Chapman University, Dodge College of Film and Media Arts - location: Orange, CA.

"Kodak Award-winner Yash Bhatt preserves the beauty of a lost art form on 16mm"

"I was lucky enough to get some of the last rolls of KODAK VISION 500T 7279," says Yash Bhatt about the now-discontinued 16mm stock that he used to shoot the award-winning film The Vaudevillian. "It was important to carefully select our film stocks for this period piece. And because the story revolves around a disappearing art form, it was important to show how beautiful the time period and things surrounding that time period were. These elements need to be composed with lots of details. To me, film is the best medium that can capture those details. They can be details in texture, in color, skin tones etc. Once these details are compiled together, they help create an emotion, which helps tell this story." Although the 7279 emulsion is no longer available, its replacement is the new KODAK VISION2 500T 5218/7218.

Yash discussing shots with director Bryan Nest

Yash cites the recent feature film 300 as a perfect example of a movie that was shot on film despite the many digital special effects and green screen backgrounds. "The 300 had a lot of intricate period details and high speed (slow motion) shots which are much finer if captured on film," he says. "The Vaudevillian also has both of these elements."

Set during the Great Depression of the 1930's, The Vaudevillian tells the story of an out-of-work ventriloquist who travels through the dustbowl of the American countryside and uses his vocal skills to con the various farmers into thinking their animals can talk. His dummy puppet acts as his conscience by speaking aloud the thoughts in the ventriloquist's head and questioning his dishonest motives.

As a cinematography student at Chapman University, Yash submitted the film to the Eastman Scholarship program and was bestowed this year's Kodak Award for Excellence in Cinematography. He was also named the winner of Kodak's Film School competition in the US/Canada region. In addition to winning a film grant, Yash will be invited to the Clermont-Ferrand Short Film Festival in France to screen The Vaudevillian as part of the Kodak International Short Film Showcase for New Talents www.clermont-filmfest.com

The Vaudevillian also earned Yash a coveted spot in the Cinematography Masterclass held in Budapest, Hungary this September. He was one of two U.S. students selected along with 13 other cinematography scholars worldwide to attend this two week-long workshop that is sponsored by Kodak and taught once every two years by Vilmos Zsigmond at the Academy of Drama and Film in Budapest www.bpmasterclass.hu

In addition to this, The Vaudevillian won 2nd place in the BAFTA-LA (British Academy of Film and Television Awards, LA chapter) Student Awards. It was also nominated for Best Cinematography at Chapman University, where Yash is in constant demand by students who recognize his talents and are eager to attach him to their own projects. Last year, Yash was the cinematographer for one of the ten finalist projects in the Coca-Cola Refreshing Filmmaker contest www.ccrfa.com

One Chapman student who has forged a consistent partnership with Yash, is The Vaudevillian director Bryan Nest, whose first short film project Til Death Do Us Part was also shot by Yash. It's very rare for a 1st year project to look so polished, but Yash added that level of professionalism to the simple 8-minute long film and it took home the Audience Award at the Delray Beach Film Festival.

Their second collaboration, The Vaudevillian, had a budget below $6000, which is quite impressive for a period piece. At the BAFTA-LA student awards it took 2nd place next to a film that had a significantly larger budget and connections to studios. So it seems as if Yash is truly a magician who creates optical illusions with film.

Scene from The Vaudevillian

"I love working with Yash because we are so in tune with each other. We can communicate non-verbally, and every shot I challenge him with he makes 50% better." says Bryan Nest, who will be collaborating with him again on his next film, an even more ambitious period piece that will take place during the Korean War.

"The main reason I like working with Bryan is that he knows what I can deliver as a cinematographer and he always challenges me with shots where I have to push myself," says Yash. "To me that is a sign of a great director because he is a person who can get the best out of his key crew."

The Vaudevillian was shot in 5 days and packed with plenty of unexpected surprises to challenge Yash and the small 9 person crew. There were actors who dropped out, promises of antique cars that never materialized, and a grant for a steady-cam that fell through at the time of principle photography. Yash had to shoot half of the film hand-held. The first half of the movie was shot on sticks with smooth dolly shots until the point where there is a gun shot which shakes the camera and leaves the protagonist (and the audience) emotionally shattered. "I think it came across very well and the audience loved it," says Yash about the premiere screening at the BAFTA-LA Awards.

Despite the small lighting package and the days of having no lights at all, Yash felt confident shooting on Kodak because of the broad latitude range of the VISION2 stocks. He had previous experience with these stocks when he had to shoot a film on 35mm under the low light condition of a bonfire. "It was a night exterior and once again I was stuck with no lights," he recalls. "The light on the character's face was 4 to 5 stops under key and I was doubtful as to whether the film would handle this scene with the fire being in the shot but it came out perfect. The fire was obviously bright but still had some details in it in terms of color and we could see some detail in the shadows as well as in the actor's face and eyes. I was amazed with the versatility of (KODAK VISION2 500T) 5218."

For The Vaudevillian, Yash chose several Super-16mm VISION2 stocks as well as the now-discontinued 7279. "I made the right choice in selecting 7279 for all the acts and backstage scenes," he says. "It gives a nice warm tone, which if mixed with some warm sources added a nice golden touch."

The film's dreamy opening sequence starts in the carnivalesque world of the vaudeville show and introduces the audience to the various performers, including the ventriloquist. "By opening the movie in slow motion and inter-cutting with regular speed it makes the scene more interesting on the whole," he says. "It is like having warm and cool colors in the same frame. It complements each other to have the high-speed cut to regular speed and again to high-speed."

Once the story follows the ventriloquist out on his journey, Yash used KODAK VISION2 50D 7201 and KODAK VISION2 250D 7205 for day interiors and exteriors. "I wanted the day exterior scenes of Jay walking on the country road to look very bland, and de-saturated," he says. "Thanks to the latitude of VISION2 stocks I almost ended up using no light or fill of any kind and just used natural light. By keeping the sun as our back light and exposing for the shadows, I got a washed-out sky with no detail and some of the landscape, it also gave a hard edge light on Jay's (the ventriloquist) face which works best for the story and also I easily achieved the de-saturated look by shooting against the sun.

Scene from The Vaudevillian

They shot all of the exterior locations in the California towns of Victorville and Norco. Bryan wanted to film along a barren road but Yash talked him into using a path alongside some telephone poles which could be cheated to look like a country road. "I think those telephone poles worked for our compositions much better. I tried to use the rule of 2/3rd and 1/3rd especially when composing for wide shots, keeping Jay very small in the frame in front of huge poles. This works for the story as well. I also used too much negative space by short sighting him in the frames just after the horse gets shot. I wanted the audience to know that he has committed a crime and does not know where his life is leading him.

Yash used an Arri SRII super 16 camera with Zeiss prime lenses. "The Arri SRII has its advantages," he says. "It is very light and easy to carry because of its compact size, so handheld was much easier. Since we were shooting on locations there were many times that we had to tuck the camera in a corner and that was not a problem at all. Last but not the least SRII has a very simple mechanism so that changing mags was a snap."

For their Telecine facility, they used Entertainment Post in Burbank. Then they did the Online at Chapman University using the school's own Datacine machine along with their software-based color correction system called Scratch.

Yash came to Chapman University from his home country of India where he attended a television school in Pune. "My first experience with film started when I assisted cinematographer Amit Roy for two years. "I learned from Amit not to get impressed by the mechanics of cinematography but to concentrate on telling the story in the most efficient way."

Yash likes to refer to it as "honest cinematography." He adds "It should not be about ego but about how to help the director communicate the story. As a cinematographer, my job is to be the 'eye' for the director. But I can only do that once I take the 'I' out of the situation." Yash voices a common concern about student cinematographers who care more about getting a flashy scene to put on their reel than creating a shot that gives the right emotion for the film.

"I really believe in giving a project a true approach," he adds. At times Bryan would think of a really creative visual idea but I would stop him if I thought it was too much of a gimmick. He was very receptive to that and we were both willing to do what was best for the film as opposed to what was best for our careers."

And doing what was best for the film has turned out to be what is best for his career.