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Rajeev Jain - Director of photography india

Life through the lens ....

What I can say I've been shooting the film from ...

Over the years I have had the opportunity to work with many of the best filmmakers around. The good thing is that I was exposed to many approaches and styles. I learned what I liked and learned how to solve a variety of lighting situations.

My favorite is the style of lighting to shoot with one aspect natural light sources motivated. I like working with large soft sources and then "paint" in the shadow areas. Working hard to ensure that any history being counted is greater and communicated with the light and images.

For me the best picture is the kind that takes you to another world? Photography that brings the experience of history and makes you quickly forget you're watching a movie. Seamless realistic.

The great masters of the light that I include Spinnoti inspired Dante, ASC Heat, The Insider, Vilmos Zsigmond, ASC Sugarland Express, The Deer Hunter, Don Burgess, ASC Cast Away, and contact, and John Toll for his brilliant Legends of the Fall work. Finally, the great master of light in my opinion, is Rembrandt. His art has been truly inspiring to me. My favorite piece is The Horseman Polish, a magnificent work of art.

I admire directors are Akira Kurosawa's Ran, Tony Scott, Enemy of the State, Ridley Scott, Gladiator, Gus Van Sant's Good Will Hunting, and Executives Michal Mann and heat.

I've been blessed to be able to make a living doing what I love doing. "

A CONVERSATION WITH Rajiv Jain (ICS / WICA)

Q: Where were you born and raised?
Rajiv Jain: I was born on November 29, 1964 in a Hospital Civil, in Lucknow, India, in a working class (India-term lower middle class family), core of the Hindi-speaking family. I spent my formative years in Etawah located in Uttar Pradesh, India. That's where I grew up. It was a city of a horse with a bank of a horse. I had a big boy, though the hood. Come a very tight urban area, and suddenly I in this environment where it could go to the mountain bike. We were also river. It was beautiful. I loved the interior and open spaces. My father worked in a bank and moved / on the transfer of two or three years. My mother is the whole world around their children and home, so as You see, I led a very sheltered with little or no contact with the outside world as it was. My father had an Instamatic camera I fascinated, but he forbade me to put my hands on it, its fun, but somewhere in my curiosity for photography really developed that was forbidden to touch the camera. My dad sees me as a doctor, engineer or IAS officer.

QUESTION: The classification ...
Rajiv Jain: I went to the University of Lucknow Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, and also had the chance to go to the Academy of Dramatic Arts Bhartendu (Bhartendu Natya Academy / Bhartendu Natya Akademi), Lucknow. I majored Stage Crafts specializing in stage lighting, with the intention of becoming a lighting designer.

QUESTION: Is it going to continue the footsteps of his father?
Rajiv Jain: I do not think I never saw in the banking profession. In fact, I caught the movie bug when I was around age 10 or 11a. A Satyajit Ray film called Shatranj Ke Khilari was being filmed in my neighborhood in Lucknow. I saw the truck go down the street, and then snuck around the house where they were filming. Saw the creation of lights and cameras. I was amazed complete.

QUESTION: Were there other influences in your family?
Rajiv Jain: My mother is a religious person. I had often seen the prayer, I do not think it necessary to develop so that all those prayers were for. Our careers and our future was my mother is a major concern. I still remember that moment like it was yesterday, I was talking to the mother as she cleared the dinner dishes and she went on to ask me I wanted to do with my life after getting my diploma in drama school, at that precise moment I had a piece of 35 mm film still in his hand "I like to do something with it, "said watching the film. It was a long way since then, but my mother was with me in those formative years and guided me every step the road. I was eager to join the Film and Television Institute of India, but I did not qualify for the entrance examination, however, move from photography to cinematography and drama seemed a very natural progression.

QUESTION: Are you interested in movies these days?
Rajiv Jain: Insurance Now! like any other boy my age the film world fascinated me, it was not for the star to be beaten all aspects of the film I was interested, so it was so spontaneous response when one of my favorite all-time faculty (Guptaji) asked me what I wanted to be in life? "I want to a career for me in the film world, I want to create the magic behind the screen. "So yes, my love for cinema goes back a long way. I grew up watching movies Hollywood and India. I was not drawn to foreign films. American films were the ones I liked to watch. No more than most children but I managed to see the greatest hits of the era. My dad took me to see Lawrence of Arabia, Dr. Strangelove, The Longest Day during the decade 1970. He loved the great historical dramas. I became a fan of the film during the 1980's, while I went to drama school in Lucknow. Some my bohemian friends and I happened to find popular and classical music and dance theater, professional theater company, the club still amateur photography and the underground cinema called Lucknow Film Society. Showed classic films and new wave. They were usually 16 mm images projected on a wall. That's where I discovered the world of cinema. I remember seeing Metropolis, and Citizen Kane, and films of Bergman, Fellini, Truffant, Welles, Cocteau and Brahkage Stan. That was during my late high school and early college years. I started reading about films and directors and started clicking pictures. I saw a movie that changed my life at that time was a Goddard film called Raoul Coutard shot contempt. It was a Cinemascope movie, which was very similar to what I was doing in photography, but of course, twenty years before that. It uses a lot of primary colors. It was a film that placed great emphasis on the composition and had wide shots and tracking shots with two tiny people walking against a red wall. That was the first time I made the connection in my mind that maybe the film was where my career was his head. I was beginning to feel limited by the still photography. It was the first time recognized the potential of cinema, where a narrative can be told in a visual way.

QUESTION: Are there any particular movies that made an impression on you?
Rajiv Jain: Citizen Kane, Vertigo, The Regle du jeu, The Godfather and The Godfather Part II, History of Tokyo, 2001: A Space Odyssey, Dawn, The Battleship Potemkin, 8-1/2, Singing in the rain, Lawrence of Arabia, Dr. Strangelove, Bicycle Thieves, Raging Bull, Vertigo, Rashomon, Seven Samurai.

Q: Tell us about your background?
Rajiv Jain: My first encounter with the physics of light came by accident. One day, while cleaning the brushes in a dark garage, the light falling through a crack projected a picture on the wall by turning the room into a giant pinhole camera. My first contact was with a movie camera attached to a darkroom process size my apartment. It so happened that one of the jija Surendra ji (universal sister) was 35 mm avid photographer who always had his Nikon camera around his neck. He got me interested in photography and encouraged me to go to Kanpur, with him to make frames in a student demonstration in 1980 s. That was my first experience with a camera, where I had the opportunity to express myself by taking photographs. I started studying manuals photo trying to learn about composition. I looked at how photographers artistic uses the foreground and the colors and light and shadows. That fueled my desire to learn more and more. He had a full time job in a darkroom and going to a photography studio at night and take photos at the weekend. That was not satisfying my thirst to learn more about photography. After completing my studies in Lucknow In 1985 I moved to Mumbai / Bombay and started out as a runner / trainee / apprentice in a series of low budget, and industrial properties.

QUESTION: Were you thinking at that moment in your life who wanted to get into the narrative?
Rajiv Jain: I must admit I never thought it was a great opportunity for me to work Bombay. It was very hard for the north Indians to gain a foothold in Bombay .. The only other place they were making films at that time was in Calcutta and Madras. I I decided to learn English, with the concept that I can go there and give it a try. Of course, with all the work he was doing, I never got into a real sequence lessons, and I am part dyslexic, so it was difficult to learn a new language.

QUESTION: How did you get started in business? What you?
Rajiv Jain: I started as a messenger, learner, trainee, spark, mango, mango key loader, assistant focus puller and work my way up to manager (India-term assistant DOP).

QUESTION: How long have you worked as an assistant?
Rajiv Jain: Oh, about 7-8 years.

QUESTION: What to do when work is completed wizard?
Rajiv Jain: I worked in Bombay in documentaries, industrial films and commercial camera assistant and the manager. They were all small projects. I worked with a couple of cameramen who were shooting at the local level. Was mostly 16 mm and a little more 35 mm, mainly to make some money. While doing that he was still shooting mostly short films and documentaries of some. He was always working on my craft and construction my reel, with the idea that one day I would shoot characteristics. When I left the boat for assistance, I kinda rigged, with the help a bit and was making movies industry, documentaries, commercials and other small jobs. I shot film sales for medical companies promote new products and techniques, small religious plays for a company T-Series, which distributed them to the temples, and some variety shows. I have a lot of jobs through people I met in my days in attendance. It is very important to make friends because they are going to want to take people who know over when getting a work. We had our own rotating group of guys who did all the different jobs depending on who was shooting and it was Hitch.

Q: When did you decide to concentrate on photography?
Rajiv Jain: Immediately. I thought the management process is too long, and I liked it be a cinematographer. During my second year at drama school in 1985, I worked for three or four months for a television station in Lucknow. It was my work to select what was good enough to do the program. It was a great practice. I also learned the trade of second camera assistant and the first in Bombay Ashok Mehta, Binod Pradhan and KKMahajan

QUESTION: What was the deciding factor in making that decision?
Rajiv Jain: I do not want to look back one day and regret that I did not try. I did not want to be 80 years old wondering if I could succeed. If not, could have gone to Lucknow to know what di my best shot. So, I came to Mumbai / Bombay amid fuel crisis - only auto rickshaw ride was a great challenge. I went around interviewing various s DOP as were much more accessible than the major operations of feature films. There was no way I could get in the door of any of those places. After about three months, money was running out. I was walking down a sort of store in Mumbai on Saturday, and saw an open door when they were building sets. I remember thinking, would not be working on a weekend unless they were behind. So I went in, found the foreman and told him he was a carpenter. He asked me if I had any experience throughout the building? I lied and said yes. It was only half a lie because he had built many sets for plays in school plays. The only similarity is that both are made of wood. They were building sets for television commercials.

QUESTION: Has worked as a manager to help at the movies?
First in India means Uncle assistant DOP. We have no tradition of charge. I went to that thinking job as director of photography. I would like to bring a new technique or a new type of light to the attention of the photograph that was working, suggesting that as something that would help to tell the story better. I think I learned more from seeing the work of other filmmakers than anything else. One of the only ways to really learn photography is another director of photography. This is how I believe that knowledge is transmitted. You end up picking up small pearls of wisdom on the road. The most important things I learned watching other filmmakers at work were not technical, but how it all convenient for the director and actors, and how to make a creative environment rather than a technical environment.

QUESTION: How did you get into the T-Series music videos?
Rajiv Jain: I tried to work independently for a while but it was hard to enter the union. There was a company called Super Cassettes Studios which was directed by the late Gulshan Kumar in Bombay. They had a place of publication and then opened a center for online publishing. They were hiring a lot of people at that time and had a little experience as a camera operator and the person crew so I took to be a study of all types of maintenance. I also learned to run the tapes. When I got there, it was a very small time, so I learned all sorts of things. I had already made two videos at that point. I was working on the study in the field of trade and aims to introduce cameras Lighting union, and I sometimes would work as an operator for them. I kind of lighting technician for them, so I learned more in that study in the space of a year and a half than any other. It was a very intense training, and brought in high quality video being recorded to one inch. Was used Sony camera and it was quite a good camera. I still think it is better than the cameras that are there now, but we were always trying to get a movie to look outside of it. We want to play with filtration and black levels and all types of lighting to see how we could get it to look like a movie.

QUESTION: That sounds like it was a great experience for you?
Rajiv Jain: Yes, I have to throw a lot and be quite creative with this camera video. It must also be in the post process. It was a very exciting editing process, and then we did some kind of effects in the study, so I have to shoot. That was a good break for me and then the director introduced me to many more projects after that. I started making documentaries. I went on tour with them and three times on tour. I made a documentary in New Delhi on recording music videos we filmed on videotape, all recorded on video documentary, but it really gave me opportunity to play with the image and the lens and move the camera. It was great!

QUESTION: What was your first film?
Rajiv Jain: My first independent film as DOP was the Army (1994) starring Sharukh Khan, Sridevi and Ram Shetty indicated. Color was anamorphic. I changed the contrast with lighting to eliminate all shades of gray. That was my signature, black and pure white, not gray. Final Mukul S Anand visited the set while filming, and then I worked with him for his production company Films MAD in their ads (1994).

QUESTION: What do you look for when reading a script? Is history, the director, a combination of both or something else?
Rajiv Jain: Generally, it is history, but there are some people who are so talented and good to work with I am always ready to say yes, I will go anywhere. I believe that above all is the story I have to grab. I do not necessarily think visually at the time ... what Ideally, a film I love to go see. I am also looking for something different from what I've done before. Craving variety. It is a combination of things. At first, I thought the script was the most important thing, but I have found scripts are constantly changing. Not so much about the shots you do. Cinematography environments is that it creates. A film is a reflection of a series of two-dimensional images projected onto a white screen. It flashes the light projected static through a lens that somehow stimulates the brains of people in the audience and create a three dimensional movement. When you commit to film a movie, you're making a moral commitment - is an obligation owed to the director and the audience. There must be a visual continuity that makes the public feel they have witnessed a slice of life. I tend to be more interested in the concept of a movie. I ask the director to tell me what I do with the film. There was a movie Army called. The movie is two hours long, and is the only movie I've worked with only two pages modified during shooting. It is best india movie script I've worked. There are not many film directors with experience in India because many of them are on television. I have tried to train for understand what is necessary to make a film for the cinema.

QUESTION: What were some of the low-budget films other have worked?
Rajiv Jain: I do not claim the above Pyar Mein Kabhi Kabhi. First thing out of me was a small independent film called Rasta who was shot more than 15 days in Jaisalmer and was never published. It was my first full account of the experience. Other films I did after that. These films had an important role to put things together in later films because you learn from your mistakes. You learn that there is no time like in a movie. No turning back. You need to plan and persevere through difficult times in a movie. The lower budget and independent films, hard times come all the time. No meeting easy for the powers of trade are facing down on his shoulders. The main thing I learned doing these movies is that you have to answer to yourself over time. You to pace yourself and stay true to that effect. When we Pyar Mein Kabhi Kabhi (1998) had a clear idea of the purpose and told us how to shape the look, but I did not know he worked until he was projected. I was terrified of looking in the papers and not knowing if he was on the right track. When I saw the first demo, which was probably the most frightening and exciting experience.

QUESTION: His recent work includes two features. The latter was Badhaai Ho Badhaai. Describe your experience filming a comedy.
Rajiv Jain: Comedy can be a tragedy. I think the hardest part is that if you throw everything flat, is only going to look like a flat comedy. Comedy is bright, but still want to see the texture of the joint. In comedy, I think many times you play static because it is comedy, not about the joke. If the joke is happening in the frame, people should be listening. If you move the camera to tell the joke, it's distracting. Now if you move the camera for a reaction the image itself, which is a different thing. I think comedy is more difficult in light of drama. There are different levels of comedy and I see photographically different level.

Q: How to start shooting commercials?
Rajiv Jain: When I was still helping in camera, the producer called me and told me the agency I wanted to shoot his next commercial. I had never shot 35 mm film, which surprised me. I still remember the board with my name on it. That was a moment magical. The commercial went well, and that lead to trade, mainly in India. ads shot, I learned how to work with many different people jumping from one project to another in many different ways and places. I think I've applied much of what I learned from shot to shot commercial properties. It is not a conscious. I was just in very different situations the solution of the same types of problems.

QUESTION: Who were some of the filmmakers who worked in ads?
Rajiv Jain: I worked with KK Mahajan, Binod Pradhan, Vikas Sivaraman and Ashok Mehta.

QUESTION: Do they move back and forth between commercials and function?
Rajiv Jain: I did almost a movie in three years. The rest of my time was on ads. Commercial work is very interesting because you can try a lot tools first. In India now, the ads deal much with the aesthetics for what it is like still photography, and learn to create different worlds and are eager to obtain such non-realist worlds. I learned to take risks because if you get something special that you have to try and sometimes succeed and sometimes not, but then which is part of the learning process.

QUESTION: Have you affected trading how to burn movies?
Rajiv Jain: You get an understanding stronger possibilities of what can be done with photography. You get a lot of experience in creating different looks in different forms that can be applied to a movie. The more running, more is learned. Occasionally, you will discover something new that can be built.

Q: Do you have a particular style recognizable makes your job?
Rajiv Jain: I think everyone has their own style, but I would like someone to go in a movie theater and say, 'Oh, Rajiv Jain shot because that's his style. "I would like to say," Oh, who shot that? "I think you have to be more versatile in his sights these days. Each film is different, so they like to think you can put something different in each film as opposed to creating a look repetitive.

QUESTION: How many features, commercials, music videos you shoot?
Rajiv Jain: 6 has nearly 1,032 advertisements, 43 150 music videos and documentaries, videos corporate and industrial.

QUESTION: Have all his projects has been limited to India and has done shoots abroad right?
Rajiv Jain: I shot in Austria France, India, Kenya, Malaysia, Mauritius, Nepal, Netherlands, Russia, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Switzerland, Uganda, United Arab Emirates and United Kingdom.

QUESTION: How was finally enter India and Society of Cinematographers photography western India s Association?
Rajiv Jain: You may apply to enter the Association. I had experience in commercials and movies as an assistant, and as director of photography in five movies. I had the documentation much better as an assistant for the union. That was a charger for KKMahajan five functions and two television series, and I was an assistant on two features Binod Pradhan approx. Ashok Mehta 300 commercials and two features and approx. 100 ads. I took focus during a year until I moved to assistant director and camera operator b.

QUESTION: Is the film a talent that is born, a learned skill, or both?
Rajiv Jain: I think you have to be born with the ability to visualize. As a child, I spent much time looking out the window at school when he should have been looking in books. Scolded me for many times. I grew up and still continue to do so. I still fantasize, more than you think the average person would dare to do. Out of that kind of reverie, which end up making the image has a kind of reality itself. The films have influenced how to make love, what we wear, how to eat, how to walk, how to speak, and how we act in everyday life. You must be able to walk across the bridge to this imaginary world and able to walk again. One of the tricks is that you must know how to handle light. Should have an idea of the different types of light. Where do you get that knowledge? You have to know about cinema as the palm of your hand. That is a skill, among others who have to learn. Even as a child, I responded to light emotionally. It is always a part of me. The film grabbed me at a young age and gave me a voice that had in any other part of my life. I have the luck have found an outlet for that. Ca not imagine doing anything else.

QUESTION: Finally did you ever get used to the fact that you're living your dream?
Rajiv Jain: The night before I shot my first commercial for the late Mukul Anand S, I have only two hours sleep and panic I had a dream that our whole interior hall was built less than half of the scale, was something like. I could not walk on it let alone film it. There was no room for lights or the actors. In my dream, I kept asking, 'How are we shooting in this space, "After 600 malls and 5 Movies later still not getting much sleep the night before the first day of shooting. The truth is that I feel incredibly fortunate to be able to make a living by using shapes, colors, contrast and movement to bring history to life. I love working with the director, production designer and the actors and passive collaboration with the composer, editor and writer. When I hear a carefully soundtrack and the images I've photographed are joined on the screen that brings tears to my eyes. It's really amazing how music can improve my work. I have spoken with the composers of this and tell me it's the same for them when they hear music and see how it works the picture with him. We have almost no contact during the making of the film, but they are key partners in the emotions that give life to the screen.

QUESTION: Are you a sense of responsibility, since many people will be influenced by the movies they make?
Rajiv Jain: I feel a responsibility to the public and business I have loved all my life. I take great pride in the fact that I can work in Bollywood in the tradition of the great filmmakers who were here before us. Movies have brought something in our lives, and our responsibility to give something in return.

About the Author

Rajiv Jain ICS WICA is an Indian Cinematographer / Director of Photography based in Dubai ( UAE ), Nairobi ( Kenya ) and Mumbai ( India ). He brings years of professional films and video experience to every production. As Director of Photography he specializes in shooting television commercials and feature films in the 35mm motion picture film format. His body of work as DP covers 7 full length feature films, 5 Short Films, 1032 commercials, 6 TV Series, 43 music videos, 105 documentaries & infomercials. As a DOP and Camera Operator, Rajeev has a wealth of experience with specialty camera rigs, lens systems SFX techniques, Tyler helicopter mounts, cranes & jibs, probe and swing shift lens systems, blue/green screen, white limbo and HDTV. His freelance work has taken him to Asia, Africa, Europe, and the Middle East. A graduate from the Bhartendu Academy of Dramatic Arts ( Bhartendu Natya Academy ), Rajeev Jain brings energy, creativity and professionalism to every production.

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