High ratings no guarantee of quality 'sinetron'
By Yogita Tahil Ramani
JAKARTA (JP): Long before Internet junkies found a way to live out their dreams on the Web, the liaison between society and fantasy had viewers addicted to TV serials.
Belittled for everything from laughable screenplays to awful miscasting, Indonesian teleseries, or sinetron, are predicted by TV wags to eventually follow the pitiful path of the Indonesian movie industry.
Locally produced TV melodramas have now come to dominate the Indonesian TV scene, edging once popular Latin telenovellas and soppy Indian movies out of prime time.
But as the Indonesian sinetron slowly comes of age, there are lingering questions about their quality and charges that, with very few exceptions, their success is due more to their use of Indonesian than any artistic distinction.
Creative developments and managerial aspects of quality teleseries were addressed by several executive board members of the Indonesian Sinetron Festival, who organized a one-day seminar on Oct. 30 at the Century Park Hotel in Jakarta.
Even as the speakers bandied possible solutions back and forth, the talks centered on theoretical assumptions, with speakers scoffing at "illogical mistakes" in making of the series and disregard for realities of Indonesian culture.
TV critic Wina Armada bemoaned the lack of understanding of movie producers, saying they had yet to learn the difference between making a movie, and the care necessary to spin a tale which will keep TV viewers in their seats.
"Movie producers have the luxury of not bothering about viewers leaving the movie theater should the first 10 minutes of their productions be dull or without a story," said the three- time member of the Indonesian Sinetron Festival jury.
"Movies on the big screen don't have to worry about a remote- control and endless advertisements every 10 to 15 minutes.
"People watch sinetron with a remote control in hand. A foolish scene, or a few minutes delay.., and fingers will itch to switch," Wina said
Wina considered widespread appropriation of Western storylines -- "Things happening in the streets of New York are depicted in scenes shot in the Blok M and Senayan areas" -- in local teleserials to be shameful aping.
He criticized the neglect of "religious" principles.
"For Indonesians, life is sacred. We fought tooth and nail for mercy to be given to female worker Nasiroh in Saudi Arabia, yet sinetron show genies taking away lives at will."
He found glossed-over images to be baffling: "Where is the common sense when a garage floor is spotlessly clean?"
Scriptwriters
Sumita Tobing, general manager of SCTV news show Liputan 6, underscored the crucial role of scriptwriters.
"Theater is the medium of the actor and a movie is the medium of the director.
"Television is the medium of scriptwriter," she said.
Sumita said good acting was "baseless" and did not count without excellent dialog.
She doubted whether most Indonesian scriptwriters knew how to make a script which sold.
"If someone tells me that she saw a man biting a dog on the street, that is news to me. However, if she told me that she knows of a man who makan anjing (literally to eat a dog, but meaning to double cross or 'kill' the guy emotionally or in any other sense), that is stale news."
Sumita said the most important thing in casting characters for a role was to do a thorough biographical check on prospective actors.
"Even if you have to find out where an actress lost her virginity, do it. Believe it or not, this type of information helps in finding the right person for the role," she said.
Sumita said television was primarily a medium of information, technology and education.
"Newsreading is an art of highlighting the importance of a story, so I refuse to call it a non-story," she said, "All the elements -- drama, suspense, murder, love -- are just as present in news as in teleserials. The difference is that news stories are real and sinetron are fiction."
Sumita felt people behind local TV productions had a lot to learn from Hollywood about production of American daytime and prime-time TV serials, ranging from computer software and technological aspects to lighting.
She said she hoped many Indonesians would someday work in Hollywood, including on lighting or backstage crews, to "learn how things work behind the scenes".
They occupy the three highest ratings spots, but the teleserials Janjiku (My Promise), Si Doel Anak Sekolahan (Doel, the College-bound Kid) and Tuyul Dan Mbak Yul (Genie and Ms. Yul) are little more than variations on the tried-and-true formula.
Standards include romantic melodramas that are usually packed with a bit of action and lots of ostentatious style -- examples are Kupu Kupu Kertas (Paper Butterflies) and Istri Pilihan (The Chosen Wife) -- or dramas that tell of typical Indonesian village lifestyles or lives of the common man -- like Si Doel Anak Sekolahan and Fatima -- catering to lower-income viewers.
There are "genie" stories that could fall into comedy or horror -- one is Si Manis Jembatan Ancol (The Sweet Lady On The Ancol Bridge) -- and comedy-dramas like Gara Gara (Problems).
A committee for this year's 1997 Indonesian Sinetron Festival recently selected 34 from 134 sinetron in three categories -- seven titles in drama, 17 in drama serials and 10 in comedy serials.
Nominees include Senyum Di Wajah Tangis Di Hati (Smiling Face, Crying Heart), Bukan Perempuan Biasa (Not An Ordinary Woman), Si Doel Anak Sekolahan III, and Inem Pelayan Seksi (Inem, The Sexy Maid).
RCTI public relations manager, Eduard Depari, found local teleseries to be severely lacking in themes, with producers churning out "similar stories in the same formula" in the hope of a sure ratings bet.
Founder of PT Tripar Multivision Plus, Raam Punjabi, the recognized mogul of local sinetron, zeroed in on the managerial aspects of financing, human resources, planning, intuition and marketing.
Punjabi, whose Janjiku, Kupu Kupu Kertas and Istri Pilihan are among the 80 percent of all Indonesian teleseries he produces, felt educating local TV crews in technological and creative developments could be done through seminars.
More telling was an interesting exchange during the seminar.
Although TV critic Ali Shahab peppered his criticism on sinetron with funny anecdotes, he curtly dismissed a relevant comment from a participant.
"I have attended similar events as this in the past, but ...there isn't really anything that I hear or see of people upgrading the quality," Bob Effendi said.
He could not have defined the problem better than when he added: "Can you really equate quality with success (ratings) in the case of Indonesian sinetron?"