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lies in metaphorically projecting the written word,” says Rajan. “The
style can be complicated, simple or realistic, depending on the script
and the vision of the director,” he adds. Looking at it that way, he is
the sort of cinematographer who believes in close interaction with his
director. Translating effectively the director’s visual design of the film
on screen is to Soundar the main challenge. At the end, the look and feel
of the film immediately reflects in the involvement of the audience and
the mood of the film.
According to Rajan, cinematography has definitely changed over the
years, to accommodate the creativity of the filmmakers, helped by faster
and competitive stocks and lenses. The technical advancements have
given a great deal of freedom to the cinematographer to explore the art
and science of filmmaking. “The advanced stocks of Kodak,” explains
Soundar, “allows the audience to see life as it is being enacted on the
streets, the real ‘feel’ of an outdoor shot,” he says. “It gives, at the same
time the strength to a cinematographer, to play around with extreme
latitude available to him, inside his frame.”
“Kodak surprises me with quality.”
Kodak as a raw stock has given me a lot of confidence
to experiment in the visual style of a film, through its
range of stocks. Shooting when the light goes down,
and the lead star is in a hurry to leave the set, I have
always depended on Kodak. Matching the footage from
low light situations is never a problem.
DI is definitely a welcome change in the filmmaking
process. I have used Kodak for shooting only with
ambient light, low light conditions, bright and glossy
ad films and for my recent film produced by Disney.
Kodak has always surprised me with quality. I have
been a very loyal Kodak user from the beginning of
my career.
Rajan is the kind of cinematographer for whom the play with presence and
absence of light, deciding what to show the audience in the frame, creative
control of light and shadow enhances the cinema experience. To him, the
ideal qualities of a cinematographer should be to keep the technology as
the slave and not the master, use the limitations of the medium to creative
advantage, and help the director to transform his vision on screen. Here
is where he sees the initial training play a crucial role in the shaping of
a true professional.“The role of a film school should be to make students
technically sound and confident so that they can let their imagination run
wild,” he says.
Rajan is rightfully optimistic about film stock manufacturing companies
such as Kodak. “Kodak films would survive for a long time to come as
the digital mediums have still not provided the latitude and gloss of a
film stock,” he says. “Film and digital as mediums would co-exist, but
prints may very soon become extinct as every theatre is turning digital,”
he says.
Rajan is currently working on Anaganga-O-Dheerudu in Telugu produced
by Walt Disney/Abode.
Film
Technical Specifications
Anaganaga-O-Dheerudu (Telugu)
Director Prakash Kovelamudi
Producer WaltDisney/Abode
Stock Kodak 5201, 5207, 5219
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