After Julia Roberts’s “Eat, Pray, Love” was shot in Bali last year, a senior official at the Ministry of Culture and Tourism recently jetted off to the Cannes Film Festival on a red-carpet mission to promote Indonesia’s beauty as the perfect backdrop for movies.
But experts say there are serious obstacles to filming in the country, including poor infrastructure, a lack of financial incentives and a shortage of skilled film crew members and advanced equipment.
In a bid to capitalize on the momentum of “Eat, Pray, Love,” the government has been screening promos to catch the attention of filmmakers at various international festivals such as Cannes, Hong Kong and Busan, South Korea, said Tjetjep Suparman, the ministry’s director general of culture, art and film.
“We have been promoting the culture and especially the natural beauty of several locations,” said Tjetjep, who recently returned from Cannes, where he championed shooting locales in Bali, Sulawesi, Kalimantan, Nusa Tenggara and Timur.
Inneke Indriyani is president director of the Bali Film Center, a private organization that has been helping foreign production companies since 2002.
She said Indonesia was still considered uncharted territory for most studios, with Fiji, Thailand, Malaysia and Hawaii grabbing the lion’s share of tropical film location dollars. These more show-biz savvy rivals had established film promotion offices and offered incentives to filmmakers, Inneke said. But after years of effort, Indonesia finally managed to land a big fish.
“We were fortunate that ‘Eat, Pray, Love’ was set in Bali and that director Ryan Murphy was committed to using authentic locations and people. The trick now is to find other projects to use our locations that are not necessarily written for Indonesia,” said Inneke, who in 2008 helped scout locations for the film.
With help from the ministry, the Bali Film Center also successfully lobbied the producer to film in Bali.
Deborah Gabinetti, a US director at the center, said “Eat, Pray, Love” proved Indonesia’s ability to successfully service a Hollywood production.
“This is a first for the country and we are proud to have played a leading role in bringing this film to Indonesia,” she said. “The global film industry is quite small and the word is already out.”
Indonesia may just be getting started as an international shooting destination, but Gabinetti said foreign film productions brought huge benefits to the domestic economy. “ ‘Eat, Pray, Love’ contributed an estimated $12.5 million to the local economy, creating hundreds of jobs,” she said.
“If the average lifespan of a film is five to seven years from theatrical release, DVD, syndication to re-runs, then this one film could potentially generate hundreds of millions of dollars in tourism,” Gabinettti said. “This success should prompt further investment in the country and at the same time continue to stimulate Indonesia’s domestic film industry.”
Rudy Sanyoto, secretary general of the Indonesian Film Studio Association, said he welcomed government efforts to attract foreign moviemakers because their productions would help sharpen the skills of the local film professionals.
But he said the local industry was hurt by its lack of technical services needed for world-class productions.
Rudy said the equipment was too pricey for most local filmmakers, and with almost no foreign productions, companies saw little reason to invest in the gear. “We usually rent high-speed cameras and cranes from Singapore, which makes it more expensive,” he said.
This technical deficit has put Indonesia at an even greater disadvantage to it neighbors.
“Thailand has a bigger range of equipment because so many foreign filmmakers shoot there,” Rudy said.
Last year, there were about 500 foreign productions in Thailand — including movies, ads and documentaries — while Indonesia had almost none.
But Inneke, of the Bali Film Center, said several studios and independent producers were looking for alternative locations to Thailand due to the country’s current unrest.
Rudy said the industry would not realize its potential until the government offered better shooting locations and incentives to foreign productions to make filming more attractive. A tax break for foreign films and lifting import duties on equipment, as well as a stream-lined visa process, would go a long way to drumming up business, he said.
“The government should create a one-stop service for foreign filmmakers,” Rudy said.
Tjetjep said the government already offered incentives to foreign filmmakers.
“We have offered visas on arrival and easier customs clearance for them,” Tjetjep said, adding that more producers would film in Indonesia this year. “There are some documentaries and movies to be shot here. But I cannot name them yet,” he said.
Source: http://www.thejakartaglobe.com
But experts say there are serious obstacles to filming in the country, including poor infrastructure, a lack of financial incentives and a shortage of skilled film crew members and advanced equipment.
In a bid to capitalize on the momentum of “Eat, Pray, Love,” the government has been screening promos to catch the attention of filmmakers at various international festivals such as Cannes, Hong Kong and Busan, South Korea, said Tjetjep Suparman, the ministry’s director general of culture, art and film.
“We have been promoting the culture and especially the natural beauty of several locations,” said Tjetjep, who recently returned from Cannes, where he championed shooting locales in Bali, Sulawesi, Kalimantan, Nusa Tenggara and Timur.
Inneke Indriyani is president director of the Bali Film Center, a private organization that has been helping foreign production companies since 2002.
She said Indonesia was still considered uncharted territory for most studios, with Fiji, Thailand, Malaysia and Hawaii grabbing the lion’s share of tropical film location dollars. These more show-biz savvy rivals had established film promotion offices and offered incentives to filmmakers, Inneke said. But after years of effort, Indonesia finally managed to land a big fish.
“We were fortunate that ‘Eat, Pray, Love’ was set in Bali and that director Ryan Murphy was committed to using authentic locations and people. The trick now is to find other projects to use our locations that are not necessarily written for Indonesia,” said Inneke, who in 2008 helped scout locations for the film.
With help from the ministry, the Bali Film Center also successfully lobbied the producer to film in Bali.
Deborah Gabinetti, a US director at the center, said “Eat, Pray, Love” proved Indonesia’s ability to successfully service a Hollywood production.
“This is a first for the country and we are proud to have played a leading role in bringing this film to Indonesia,” she said. “The global film industry is quite small and the word is already out.”
Indonesia may just be getting started as an international shooting destination, but Gabinetti said foreign film productions brought huge benefits to the domestic economy. “ ‘Eat, Pray, Love’ contributed an estimated $12.5 million to the local economy, creating hundreds of jobs,” she said.
“If the average lifespan of a film is five to seven years from theatrical release, DVD, syndication to re-runs, then this one film could potentially generate hundreds of millions of dollars in tourism,” Gabinettti said. “This success should prompt further investment in the country and at the same time continue to stimulate Indonesia’s domestic film industry.”
Rudy Sanyoto, secretary general of the Indonesian Film Studio Association, said he welcomed government efforts to attract foreign moviemakers because their productions would help sharpen the skills of the local film professionals.
But he said the local industry was hurt by its lack of technical services needed for world-class productions.
Rudy said the equipment was too pricey for most local filmmakers, and with almost no foreign productions, companies saw little reason to invest in the gear. “We usually rent high-speed cameras and cranes from Singapore, which makes it more expensive,” he said.
This technical deficit has put Indonesia at an even greater disadvantage to it neighbors.
“Thailand has a bigger range of equipment because so many foreign filmmakers shoot there,” Rudy said.
Last year, there were about 500 foreign productions in Thailand — including movies, ads and documentaries — while Indonesia had almost none.
But Inneke, of the Bali Film Center, said several studios and independent producers were looking for alternative locations to Thailand due to the country’s current unrest.
Rudy said the industry would not realize its potential until the government offered better shooting locations and incentives to foreign productions to make filming more attractive. A tax break for foreign films and lifting import duties on equipment, as well as a stream-lined visa process, would go a long way to drumming up business, he said.
“The government should create a one-stop service for foreign filmmakers,” Rudy said.
Tjetjep said the government already offered incentives to foreign filmmakers.
“We have offered visas on arrival and easier customs clearance for them,” Tjetjep said, adding that more producers would film in Indonesia this year. “There are some documentaries and movies to be shot here. But I cannot name them yet,” he said.
Source: http://www.thejakartaglobe.com
