H

Which activity do you enjoy the most, being a musician or a composer?

Z

I just go with the flow. I don’t really put much thought into it, well, maybe a little, but not that it’s my goal in life to do something. When there’s an opportunity to make music for film, I take that chance, and when I have ideas in my head, I make songs for myself or for my band. Just like that.

H

When did you start having an interest in movie scoring?

Z

I need to give thanks to Joko Anwar, after I worked with him on the Janji Joni movie, he introduced me to his fellow filmmakers, and eventually, I met Mouly Surya. At that time she had this movie titled “Fiksi” and gave me full freedom to work on the scoring. That was when I started to learn about movie scoring. And thanks to God, the scoring of “Fiksi” won the 2008’s Piala Citra, at that point I felt like I found myself. And soon after that, people started to recognize me as a composer for movies.

H

Do you have specific reference when working as a composer for a movie?

Z

I don’t have a special preference or reference when doing a film score. I also don’t have the skill to play a lot of musical instruments, but I always explore them to create a certain atmosphere that fits in the movie. I usually use a simple approach to do music for films. Just watch the movie and create music that could express what the movie’s trying to convey.

H

What do you think will be the criteria of good movie scoring?

Z

Now that I’ve had the chance to be one of the judges at the Indonesian Film Festival, I know that having specific reference is not always a good thing. Sometimes, over using a reference can make the scoring industry stagnant. Let’s say, Hollywood has Nick Zimmerman as a composer for box office movies and people often cite him as the main influence in film scoring – that will make the scoring dull. The scenes will be more interesting if the composer has a wide range of unique influences. Being the judge for the Indonesian Film Festival, movies with unique sounds interests me more than the others.

Making a score for a film is a tricky job, we need to have our own character in the music, but at the same time, the soundtrack cannot be the main spotlight, it’s not supposed to steal the people’s attention from the scenes of the movie.

H

Any opinion on the development of movie scoring in Indonesia?

Z

Some years back, in the late 60’s to 70’s, though the industry is not as good as it is now, they had a good approach of doing the business. Now, we have new names with interesting approaches as well, but it will take time for them to reach the same level of what people have done in the past. The most important thing to me is to give a composer the freedom to interpret the scene. In my experience with the movie “What They Don’t Talk When They Talk about Love” the director gave me full freedom to explore the approach to do the music, and luckily that project won international awards. Because most of the time, when a movie comes from a producer, they give more limitations, and that’s a challenge for the development of our movie scoring industry.

H

Do you think that movie scoring has a potential in the Indonesian market? In Hollywood, names like Hans Zimmer already have their market in the music industry…

Z

I think it’s quite hard to imagine that it will happen here. But I don’t want to be whiny about this, it is what it is. It’s also not fair to compare the international market with Indonesian market. The international market already has established its way to consume that kind of aesthetic anyway. It is really a struggle for us to achieve that state. Instead, we can always do what we do best and continue to develop it.

H

Can you explain to us how you got involved with Indonesian Film Festival as one of the judges?

Z

I won one of the trophies from Indonesian Film Festival in 2008, and in 2011 I got invited to be the judges. I was the only music judge at that time, but to me personally, the event in 2011 is one of the best FFI ever – the event went well and the winners are deserving of their trophies. And luckily in 2014 I got invited again to be one of the judges, and it is really important for me, it’s for the sake of the Indonesian film industry.

H

What do you think about the Indonesian movie industry?

Z

There’s an increasing trend in the number of Indonesian movies in theatres, but we still have the paradigm about if we are talking about making a movie, then we talk about making a movie that’s being shown in the theatres. With that thing in mind, we’re trapped to see the film-making as a big budgeted project. When in fact, filmmaking is not only making a movie that screened on the big theatres. We should see more on the other side, non-theatres movie. Lately, there have been a good trend in the non-theatres circuit. We have festivals like Jogja, Asian Film Festival, Makassar Film Festival, and Apresiasi Film Indonesia where films like “Rocket Rain” are well appreciated. The path on non-theatres movie that started by Edwin Babibuta Film now are developing in a steady pace, the idea of making a movie with low budget, making small scale roadshow for the movie’s screening is refreshing to me. We always have this option, and we should really start to take good care of this area, because of its potential.

On the other side, the number of viewers of Indonesian movies in theatres are declining, and this is kind of ironic because the number of Indonesian films in theatres is increasing at the same time. Of course, it has something to do with the cinema 21’s regulation of dropping the movie if there’s not enough viewers of it, we need to change this regulation. It’s an old overdue problem in the Indonesian film industry.

H

So why do you think that there’s a giant line that separates the non-theatre films with theatres films?

Z

I’m not quite sure why it happens like that. The two seems like they walks in different worlds and cannot recognize each other. I am curious though about what will happen in the future. Now that non-theatres movies are being appreciated by the international public, how it will affect our movie industry.

H

How did our non-theatres movies perform in the international film festivals?

Z

I think most of our non-theatres movies are performing quite well at those festivals. Since local theatres have certain rules that deter some movie to get screened in the cinemas, the main idea of most of our non-theatres, movies are aiming to make a special presentation in international film festivals. International film festivals always gave big appreciation for creativity and our non-theatres movie is responding well to that.

H

How will the appreciation from international film festivals affect non-theatres movie scene itself?

Z

Now, I don’t think the achievement of international film festival is giving a certain advantage to the scene. Those non-theatres movie still having difficulties to find a place to screen the movie, even if somehow they find a place to screen the movie, the number of people who watch the movie is really low. The coverage from mainstream media is also not that much, so it is really a struggle to do this business. There are some other options like to distribute it on YouTube and stuffs, but it is a different sensation to watch movie in the theatre and on YouTube. It is a complex problem in the movie industry.

Well, at least, by winning awards from international film festivals, they have their name recognized, that if they have future project they will get some access to gain some funding and grants from international institutions.

H

What’s your future project for you? New album from Zeke and the Popo maybe?

Z

(Laugh) Well, Zeke and the Popo might have a little something on 2015 but we can’t promise anything about it yet, Mantra (a band consisting Zeke, Anda Perdana, Emil Naif) is also doing a little something. Currently, I’m working for an animated film for Garuda Wisnu Kencana monument in Bali, and I am really looking forward to working with Mouly Surya to work on a very interesting project.