Free film locations on offer: Minister

Free film locations on offer: Minister

Yuli Tri Suwarni, The Jakarta Post, Bandung

As part of efforts to boost the tourism industry, Minister of Culture and Tourism Jero Wacik will offer international film producers several areas here that could be used as locations for commercial film shooting.

"Under the scheme, international film producers can make their films in certain areas for free," said Wacik after he kicked off the Indonesia-Malaysia Culture Symposium in Bandung.

According to Wacik, as a first step he will offer the scheme to film producers from India. He said that he and concerned parties from India had earlier engaged in preliminary talks on the plan during the Asian-African Summit recently in Bandung.

He hoped that with the scheme, Indonesia could take part in the making of world class films that could bring fame to the country. There are many tourist locations, fortresses, historical sites and natural resources in the country that could be introduced to the outside world, said Wacik.

Initially, the Minister will offer film shooting locations in Java, Bali and Sumatra.

"It will be followed with the offer of other areas, such as Sumbawa that has thousands hectares of savanna and horses and would be the best location for film producers making cowboy films," enthused Wacik.

According to Wacik, the making of films will not only attract foreign tourists to Indonesia, but it will also draw another benefit. The making of films will give a boost to local revenues and provide local people jobs. The filmmaking will entail film crews staying in areas for months at a time, and will pump money into local economies by expenditure on accommodation, catering and entertainment.

"Local residents will directly benefit from the filmmaking industry," said Wacik, who apparently took the idea from the making of The Beach, a Western film starring Leonardo DiCaprio, which brought fame to a beach in Thailand.