A cool night in 2017, I carefully heard the cinematographic material presented by Daniel Rudi Haryanto. At that time I was supervising a documentary film that will be produced by young filmmakers in the competition series of Aceh Documentary Competition 2017.
Mas Daniel, once his nickname, starts the material from the frame of an image. He then drew the human forms sitting, standing, kneeling in a rectangular box. Then continue with another image in the next box. Neither of us understood what he meant by the picture.
When finished drawing, Mas Daniel turned towards us
Anyone know what it is?
Pointing towards the picture, Mas Daniel then explains the oldest cinematographic model in Indonesia. We should be proud of the masterpiece that our predecessors have made in Indonesia.
The picture is sculptures on the wall of Borobudur temple. If we look closely, it has blocks that frame to tell a shoot and even a scene from a story.
These Borobudur sculptors use full shoot models to tell story after story from human life. Some tell about the nature of generosity, worshiping gods, gotong royong, beggars, etc.
Nine months later, I stand exactly 40 cm from the carvings that Mas Daniel describes in the presentation of cinematographic material in the Aceh Documentary Competition 2017. There is a sense of awe with the visionary accomplishment of this ancient artist. The image they left on the rock became the forerunner of today's cinematography.
For me, this is the first visit to a temple that I know in the book Primary School Element as one of the wonders of the world. Being among the visitors who are preserving the temple into his camera, I just walked and continued to look at sculpture after sculpture. Occasionally stop and try to study the composition that is in one block of the sculpture.
Under the scorching sun, I am still stunned with the masterpiece of Indonesia. Drowned among the tourists who berswafoto with a distinctive sweet smile each. Those who sculpted filmmaker frame blocks were forgotten by today's videographers. They boldly add cinematic words to their videos.