To contribute to the exchange of expertise and best practice between Indonesia and UK is one of British Council’s commitments. Numerous discussions with many players in the Indonesian film sectors led to the conclusion that the capacity building on film skills is still very much needed in Indonesia, despite the continuous growth of the Indonesian film productions. Therefore, in partnership with FilmLondon, British Council Indonesia hosted Masterclass programme in Jakarta and Yogyakarta from March 17th – 21st.
Each Masterclass is a three-day intensive film development programme with three main topics: Script Development, focusing on subtopics like principals with emphasis on Genre’s, plot and character development; Production, focusing on subtopics like creative producing, the triangle of producer, director and scriptwriter, and how to build a creative film that can still hit the market; and Distribution, focusing on subtopics like comparisons of traditional distribution in Europe, US and Indonesia and future ways of distribution.
Several film practitioners have been chosen as advisory panel for this programme: Shanty Harmayn (Director of JiFFest), Orlow Seunke (Director of Europe on Screen), Riri Riza (Director of Makassar SEAScreen), Fauzan (Secretary General of Indonesian Producer’s Association), John Badalu (independent SEA film scout for IFFR, Cannes and Berlinale) and Alex Sihar (Jakarta Art Council).
Participants were taught by 3 mentors from UK. Ken Marshall, who completed award-winning, critically acclaimed films including Filth acted as the Producer Mentor. Angeli Macfarlane, which involved in Death of a President, winner of an Emmy, BANFF and an RTS award got chosen as the mentor for Script Development/Editing. As for Marketing and Distribution mentor, British Council brought Tom Grievson, who worked within the studio system (for Warner Brothers UK) and launched blockbusters, including; The Hangover, Sherlock Holmes, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, and Inception.