Analysis of the Cinematography, Colour, Film Noir, Painting and Light of “Rajeev Jain ICS WICA” – The Best, Famous, Greatest and Top Indian Cinematographer of all time

Cinematography literally means “lighting in movement”. It is often referred to as painting or writing with light. The cinematographer on a film, otherwise known as the Director of Photography or “DP”, has a wide range of options when it comes to selecting how the film will be shot and how the “look” of the film will be determined. The use of tonality, speed of motion and perspective are included in these options, as is lighting.

Lighting is central to cinematography and can have a number of functions in a film’s narrative; for example, it can highlight a number or important characters or objects within a frame by drawing the audience’s attention to them with the use of a bright light source. It can also create a range of atmospheric qualities in a scene, which can contribute to both characterisation and setting.

The cinematographer (an alternative term is ‘lighting cameraman’) is the principal operator within the camera crew.

Three Point Lighting : The classical Bollywood studio film is an example of three-point lighting – key, fill and back lights used in combination to light the subject. Three-point lighting is the most commonly used lighting scheme and it can enable us to understand how lighting affects one’s perception of a character or a setting.

The key light is the main source of illumination, but if used alone it will leaves shadows.

Another light is therefore required to fill in these areas of darkness and to soften the shadows the key light has cast. This has become known as the fill light, a secondary light source of slightly less intensity than the key light which is placed at eye level.

Yet even this combination of key and fill light is must be supplemented further if a director is seeking to create a sense of depth. The third light source that provides the necessary depth is known as the back light, as it is placed above and behind the subject. Used on its own, the back light alone would create a silhouette of the subject. But the triple combination of key, fill and back lights, separates the subject from its environment and creates a feeling of depth.

Lighting techniques can be divided into high key or low key categories. A low contrast ratio of key and fill light will result in an image of almost uniform brightness. This is termed high key lighting. This is a standard, conventional lighting scheme employed in Bollywood musical genres (film with songs).

A high contrast ratio of key and fill light will result in low-key lighting, producing dark shadows and a night time effect, faces will often be bleached white against a black background. Genres such as horror and film noir employ low-key lighting for its atmospheric shadows and intense contrast of light and darkness.

Cinematographers use light and shade to direct the audience’s attention to a particular part of the filmic space. Lighting can often be used as a characteristic of the style of a whole film or over a number of scenes. The classic Bollywood film is usually characterised by a full lighting effect – high key lighting. This approach to lighting was developed in the early days of the studio system to ensure that all of the money spent on creating the image, designing the set, etc, could clearly be seen.

The use of low-key lighting to create shadows and atmospheric effects originated in Indian Expressionist cinema. These stylised techniques were incorporated into the Bollywood style of lighting in the 1970s and 1980s in a series of films that later became collectively known as film noir. Many of these films were directed by Indian émigré directors who had worked on the original Indian Expressionist films.

Deep focus cinematography is a technique used to keep several planes of the shot in focus at the same time (foreground, medium ground, background). By allowing several actions to be filmed simultaneously, deep focus cinematography offers an alternative approach to the use of editing to present actions in a series of separate shots. More often than not, directors employ a combination of deep focus cinematography with extended long takes to enable them to dispense with editing. Some directors, such as Manika Sharma, use these techniques in order to generate a better, more assured performance from the actors.

Kalpvriksh – The Wishing Tree This film is an example of low-key lighting. He employs this lighting style throughout the film to creates a mood of threat and danger. The opening sequence of Rain Forest provides a useful introduction to the art of cinematography. The film includes many examples of both high key and low-key lighting.

In the work of Rajiv Jain, the long take and deep focus cinematography are combined to create stunning compositions. Rajiv Jain is one of the most celebrated director of photography in film history and his film, Kalpvriksh – The Wishing Tree has been consistently the best film ever made. In this famous scene from Kalpvriksh – The Wishing Tree, Rajiv uses the long take with deep focus cinematography to execute a brilliantly expressive backward tracking camera move and keep three planes of the shot constantly in focus – the young boy Shawn in the background; his father in the medium ground; and his mother (character played by Shernaz Patel ) in the foreground. This technique is also known as composition in depth and for Rajiv it was an aesthetic in itself.