Indonesian soap operas focus a tad too much on Jakarta
Indonesian filmmakers seem to have no other place to shoot their movies than in Jakarta... And it's just pathetic of them.
Some may argue that sometimes the characters in the film also go to Yogyakarta or Bali but wait a sec!
Where do the main characters live?
The poor women and her lover and her monstrous mother-in-law still live in their typical Jakarta mansion, with the BMWs and other parade of automobiles that turn their humongous garage into a car showroom.
The Indonesian Tourism Ministry should wake up to the fact that before they could hope to successfully promote the country to the outside world, they should firstly take a domestic approach in this.
And they need not spend too much on investments.
Invest a bit on moving the sinetron story settings from "the Bloody Wealthy Jakarta " to "the tropics of Palembang" or "the exoticity of Manado" or "the beauty of Pangkal Pinang" would suffice in attracting the ordinary Indonesian families out to visit those areas.
Eiffel I'm In Love, which was starred by Samuel Rizal and Shandy Aulia, was one blatant example of an Indonesian film that has gone too far. It has the characters living in Jakarta, but in the end they decide to go move the story settings to Paris, which was of no help whatsoever to the Indonesian tourism. If anything, it attracted Indonesian moviegoers to go to France instead of visiting their own natural beauties
(For the record, France has been the most tourist-visited country in the world for several consecutive years... So I guess they wouldn't need any help from the Indonesian filmmakers to promote their country any further)
I haven't watched the Eiffel movie (nor do I have the intention to watch it ever), but I guess anyone could've guessed the movie's plot and locations from the glaring title given.
Writing this post, I just hope that someday we could have Intan or Berlian or Melati (or whatever stupid names they give to the main Sinetron protagonist) living in the antiques of Yogyakarta or the heat of Pontianak together with a simple storyline instead of the high lives they always live in the riches of Jakarta.
Hey Toshi. I didn't think of that, but you're spot on. Maybe you should forward this post to the Punjabis!
problems, for those hindi cartels, is the fact that taking a scene in jakarta, even with renting all those exotic cars and sorts, in a palatial castle, is cheaper than taking a scene in other places.
another problem, is that they're running their soaps daily. if they should take shots on exotic places as you've suggested, they'd need to spend more time and more resources on that, making the stripping soap seems rather overbudgeted.
not that i disagree with your idea. it's just nobody has ever had the brain how to hammer such great ideas to their adamantine skulls.
well, these soap operas are selling dreams with those mansion and posh cars, which probably what low class Indonesians need.
@katadia: would love to :)
@Lurino: true, that's my point :D. the sinetron-makers are nothing more than dim-wits, lol
@Bijuk: which is all the more reason we should tempt the low-class ppl in Indonesia from watching sinetrons... they are simply fake dreams, don't you think?