ULAGHAM

The camera is the most important tool on set. Without a camera, there is no movie. After the director, the Director of Photography is the second creative person on set.  There has been a lot of speculations about the role of a cinematographer. Though Indian cinematographers take care of framing, composition and lighting also, other industries including Hollywood, China etc have a number of departments, performing different roles. The DoP is responsible for the framing whereas the lighting is taken care of by the Lighting Department and the focus is taken care by the gaffer. Post cinematography courses, there is a lot of confusion generally among students of film scholl, or for that matters anyone who wants to pursue Cinematography as their career. Being a DoP or his assistant isn't just a way to learn or gain experirence. There are people like John Higgins, Dan McArthur who had worked under cinematographers as light man, gaffers etc and did camera for movies. The Cinematogra

It isn't easy to be a Cinematographer who is choosy in his works and being internationally recognised for it. Siddartha Nuni is one among them. Being a graduate from Mindscreen Film Institute, his first film was a Hollywood movie. But Lucia, a 2013 Kannada Film gave him the star status.  Styled in the vein of American slacker and teen comedies, "Brahman Naman" is the latest from Indian indie filmmaker Quashiq Q Mukherjee. Instead of taking the route of sales and distribution, the directore chose to release his movie through netflix, which was quite new to India. DP Siddartha Nuni shot the film in 23 days in the cities of Bangalore and Mysore. Here, he speaks about his love for Trainspotting, recreating 80's era India and capturing the 'confused teenage mind visually'. How and why did you wind up being the cinematographer of your film? What were the factors and attributes that led to your being hired for this job? The director of the fil

All was simple in the last millennium.  The cinematographer selected the composition of the frame, exposed the film according to the light-meter, checked printing lights during the dailies, and worked with the colorist on the Hazeltine (an "ancient" film-based color correction machine) in the preparation for the first answer print. Undoubtedly and unquestionably, the Director of Photography was in charge of imagery.  In that time, Cinematography and Imagery were synonyms. Rarely would anyone dare to get into the framing and lighting part of the movie, other than the director. Except for the Indian Film Industry, every other country's film industry had a Cinematographer team and a Lighting team separate, which is still in practice. The Cinematographer will tell the mood of the picture and the Lighting team is responsible for the usage of lights. There are a lot of people in Cinematography team like the gaffer, focus puller, assistants. Times have changed now.

Sounds like a contradiction in terms, doesn’t it? There are those who have deep reservations about applying the noir label to any film not shot in black and white. In the age of color film, the high-contrast black and white of classic film noir has something to teach every filmmaker. In purely visual terms, film noir inhabits a landscape of shadows and high contrast photography. Effects such as those are much more difficult to achieve when shooting on color stock, although it’s certainly not impossible. Some call it a genre, others a movement, or even a fashion statement, but however one defines noir, with its signature femmes fatales, wisecracking tough guys, and dramatic, high-contrast cinematography, its appeal never seems to wane. Though its origins are in German expressionism and French crime films of the thirties, film noir has always been a distinctly American film movement, influenced and shaped as it was by American pulp fiction, wartime gender politics

In the present situation, where 5Ds and 1Ds have taken the place of Film cameras, there is a silent changeover from DSLRs to Medium Format Cameras. The RED Cameras marked the entry of Medium Format Cameras in Cinematography. Why Medium Format? Do we need this much of detailing in each scene? - This is what every cinematographer asked at first. But the results are enough to convince them totally.  As a company, it could be argued that RED was essentially ahead of its time in the company’s belief that the future of film was in 4K resolution and thus sought to create a digital camera that could truly look as good, if not better than film, while being significantly smaller, more portable, and ultimately more affordable. RED’s story is one that is rooted in the American tradition of game-changing companies that started in a simple garage. In Jim Jannard’s case, he founded the company in 2005 with a small group of fellow innovators who sought to build a truly modern digital camera.

Technology has invaded all fields and sectors. Be it Business or Cinema or Politics, Technology has its fair share of how things have changed and advanced. It has not left Cinematography either. Right from the past, when Camera was invented, people who had huge loads of money bought them. When the medium of Cinema was introduced to people, it totally changed the way people saw cameras. New things came up slowly. People started seeing camera as something which is changing their lives and it did.     It’s taken for granted that in the 20th century cinematography survived two revolutions after the introduction of first sound and later color. After these two, Cinema changed rapidly within a short span of time. Technology advancements in general, took the art of film making to a whole new level.  Regarding the changes in the cinema language it’s necessary to point out that unlike the technological revolutions these changes have been of an evolutionary nature and related to the one of

La La Land created ripples around the world this year. Winning almost all the awards in every Festival, the movie is being celebrated as one of the best Musical Romance in the recent years. Set in Los Angeles, La La Land is about a musician and an aspiring actress who meet and fall in Love.  starring R yan Gosling  and E mma Stone,  La La Land  received critical acclaim upon its release, and was regarded as one of the best films of 2016. Cinematography is something which pulls you straight into their world. Camera handled by Linus Sandgren, La La Land is a movie which is not to be missed by Cinematography aspirants. Hollywood, in general, has always set its standards high in terms of Technical Perfection. And this movie is one of the finest example how a cameraman's vision can change and elevate the movie. It is not easy for a cinematographer to express what the theme of the movie demands. Many fail in doing so. Sandgren, having worked with different genres, has depic