YOGYAKARTA – Fulfilling the assessment of the Cinematography course, students of the Department of Communication Science of Universitas Pembangunan Nasional “Veteran” Yogyakarta (UPNVY) held a film screening event of their work at the Public Relations Laboratory, Campus II Babarsari on Monday (12/06). Starting at 16.00 WIB, this event screened three works from each group with the issue of masculinity.
The first work, titled Hina Tak Terhina, raises a conflict involving the relationship between siblings. The message conveyed refers to the fact that men can also be victims of sexual violence. Described in the film, when they experience this, it feels the same as other people being treated badly to feel restless, beaten, and humiliated. This short film was made by group 2 with director Ammar Muhammad Arieb or commonly called Ammar.
he explains that men can tell their stories when they experience sexual violence, instead of retreating and feeling weak. “We’ve built a set-up of how the male character lives alone with his sister, without parents, so to give some idea of why he feels like he should be seen as a strong man, because he has a sister who sees him as a role model for his sister,” Ammar explained.
Although the film screening was internal, Meike Lusye Karolus as the supervisor of the Cinematography Course invited several lecturers from the Faculty of Social and Political Sciences (FISIP) UPNVY to appreciate and discuss the three films.
One of them was Virginia Ayu Sahita, a lecturer in the Public Relations Study Programme who has experience in producing films and advertisements. She commented on Ammar’s group in terms of content and technical filmmaking. Virginia said that the content of the film Hina Tak Terhina is less soft and the technical camera is still shaking a lot, which reduces the comfort in enjoying the film scene.
The second work entitled Asa tells the story of a minority living in a neighbourhood. Asa is interpreted as the character’s hope when he wants to continue his education but is constrained by money, so he looks for work to pay for the Single Tuition Fee (UKT) and finance his life while overseas.
This twenty-minute film was made by Group 3, directed by Iqbal Maulana or Iqbal. He shared the story behind raising the issue of racism in his film. “Why we took this issue because these things actually often happen in the surrounding environment, especially in Yogyakarta, but no one notices, so we tried to raise it by making a film,” said Iqbal.
This was then commented on by Meike, their supervisor. She said that when watching Asa’s film, she did not find any racist elements. What was raised was just an everyday problem. Not only Papuans, students from Ambon, Aceh, Jakarta, Bandung also experience it when paying UKT.
“Racism is discrimination based on ethnicity of a particular race. There are so many spaces in Asa’s film that can be filled with racism issues. For example, there is a scene in a restaurant where a person of a different race from them comes and looks disgusted, that’s the form of racism. But unfortunately it hasn’t appeared yet, so it’s awkward,” said Meike.
Moving on to the last film, Ibnu Banu Suyatna or familiarly called Banu as the director of group 1’s work chose mental health issues as a topic in a ten-minute film. It tells the story of a man who has mental health problems and is dumped by his girlfriend.
Banu said that the issue came from a phenomenon that happened some time ago in Yogyakarta. “We saw a phenomenon of students jumping from a hotel, so we gave the title See Hear Feel, because we want to care about our surroundings and see our friends, listen to them and feel what they are feeling,” Banu explained.
Yuseptia Angretnowati as a lecturer of the Communication Science Study Programme Broadcasting Concentration also commented on the film by group 1, “This is a valuable moment when knowledge is met with the heart, so that the message received becomes emotional. Hopefully you can continue to learn and appreciation for Mrs Meike and all of you.”
A film is ultimately a commercialised product. So, not only technical and artistic matters in each scene need more attention. Aesthetic elements in the packaging design of the film can also add to the public’s interest in watching it.
“In business, there is packaging, here is the design. It must fulfil the unique value preposition that comes out and is catchy to the eye,” commented Keny Rahmawati, a lecturer in the Business Administration Study Programme.
According to her, in terms of products in marketing, what is first seen is how producers can meet consumer needs. Starting from finding issues that are trending in society, perhaps that is what the market is looking for and interested in. Then after knowing the issue that will be raised, the thought is how to visualise it. Keny revealed that the whole group was good and maximised.
The purpose of the Cinematography course is to teach students how to produce, appreciate, and understand films. The production process begins with pre-production, which starts with providing a concept, then a basic understanding of film and what are the divisions in a film production team.
“Yesterday’s final exam was the task of submitting the film proposal, after that it was pre, production and post-production material, then they executed the production. So today is their appreciation part,” explained Meike, the lecturer of the Cinematography course.
She also explained that this course is project-based and the final output is a project. The assessment indicators are in the form of activeness, attendance, assignments, and the alignment of each student’s understanding of theory and practice. Meike explained that at the beginning of the assignment, the selection of concepts and themes was liberated. However, what is interesting is that the three film works turned out to be one common thread, namely related to the issue of masculinity. She hopes that students will continue to learn because the work produced is the potential that can be sent and included in the Film Festival, not just stop at this stage.
Although the event was delayed by one hour due to obstacles, the enthusiasm of the students to screen the film was not deterred as evidenced by their timely attendance. Arika Bagus Perdana, a lecturer in the Communication Studies Programme with Broadcasting Concentration, expressed her appreciation to all the groups. She thanked those who had seriously worked on the assignment until the film screening. Arika felt lucky to be able to see the original work of the students of the Cinematography class and hoped that it would improve them to be more challenged and optimistic to do the best for themselves and the study programme.
“We are criticised that our campus is starting to decline in achievements, but from here we can see many friends who are serious about developing communication as a forum for learning together, so I am actually optimistic that you have the opportunity to develop better in the future,” said Arika.
Finally, Meike said that being wrong and imperfect is normal so that in the future we can learn to be better. “Actually, being human is the process, not creating a one-time good and perfect work,” she said.
Source: suarasikap.com