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.