So who was your Oscar bet?
| March 9, 2010
I am never satisfied with their pick. And also, they should just carve a Meryl statuette so they don’t have to worship her all night. But the spectacle is worth the watch. I love Oscar night!
Oscar wants their dose of reality, heavily favoring the grunts to the blue monkeys.
“Hurt Locker” won for the same reasons that “Crash” won. I can also see how “The Cove” won for best documentary as with “The Inconvenient Truth”. Perhaps this is not such a bad thing, to make the relevant movie win. We get to know what is foremost in the minds of the Americans—the war and the environment. As much as Hurt Locker’s director deserves to win (hooray to more women directors!), I think Kathryn Bigelow won it because she made it the time she made it.
I like how this will spark debates anew. Hooray to relevance…but what of filmmaking? Dinner conversations will now be about this topic—what are movies for anyway? Do we root for the technically excellent movie, like “Avatar”? Or the most clever like, “Inglorious Basterds” and “Up In the Air”? Or like in the Academy’s case, vote for the important movie.
Do we really prefer Hollywood to our own?
| February 1, 2010
The quick answer it seems is yes. 7 of the top 10 box-office performers in 2009 are Hollywood. I have to admit, it’s a little disturbing. Check here for the rest of the results. Why don’t Pinoys like watching Pinoy movies? It’s helpful for everyone all around. I’m part of the problem of course, as I have only seen Avatar, Harry Potter and Up.
Hard to blame me though, because I’m not exactly a fan of formulas even if I do love Sarah Geronimo (You Changed My Life and In My Life) …But only when she’s singing.
| 1) Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen | $7,384,179 | |
| 2) Avatar | $5,197,803 | |
| 3) You Changed My Life* | $4,724,411 | |
| 4) 4 Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince | $4,070,315 | |
| 5) G.I. Joe | $3,235,639 | |
| 6) In My Life* | $2,887,307 | |
| 7) Angels & Demons | $2,532,881 | |
| 8) Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs | $2,391,452 | |
| 9) BFF (Best Friends Forever)* | $2,255,048 | |
| 10) Up | $2,229,829 |
*Nos. 3, 6 and 9 are local films. These are just estimates from a public access site. Avatar comes 2nd because it didn’t count its run in 2010.
At least the government is doing something about it however misguided. To help the industry, they recently lowered the amusement tax from the disgustingly high 30% down to 10%. Yipee, right? Except the problem is even Jim Cameron the gazillionaire also benefits from the cut. I think it’s time to find more ways for government and theater owners to cut the local filmmakers some slack. For example: did we really need Transformers in all 12 cinemas of SM? Who needs that?
The Scoop on Co-Production Markets
| January 5, 2010
Margie (seated on the first row) at the Welcome Meeting of the Talents at the Talent Project Market
In early 2009 in Berlin, a friend of mine from the Venice Film Festival called my attention to the fact that, by that time, I had already been invited to just about every single co-production market of the international film fest scene. That was and still is untrue. Though I have attended the Rotterdam and Hong Kong film festivals, I have not participated yet in their co-production platforms. In fact Cinemanila had its own program, held in Boracay, which I had not pursued since the concept of co-production was still alien to me.
But yes, after having made one round of these international platforms, I am now quite familiar with the many facets and faces of co-producing. Read the rest of this entry »
Arkeo entry wins Gold at the Araw Awards
| December 1, 2009
Arkeo entry wins Gold at the Araw Awards
Subic, Olongapo — The 21st Philippine Advertising Congress recently concluded with the announcement of the Araw Awards featuring the most creative campaigns of 2008 and 2009. Arkeo’s very own “Mano Po” (an initiative headed by advertising icon Ompong Remigio of Campaigns & Grey) bags a Gold for Direction for Mario Cornejo and a Bronze for Editing for Lawrence Ang. “Mano Po” is a series of 30s for Safeguard.
Watch the ad here. Read the rest of the winners here.