REEL
“Fortune favors the bold.”
We would rarely do retakes because of the animal’s behavior.
I also had enough time in production to get the perfect take,
and enough time in post to edit the perfect sequence.
film. There is hope for genre since it has the potential to
be accessible to the average Filipino, we can use it as a
vehicle to smuggle in important context; we just need to
continue to support it.
How different is Birdshot ( the film) from your
original concept?
You can never match the power of your imagination.
When you dream, everything is perfect, from the locations
to the cinematography, to the performances and timing,
everything works out well when you watch the film in your
head. Upon execution, reality sets in, factors that are out of your
control sets in. You do what you can to minimize the effect of
variance on the result you are aiming for. By the time you get to
post, the film you have is merely a fraction of what was in your
mind. Finally, at the premiere, you find yourself sharing a
compromised version of what was originally in your head,
but now it is too late and it is already being absorbed by
others. The trick here is to dream BIG, be ambitious and
brave, your imagination should scare you. That way even if
you only achieve a fraction of what you set out to do, it will
still be enough to be considered worth watching.
What entertains you, and how, if at all, does it
influence your filmmaking?
Video games. It is a new form of cinema, it is basically
interactive cinema and still relies heavily on visual
storytelling. I was heavily influenced by The Last of Us
and Fallout when I did Birdshot. My next horror film is also
partly influenced by Fatal Frame and Silent Hill. Sometimes
I even use music from video games when I hold workshops
for the actors, or sometimes I would play the music on set
or use them as pegs during offline edit.
Now that your works are viewed and appreciated
around the world, who would you say you make
films for?
My philosophy as a filmmaker is to always try and
reach a wider audience while still making sure that you
say something important. I strive to make films that are
entertaining on the surface, but the layers beneath should
be engaging. I believe that if we can get our message
across to more people, if we can change more hearts and
minds, then maybe we can change the state of things. It is
a delicate balancing act between style and substance that
is definitely hard to master. But I am more than willing to
learn how to balance it, even if I have to spend my whole
life fighting for my convictions.
Your three films have been, to varying degrees,
mystery-thrillers. Why don’t we see more films of
that sort in modern Philippine cinema?
Because studios rarely risk investing on genres other
than romance or comedies. Those two genres have the best
cost to profit ratio. Horror also does well, but the problem
is not a lot of filmmakers are trained to handle genre
other than rom-com, so most attempts at thrillers turn out
cheap or too campy. We have a lot of auteurs, artists and
passionate film workers, but Genre is something that has
its own set of rules—it needs to be studied and mastered in
order to be elevated and effective. Only a few filmmakers
dabble in the craft of genre films.
We need more filmmakers willing to put out good
genre movies if we want to develop the audience’s taste.
I’m very proud that my mystery thriller film Birdshot
was well received by a wide local audience, and my
latest assassin thriller Neomanila was appreciated by the
regular movie-going public, it even won the Audience
prize in Qcinema, something quite rare for such a dark
What keeps you going on difficult shoots?
I remind myself of why I started in the first place.
I remind myself that there are others who only dream
of this and I am very lucky to be where I am, making
the films I want to make. Also I’m bound by legal
contracts to finish the film within a set amount of time
and budget so there’s that.
What’s the best advice you have ever received
(not necessarily film-related)?
Fortune favors the bold.
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