Arthur Wilson BTS: Waltair Veerayya!

SICA on 22nd Jan 2023 arranged  a film screening of recent of  Telugu feature film  WALTAIR VEERAYA to its members at Prasad lab theatre 10am.

The screening had a packed house with many members turned up to witness the film.

SICA General Secretary Ilavarasu welcomed the gathering and Cinematographer Arthur.A.Wilson, President Karthik Raaja, Treasurer Sakthi Saravanan presided over the event along with Excecutive committee members, Senior Cinematographer Ravi Babu was called upon stage to honor Arthur Wilson for his stunning imagery for this Successful film.

Waltair Veerayya is a 2023 Indian Telugu-language action comedy film directed by Bobby Kolli and produced by Mythri Movie Makers. The film stars Chiranjeevi and Ravi Teja in the lead roles.

Highlight of  this film is its cinematography by Wilson who has a very strong reputation over the years, speaking to SICA Wilson shares some incredible technicalities involved through the making of the film.

First impressive fact about the film is its color scheme, Wilson states that though Waltair Veerayya is a commercial entertainer still he wanted to create a unique look for the film which had different moods.

Color Palette  decision was done before the start of the shooting, Ace cinematographer said he had created cold look at the beginning of the film, then to a Multi color scheme,  travels to brown shades for Narcotic sequences and final part having a very stark images.

Arthur Wilson used new SONY VENICE 2 Cinema Camera which he feels has a organic feel close to the images of motion picture film stock with Signature Prime lenses.

His Digital Color Grading specifications –

Software – Baselight version5.3

Input color space: Automatic (sony)
Working color space : Arri log C Widegamut
Viewing color space : DCI p3 /  gamma 2.6
DRT : Arri ALF2

Arthur Wilson imagery is very distinct quality where he has offered variety of visual looks with film opening sequence of  Aircraft crash sequence to  breath taking massacre scenes at Police station where light and darkness interplay is a pure art.

Then comes a most stunning mid sea action block which happens on a stormy  night is a surprise visual which looks so real as if shot on a water background but Wilson reveals it was shot on a closed set with green and blue backing.

He continues to say that though it was a Computer generated sequence, he lit up with a back cross key lighting which made the visuals look so real.

Coming to Interval Sequence Arthur Wilson says it was most challenging one…which is full of very wide setups with many action blocks shot almost 500 fps ..where each one is a huge set pieces to pull  of all these together Wilson self designed a  3 circular light wheels, each wheel had a assemble of 220 par can lights…he said after assembling the light looked so beautiful then i decided to treat it as a practical light which is visible in the frame itself.

Wilson continues to compliment SONY VENICE 2 which has incredible dynamic range..where he found very useful shooting a song sequences at France at a snow caped valley temperature was minus 14 degree CelsiusThe visuals of snow where i could see extreme details in bright white and still having a good black value.

Finally Arthur Wilson said in this film he made sure that look was achieved completely during the shoot itself with mild tweaking in the post only it was needed…especially during final combat sequence of Very contrast stark images was achieved creating bleach by pass/ ENR process look in the Digital color grade.

After the film many members was high praise for Arthur Wilson cinematography and the techniques he invents every time.

Article by

CJ Rajkumar

Author/Cinematographer