I wholeheartedly believe that every filmmaker surely is a cinephile born. I don’t really remember the first movie I watched when I was a kid. I am not counting some cheap opera soap aired on our national TV channel.
I believe it should be, a Rhoma Irama thriller flick or some Indian movie with lots of singing and dancing. I tell this, because that memory, is one of my earliest memories of watching a movie and falling in love with it, and deep down in my heart there is a little voice that whispers ‘Man, can you imagine if you can create your own movie’
And it comes almost 25 years later, when I was involved in creating a short movie. I was tasked to be the scriptwriter of the project.
Yes, at that time, I didn’t know how to write a script—literally, I had no clue. My only track record in creating a story is when I was working on a high school short story project. Yet, in this vast digital world, finding what we want to learn is easy.
If you’re feeling humble enough, here’s the second draft of the script. For the rest, I just follow some audiovisual projects of audiovisual and pour some thought into the paper.
Here is the final look of that script turns into:
This story was created in collaboration with Kak Fajar, a producer and the founder of DawnImagion. The characters Rama and Cita are entirely Kak Fajar’s IP — I was only helping to create one of the episodes at the time.
It was such an exciting experience! From scribbling out the script to seeing it come to life like this. Feel free to watch to find out what the story is about.
My journey into scriptwriting started without any prior experience in writing short films. I’ve never attended intensive workshops, but I have participated in a few short filmmaking events. One lesson that stuck with me from those experiences is how movies can be approached on different levels. You can watch a film purely for entertainment, or you can dive deeper — exploring its critiques, uncovering hidden meanings, and connecting its narrative to real-world issues.
For me, film is the ultimate storytelling medium, offering a unique way to convey powerful and meaningful messages. This is why I’m eager to delve further into the world of filmmaking.
As a scriptwriter, my ideas have mostly remained in my head. I’ve always wanted to create a documentary about the people of Lombok — communities that are starting to feel marginalized, much like the Balinese, who in many cases no longer own land in their own homeland.
Tourism is often viewed as a pie meant to be shared by everyone, but in reality, the slices are rarely distributed equally. If nothing changes, Lombok could face the same challenges as Bali. With thoughtful planning and action, however, we can slow the process — or better yet, prevent it altogether. Through storytelling and film, I hope to spark awareness and encourage collective action.
