Di Kegelapan
(In Darkness)
A neo-noir short blending crime tension with Southeast Asian atmosphere.
The city has gone dark.
A full blackout spreads through the streets—no lights, no signals, no witnesses.
Somewhere in that silence, a crime syndicate prepares to strike the city bank.
Inspired by the quiet intensity of Indonesian nights,
Di Kegelapan—which means “In the Darkness”—is about the moments before everything changes.
May 2023
Selected Shots
Behind The Work.
In this project, I wanted to build a sense of tension and mystery through the visuals—so I leaned into a neo-noir approach, both in mood and in color. I gravitated toward a dark green tint contrasted with gold-toned lighting. The green was pulled from my love for noir and thrillers—films like the colorized version of The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920) really stuck with me in how they handle unease through color alone.
Some of the shots were directly inspired by espionage and classic crime cinema specially The Godfather Part II (1974). There’s this quiet, dangerous stillness in that film, especially when Michael is framed dead center. I tried to recreate that same energy by placing my character front and center, lit only halfway—to emphasize control but also ambiguity.
One of my favorite moments to build was the lighter scene. I’ve always loved the natural look of flame-sourced lighting—like in The Revenant (2015) or even Queen Kelly (1929).
Originally, I wanted to use real candlelight as the only source, but the exposure wasn’t working: the shot ended up way too underexposed, and bumping up the ISO made it look noisy and unnatural. So I used an LED box to mimic the sway and warmth of candlelight and a light dome to add the dramatic spread across the subject’s face. It created the illusion of real fire lighting the entire frame without compromising image quality.
Overall, I think the feeling matches the intention. The references helped
guide the setup—from color palette to shot composition—and I was
hands-on with the lighting and camera to make sure the atmosphere felt
just right. Some shots still feel like little mysteries, even to me—
and that’s kind of the goal.