Dean Yamada describes ten days shooting A Place in Heaven in Jakarta with his film students and an Indonesian crew, and how they stayed flexible.
Under this kind of pressure, there wasn’t much room for error. With that said, we had to be flexible because the traffic in Jakarta is about five times worse than that of Los Angeles. It wasn’t uncommon for cast or crew to show up two hours after their call time. The weather was also an issue as torrential downpours could, and did, happen, setting us back hours.
In the end, we shot all 176 scenes the way we wanted. The Indonesian crew was impressed that we were consistently wrapping early by their standards. Here’s how we did it:
We established a strong visual scheme in pre-production.
Understanding our visual structure informed every shot—whether we wanted deep space, flat space or a particular linear motif. It helped us determine the most effective place to set up the camera. It provided a safety net for us to be loose on set and able to go with our gut. We had to feel each shot and whether it felt right for the story.
We shot with two 5D Mark IIIs. Shooting on the RED One MX was an option for us since our school owns one, but we couldn’t be as mobile with it. The production company was comfortable with us using their 5D Mark IIIs because these DSLRs were nearly disposable to them. If we broke one, the liability would not be high. With the moving shots we wanted, the 5D was easier to maneuver and mount. Two cameras also allowed us to catch a lot of moments—whether in the city or the countryside—that we might have lost had we only used one camera.
We were flexible, which meant we were gracious with one another. Things happen. People make mistakes. They are forgetful. But it’s not the end of the world. After all, we were only making a movie. Our relationships with one another are going to last longer than the life of this film. This is a philosophy that we needed to stay true to, especially since we wanted to leave a positive impression on the Indonesian crew. If we were going to do our best work, it was essential to keep morale up for each and every day. Chastising someone is counter-productive, but showing grace will give your team wings to fly.
It was a rare experience to be shooting a feature film in a country as beautiful as it is complex. We can’t wait to return and experience it all over again.
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