What I've Learned: Carlos Siguion-Reyna | Esquire Philippines - video Dailymotion

Esquire Philippines

In this month's Esquire Philippines feature on What I've Learned, the veteran filmmaker imparts the wealth of wisdom he learned through years of working in the entertainment industry.

Transcript

00:00Keep an eye and ear open to watching and looking at these films

00:03because it's really worth keeping that alive,

00:08keeping those voices and identities alive.

00:30I started out actually in advertising, my first job out of college.

00:40Nung nasa high school pa ako, I was doing PA work for summer,

00:45parang mga summer work with my mother sa Awitang Kita, the TV show.

00:51Mostly it was PA work and editing, doing, you know, helping out sa continuity

00:57and that sort of thing, it's production staff work.

01:00After college, I wasn't sure pa, I thought I was going to be a lawyer in fact,

01:04pero I worked in an advertising agency.

01:07Nasa accounting pa ako noon, I mean it was really basic.

01:10Then I realized na people were running around, yung mga production people in the agency,

01:15they were really stressed and all of that, magulo, running all over the place,

01:21pero they were having a lot of fun, it seemed to me.

01:23That went on for, I was there for about, I think, I can't remember,

01:26it was one or two years, and then I decided, at some point I decided,

01:30because nga nakikita ko parang it seemed like the production people were having a lot of fun,

01:34parang I'd like to try that.

01:35So I entered, I applied to several film schools, I entered NYU,

01:40the Grad Film and TV Institute in New York, YMTISH School of the Arts,

01:46and so I was there.

01:48The first semester, I thought I would be a screenwriter,

01:51I realized I wasn't really, I realized that I enjoyed the directing more.

01:56Parang nalulungkot ako sa writing, and it was stressful,

02:00in fact it was more stressful for me to face a blank page,

02:03and kind of like, you know, the writing habit and all of that,

02:07I just wasn't into that.

02:09I kind of like working with other people.

02:14By 87, late 87, I did my first film, Misis Mo, Misis Ko.

02:19That was a co-production between Viva and my mother.

02:23I learned a lot there, I enjoyed that experience a lot,

02:26and then of course the second film.

02:29The hardest thing I'd say is getting the, after the first film,

02:32is getting the, they call the sophomore jinx,

02:35getting that second film going is really a tough one.

02:37So it took a while for me, three years,

02:39and then, yung nga, it was Hiyintayin Kitisalang,

02:41which was an adaptation of Wuthering Heights.

02:44It was just, I just had the burning passion for that story and to tell that story,

02:48and I think that that communicated to everybody, the actors.

02:53They picked it up, and then also everybody, the cinematographer,

02:56Romy Vitug shot that, and the production design.

03:00It was just really dramatically lighted,

03:02and we were really working meticulously on the composition of every shot.

03:10But, you know, it was, there was discipline in that film,

03:15it was really, the more discipline there was in there,

03:22the more lumalabas yung wildness and uncontrolled passion of the characters.

03:29So, and I felt that, that communicated to the production,

03:35and I think the audience picked it up and connected with it.

03:41Locally, I think it would be Lino Broca.

03:43His work was always, you know, it reflected the passions of his characters.

03:48So, and, you know, they would really struggle to get their goals,

03:55and basically, you get the feel of the overall sweep of the story that way.

03:59So, I think the dramatic tension and the passion of the characters,

04:03that was, they were active characters.

04:06They were not static characters, people walking around the city

04:09waiting for things to happen to them.

04:11Parang kawawa naman, may, parang victim, victim.

04:13No, his characters were not playing victims.

04:16They would go and get what they wanted.

04:18Talagang his connection with his material, with his characters,

04:22yung passion niya was coming through.

04:24So, I thought, that's what interested me in it,

04:27and that's what got me interested in those stories,

04:29in those people that I would see in his films.

04:31That was one of the things I learned,

04:35is that we're going to make a story, whatever it is.

04:38And it's not necessarily about Class C, D, or A, B, C, or whatever.

04:43You can do anything, pero the thing is, make sure lang,

04:46you're connected with your material.

04:49You are passionate about your material.

04:51It's a story that you have to tell.

04:53It's a story that you're obsessed with, or that you have to,

04:56that you will die if you don't tell it,

04:59because that will carry through with everybody in the production,

05:02and the audience, most likely, will pick it up and connect with it,

05:06because it taps something in their own lives, too.

05:11For me, my hope is not just to help sharpen, elevate their materials

05:18into suitable form that will keep their vision,

05:21and still keep the edge in those stories,

05:24but also to drive home some basic, fundamental principles

05:30in screenwriting, directing,

05:32and also that will translate into the films themselves,

05:35para, you know, without losing the personal.

05:39To professionalize, basically, my hope lang is,

05:45it will contribute to helping them develop the professional habits,

05:50the good, best practices for screenwriting and for directing,

05:56as well as sharpening their art and craft in those fields.

06:04So, yeah, those are my hopes, and those are my goals.

06:11She was very firm on professionalism.

06:15As a producer, you're demanding a lot,

06:17but you're demanding a lot from your production people

06:22and from your creative team,

06:24but she would also demand a lot of herself

06:26in providing the proper working conditions for everybody.

06:33Actually, as far as the films themselves,

06:36she would get the best people in the departments,

06:38in the creative team, the cinematographer.

06:41We were working a lot with Romy Vitug,

06:44and then music, we were working a lot with Ryan Kabyab,

06:48and production designers.

06:50And, of course, it's that high standard

06:53of making sure the quality of the work is good on every department.

06:58My mother was really interested in all of that.

07:00I mean, as I was.

07:02But she was very strict on everybody,

07:05but she was demanding of herself as well

07:08in getting the best working conditions,

07:10the best lodging, the best food,

07:11the best creative standards, technical and artistic standards.

07:18So she would also get people that would deliver that.

07:24I think it was the professionalism.

07:26It was a push to give the best of ourselves to the project.

07:32I also picked that up from her.

07:34Basically, do things that you're passionate about,

07:36that you're obsessive about.

07:38And it's really a great guide.

07:40It's really a great compass on running one's career,

07:44one's art, one's craft.

07:46It's really do something,

07:48only the stuff that you're really passionate about.

07:53Keep an eye and ear open to watching and looking at these films

07:56because it's really worth keeping that alive,

08:01keeping those voices and identities alive.

08:04Because they're the ones that are telling our stories.

08:07Because if that goes,

08:09the ones who will be telling our stories,

08:11if they're interested,

08:12would be people from other countries, other voices.

08:17And it's not going to be from our own culture.

08:20And I think there's just something to be said

08:23for a culture,

08:26a people telling its own stories to its own audience.

08:31Because that's a record of the audience

08:36at the time that that film was made.

08:38Depending on how that film is received,

08:40that's always a record of not only the story itself,

08:45not only of the filmmaker's story itself,

08:47but the way that story was received by the audience,

08:50whether it was a big hit or a flop or something in the middle,

08:55will give us a picture in the future,

08:59will leave a record of what that audience,

09:02what that culture was at that time.

09:06So it is really worth keeping connected with what's coming out.

09:11You don't have to watch everything,

09:14but just when you hear good news about something,

09:16take the effort, take the time, go out there,

09:19watch it in a film festival,

09:20watch it in a regular screening

09:22or wherever it comes out, streaming or wherever.

09:25Just keep in touch with it because you don't know.

09:29Just keep it open because it could touch something in you.

09:33It could touch something,

09:34it could affirm or maybe subvert something that you once believed in,

09:38but now it's a dissenting voice to what you believe in.

09:41So just keep that dialogue between the expressors

09:46and the ones that are the audience,

09:48the people who are telling stories and the ones who are hearing it.

What I've Learned: Carlos Siguion-Reyna | Esquire Philippines

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