(Actual Size)
The Saturday screenings at the Main theatre is something we all look forward. Before the day’s general screening of the Film, rushes of the previous week’s practical work is screened, It is something unique as all the students get to see the previous week’s rushes both in 16 mm as well as in 35 mm along with their peers. Of course there will be shouts like focus or Arc whenever the projector operator does some mistakes. But how a can a projectionist correct an out of focus shot which had happened in the camera?
Seeing my work along with my classmates in 16mm Black and white was really an exciting thing to watch. As the images come on the screen your mind races to the time when the shoot took place and in your brain images run parallel to the ones on the screen. One is about the reality and the other the result. You think about the situation and how the shot was taken, how you had intended it to be and how it had turned out and finally how it can be improved upon. Mostly you keep on looking for minor errors like an un-necessary shadow or a burning highlight, a jerky movement of the camera, a panning or tilting error, a slightly off framing or a slight off focus etc. It is a learning process which continues till the rest of your life.
When it comes to viewing the Rush print of your work, it is always a thrilling and exhilarating experience altogether. You are anxious how it had turned out and there are other people in the theatre who are also viewing the rushes who will pass on judgement on your craftsmanship and ability. You are on tenterhooks during the time when the theatre lights are switched off and the start of the projection of the reel. Even though the process may take only a few seconds the short interval feels like minutes. Even now, in spite of shooting for many years, I still get butterflies in my stomach while I wait in the theatre to view the rushes.
But all these feelings and experiences are lost and gone forever in the present day digital scenario. The Cinematographer had lost the privilege of being the only one on the set to see the frame of the shot being taken. There is no more magic as video monitors are quite common on the sets and Directors, Actors, crew and even bystanders instantly see a crude version of your work and comment upon! For editing purposes a low resolution Tele-cine transfer is made in place of rushes which is seen by all and sundry except yourself as representing your work.
Many a time the Cinematographer and sometimes the Director too doesn’t get to see the transferred material. Many Directors see a rough cut version and that too while the dubbing of the film takes place. Only when the final release print is made the Cinematographer gets to see his work on Film in full glory! Even that too gets marred when digital transfer is made without consultation with the Cinematographer for releasing in Digital theatres! And the poor quality image with improper colour corrections remains the lasting representation of your work as it gets telecast on the TV channels and gets burned on to DVDs for posterity –Credit to the Advancement of Technology !
Apart from Professor C.V.Gopal , Assistant Professor Lall Jaswaney, Instructors Shri. K.P.Rajagopalan Nair (K.P.R Nair) and Shri.K.Ramanathan were in charge of the Second year classes. Shri. K.P.R. Nair used to take classes on special effects cinematography.
We started with 16 mm cameras and we had at that time Bell& Howell Filmo, Bolex, Arri S and Arri16 BL cameras. We have to learn the loading and threading of the film in the respective cameras first. Then mounting of the various lenses and fixing the camera on the tripod, Panning, Tilting, Zooming practices etc formed the beginning part of our training.
The Bell& Howell Filmo H70 camera had even an anamorphic converter which can be fixed in front of the normal lenses so that you can even shoot in Cinemascope format! Remember it was forty years back and Cinemascope was a rarity in Indian Films.
The Arri16 BL camera was quite a brand new one which had come into the Market a few years earlier and with its silent running and the 12-120 Zoom was really the star of the equipments. In those days the Institute used to acquire the latest equipments much before the Film Industry gets them. We had Nagra Recorders and Steenbeck editing machines when not many in Chennai film industry had heard about them.
In the 35 mm we had a whole variety of Cameras from Debrie, Eyemo, Sinclair, Bell & Howell, Arri 2A & 2B, Mitchell NC to Mitchell BNC.
In the Debrie camera there is no view finder and the frame was viewed through the film as in those days there was no anti-halation backing for the film negative and it was fairly transparent. The cameraman had to put a black cloth over his head to ensure a dark environment and also to prevent ant leak light reaching the film from the viewing eyepiece.
Eyemo Camera is very popular for news reel coverage as it can even be take to very remote location where electric power supply is not available. It has a spring wound motor which can run about 18 -20 feet per winding . So no worries about drained batteries and recharging. Film is normally loaded in 100 feet daylight spools. It has a three lens turret and electric motors can be fitted to run the attached 400 feet magazine too.
Later on while I was in Chennai I happened to come across an advertisement offering for sale some used equipments and I purchased an old Eyemo camera which I am holding in the picture given above!
Newman Sinclair camera was quite an interesting one, light weight and easy to handle. The threading is all done in the magazine itself like the Eclair camera. You just snap it on and you are ready to shoot as magazine change takes only seconds. It is a reflex camera and had an assortment of lenses. My favourite was the 40 mm and 90 mm Macro lenses which were very sharp and focuses up to 6 inches or so. It also had a 203 mm Tele lens which gave good results.
The
With Arri 2A or 2B Camera
Arri 2 Cameras had served our Film Industry for so many years and are still being used even today, stands as testimony to its sturdiness and fail safe durability. At the Institute we also had a Blimp for the Arri 2 with an electric motor for sync sound shooting purposes. For many years I had used that camera for my feature films including the First Malayalam 70 mm Feature film PADAYOTTAM . It is very much suited for hand held work and I had found it to be very handy before the advent of Steadicam.
In the helicopter with Arri 2C camera with 50 mm Anamorphic Kowa lens
During the shooting of PADAYOTTAM ( Malayalam - 70 mm) 1983
With Mitchell NC Camera
For many years Mitchell NC was the preferred camera for Studio filming even though it made little noise, it was muffled by some kind of home made blimps. Though the camera does not have a reflex viewfinder, the big viewfinder on the side (like the present day handi-cam LCD finder) gave a big picture. Only thing is the parallax had to corrected to that particular camera position and it is usually fixed for the final camera position. The beginning position is set by looking through the lens and once the frame is fixed the camera is racked over before taking the shot. After "CUT" is announced the Cameraman will shout "HOLD" for the artistes to freeze their positions so that the cameraman racks over and looks through the lens to ascertain that the framing is proper and nothing is cut off and says "O.K!" Getting used to the Parallax comes after quite a lot of practice only and many a time people tend to forget to rack over before taking the shot.
Even today some of the NC Mitchell cameras are used for creating In-Camera special effects like Fades, Dissolves, Super imposition, Double roles, Masking shots etc.
Mitchell NC High Speed Camera
Pictured above is a High Speed version of the Mitchell NC Camera which could run upto 100 frames per second. In fact for quite sometime it was the only camera available at Madras (Chennai) in the 70's and 80's and was very much in demand for shooting slowmotion shots. The Camrea attendants used to demand First Class train tickets and used to get it too!
With Mitchell BNC Camera
The Mitchell BNC Camera we had at the Institute was one of the very few ones that was in
Thus we had plenty of equipments to use and learn with, which was quite useful in our later career.
We all eagerly awaited the start of the second year as we will be handling the movie cameras for the sake of which only we have enrolled in the Motion Picture Photography course at the Institute. Meanwhile I got hostel accommodation and my room mate was none other than my batch mate K.R.Murthy. I was happy to be living among the friends in the same building and that too inside the campus.
Hostel Building
In my Room
The start of the new academic year means, new comers and the right time to take your revenge for the Ragging undergone by you during the last year! Any how it was not very serious, just mild fun in the hostel. Some of the newcomers who became friends afterwards are Peer Mohammed. P, G.R. Menon ( Direction), A S. Kanal , Narayana J. Kondra, Sudhir Choudhary, Satish Aima ( M.P.P) Vijay Arora, Raza Murad, Manju Bansal and Jameela Malik from Kerala ( Acting)
With Peer Mohammed
Peer Mohammed after graduation joined Doordarshan, Chennai and later on became the Director of Doordarshan Kendra,
Kanal always keeps in touch with me over e-mail and I used to meet him while in Pune or in Mumbai. Recently he had sent me his excellent and very useful book – The Cinematographer’s Hand book, Film and Video 2nd Edition for which I had also contributed an article on Miniature Photography. Kondra had assisted me in Mumbai, during the shooting of my Hindi feature Film PATITA (1980) in which Mithun Chakraborty did the leading role.
Many years after the incident packed Strike of the Seventies, I worked with Raza Murad in the Hindi TV serial – Bible in which he did the role of Noah. ( I will come to that when I write about the Final Year!)
Jameela Malik
Jameela Malik’s first film in a leading role was RAGGING ( Malayalam – 1973) for which I was the Cinematographer. She later on did some insignificant roles in various other films and just faded out from the limelight.
I should not leave out other non- Malayalee senior students whom I came in to contact during my first year. There was Vikas Desai with his impressive stature and the ever active Student’s Union President Gurucharan Singh, both from 1969 Direction batch. Guru as he is fondly called had been a regular fixture at the Institute as he had earlier done his Editing Course in 1965 and then joined Direction course. So being Super senior he knew all the in and out of the Institute and took control over the students, staff and faculty with ease.He was the Students Union President as well. From the 1970 Direction batch, I remember lively Ashoke Aggrwal, soft spoken Vishnu Mathur, brooding Madan Gopal Bawaria and a quiet Amar Kumar Bhattacharya.
From the Motion Picture Photography (1969) U.M.N. Sheriff, S.R. Krishnamurthy, Naresh Bedi, Barun.K. Mukherji, Bala Mahendran, A K Bir, Sona Ram Talwar, Mohd. Sidiq Aminzai, J.P.Gautam, F.R. Khan and Daulatram.R. Kulmi were there. I remember Naresh Bedi showing Shri.Kulkarni, the photographs of cobras that he had taken during the Nag Panchami festival. Some of the photos were later published in the National Geographic magazine. He used specialise in wild life photography andhis home in Delhi was a mini zoo itself!
I used to meet U.M.N. Sheriff whenever he dropped down to Thiruvananthapuram for the International film Festival of Kerala. Many years back I had occasion to interact with S.R. Krishnamurthy in Mumbai while I was doing a Hindi Film “PATITA” and he did some sequences which were re-shot by the Producer Promod Chakraborty in conflict with its Director I.V.Sasi.
Bala Mahendran was from
S.Ramachandra deserves special mention, as he was the room mate of Azad and like Azad he used to call me “Thampy" (younger brother) and was a friendly, affectionate mentor to me. We still keep in touch with each other.
