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A roller coaster life of a young struggling writer, caught in the politics & turmoil of the inner workings of Bollywood.
“There is a subtle, painterly distortion around the corners that is more pronounced when you bring the S4’s up close to the subject made my eyes light up.”Aneesh Ajay, Director of Photography
Lens information:
Lens series: S4/i
Focal Lengths: 18,25,35,50,75,100mm
Camera: Red Weapon 8K S35
Format: Digital
Production information:
Directors of Photography: Aneesh Ajay
DOP Instagram: @kumar.xxvii
DOP Website: www.anikumardp.com
DOP IMDB: @AneeshAjayimdb
DOP Email: aneesh.kumar2791@gmail.com
Created by: Navjot Gulati, Shreyansh Pandey
OTT: Amazon Mini TV
Producer: Arunabh Kumar
Director: Navjot Gulati
Executive Producers: Shreyansh Pandey, Vijay Koshy
Colourist: Poonit Poojari
Rental House: Prime Focus
Industry is a web series that chronicles the journey of a young writer navigating the film industry facing constant rejections, start-stops and self-doubt. I wanted to accentuate the arc of the protagonist by gradually shifting the visual grammar from 2 shots and OTS’s to singles as the story progresses and he becomes increasingly self-centered.
I also decided to use minimal camera movement and use negative space to reflect the lack of progress in his meetings and portray his frame of mind. The aspect ratio of 2:1 gave me more room to explore interesting negative compositions and was also favorable to conventional compositions when needed.
There is a subtle, painterly distortion around the corners that is more pronounced when you bring the S4’s up close to the subject made my eyes light up. I really liked how the lens renders colours and out of focus areas and the smooth focus fall off has an almost film-like quality to it. It just felt and looked like the right choice during the tests.
When it came to lighting, I wanted to keep things as natural as possible and embraced the slight warmth that the lenses offer especially in the skin tones.
I tried to compliment this warmth with cooler tones in ambience/fill. We had to be really quick on our feet as we were roughly shooting 10 pages a day, and I kept things fairly simple and mostly lit from the top and worked our way around the axes.
The 35mm was the workhorse on this project. I guess about 80% of the show was shot on the 35mm at 2.8 T. I feel there is a certain immersiveness that comes from having the audience watch the film through a constant focal length which I wanted for this show.
We shot on the Red Weapon 8K S35, on the wider focal lengths there was slight vignetting on the corners which was solved by switching to 7K. This combo helped me achieve a look that is sharp and slick yet with some character that is not too distracting from the story we wanted to tell.
Aneesh Ajay | Director of Photography
