Decoding the visuals of Ram Charan’s ‘Peddi’ with colourist Andreas Brueckl (original) (raw)
Andreas Brueckl, German colourist and visual consultant with over two decades of experience in cinema and advertising across five countries, has now made Hyderabad his home. Watching him at work is akin to watching an artist enhancing every frame the audience sees on screen. “This is how I paint,” he says, as he shows frames of the Telugu film Peddi, at various stages of colour grading. He, cinematographer R Rathnavelu and director Buchi Babu Sana have had several discussions about the film’s visual aesthetics. Andreas explains, “Around 80% of the work is done while filming; only then can I enhance it to match our collective vision. It is always a collaborative process with an aim to raise the benchmark for visuals in Indian cinema.”
Inside the ANR Sound & Vision post production arm at Annapurna Studios, Andreas demonstrates how colour grading can ensure that the audience’s attention stays on the narrative. Consider the pre-intermission sequence in Peddi at a railway station, which eventually sets Ram Charan’s character on a journey to fight for his identity. Zones of darkness convey the grim reality of the villagers while pockets of light guide viewers’ attention to the unfolding drama.
A frame from the railway station sequence in ‘Peddi’ before and after colour grading | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement
Andreas explains how there were many iterations between him, Rathnavelu and the visual effects team. In certain frames, what we see on screen is the 50th version. Andreas’ work lies in enhancing or toning down colours, contrast, light, and adding flares if required. “Peddi featured nearly 2,500 visual effects shots. As the film was being edited, we worked towards giving the desired output for different theatrical formats, including IMAX and Dolby Cinema. Some frames involved back-and-forth with the VFX team. For example the size of the train, the position and intensity of sunlight went through several changes.”
A film’s visual palette may be decided at the scripting stage by the director, cinematographer and art departments in coordination with the chief technicians at a post production studio. However, on several occasions, a team reaches out to a colourist only when the filming is in progress. “If consulted early, we can have discussions on the cameras, lenses and lights,” says Andreas.
Learning on the job
Andreas’ father was a gaffer (chief lighting technician for film units) . “Dad was often away on film shoots so there were long periods where I did not see him while growing up.” After high school, rather than enrolling in a film school, Andreas wanted to gain practical exposure. He began as a radio reporter at 18, before working in television and advertising. “I never liked being in a comfort zone. I’ve worked in eight different areas in five countries, and here I am.” In the initial days, he worked on daily film footage for television serials and television movies at Bavariafilm lab in Munich. “We had to be precise, quick and not make mistakes while working on film, since it costs money.” That learning helped when he became a colourist.
In the mid-2000s, he learnt from a Germany-based film editor about colour grading as an emerging area in post production: “He said a colourist is like a magician sitting in a dark room and enhancing the footage.” Andreas was fascinated and curious. He flew to London, spending €2,000 on a three-day course in Baselight software to get an introduction into colour grading. It marked a new journey.
“Of course, I could not learn everything in three days,” he says with a laugh. Though he was working as a broadcast engineer, he did not hesitate to work as an assistant to a colourist to learn the ropes. “At the time, the process was analogue and quite simple.The film footage was scanned and the colourist matched light, contrast and the tones. Now it is more advanced.”
Andreas then freelanced as a colourist and was gradually regarded as one of the best colourists for commercials in Europe. The pivot towards cinema happened eventually when he colour graded a film in Turkey, before moving to Malaysia where he used his spare time to learn different pipelines, from ACES (Academy Color Encoding System) to HDR (High Dynamic Range).
Frames demonstrating before and after colour grading in ‘Peddi’ | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement
Offers from India began coming in from 2011.
In 2017, he joined FutureWorks Media, Mumbai. “I was lucky to start off in India when OTTs were beginning to gain ground,” he recalls. Andreas worked on series such as Sacred Games and Paatal Lok.
Between 2019 and 2020, he worked on several Indian OTT projects and had 10 releases during the pandemic, including the films Chintu Ka Birthday, Choked and Shakuntala Devi.
In Telugu, Daaku Maharaj was another significant film apart from Peddi. His forthcoming line-up of Indian films includes Varanasi, Jailer 2, and Jai Hanuman 2. “The aim is to make this studio a hub for international films for post production. We recently finished an LA project, the Nepali festival movie, Himalayan Gold, produced by Oscar-winner Nani Walker, and also the Hindi films Aakhri Sawal and The Great Grand Superhero with Jackie Shroff.”
Not a magic wand
As he works on film at different stages, Andreas states, “Colour grading helps enhance what is already available. Post production cannot fix problems that are not addressed at the filming stage.”
A still from ‘Peddi’ before and after colour grading | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement
He is particular about the finer details of colour separations rather than giving an overarching, uniform colour pattern. Take a closer look at the play of light and shadow in Peddi. The skin tone of characters is closer to reality. “Skin texture is never a uniform yellow or brown tone. There are hundreds of shades and texture and I focus on how the light falls and bounces off the skin.”
Within Peddi’s vintage visual palette, Andreas says his task was to understand the story, the terrain and see that the texture feeds into the milieu. While the first cricket match played out in warm, dusty tones, the Delhi portions that were shot on film required a grainy texture.
“Rathnavelu shot 80-90% of the Delhi footage on film, intercut with a few shots on Alexa and we had to make those digital shots resemble the film footage.” The athletics parts towards the final portions were planned with the aesthetics of 1980s’ television.
Among the Indian films he has worked on so far, he used to term the Hindi film Maidaan as his “most beautiful film”. But now Peddi has raised the bar further for Andreas.
A colourist’s work extends beyond colour grading a film for theatrical release. He visits theatres to check the output and fine-tunes the colours for digital platforms. Andreas is aware of how cinephiles are clued into technical aspects: “They know everything. That makes my work interesting and challenging.”
On the future of colour grading, Andreas says it is possible for small budget films to use AI for better colour grading. He considers AI a handy tool for talented technicians: “AI can make the work of the best people 10 times faster, but one cannot get away with mediocrity.”