Documentary Video Production: Creative Work Entitled “PlengRuaLaempho Songkhla”

Abstract

PlengRuaLaempho Songkhla was registered as Thailand’s intangible cultural heritage at a national level under the domain of local media and performing arts in 2013. The song originated in ChakPhra Festival which was celebrated over 200 years ago. A boat-singing activity is annually organized at the end of Buddhist Lent, a special occasion in which “LakPhra” or “ChakPhra” (hauling the Buddha image processions) is performed across the river. Hauled from temples, all processions finally assemble at Ban Laem Pho, Bang Klam District, Songkhla Province. Those paddling the boats will sing in order to combat tiredness and create unity and alacrity. They also sing the boat songs on shore with paddles in their hands (at the assembly point on Laem Pho Beach). Nevertheless, the decline in popularity of the Laem Pho boat songs and ChakPhra Festival across Songkhla Lake Basin is found these days due to the development of land transportation routes, insufficient conservation, and younger generation’s inadequate realization. Without a serious conservation, these local songs could be in “crisis” and prone to be extinct.

This video work “PlengRuaLaempho Songkhla” is a creative work in the form of visual arts in the field of animation production (films or videos) under the project of assembling and restoring intangible cultural heritage of the country supported by Department of Cultural Promotion, Thailand’s Ministry of Culture. It has been filmed and produced to be used in ChakPhra Festival from 2017 to 2018. With 14.45 minutes range, this work is considered to be perfect in terms of pictures and sounds appropriate to be used as a learning material and model. Its contents reflect all dimensions of PlengRuaLeampho, such as their history, their importance, objectives of singing, singing occasions, their patterns, their elements, singers and their chorus, performers’ dressing, their prosody, their lyrics, singing and performing the songs, using the songs as local media, reflection of social angles in the songs, and ways for conserving them.

The creator of the work completely produced it himself: being a document script writer, director of photography, production controller, and video sequence editor. He has also worked with professional photographers in Bangkok. The video sequence was edited in a famous studio in Thailand. The work was produced in the form of DVD and widely disseminated to cultural departments at local and national levels, local administrative organizations, educational institutions, temples, and communities and people owning the heritage. Apart from this, the work has also been publicized using online media, such as websites and YouTube (i.e., https://youtu.be/VXG_DMB7ArU).