Jurnal Ilmiah Lingua Idea
Vol 17 No 1 (2026): June 2026

AI as a Creative Tool in Documentary Directing “Yogyakarta Hari Ini” Developing a Prototype in the Digital Landscape Era

Diyah Verakandhi (Institut Seni Indonesia Yogyakarta, Indonesia)
Zahrina Zatadini (Institut Seni Indonesia Yogyakarta, Indonesia)
Gregorius Arya Dhipayana (Institut Seni Indonesia Yogyakarta, Indonesia)



Article Info

Publish Date
30 Jun 2026

Abstract

This research adopts a Practice-Led Research method by involving twenty-eight students to record fragments of urban reality in Yogyakarta from their respective perspectives. The heterogeneous collection of videos is briefly described to map the diversity of visual representations, and subsequently examined through a documentary film entitled “Yogyakarta Hari Ini.” Specifically, this study examines how ChatGPT was employed as a narrative structuring tool: textual descriptions of the 28 footage clips were submitted to the model in randomized order, and the AI-generated sequence recommendations were subsequently evaluated and refined by the director during the editing phase. The findings demonstrate that AI effectively accelerated the categorization and narrative structuring of heterogeneous footage, while also revealing clear limitations in aesthetic judgment, atmospheric continuity, and socio-cultural sensitivity or areas that required consistent human intervention and correction. The study confirms that AI can serve as a creative tool in transforming raw visual data into a coherent narrative, functioning as a “dramaturgical assistant” during the directing phase. However, the director’s aesthetic judgment remained indispensable: approximately one-third of the AI-generated sequence recommendations required revision due to mechanical transitions and disregard for atmospheric continuity. This human-machine collaborative model contributes to the discourse on Indonesian film aesthetics in the digital landscape, offering a replicable prototype for documentary practice confronting heterogeneous visual archives.

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Journal Info

Abbrev

jli

Publisher

Subject

Arts Humanities Languange, Linguistic, Communication & Media

Description

Jurnal Ilmiah Lingua Idea ( ISSN: 2580-1066 (online) - ISSN: 2086-1877 (print)) is a peer-reviewed journal, published by Faculty of Humanities Universitas Jenderal Soedirman Purwokerto. It is an open access journal that can be accessed freely to support a greater knowledege exchange and sharing. ...