[Reader-list] Color Balancing of MUGHAL-E-AZAM

Sat Apr 23 14:00:44 IST 2005

Dear All,

Hi again! I am back with my Fourth posting on the colorization of Mughal-E-Aazam(MEA). This time I am sending excerpts from the conversation I had with Mr.Rajiv from RAJTARU studios, a prime post production set up in Mumbai, who did the color balancing for the colorized version of MEA. The complete process will be attached in the final report.

Please go through and give your valuable feedback.

What was your role in the resurrection of MEA in color? 

We did the color balancing for the film, after it was digitally colorized by Indian Academy for Arts and Animation (IAAA). Its a crucial process because when you do coloring frame by frame, flickers start to happen. So we did the entire color balancing of the film and made it more balanced to suit the film exposure. 

We also did the formatting of the aspect ratio of the film, as originally the film was shot on the full screen format as against the current trend where we shoot in Cinemascope (Anamorphic). Thus, we formatted the entire film to suit the Cinemascope screen and then exposed it back on the negative.

How did you do this format change from full screen to Cinemascope? By compressing the frames or by trimming them? Did you loose out on any information in the frame?

We didnt compress the film (it would lead to distortion). It was more like keeping the necessary information and let go the information that really doesnt matter.

Like the Headroom?

Its not about just the headroom, its the overall framing that has to be judged and taken a call on. You definitely loose some information, but thats negligible, only 5 - 10%.

How did the project come to you? 

When the film was colorized, they did several tests with many companies in the industry and finally they liked the results given by us and we ended up doing the entire film. Before taking up the project we did a lot of tests for them to see what all we could achieve, because we really wanted to be sure whether we would be able to handle it or not.

As it was artificially colorized, was it very difficult to do the color balancing?

It was definitely difficult. It took almost 4 months only on color balancing and then exposing on the negative. As the colors were digitally generated, they had a lot of variation and contrast. So, it was a tedious job to balance those colors frame by frame.

There are a few portions in the film which are originally shot in the EASTMAN color. Do they match easily with the artificially generated colors?

Definitely they cant match 100% because the colorization is a computer generated process, wherein you scan the frame and then color it artificially. But I think there are no jerks to the human eye. We have done more than a decent job. 

Kindly explain the process in a lay mans language. 

Once we receive the colorized frame, we have to break them into sequences, depending on one sequence where the color balances, it should be standardized the way the whole sequence would look. So once we line up that whole sequence, we design a color that suits the whole sequence using the color that has already been done on the film. Then we balance it. When we use the term balance, it basically means removing the jitters and flickers that appear in between frames.

So basically it is a very straight forward color correction process in which we add or remove the contrast to the image to basically suit the Cinema format.

And when you formatted the film into Cinemascope, did you cut it manually?

No, its not done manually but you have to do certain tests  by exposing it to the negative in order to know how its going to look in the projection.

Restoration / Colorization has already been happening in Hollywood for the video format. How was it different to do it for the first time for the 35mm format / Theatrical release?

When you are working on video resolution, its very less information / data, that you have to work on. But when you are working on 35mm, the frames are very large in size and resolution is much higher. thus the process for celluloid is much more time consuming and lengthier as opposed to video.

Some people have taken this Restoration / colorization as an infringement of the original work while others have taken it as an enhancement. What is your take on it?

I dont think its infringement. Mr.K.Asif  had a dream to make his film in color, which has been fulfilled now.

Regards,

Abhishek Sharma

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