“I see
Indian VFX
improving
daily “
Enter Brynley Cadman.
Currently in the midst of the VFX and DI for the Kaleidoscope Entertainment produced, Ketan Mehta directed, ‘The Rising’, starring Aamir Khan.
Catching up with Brynley is no mean task, 4.00 pm he is at MEL, at 8.00 BGIL and probably at Prime Focus close to midnight. After playing dodge with the VFX supervisor and his business partner Rekha Kalra for over a week, Animation ‘xpress’ Anand Gurnani finally caught up with Brynley.
The Venue: Brynley’s Juhu residence with the Arabian sea almost roaring in through the French windows.
The Settings : An overcast friday evening with the wind howling for additional effects.
The topic : Visual Effects, but of course!
Excerpts –
Let’s begin with how you got into this industry and subsequently about what got you to India?
I started working in films since I was 16. Interestingly, my first job was in SFX where I had to mount squibs (small electric charges) onto condoms filled with blood. I followed that job by studying a degree course in film making at Rhyerson Polytechnic (Toronto). Post that I joined Colorization Inc., North America’s first digital ink and paint and film restoration facility as production manager. I proceeded on to Topix (Toronto) where I joined as a computer animator. Out there I did a lot of my work using Wavefront advanced visualiser.
Topix opened up Mad Dog digital in 1992 with one of the first Flames in Canada and since then for the past 13 years I have focused on compositing and VFX supervision. My next stint after Mad Dog digital was as VFX Director at Studio Bablesberg / Company B. Babelsburg is one of the world’s oldest film studios.
After 10 years of working as senior compositor and VFX director and supervisor I ended up at Mumbai based EFX as VFX supervisor in 2002.
What made you quit EFX?
I left EFX as I felt I would be of more benefit to VFX in India if I was independent. Soon after that I met Rekha Kalra, who I hired as a producer and who has since become my full business partner. We also have Kennedy Shah (Motion control director – VFX supervisor) and a lot of freelancers who come and work with us on assignment basis.
What do you think of the Indian VFX scene?
VFX in India is in a positive situation, it is very young and that makes it exciting. One can try a lot of new things on the sets, as compared to the west. It is a very open working environment which is progressive and dynamic. I see the Industry improving daily both in terms of economics and quality and there is a lot that can be learnt. B.Inc (Brynley’s company) has now embraced the Indian VFX industry and believes that Indian VFX is on the verge of maturing into the global market.
What films are you currently working on?
We are working on the Ketan Mehta directed The Rising, also Aamir’s forthcoming home production Rang De Basanti, where we are supervising some VFX.
We try not to overload ourselves with projects. What interests us is doing good stuff and we don’t mind doing low budget projects if they are interesting and offer an exciting challenge. For e.g. we are working on Truck of Dreams a marathi film made for the international markets, primarily for the festival circuits. It is directed by London based Arun Kumar and stars Peeya Rai Chaudhari. The film produced By Sahara One and Percept Pictures is about the projector trucks that travel from village to village projecting films. There are a lot of interesting graphics, transitions and creative work involved in the film. The intriguing thing about handling the movie is that it is partly shot in Film and partly in 16 by 9. The entire footage was mastered to DS HD 10 bit, onlined on an FCP-HD and later recorded back to film. We’ve got a good quality level on a low budget.
“Dhoom is an example of some good VFX work. Devdas, the flame sequence was very well done. Swades and Black too had some good VFX. These kinds of standards have to be maintained and enforced on all films across budgets”
Kennedy Shah (in pic above) while working along with Brynley for Toyota TVC
Could you elaborate on ‘The Rising’ as that is one film which carries great expectations?
It’s been an excellent experience working with people like Ketan and Aamir who have respect for the craft. It was also wonderful working with D.O.P Himman Dhamija who is an excellent cinematographer.
We started quarter way into the shooting of the movie. There are a lot of crowd multiplications, set extensions and CG enhancements. We are also supervising the post process and are in the tail end of finishing the VFX and DI for the Film. The job has been on for a full year, and I must say that getting to do a film for a whole year is refreshing as it allows you to sink your teeth into the job.
Also….
Go on….
Well I would have loved to speak in detail about the work we have done for The Rising but I don’t have the clearances from the producer. I guess we could talk about it at length after the movie releases.
Please talk about any of the techniques or challenging work that you’ve done for the film?
Talking about technique, we used an interesting technique known as Camera Mapping for Rang De Basanti. The technique was applied on some shots that we canned in the Golden Temple at Amritsar.
For camera mapping, we used a panoramic camera (22 megapixels) and shot a panorama at very high res (12 bits of color depth). We then created a 3D scape of the Golden Temple using basic geometry and planes and mapped the panoramic output which we had shot onto the 3D scape. This enabled us to have the kind of Camera moves we wanted without any physical obstructions. We had to convert the lighting and the highlights into 3D shadows and add a little bit of atmosphere. All this was done in addition to the live action camera.
Recently we’ve completed a fort sequence on the outskirts of Ludhiana. We shall be adding a CG airport whose runway will culminate into the backyard of the fort. Pre viz for the same has been done on the sets and we did a lot of interactive stuff using the video tap of the film camera. We have captured a lot of that pre vis and held joint discussions with director Rakesh Mehra and D.O.P Binod Pradhan.
I’ve worked with Rakesh and Binod on some ad films in the past and its great working with them. Rakesh has a great knack for collaborative film making. Film making is a collaborative process and one has to be able to get along well with people to work well out here.
Which ad films are you doing? Do you make the complete film or supervise the VFX?
We’ve done some ad films, just finished 9 TVC’s for MRF tyres with Sachin Tendulkar. The TVCs were executed at VCL. We were the creative designers for the films.
When we do ad films we are approached as directors, by other directors who want a particular feel and look. A lot of TVCs are going abroad but we feel that they need’nt go out. The thing is that there is a lot of difference between the time and budgets allotted to studios here and abroad, the same Indian agency which would give an Indian studio 9 days would stretch out a month to an international studio. Ditto for budgets.
I remember doing the Reid & Taylor commercial with the BIG B. That TVC had 96 VFX shots. We had to complete the commercial in 13 days flat.
When you are not given enough time, you will get a 90% job. Anyone can give you 90%. It is the final 10% that matters the most. In the last 3 years I have seen many things improve though.
Examples of improved Indian VFX would be…?
Dhoom is an example of some good VFX work. Devdas, the flame sequence was very well done. Swades and Black too had some good VFX. These kinds of standards have to be maintained and enforced on all films across budgets.
I just saw Batman Begins, – Christopher Nolan has kept the usage of CG to its minimal. It was very refreshing to see a film that was so well integrated.
Please explain?
What I mean is that VFX should be more narrative driven and content driven. Quality has to take the front seat as compared to Quantity. A single VFX shot which is justified in the story and well visualized and executed is better than doing a 100 VFX shots patched on and added to the movie just to jazz it up.
“Sharing of knowledge has to be open and unrestricted”
Brynley along with Business partner Rekha Kalra
What about talent and training?
We also do our bit in VFX training. We did a week long seminar at MAAC Delhi. We are very enthusiastic about closing the knowledge gap in VFX.
Education and on the job training are vital. There are not many opportunities to get higher education in these fields. Online communities are a huge step towards sharing of knowledge specific to the Indian community. There are a lot of different techniques that need to be tried and experimented with. Sharing of knowledge has to be open and unrestricted.
Students must be encouraged to be masters of their own craft. The actual learning begins when they finish school. We need experts in India, we need expert modelers, we need expert animators, we need expert compositing artists, we need expert lighters and so on. That’s what we need to do. As soon as that is done a lot of overseas companies will come and start working in India.
Outsourced work is not the only side to it but it will help inject the economy with funds needed to help indigenous creativity and result in original IP. Besides the economic benefits, working on outsourced projects in collaboration with International studios will help improve the infrastructure, workflow methods and competence too.
Plans for 2006?
We’ve ventured into film production. It’s a pet project ‘Raftaar’. It will be directed by a friend Jai Vikram. It is a low budget film, so the VFX are not going to be high budget, but the quality of the VFX is going to be very high. We want to create a hindi film noir. Very Hitchcockian, something like what the Cohen Brothers do.
Amongst other plans, we want to get involved in motion control, miniature and animatronics. We are also talking to investors about opening a greenscreen stage.
We work with almost everybody because our supervising process is always hands on. Currently we are working at Maya, VCL, BGIL, Prime Focus, United Vision, Kodak Cinelabs, EFX, USL and Rajtaru. The environment is very competitive and so sometimes we do get into friction. But we are friends with all. We haven’t outsourced outside Mumbai but we would like to work with other companies.
“I personally would like to see a lot of creative synergy and co pro deals between Canada and India. Canadian Government is very involved in multi cultural exchanges”
On Location – The Rising
I personally would like to see a lot of creative synergy and co pro deals between Canada and India. Canadian Government is very involved in multi cultural exchanges.
