Gotot Prakosa Talk

I went to the talk as well as quite a surprising number of people not in our class—I couldn't find a seat at first. I will say now that unfortunately, I had to leave right before there was any commentary from Mr. Prakosa about his film we viewed in class because the talk was taking way too long (1.5 hours so far) to get to this and I had other academic activities to attend to.

I will however write about how interesting I thought it was that in Indonesia, one introductory course for filmmaking focuses on the art of wayang or puppet theatre performance—sometimes this performance happens behind a screen where shadows from the puppets are visible to the audience. I found this peculiar and logical because film and theatre represent what I believe to be the before and after of the invention of the camera recorder. Films are essentially theatre performances but with the exception that they are not real time like a play, and that one can manipulate more visual elements and incorporate visual illusions to project onto a screen for an audience. Wayang incorporates a form of the intermediate element of the screen.

I feel that the significance of wayang as an introduction to film takes in account the element of the screen and how closely related it truly is to making a film. The projection of shadow images across a screen parallel the projection of light images onto a screen in a cinema. There are certain visual elements that live theatre lacks that are exclusive to wayang and film—the artificiality of both mediums. In both, there are no real human beings presented, only images and resemblances of, where exaggerations and fantastical visual elements can be added. It seems that wayang is limited in the use of visual manipulations, but because it is sometimes presented through shadow-form, the element of imagination is left to the audience. Of course in theatre props are available, but they are most commonly presented as what they are in a real-time representation—unless of course they are specified otherwise. In both film and wayang there is more freedom for the viewer to be tricked and to be subjected to a greater level of use of imagination than in real-time theatre performances.

The talk later centered on Mr. Prakosa’s early experimental films of the 70s, which I thought to be interesting. I do not remember how he explained he went about making these but I believe them to have been made through a different medium than staging images. I think he may have taken a filmstrip and directly made the film to be on the actual film material. (If not, then I just had an idea on how to make an experimental film…) This concept baffled me. It is most definitely taking experimental film to a whole different level. Of course this is a manipulation of the medium, which makes me believe the product from this fabrication is more tangible than just reflections/copies of light images onto a filmstrip and then projected.