Training days with the camera

Cinematographer Arul Vincent of ‘Palasa 1978’ recalls learning the basics while assisting P C Sreeram

Arul Vincent had assisted cinematographer P C Sreeram for five years. His last film with Sreeram was Cheeni Kum directed by Balki and post that, Arul worked as a Director of Photography (DoP) in a few Tamil films, which paved the way for his entry into the Telugu film industry for the forthcoming film Palasa 1978, directed by Karuna Kumar.

An economics student, he worked as a programme executive and then a radio jockey in All India Radio. He says he never planned his career, he didn’t have a goal. Though he was inclined to cinema, he didn’t know anyone connected to the field. He enjoyed his work in the radio station and thought he must learn something more that’s related to the media and enrolled into a visual communication course.He recalls his college days and his meeting with his mentor PC, “Coming from a middle class background, I was the first person to go to college in the family. I tried meeting directors Mani Ratnam, Bharathi Raja and Shankar. Every and every week I would go to their offices and drop my resume. A friend suggested instead of looking to become an assistant director, I should try being an assistant cinematographer. A film school teaches just the basics and we enjoy campus life, but the practical knowledge on a film set helps. I wasn’t interested in cinematography, I went to PC Sreeram looking for a job as an AD and the people there said he had stopped directing films; I instantly said I was looking to be an assistant cinematographer. They took my resume and I was called by PC. One conversation with him for 10 minutes and I was bowled over.”

Arul remembers watching PC’s films but doesn’t remember the technical aspects. He says he felt embarrassed and ashamed when people who visit PC talked about his shots and frames. At that time Arul wasn’t equipped with that knowledge at all. He also points out an amazing quality of the cinematographer: “I like all his experiments and planning but when the actual shoot begins, he switches to something else. He never sticks to what was planned. When I began working on Palasa 1978, a day hadn’t passed by without taking his reference. I think they gave me this project because I am his assistant and I am proud of it.”

Though a big budget project would have given him more scope to experiment and prove himself in Telugu cinema, Arul is happy with Palasa 1978.

Talking about the lighting for the film, he says he used soft lighting. In his room too he would try and install the tubelight upside down. He mentions that the execution of the film was easy, thanks to the homework by the director, “For cinema, I use diffusing material and it gives a different, more realistic feel. I liked the subject of Palasa; it was written so well. A script like this doesn’t require too much money to execute. The team was good and I was given the complete script.”

Director Karuna Kumar grew up in Palasa and knows the place very well, and he was in sync with the DoP. The location was a dry village, and they shot when it was really warm.

The lakes were dry and it was surrounded by mountains and 50% of the story unfolds during the night. Arul reckons that it was challenging, “I like night shoots. Given the budget constraints, we couldn’t manage many rigs, and had less lights. Frames are restricted in the night, we needed closer frames. I still went for wider frames in the night within the limits. Usually for night shoots, people create blue and warm colour tone but I tried a more realistic depiction. I hardly used zoom. We shot for nearly 40 days and the casting was perfect. Most of them are from theatre background.”

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