This time, Johnson & Johnson (J&J) and Ministry of Health (MoH) wanted to make a public service announcement (PSA) about worming disease. This project was our first PSA and our second project to be broadcast on national television.
Priti co-ordinating all the Talents
During the preparation phase, both J&J and MoH were very precise about the talents: they wanted children from all ethnicities, and they also requested dark hair and curly children to be the main talents, because based on their data, kids in eastern Indonesian have the highest rate of worm disease. The casting was held over 2 weeks, as we needed specific talents with curly hair and we needed a few more extras both from Bogor and from Madrasah, near the village and pine forest where we were going to shoot. As most of the talents were kids, the talent coordinators were a full team : Priti, Rengga, and Ken, and they were also assisted by 2 other talent coordinators from Bogor.
Morning view in the paddy fields
Ken and Rengga, the talent co-ordinators, standby with some extras talent
When we were having internal team meetings for the preparation and accommodation, we counted how many people to order the meals, and we were shocked that we had to accommodate 130 people! It was our first time to do shooting out of town with more than 100 people and hopefully it went well. We arranged bookings of the villas, bus for the crew and talents, rooms for the clients, rental cars to pick up the clients, and bought some snacks and drinks for the shooting (salty foods first and sweets later to boost the energy of the kids, teehee).
Preparing the soil for the right consistency
Boys playing soccer in the muddy field
For the preparation, the art crew were extremely busy not only preparing the soil play area to fit specific requirements (damp soil but not too wet) like where the worms usually live, but also making the food seller carts, cooking cimol, drawing hopscotch on the ground, making an outdoor blackboard, and putting up tents in the pine forest. The wardrobe team had to prepare many uniforms for all the kids, both elementary school and scout uniforms, socks, and casual outfits. As for the make up team, the MoH requested a special hair-do for Glenn, one of our main talents, to have his hair dyed a blonde color at the tips to make him look like a kid with a worm infection. Usually patients who suffer worm infection have a different hair color as the worms absorb the nutrients from the hair, so the hair is not black.
On Saturday noon we gathered at the office as our base camp as the bus went there, then we went to Bogor and arrived at around 6 PM, had dinner together, the children played together and finally we had a rest to prepare ourselves for the day after.
Preparing for the school scene
On Sunday early morning, we woke up at 4am, prepared ourselves, had breakfast, and at 5 we were all ready to standby. We went to the first location in the paddy field, where we shot the first scene and the sunrise scene, as well as the drone and aerial view of all of the kids. During the early scenes, the clients, Mrs. Fika and Mrs. Helena, came straight from Jakarta during our take on the morning scenes. After we finished shootings on the first location, we moved to the next location where we were going to shoot the school playground scene. The location was actually a plain ground with a building in the background, but Ares and the props team did a little magic to transform it into a school yard by making food seller carts and not to forget about the snacks themselves.
The lovely Pocut as the teacher
Sigit, our Production Assistant, taking some time to rest and look cool!
Shooting with Lula Kamal
The girls are having some snacks during the takes
After we have finished this scene, we had a lunch break and moved straight to the pine forest. To reach the pine forest, we need to climb the hill for about 3 to 5 minutes. It was really breathtaking literally and figuratively, because we need to climb the hill, but the scenery was really beautiful and worth the effort. The pine forest was so beautiful, especially the learning on the ground scene, because we can see light coming through the leaves and hit the ground. And then we shot Lula Kamal with the children playing in the background. The children were running back and forth, and the most fun part is when they were playing bakiak race, although they had to repeat the race and fell for a few times, the children were always got excited and not being tired, they kept laughing during the take. And to finish our shooting day, we shot the camping scouts scene.
Dennis entertaining the kids
Mr Director, Putra
Fun shooting in the pine forest
Overall, the shooting ran smoothly and on schedule, the children really had fun during the shooting. The only thing that was not smooth was when the rental car was going to go to Jakarta with the client, the car stopped and wouldn’t want to be turned on, so we need another car to drop the client. One problem solved. But there was another accident, the rental car driver left the car key in the car and the car locked itself and can’t be opened, so he needed to go back to Jakarta to get the key and back to Bogor to open the car door. As the result, he went back to Jakarta with us in the bus. And it was really crowded in the bus because the art crew also went back with us, so poor Dennis and Aziz didn’t get any seat and they had to sit on the bus’ floor all the way from Bogor to Jakarta.
Mrs. Helena from MoH taking a wefie with the children
It was a really fun shooting and a fun weekend indeed.
And here is the behind the scene video of this shooting
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