Proud to be Sri Lankan

One of the most prolific directors of TV commercials in Sri Lanka, Suren de Silva has carved out a reputation for being practical, innovative and imaginative through his large body of work. His work has been diverse with the onus on high quality. With the commercials he has made, de Silva has tackled a wide range of styles, subjects, formats and techniques. He has also made several documentaries, music videos and worked as a television cameraman for international news agencies such as APTV/APTN and WTN. Having directed over 1,000 commercials in his 32 years in the business, de Silva began early, starting off at the age of 18 as a lights boy at Telefin, then one of two TV production houses in Colombo. His drive, enthusiasm and natural leadership skills saw him being promoted to Production Manager, Telefin, within a year.

Wanting to strike out on his own, de Silva started off his first company, FilmTel – a rental and production company – along with two others, Ravindra Guruge (now one of Sri Lanka’s most accomplished film editors) and TV producer Kithsiri Medawaka. de Silva’s exposure to the world of lighting, editing, camerawork and directing came here; his confidence and talent grew with an experience-based education in the art and techniques of film art. The company also handled the full location production of a noted French film, “Manika, Une Vie Plus Tard,” directed by Francois Villiers and starring the British actor Julian Sands (“A Room with a View,” “Leaving Las Vegas”). The film went on to win the Audience Award at the 1989 Cannes Film Festival.

Wanting to broaden his horizons as a director further, de Silva moved on to work solely as a director of TV Commercials at the production company Video Grafix in 1990 – honing out his skills and further brushing up his filmmaking lexicon.

Tiring of working for others, de Silva decided to strike out on his own in 1992, forming his present company, Video Image in 1992. From humble beginnings – comprising a small, faithful staff and minimal clientele – the company rose to the forefront of commercial television production in Sri Lanka, mainly due to de Silva’s urge to push the envelope and keep trying new things. Under him the company became an all-inclusive production facility – the only one in the country – with two sound studios, graphics suites and a state-of-the-art editing setups.
Never being afraid of capital investment, de Silva kept pouring the company’s earnings back into the company, investing in Sri Lanka’s first non-linear SGI video editing set up, taking commercial production in the country to the digital age. He also became the first director to spearhead an all-Sri Lankan cast and crew for a 35mm film TV commercial shoot – a domain previously outsourced to foreign technicians or crew. His need to innovate and push his own boundaries kept bringing groundbreaking new productions to Sri Lanka. Shooting a daring new ad promoting Sri Lanka for Indian tourists for USAID, the Video Image team built a special helicopter mount and shot the breathtaking beauty of the Pearl of the Indian Ocean from the air – a work that proves stunning in its poetic visual beauty.

Many accolades have been bestowed for the quality of the work the company has generated, from its commercials to work for international programmes such as “The Amazing Race,” The American Film Institute, The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and “The Oprah Winfrey Show”.