FAHAD ZAMAN

Fahad is best known as the man every team needs. But to be specific, he is an audio and video editor, music producer, graphic designer, event organiser and also a student of Media and Communication at IUB. The 23 year old media prodigy is involved with a number of studios, production teams, groups and start-ups, including Pothochari Studios, WebAble, Nvisio , Dhaka Electronica Scene (DES), Finding Bangladesh, The Project and Glyph. From designing posters to editing music videos and releasing EPs (SHOUT has previously covered his latest release, The Bunny EP), Fahad is the go-to man for all sorts of media-related work, and he just always seems to have time in his hands, no matter what. And as I talk to him about his work, I realize that it's simply because he genuinely enjoys doing what he does.

What starts as play and fun for most, turned into a passion for him. Barely 11 years old, he started playing around with Photoshop with tips and help from his cousin.
“Basically, I used to cut-and-paste myself into the wrestling ring with other wrestlers.”

He 'goofed around' with editing for a while, until he started designing around 2005. He got his first jobs to design posters for random events, with no remuneration offered though. He saw himself in the design workspace around 2008 when he joined Root Marketing Solutions as a design intern. He credits the team and the job there for guidance and helping him learn most of his work as a designer. This helped him get bigger jobs from friends for organisations such as One Degree Initiative.

By this time, he had also found an interest in producing music using available music editing and producing software. Even though he always had an interest in music, traditional training and practice of music wasn't always feasible for him, and electronic production finally helped him pursue this passion. He used to make rap intrumentals and hip-hop beats but never found the courage to release them. It was only with the emergence of DES that his music had started seeing the light of day.

“DES is the reason I had the guts to put my work out there. It acted as a platform for me.”
At the same time, he fiddled around with video editors, and joined as a production team member in Finding Bangladesh, where he still continues. He soon joined other studios but says that it was at Nvisio Solutions where he finally got his 'super big break'.

And through these experiences at different places and jobs with different people, he has built a diverse portfolio of visual and audio work. He works almost selflessly, from what I've known and learned after working with him myself. He is grateful in his every breath to the people who have helped and guided him throughout his experience so far and still do, and he makes sure to name them too: Amer Khan, Riyad Shahir, Munazer Chowdhury and Alamgir Hossain of Root Marketing Solutions; Sabhanaz Rashid Diya of 1di; Ehsanul Haque Jitu of Nvisio; and friend Nahiyan Khan. And he wishes to do the same for the growing community of media artists now.  He tells me about his plans to teach basic audio and video editing to small groups of interested people using whatever resources he has just like his seniors and peers had helped and encouraged him. It's not rare to find him help out small, growing start-ups with media-related work for free, at a time when artists are beginning to voice their resentment against such expectations of unpaid work.

And there's no flair, no arrogance, no shameless self-promotion. There is sincerity, passion, and an infectious sense of community and goodwill in him.

And that's the Fahad Zaman that I would like to celebrate most of all.

Find his work on his Facebook page:
https://www.facebook.com/thefahadzaman