Ram Gopal Varma Blog #115. The CAMERA as a PEN.

The language of a camera primarily is broken in compositions and movements which largely dependent on the placement of actors.

I give a lot of importance to the placement of actors in a scene. To give you an example there is a scene in Company when Mallik comes to meet Sreenivasan along with Chandu and Pandit. I made Mallik sit in front of Sreenivasan whereas Chandu and Pandit are sitting in the back. Mallik wears his glares so as not to allow Sreenivasan to read his eyes whereas Chandu being new to such atmosphere leans forward to catch the conversation. And both Sreenivasan and Chandu have to raise their voices to be heard across the room whereas Mallik and Sreenivasan talk in lower tones as they are near to each other. Pandit, I placed him in a profile to Sreenivasan. This odd kind of placement serves to establish the hierarchical differences between the characters determine their body language and also the camera compositions become uniquely different.

Imagine if I shot the same scene with all 3 characters sitting right in front of Sreenivasan at the table facing him. It will not anywhere have the same impact even though the scene content will remain the same. That’s how important placing a subject will be in connection to how camera framing comes about. But yes, the placing has to come from within the emotional and the dramatic context of the scene. This scene in Company still is pretty simple in illustrating my point as it’s of very steady and non-movement compositions. If you take the case of Sarkar, I used a lot of foregrounding movement which makes the frame more intense and energetic.

But compositions and camera movements can be applied to the maximum effect in a thriller format for the obvious reason that you are constantly playing around with the audience’s imagination and manipulating their minds with what you show and what you don’t show in the frame.

I used the camera to literally write the story of Agyaat and that’s why I am calling it a PEN.