Cinematographer Anil Vijay: Taking his best ‘shot’

Kochi: On a sunny morning, all the people walking along the walkway at Marine Drive, Kochi were in for a surprise. A miniature helicopter was flying across the sky taking in the panoramic view of the city for an upcoming Malayalam movie being shot there.

Anil Vijay, cinematographer who wielded camera for this single shot says the helicam shoot is always a risky affair.

“Helicams are used to get the aerial view of the scene. Here, our aim was to get the entire view of Kochi including the Marine Drive. It is risky because we control the camera using the camera operator on ground and all camera movements such as pan and tilt are done using the operator. The camera is placed in the middle of the mini helicopter. The images captured by the camera are downloaded to the camera operator via an onboard transmitter and we have to make the changes accordingly. The main thing is that we must have the right balance to get the perfect visuals,” says Anil.

This is not his maiden attempt. He has done it before for his ads. Anil, who runs a creative firm in Kochi, made his debut as a cinematographer with Mashithandu, the shooting of which has just commenced. He has assisted famous cinematographers such as Krish Kaimal and K.P. Nambiathiri before venturing into advertising.

Anil believes that cinematography is different in ad films and feature films. “Cinematography for advertising and films is entirely different, the major difference being the duration and frames. Ads are short in length whereas films are narrated at length. Also, in advertisements beauty is priority, which may not be in cinema always,” he says.

According to Anil, the biggest challenge of a cinematographer lies in capturing the visuals on par with the vision of director. A good cinematographer can beautify the entire plot with his stunning visuals, he believes.

The most challenging work he has ever done was the song shoot for Avial band. “The entire shoot took place in a moving lorry. It was really difficult to get the right visuals as the camera was shaking. But luckily we have techniques such as spot editing now which can help improve visuals on spot,” he adds.

However, Anil feels that cinematography of Malayalam cinema has advanced a lot now and certain styles became popular with the advent of next-gen movies.

“Cinematography has evolved. Each generation has a certain signature style. In new generation movies major trends are in lighting and camera movements. Low key lighting and camera movements such as hand held and breathing are in vogue now,” concludes Anil.