The following questions were submitted during our chat with Rajeev Jain, but went unanswered during the session.

Wahi: Rajiv, why did you choose cinematography and not photography?
Rajeev Jain: It’s more like it chose me. While studying drama at the graduate level I began to study still photography with a fabulous man named Surendra Jijaji. He had been one of the photographers working along with theater groups for the living during the depression. He was the most inspiring teacher I had ever met, and my love of still photography grew to the point where I thought I would prefer to pursue a career there, rather than as a cinematographer. I had been shooting a few public service announcements around that time, and shortly after getting my diploma’s degree Late Renu Saluja called and asked me to work under Mr. Binod Pradhan which put me officially in the film business. Once I was in, there was no turning back.

Wahi: Who were the DP’s you studied?
Rajeev Jain: I watched a lot of the cinema classics when I was a film student, so I was heavily influenced by the likes of Subroto Mitra, K K Mahajan, Ashok Mehta, Binod Pradhan, and Santosh Sivan.

Wahi: I’m a film student and we only use digital cameras. Is that going to be good or bad when I try and get work in the industry?
Rajeev Jain: I guess that’s going to be a plus because any type of shooting is better than talking about it, and it looks as if the industry, or at least part of it, is trying to go that way. What you have to watch out for is the tendency to take lighting for granted since you almost always have enough light and the exposure is automatic. It’s not just about quantity, but rather the quality and direction of the light. Keep in mind that we more often that not supplement and control the light even in situations where we have enough light to expose film. That’s one of our main contributions to the tone and emotion of a scene.

Wahi: Is there a type of narrative film you like to shoot? Are they particular directors you like to work with?
Rajeev Jain: I suppose I’m pretty open about the genre, I can get excited about shooting anything as long as there is a chance to do something interesting with the photography. I do have some favorite directors, and rather than name names, I’d rather say that they have several things in common. They have a strong visual sense, are passionate about their work, and give it their undivided attention.

Wahi: Many feature films like Rang De Basanti? and Black and the upcoming Sawariya have utilized the digital intermediate for color timing certain sequences. Do you foresee the digital intermediate as the future and if so, do you feel that DoPs with a background in music videos and commercials will have an advantage?
Rajeev Jain: Telecine technology provides unparalleled opportunities for color grading. It is the ultimate in moving image control, you can isolate individual colors, tonal ranges and areas of the frame and manipulate them to create the best possible image. I’m very excited about the break through of this technology into the feature film world, and look forward to the results as it helps to further elevate the art of cinematography. Obviously, those familiar with the potential will be more likely to embrace and exploit that potential. We are viewing images daily that in some cases simply wouldn’t be possible any other way. If there is a weak link in the system, it is that there is no true equivalent to the old straight across 25-25-25 printer light which shows you exactly what is on the negative. Colorists will sometimes offer something up that is supposed to be what is on the negative, but it is usually very flat and off color, and never resembles my Polaroids, a work print, or anything else for that matter. Since there is no true normal setting, things tend to get a bit more subjective. It’s still necessary to deliver a good solid negative that’s got a “look”, but once you’ve got that in your hands, digital color timing can be your friend.

Wahi: Do you think music videos have an influence on kids and on our values?
Rajeev Jain: I’m afraid they must. They have too much exposure not to. Unfortunately, their influence is probably not for the better.

Wahi: Why do you shoot your videos in the Super 35 format? I understand the resolution issues, but does it really matter when you’re eventually going to broadcast quality images?
Rajeev Jain: Everything should be shot in Super 35. It’s something I’ve been doing for about four or five years now, and I’m told it’s pretty well caught on. I hear from the colorists that 60 -70 percent commercials and music videos that they transfer are Super 35 now-a-days. Why wouldn’t you want to make use of the extra 25 percent or more negative area. There isn’t even a cost increase involved. Like everything I shoot, my two most recent concert jobs (Carry on Pandu & Kalpvriksh – The Wish Tree) were done on Super 35, and in both cases the letterbox format of a 1.85 ratio was chosen. Due to the lateral increased area of the full aperture negative, we were able to shoot with 3 perf pull down cameras with a 25 percent saving on stock and processing, which is huge when multiplied by multiple cameras and multiple shoot nights.
There is also less reloading because the rolls last an extra 33 percent of shooting time, resulting in less down time. We were taking superior pictures to those we would have taken if we had shot conventional 35mm, for less money. How often can you combine those two? You imply that the additional quality could be overkill, I don’t agree, I contend you can still see a difference, and you must consider that the increased negative area allows us to push the photography even further. With all the dialogue about film vs. video going on these days, shouldn’t we want the best quality film look we can get?

Wahi: When I look at your vids, it appears you use almost the same colour scheme all the time. Is that the result of using the same colorist?
Rajeev Jain: I’m not certain that I agree with the “all the time” part of your comment, but I must say that I am more inclined towards the warm tones in photographing my subjects, than I am towards using the cool blue tones or cyan. I can assure you that there are at least seven different colorists that have transferred my best known videos, so that’s not it. The director’s vision and the stylist and production designer’s input probably have more to do with the color scheme than anything else. I react to what I am given

Wahi: It seems it is easier for new directors to break into the music industry than new cinematographers. What recommendations would you make to the aspiring DoP trying to break into the industry?
Rajeev Jain: I have to agree with your observation, and although it appears to defy conventional wisdom, the labels do seem to be much more likely to take a chance on a new director, particularly if they can team him/her with an experienced cinematographer. The only recommendation I can make is to Shoot, Shoot , Shoot as much as possible. There is a vast amount of knowledge to acquire, and theory can only take you so far. Beyond that there is a lot of trial and error, and the sooner you get those errors out of the way, the better. Shoot everything you possibly can, and take time to evaluate your results, making note of what works and what doesn’t. Gaffing seems to have led to shooting for many of music videos hot new DP’s, so you might also consider working on lighting crews any chance you might get. Telecine is also a huge part of the image making process in music videos, and I always recommend that aspiring cinematographers do what ever they can to observe in some important telecine sessions so they can learn or at least feel comfortable with the workings of this tool.

Wahi: What are the advantages of shooting super 35 for telecine.
Rajeev Jain: I guess it’s my job to keep repeating this over and over again until it becomes an industry standard as put forth by Vittorio Storaro in his Univisium proposal. Let’s try this analogy. If you were making a mosaic of a given size, in this case the size of your television screen, using 1000 tiles, wouldn’t it look even better, be sharper, and more realistic looking if you made the same image using 1250 smaller tiles? You see the increased negative area of Super 35 uses 25% or more grains to make the same picture, rendering each grain smaller, and thereby increasing the resolution. There is also something magical that happens when you widen out on the gate of the telecine machine in this final optical stage of the process. You would also be amazed at the ability to pull clean blow ups of 50% or better to extend your coverage in situations where you may be a bit short. The only downside to Super 35 is that there isn’t anymore image to reposition with than you have on your full aperture negative, unlike normal 35 which gives you the opportunity to repo into the unused areas. I prefer to think that our ability to compose a shot should be good enough to make use of all the negative area available, rather than hold some back for the occasional mistake. It does require a bit more concentration at the time of shooting, but I don’t think that’s a bad thing. I mentioned 3 perf pull down in response to an earlier question, and I should mention that many of the television productions shot on film are currently using 3 perf super 35 cameras using the central 1.33 aspect ratio for broadcast at the moment, but protecting (keeping clean of equipment) the full Super 1.85 aspect ratio for future HD syndication with it’s 16:9 aspect ratio. Univisium is getting closer all the time.

Wahi: How much do the directors concern about the cinematography? Do they want a special f-stop or do they just say “make it look cool”?
Rajeev Jain: The director/DP relationship can have a pretty wide range. In some cases the director will have a strong vision and it is your job to realize that vision through your collaboration.
Some directors, in some situations, will have strong ideas about the film stock, lighting, lensing, and overall look of a film. On the other extreme, you may be asked to “make it look cool”, or you could wind up somewhere in between. No matter which, it is the cinematographer’s job to embellish and perhaps improve upon that vision, or perhaps even supply a vision when there isn’t one. Very few directors that I’ve worked with actually discuss specific f-stops. This is the DP’s domain, and not many directors even dare to go there.

Wahi: Would you recommend someone who wants to be a DP to just bite the bullet and buy an Arri III as a way of breaking into the world of commercials and music videos. Or do you think Hi-Def. video will be making substantial inroads in the next couple of years as it already has in the feature community.
Rajeev Jain: I not sure how much of a foothold HD will get. The Association of Independent Commercial Producers recently cancelled a symposium they were holding on HD commercial production due to lack of interest reflected by ticket sales. You could say it’s not broken, so why fix it? As far as buying a film camera goes, I have owned my own camera in the past, and depending upon the type of work you are trying to get, and where you live, it could help you to get jobs, but I caution you against building an equipment empire which could have you using less than state of the art equipment and eventually hold you back. There is nothing as educational to a young cinematographer as actually shooting and evaluating the results. So anything that facilitates that is a positive. I guess I’m saying that if you choose to go there, make the best of it, but keep an eye towards a day when you can get out of the equipment business so you can fully devote yourself to the art of cinematography.

Wahi: You seemed to benefit early in your career from mentors. Has this been a motivation for your mentoring up and coming DoPs?
Rajeev Jain: I know that when you are standing at the mountain of cinematographic knowledge it seems so huge, and it just seems right for us to share our experiences and shed light where we can.

Videogame testing and reviewing. Are you aware that many videogame firms online are willing to pay a premium to people who would do positive reviews and who would test new game products? The videogame industry is unique in that it manages to stay fit and mighty even amid a fiscal crisis. The field is practically attractive to people who are considering putting up home-based businesses. You could make this a lucrative online career.

Cake baking and decorating. Your artistic skills and talents could be parlayed into a lucrative home-based business. The baking industry could vey well facilitate work-at-home opportunities. If you are a professional baker or patissier, you could easily find local clients who may need your baking and decorating services. Your skills would surely be in demand in weddings, graduations, and birthdays. Who says you could not make use of your profession and talents online?

Babysitting services. You could take care of babies and kids and earn from it. You could use the Internet to find your prospective clients. You could advertise your babysitting services through email or social networking sites. You should indicate that you only accept services within your community or locality. You have no clear idea how lucrative offering such services could be. Many people are now doing it.

Online image consulting. Many professionals find jobs online. Online daters are also rampant. You could earn through providing consultancy services to freelance writers, online jobseekers, and daters who always aim to look and seem more virtually appealing and professional online. You could offer such people your image enhancing skills to help them bolster their own images specifically for online purposes.

Party services. Are you into party planning and organizing? The Internet could be a good venue to facilitate your earning schemes. You could start a home-based business offering this specific service. You could be surprised how many people, businesses, and organizations are constantly in need of services for party decoration, hosting, and catering. Cosmetic, sex, and Tupperware parties are extremely popular especially these days. You could focus on them.

Do you have other practical and exciting ideas for a potential home-based business? The Internet surely could be a good venue to make your home-based endeavor work. Get into it and realize why more and more people prefer to earn online and drop their conventional jobs.

In the recent past, the people you invite to feast with you at home could bring gifts to you. When the party ends, such guests would go home with nothing, but sweet memories. Today, people are finding it necessary to reward the guests as they leave the party. A few buy some chocolate packs and other edibles. You should always choose a lasting favor for your guests. The shot glasses provide you with an excellent idea. In particular, you should go for customized shot glasses. These types of glasses are easy to personalize by printing. You can buy already customized glasses only if they go well with the party you are hosting.

For instance, if you have a wedding coming soon, include these glasses in the shopping list. If you are a creative graphic designer, you could by sets of clean shot glasses. Once you have them, print on them whatever you wish. Mainly, couples decide to print helpful messages on the outer surface of the glass. Some will even draw a heart shape or any other symbol of love. Since you will give every guest one of the shot glasses, it is very important for you to think before customizing them. If you think you are not very good at it, give this job to someone who could. Shot glasses feature the same size per pack. You could order in wholesale if you have a big event. Then, call the designer to customize the glasses the way you want.

If you are hosting a birthday event, the available customized items are many. When you want to make the glass special for the person who is celebrating his or her birthday, you could print a short text or a graphic. The other parties you could hold are thanksgiving, farewell, graduations, family gatherings and so on. Consider a different and a special way of decorating your shot glasses to match the event. If you think it is easier and cheaper to buy customized items, and then choose the design carefully.

There are many varieties on the Internet. First, choose your vendor carefully by reading the ordering procedure. You also have to determine the quantity of customized shot glasses that you require. Simply count all your guests and order your glasses. Pick beautiful colors such as purple, red, pale blue and others. Make sure that your guest will appreciate these items as a return for sharing their time and resources with you.

In December 2009, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation announced $12.9 million ed-tech grants for community colleges and remedial courses. According to the Gates Foundation web site, the recipient of the grants will:

• Work with community college educators to create cutting-edge virtual environments
that will support teachers and improve students’ academic performance.

• Create collaborative technology and social media tools to form virtual communities for
high quality educators to create a national certification program for teachers of
remedial education.

• Develop dynamic virtual learning labs, which can be freely accessed and used as open
resources.

EduCause, a non-profit organization, recently earmarked substantial funds for technology projects aimed at preparing students for college. One of EduCause’s goals is to combine online classes with traditional classroom curricula, where students can take basic, non-credit, supplemental courses for college readiness. The grants will also focus on postsecondary education by creating technology to track students’ academic performance in real time, as well as create open, virtual educational tools.

Under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA) Education Technology Funds, ARRA EETT Competitive Grant Program supports efforts to improve students’ learning and academic progress through innovative uses of technology. Among other things, the government grant program seeks to foster online learning and instruction connected to students’ and educators’ development.

Today’s collaborative technology and social media tools are integral to keeping students and teachers engaged in the learning process. Why is it important to take fresh initiatives to integrate Web 2.0 technology in education to increase student retention and college retention?

According to the U.S. Department of Labor statistics, by 2016, fifty- percent of all U.S. jobs will require college-level skills.

Moreover, a recent research conducted by PayScale, an U.S. company that gathers information on salaries, shows college graduates from top schools earn nearly $1 million more than a typical high school graduate (source: Bloomberg Businessweek, June 28, 2010).

Based on specific variables, a comparative breakdown of the PayScale data shows a 30-year net return on college investment as follows:

• Ivy-League colleges = $1.4M

• Private College = $559.2K

• Non-Ivies = $384.4K

• Public colleges = $322.5K

The PayScale numbers also benchmark the average 30-year net return on investment of college education at 9%, only second to S&P 500 investment at 11%, and ahead of 30-year Treasuries and Gold at 4% and 2.6%, respectively.

In broad terms, college degrees will yield a high rate of return both in terms of skill-set development and earnings.

Initiatives to develop collaborative, online learning tools and virtual environments, funded by ed-tech grants, are steps toward creating modular, individually customized curriculum based on students’ needs, interests and objectives. This, in turn, will help students prepare for and negotiate college, and leave with degrees in hand.

-Lilly Golden, Examville Blog Contributor

I drove by my alma mater, Creighton University, the other day on the way to the airport. It seems like yesterday that I was still there attending classes. Reading hundreds of pages weekly, doing papers, projects, speeches, investing many hours in the library doing research…pulling the occasional all-nighter to cram for an exam when I got a bit behind in the work, because I also had a couple of jobs. Oh rest assured I did more than my share of the college party thing, but often had to set aside other activities, saying, “Nahh, I have an exam. Need to study.”

I wasn’t a straight-A student, but did pretty well because I cared. And most anyone who halfway gave a hoot about being in school for the learning can relate to what I’m talking about.

The fact is, is if you wanted a good result, you needed to push yourself to do the work and learn the material. The same, of course is true for today’s students.

But, what happens when we leave the formal institutions we call “school”? When we get out into the school of hard knocks, the real world. The one we’re in the remainder of our lives. The one that determines how much we earn.

Hmmm, have you pulled an all-nighter lately studying up on sales skills?

How many pages of sales skills material have you read in the past week? Heck, the past year?

How many hours have you invested on researching the psychology of sales, your sales process, questioning techniques? How much have you practiced?

How often do you review the way you sound on the phone?

How much did your college tuition cost?

How about your books for a semester?

Compare that to how much you invested in your own self-development, as it relates to sales, in the past year. How does that compare to what you spent on coffee, or at bars, restaurants, or pay-per-view movies?

Note to Sales Pros: please do not rely on your company to provide you with everything you need. Some equip their reps with lots of opportunities for growth, others fail miserably in this area, yet expect great results (I’ll get to them in a minute). As Zig Ziglar said, “What you do off the job determines how well you do on the job.” If you want to grow, it is your personal responsibility. Whatever is provided to you is a bonus.

And by the way, here is something I’ve never heard from the leading salespeople, but hear quite often from the strugglers: “I’ve had sales training before.” That’s like saying, “I had math in the second grade. I don’t need it again.” Or, “I’ve had chicken pox.”

Most people don’t know what they don’t know. IF they’re doing something wrong, how would they know, and get better?

Lots of people get really good at being bad, by continually repeating the same mistakes.

One more thing: be humble about learning. I truly believe in and live the adage, “The more I learn, the more I realize how little I really know.” Yet, after a training session I’ll oftenhave someone come up to me and say, “Thanks, I knew most of this already, but it reminded me of a lot of things.”

Yeah, I know I’m not supposed to raise my body when I strike the golf ball, causing it to go wildly right into the woods. or desert. The fact is, I haven’t practiced enough lately to USE the information when I NEED it, and make it a part of my habits and skills. Never be ashamed about learning.

Note to Managers and Owners: What do you invest in to really, truly develop your people? And I’m not just talking about buying a book and putting it in the library in case someone wants to use it. I’m talking about working with your people, listening to calls, evaluating, coaching. Regularly.

Are your sales meetings sessions where you go over administrative details, or do you get into the nitty gritty of how to actually open up a call, get to a decision maker, ask questions, deal with resistance, move opportunities forward and close business?

You might not believe some of the nonsense I hear when it comes to companies and their sales training. It is absurd, really, when you think that a firm will pay thousands of dollars per year in salary and benefits to hire and employ salespeople, allow them to talk to hundreds of prospects and customers per week, yet many don’t provide more direction or training than, “Go over there and listen to Pat make calls, then get on the phone next week.” And Pat, by the way, was probably trained the same way, and the same wrong, resistance-inducing techniques are passed down.

If you coached or owned a professional sports team, would you allow your team to just play games and not practice? Lots of businesses do just that every day. The champions practice.

I actually heard this from a company recently: “We’re thinking about doing some training with our salespeople in the fourth quarter (they’ve had none so far), but we don’t want to spend too much, and can’t take more than a day.” Good thing they’re going to wait, because I bet the salespeople working for them right now won’t be around. They probably won’t sell up to the company’s expectations and get fired.

I am amazed at how companies will throw huge money at technology, but virtually nothing on their most important asset, their people, and what they are actually saying on the phone.

Note to the Skeptics Out Who Think I’ve Written This Just to Sell Stuff: That will probably be a result, and that’s good because I’m in the business of helping salespeople sell more. In fact, I do hope we sell tons of resources as a result of this sale, since that means my message resonated. (For complete info on the sale we are running right now go to http://www.businessbyphone.com/grad.htm)

However, if I can get just one or two people to email me”"and they will–saying how they are just starting in sales and were inspired to invest more time in taking advantage of all of the great free sales material on the Internet, I will feel gratified.

Am I trying to shame and scold people?

No, I don’t need to. I’m throwing out ideas for people to react to. Of course many of the people reading this”"hopefully you”"are already sales-info junkies, devouring all of the good stuff they can lay their eyes on. And I have worked with many, fine, SALES organizations (you know who you are). But there are others who look at sales more as a job or a manufacturing position than what it really is: an art, a science, and a skill. It is, indeed, all of those. The master sales pro researches, studies, and practices. And, by the way, cashes nice checks.

I’m not going to sit here and claim that I’m perfect. I did a self-inventory and realized that as my business has grown, and I’m pulled in many different directions, I know I can push myself even more. It’s just like taking care of one’s self physically; it’s a matter of determining what you value, and what you’re willing to do to get it done. I know I can, and will continue to, carve out more time to further my own knowledge.

How about you?

Action Step
As we observe students graduating, it’s a great time to make a commitment to our own self-development. What will you do? Don’t just think it or say it. WRITE it down, And then DO it. Every day.

You will never graduate from the school of sales. You either get better, or you decline. And you pick up momentum when you’re headed in either direction.