telling.stories
It all begins with an idea. From that idea, it evolved into a storyline and finally matured into a script. The process is tedious, mentally exhausting, but getting to that stage where you get to witness that idea grown into a script, you’ll feel that it is all worth it, super satisfying. I hate and at the same time, love every part of the process. As I always tell myself, ‘without a script, there will be no production.’ Here I share some of my produced scripts through the years.
words.matter
‘Mekah Di Hati’ is special for all the challenges it presented. I had only a week to write and finalize the script. We were just finishing another production (‘Damia’) and had only like 2 weeks to prep and go into production. I had to isolate myself for a few days, well, not really isolate because I was writing at a coffeeshop near my house. Many, many glasses of Kopi O Kosong later, the script was completed. And 2 days later, we started filming.
This telemovie comes right after ‘Danny’. Surprisingly, writing this flowed naturally for me. I really enjoyed writing ‘Raya Sempurna’ for I discovered that I do have that romantic soul in this metalhead. The challenge was definitely in blending 3 stories into one. Need to make it flow, need to gel the different stories…
‘Raya Sempurna’ was nominated for ‘Best Script in a Drama’ for Pesta Perdana.
I remembered writing ‘Impian Haji Malik’ in cafes around Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Unfortunately, during that time, I lost someone very dear to me and was not able to come back in time to pay my last respects. That moment when Rizman came home from prison only to find that his mother had passed away. It was heartbreaking but I channeled those feelings into this script. It was all about sacrifices and family issues. It was personal, and it was special.
“Saya dimurahkan rezeki dari Allah untuk mengembara ke merata tempat di seluruh dunia… Tapi satu-satunya tempat yang paling saya sayangi, yang paling saya cintai… adalah bila saya berada dekat dengan hati awak…”
— Mekah Di Hati