The Big Durian

Today, I going to discuss what are the important elements of documentary filmmaking? Discuss the digital filmmaking phenomenon in Malaysia by citing examples from The Big Durian that directed by Amir Muhammad.

Summary of film:

The film tries to explain the reasons of an event that triggered a city wide panic in 1987. On the night of 18 October, a soldier ran amok with a M16 riffle in the area of Chow Kit, Kuala Lumpur. The soldier, called "Private Adam", killed one person and injured two others. But the consequences were much bigger and people thought it would mark the beginning of racial riots, like the events of 1969. Amir Muhammad interrogates over 20 people about this amok and the effects it brought out, including questioning the political system inheritage in Malaysia.

Important elements of documentary filmmaking:

There have five elements of documentary filmmaking need to be concern before doing the documentary film, such as Interviews, Cutaways, cinema verit, Process Footage and Archive. Interview is Frame the person using negative space, have them fill roughly 1/3 of the screen, on the left or right side. Make sure their “Gaze” is into the Negative space. Leave room behind the subject, never interview someone right in front of a wall. Leave 4-15 feet between the subject and the wall, you will notice the person’s shadow disappear from the wall. Watch out for reflections in people’s glasses, turn them away from facing the window to solve the problem.

Next, there are four types of Cutaways like Story Telling Shots is shot where interviews were filmed,

, Emotional Cutaways

, General Coverage

 and Get Close Ups.

 Then, Cinema Verite or live action is filming whatever is going on with the subjects.

 Afterward, Process Footage: This is when you film the making of your documentary. Think of it like combing the behind the scenes footage of your film with the Documentary itself. Last but not the least, Archive is photographs and/or old videos of the subject. For example, scanning is the best way to import them into a digital editing system, but you can get a shot with your DV and HDV camera that can later be made into a still frame, and panned and zoomed through and also making a film about a controversial subject, try contacting local news stations to see if they have any old news stories that you can use.

Digital filmmaking phenomenon in Malaysia:

What makes the film so edgy isn’t the details of the shooting, about which we learn almost nothing, but about the political atmosphere in 1987 that caused citizens to panic and shut down schools for days. The shooting itself was a pretty minor event, at least in today’s world of recurrent school shootings.  That only one person was killed and three others injured makes me almost laugh with relief. What the documentary is really about is what happened before and after the shooting: race riots, tensions between the Chinese and Malaysian ethnicity, dissatisfaction with the sultanate, and in particular a controversial government crackdown called Operation Lalang. Nine days after the shooting the Malaysian government cracked down and arrested over 100 citizens, mostly opposition leaders and Chinese educators, and shut down four independent newspapers. About the killer himself, the film shares very little. In fact, there is very little information about him on the internet. The event is so obscure (or covered up? Just kidding. Sorta.) that there’s not even a Wiki page about it. What I did find out is that his name was Private Adam Ja’afar, not to be confused with the assassinated Nigerian Imam Ja’afar Adam. This Adam was from Penang.

Conclusion:

Throughout the film, the documentary is very dense, pertinent, well documented and quite complex, with a fast editing, the voice-over of Amir Muhammad and some funny moments. He has chosen various people with different languages, religions, ethnic background reflecting the population of Malaysia.