Achieving victory through the unconventional

Tuesday, January 3, 2012

SOMETIMES, it takes a good jolt to get someone to notice something. In this case, it was some “debut project” by some “new director.”

“I think we broke the rules,” the film’s production designer playfully replied to one of the questions, addressing the film’s unconventional take, supposedly within its genre.

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“What rules?” added the film’s director, having everyone laughing at the table.

The film My Paranormal Romance recently bagged a number of awards during the Cinema 2011 Cinema One Originals Film Festival. Being one of two Cebuano-produced entries that made this year’s cut and wowed audiences during their screenings in Manila, the romantic-comedy film directed by Victor Villanueva has won the hearts of critics and consumers alike for its refreshing, entertaining and feel-good storytelling.

“When we were making this film, what I had in mind was that I wanted to make a movie that I myself would enjoy watching, a film that the public would actually enjoy,” shared Victor.

Indeed, My Paranormal Romance as a newcomer in the indie film industry has placed itself in a tricky situation. In a niche where standing out from the common reversely has everyone wading through the familiar waters of the uncommon, the most tempting thing to do—although this is not at all entirely bad in itself—is to stick to a formula.

Simply put, some independent films tend to lean more towards expression a little too much, that they forget to do something at least with the audience: establish a connection.

For the production team behind this film, the goal was pretty simple.

“I was not going into this project thinking, ‘this should be indie’ or ‘this should be mainstream.’ I basically wanted to watch a film I liked,” confirmed Kaloy Uypuanco, the film’s production designer, who was awarded for Best Production Design during the Cinema 2011 Cinema One Originals Film Festival.

The victory was sweeter for the crew when it had to deal with one of the worst floods in the city during their shoot. Their set was flooded to the neck and numerous props, costumes, camera equipment and even cars were submerged and heavily damaged.

“Neighbors were telling us to take caution as the place was known for really bad floods. We checked the venue and saw an empty nine-foot-deep swimming pool and thought to ourselves, ‘nah, if the rains do come, the pool will take care of all that water.’

Boy, we were wrong,” recalled RJ Aquino, the film’s editor.

This was one of the major obstacles the movie had to overcome. The project had come to a halt for at least a month, with the production crew cleaning up and restoring what was left of the devastated set. Post-production had to wait a little longer, and the deadline for the film’s submission was indeed getting closer by the minute.

“Literally—no sleep. I was at the office editing the project 24/7,” RJ shared. “Everything was running late and other departments like sound or visual couldn’t really move unless we had the project locked in. We seemed to be at a stalemate,” he added.

With two to three weeks left for post-production, the team finished in a flurry. RJ admitted to not having high hopes for their entry in the film fest.

“I wasn’t thinking of winning. But then I remember, I was about to place an order at a fastfood that night when someone called me up on my cellphone, screaming that I had won.”

RJ won the Best Editing award for his work on the film. Also winning was Victor, going home with a Special Citation for Directing. Another three members were nominated as well for their excellent work: Sun.Star Cebu editor Publio Briones III for Best Actor; Phoebe Kaye Fernandez for Best Actress and Jay Young for Best Musical Score.

“I felt really happy when I won, and when the jury announced that I got the award ‘for creating an outstanding debut film that delights and impresses with its imaginative innovation and enrichment of the genre of comedy and its deft orchestration of the different elements of cinema.’ I was stunned, frozen and was like telling myself ‘wow, my talent got recognized.’ It was sort of some validation that I can direct.”

“And because of the nerves, I never really got to deliver a good speech.”

So is the film really that good? You might want to judge it for yourselves. There will be a special screening of the film here in Cebu City in February, along with other Cinema One Original films like Di Ingon Nato and Ang Damgo ni Eleuteria. Check out facebook.com/myparanormalromance for updates.