Asia's digital cinema only serves as training ground

Sunday, December 22, 2002

It is cheap, immediate and versatile. No wonder many filmmakers are turning to digital video, particularly young filmmakers on shoestring budgets.

This phenomenon really took off after 1999's The Blair Witch Project, a horror flick shot with Hi-8 camcorders. With production costs of only US$22,000, the movie went on to make $240 million worldwide.

This success inspired many filmmakers to use digital video (DV) to overcome budget constraints, including in Indonesia, where the local film industry, despite recent signs of recovery, remains in a lull.

Among the Indonesian movies shot on digital video are the 2001 hit Jelangkung by Rizal Mantovani and Jose Purnomo and this year's Eliana Eliana by Riri Riza.

In Asia, the two filmmakers considered to be pioneers of digital video are Hong Kong director Kenneth Bi with his 2000 debut A Small Miracle and Singapore's Ong Lay Jin with Return to Pontianak.

"Hong Kong's film industry is not like it was. It's either very high or very low in terms of production costs. There's nothing in between. It's not as healthy as in the 1980s or the early 1990s. My financing collapsed but I was in desperate need to be creative. So I turned into DV," Bi said during a seminar on digital technologies at the recent Asia Film Market & Conference.

With $10,000 from his own pockets, Bi shot his movie with amateur actors who worked for free.

Though never released commercially, the movie received good reviews and has been screened at film festivals around the world, allowing Bi to secure funding for his next project.

A similar experience happened to Malaysian director Amir Muhammad, who wrote and directed that country's first DV feature, Lips to Lips, which was invited to over a dozen film festivals around the world.

"A lot of indie filmmakers are inspired to shoot their movies with digital video," said Amir, whose Lips cost some $60,000 ("cheap but still a lot").
Beside being cheap and immediate, digital movies also free filmmakers to do anything they want, to experiment with the small camera.

"If you want to do something mischievous, it's possible with DV. My second movie, (this year's) 6horts, is a series of six video essays that I shot completely without actors. It would be impossible to do this with regular celluloid but it's possible with DV," Amir said.

Return to Pontianak producer Juan Foo said regular film was technically more sophisticated because it was two to three times more sensitive.

"But digital movies don't abandon aesthetic. Everything else is almost like a regular film production," he said.

With digital video, filmmakers are free to do what they want and produce any type of movie they choose.

This has, however, resulted in some digital movies being shot with apparently little thought for the quality of the film.

In Indonesia, this tendency has been shown with several new digital movies with stories that are just absurd, such as Titik Hitam (The Black Spot), Kafir (Satanic) and 5 Sehat 4 Sempurna (Healthy Five, Perfect Four).

With the local film industry still struggling to get back on its feet and find its audience, the new DV craze could end up scaring people away.

"It's a big problem. The problem is there's a TV aesthetic, there's a film aesthetic but there's not yet a DV aesthetic. DV has not found an avenue yet, except the dogma. You can like them or not like them," Bi said.

Amir, however, thinks the DV movement could create a new audience apart from the audience for mainstream Malaysian films.

"Some (DV movies) are good and some are bad, but it's too early to judge. It's still something that many people have yet to become familiar with. Those who are really good and interested will continue to sharpen their talents," he said.

What does the future of digital cinema look like?

Bi does not see it becoming popular any time soon, as there are still very few cinemas that are equipped with digital projectors.

"There is one theater in Hong Kong that has the projector and it's broken," he said.
Therefore, many digital movies do not play in cinemas because they first have to be transferred to film, which costs thousands of dollars.

"And audiences have yet to warm to digital movies, maybe because technically they look inferior, like something the audience can make at home," said Bi.

Agreeing with Bi, Foo does not think distributors and exhibitors are ready to invest in digital projectors, given the preference for regular film.

"But I think that will change, hopefully," he said.

In this sense, digital cinema still only serves as a training ground for young filmmakers. The challenge is how to take it to another level, to make the movies look less like something anyone can do at home. Perhaps this will have to be accomplished with gripping stories, so audiences will not realize the technical limitations.

"It's a great alternative to mainstream films. I once saw a digital movie in New Delhi. It was so good, so funny and so wonderful that when it was finished, it was a great thing. No one remembered that it was a DV," Bi said.

Labels: Film

Posted by hera at 12:42 AM | Permalinks | Comments

Profit not culture drives Asian filmmakers

Sunday, December 22, 2002

Early this month, Singapore hosted a three-in-one media festival: The Asia Television Forum (ATF) 2002, the Asia Animation 2002 and the Asia Film Market & Conference (AFMC). Invited by organizer Reed Exhibitions, Hera Diani of The Jakarta Post filed the reports on the last two events.

What is the definition of an Asian film?
The subject, among many other issues, emerged during a discussion by professionals from the international and local film industries at the recent Asian Film Market & Conference (AFMC) in Singapore.

Held for the first time, the AFMC aimed to offer a comprehensive and integrated platform for professionals to meet, exchange ideas, carry out business transactions, explore co-production opportunities and promote Asian content.

During the three-day event, which kicked off on Dec. 3, producers, distributors, buyers and broadcasters sat together to address issues relating to the Asian film industry. The first discussion addressed the definition of an "Asian" film. The speakers concluded there was no such thing anymore.

"With the world becoming a global village, it becomes more difficult to define what an Asian film is. There is no longer boundaries in language, story line and financing, where the movie comes from and the location," said Thomas Chung, chief executive officer of China's Han Entertainment which produced this year's The Touch, an action flick starring and co-produced by Malaysian actress Michelle Yeoh.

The success of 2001's Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, he said, was an exceptional case as there were few Asian films finding international success.

Chinese producer/actress Luo Yan said the world market was still pretty much ruled by the United States and therefore Asian filmmakers should produce movies to meet that desire.
"A movie is a product. At the end we have to make money, that's the reality. Hollywood (films) have no local content but it sells everywhere in the world, including Asian countries. Asian filmmakers have to get out of the circle and dream bigger," said Luo, president and chief executive officer of Silver Dream Productions.

The filmmakers thus have to develop a film with Asian content that appeals to the West.
"Language is a big issue. Again, Crouching Tiger is a miracle. But if you make the film in English, it will be easier to be marketed and will make the price increase," Chung said.

Singaporean producer/director Jonathan Foo added the "West" had certain views on Asia that Asian filmmakers must refer to.

"It's OK as it's a part of an educational process," he said.

The speakers' conclusions, however, were a little contradictive as there seemed to be a growing interest in Hollywood toward Asian films.

Despite Chung's remark, the success of Crouching Tiger is clear proof. There is also the remake of Japanese film The Ring by Steven Spielberg's Dreamworks Pictures and The Eye, the undisputed sleeper hit of 2002, which is creating waves in the United Kingdom, and attracting Tom Cruise's production company who has bought the rights for a remake.
It is indeed the uniqueness and diversity of Asian films that have won the hearts of the so-called global audience.

Sharing that opinion was Hong Kong director Kenneth Bi who said the speakers' focused more on the business aspect instead of art.

"When French people buy an Asian film, they want to see Asian people, speaking Asian, in Asian costumes in an Asian environment. That's the success of Crouching Tiger," said the 35-year-old director, who is considered one of Asia's pioneers in digital movies with 2000's A Small Miracle.
The Touch, he added, was basically a bad English movie with a Chinese setting, which only did well due to excessive promotion.

"You try to sell a global film but people around the world don't consider it a global film. They see it as it is. Great arts always come from the roots of the country. Even great commercial films have that. If it's just floating in the air, it won't work for anybody. Unless its for 10- to 13 year-old kids," Bi told the Post.

While the definition of "Asian" film is still debatable, the conference came up with interesting issue on co-production, the key strategy to overcome, particularly, budget constraints.
"Other advantages are the dual market, and creativity-wise, you have access to people and location," said Foo, who recently co-directed Song of the Stork, the first Singapore-Vietnam feature film co-production.

The historical film is the first international feature project about the Vietnam War shot entirely in Vietnam.

"It would be impossible to shoot a film with such story in Singapore," he said.
According to Michael Lionello Cowan -- producer/writer/joint managing director of Spice Factory in the UK -- fundamentally, co-production has to be driven from a creative point of view.

"Script is the least expensive thing. You can go around the company to find a co-production partner and bring the script," said Cowan who has written and produced several films as well as entertainment shows in the UK.

Unfortunately, he said, the script is the big weakness in Asian films, despite many talented human resources.

Meanwhile, Luo said she started going around studios in Hollywood with scripts she found on the internet or developed from novels.

"I didn't have any access so I just walked around the studios and offered them the scripts. You also have to prepare the budget and sales estimation for the company you want to co-produce with," said Luo, whose 2001's Pavilion of Women is a co-production with Universal Studio's starring Willem Dafoe.

Though the release in U.S. was hampered by the U.S.-China plane crash crisis, the film was ranked among the top three box office sellers in China in 2001.

"As a consideration, in China, actually there are many institutions that are willing to offer budgets, although the size (of the budget) is limited," Luo said.
There is also another institution like Comerica Bank -Comerica Entertainment Group who lend money for aspiring Asian filmmakers.

"The procedure starts from seeing the script first and then we discuss the budget of the film, sales estimation etc. There's no limit for the budget as long as the film is selling," Peter Anshin, the Asia Representative for the group, told the Post.

Asia, he said, was promising but it was hard to find Asian films that could be financed.
"The main problem is the language, the lack of stars and lack of understanding the system," he said, adding that Hong Kong is the most promising country.

Labels: Film

Posted by hera at 12:38 AM | Permalinks | Comments

Schizophrenia, not a beautiful experience

Sunday, December 01, 2002

Hera Diani, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The ward of the psychiatric department of state Cipto Mangunkusumo Hospital (RSCM) is no different from the rest of the place: It's grim, old and dirty.

As the faded wooden gate is unlocked and opened, its appearance, which is closer in resemblance to a refugee camp, is quickly disclosed. The smell of dust and worn out furniture permeate the air.

"This place is not really good enough for patients. We plan to renovate, but we don't have much funding," the hospital's psychiatrist, Martina Wiwie, explained on our visit to the ward recently.

We passed the left wing, which is reserved for male patients, and went straight to the right wing, where several female patients had gathered in the hall and were chatting. On a bench in a corner, a patient was talking to an intern in a firm tone.

"You know, I can see across thousands of kilometers. Wherever my mother is, I can tell what she's doing," said the patient, who said her name was Nelma.

A few minutes later she stood up hastily and walked away from the bench, but then returned to talk to the intern.

"Let me ask you, what is your religion? Catholic? Well, I feel so sorry for you, because you will never go to heaven. I know that for sure because I know the Koran by heart, and prophet Muhammad said so. Forgive me for saying this, but you guys will never go to heaven!" Nelma, who is in her 40s, said angrily.

She became furious after the intern told her that she was being paranoid. Nelma then said how religious she was and how she had tremendous supernatural power.

"That is a case of schizophrenia," Dr. Martina whispered.

Nelma is among the estimated 1.2 percent of Indonesia's population of more than 200 million who suffer from schizophrenia -- a mental disorder of which there is still low public awareness.

Like millions of other schizophrenics, Nelma is suffering from a mental disorder in which the personality is seriously disorganized, but not split as is often thought, and contact with reality is usually impaired.

You probably still remember last year's film A Beautiful Mind, which is a true story about schizophrenic mathematician John Nash who later learns to handle his constant hallucinations and delusions to win a Nobel Prize in physics.

While the severity of the illness varies greatly in individuals, most people diagnosed with schizophrenia will usually suffer from one or more of its symptoms.

The symptoms that require hospitalization occur during the acute stage and they are: delusions, a false belief that cannot be corrected by reason; hallucinations, usually in the form of nonexistent voices; disorganized speech, with frequent derailments or incoherence; and grossly disorganized or catatonic behavior.

People living with schizophrenia are often robbed of the pleasures in life, and they have less ability to experience feelings.

Long-term impairments for people living with schizophrenia include low levels of interest, motivation, emotional arousal, mental activity, social drive and speech.

"They lose their social skills, their jobs and are expelled from schools. They can be extremely aggressive, or unreasonably silent. But the most common type is intense paranoia," Martina said.

Schizophrenic patients are prone to saying things that do not always make sense and their intellectual capacity also shows a tendency to decline.

The disorder, however, is very individualistic, as no two cases of schizophrenia are exactly the same.

It is believed that the main cause of the illness is a neurochemical imbalance in the brain, although there are cases in which nothing was wrong with the patient's brain.

Stress and complications in pregnancy can also be a trigger of the disorder.

"When a parent is schizophrenic, the child has a 23 percent chance of suffering from it, too. If both parents are schizophrenic, that probability jumps to 49 percent," Martina said.

However, there are studies that suggest that an inherited predisposition to the disease is not necessarily a dominating factor.

While mental illness can hit at any age, symptoms of schizophrenia are most prevalent between the ages of 15 and 30.

"It is usually more distinguishable in men, because society puts extreme pressure on them. So they become stressful, which could trigger the disease," Martina said.

She said that it did not cause too much disruption to the lives of people who are introverted.

"They usually turn to religion or the supernatural. But when it becomes a full-blown case, patients may think that they are prophets or messengers from heaven. And others, who are unaware of the disease, think that the patient just can't handle that kind of knowledge (of religion and supernatural stuff)," Martina said.

The situation turns serious, however, when patients become extremely aggressive or the voices they hear urge them to become violent. As a result, many sufferers are confined to their homes by family members or have their legs shackled.

While the story of John Nash is heavily romanticized in A Beautiful Mind, the reality of a schizophrenic's life is harsher. The portrait of a faithful and patient wife of a schizophrenic, played by Oscar winner Jennifer Connely, is also a rare case.

Often, like what happens to so many patients at RSCM, sufferers of the disorder are discriminated against, their rights are violated and they are shunned by family members.

Saring Hadiono, who is in his 40s, said that he often wanted to kill his schizophrenic brother, Hariadi, who has been living with the disorder for over 12 years.

"I felt like it would have been better for him to die than to make the whole family suffer. My mother even said that it would be OK to dump him somewhere," he said.

Hariadi had been a smart, multitalented man who held a decent job, Saring said. He later turned obnoxious toward others, and that cost him his job and his family. The drastic changes in his behavior ranged from taking other people's food, excreting in a mosque to burning the television and even the house.

"I didn't think that he was mentally ill. I thought he was just plain annoying. We had tried many things, including putting him in an Islamic boarding school," Saring said.

It was only a couple years ago that the family discovered he was ill, and took him to a hospital where he was diagnosed with schizophrenia and treated for it.

"He is much better now. We should have brought him to the hospital a long time ago," Saring said.

Martina said the main cause of the illness was a chemical imbalance, and it needed to be countered with medicine to eliminate symptoms.

"The medicine has to be taken continuously at least for two years. There is no such thing as an addictive effect. It's just like diabetes, where you have to constantly take medicine. It might be expensive, but the patients can function normally and continue to hold a job," she said.

But the most important thing, she added, was to create a conducive and supportive environment for patients.

"The whole treatment is useless if a patient goes back to his or her family and is always criticized or mocked. Occupational therapy and sports are also important," Martina said.

Above all, she added, it has to be underlined that schizophrenics should not be feared and are important members of society.

Labels: health

Posted by hera at 12:46 AM | Permalinks | Comments