and linked-in exchange, it is very much meeting like-minded people, budding friendships, supporting one another, and building upon common interests. Many in my “network” have become close friends, frequent collaborators, or sales generators.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.idirectorv.com/
• Other: Production Company: https://www.lucidlabproductions.com/

Image Credits
Shock Value Treatment Photo Shock Value Crew Photo. Featuring: Jonathan Mcfadden, Vimala Veeramachaneni, Wade Hunt Williams, Luis Lorenzo, Dean Donnini, Chris Shick, Jai Yarlagadda, Shane Smith, Cameron Kamera,