Audio & Video Editing: The Software Behind the Bollywood Films

Filmmaking is a million dollar business in the Bollywood film industry, and with the help of digital technology, filmmakers are now able to make incredible films, in no time. The Bollywood film industry has been making films since the 20th century, and Shree Pundalik was the first feature film of Bollywood released in 1912. Earlier, films were made using old film cameras and various lighting techniques.

Filmmakers used the traditional linear editing method to edit and make films. However, due to the digital transformation of the film industry – it has now become possible to make a successful film, with the click of a button. Nowadays, computer software can help filmmakers create films, seamlessly with perfection. Let us look at a few software that are mostly used to make films in the Bollywood film industry.

Video editing software

Video editing using computer software is called non-linear video editing and various video footage, taken at different times can be used with this type of video editing because, with the help of video editing software, one can rearrange the shots as required. The most popular video editing software used in Bollywood are Final Cut Pro, Adobe Premiere Pro and Avid Media Composer. One can now edit a film anywhere using such video editing software on a laptop or PC.

However, most film editing is done at a production studio using dedicated studio software. For using video editing software on a laptop – a high-end CPU and graphics card are required. That’s why laptops like Macbook Pro, are mostly used for seamless video editing purposes. Moreover, these days most of the films are recorded in High Definition (HD) 1080p format, and professional video editing software like Final Cut Pro – supports HD video editing also.

4K video recording is also becoming popular among filmmakers, and most video editing software also supports that. Many people are now using such video editing software to make online movies and Ads for video sharing sites like YouTube also.

Apart from using offline (standalone) video editing software, it’s also possible to do video editing using cloud-based online video editors like Lumen5, ClipChamp, Biteable, and Animoto. Adobe also provides its cloud-based online video editing services on Adobe Creative Cloud. YouTube also has an online video editing interface that can be used to edit videos before uploading them. Online video editors have a Graphical User Interface (GUI) that provides almost the same software components (tools) and functionality, like the offline (standalone) video editors.

But online video editors are not suitable for professional video production because of their limited performance but can be used for amateur film making purposes. The main advantage of using such a cloud-based video editor is that it can be used on any laptop or PC with minimum hardware requirements because such cloud-based video editors work on a Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA).

Visual effects (VFX) software

Visual effects are the magic done to a film during post-production, to create unbelievable realistic scenes. Previously, visual effects to a film were created using various mechanical methods. In 1857, Oscar Rejlander (photographer) created the world's first special effects image by combining different sections of 32 negatives into a single image, making a montaged combination print.

There are two types of visual effects:

● Special effects: These kinds of effects are created live while shooting a film with the help of mechanical and optical methods. For example, on-set explosions and stunt performances while shooting a film, can be called special effects. Special effects are the traditional techniques used while making a film without the need of any computer software.

● Digital effects (FX): With the emergence of digital video and computer software – it’s now possible to create various visual effects using computer software, and is known as digital effects. There are various kinds of digital effects:

● Matte painting: It is a process of creating a fake background for any environment in a film using a highly advanced photo editing software like Adobe Photoshop. By creating such digitally created backgrounds, a scene can be created in a film of a location that was not really visited while shooting the film.

● Modeling: This is a kind of digital effect, through which fictional characters can be created in a film using modeling software like Autodex Maya or Autodesk 3D Max. Both of these are award-winning software and are used by many filmmakers to create virtual characters or objects in a film.

● Animation: 2D/3D Animation is done to create digital effects in a film using the most popular software called Autodex Maya. With the help of such software – 3D animations can be created in a film, with minimum camera requirements.

● Compositing and rendering: Compositing is done by combining visual elements from different sources to create the illusion that all those elements are parts of the same scene. This is usually done before rendering the completed video. Software like Nuke and Adobe After Effects are used for Compositing purposes. Rendering is the final stage of the FX video and it’s done usually with the help of a popular software called Renderman (Pixar). Renderman (Pixar) is an award-winning software and is used in many production companies for rendering purposes.

Computer Generated Imagery (CGI) software

CGI is an image or video that is digitally created using computer software. The difference between CGI and FX is that a CGI video can be completely created from scratch, using graphics software but, FX can be done on recorded videos only, and requires a camera to shoot the video before applying the FX. CGI can be used for film making as well as for the production of print media, advertisements and video games also. The most popular software used for creating CGI are Autodex Maya and Autodesk 3D Max.

Computer Generated Imagery (CGI) Scene

Creating visual effects using special effects with traditional methods like on set explosions and stunts – always carries a risk of accidents. Many people in the film industry succumbed to injuries while creating such on set special effects. That’s why creating special effects are risky part of a film, and cannot be done easily. But with the help of FX software, it’s possible to create visual effects digitally without the risk of life. Using CGI software, it’s now also possible to create realistic videos without the need of any special camera or studio setup. That’s why nowadays, most films are created using VFX and CGI to show something which is impossible to shoot in real life using a camera. Many films like Robot, Ra.One, Krrish-3, Dhoom-3, Bhaag Milkha Bhaag and Baahubali, were made using FX and CGI software.

Audio software

Audio is the important part of a film and the audio track of a film is created separately using various post-production techniques. After the arrival of Dolby Digital (DD) audio, the audio quality of films has improved significantly. Previously, films used only stereo sound, which included 2-channel (2.0) audio but DD audio uses surround sound with 6-channel (5.1) audio. Software like Adobe Audition is used for the post-production of audio tracks in a film. Soundtracks are also a very important part of a film and most of them are created by various sound artists with the help of such audio software.

Nuendo (Steinberg)

For dubbing and recording vocals, software like Nuendo (Steinberg) is used. Many music directors can now easily make music using software like FL Studio (Image-Line) and Music Maker (Magix). Playback singing has also become very easy with the help of software like Melodyne (Celemony), and with this software, anyone with minimum singing ability can sing a song for a film, because this software can correct the pitch of the singer according to the chords of a song. That’s why nowadays, most of the Bollywood singers sound good after the post-production work, and the music also sounds amazing because such audio enhancement software are used.

Every year films are made in Bollywood, which makes a lot of money, and some even win an award. However, most of the post-production work for such films are done using various types of computer software. From lights, camera, action to the silver screen – it’s the software that makes the difference.

Author: Debojit Acharjee, Software Engineer