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When Thomas Arie Setiawan was still living in Yogyakarta, he regularly documented the folk festivals and art events in the city by blogging about them, with pictures and videos to boot.

When he moved to Jakarta earlier this year, he was sure that he wanted to continue his hobby of documenting his experiences.

His passion was further strengthened when he reunited with his high school friend, Teguh Dwi Hartono, who moved to the capital six years ago to work for a company there.

“Since high school, we had always liked photography,” Thomas said. “So right after we got back in touch, we agreed to vlog [video blog] together.”

Although videography was just a hobby for them, the duo wanted a well-organized gallery to showcase their work.

In February, Thomas and Teguh signed up for a new domain called Dadio.tv.

Dadio is a Javanese word that means “to be.”

The duo agreed to cover topics such as social activities and culture, aiming to give a glimpse of what daily life is like in Jakarta and other parts of Indonesia.

They take turns recording and hosting videos.

Thomas is in charge of coming up with ideas for subjects and making storyboards, scripts and narration. Teguh, meanwhile, is responsible for editing and posting the videos online.

Both shoulder the production costs, such as equipment and travel expenses.

With handycams in hand, they go around the city looking for interesting things and people to capture on film.

To reach a wider audience, Thomas speaks English in the videos, although some interviews are also done in Bahasa.

As a result, Dadio.tv has an interesting mix of video clips classified under four channels: This Is Indonesia, Food and Drink, Health and Technology.

One of the videos — which they call episodes — filed under This Is Indonesia documents the laborious process of preparing and making kerak telor , a traditional Batavian omelette.

The video, 2 minutes and 31 seconds in length, has Thomas standing in front of a street vendor as Teguh shoots from different angles.

Later, background music — “Disini Aje” (“Just Stay Here”) by Benyamin S. and Ida Royani — is mixed in.

One memorable featurette was set in a fish market in Pasar Minggu. “We wanted to capture the fish as they were delivered to the market and how they were distributed,” Thomas said.

“We started shooting at 10 p.m. and finished at dawn. It was exhausting, but fun.”

To keep a steady stream of videos coming, Thomas and Teguh usually cover events in Jakarta — from concerts to art shows.

To mix things up, they also try to go to places they think are unusual.

“Once, we made a video about electric trains and another about Setu Babakan [heritage village in South Jakarta],” Thomas said.

“We have a lot of ideas. We just have to find the time to execute them.”

They try to keep most of their videos to a maximum of five minutes, considering the generally slow Internet connection in Indonesia, making it difficult to stream or upload. But they do make exceptions.

“We once met [Golkar Party chairman and tycoon] Aburizal Bakrie and interviewed him,” Thomas said.

“So you may find that certain videos are longer than others.”

Although Dadio.tv is fairly new, the site has garnered more than a thousand views. The site’s creators are now working on making their videos downloadable via mobile phones and transferrable via bluetooth to boost viewership.

A feature on the Web site allows users to share or embed the episodes on their own online pages. “If we don’t want people stealing our videos, we won’t publish them,” Thomas said.

The main challenge for the two is how they can keep on producing new videos despite scheduling constraints.

Thomas said they sometimes had to shoot episodes separately because they could not find common time due to other commitments.

Still, the two friends remain dedicated to giving online audiences a multimedia experience of Indonesia — and they have been rewarded with positive feedback.

“Somebody named Nadya left a comment on the site saying that she grew up in Pasar Minggu but never knew about the fish market in her neighborhood,” Thomas said.

“Such comments assure us that we’re on the right track.”