Telugu film ‘Dream’ which competed in the Canada film festival with 30 odd films under foreign movie category won the prestigious Royal Reel award had Annapurna Studios DI.

“Color was the second important characteristic in Dream.” The Royal Reel award winner Director Bhavani Shankar said.  Annapurna DI team and their technical head when briefed about my vision and the crucial role of color in the film DREAM were quick to take up the challenge and were ready to deliver my requisite. They played a very significant part in making it real in the reel.

C V Rao-Technical Head of post-production for Annapurna Studios said it was a great working with Director Bhavani Shankar and DOP Ravi Kumar for the Film DREAM. In our first meeting Bhavani had a question whether his DI work can be done in Hyderabad? He had an option in mind to go to Mumbai or get a colorist from Mumbai. Reason was his story needed different color patterns to narrate the content, with these high requirements he believed his film DI can be done only in Mumbai with sophisticated equipment and good manpower. It was an acid test for us and our colorist Pankaj Haldkar delivered on the dot what Director Bhavani Shankar’s wants from a colorist.”

Do all people dream in color? Then why do some people complain their Dreams are in monochromatic or black and white. Study says, Dreams do have colors in them but while a person is dreaming his concentration rests on the story and the colors around will get suppressed and only the color which has an importance with the story or which is mostly remembered might get emphasized. Ex: Red rose, red blood. This gives a false impression to some people that Dreams are not colorful.
Based on the above thesis the makers of the film adopted the dream color psychology, which explains the color nature in Dream. It’s a particular color that dominates and gets highlighted for a particular dream scène. Consequently the director felt the need to match the color of the dream with the mood of the scene. For ex: Yellow for coward, Red for violence ETC.

The Director also noticed that this factor of matching color with the mood of the scene is impossible to be written in the form of a novel due to this color complexity. Probably only a movie can do justice.
“I think it is vital to know the story inside out before you start grading, so watch the rough cut a few times, connect with the characters and understand what happens in which reel. The more you feel connected with the film the more you will feel part of the team, and in my view this results in a stronger final product. We are thankful to the director and Director of Photography for choosing Annapurna studios for their Digital Intermediate work” Rao added.