Today we’d like to introduce you to Darsh Desai.
Hi Darsh, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today?
While walking out of a movie, I uttered the word “cinematography” for the first time. Actually a lie, I didn’t even know the word at the time, but I told my friends that this is how I wanted to live my life. I want to buy a camera. I had no directions except holding a camera would make me a camera guy, just like the protagonist in the movie.
I cried, pleaded, and rebelled in order to get a camera for three long years. On my 18th birthday, I was short of 25,000 INR in order to buy a camera. The dream was to become the camera guy at 18 and holding my own would make me one. After scrambling around the whole day, asking my friends for their pocket money, asking my grandfather, my father, and relatives. Either they didn’t have the money or they thought it’s a waste of money. Two hours before the shop closed, my grandmother called and gave me a bag full of petty cash. There it was, 25,000 INR, her entire life-saving in a jute bag was my greenlight to become a camera guy. This was five years ago
I used to be the three y/o kid who shut up as soon as the TV is on. Always had a deeper connection to films, but being a cinematographer was out of reach. It was too big a dream for too small of a soul. I did street photography for a year or so, started doing videography for International Human Rights, shot a couple of fashion commercials, and did some conceptual photography as well, which was my favorite of all.
Two weeks prior to flying to Milan in order to learn fine arts photography, I got an email from a school in Los Angeles. The Los Angeles Film School situated in Hollywood, LA offered me a scholarship in the Film Program. I was full of self-doubt. Remember how films felt like a distant land where I wasn’t allowed to go. I always thought I didn’t have it me. Camera, Lighting, telling a story, leading a team, working on a 40-person set where everybody can look at the monitor seemed terrifying. I ignored the email until a week later, Milan got canceled.
My two options were to stay in the market where I am comfortable doing photoshoots and videography or take a leap towards something that used to make me sit in silence as a 3 y/o kid, film. Came to Los Angeles and started looking for set work while still studying in school.
Two years later, I wake up every single day to either prepping a film or shooting one. I dedicated a whole year to learning lighting by working under some commendable DPs. My life has been consumed by the craft of cinematography for the last 24 months. Somewhere between longing for a small DSLR for three years to shooting every single weekend on a large format film camera, I became the camera guy that I wanted to be all along.
At the beginning of this year, I started a project called Project 100. The goal is to work on 100 productions in a year which seems distant, but I have learnt from my previous mistakes then dreams should be freed of any limitations. Even if I don’t complete the goal, it’s who I become in the pursuit of it. I am on Project 47 currently. I always wanted to be a cinematographer, but I called myself a camera guy because I was ashamed of dreaming too big. But I like the camera guy. This camera guy has 7+ films, 11 Music Videos, and 3 Commercials just in the year of 2023.
I still have that DSLR, my first camera. I use it for street photography sometimes.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
One of my biggest struggles was to become a filmmaker, not even being good at it but just being seen and heard as a filmmaker by friends, family, and society. Most people here don’t realize how ‘making it’ is getting to make films every day. I wanted struggles but in the right direction and for the right reasons. It has taken an immense amount of time and effort in order to attain the privilege of making films. So if you get to make films, you have already made it. The world is forced to express themselves through anger, frustration, hatred, timid sentences, and quiet screams. If you are able to express yourself through any form of art, you are more privileged than 99% of the world.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
I am a cinematographer and craft, shoot, and light films. Films are my specialty. I am able to tap into the story, the characters, the setting, and the essence of the world that the director is trying to create. I am known for my speed of implementation of ideas, my involvement, and my curiosity in the films that I make. Understanding the psychological state of the characters and designing the camera choreography accordingly is what I do best. I only sign up for stories that speak to me, once they do I will respond in a way that the audience feels what I feel through the lens. I try to give the camera its own character in all my films.
On a technical level, Rigging and Lighting are my comfort spots. Formulas and maths involved in cinematography come naturally to me because of my engineering background. I am known for consistently reinventing the tones of the movies through my cinematography, my smooth camera operating skills, my fearless lighting choices, and my extensive prep work.
I treat the film as a part of my life. I shoot a film for not just a week of two but for three months. The reason to that is I treat pre-production and production the same. Me and my gaffer Steven Dillard has almost the same team on all our sets. You could take a page out of my floorplans, walk onto our set, lift the paper in front of you, and take a thorough look at it. When you take the paper out, You will see that me every single light, from 10K Fresnels to a small practical bulb is exactly where it is on the floorplan, and that’s how precisely me and my team prep for our films. We would light a master shot in such a way that when we move to close-up, we don’t have bring anything new except a bounce board or a floppy. Apart from having intentional ideas towards the story, Implementation, and Execution of ideas through camera and lights is my edge.
We love surprises, fun facts and unexpected stories. Is there something you can share that might surprise us?
Most people don’t know where I come from and who I truly am. My people often make an assumption or have no information at all. And I like it that way. I rarely talk about where I come from, Who I am, what my process is, why filmmaking is a devotion and not just work, etc. In a world where everybody is an individualistic, I find talking about my foundation and process to be a waste of breath.
Pricing:
- $1700 / Day Rate
- $1500 / Day Rate
- $1250 / Day Rate
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://instagram.com/darshdesaii?igshid=MWZjMTM2ODFkZg==
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/darsh-desai-179473194
- Youtube: https://youtube.com/@darshdesai5516?si=E2P-CKX5n1MlaodE
Image Credits
BTS Photographer – Nate – Enrique – Muhammad Mubasir – Angel Dunuez
