Filming in Bali: what Ring of Fire making of Episode 2 really shows.

Episode 2 of the Ring of Fire making-of series drops you right into the deep end. If you watched Ring of Fire making of Episode 1 and thought Java looked intense, Bali is a different animal entirely. Same production. Completely different energy. And we had to be ready for both at the same time.

This is behind the scenes Bali filmmaking with no filter. No glamour reel. Just the real weight of what it takes when you decide to make a Hollywood styled feature in a foreign country with a skeleton crew and no safety net underneath you.

From Java scouting to Bali: the energy shift is real.

We spent a week in Java. Scouting. Getting our heads around what this production was going to be. Java is raw and vast. It hits different.

Then we landed in Bali.

Bali is beautiful in a way that almost works against you. Every corner looks like a movie set already. The light is soft in the mornings. The culture is alive in every doorway and temple gate. You can see why people fall in love with this island and never leave.

But we weren't tourists. We were six people with a film to make.

That first week in Bali was still intimate. The full cast hadn't arrived yet. It was just the core crew getting our bearings, locking locations, and figuring out exactly how we were going to pull this off. That quiet before the storm is both a gift and a pressure cooker.

The impossible dual role: scouting while shooting.

Here is where it gets real for any indie filmmakers thinking about Bali as a production location.

We did not have the luxury of a full pre-production period followed by a clean principal photography start. We had to scout locations AND start shooting scenes with our lead characters Oscar and Sarah simultaneously. That is not a small ask.

Think about what that means operationally. Michael Kerkering is directing scenes while mentally cataloging whether a location 20 minutes away is going to work for a script page three days from now. Every decision is happening in real time. There is no buffer.

For small crew feature film production, this is actually the norm. You adapt or you fall behind. We adapted.

Oscar and Sarah had the longest commitment on this project. Eight weeks total. Most of the cast came in for six weeks or less. Those two were there from the start, building chemistry, building trust, finding their characters in real locations. That matters. You cannot manufacture that kind of grounded performance in a studio. You earn it by being there.

No permits. No shutdowns. Just Bali being Bali.

This is the part people outside of indie production do not fully understand.

We could not shut down locations. We did not have the budget or the infrastructure to clear a beach or block off a street. Tourists walk through your frame. Locals go about their day. A scooter cuts through your shot. That is the reality.

Behind the scenes Bali filmmaking means working around the island, not over it. You find the angle that eliminates the foot traffic. You wait for the crowd to thin. You shoot fast and you move. Your blocking has to account for variables that nobody wrote into the script.

For an indie feature trying to look like it costs four times its budget, this is where the DP earns his keep. Every setup has to be intentional. Every frame has to be disciplined. You do not get to rely on controlled environments. You learn to use the chaos as texture instead.

Bali gave us that texture in abundance. We just had to know how to use it.

Carmela Sotes Kerkering: the operational backbone.

I want to be direct about something.

Everything that ran smoothly on this production ran through Carmela. Co-writer, co-director, and the person holding the operational reality of this film together with both hands. When you are a small crew feature film production in a foreign country, you need someone who never loses the thread. Carmela was that person.

Michael was focused on the work on the ground, the scenes, the performances, the vision. That only works because Carmela had eyes on everything else. The logistics. The coordination. The ten things that had to happen before tomorrow's shoot could even start. That division of trust is what allowed the production to function.

Writers often talk about the producing role as unglamorous. They are right. It is also indispensable. On an indie like this, you feel every gap in your team immediately. We had no gaps on the producing side.

The weight beneath the beauty.

Here is what Episode 2 captures that I think is hard to put into words.

Bali is genuinely one of the most beautiful places on earth. That is not marketing. That is just true. The light, the landscape, the people, the culture. It wraps around you.

And underneath that beauty, we were carrying the full weight of what we were trying to accomplish. A real movie. A feature with a real budget and no studio behind it. A story that deserved to be told the right way. Six people doing the work of twenty.

That tension between where you are and what you are trying to do is the honest story of this production. Episode 2 lives in that tension. You can see it in how people move on set. You can see it in the quick decisions and the fast pivots. Nobody is relaxed. Everyone is committed.

By the end of that first week, we had footage. We had chemistry between the leads. We were headed into the full production phase with the complete cast incoming. Progress was real.

But the pressure was also real. And we were only getting started.

What this episode means for indie filmmakers eyeing Bali.

If you are a filmmaker seriously looking at Bali as a production location, this episode is required watching. Watch Episode 2 here, and subscribe to MCK PICTURES on YouTube for the rest of the series.

You will see what the location actually gives you and what it asks you to give back. You will see what a small, disciplined, committed crew looks like under genuine pressure. You will see Michael and Carmela leading from the front while also figuring it out in real time.

Filming in Bali as an indie production is not a shortcut to a cool-looking film. It is a commitment. The island rewards serious work. It exposes anything less.

Episode 3 takes the pressure up another level. More cast. More scenes. More decisions with no margin for error. Catch that here: Ring of Fire making of Episode 3.

Questions people ask about filming in Bali.

Can you film in Bali without shutting down locations?
Yes, but you work around the island, not over it. Find the angle that kills the foot traffic, wait for the crowd to thin, shoot fast, and move. Your blocking has to absorb what nobody wrote into the script.

How big was the crew?
Six people during this stretch, doing the work of twenty. The full cast came later.

How long were the leads committed?
Oscar and Sarah did eight weeks total, the longest on the project. Most of the cast came in for six weeks or less.

Who held the operation together?
Carmela Sotes Kerkering. Co-writer, co-director, and the person who never lost the thread while Michael directed the work on the ground.

Stay Resilient.

Dee Mount is the Director of Photography on Ring of Fire, an indie feature filmed in Bali and Java, Indonesia. Written and directed by Michael Kerkering and Carmela Sotes Kerkering.

More from this series.

Episode 1: how a small crew made an indie feature in Indonesia.
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.