Chaman Chacko’s only connection to cinema is his blood relation with composer Johnson Master. However, after completing his studies, Chaman’s goal was films. The first field chosen was cinematography. Decided to learn how to operate a camera from someone’s assistant. But Chaman, who suffers from migraines, realizes that a cinematographer’s job is hot and sunny. With that, he stepped away from the camera and into editing. It wasn’t for nothing. Kerala’s youngest film editor has marked his name in Malayalam cinema today. Chaman talks to Manorama News.
Editing is the most important aspect of a film. Editing is the backbone of post production. How was the beginning of chaman in this field?
I did one shot film. When there was no one to edit it, I edited it myself. So learned to manage the software. I thought that was editing. He entered film editing as an assistant to editor Shameer Muhammad. Charlie and Angamali Diaries were all edited by Shamir. It was there that I realized that editing was not something I studied and that film editing was a different world. While studying editing with Shameerika, Rohithetan’s (V.S. Rohit) film Iblis came for editing. I edited the making video of it. That was my first independent editing in the film. Later, he became a spot editor for the film Forensic. Shamirika himself was the editor of Forensic. . The cameraman was close to Akhiletan and was on location for forensics. Meanwhile Rohithetan called me as the spot editor of Kala. Finally I edited the entire film myself.
What new thoughts have come to mind since becoming a freelance editor?
Rohithetan is a person with good editing sense. It was good for me. I did a lot of editing experiments in Kala. If it was someone else, I would have asked him for sure why he showed me this. The idea is to do something new in editing after every film. With the support of director Arun, something new has been added to Jo & Jo. Whenever I am alone, I will do research on editing and watch all the OTT movies and YouTube videos on a regular basis. It is also a cutafan of documentaries. I have sat and watched documentaries all day.
What many people do not know is the journey of a film from shooting to post production. Can you explain that?
After the shoot, the main responsibility of the editor is to start the post-production work of the film. The rush after the shoot will be rough cut first. The director will also be there. The rough cut is only after sitting down and watching. Many decisions like reducing or adding scenes will be noted there. After finishing the rough cut, it will be sent for dubbing. After receiving the dub track including the dialogues, the final editing will begin. The changes of the film happen in the final editing. When making pots with clay, it does not change into the shape of the pot at the final stage. Final editing is the same. After that, the product that comes out is sent for sound mixing and coloring. After all the work, the audio out from one place and the video out from another place is the final mixing. After that, the movie reaches theaters and OTT platforms with some modifications. Even if a frame is lost in the meantime, the editor is fully responsible.
Many people say that editing is an invisible art. Do you believe in it?
It’s true that when a good editor touches a film, it doesn’t look edited. But there are those who think against this. For example Martin Scorsese’s editor Thelma Schoonmacher. Shutter Island is edited by Pullikari. Schoonmaker has said in an interview. Editing is not always a magical art. I have also felt that the scenes are arranged in such a way that sometimes they are slapped in the face of the audience by editing them through jump cuts and abruptness. Such editing is inevitable in some films.
Are you keeping up with the daily changes in technology?
The change in technology has increased opportunities for filmmakers rather than editors. If it is a normal film, after pitching the story and deciding the location, you can go straight to the shoot. Unlike before, the directors have a monitor in front of them. Everything that is shot can be seen in it. Starting with spot editing, if there are fewer shots in each scene, it is possible to fix them on the spot, which is also easy. In the past, when shooting with film, there was a limit to the number of takes. With the advent of digital cameras, there is a lot of shooting. I don’t know how much the innovations and changes in editing software will help the film, other than making the job easier for the editor. Alphonse Putran edited the movie in Sony Vegas. I feel that Sony Vegas is an underused software for general movie editing. But Pulli did a great job with it.
Today it is common to troll movies by making videos with continuity mistakes. Do you think all this is the fault of the editor?
There is Continuity mistakes can happen for many reasons. A lot of it is carelessness when shooting at short intervals. Even when editing some scenes to reduce their length, minor mistakes occur. It’s all human companionship. Can there be movies without any continuity mistake? And in Hollywood, I feel that the unity mistake is the second issue. Everyone thinks how to work out a scene there
Have you watched any movies and tried to incorporate their editing into your own movie?
Not fully simulated. But some movies have stayed in my mind. I have tried to edit it in a small way like the scenes in it.
In general, every work has tried to bring something new. Because nowadays it doesn’t matter if you make a good movie. You can survive only by doing different good films.
Even if the movie is not a hit, the trailers are a hit today. I heard that Puli is also in Chaman trailer making..
The trailer is the most important. Taylor even plays a major role in determining the initial collection of the film. Many people are doing huge experiments in trailers. Only the trailer of the movie Queen was shot separately. A trailer has ten times the power of a film’s normal promotional activities. Just watch the trailer of Janagamana. In all the films I have been a part of so far, I have paid close attention to trailer editing.
Do you feel that the field of editing in cinema has started to be noticed recently?
I feel that editors are being treated differently these days than they used to be. There is a reason for that. Many editors have become influential, such as Mahesh Narayanan, Alphonse Putran, Arunkumar Aravind, and more people have become aware of the field as editing became possible via smart phones. Previously, editors were the only technical section of the film that no one outside knew. Despite this, editors including myself are underpaid. Not just editors. Many film technicians are underpaid. Many have not even received the promised money. It was not possible to go behind it. It will lie like that..
Will Chaman also venture into filmmaking in the future?
laughing..