Snazzy camer work,sophistication define Knock Out

To enhance the sophistication of its characters,Knock Out director Mani Shankar used complex camerawork.

Sanjay Dutt’s character in Knock Out is familiar with sophisticated weapons. So keeping in sync with his character,director Mani Shankar employed a rarely-used and difficult technique of shooting certain sequences in the film.

This complex scene is shot with the cameras aperture fully open with an extremely narrow depth of field in contrast to wide depth where the viewer can get a clear view of everything in the background. A narrow depth of field has only one image in focus,in this case Sanjay Dutt. The blurred background creates a sense of fragility. This is a risky way of shooting because if the actor moves even two inches during the shot,it cannot be used. It is an equally tricky situation for the cinematographer as he has to shoot with the camera and the actor in motion, explained Shankar.

This complex way of shooting uses master prime lenses that are extremely sharp and difficult to handle,and it requires a capable cinematographer to shoot with this technique,added the director. But having Natarajan Subramanian was an asset as he is one of the few cinematographers who gives excellent results with this style of shooting. It was the first time that he was tackling an action film and this was a new challenge for him. But with Sanju and Nutty both excellent at their respective jobs 65 per cent of the shots were okayed in the first take itself. In fact,Sanju knew the complex nature of shooting at wafer-thin depth of fields and handled it brilliantly. I look at him as India’s Al Pacino.

Knock Out was shot in Mumbai,Hyderabad,Pune,Dubai and Switzerland and parts of rural India and releases on October 15.

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