In this month's Esquire Philippines feature on What I've Learned, the veteran filmmaker imparts the wealth of wisdom he learned through years of working in the entertainment industry.
Category
✨
PeopleTranscript
00:00Keep an eye and ear open to watching and looking at these films
00:03because it's really worth keeping that alive,
00:08keeping those voices and identities alive.
00:30I started out actually in advertising, my first job out of college.
00:40Nung nasa high school pa ako, I was doing PA work for summer,
00:45parang mga summer work with my mother sa Awitang Kita, the TV show.
00:51Mostly it was PA work and editing, doing, you know, helping out sa continuity
00:57and that sort of thing, it's production staff work.
01:00After college, I wasn't sure pa, I thought I was going to be a lawyer in fact,
01:04pero I worked in an advertising agency.
01:07Nasa accounting pa ako noon, I mean it was really basic.
01:10Then I realized na people were running around, yung mga production people in the agency,
01:15they were really stressed and all of that, magulo, running all over the place,
01:21pero they were having a lot of fun, it seemed to me.
01:23That went on for, I was there for about, I think, I can't remember,
01:26it was one or two years, and then I decided, at some point I decided,
01:30because nga nakikita ko parang it seemed like the production people were having a lot of fun,
01:34parang I'd like to try that.
01:35So I entered, I applied to several film schools, I entered NYU,
01:40the Grad Film and TV Institute in New York, YMTISH School of the Arts,
01:46and so I was there.
01:48The first semester, I thought I would be a screenwriter,
01:51I realized I wasn't really, I realized that I enjoyed the directing more.
01:56Parang nalulungkot ako sa writing, and it was stressful,
02:00in fact it was more stressful for me to face a blank page,
02:03and kind of like, you know, the writing habit and all of that,
02:07I just wasn't into that.
02:09I kind of like working with other people.
02:14By 87, late 87, I did my first film, Misis Mo, Misis Ko.
02:19That was a co-production between Viva and my mother.
02:23I learned a lot there, I enjoyed that experience a lot,
02:26and then of course the second film.
02:29The hardest thing I'd say is getting the, after the first film,
02:32is getting the, they call the sophomore jinx,
02:35getting that second film going is really a tough one.
02:37So it took a while for me, three years,
02:39and then, yung nga, it was Hiyintayin Kitisalang,
02:41which was an adaptation of Wuthering Heights.
02:44It was just, I just had the burning passion for that story and to tell that story,
02:48and I think that that communicated to everybody, the actors.
02:53They picked it up, and then also everybody, the cinematographer,
02:56Romy Vitug shot that, and the production design.
03:00It was just really dramatically lighted,
03:02and we were really working meticulously on the composition of every shot.
03:10But, you know, it was, there was discipline in that film,
03:15it was really, the more discipline there was in there,
03:22the more lumalabas yung wildness and uncontrolled passion of the characters.
03:29So, and I felt that, that communicated to the production,
03:35and I think the audience picked it up and connected with it.
03:41Locally, I think it would be Lino Broca.
03:43His work was always, you know, it reflected the passions of his characters.
03:48So, and, you know, they would really struggle to get their goals,
03:55and basically, you get the feel of the overall sweep of the story that way.
03:59So, I think the dramatic tension and the passion of the characters,
04:03that was, they were active characters.
04:06They were not static characters, people walking around the city
04:09waiting for things to happen to them.
04:11Parang kawawa naman, may, parang victim, victim.
04:13No, his characters were not playing victims.
04:16They would go and get what they wanted.
04:18Talagang his connection with his material, with his characters,
04:22yung passion niya was coming through.
04:24So, I thought, that's what interested me in it,
04:27and that's what got me interested in those stories,
04:29in those people that I would see in his films.
04:31That was one of the things I learned,
04:35is that we're going to make a story, whatever it is.
04:38And it's not necessarily about Class C, D, or A, B, C, or whatever.
04:43You can do anything, pero the thing is, make sure lang,
04:46you're connected with your material.
04:49You are passionate about your material.
04:51It's a story that you have to tell.
04:53It's a story that you're obsessed with, or that you have to,
04:56that you will die if you don't tell it,
04:59because that will carry through with everybody in the production,
05:02and the audience, most likely, will pick it up and connect with it,
05:06because it taps something in their own lives, too.
05:11For me, my hope is not just to help sharpen, elevate their materials
05:18into suitable form that will keep their vision,
05:21and still keep the edge in those stories,
05:24but also to drive home some basic, fundamental principles
05:30in screenwriting, directing,
05:32and also that will translate into the films themselves,
05:35para, you know, without losing the personal.
05:39To professionalize, basically, my hope lang is,
05:45it will contribute to helping them develop the professional habits,
05:50the good, best practices for screenwriting and for directing,
05:56as well as sharpening their art and craft in those fields.
06:04So, yeah, those are my hopes, and those are my goals.
06:11She was very firm on professionalism.
06:15As a producer, you're demanding a lot,
06:17but you're demanding a lot from your production people
06:22and from your creative team,
06:24but she would also demand a lot of herself
06:26in providing the proper working conditions for everybody.
06:33Actually, as far as the films themselves,
06:36she would get the best people in the departments,
06:38in the creative team, the cinematographer.
06:41We were working a lot with Romy Vitug,
06:44and then music, we were working a lot with Ryan Kabyab,
06:48and production designers.
06:50And, of course, it's that high standard
06:53of making sure the quality of the work is good on every department.
06:58My mother was really interested in all of that.
07:00I mean, as I was.
07:02But she was very strict on everybody,
07:05but she was demanding of herself as well
07:08in getting the best working conditions,
07:10the best lodging, the best food,
07:11the best creative standards, technical and artistic standards.
07:18So she would also get people that would deliver that.
07:24I think it was the professionalism.
07:26It was a push to give the best of ourselves to the project.
07:32I also picked that up from her.
07:34Basically, do things that you're passionate about,
07:36that you're obsessive about.
07:38And it's really a great guide.
07:40It's really a great compass on running one's career,
07:44one's art, one's craft.
07:46It's really do something,
07:48only the stuff that you're really passionate about.
07:53Keep an eye and ear open to watching and looking at these films
07:56because it's really worth keeping that alive,
08:01keeping those voices and identities alive.
08:04Because they're the ones that are telling our stories.
08:07Because if that goes,
08:09the ones who will be telling our stories,
08:11if they're interested,
08:12would be people from other countries, other voices.
08:17And it's not going to be from our own culture.
08:20And I think there's just something to be said
08:23for a culture,
08:26a people telling its own stories to its own audience.
08:31Because that's a record of the audience
08:36at the time that that film was made.
08:38Depending on how that film is received,
08:40that's always a record of not only the story itself,
08:45not only of the filmmaker's story itself,
08:47but the way that story was received by the audience,
08:50whether it was a big hit or a flop or something in the middle,
08:55will give us a picture in the future,
08:59will leave a record of what that audience,
09:02what that culture was at that time.
09:06So it is really worth keeping connected with what's coming out.
09:11You don't have to watch everything,
09:14but just when you hear good news about something,
09:16take the effort, take the time, go out there,
09:19watch it in a film festival,
09:20watch it in a regular screening
09:22or wherever it comes out, streaming or wherever.
09:25Just keep in touch with it because you don't know.
09:29Just keep it open because it could touch something in you.
09:33It could touch something,
09:34it could affirm or maybe subvert something that you once believed in,
09:38but now it's a dissenting voice to what you believe in.
09:41So just keep that dialogue between the expressors
09:46and the ones that are the audience,
09:48the people who are telling stories and the ones who are hearing it.