Often we drink when we feel like we’re at our best but sometimes we drink to forget our regrets. But what happens when we drink too much and end up doing something we’ll never forget?

(Synopsis) The “Drunk Driving Story” follows the narration of an innocent girl(Karen Reyes) who decides not to drink at a party. But still ends up regretting what happened to her on the night of that event.

Director, Producer, Cinematographer, Editor: Myrtle Abigail Sarrosa
Poem: Death of an Innocent – Anonymous
Excerpt from: Chicken Soup for the Soul
Executive Producer: Raz dela Torre
Music by: Adi Bontuyan
Type of Production: Video Poetry
TRT: 3m 16s

Videography (BC144)
2nd Semester, AY 2013-2014
University of the Philippines – Diliman
Department of Broadcast Communication, College of Mass Communication

A Myrtle Sarrosa Production 2014
2nd Year, BA Broadcast Communication Student

(SYNOPSIS)
Heart. Nation. Home.
“Sometimes the Heart Yearns for Mangoes” is a video adaptation of a popular revolutionary’s poem about cultural influences which make a Filipino’s life more individualist and less collective and human.

Producer: Benedict Opinion
Director, Writer: Benedict Opinion
Cinematographer, Editor: Benedict Opinion
Executive Producer: Raz de la Torre
Type of Production: Video Production – Poetry
TRT: 3m 05s

Videography (BC 144)
2nd Semester, AY 2013-2014
University of the Philippines Diliman
Department of Broadcast Communication, College of Mass Communication

SYNOPSIS: “Love is so short. Forgetting is so long.” How long does it truly take to forget someone you loved so dearly? Tonight I Can Write tells the story of a boy trying to hold his love through the warmth of his lines.

Producer/Director: Layla Miram
Type of Production: Video Production – Poetry
TRT: 4m 17s

Videography (BC 144)
2nd Semester, AY 2013-2014
University of the Philippines-Diliman
Department of Broadcast Communication, College of Mass Communication

Pow•er [pou(-ə)r]

1. ability to do something or act in a particular way; capability of doing or accomplishing something

2. capacity or ability to influence the behavior of people, things or events

Ask a five year old what power is, s/he would probably tell you it’s magic and spells. Ask a fifteen year old, it’s probably about the formula of work divided by time. Ask a twenty-five year old, it’s something related to monetary success.

People often see the concept of power to suggest strength, physical or otherwise, or being in an advantaged position such as an authority.

Not me.

I find power even in just the confines of my bedroom. I find power in the remote.

At home, the remote is one of the most coveted objects there is. It is a status symbol. It is a proof. It is a declaration that I am the Channel Changer. So, when my younger sister sees me with this modern-day weapon, most of the time there’s nothing she can do about it. (Good thing, she’s not yet old or capable enough to think about buying her own weapon to brandish, I mean remote of her own to control.)

To have the remote is to feel like a god.

I can be Themis, the presider over Oracle of Channels, Yggdrasil, the link to not just nine but infinitely different worlds or Thoth, the ruler of time and knowledge. All these in just a click – a click that becomes my passport to the world I know of and the world I don’t. But – as always, there is a but – this is only the yin though. The yang could arguably be much better.

I’ve controlled the remote almost all my life. Believe me, it’s great. But being able to produce the content of those channels that the remote has control over, this, I believe is even greater power.

You just don’t feel like a god. You are one.

You could make people laugh over crazy jokes and mishaps, cry over a deeply emotional father-daughter moment or fall in love for the first time or simply fall in love again. My course, the production classes I took, and my mentorship under Sir Raz de la Torre made me experience all of this and more. And honestly, I couldn’t be more grateful.

I admit this work is crazy. It made my world upside down and inside out maybe even more times than I remember or care to admit. BC 128 (Producing Pre-Recorded Materials for Television) under Sir Raz was the first production class I took after BC 104 (Introduction to Television and Related Media).  The first day of classes, I felt like a 1^st grader going to school for the first time – filled with hodge podge of emotions. It was not an introductory course anymore. (Add to that, a practicing director and writer was going to be our professor. Talk about pressure.) While I would like to share all my experiences here, I’m afraid not even the 10+ page-journal I submitted that semester covered everything that happened in this subject.

BC132 (Broadcast Documentary), also under Sir Raz, was a different game altogether: same professor, different  topic. Shooting reality, or at least the representation of it, was a test in itself. It’s an application of must-have technical skills combined with well-researched subject and ever-present fast thinking. The phrase “anything can happen” was an understatement.

And of course, being an MMK mentee served like the culmination of the two semesters I had under Sir Raz. It was not a formal class, but one that I think every media student should experience before marching at graduation. When you say that entering college was stepping into the real world, I disagree. If only I had my mentorship before I took my production classes, oh boy. I think my productions would have been so much better – really. Being an MMK mentee, that was reality.

Growth – in these three semesters, there is growth, and I type this smiling.

True, I’m not a prodigy at anything but the best thing I could do to even come close to it is to keep on learning. The potential is infinite, the limits of gaining skills nonexistent.

Thus, instead of narrating everything (which may possibly bore you to death), I thought of sharing the most significant lessons I got over the months. I listed five.

5. Have a voice and vision, not just dialogues and storyboards.

Don’t get me wrong, skills are very much important. You need training in television writing and visualization thus, good dialogues and clear storyboards. Characters must come to life in scripts. Shots must be established and purposive to save time as well.  Being detailed-oriented is a priceless skill before, during and after production.

But at the end of the day, you need to know: what message do you want to convey? What do you want them to feel? This must be 100% crystal clear. As your compass in whatever production, whether fictional drama or documentary, nothing beats knowing where you want your material to go. It’s hard being lost, isn’t it?

I know not all of us use the compass, but hopefully you get the point.

4. You’re in both reality and fiction, not just one of them.

This is not time nor space traveling to and fro the two worlds. I know we wish that’s possible. What I simply mean is in every fictional narrative, there will always be an element of reality and in every reality-based narrative, there will always be an element of fiction.

If you’re doing a drama, it must still always be grounded on research. What does happen in the real world? For instance, for our dance drama production in BC128, we can’t just depend on the movies we saw. We needed to go out there and find out how does the dance world work? How do they act and interact? Do they have mannerisms? If you’re doing a documentary or anthology, fictional elements remain. What’s your story? Does it have a good build-up? What costumes or music bed will you use? And so on.

Basically, you should learn first the rules, before you break them. After all, don’t you need to first learn to dance before you can break dance?

3. Be hungry for experience, not just success.

More – we always want more. We want more material things, more achievements, more unos in our class card. However, we tend to forget one thing: more experience. After I hear the oh-so sweet “It’s a wrap!” I realized that the grade, whether for class or mentorship, doesn’t seem to be as important as the experience I’ve been through, positive or not. Of course, it will be awesome to finish with flying colors but for me the experience was already a reward, a bonus in itself.

For BC 128, I got to see the Taal Crater and hidden waterfalls in Tagaytay for the very first time in my life because of our non-fiction production. I learned how hard it is to shoot things as they happened.  For BC 132, I got to travel to Cebu (which I’ve also never been to before) to cover a nationwide Dancesport Competition. I realized that you can only be prepared for so many things. The rest, you just do your best to pull it off. For MMK, I got to see what really happens in an actual taping. I understood the utmost importance of working fast yet efficient, of knowing what you have to do and when to do it, of having the initiative to go beyond what is asked of you. More importantly, I also discovered that keeping things separate is how you keep things together.

Who doesn’t love an uno, right? But what I love more is all the nuggets of laughing, crying, agreeing, bickering and a whole lot more. There really is some truth in saying that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.

While excellence could be your signature, experience can be your identity.

2. Remember you work with people, not just machines.

Laptops and lapels alone don’t make the production possible – people do. What is not taught in the four walls of the classroom is how to work with other people. There’s no course about it, no Introduction to Working with People 101 or Production Peopleology. There’s no manual that people will hand over to you to help you how to deal with them. There’s no technical support you could call whenever you hit a problem.

This, you have to learn by yourself. Yes, it’s difficult. No, it’s not impossible.  There’s no easy way to go about it except by literally continuously working with people.

Our industry is a pressure cooker. It’s make it or break it, go big or go home. It literally tests everything you’ve got: your patience, your management, your strategic skills. No day goes by without a problem, otherwise you’re asking for a miracle. Sooner or later, the pressure builds up and gets to people. Some are born to handle it, others learn to handle it, the rest, well you know what happens to the rest.

You’ll work with people with characteristics and attitude way beyond what a spectrum can cover.  Over the course of the productions I’ve been with, friendships have been made and strengthen, but also torn and broken. I wrote this not to discourage you, my reader. After all, a lot of the best experiences I had in my college years came from production. I met few of my closest friends in one of my production classes. We started the semester rows apart and when it ended, we just kept on planning what production to do next.

Respect, I believe is the key word. Respect each other’s roles and positions, the boundaries of their job and limitations. It’s through respect we learn to appreciate how each one is vital to the team. Try switching roles for a change and be in each other’s shoes. Let the director be the actor, the writer be the cinematographer. Cliché? Maybe. But it’s an effective way to understand how each role works.

So in short, it’s not all glitz and glamour or candies and chocolates but it’s not all Dante’s circle of hell as well. At the end, we just have to take in the good and the bad.

It’s when we learn to balance that we can walk forward.

1. You are a mover, not just a maker.

Coldplay can make people sing at the top of their lungs because of their music and lyrics. Leonardo DiCarpio can make people fall in love for being the iconic Jack. Wicked can make people expand their imagination just because, well, they’re wicked.

And you, you can also do beyond what you thought you could do.

I found this point to be the most important because ultimately, we have to repeat to ourselves: For whom do we produce? People.

We want our mom and dad to realize that we need them to spend time with us so we dramatize it. We want others to take dance seriously so we tell their side of the story. We want the world to appreciate each other’s lives so we feature them.

We do things for people, through people.

Herein lies our power as directors, producers, writers, actors, production designers or media practitioners as a whole: the power to move people. I bet you would also want others to feel the intellectual intensity or emotional appeal that you felt when you watch your favorite show, right? Deep down, I know that when I produce something, I don’t want them to just be at the edge of their seat – I want them standing up, clapping, then do something about it as a result of what they’ve watched.

Our power is not witchcraft, science or finance. Our power lies within our own selves.

Remember the day you sought to be inspired. Today, you can inspire others. Remember the day when you dreamed dreams. Today you are about to live them.

Holding the remote lets you have the representation of the world at your fingertips. Having control over the content of what the remote clicks lets you have the people at your fingertips. Two very different things, don’t you think?

So, don’t just control the little black contraption – move people through the content you air in the little black box.

(Synopsis) Anak ng Pentagon aims to show the lives of the Pentagon workers and their families, but gives more specific and greater attention to the children. It intends to present who these children are, what they do in their daily routine and habits — their lives in general in and outside the picket — and how all of these are affected by the struggle that their fathers undergo and how they themselves become part of the struggles.

Producers, Writers, Directors: Leslie Anne Marie Corpuz / Kris Ciel Enriquez
Executive Producer: Raz de la Torre
Type of Production: Documentary (Short)
TRT: 19m 25s

Videography (BC 132)
1st Semester, AY 2013-14
University of the Philippines – Diliman
Department of Broadcast Communication, College of Mass Communication

(Synopsis) Leading Man follows EJ Pataksil, a dancesport athlete, through his training and his actual performance for the Cebu Dance Sport competition.  It delves into the competitive arena of Dancesport and reveals the underlying impressions people of have of the sport and issues of sexuality and gender roles faced by its male dancers.

Producers: Edelyn Meljorie Aguila / Jonas Ethan Reyes
Director, Writer: Jonas Ethan Reyes
Cinematographer, Editor: Edelyn Meljorie Aguila
Executive Producer: Raz de la Torre
Type of Production: Documentary (Short)
TRT: 18m 19s

Videography (BC 132)
1st Semester, AY 2013-14
University of the Philippines – Diliman
Department of Broadcast Communication, College of Mass Communication

(Synopsis) Gaano na nga ba ka-relevant ang teatro sa mga Filipino? Sino ba ang mga taga-tangkilik nito? Ano ang porma at istrukturang sinusundan ng mga contemporary theatre groups at ng umuusbong na mga theatre community group?

Ang dokumentaryong ito ay tungkol sa isang theatre community group na tinatawag na Sipat Lawin Ensemble at ang kanilang produksyon na Love This Is Not Yet A Musical. Inilalahad ng dokumentaryong ito ang makabagong technique na isinasagawa ng theatre group na ito na lumilihis sa tradisyunal na porma ng teatro. Kabilang na rito ang pagbibigay ng oportunidad sa mga indibidwal na walang matinding background sa teatro na makapagtanghal sa iba’t ibang uri ng espasyo o lunan.

Producers: Mark Lester Oliver / Ian Angelo Panganiban
Writer: Mark Lester Oliver
Camera Person: Ian Angelo Panganiban
Executive Producer: Raz de la Torre
Type of Production: Documentary (Short)
TRT: 19m 23s

Videography (BC 132)
1st Semester, AY 2013-14
University of the Philippines – Diliman
Department of Broadcast Communication, College of Mass Communication

(Synopsis) The parameters of a person’s childhood contribute to his needs. As the person matures, he learns to satisfy himself; a kind of satisfaction not imposed by anyone else no matter his sexual preference.

This is the story of a gay student trying to fit in and make his mark in this world. However, he cannot find the meaning of home in the four corners of his house. Their relationship seems to be constrained to ‘pakiramdaman.’

Now, he keeps everything to himself. The alienation does not just lock him inside the closet. It also jeopardizes his relationship with his family.

*Selected for UP-CMC Broadcast Communication Department’s Sining del Pilar 2014
(Documentary: Representations of the Real)

Producers, Writers, Director: Bernadette Alegre / Reynald Russel Santos
Cinematographers/Editors: Bernadette Alegre / Reynald Russel Santos
Executive Producer: Raz de la Torre
Type of Production: Documentary (Short)
TRT: 15m 40s

Videography (BC 132)
1st Semester, AY 2013-14
University of the Philippines – Diliman
Department of Broadcast Communication, College of Mass Communication

Out under the stars in a clear night sky, huddled in a circle before a warm campfire, fall under a spell that only an exquisitely told story can cast. Let the words, sounds and images drift and spirit you away to places real and imagined.

Istoryahan is derived from a Visayan term that means ‘kwentuhan’ or exchange of stories. I created this space to rendezvous fellow students and collaborators I’ve met in my adventures as an educator in a camp where we can all narrate stories sparked from our interaction. A shelter to rest works in for the rest of the world to see. A bivouac where artists and communicators are encouraged to publish and audiences are invited to respond; where creativity takes root and burgeons incessantly. The learning never stops and the storytelling never ends.

Come gather around and listen to these tales. Kindle flames of imagination and allow creativity to burn brighter than sun.