Cerita Rakyat Nusantara
Recreation of Indonesian Folklore
(Working Title)
A Concept Artwork by Kolam Susu Studio.
Folklores treasures our collective wisdom and cultural roots value.
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One of our long lost notions in the studio, which have been refounded lately, is our eagerness to recreate Indonesian folktales. Our idea grew from a response of our own question: “How might we bring known stories of Indonesian cultures and adapt them to the present context?”
Folktales, or Cerita Rakyat, is our starting point to recreate something that is potentially powerful. Fully aware of our naivety, we are fully spirited to retell these stories to the society.
In determining the ideas and concepts, we didn’t directly take from the classic folktales that we have known, rather recreated the concept to give a fresh and relevant persective.
The development process involved 1 writer, 1 composer, and 3 concept artists. The writer would write fragments of stories and scenes, the composer would sketch the music drafts. The concept artists would work through 2 treatments: straight from their imagination, or responding to the stories or audio made by the writer & composer.
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Concept Art: Character Design
A compilation of sketches of the characters are our attempt to find the diversity of the character designs in the universe developed. The concept of the universe tries to integrate all folktales all across Nusantara, which could be bridged from one story to another using the characters of those stories. After going through a process of diverse sketches, then we started to draw a more specific character design.
MALIN - The Sailor from Minang
Malin’s original character actually was cursed to turn into stone. In our adaptation of the character, we didn’t focus on the concept of curse, bad karma, or sin, but created a version that is more adventurous and full of action. Our Malin’s character design is depicted alive with his half body frozen from the transformation into corals.
TIMUN - The blooming child
Timun Mas, the child who ran away from Buto Ijo, wasn’t changed much in terms of the original story. We see herself as a fully spirited child, not as a scared person. We wanted to show her as more active and adventurous, with the apparels that suit her journey.
BUTO - The First to see Green
In Timun Mas’ original story, Buto is the antagonist of the lore. However, in this concept, we designed the character of Buto as a character that would help Timun Mas’ journey. The character design that we illustrate as the youngest Buto (Giant) of its kind and guards the forest where they live.
MOONFOLKS - Nyai’s Faithful Servants
We have the story of Nini Anteh weaving fabric on the moon. Moonfolks are new characters that haven’t been featured in any of Indonesian folktales, but we felt that Nini Anteh should’ve had some helpers with her. We explored several character explorations as trustworthy workers.
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Concept Art: Settings & World Building
The concept art of Bandung Bondowoso building Candi Sewu (Sewu Temple) with the help of magical creatures made of light and fire, which the creatures came from the center of the earth.
Many of the ideas of the worldbuilding came from responding to the scripts and music. Therefore, the concept art would be complete when put along with the music. The setting we have built is in Nusantara as a place full of magic and mysticism, before the mechanical revolution existed.
The concept art along with the music, this is an imagery of a frosted waterfall, a pedestal seen in the middle of it. The waterfall is one of the settings in Timun Mas’ adventure.
Timun Mas and Buto placed six emblems on top of the pedestal which defrosted the waterfall into its natural form.
The other concept arts are also accompanied with music. This is a bed of kemuning flowers (kemuning in Bahasa Indonesia, means yellowish). In the concept we developed, it was told that kemuning is a miraculous flower that could cure illnesses. At night, the kemuning flowers shines/berpendar bright.
In the development process, we also created rough sketches. The picture on the left is the setting of where the people lives, and on the right is the ambiance of keraton kingdom in Java.
Nini Anteh which told weaving fabric on the moon, is retold by us as a the empress of a fabric factory on the moon. This factory is run by the moonfolks. We also depicted Nini Anteh’s office in the factory.
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Aside from the character design and setting, we also tried to create the concept implementation through products, such as scarfs, totebags, and personal care product packaging.
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Credits:
Year 2019
Producer: Tri Adi Pasha
Creative Producer: Aloysia Rarasningtyas
Writer: Sutansyah Marhakim
Concept Artists: Misha Ahmad Aziza, Tsalitsa Kamila, Antania Rianti
Music: Fabian Winandi
