Ring of Fire making of, Ep 1: how a small crew made an indie feature film in Indonesia.

There is a version of this story where none of it happens. Michael Kerkering is still burned out from travel filmmaking, Carmela never says the thing she said, and I never answer that first DM. But she did say it. I did answer. And a real indie feature film got made in Ring of Fire, shot in Bali and Java, Indonesia with a skeleton crew, no studio, and no safety net behind it. This is the behind the scenes on how that started.

How Ring of Fire went from a wild idea to a real script.

Michael Kerkering built his name as a travel filmmaker. He was good at it. Then 2022 hit him sideways somewhere in South America. The passion died. He kept shooting but the fire was gone.

His wife Carmela had a simple suggestion. What if the next trip was not just content. What if it was a movie.

That sentence changed everything.

Michael ran with it. The concept was clean: go to an epic location, bring actors, shoot a narrative film the same way you would shoot travel content. Use the environment as a character. Let the real world do the heavy lifting.

They wrote the script together. Then brought in a screenwriter named Ricky to formalize what they had. The story tightened. The vision got specific. And suddenly they had 70 plus scenes spread across 18 plus locations. In a foreign country. With a crew that could fit in a van.

That is either bold or reckless. Probably both.

Casting an indie film off Instagram and Backstage.

Casting for Ring of Fire was not a Hollywood process. There was no casting director with a roster. Michael found Sarah Marie Karstens, who plays Maya, on Instagram. She is a Christian content creator and actress. She fit the role. Done.

Oscar Winter landed the lead role of Nico off Backstage. He was 20 years old. Ring of Fire is his first feature film. First movie, period.

That is not a red flag. That is a deliberate choice. Michael wanted real energy, not polished performance habits. Oscar brought something you cannot manufacture. You will see it on screen.

Why I almost said no to being DP on this film.

Michael reached out to me about shooting Ring of Fire and my first reaction was honest. I thought the man was out of his mind.

I am Dee Mount. Former NFL linebacker, now working as a director of photography out of Tampa, Florida. I have been on sets. I know what it costs to execute a proper film, location to location, scene to scene. When someone describes 70 plus scenes across Indonesia on a tight budget with a first-time lead actor, the logical response is skepticism.

Michael kept coming back. He had answers. He had a plan for every concern I raised. After months of conversation I understood what he was actually building. This was not chaotic. It was calculated risk. There is a difference.

I signed on as DP. No regrets.

The reality of filming in Bali and Java, Indonesia.

The core crew flew into Bali first. Then came the six-hour road trip to Java. Destination: Bromo National Park.

If you have never seen Bromo, you do not understand what we were walking into. It is a live volcano sitting inside a massive caldera surrounded by a sea of volcanic sand. The landscape looks built for film. It is not a backdrop. It is a presence.

Week one was a scouting mission. No rolling narrative scenes. Just finding what was real and what would actually work when cameras were rolling for real.

We found a river quarry. We found a waterfall. We found angles that made us understand why Michael chose Indonesia for this story. The country handed us production value that money alone cannot replicate.

Indonesia also handed us chaos. Roads are different. Logistics are different. Everything requires adaptation and improvisation. Carmela crashed the car mirror within hours of arriving in Java. That set the tone. Indonesia was going to test us and the crew was going to respond.

Shooting the Bromo volcano sunrise on the RED Gemini.

The Bromo sunrise is not optional. Every filmmaker who goes there shoots it. The question is whether you do it right.

We used the RED Gemini. That camera handles low light the way it needs to for pre-dawn volcanic landscapes. The dynamic range at sunrise on Bromo is aggressive. Deep shadow in the caldera, blinding light cresting the rim. You need a camera that can hold both ends without clipping out.

Brian, our AC and drone pilot, was in the air pulling aerials while I worked ground angles. The combination of altitude footage and close ground work gave us material that would have cost ten times more to recreate anywhere else.

That morning was not just about footage. It proved the concept. Everyone on crew felt it. This film was going to work.

What the first week in Indonesia actually proved.

By the end of week one, the scouting mission had done more than find locations. It built a crew.

You learn a lot about people when the plan breaks and you are in a foreign country figuring it out on the fly. Nobody quit. Nobody panicked. Everyone adapted.

The river quarry was locked. The waterfall was locked. Bromo was locked. Eighteen plus locations spread across Bali and Java, each one scouted with real eyes, real light, real problems identified and solved before principal photography.

The logistics of indie filmmaking across Indonesia are not small. Language, local crews, road conditions, permits, timing everything around weather and natural light. The first week absorbed all of that friction and the team came out the other side confident.

That is the only foundation worth building on. Confidence earned through real conditions, not projected from a production office.

From Java, we headed back to Bali. That became home base for the next month of production on Ring of Fire.

Watch what happens next in Ring of Fire making of Episode 2 and Episode 3.

The full making of documentary series lives on MCK PICTURES on YouTube. Go watch it.

Questions people ask about Ring of Fire.

Where was Ring of Fire filmed?
Across Bali and Java, Indonesia. Seventy plus scenes over 18 plus locations, including Bromo National Park, a river quarry, and a waterfall, each one scouted before principal photography.

Who directed Ring of Fire?
Michael Kerkering and Carmela Sotes Kerkering wrote and directed it, with screenwriter Ricky formalizing the script. I served as director of photography.

What camera was it shot on?
The Bromo sunrise went on the RED Gemini. Low light performance and dynamic range that holds deep caldera shadow and blinding rim light in the same frame.

Who stars in it?
Oscar Winter as Nico, cast off Backstage at 20, in his first feature. Sarah Marie Karstens as Maya, found on Instagram.

Final thought.

What Michael and Carmela attempted with Ring of Fire is exactly the kind of move most filmmakers talk about and never execute. Two people with a vision, a real crew, a real cast, real locations, and real stakes.

Indie filmmaking in Indonesia is not a vacation. It is a test. This crew passed week one.

Stay Resilient.

More from this series.

Episode 2: what filming in Bali really shows.
Episode 3: the whole crew arrives and everything changes.
Every episode: the full Making Of playlist on YouTube.
The production story: the Ring of Fire case study.