Transitions of Videography in Shadow Puppetry

Abstract

Shadow puppetry (wayang kulit) is one of the Indonesian cultural treasures of which typical characteristics aredifferent from other nations. As a performing art which is enjoyed as if a movie theater in western culture, it isactually a form of Indonesian theatre that has existed since the past hundred years, i.e. earlier than years ofwestern movie development. The present research aims at finding out the transition forms of shadow puppetrywhich can serve as basis of typical Indonesian motion pictures. It indicates that shadow puppetry displays aseries of scenes presenting a story and inter-scene transitions. These transitions function as constraints,connectors, and synchronizers between one scene and the others to form a story that can be enjoyed byspectators. Transitions in shadow puppetry are various in forms. A puppeteer (dalang) has different style fromthe others in performing the inter-scene transitions of the puppetry, even when presenting an opening of hisperformance. The inter-scene transitions include transition by overshadowing figures, by using gunungandances, by inserting gunungan, by sneaking to gunungan,by using gada kick, and by using gunungankerawangan.Keywords: transitions, shadow puppetry, videography, and gunungan