A film produced by students and teachers from SK Temong in Serian was recently awarded the Best Jury Film Award at the Festival de Cinema de Alvorada’ (Fecea) in Brazil. The film was also listed in the Official Selection in First Time Film Maker Session 2019 in the United Kingdom and 11 best #SubmitYourFilm Movies 2019 by Asian Movie Pulse.
Talented students guided by experienced teachers
Two primary school girls from Serian recently made headlines after they were awarded the Best Jury Film Award (Primary School Category) at the prestigious ‘Festival de Cinema Escolar de Alvorada’ (Fecea) in Brazil.
Making themselves — and Sarawak — proud at the international level, the two girls were later awarded an incentive of RM25,000 by the state government, presented by Chief Minister Datuk Patinggi Abang Johari Tun Openg.
The girls, 12 year-olds Nabiatul Diana Zulfiqa Mohd Zulfadhli and Macgres Sawet, were guided by their teachers Zulfadli Ad-Dinnie Wan Azmi, 30, and Mohd Reduan Patah, 40. Together, the quartet produced a 5 minute-35 seconds film called ‘Batuh Bijanji’ which translates to “The Promised Stones” in Bidayuh.
New Sarawak Tribune recently sat down with the four at SK Temong, Serian, for a private interview. Asked about their plans with the incentive, the cheerful Nabiatul and Macgres said they plan to keep it for their future.
“We plan to use the incentive for school because we both come from a middle-class family. So the money would be used to help lessen our parents’ burdens,” said Nabiatul.
When asked about her ambitions when she grows up, Nabiatul said she hope that she can be a lawyer in the future to help others. However, to be an animator would be her choice as well.
Her best friend, Macgres plans to be a teacher. “Being a teacher is interesting. And I also love children.”
The duo has been best friends since Primary Four, and they both entered the Digital Storytelling Animation (Dista) workshop jointly organised by the Sarawak Technological Education and Resource Sector, Ministry of Education, Science and Research Technology and Sarawak Multimedia Authority (SMA) last year.
As children, they were always curious about how cartoons and animations were made. So they both were ecstatic when they had the opportunity to participate in the workshop.
“We joined the workshop because we love to draw and we wanted to know the techniques of producing an animation,” said Nabiatul.
She also disclosed that due to time constraint, it was difficult to cope with the whole process. “We only had 10 days to do everything. We used two days to learn about animations from the workshop.”
“Through the rotoscope technique that we had learned, we used the remaining eight days to create the film. We would first act out all the scenes in front of a camera, then we would trace the photos, and sketch them into Photoshop to turn them into animation,” she added.
According to Nabiatul, the rotoscope technique was among the hardest technique when creating an animation. “We have to draw layer by layer. Can you imagine? One second can consist of 12 layers!”
Apart from sketching, the two also acted in the film as the main characters — Bibi (Macgres) and Sarah (Nabiatul). Sharing on the strong bond of friendship, and unexpected tragedy, the film is an emotional roller coaster, as it has heart-wrenching moments with a heart-warming ending.
Tasked with voicing, acting, and sketching, the two would often return to school after lunchtime to work on the project. Macgres said, “We would finish up our tasks by 6pm, and afterwards, Cikgu Wan and Cikgu Reduan would continue their work until midnight!”
As the hard work paid off, Macgres was relieved that despite the time constraint and hardships, the group managed to pull it off. “We both were excited that we get to complete the project, and thankful to our teachers, and our families for the neverending support.”
Thank You, teacher
Teacher Mohd Reduan Patah. 
Teacher Zulfadli Ad-Dinnie Wan Azmi.
It is without a doubt that their teachers played an important role in their success. Celebrating the win, Cikgu Reduan said it was an unexpected blessing. “Nonetheless, we are happy as all the hard work has paid off.”
After their effort to produce the short animation was successful, Cikgu Wan and Cikgu Reduan took the initiative to search the internet for any competition that they can submit the film to. That was when they stumbled upon the international festival in Brazil.Asked a
bout the inspiration for the storyline, Reduan said it came from brainstorming sessions. “Initially there were different branches of idea. But the main one was focused on the three themes of the animation workshop — ‘Sacrifice’, ‘Friendship’ or ‘Human versus technology’.”
About the workshop, Reduan revealed that the participation was limited to only two students per school at the time. “But personally, I felt like a lot more students could have participated as at the school, there were many talented students.”
Nevertheless, Reduan said Macgres and Nabiatul were chosen to attend the workshop last year due to their commitment. “Furthermore, they are best friends so it would be easier for them to work together. They are also easy to work with as they are independent and can carry out tasks with minimum supervision.”
Cikgu Wan, on the other hand, added that as the girls’ art teacher, their talent in art was evident. He also said that the duo had already produce an animation before, “Their first film was called ‘Hanabi’. Hence, when they did ‘Batuh Bijanji’, they already knew how to utilise the rotoscope technique.”
While the technique can be challenging, Cikgu Wan considered using the approach from an inspiration he picked up during secondary school. “Though it is time-consuming, my interest in this technique stemmed from watching Lord of the Rings.”
Having experience beforehand, Wan said that his first time using the technique was for a story-telling competition where he represented SK Temong with two different students in 2017. “We first dabbled with rotoscope technique when we created ‘Hana’ in 2017. The following year, we did ‘Cikgu Hana’. And last year, with Macgres and Nabiatul, we did ‘Hanabi’ and ‘Batuh Bijanji’.”
As for the future, Reduan said that with a budget, they want to continue producing the sequel for ‘Batuh Bijanji’. “Maybe there will be a continuance for Bibi in the series. Or we might release a new production. With sufficient time and budget, there will surely be a next film.”
