"CUT! Ramirez, check if Camera 3 is working properly. We're not getting a signal on the monitor." That was my voice telling one of my film crew to check one of our cameras that were malfunctioning.
A remote tropical jungle is hardly the most ideal place to shoot a film—especially for an indie filmmaker like me. But we had no choice. The screenplay I'm currently working with demanded me to travel to a deep jungle in Java to achieve the most authenticity and shooting with a green screen and adding CG backgrounds in post-production is just out of our budget right now.
This is my last chance. If this film fails at the next film festival, I had to go to Law School per the orders of my nagging parents.
"God it's fucking hot...I can probably fill a bucket if I squeezed the shirt I'm wearing right now" I muttered. The heat and moisture of the jungle were starting to get into my head. The equatorial position of this nation meant that this heat will persist 365 days a year.
But perhaps it's also an opportunity for me to go be in touch with my ancestral origins. My name is Brandon Budiman. I'm currently an aspiring indie filmmaker. My dad was from Indonesia. He came to Australia to meet my mom, a Caucasian woman living in Melbourne. Well, my dad was actually an international student in a university there and he expected that he would go back to his native country to find a job after he graduated. But of course, he fell in love with my mom and the rest was history.
My dad's strict and conservative southeast Asian background clashed multiple times with my mom's liberal first world country point of view. They had a lot of fights throughout their marriage but miraculously they are still together until this day. That didn't bode well with me though. My dad was quite strict on what kind of profession I should be taking in life. He demanded me to go to law school and be a lawyer. I kind of get where he's coming from. Being a lawyer, if you're good at it, will guarantee you a good life and a stable source of income.
But unfortunately for him, the film industry has always been my passion ever seen I was a wee boy. But admittedly, I was not some sort of genius who started making films from age ten or something like that. My first interest was actually in animation and special effects. Studio Ghibli films were my jam and 'The Thing' was my favorite film as a child. As I grew, my taste in films also matured with my current favorite directors being Akira Kurosawa and Wong Kar-Wai—true grandmasters of cinema. Although I guessed I am quite partial to Asian cinema since it still exudes the sense of art that many hollywood films lack. Long story short I went to film school after I graduated high school with the support of my mom and the disapproval of my dad.
"I fixed the camera! Some problems with the lens." Ramirez shouted back at me.
"Make sure all the cameras are working fine! Fuck, we have four $50.000 RED Camera so we're in super big trouble if we break them! Let's have some rest. Jimmy, Rachael, you can go back to your van." I told my actors to get some rest and let the crew make sure all of the equipment is working as intended.
It was not normal for an indie filmmaker like me to have a film crew and expensive equipment like this. Hell, the actors I'm working with right now are big-time television actors that were nominated by the Emmy. Did I won some sort of lottery? You can say that.
Three months ago, I showed my last film, You Who Sat Next to Me, a romance coming-of-age film to some indie film festivals. I had promised my parents that this would finally be my breakout film after many of my films in the past failing to get some traction with the bigtime studios. What comes next was just utter humiliation. My film tanked and received a lot of harsh criticisms. Although many critics said I have some talents as a filmmaker, they all collectively said my film lack the necessary heart and passion. Bullshit. I spent all of my young adult life trying to be a filmmaker. I am now 25 and I have been grinding since I was 18. I have all the passion in the world for filmmaking. Alas, they didn't share my sentiments.
But what ensued after that catastrophic failure was what could be described as a miracle. Now, I'm an atheist, always have been since I was a child. I just didn't believe in any religion despite my dad's endless nagging of God's teaching. But what happened was truly a miracle as if God himself reached his hand out to me. What happened was I got an anonymous donation from a mysterious backer. He, or she, gave me a grand total of $2.000.000 to shoot my next film and even sent me some expensive equipment. However, his or her only condition was that I directed a film based on a script he or she gave me.
I read through the script while feeling skeptical. While the plot was quite unorthodox, involving some weird stuff like cults and a treasure buried deep inside a tropical jungle, I felt that this was finally going to be my break out film. After convincing my parents that this will be my final film if it were to fail, I finally got the green light to shoot the film.
"Director Brandon, I finished checking all of the equipment and everything seems to be fine." Ramirez, the camera operator told me.
"Alright. Tell all of the crews to get some rest in the camp. I'm going to stay here a bit longer." I replied to him.
Ramirez and all of the filming crew returned to the camp, which is around 500 meters from the current shooting location.
I looked towards the surrounding set. What's left is a white van with customized off-road tires and pieces of equipment scattered throughout the set.
'Those fuckers forgot to put the equipment back in the van' I thought.
I heard the buzzing of the generator sitting next to the van in my ear. The generator is solar-powered and can generate electricity for all of the equipment here. This allows us to stay in this jungle for a few days at a time without returning to civilization. This particular white van is also an oddity. The van was also part of the mysterious backer's donation and implemented a solar-powered roof. It's a Tesla Model XYZ, the company branched out from electric-powered cars into making some solar-powered vehicles as well.
I walked towards the van and entered it. What I saw was a row of high-end computers that can withstand film editing and special effects rendering. I was under a tight schedule. Films were usually shot first and we would edit it and add effects later in post-production. But the film festival was due next month so I had to shoot my film while editing it at the same time. Hell, my composer was also here composing music directly in the jungle.
I turned on the projector outside the van. The projector displayed a moving image towards a white screen. We had brought this projector so all the crew and actors can watch some takes of the film and perhaps watch some other films as well if they're bored.
"Let's see...Take 23 seems great. Jimmy's acting is brilliant here but Rachael does not seem to be in her A-game. I'll tell her to bring more emotions out for the next scene." I muttered as I rolled all the footage.
We were shooting the part of the film where the main character would chant a spell to summon a guardian god of the forest. He would then make a deal with the god to cure his mother of cancer. Yeah...the plot is quite convoluted but I believe the finished product would be worth the work.
I walked outside with the storyboard in my hand. Storyboards were illustrations that would show how a scene is supposed to be shot. This includes things like camera blocking and what the actors would do in certain scenes.
"Jimmy will go down in one knee, raised his hands up in the air, and yelled the chant. I think we should get a medium shot of the location first and then a close up of the actor saying each syllables. Hmm...the lighting should be here…" I started to imagine how to direct the scene.
I recalled that I have some experience in acting. I went to a film school that required directors to take some acting classes to better understand working with actors.
"Eh what the heck I'll do the scene to see how it would look" I muttered. I decided to act out the scene.
I adjusted the camera to where the actors will be and started to act out the scene after reading the script.
"Oh Great God Agung! Persembahkan diri anda terhadap hamba mu ini. Aku punya permintaan terhadap keagungan-mu—"
I started to speak in Indonesian since it was in the script. Luckily, my father also taught me the language so I had no problem speaking it. Although I think Jimmy would need some time practicing to recite the chant first if he wants to do it correctly though.
Suddenly, a bright flash of light started to engulf all of my field of vision. I was transported somewhere else. Little did I know, the chant actually worked. Sort of.