INTERVIEW WITH HONGKONG BEATS MAGAZINE

BEATS is first and foremost a music magazine, with an eye and ear towards what's happening in dance clubs around the city. But it's much more than that. Beats is simply your monthly guide to entertainment. We'll tell you what's happening both locally and around the world when it comes to music, movies, DVDS, travel, books, food and more. We'll talk to the hottest emerging and established artists, whether they sing the songs, make the grooves, roll the cameras or act before your eyes. If something's happening in entertainment, we'll be sure to find out about it, because we want you to know too.

Beats Magazine (BM) : Describe your piece, Half Teaspoon, in your words?

Ifa Isfansyah (II) : Half Teaspoon is a pack of my dreams that I wish to never come true. A dream of sip in a mixture of three teaspoon coffee and half teaspoon sugar, a dream of watch movie in cheap theater, a dream of being unfaithful to my lover, a dream of take a bus to travel everywhere.

BM : What were the inspirations for the ideas of your piece?

II : In the beginning, I just want to make a boringness movie that make audience keep watching untill the end of my movie. I don’t know what kind of a movie that I want to make, what kind of a boringness that I want to create. A boringness is always identically with something not interesting. People always try and try to escape if they feel boring. What will happen if we face that feeling? Half Teaspoon start from that point.

BM : How was the process of turning this idea in your head into an actual media form?

II : I more often to come to the painting/photography exebithion. I still didn’t know why people can enjoy and see the static picture for a long time. Normally, people can enjoy the painting/picture not longer that 1 minute and leave it. But someday, I found someone who stand and watch one picture for 30 minutes. I don’t know what he’s thingking about? What will he get if watch the picture for 30 minutes? Why he decide to leave that picture after 30 minute? I want to know the answer of all my question. So, I try to watch the same picture for 30 minutes, but I feel so boring in 5 minutes. After 5 minutes, I get more visual experience. But the most important is I get more psychologycally experiece : the first one minute I feel something beautiful, next two minutes I feel so lonely, next one minute I feel boring and the last one minute I missing someone. From that point, I want to create Half Teaspoon like a painting or photography exebithion and have a story inside. I want my boringness stock was empty before start to shot Half Teaspoon, just for one mission : a comfortable borringness.

BM : Toughest part of the process?

II : I have two toughest part and both have a relation. First, I feel difficult to direct and explain my concept to my actor/actress. Because all of them is our parents. The Husband (played by Suhartono) is my father, The Wife (played by Titi Dibyo) is my cinematographer’s mother and The Bus Driver (played by Suparwoto) in my editor’s father. Especially my father, he like my previous movie very much (Be Quiet, Exam is in Progress!) and that movie have a different style with Half Teaspoon. Maybe he feel confuse when realise what kind of a movie that I will make in Half Teaspoon. Finally, I just say to them : play your role untill you feel so boring, if you start to feel boring just raise your hand..i will say cut. In one short scene in this film, I can have a 10-15 minutes footage. That’s why I have length feature film in the first draft of editing, 72 minutes. That’s mean also I have second toughest part. I like the first version, I really feel boring when I watched, but I also feel uncomfortable, I didn’t want it. I cut and cut again untill I have 18 minutes version. In this part, the story was change and very different with the script that we use for shooting. But, that is filmmaking and I like it.

BM : What's next after you've won the IFVA?

II : First, I must finish my scholarship program in Pusan, South Korea, and also prepare for my first length-feature film, One Day When The Rain Falls. I make my first feature with Fourcolours Films and still looking for any kind of co-production or funding. I also co-founded the Jogja-Netpac Asian Film Festival and this year on progress for the 3rd round. This year, I also start to developed a new distribution system in Indonesia, KoperasiFilm.com, a project that aims to establish an online archive and store so that Indonesian independent films may be appreciated in a larger scale.

BM : Last question, describe about yourself?

II : I was born, grew up and spend my whole life in Jogjakarta, Indonesia, the city that I love it very much. I founding Fourcolours Films in my hometown and has been actively producing short films. I was just an ordinary boy next door before I started making film. I suddenly have a particular weight that I have to carry along because I started it all in the city where there was no such thing before. Now I’m living in Pusan South Korea for one and a half year. Leaving all that I love in my hometown just to learn, improve and enhance what I’ve chose; filmmaking.