S Rajamohan

Production designer|Art director for films & commercials

[srajamohan]

Documentation is not about what we do, but what we are searching for

some famous poet

[srajamohan]

Zero (2016) Production design experience

It was an extraordinary trip into the imaginary world of Zero!

Zero – A fresh and experimental project breaks the boundaries of Indian Cinema and brings to the audience a never-before-seen concept. The making of this project was an exhilarating experience. The concept stoked my passion for art and brought me immense joy. This journey would not have possible without Producer Balaji Kappa, who gave me the opportunity to be part of Zero.

A sincere appreciation for Director Shiv Moha, whose keen eye for minute details added a whole new dimension to every part of the script. Zero was brought to life by the talented Art department with the help of Lorven VFX Studios. The Art Department stayed true to the concept as instructed and the design and myriad of colors reflected Director Shiv Moha’s imagery of each world in the fantasy realm. Kudos to the team!!

[srajamohan]

Zero ( 2016 ) Real world

The first schedule of the movie was set in Binny Mills. We wanted to break the cliché of a haunted house and used only hand crafted furniture with earthy tones. The idea was to showcase a home filled with warmth and love. The apartment was designed, keeping in mind the camera so that we had a wide field and a huge depth of coverage. 

The apartment set was designed to have each room at different levels. For instance, from the dining room one could see the bed room at 45 degrees.

Priya drew inspiration from her mother’s jute thread and created décor and other crafts using only yarn. It was refreshing and added a special touch to the set.

[srajamohan]

Zero (2016) Dream land

Zero is a surreal world wherein the souls of lonely women traipsed around. The dream world surpassed imagination yet the essence of it was hidden deep within every person’s heart. The brief was to make the landscape vile and repugnant. It was certainly challenging to arrive at a design which was the perfect harmony of beauty and grotesque.

Below is the finalized illustration:

Thus, the VFX production was created. While I was working on the design, I adopted Shiv’s methodology and used Nivas’ music as a muse. The music helped set the tone for the design. The dreamland was supposed to have green clouds which insinuated vengeance and revenge. The whole idea of the dreamland was a giant tree situated in the middle of a long stretch of grassy land with a pond, where women were stranded. The protagonist Bala had to save them and bring them back to their home.

[srajamohan]

Zero movie ( 2016 ) Eden garden

The artistic minds behind Zero wanted to keep the Eden Garden achromatic. The Eden Garden was to be something of a mysterious land with a smoky landscape. Adam and Eve’s happy life was not portrayed in the movie. Rather, the script focused on “The Life of Lilith” which is a lesser known story found in scriptures.

The whole garden was designed to be simple and inconspicuous colours so that the attention of the audience will focus on more on other elements such as God, Satan, snake, etc.

The scene was shot at AVM Studios, Chennai. It was the last schedule of the production. The screenplay follows a narrative style. The voice over was done by Gautam Vasudev Menon Sir. His voice added a touch of complexity to the overall screenplay and made it more real.

The movie was to open with the Eden Garden scene and so it had to be perfect as it will set the tone for the whole movie. The aesthetics of the scene had to be on point and the team didn’t compromise on the details. A lot of thought was put into the each and every detail of the Eden Garden.

[srajamohan]

Gethu 2015 : colour pallet

The color palette was chosen exclusively for Gethu. 

The scenes followed a pastel theme with a dash of vibrant hues here and there. The movie was a crime thriller with few entertainment elements. The colors were chosen to match the crime and drama sequences.

The movie received a lot of positive feedback for its aesthetic allure by several leading media houses.

Here are some of the special features of Gethu:

The sniper rifle, by itself, holds a lot of importance in the movie. It was specially designed for this movie. The rifle had to look convincing enough for the audience to believe that the rifle can shoot targets even at 2km distance.

Most of the external architectures and landscapes were designed and built in CGI.  

The colors used in the movie set the mood for the screenplay.

Old fashioned & art deco

Cultured & Rustic

[srajamohan]

Gethu(2016) Art deco Guest house story.

Production designer S Rajamohan briefings on Gethu movie’s design & colour pallets.

Gethu is a thriller movie set in Kumili town.We preferred the locations and sets  to have a touch of heritage, since entire Kumili town constitues of little roman architectures, big Kerala type houses etc.., So we travelled to Goa & Cochin in search of such architecture. 

This building which is a guest house set has a value of mid century - now taken care by a Nair family as per the story. Also this is not well maintained and more or less an abandoned house.  I majorly concentrated on tone-down colours for the structures and the costume.This is an art deco design. A very old piano, a huge size radio, a clock stand, doves, cats etc.., are found here. This building is characterized as being very dry, haunted, abandoned and empty.

The building has a special oval shaped window to emphasize a special importance to the screenplay. This is a two floor building where the main play happens at the 1st floor. The shooter can view a graveyard though that oval window and sets his vantage point from there.

Few detailing of the interiors are briefed:

The vantage point of the shooter.

The below image is the vantage point and the climax action sequence. The sniper gun plays a vital role. It is designed to make the viewer to believe that the sniper can hit a target upto 2kms.

Some output images of the Guest house:

Snapshots of few scenes

 Mostly ugly looking greens.

[srajamohan]

Dr.John Mathew death sequence in Gethu 2016.

Director created a musical melodrama for “ death of John Mathew “ sequence. Thought to create a few art deco decors to fill the set as it would add-on to this musical melodrama

[srajamohan]

A Rustic bar. Set erected for the movie Gethu 2016. 

Few of my personal favourite shots. Loved the light rays seeping through the bar's windows. It created a half tone and gave the ambiance for the screenplay. Several windows added to enhance the silhouette of the subjects. We tried concentrating on the colours of the costumes, flooring, walls and minimalist props to maintain artistic values to all the frames for this episode.

[srajamohan]

Gethu 2016 - Found a few illustrations that helped the visuals of the film.

[srajamohan]

Police locker room of Gethu 2016.

An old fashioned police station's locker room and the lighting to help achieve that.  Idea was to create an organized police locker room for this town instead of the typical dirty and clumsy way of depicting a town police

[srajamohan]

Feel good sequences of Gethu 2016.

I really appreciate my art, costume and VFX teams who helped in maintaining colour codes. It was their enthusiasm and hard work that helped us achieve fine visuals for every frame.

[srajamohan]

Action crime sequence of Gethu 2016.

Few framings in the movie Gethu. Most of these frames are achieved using CGI production. 

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Fort Inn sequence of Gethu 2016.

Set erected to shoot the “Bull’s stay place” in Kumili town. The mood of this place is set to emphasize the series of crime events that happen here

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Production design works of Gethu. Climax grave yard sequences and few illustration sketches for CGI team

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Official webpage of S Rajamohan a production designer, Art director for films and commercials .

Just published a portfolio type website.. Initiated something in the break time. 

Thank you team for making it happen....

Thought to pool all the social websites I am using into one page.. so that one could view the FB, Twitter, Tumblr, Flickr, Instagram into one page .... 

It is done in a simplistic way .. chk and let me know your views...

click to www.srajamohan.com

[srajamohan]

20 to 25 days in construction.. under a hot sun

This set made me to wait for 25 days to gasp at its finish . It is a 2 floor building , 2.5 floors actually .. erected in a studio at Saligramam. The screenplay demands that the place should be an abandoned type. One by someone who hardly visit the place . the idea was it shall be a huge past century building owned by a landlord waiting for the land rise to sell. He doesn’t care to maintain the house. the house left with some Art deco century piano, FM radio in a huge size, a clock… The is planned to paint with the rustic green to show it’s evilness that gonna happen in that place .. Hmmm . Rest of the house story will be posted on upcoming pictures …