Venkat C. Dilip is an Indian cinematographer based in Hyderabad. He graduated with an MFA in Film and Television from the acclaimed Savannah College of Art and Design(SCAD), USA. This has been a ‘dream-come-true’ event for Venkat, a dream that started when he first built, with his kid brother, a movie theatre with LEGO blocks and played a movie with a scrap of film and a pen torch, at the age of ten. A short film directed and made by him as a part of his application portfolio for admission into SCAD won him a fellowship.
SCAD for him was not just a place for learning film craft but a forum for exploration and experimentation of his ideas. In addition to his academic knowledge, his most profound and insightful education came from the opportunity of working as a camera crew member on the sets of Hollywood movie “The Conspirator” directed by Oscar winning director Robert Red Ford. This is the place, where he got to observe the nuances of filmmaking and understood what makes an ordinary image raise to an outstanding image.
A chance phone call from an actor making a debut film as a director, brought him to the Telugu film industry, the South Indian wonderland of film making known for making phenomenal number of films year after year. His first film, a trendsetting rom-com in Telugu, opened the doors for an exciting journey with his camera companion. During his short career, he shot different narratives falling into diverse genres, ranging from festival short films and ad flicks to feature films. He worked with some of the best directors in Telugu film industry. He is about to finish his sixth feature film and looks forward to explore more genres and more stories across the continents. He describes his role as delivering compelling footage that reflects the coming alive of a scene’s journey from the minds of the writer and director, through his camera, and finally onto the screen to create a magical spell over the audience. The directors and other technicians whom he worked with appreciate his passion for camera and admire his panache.
His professional film career, though a short one, is marked by some notable highlights. During his student days with SCAD, he earned a Best Cinematography nomination for his work on the film “Passing Through Travelling Down” at the 2012 SCADemy Film Awards. This film also took home the 2012 Best Picture Award. The film also found its place in the official selection of Comcast “Film Festival Collective”, Big Muddy Film Festival and Indie Grits Film Festival. He was a recipient of Indywood Excellence Awards in 2017.
A testimony and acknowledgment of his intellectual acumen come from an unexpected source. One of the most authentic and best books on cinema, “Directing the Narrative and Shot Design-The Art and Craft of Directing” authored by Lubomir Kocka, cites in detail one of the papers written by Venkat titled, “A Project on Screen Grammar. The Mystery and Magic of Left/Right and Top/Bottom Psycho-Physiological Regularities in Visual Medium”, in support of his arguments in the book. This is a one of a kind of recognition held by Venkat among the Cinematographer fraternity.
Venkat describes his philosophy of work thus: I am aware of the constraints of light, time and budgets in that order but find myself delighted as I break them.
Venkat loves teaching and delivers guest lectures and plans to hold workshops on cinematography.