WATI
A domestic psychological drama exploring body, gaze, and confinement.
Tools: Sony FX6, Xeen Cinema Lens Set
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Joyandi Desyukra
Filmmaker. Cinematographer. Visual Storyteller.
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Filmmaker. Cinematographer. Visual Storyteller.
A focused first look at the projects that best represent my cinematography, documentary instincts, and visual approach.
A domestic psychological drama exploring body, gaze, and confinement.
Tools: Sony FX6, Xeen Cinema Lens Set
View Project
A documentary/reality project built around outdoor pressure, speed, and unpredictable human moments.
Tools: Sony A7C II, Sigma 24-70mm f/2.8
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An instinct-led exercise in movement, tension, and psychological abstraction.
Tools: Sony A7C II, Sigma DG DN Art Lenses
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A short film shaped through close camera work and a color palette between memory and anxiety.
Tools: Sony A7C II, Sigma DG DN Art Lenses, DJI Ronin RS3 Mini
View ProjectFocused roles across film, documentary, reality production, and post-production workflows.
Visual language, camera placement, lensing, lighting choices, and emotional framing for narrative and experimental films.
Run-and-gun coverage for documentary, reality show, institutional, event, and field-based productions.
Camera operation, assistant camera work, focus support, lighting support, grip practice, and on-set technical discipline.
Color direction, grading sensibility, visual consistency, and post-production choices that support tone and story.
I'm Joyandi Desyukra, a Bandung-based filmmaker and cinematographer studying Film & Television at Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia. My work focuses on intimate, psychological, and emotionally driven images across short films, documentary, reality television, and street photography.
"I don't make films to show things. I make films to make people feel the weight of what they're seeing."
"Every filmmaker starts by watching someone else's frame."
My first credit on a production that went to festivals. Babiat Sitelpang is a story rooted in Batak culture — childhood, tradition, and the weight of inheritance. I was assistant camera, responsible for focus, lens management, and on-set equipment.
But more than that, this was the film where I learned to read a set. To anticipate the DP's next move before they called it. To understand that every department is building the same image, even when they don't know it.
The Nucleus M wireless follow focus was essential for maintaining precise control during the intimate, tightly-framed scenes that defined this film's visual language. The Sony GM glass delivered the creamy, warm rendering that matched the Batak cultural setting — never clinical, always human.
An experimental short film — a personal exercise in movement and psychological tension. No formal crew, no predetermined script. Just a camera, a question, and the freedom to follow it wherever it led.
This project was about learning to trust instinct over planning — to discover how still frames can carry the rhythm of something kinetic and unsettled. The result lives somewhere between narrative and abstraction.
The compact A7C II allowed for run-and-gun mobility that this experimental process demanded. The Sigma Art glass delivered cinematic depth and sharpness without the weight of a cinema rig — keeping the shoot intuitive and physical rather than mechanical.
"Then you start to wonder — what would I see differently?"
An adaptation of Eka Kurniawan's Peter Pan, reimagined through the lens of Indonesian youth and memory. I operated the camera and handled color grading — shaping the visual consistency of a film that moves between dreamlike nostalgia and present-tense anxiety.
The challenge was tonal: how do you make a film feel like both a fairy tale and a confession? I pushed the color toward muted warmth in the fantasy sequences and desaturated, slightly green-shifted tones in the reality scenes. The camera stays close to faces. Always close.
The gimbal allowed fluid, dreamlike camera movements in the nostalgic sequences while maintaining handheld intimacy during the grounded reality scenes. Color grading on the M4 was where the two worlds of this film converged — every grade was a decision about which version of the story the audience was inhabiting.
Citra explores the inner world of a young woman navigating faith, identity, and social pressure. My role was ensuring continuity across takes — a discipline that requires watching every detail the audience never sees, so that the story they do see remains unbroken.
Tools: iPad Mini 7 for on-set continuity tracking.
A dark, tension-driven short about desperation and the cost of borrowing more than money. As Best Boy, I managed the lighting and grip equipment — the invisible infrastructure that makes the visible image possible.
The film's visual language is built on contrast: harsh practicals, deep shadows, faces half-lit by phone screens. Supporting that look from the grip side taught me that lighting isn't just about what you illuminate — it's about what you choose to leave in the dark.
"Now the frame is yours. What do you do with it?"
Wati is a short film about a woman caught between the expectations placed on her body and the interior world she cannot speak aloud. As Director of Photography, this was my first opportunity to build an entire visual language from the ground up — to decide not just where the camera goes, but what it means for the camera to be there.
I chose warm, enclosed lighting for the domestic scenes — tight compositions that mirror the psychological confinement of the character. When Wati moves into public space, the palette shifts: cooler, wider, but somehow more exposed. The camera doesn't follow her. It watches her.
This project led to a published academic paper in which I examined how the gaze of the camera can either exploit or honor its subject. Wati is not just a film I shot. It is the film that taught me what I believe about images.
The FX6 paired with Xeen cinema glass gave me the full-frame depth and color science needed to capture skin tones with warmth and dignity. Handheld in tight spaces keeps the viewer physically close to Wati — the slight instability of the frame mirrors her emotional state. The film's visual language depended on the imperfection of real domestic light — every practical lamp was a storytelling choice.
Published: "The Traumatized Body and the Camera Lens: Reading WATI in the Context of Female Cinematography" — Jurnal Imaji; Jurnal Seni & Pendidikan Seni (SINTA 4)
Taman Nasional Baluran. No controlled lighting. No second takes. No script.
Arei Survival Camp is a reality show format for the outdoor brand AREI, following participants through physical and psychological challenges in the Indonesian wilderness. My role was to document everything — not as a neutral observer, but as someone trying to find the human story inside the chaos.
This project forced me to rethink everything I knew about framing. On a narrative set, you build the image. In documentary, the image is already happening — you just have to be fast enough to catch it and honest enough not to fake it.
A compact, weather-resilient setup for jungle and savanna conditions. The 24-70 zoom was the only lens — because in documentary, changing glass means missing the moment. The f/2.8 aperture handled the extremes: harsh midday sun, campfire darkness, and everything in between.
A collaborative production for Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia's MOKAKU program. I handled video documentation and creative media across campus events and short-form content, balancing institutional clarity with cinematic sensibility.
"Between projects, the eye never rests."
| Year | Title | Role | Format |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | AREI SURVIVAL CAMP | Videographer | Reality Show |
| 2025 | WATI | Director of Photography | Short Film |
| 2025 | HORRIZAPHENICS | Cinematographer | Experimental Short |
| 2025 | PETER PAN | Camera Person, Colorist | Short Film |
| 2025 | KOSAN FTV | Documentation Crew | Institutional |
| 2025 | MOKAKU UPI | Creative Media | Institutional |
| 2025 | PINJAM PAPA | Best Boy Lighting | Short Film |
| 2025 | CITRA | Clapper, Script Continuity | Short Film |
| 2025 | RAMPUNG | Assistant Camera | Short Film |
| 2025 | SIWULU BHAAU | Camera Person | Short Film |
| 2024 | BABIAT SITELPANG | Assistant Camera | Short Film |
| 2024 | BOTRAM | Gaffer | Short Film |
| 2024 | KOTA KATA KITA | Actor | Theater |
I believe the camera is not neutral.
Every time you place a lens in front of a human being, you are making a choice about power — who is seen, how they are seen, and what the seeing means. That is not a technical decision. It is a moral one.
I believe in the frame as argument. Composition is not balance for the sake of beauty. It is tension for the sake of truth. The best cinematography makes you feel something you cannot name and cannot look away from.
I believe in proximity. I want the camera close enough to feel the heat of a face. I want the viewer to feel implicated — not safe, not distant, not watching from the outside.
I believe the body tells the story. Hands, shoulders, the angle of a jaw. Before dialogue, before score, there is the body in space, and the light that falls on it.
I believe in the unfinished. I am still learning to see. The work I make now is the work of someone becoming — and I want the becoming to be visible. I don't want polish. I want honesty.
I believe the next frame matters more than the last one.
Contact
The next frame is yours.
Let's Work TogetherBased in Bandung, Indonesia. Available for film, documentary, commercial, and creative collaborations.