Studio Kasatmata got its start in university lab

Tantri Yuliandini, Jakarta

They are young, energetic and full of fresh ideas. And more importantly, they are willing to meet challenges and sweat their guts out to make a difference.

They are a group of 12 university students and recent graduates from Yogyakarta, brought together in Studio Kasatmata, who recently brought us the first locally made, fully three- dimensional animated movie, Homeland.

Their portfolio is impressive, ranging from architectural models, animated shorts, music video clips and now a feature- length animated movie.

And all of this came about because "we just wanted to get a kick out of trying", said animator and one of the Kasatmata's founders, Kelik Wicaksono, during a recent interview at Visi Anak Bangsa's headquarters in South Jakarta.

Studio Kasatmata was the brainchild of two brothers, Kelik, 25, and Bayu Sulistyo, 21, born and raised in the vibrant city Yogyakarta. Both studied architecture at state Gajah Mada University.

"There were just a bunch of us without any uniform vision but lots of ideas. At first we did architectural drawings and some model studies," Kelik, who graduated in 2002, said.

They all shared a love for computer games: the Atari shoot-'em-ups, Tetris, Pac-Man, King's Quest, Prince of Persia and Final Fantasy.

It was these games, played since they were kids, that gave them the inspiration for many of their future projects, Kasatmata's 23-year-old scriptwriter, Gangsar Waskito, said.

Gangsar, or Nggi to his friends, joined the group in 2002 after previously being involved in various indie films.

It was Bayu's idea to enter television station SCTV's 2002 Indonesian Independent Film Festival with the seven-minute animated short Kelolodhen (loosely meaning having something stuck in your throat), based on his own comic drawings.

"Unexpectedly, Kelolodhen was chosen as one of the 10 best films in the festival," Kelik said.

The win encouraged the boys to formalize their group, which they called Kasatmata, translated loosely as "visible to the eye".

"The name meant that we wanted to make something visibly seen, to materialize ideas," Kelik explained, quickly adding with a laugh that some people consider the name to have feng shui luck.

Pretty soon, the members of Studio Kasatmata began raiding the computer lab at Gajah Mada University's School of Architecture at nights to create Loud Me Loud and JogjaRUN, a three-minute short for Yogya-based T-shirt company Dagadu's eight year anniversary, as well as experiments on music video clips.

"It took us about four months in between classes to finish Loud Me Loud," Kelik, who at the time was still a student, said.

Fortunately for them, they had the support of their lecturers and were free to use the university's facilities outside of class hours.

"We just wanted to show that we could," Kelik said when talking about the experience of creating Loud Me Loud. The 28- minute movie eventually won the Konfiden and Kuldesak Awards at the 2002 Indonesian Independent Video Film Festival, organized by the Indonesian Film-Video Community Foundation (Konfiden).

These achievements caught the attention of noted director Garin Nugroho and his group, Visi Anak Bangsa, which awarded Studio Kasatmata last year the Rp 150 million (about US$17,241) Visi Anak Bangsa Award, which resulted in Homeland.

The second of three brothers of a civil servant father and caterer mother, Kelik taught himself the animation software 3D Studio Max by reading books, with a little help from an Internet animator community, Animator Forum.

He also had the pluck to take on jobs that were "too much" for him, forcing him to learn new techniques at short notice. "I was being a wise guy," he laughs.

Nggi, who was born on Aug. 26, 1980, became Homeland's director because he had come up with the idea for the story. "They told me I had to be responsible (for my idea), and I thought, well when else will I get an opportunity to direct something."

He said the idea for Homeland came from his own interaction with the people in Studio Kasatmata, "that basically you need the help of friends to achieve your aims".

Nggi -- whose favorite computer games are the Final Fantasy series because "they have the most amazing scenarios" -- said he was greatly influenced by Japan animation great Hayao Miyazaki.

"In creating the character Bumi (in Homeland), I was actually inspired by the character of Chihiro from (Miyasaki's) Spirited Away. She's weak but has a strong will and a righteous heart," he said.

Nggi initially wanted to become an astronaut to "shoot down aliens", but seeing how elusive the aliens were on Earth, he instead went to Sanata Dharma University where he studied in the English department.

"Now I just want to concentrate on learning to write great scripts," he said.

Looking back at Homeland, both Kelik and Nggi say there are many things in the movie they wish they had done better. "I wish we had more time and better equipment," Kelik said.

They both agree they would not want to remake Homeland. "Instead of remaking it, we want to make a new, better animated movie. That's our revenge," Kelik said.