Becoming a filmmaker
BN: Veemsen, we are very curious how did you manage to become a filmmaker after being in the British armed forces?
Veemsen: I always wanted to tell stories, wanted to communicate with the world through the stories. I used to learn about filmmaking whilst I was in the forces but not professionally, reading books, YouTube tutorials etc. Later I left the forces and joined film school in London and did my film degree. From there I started making a professional short film with proper gear and proper team.
An award winning short film
BN: Which is your biggest success in the film industry so far?
Veemsen: We made our graduation film called MAYA which is a social issue, child poverty and human trafficking which did extremely well. MAYA won Best International Film at London Independent Film Festival in 2016,Best Foreign Film in El Dorado International Film Festival 2016, Best Film in Bradford Widescreen BKSTS Film Festival 2015, nominated for Best Student Film in BAFTA qualified London Short Film Festival 2016, Encounters Short Film Festival 2016, One World Media Awards 2016,Valetta International Film Festival 2016, Long Beach Indie Los Angeles 2016, Screen-test Student Film Festival 2016 and officially selected in many great film festivals.
One of my horror short films that I made for the film school has just crossed 1.1 million views on YouTube and it's called APARTMENT 41, I think that is crazy.
A special love for horror films
BN: What are your next projects to date in the future? I read in the media that you are interested in horror films.
Veemsen: I am very passionate about horror films and that is my favourite genre.
I have a couple of projects I am planning at the moment, horror and nonhorror. I think I would like to do horror as my debut film because of many reasons. First, horror is a very popular genre, it can be done cheaply, you just need a great story and as a first-time feature filmmaker, I think that might be the wise move and of course in future, I have some projects which are nonhorror.
I am looking for producers, collaborators, investors, funders and anyone who can help me to travel this journey. They can also see my work and connect with me as well. My youtube channel is: www.youtube.com/veemsenlama
Vlogging every day
BN: You also do vlogging. Every day you publish a new video on Your Youtube channel. For which audience is this most interesting and why?
Veemsen: The Internet is very powerful nowadays. You can connect with many great creators, filmmakers through this social media and YouTube. I always like challenges. I have been to the war, been to the Everest and in 2017 I wanted to challenge myself by creating new video/story every day, let's see how far can I go. That is how the idea came from.
In long term you can build a big audience I guess.
To capture a story
BN: How did your life change since you left the army and entered the film industry?
Veemsen: Obviously it is a different job and I am doing what I always wanted to do which is telling stories, express yourself, communicate with others, send your message across to the community, to educate and I guess to make the world a better place. More importantly, I want to capture my story at least for a year and those stories, videos will be in the cloud. So when I die, my family, children, grandchildren can watch me, my story after 100 years or 1000 years. Thank you, Sabina and UK Blasting News for sharing my story, keep supporting independent filmmakers.
