“This type of movie is the dream of any cinematographer,” begins Sujith Vaassudev, who cranked the camera for Prithviraj’s latest release Ezra. “In my knowledge, this was a film discussed with many noted cinematographers. I have heard about the film from Prithviraj even before I was roped in to its crew. All of a sudden, I came on board to wield the camera,” says the cinematographer, who is garnering good comments for his work in the film.
Sujith recollects that it was just a few days after he completed his directorial debut James and Alice that he got the call to Ezra through Prithviraj. “One day, Raju called me and asked whether I would be free for a particular period and I replied yes. It was then he said, director Jay would meet me and they are planning to rope me in as the cinematographer,” he rewinds.
He points out that they were adamant to avoid clichéd lighting-framing pattern commonly seen in horror films.
“We had decided that we won’t use backlight and smoke effect. But still it was a big challenge for us to capture the scary mood. We are happy that people accepted our movie,” says the cinematographer, adding, “It is really a team work. When I heard the subject, I could sense enough space for good visuals. More than that, we had to can many night sequences. But for that, we should get full support from the departments including costumes, make up and art. We all sat together along with our director to finalise the frame style and more.”
Sujith still remembers the paranormal activities that occurred on the sets of Ezra in Kochi. “In fact, I do not believe in these things. But to be frank, certain things did happen. We were using two cameras at a time. One day, all of a sudden, both cameras got stuck and though we tried to switch them on, nothing was happening. Batteries were fully charged. We were using panther crane there. Suddenly, that too went phut. And then the lights got fused off. Interestingly, all these incidents were connected to the camera department and took place in a few days,” says the cinematographer, who recently completed Mohanlal film 1971 Beyond Borders.
Sujith is all set to wield camera for a Telugu movie.
