Set Decorators

Here is what that looks like on the ground. We supply set decorators for shoots across Indonesia, drawing on talent and supply networks centred on Jakarta and Bali. The set decorator dresses each space the production designer sets up, sourcing furniture, textiles, artwork and finishing detail, and managing scene matching across each set. Our team scopes the role and the supporting crew, including leadmen, buyers and set dressers, around the scale of the shoot.

Here is how the picture comes together. A decorator here works with strong sourcing options: Jakarta's prop houses. The Jalan Surabaya antique market, Bali's woodcarving and furniture workshops around Ubud and Mas, and Java's teak furniture dealers. Where rental stock falls short, we connect shoots with the craftspeople who can build, upholster or paint custom pieces. We set up inter-island shipping and storage, manage the dressing budget in Indonesian rupiah, and make sure the set decorator communicates clearly in English with the production designer and art director. Indonesia gives a set decorator distinctive material to work with.

Here is what we have to work with. Interior traditions differ sharply across the archipelago: the enclosed, ornamented chambers of Javanese kraton palaces, the open-pavilion living of Bali, the formality of Dutch colonial households, and the vernacular homes of communities such as the Toraja of Sulawesi. The country's craft resources are top. This includes batik textiles from Yogyakarta, ikat weaving from Flores, teak woodwork, rattan furniture and hand-forged metalwork, and several of these traditions are UNESCO-recognised heritage.

Here is the layout. A set decorator working on a regionally set story researches the specific community being depicted rather than defaulting to a generic tropical look, since these design languages are not interchangeable, and treats ceremonial or sacred furnishings with the care the relevant culture, whether Hindu Balinese or otherwise, needs.