Indonesia

Over the years that I have been working throughout Asia, for some reason there are places I seem to skirt or overfly, not because I don’t want to go there, just simply because the opportunities had never eventuated. Recently, I had an occasion to work in Indonesia. Amazingly, Indonesia was one of those places that somehow stayed off my radar. So I was pretty keen to go visit.

I arrived in Jakarta, after a flight from Melbourne, through Singapore, late on the 20th of October 2009. The job (which is incomplete at this stage so I won’t mention it just yet) started straight away with preproduction meetings in the foyer of the hotel the same evening.

The next day, we hit the ground running by firstly checking out equipment at the local Camera Rental Facility CineRed. There I met an expat from Australia, creative consultant Peter Aquilina, who took us through a guided tour of his facility, which included the Camera Rental department, Post Production Facilities including Offline, Online and Grading using Scratch. Several days of Casting, Props and Wardrobe tests etc followed and my days were spent mostly on my laptop ensuring that all our post requirements were met. After about a week of hard work, we were ready to shoot in a small studio in Jakarta. I will write a full article later when the job has been cleared, about the process, which I think will be interesting to people. Overall, the Indonesian crews were excellent and the result of our efforts look awesome.

It wasn’t all hard work though. The local production Company, Kemistry, run by expat Aussie David Hewitt and his partner Rinni, sent me on a journey through West Java, with the help of their driver. I took my 5DMKII Canon stills camera and went berserk shooting the amazing landscape and people. Here are some of the images from that trip. The slide show below has many more.

I also visited some of the historical places within Jakarta itself. A former Dutch Colony, Jakarta still has many building around the old Port area, which mark their rule many years ago. They lie mostly as wrecked shells of their former glory but still possess some amazing beauty. The old dutch port area is still in use today. I travelled down to the Port and was amazed at the large, tall ships being loaded with cargo, as if from a scene from a Robert Louis Stevenson book! They were real tall ships, built with Masts, and planks of timber!! You have to see and feel this place to believe the image below. Simply amazing!

I can’t speak more highly about my experience in Indonesia. It baffles me why I haven’t been there before, even as a tourist. I think Australians in general have been conditioned to think “not favourably” about Indonesia as a holiday destination. That’s a huge shame but at the same time, Indonesia is one of Asia’s best kept secrets as a result. It’s still cheap, unspoilt from foreign development and hugely diverse. On the negative side, it’s infrastructure is quite poor in some cases. Many sidewalks for instance have huge holes in them, and you generally share the pavement with other Cars and Motorbikes. Speaking of Cars and Bikes, the crush of traffic in Jakarta was quite possibly the worst I have ever seen! So if you are disadvantaged physically or need to push a Pram, then maybe think differently when moving around Indonesia. The internet was dreadfully slow everywhere I went, with the best speeds approaching dialup rates. So yes there are a few things to consider, however generally I have to say, Indonesians are amazingly friendly, willing to welcome you where ever you go and help you at a drop of a hat. The visual spectacle of Indonesia is also unbelievable exciting. I visited so many interesting places in a short time, including the Pulaubuhan Ratu area of West Java, where I walked on amazing volcanic beaches, Hot Springs with Geysers, Markets in small towns and villages plus drove through countryside that was nothing short of spectacular – Rubber, Cocoanut Oil and Tea plantations lined the steep mountain roads for miles.

In summing up, I loved my experience in Indonesia. I hope I have inspired you to go and experience it for yourself. Enjoy!