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Table of Contents Announcements (17) Film Critique
Reel Time
August 2013 Newsletter
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Kick-Ass 2
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R.I.P.D
Interview 23
Man on the Street
Guest Article 25
Misplaced Body Parts
Externals News
Screenings (28)
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Let Me Tell You A Story
Credits
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Making It Happen
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IsaPe Isapelikul: Editing
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Blowout: LFC’s Team Building Session
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Kinetic Aesthetic: Art that Moves LFC Reel Time August 2013
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Let Me Tell You
A STORY BY AZI DE LA PAZ
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NEWS
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t’s difficult to talk about writing. It’s that it was important for any story not to easy to think that you’ll just be pulling have a happy ending, but the right ending. out vague and pretentious advice from thin air then presenting it to people like there’s This comes with learning how to deal with only one way of expressing themselves .It’s an audience who wants to be affected and not easy to think that you’ll just be pulling out just entertained. Films in Philippine cinema vague and pretentious advice from thin also have to reflect Filipino values like family, air then presenting it to people like there’s and love in a context that doesn’t hurt famonly one way of exily. Even as a writer pressing themselves. who might not have In her lecture, she “A film is a series of moving personal experiences shared the insights pictures that need to with issues revolving she has gained from move people.” around those values, her experiences she talked about the while being a scriptVanessa Valdez need for researching writer for the movies and being able to reOne More Chance late to someone going and The Mistress. through those situations – and also realizing that people have the ability to conquer these Instead of delving into more detailed as- problems. pects of scriptwriting, she decided to talk about what she thought was an important She ended the class with summarizing the skill anyone needed to write scripts – sto- five Ps that should be present in any story – rytelling. We got to watch the first few the Protagonist, the Problem, the Premise, scenes of the Mistress and see how much the Plot, and the Power behind the story bethought was given into the details of the cause she thinks that the best way to teach movie. With that example, she stressed people is through stories.
PHOTOS BY AYEEM IGASAN & WILVER CHUA
MAKING IT HAPPEN BY KATHLEEN FERRER
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n the first Monday of August, we had the 3rd IsaPelikula talk on Production and Set Design led by a more than credible and incredibly engaging speaker, Sir Ayo Supangco. He made everything easy to understand, even for those with no background in production management or design. He spoke about “intelligent production design”, that it was more than just props – it was about building a world and creating a reality for the project. He had three main topics: the production designer, design principles, and production management. A production designer, he explained, was the brains behind the operation and not the laborer. With this in mind, he also said that the prod designer wasn’t just an artist; she also had to oversee the entire operation. She was responsible for managing the money and for making sure that everything had been taken care of after the project was over. Next, he tackled the generals of production design: things like unity, contrast, the color wheel, materi6
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PHOTOS BY BEA QUE & WILVER CHUA
Of course, these were all done in detail, all told with bits of interesting trivia, some coming with funny stories. Towards the end, the speaker showed us a couple of short clips to illustrate what he was talking about in terms of design, how everything had a purpose. The only regrettable thing about the talk was that it was cut short because another class had to use the room after LFC.
als, and motif to mention a few. Lastly, he discussed the responsibilities of being in production management, which, to state it bluntly, is to take care of and properly allocate money. The entire production relies heavily on this person as they are the “lifeblood� of the project.
Regardless, all the congratulations to project heads Arianna Mercado and Nikki Vesagas for another job well done; it was an informative and highly interesting talk. Things to take home: 1.) Everything must serve a purpose, 2.) The artist is also an economist, and 3.) Always create your world based on the human experience. LFC Reel Time August 2013
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PHOTOS BY BETSY NACIONALES 8
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IsaPelikula: Editing BY ANDRE GUEVARRA
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Editing is powerful and is crucial to storytelling.” That was one of the points discussed in the Loyola Film Circle-organized event, titled “IsaPelikula 5: Editing”, August 16. This event, the 5th of a series of talks about film making, focuses on editing and refining videos. IsaPelikula 5 was held in Bellarmine Hall from 4:30 to 6:00. Although fairly secluded from the rest of the campus, the venue still managed to attract a lot of people and, subsequently, almost all of the seats were occupied. It was headed by two veteran film editors, namely Steve Vesagas and Paolo Morato. Steve Vesagas works as a producer for Underground Logic, a company that handles post production, creative design and visual effects. Paolo Morato works as a post-producer for the same company. Both are veterans in ad production for Philippine TV networks. In starting the talk, Steve started with pointing out how important editing is in
film creation. “Editing reflects storytelling,” he points out as he then began to enumerate the steps of video editing and construction. After he was done, he gave the floor to Paolo, who then introduced “online editing”, a term used to describe post-production editing. He went through with the examples of online editing as well as the formats it is used for and the devices that use it. Throughout the presentation, both speakers used a number of various videos that caught the audience’s attention as it exemplified what the speakers were talking about. The editing process of “Kaleidoscope”, a well-known song with a memorable music video, was shown among others. As usual, they ended their talk by opening the floor for anyone who asked questions. It wasn’t hard to see that the audience responded positively to the speakers. Most were attentive and everyone listened well to the speakers. Also, people were clearly impressed with the speakers’ and their works. Lastly, with their jokes and clever lines, the speakers made sure that the audience enjoyed their presentation. Well, I did, at least. Along with the four other talks that had transpired before it, IsaPelikula 5 can easily be called a success. Already the 5th in the series, this talk really captured the essence of video editing. All-in-all I really did convince myself that I had fun during the talk, and that this event was a damn good way of spending my Friday. LFC Reel Time August 2013
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Blowout: LFC's Team Building Session BY ROBERT BRYAN CUARTERO
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n August 10, the Loyola Film Circle (LFC) had its Team Building Session from 9am to 11vam at the Colayco Pavilion. The theme of the event was a children's birthday party, hence the name "Blowout" was used as the event name. Before the event proper took place, the members registered and wrote birthday wishes for LFC at the event poster. The event began with the
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PHOTOS BY GEL TURIANO AND OLIVIA TE
LFC members introducing themselves and the socializing continued through an ice-breaking activity of human bingo. The game was like a typical human bingo only that the boxes were mostly filled with movie related descriptions (ex. has seen at least one Cinemalaya film, has not watched any High School Musical films, etc.) and each member could only sign the cards of another member twice. After twenty minutes, most of the members managed to complete their bingo cards. The second activity was a game of charades where the members were divided into five groups. Each group was given a mainstream film in which they could either re-enact the film or act out the title. The members had a break and ate turon before the third game ensued.� The third and last activity was a series of five games in which each of the five groups during the second activity was further divided into two, and the newly formed teams competed with their former teammates, Minute to Win It style. The stations varied from physical games to mental ones, all requiring strategic moves. There was the game of blowing the ping pong ball through all seven cups of water. The ball should not fall off a cup and the players were not allowed to skip a cup. Another station tested the members’ knowledge of film quotes through a game of completing the PHOTOS BY SARAH ARROJADO 12
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quote. A card throwing game was featured in one of the stations, in which each team will have a representative to throw playing cards to a certain area. Team effort was required in another game wherein each team should let a hula hoop travel within the circle formed by the members without breaking the ring. The members’ knowledge of LFC was also put to the test when a
station made them identify the officers by showing them their pictures. Because of the hard work of LFC's Human Resources (HR) Department and the volunteers, the event is overall a success. Besides giving the chance for LFC members to know each other, the event has also fostered unity, sportsmanship and camaraderie among members.
Kinetic Aesthetic: Art that Moves BY BETINA SANTOS
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n the late afternoon of August 16, 2013, aspiring artists, and creative motivation seekers and the like came together at CTC 105 for Loyola Film Circle’s Kinetic Aesthetic, a design talk on illustrations and film, with guest speakers Kitkat Pecson and JP Cuison. Kinetic Aesthetic, according to Kitkat Pecson, means-- and is a talk on-- “art that moves”. The speakers gave tips on how to present one’s work, the process of formulating a concept or idea one wants his art to convey, and more. Both speakers also took time to share their personal approaches on how to come up with greatness, and allowed us to have a peek at their portfolios. Kitkat Pecson, an Atenean graduate, was the first speaker. She was able to share her views on artists today, and em-
phasized the importance of never limiting one’s self to one medium of expressing. “We have a lifetime to find our style and voice, anyway. There is no need to rush,” she says. Kitkat is an example of a person who has grown with her passions. From what she has shared with us, it is clear that she has always been in love with illustration, and continues to do so, as she works as a designer at Plus63. She is a col-
PHOTOS BY ANDREA BELDUA AND SARAH ARROJADO LFC Reel Time August 2013
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orful and lively woman, whose artworks truly had us at repetitive oohs and ahhs. Through Kitkat, we were able to see how far our passions can take us. JP Cuison, a graduate from UP, followed. JP is an Associate Creative Director at PublicisJimenezbasic, an advertising agency. He was able to share some of his projects with us, such as TV commercials his team created for Lucky Me and Crisp n Juicy, as well as the promotional posters that were being shared online. Laughs filled the room when he decided to share some of his team’s unapproved posters and commercials. JP shared that it is important to infuse a part of yourself into everything you do -- in his case, he enjoys delivering the purpose of the ads through humor. “It 16
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is better to be daring, than to go for the predictable”, he says. Rejection is a part one’s growth as an artist. You know you’re looking at something truly beautiful when you can’t help but utter a sound when you see it. This, I believe, is the reaction every creator lives and breathes for -- the laughs, smiles, and insightful hmms from their viewers-- because this means that their art moves. It is safe to say that the talk was a success, because it lived up to its name: Kinetic Aesthetic. The essence of having meaningful conversation through one’s art was truly emphasized, and experienced first-hand by all those who came -- LFC and non-LFC members alike.
ANNOUNCEMENTS
September 9
FLC 4: Indie September 13
Fete du Film September 16
FLC 5: Drama September 20
FLC 6: Comedy September 21
Loyola Screen
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FILM CRITIQUE
KICK-ASS B
ack in 2010, director Matt Vaughn gave us Kick-Ass, a film, original in concept, and filled with action. This August, director Jeff Wadlow delivers a follow-up package that, when opened, unleashes a nuclear missile right at your guts. This package, the action-packed, gut-punching and feels-inducing movie is the 2013 superhero action-comedy, Kick-Ass 2.
to resume his life as the first superhero: Kick-Ass. This proves to be a challenge, so he asks the now matured Hit Girl, Mindy Macready, for help. Somewhere else, Chris D’Amico (formerly the sidekick of KickAss) becomes the first supervillain, named “The Mother F*cker”. He then plans to instigate a war against all superheroes to kill Kick-Ass and avenge his father.
Set a few years after the 1st movie, KickAss 2 follows Dave Lizewski as he tries
This movie’s story is told through the usage of its versatile and fun cast. Aaron
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S2
BY ANDRE GUEVARRA
Taylor-Johnson’s portrayal of the nerdturned-badass really fits the vibe of the movie, particularly because of his looks. Also, each of the supporting cast (including veteran actor Jim Carrey), brings in something fresh to the crew, Jim’s cowboy-ranger demeanor being my favorite of them. Also, Olga Kurkulina’s acting as “Mother Russia” was pretty cool, and her attempt at the archetypical buff Russian archetype is both awesome and funny, mostly because of her weird (but strange-
ly appropriate) costume. In all, I think the cast had fun with the movie, and I can say that they were the appropriate cast to express Jeff Wadlow’s vision. What gets me by the throat, however, is the portrayal of Chloe Moretz as the young vigilante in purple, Hit Girl. Her delivery of one-liners and constant ass-kicking keeps everyone stuck on their seats. Honestly, I’d rename the movie to “Hit-Girl” because she took the spotlight so much in the entire LFC Reel Time August 2013
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movie, everyone else just feels…less badass. Perhaps this is one of the flaws of the movie, that while Kick-Ass is responsible for the story progression, Hit-Girl was the one who delivered the fan-service. She owns this movie, not Kick-Ass, not the Mother F*cker, not anyone else.
jokes, one-liners and double entendres. The dialogue was fitting for the whole action-comedy vibe. Its overuse of curses can be seen by many people as a big flop of the film, but really, who wouldn’t like to hear Hit-Girl spew out stuff like “Game on, c*cksuckers!”
A lot of the characters felt flat, as they were given little to no characterization aside from their direct places in the movie. The “Justice Forever” group is the most obvious example, as all of the members except for Kick-Ass and the Colonel lacked a deep human side. With that said, the more important characters themselves were round enough. Hit-Girl had a personal conflict with her identity, The Mother F*cker was driven by rage and emotion, and Kick-Ass himself was facing the trouble of cleaning up his mess.
As with the first movie, Kick-Ass attempts to blend fantasy with reality, plugging in “superheroes” and real life. I think the premise of Kick-Ass, which delves on why there aren’t really superheroes and what would happen if there were, is really original. Also, as a fan of comics, I appreciated how this film put out its message, telling its audience of the dangers of superhero life and why people don’t really need them.
The cinematography was appropriate. The city-view fading gave the movie a comic-like feel that was just right, as well as the usage of speech bubbles and other graphics conventions, which was appropriate considering the origins of the movie. Most scene transitions were nicely done. The lighting was good (but again, so is the lighting for most movies these days) and changes in an appropriate way for each scene. The script was good. It was certainly humorous, as can be seen by the many 20
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At a normal length of 104 minutes, this film is quite enjoyable, and worth your time. Some people deem this movie to be bad, citing many flaws in its plot and its failure to live up to the first film, but honestly, it’s pretty easy to enjoy the film. I think that’s the point, that a mixture of violence and comedy can help pretty much anyone enjoy any film. All-in-all, this film, despite being a lesser being compared to the first, still delivers a good punch, and is surely worth your hundred minutes.
R.I.P.D BY EMIL HOFILENA
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o a lot of people, R.I.P.D. will forever be known as the movie that wanted to be Men in Black, and then failed miserably. I disagree. Calling R.I.P.D. a straight-up rip-off of MiB is ultimately inaccurate since the former doesn’t necessarily imitate every single move the latter possesses. In fact, in terms of plot alone, the two are already very different, and R.I.P.D.’s undead-based premise
is still intriguing despite its familiar feel. So to me, instead, I will forever remember R.I.P.D. as the movie that wanted to be an edgy, stylized, supernatural buddy cop action-comedy film, and then failed miserably. Based on the Dark Horse comic book of the same name, the film sees Boston police detective Nick Walker (Ryan Reynolds)
getting killed in action and floating to the afterlife. However, Nick is suddenly pulled into the offices of the Rest in Peace Department, where they recruit him to help capture Deados, or evil spirits trying to escape judgment by hiding among the living. Nick is paired up with R.I.P.D. veteran Roy Pulsipher (Jeff Bridges), a crass, loud-mouthed, rootin’-tootin’ cowboy from the nineteenth cen-
tury. Sounds interesting, right? Yeah, the trailers make this seem like a fun ride too. Keyword: seem. If I were to summarize everything I found bad in R.I.P.D. into one criticism, it would be that this movie never takes anything it does seriously. But I don’t mean this in the sense that the film is all fun-andgames. Rather, R.I.P.D. pursues its ambitions so poorly and lazily that the movie never really latches onto any identity other than that of “smoldering mess”. Screenwriters Phil Hay and Matt Minfredi seemed confused with what to do with all the content R.I.P.D. wanted onscreen, and thus ended up slapping together supposedly cool-looking sequences with no tonal consistency or dramatic weight whatsoever. As a comedy, R.I.P.D. seems to confuse crassness for humor, all while overusing its few effective gags. As a supernatural action film, it loses all traces of tension thanks to painfully obvious CGI and the film’s failure 22
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to build up a real sense of urgency. As a comic book film, R.I.P.D. gets lost in its own fantasy without any regard to the rules that must govern its universe for it to make sense. As a drama about a dead man who wants to return to his wife, the film shows promise, only to be rudely interrupted by Roy’s unnecessary remarks. As talented as Reynolds and Bridges usually are, even they stumble here. Reynolds plays the tragic hero with a bit too much seriousness, while Bridges is nowhere serious enough (not to mention nearly incomprehensible with a ridiculous accent). It might be hard to blame Peter M. Lenkov, the comic’s original author, so most of the negativity lands in director Robert Schwentke’s hands. Too often does he attempt to mask the film’s weak storytelling through zooming shots, misplaced jokes, and over-thetop action scenes. And when the director is lost, so are we. R.I.P.D., leave this job to the guys in suits.
What Book Would You Like To See Turned Into A Movie? BY CARLO YU & KENNY BANGCOLA
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Following the massive trend of books turned movies, it’s only a matter of time until your favorite book gets turned into a movie as well. While we can’t say that all movie adaptations are perfect (WorldWarZ) we’ve all got that one book that we desperately want to see turned into a movie. LFC’s Carlo Yu and Kenny Bangcola took the task of walking around and asking people what book they think should become a movie. Love ‘em or hate ‘em, these are the books you want to see as movies.
Here are just a few of the numerous responses: AJ Elicano Movie: Assholes: A Theory “Because it’s high time that society deals with all the different types of assholes.” Mickey Mongcal Movie: Love In The Time Of Cholera “It’s a good book.” Mio Porto Movie: Tigers in the Mud “I found the autobiography to be an excellent point of view of a German fighting man, and of a commander of men, no less.” Dane Ancheta Movie: Lolita Dane: “I want people to think I’m weird.”
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GUEST ARTICLE
Mis placed
bo dy
BY CARLO FERNANDEZ
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here is a huge chance that Gerard Damiano’s “ Deep Throat” might be in your lolo’s porn stash. It fulfills almost every possible stereotype that anyone can ever deduce from the phrase “porn made during the 70’s. ” There are enough hairspray and terrible haircuts on display that it would bring shame to all of your undercuts. The film’s soundtrack sounds like it could have been composed by an electric-era Bob Dylan at his most frazzled. The film quality has that certain amount of grain that makes it obvious that it was shot during an era before 1080p.
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The film mostly revolves around the adventures of a sexually-frustrated woman, as portrayed by Linda Lovelace, who discovers that her clitoris is located at the bottom of her throat. “Deep Throat” is basically became cinema’s most elaborate blowjob joke at that time but by modern pornography’s standards, it doesn’t deviate much from this makes it seem like any other adult film ever, it’s kind of shocking that “Deep Throat” is one of the most popular and controversial pieces of pornography ever. Critics have attributed the film with both popularizing and destroying the pornography industry. “Deep Throat” was released in 1972 to the usual adult theaters with no one 26
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particularly expecting anything to happen but buzz caught on and sold-out screenings quickly became a regular occurrence. The film expanded its screenings to a lot more theaters with box office total reaching around an estimate of $100 million, which was unprecedented for an adult film at the time. It launched an era where it became not only acceptable but also fashionable to talk about porn in public, in other words, “porno chic. ” Adult films were now being shown in popular theaters and not just in shady adult theaters where men masturbating into their trench coats were a common sight. The film was subsequently banned in certain cities due to complaints coming from various communities arguing that the film was obscene.
This movie only caused more interest in the film as purchasing a ticket for “Deep Throat” suddenly became an act of rebellion. People were no longer ashamed of their sexuality and there was an apparent desire from the public to talk about it. This incident would spark a sexual revolution that advocated for a form of sexual freedom that countered the previously conservative stance of society. But with the release of “Ordeal,” Linda Lovelace’s autobiography, a darker side of the pornography industry was suddenly brought into the light. “Ordeal” publically stated the sexual and physical abuse that she suffered from during her time as an actress. She confessed that her participation in “Deep Throat” was far from voluntary. She declared in an anti-pornography rally, "when you see the movie Deep Throat, you are watching me being raped. It is a crime that movie is still showing; there was a gun to my head the entire time." It was a huge blow to the pornographic industry to have one of its biggest stars bashing it. The question of who else shared the same sexual abuse as her became a very important issue for the public. Feminists were now using “Deep Throat” as an argument to expose the misogyny present in pornography. The poster girl for sexual freedom was actually anything but free. I admit that at this point of the article some of you might be saying “Oh god.
PHOTOS FROM THE INTERNET
Did he just write four paragraphs detailing the history of a film that is essentially the kind of sex joke that your malibog tito would tell you over dinne but we really shouldn’t take this topic lightly. The abuse that Linda Lovelace experienced is still abuse no matter what. Pornography no matter how kitsch it can be deserves to be critically analyzed as with all forms of popular culture. It’s very depressing to note that the people responsible for the exploitation that took place were never really punished. If people lost their collective shit during the whole Chris Brown/Rihanna debacle then why can’t be at least concerned with what happened to Lovelace? LFC Reel Time August 2013
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EXTERNALS
National Film Festival All Masters Edition September 11-17, 2013
Cineastes’ Presents THE COMEBACK Cinemalaya 9 Films Purok 7 Rekorder Selected Shorts Para Kay Ama Katapusang Labok Taya Missing Houseband Quick Change
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SCREENINGS
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featured
WRITERS
&
PHOTOGRAPHERS WRITERS
PHOTOGRAPHERS
Robert Bryan Cuartero Azi Dela Paz Carlo Fernandez Kathleen Ferrer Andre Guevarra Emil Hofile単a Betina Santos
Sarah Arrojado Andrea Beldua Wilver Chua Ayeem Igasan Betsy Nacionales Bea Que Olivia Te Gel Turiano
brought to you by
LOYOLA FILM CIRCLE 16 DOCUMENTATIONS & PUBLICATIONS D&P Head Tiffany Jillian Go Documentations Head Sarah Arrojado Publications Head Emil Hofile単a
EDITORIAL STAFF
Editor-in-Chief Antonio Adre Features Editor Carmel Ilustrisimo News Editor Pamela San Luis
DESIGNERS Jan-Daniel Belmonte Nikki Solinap
LOYOLA FILM CIRCLE tThe Ateneo’s Premier Film Organization 32
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