Teenage students reveal cinematic flair

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."