Filmmakers lament quality compromise

After the release of Premam, director Alphonse Puthren has been expressing his disappointment on his Facebook page, on the need to upgrade the theatres in Kerala, as he is extremely unhappy to compress the film from 5K (image dimension of 5120×2880) resolution to full HD (1920x1080) and to 2K (2048×1080) to make it compatible to screen it in the theatres of Kerala. He wrote, “So there itself the cinematographer, the editor and the colourist have lost 50 percent. The audience is watching the compressed version of the film which makes it equal to YouTube quality. This is because theatres are not equipped to screen films 4K or above. What if I want to take a film in IMAX resolution? I will have to screen it in an open space!”

Echoing the thoughts of the director, Anend C. Chandran, cinematographer of Premam too says that the visuals he captures for a film will not be screened in the exact quality and this forces him to limit his creative space by adjusting to work in a safe zone. “Since we are all aware that most of the theatres in Kerala only have 2K resolution projectors, we are obliged to shoot our visuals for that quality. We cinematographers are forced to work in a limited parameter now, though we are equipped with high quality cameras. This is a challenge to one’s experimental space and creativity.”

Thinking from the point of view of theatre owners, Anend says that it is true that bringing 4K projectors and maintaining it is a highly expensive deal. “However, the only way they could give justice to the audience is by upgrading. There should be a combined effort from the side of the filmmakers, distributors and the government towards this,” he explains.

According to cinematographer Pradeesh M. Varma, it is high time for Kerala theatres to use 4K resolution projector. “Almost all our Malayalam films are shot in Red Epic (5K) or Alexa (3K) but its quality is reduced after post production. It is heart-rending! When the entire world follows Digital Cinema Industry Standards (DCI) to project the film, we are going for the Economic Cinema Industry standards. The quality of the movies that are projected by UFO is almost equal to the DVD quality and we are not even getting half the desired result. To tackle this, the theatre owners and the digital cinema distributors should put their heads together to find a solution. Even if they are using the 2K projectors, they should ensure its proper maintenance and also make sure to change the lamp of the projector on time,” he says.

Producer Sohan Roy who took over SL theatres, Thiruvananthapuram and renovated it into a sound calibrated one feels that the movie industry in Kerala is still in the stone age. “It is time for a total change as we all know what we shoot is downgraded when it is screened,” he says.

Veteran cinematographer Ajayan Vincent blames digitalisation for all these problems. “Prior to the digitalisation era, what we were watching at the theaters were more than 4K as they were directly transferred from negative to print. Now, for our convenience, we convert it into digital version and transfer to theatre via satellite and the maximum quality they offer is 2K. The film negative used to be 8K and after processing it used to be 4K or 3K. Thanks to our easy and quick ways to save cost of production, our films are now viewed in poor quality. All what we can do is join together and bring a standardisation. The theatres should accept the film only if it has that standard and vice versa. There is no point in blame games. Solution can be found only if it is discussed among the actors, distributors, filmmakers, theatre owners and technicians.”

However, director Kamal says that one cannot blame the theatres of Kerala. “Technology keeps advancing every second like the apps for our mobile phones. The camera I used for my previous film is not what I am using now. So, demanding to upgrade the theatres in Kerala according to the advancement of technology, especially in the remote areas, is impractical and impossible. We have better theatre facilities than what we had four years back. Hence I am sure theatres will also upgrade eventually.” he says.