My Life as Film Director

Author: Haqi Achmad

Publisher: PlotPoint Publishing (PT Bentang Pustaka)

Publication Date: August 2012

Pages:186

"Movies are my religion and God is my patron. When I make a movie, I want it to be everything to me; like I would die for it."

--Quentin Tarantino (Pulp Fiction, Jackie Brown, Reservoir Dogs, Kill Bill, Inglorious Bastard)

Film is one of my favorite things beside books and music. The profession as a film director is of course one thing I adore very much. I always amaze to see a great movie and wonder how the film director can create such a beautiful thing and haunt his/her viewers for days.

Let's flash back to 1998, it's one important moment for Indonesian films, four film directors, Riri Riza, Mira Lesmana, Nan T. Achnas and Rizal Mantovani launched their omnibus movie Kuldesak. This movie was their debut as a film director. This movie also means as the awakening of Indonesian films.

Nowadays the profession as a film director is getting more popular. Making a short movie or becoming a film maker at a young age is not strange anymore. But still some people are still confused, how to start? How can we convince our parents that we can live a proper life by becoming a film director?

Instead of only learning the theories of how to become a great film director, we'd better take a look and drown in the life stories of these four film directors, Hanung Bramantyo, Ifa Isfansyah, Joko Anwar and Sammaria Simanjuntak. The start is never easy. Let's find out how they fell in love with film, how they decided to pursue their dreams and how they're finally sure that they would  dedicate their life only for making film. 

 

It's so interesting to learn other people's life. Especially knowing how they start their struggle in becoming a film maker. It's a long and winding road. Like Hanung, since his father was a businessman, it's so hard to convince him that he could survive by doing what he liked. At that time he's active in playing theater in his high school and his father as a business man kept asking him, What will you get from theater?

If you have a dream of becoming a film maker, this small book can give lots of new insights about the profession of film director. The book  also shares certain important tips such as: how to convince your parents, where to study if you want to be a film maker, how the process of making a film, what things to prepare if we want to be a film director, and many other interesting issues.