The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : Shoot quick, edit easy: Make your own movie

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Mar 06, 2006

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Shoot quick, edit easy: Make your own movie

Sudhish Kamath

New technology has helped filmmakers to cut their costs

CHENNAI: Help is around the corner for low-budget filmmakers.

Hiring cranes, for example, would cost a production anything between Rs.5,000 to 15,000 a day depending on the size and half a dozen mandatory technicians from the union to carry and transport the crane.

You may no longer need such paraphernalia to make your film.

For about Rs.20 lakh or less, you can now get your own independent filmmaking set-up to make any number of films. Here's how.

Go hi-definition: Hi-definition is an advanced digital format made popular in the Tamil film industry by P.C. Sreeram (`Vaanam Vasapadum') and Cheran (`Thavamai Thavam Irundhu'), which provides for a picture quality of 1080 to 1400 lines (compared to a picture quality of 2000 lines produced by 35mm film), a format much superior to 16mm film. With companies such as Real Image providing digital distribution solutions, today it is possible to release the film in the theatres across India through digital projection systems. "We already have about 50 screens in Tamil Nadu equipped with digital projection systems," Jayendra Panchapakesan, director of Real Image, says. Hi-definition helps you to cut costs on lights and thus, crew size.

Hi-definition camera

Invest in a good hi-definition camera: Panasonic's HVX 200 HD comes at a price tag of about 6000 dollars (less than Rs. 3 lakhs) and allows for progressive scan at 24 frames (the technology that gives video a film feel). Of course, there are cheaper hi-definition cameras available with interlaced video (a scanning technique which retains the video feel of the picture quality) for less than a lakh.

Actor Madhavan, recently picked up a Sony HD handycam at the price of what Mini DV cameras used to cost until last year. But if you want to make a film, ensure that you choose a camera that allows you to shoot at 24p (24 frames, progressive scanning).

Switch to Polecam, the single-man operated crane: Imagine a crane that weighs just about 15 kilos, something you can carry on your shoulder along with the tripod.

Polecam

Made of detachable carbon poles, the Polecam (www.polecam.com) can extend up to 20 feet high, do everything a normal crane can do, is capable of using a hi-definition camera (the company uses Toshiba cameras) and can be transported to locations where you cannot take your crane to — edge of the cliff, hot-air balloons, underwater and even operation theatres. It can be mounted on a jeep and used for chase scenes and even ad films.

At a recent demo held at the Hotel Park, the technology instantly got participants excited. The HD version of the Polecam costs about Rs.18 lakh, the Mini DV version (broadcast quality) is cheaper by a couple of lakhs. For trade enquiries, contact all-India distributor Victor Informatics (email: victor@cal.vsnl.net.in) on phone: 033 2554 1074.

Record live sound: Digital cameras provide for recording uncompressed audio. So you might as well record sound with a boom mike connected to the camera along with the visuals, while taking adequate care to control noise on the sets. The in-built camera mike can be used as boom with a little modification and extra cable.

Edit live: With storage becoming extremely cheap, you can now connect your laptop to an external hard disk and edit on location. You will need a minimum processor speed of 1.5 Ghz and 1 GB RAM and about 500GB on the external disk. Apple recently launched MacBook Pro in the U.S., for about 2000 dollars (less than a lakh), supposedly four times faster than the Powerbook. With Final Cut Pro HD, you will be able to connect the Panasonic HD camera to the machine and download each day's footage on to the external hard disk at the end of the day's shoot and edit on location. Even if you are shooting on film, you can connect the video monitor output, do a rough cut on location, mark the cuts, implement them on film after processing and save on time, and thus, money.

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