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BY RHODA GARZON CAMPILLAN
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Thursday, March 2, 2017
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WE ALL love to watch movies, don’t we? We spend at least P200 to watch our favorite movie in cinema.
The kind of movies we watch may be of varied genres. It could be action, drama, romantic comedy, horror, science fiction, or adventure, among others. It could also be Filipino or foreign films.
I am a fan of Filipino films. They are easy to understand and played by my favorite actors. Don’t get me wrong. I also watch foreign films, specifically those from Hollywood and Bollywood. However, if given a choice, I would prefer watching Filipino-made films.
But despite my fascination of Pinoy movies, I just don’t watch any Filipino film. I am selective. I do not want to waste my time watching pito-pito comedy films and those which do not interest me. I pick those which could entertain and educate me at the same time.
Moreover, films or movies are not also just a tool to entertain; they are also utilized by teachers for educational purposes. I am very lucky to be a part of the faculty symposium entitled Planting Seeds: The Future of Philippine Cinema. This worthwhile activity was spearheaded by FDCP Cinematheque Iloilo. The organizers tapped high-caliber speakers in the field of film.
I learned a lot from the talk of Direk Elvert Bañares. His topic was Introduction on Filmmaking and Creating Film Synergy in the Student Body.
I liked Direk Elvert because he was very animated when he talked. He gave tangible examples. He appreciated the work of art of his students and he taught really well. Because of his talk, I now understand the dynamics of film even more. I am very excited to go back again in my classroom and share what I learned from him.
I also appreciated the fact that he showed outputs of his students. He encouraged his students to build their film portfolio through exciting activities. If I were his student, I would be really giddy and excited to attend his class. Although, I would also be very nervous considering he expects that I, as a student, should perform well.
One of the activities that I liked was his one-minute film activity to his students. Based on experience, it is difficult to mount a one-minute presentation than a 10-minute presentation. What would you say in 60 seconds that could convey your message? Difficult, right?
Direk Elvert emphasized that as faculty members teaching Film as a subject, we also needed to shoot our films. In short, we should not rely purely on theories alone but through practice.
The talk ended with a short activity where participants were asked to choose films which could qualify in our film festival criteria (we were asked earlier to draft our own criteria for our supposed film festival). I enjoyed the exercise because I got to watch different films from different countries. I also had a hard time choosing which films should make the cut.
In the afternoon, our next speaker was Dr. Nick Deocampo. His talk was on Understanding Film through Education. I am again in awe while listening to Dr. Deocampo because aside from being an award-winning documentary film director and book author, he also teaches well.
He introduced to us his advocacy. He visits Asian countries and Filipino schools and universities to spread Film Literacy. What I remember best in his talk was the introduction of two concepts: signifier and signified.
Dr. Deocampo lectured that a film is composed of images. When we look at film we should understand what is the image and what does the image mean.
Signifier now is the image we see when we watch a film and signified is the meaning of the image. The meanings we create could be based on different contexts. Contexts such as culture, personal beliefs, educational background, preferences and a lot more.
In his talk, I was motivated to go beyond what I see on film and try to understand it thoroughly. He showed us still images from scenes in the award-winning film of Eddie Romero, Ganito Kami Noon, Paano Kayo Ngayon and assisted us in analyzing each scene.
I am amazed how an image could covey such powerful message. I am even more motivated to also try the techniques he shared in the symposium.
I am hoping that more activities such as these will be organized in the future. I congratulate FDCP CInematheque Iloilo headed by Miss Daniella Caro and Mr. Jo Andrew Torlao for mounting a significant endeavor such as this.
I would like to end this article by a quote from Ingmar Bergman: No form of art goes beyond ordinary consciousness as film does, straight to our emotions, deep into the twilight room of the soul./PN
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