Teenage students reveal cinematic flair

By Tam Notosusanto

JAKARTA (JP): Cicip, the heroine of the nine-minute film Namanya Juga Usaha (It Was Worth The Try) has a mission. The overweight teenager wants to shed some pounds in exchange for acceptance from her schoolmates. Being thinner may also mean freedom from the wicked school doll Sharon's harassment. And so Cicip strives to eat less and jog more to reach that end.

Meanwhile, high school student Vitri faces her own ordeal, namely her kindergartner sister Ridho in another short film aptly titled Aaahhh...!!! The title pretty much describes the tribulation Vitri has to endure on a particular day she is left home alone by her parents with young Ridho. That means scrambling all over to get to school on time while at the same time tending to the little one's needs.

The two plus six other short films that were screened at the Usmar Ismail Film Center on Aug. 22, all feature teenagers, some of them against the backdrop of high school life. And wouldn't you know it, they were all made by teenagers, out on their very first venture into filmmaking. The films are the result of their participation in a film workshop themed Our World, which was held at the film center between Aug.1 and Aug. 22. After a month-long crash course on aspects like screenwriting, storyboarding, shooting and editing, they hit the streets in groups, armed with their handycams, and came back with 10-minute flicks.

The average age of the filmmakers and the duration of the films are probably the only things they have in common. The films themselves vary in theme, story and style. From a simple teenage romance to a heavy psychoanalytical piece, from comedies to suspenseful thrillers, they were all there.

Lempar...Sembunyi... (Throw ... Hide), for example, is so neurotically dark that you can hardly believe it came out of the minds of people barely reaching their 20s. Troubled only by bad sound reproduction and miscast actors, it is an interesting piece that uses the camera as its protagonist, telling about a teenager who bewilders his parents with his constant obsession with ping- pong balls.

And then there's Killer. The title says it all about this derivative tribute to the slasher film genre. Although the story, about two teenage siblings menaced by a knife-wielding maniac, is nothing special, the camerawork and the setup is quite stunning, especially considering that it was all virtually done by one person.

William Christian, the writer-director of Killer, is a 15 year old who is small in stature and pimply of face, just your regular adolescent who doesn't appear particularly striking except that he was dressed in complete black.

William, or Billy, admitted that he had come to the workshop with a friend. Later on, he even set up a crew consisting of his schoolmates from SMU 34 to work on the project. But some of them pulled out before shooting even started. And that was not the only problem he had to face. The original story they had in mind had to be shelved when a principal cast member had an accident. Overnight, Billy had to devise another script, and shot it with a minimum number of actors. The result is quite laudable. And now the boy who has always liked to draw comic strips and has written short scripts and been an avid horror movie fan (his predictable favorites: Scream and I Know What You Did Last Summer) now has a film under his belt.

The other filmmakers had to go through similar pains to finish their projects. Dennis Adishwara, 17, who is the cowriter and lead actor of Sudah Sore!! Sebentar Lagi Jam Lima!! Cepat Datang!! (It's Late! Almost Five! Hurry Back!) suffered minor bruises and scrapes as he went through the multiple takes for the scene in which he is hit by a car. And that's only a small part of the whole physical exertion he went through acting in a film consisting mostly of him running, jumping, falling down, getting up and running again.

But it was a happy ending for Dennis and his friends, students from SMU Gonzaga and Labschool, who teamed up under the name "16mm". Their film, which was shown last, received the warmest applause and the loudest cheers from the audience, and it's no wonder. It's a good film that is also a crowd pleaser, a 10- minute gag with clear narrative that combines humor and suspense and is sealed with a satisfying surprise ending.

Established film director Riri Riza, one of the speakers in the workshop's sessions, was all praise for these new blooming talents.

"They practically only had two weeks to shoot and finish their films," he said, looking delightfully amazed after the screening. "And these inexperienced newcomers could come up with all these great works."

Febrianto, chairman of PopCorner Foundation, the event's organizer, was also pleased.

"We're a group of people concerned with the development of our teenagers. Some research indicate that teenagers develop destructive habits like brawling and drug abuse because they don't have any activity to keep them busy," he said.

"That's why we want to organize events such as these, to direct our adolescents to more positive recreations," he added, while estimating the event's total cost at Rp 10 million.

To the 40 students from the 10 schools who paid the Rp 100,000 registration fee per group of five, and came each week to the film center with their own video cameras, it was a whole new experience.

"It showed us that filmmaking need not be difficult," said Dennis. "It can be simple and low-budget."

And what aspect of filmmaking is hard? Is it the writing, the shooting, the stunt work? The boys of "16mm" shook their heads and replied in unison, "The editing."