The adventure on the making of organic tea’s video profile

This is my adventures on the making of organic tea’s video profile production in Rancabolang’s tea plantation. Actually this production and shooting day of this video was executed on November 14th-15th 2007, and the video was already done since December 2007.

Before I’m narrated and telling you about my fascinating adventure in Rancabolang’s tea plantation, it is preferable for you to get little bit understand about tea. Tea was found unintentionally 5000 years ago in China. Since then tea has been familiar as a fresh natural drink, full of benefits and is placed second after honey as the classic taste of willpower. In 1865 an Englishman, W.E. Gladstone wrote about the characteristic and compliments of tea in a unique and exact way as follow : If you are cold, tea will warm you. If you are too heated, tea will cool you. If you are depressed, tea will cheer you. And if you are excited, tea will calm you. Maybe now you are just realized the benefits of tea which is always we drink almost every morning.

Oke, this is the summary of my trip to the location of video shooting in Rancabolang’s tea plantation. We were drove our car from our office’s headquarter in Setrasari Mall complex after maghrib at 18:10 WIB to down town. Down strive to Prof. Dr. Sutami street aiming to our first destination : Cihampelas. Because some of our crews ( Mas Luky our D.O.P, Mas Khaidir and Ridwan our lighting man ) wants to buy jackets for their safety sake concerning to the freezing and extreme cold weather in Rancabolang. We were passing by Prof. Dr. Sutami street – Sindangsirna street – Setiabudhi street and then Cihampelas street. After establishing the choice we finally drop in to Korek Api Jeans store, Mas Luky, Khaidir and Ridwan jump in to the store selecting plenty of jacket. On our trip to Cihampelas, our driver Mas Nanang told to us that the weather in Ciwidey and mountain range of tea in Rancabolang so cold and freezing moreover at night and dawn up to mid day. So the story from Mas Nanang was frightening our crews that dwelling from Jakarta, and they hurrying to buy jackets because that’s better than dying coldness.

After we were finished about this jackets complication ( he he…he… ). We quickly moving up to Pasteur, striving to Pasteur freeway. We drove our car all along freeway and then exit to Baros 2 freeway’s gate. To avoid the jamming in Kopo street, we decide to take the road track to Cimahi right after we were exit from Baros 2. We getting drove our car on the road track of Cimahi, drove along Jln. Raya Nanjung ( Cibodas ) penetrated to Soreang, passing by the Jalak Harupat stadium and continuous straight to Ciwidey. There were lots of strawberries garden and then we were entering area of luxuriant forest with narrow land track and misty quiet night. Finally we were arriving to the location of Rancabolang’s tea plantation at 22:25 WIB. Oh my God, the weather and the air was so cold. That was freezing me to the bones, it was like in Siberia. To be honest we can not take the shower at night because ….Bbbrrrrggrr….grrrr! so maybe we can take the shower in daylight. But unfortunately the water was kept same cold in daylight. What…! Oh my God! I think we were caught suffering for our physical treatment. Ha ha…ha..ha….

Oke deh, lupakan aja penderitaan kami dalam hal mandi-mandi, airnya berlimpah tapi dinginnya itu yang minta ampun. Tapi menurutku keseruan dan keindahan alam pegunungan Rancabolang yang diselimuti oleh kebun teh ini jauh lebih berarti daripada penderitaan akan dinginnya air. Sejauh mataku memandang pegunungan itu seolah-olah dibentangi karpet tebal berwarna hijau. Keesokan paginya kami langsung beraksi. Pengambilan gambar di lokasi Rancabolang ini harus selesai dalam 2 hari.

Pagi itu pengambilan gambar dimulai dengan pemetikan, PT. Perkebunan Nusantara VIII menyediakan puluhan pemetik yang hari itu bisa kami jadikan talent. Pemetikan adalah merupakan kegiatan pengambilan hasil, berupa pucuk teh yang memenuhi syarat olah. Pengambilan gambar pada pagi itu sedikit terganggu oleh cuaca yang kurang bersahabat, pada pukul 09:30 WIB sampai 10:00 WIB kabut turun menyelimuti perkebunan. Dan sialnya setelah kabut menghilang giliran hujan yang turun, meski hanya gerimis tapi tetap saja menghambat. Dari scene pemetikan ini kami harus menampilkan visual secara keseluruhan mengenai teknis pemetikan dan kriteria pucuk teh syarat olah yang mana sama dengan pemetikan di kebun non organik, tetapi Sarana pemetikan yang digunakan untuk kebun teh organik harus tersendiri atau tidak digunakan untuk sarana pemetikan teh non organik.

Setelah pemetikan selesai kemudian beralih ke transportasi pengangkutan pucuk teh organik menggunakan truk tersendiri atau terpisah dengan truk pengangkut pucuk teh non organik. Tapi sebelum pucuk teh diangkut, pucuk teh tersebut ditimbang terlebih dahulu. Lalu pucuk teh tersebut diangkut dan di bawa ke pabrik pengolahannya yang letaknya juga di perkebunan Rancabolang tersebut. Setelah pucuk-pucuk teh tersebut tiba di pabrik, maka dimulailah proses pengolahan. Pengambilan gambar terus berlangsung, dan kami harus memindahkan dan mengangkut peralatan keperluan shooting dari perkebunan ke pabrik. Kemudian memulai pengambilan gambar proses pengolahan teh organik, yang mana pada dasarnya sama dengan proses pengolahan teh non-organik, tahapan prosesnya terdiri dari : Penerimaan Bahan Baku Pucuk, Pembeberan, Pelayuan, Turun Layu, Penggilingan, Oksidasi Enzimatis, Pengeringan, Sortasi, Pengepakan, Penyimpanan Teh Jadi dan Pengiriman ke pabrik IHT di Cibiru untuk dikemas dalam kemasan yang siap dipasarkan. Begitulah garis besar dari tahapan proses produksi video profile teh organik PT. Perkebunan Nusantara VIII yang kemarin aku lakukan. Tapi untuk implementasi dan eksekusi pembuatannya sangat melelahkan. Tapi sebaiknya and melihat video jadinya aja deh. Video ini dibuat dalam dua versi : bahasa Indonesia dan bahasa Inggris.