PRESS
& REVIEWS

The secret to a good edit is…
To have motivation and meaning behind every edit, whether to give emotion or information. The balance of information and emotion in the story is how we keep the audience engaged, both emotionally and intellectually. The pace, rhythm, timing, and editing style can add layers of motivation to the scene.

My favourite part of the process is…
I enjoy screening and combing through the footage to find the core threads that’ll weave the story together and searching for the beats and characters that push the narrative forward. Setting up the language and paradigm of the film and looking for innovative ways and devices to engage with the audience.

The best thing I’ve learned from a director or producer is…
To keep it simple. It’s not the complexity of events or information that makes a good story, it’s how we tell the story and how we make the audience feel.

My dream job would be…
I’ve been quite fortunate, to be able to choose and put my passion in the projects that I’m working on. Every project feels like a dream job for me. I specialise in intimate stories that are emotionally compelling and politically engaging, portraying complex layers and subjects through the lens of ordinary people. I wish to collaborate and explore more diverse issues and stories in counter-cultures, arts & history, urban/city stories and identity.

My advice to any Editor starting out is…
We connect with stories at an emotional level, and good storytellers look into their memories and life experiences for ways to express and engage with the audience. So, get some life experiences, go out and travel, take chances, find what you are most passionate about and follow your passion.

Read the full interview in the Australian Screen Editor Newsletter February 2024 - Meet The Member: Ernest Hariyanto.

From all the projects that you’ve worked on, is there any underlying, universal theme?

I always try to work on stories or subjects that matter. Not only for me or the filmmaker personally but also for the audience of the region. I work on projects that I feel passionate about, that can create change or make an impact; from social documentaries, to elephant conservation in Africa, indigenous language preservation in Australia, and recently on the impact of plastic pollution in Indonesia.

In many cases, an editor might have hundreds of hours of footage to work on. In your experience, what’s the best way to tackle this? Is there a certain flow of work that an editor can follow?

It’s different with every project. Sometimes you have all the footage ready for you. Sometimes they haven’t finished shooting yet, so they can only give you half or a certain part of the project. But the process is always the same for me. I go through all the footage and try to find a few key images that I feel are meaningful and use that as a foundation. Then I build key scenes around those key images. And I assemble scenes around the key scenes to build the structure. You might decide to move and change the scenes around, but at least you know the structure and what the story is about.

Can you tell us more about your experience being an Editing Lab Mentor ? Are there any patterns or interesting observations from the projects?

I’m mentoring a project from Thailand this year, Breaking the Cycle. Since I was living in Bangkok previously and was going back and forth to Thailand for quite some time, I’m able to understand what the filmmakers are trying to achieve with their film and the circumstances of their challenges in the context of what the film is trying to communicate. At the same time, I have an external perspective of what context or background information they need to provide, so the audience from outside of Thailand can understand their story. 

I guess that’s my speciality. I was born and grew up in Asia, and have been living most of my life in different parts of the world, and working with projects and filmmakers from Australia, Europe, and the US. I have the sensibility to understand the different cultures and perspectives across Asia, whilst understanding what context and information audiences outside of Asia need, to be able to understand a story, without losing the sensibility and cultural identity of the film.

Read the full interview Interview with Ernest Hariyanto, Editing Lab Mentor

A film’s director is normally the one in the limelight, while the editor remains in the background – and yet the editor has such huge influence over the way a story is told, and the overall look and message of a film.

Ernest: I think it’s the nature of the editor’s role to be quite invisible. Especially for documentary, where we (editors) need to sustain the believability of the story. The better you edit, the more the story feels like it is seamless and un-edited. There needs to be a connection between the audience and the characters in the story; the editor needs to establish this and not come in between.

You’re incredibly versatile and multi-skilled: on JALANAN, you’re credited as co-producer, writer, editor, colourist and composer. How do you manage to fill so many roles at once, and do them well?

Ernest: I love what I do and take my work very seriously, almost in an obsessive kind of way. Sometimes it can be quite a torture, but I think I have a good sensibility in expressing emotion and telling a story, using images, words, music, sound and color. At the end it’s about creating, and how what you create makes others feel.

The best thing about film-making for me is to be in the same room/space with the audiences, and feel how they’re emotionally connected through the story.

Read the full interview Spotlight On: Ernest Hariyanto, Editor of JALANAN on Ubud Now & Then

“Ernest gives the film a sense of time and place,
selecting more than 200 hours of total footage into highly effective storytelling.”

— Daniel Ziv, Jalanan Director
(Jakarta Post: Jalanan wins best documentary at Busan festival)

"Jalanan shocks and awes but does so gently, with viewers swayed by storytelling that is accompanied by a beautiful soundtrack from the buskers. Hariyanto’s editing turned the documentary into a 108-minute stroll in the park — a brutally honest, raw and eye-opening park, but a stroll through it nevertheless."

— Andreas D. Arditya (The Jakarta Post)
(Jakarta Post: The bearable darkness of street life in 'Jalanan')

“Jalanan works because the characters formulate concrete plans, and the director, via his extensive filmic coverage - given definite shape through deft editing by Ernest Hariyanto - makes us privy to their individual journeys towards achieving their goals.”

— Sandeep Ray, writer
(Inside Indonesia FIlm Review ‘Jalanan’)