http://showbizandstyle.inquirer.net/entertainment/entertainment/view_article.php?article_id=93093
French producer: Filipinos are the best
By Bayani San Diego Jr.
Inquirer
Last updated 11:59pm (Mla time) 10/07/2007
MANILA, Philippines -- Without thinking twice, French producer Henri de Lorme asserts that the Filipino cast of the QTV comedy show “Camera Café” tops his list.
De Lorme was co-producer of the five-minute French sitcom which has been spun off in at least 30 countries—including Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Italy, Spain, Greece, Ukraine and Yugoslavia. He is now the franchise holder for Asia.
“I’ve been to a lot of countries [and] seen the different versions. But, for me, the best is the Pinoy cast,” De Lorme tells Inquirer Entertainment in an exclusive interview. “The Filipinos are even better than the original French cast—who are my friends!”
Filipinos are natural entertainers, explains the French TV exec. “They can do everything: sing, dance, act. It’s ingrained in the culture.”
Director Mark Meily is all praise as well for his 17-strong ensemble, which includes seasoned performers Jaime Fabregas and Joy Viado, as well as drama actresses Angel Aquino and Assunta de Rossi, the comic tandem of Bearwin Meily and Jojo Alejar and fresh talents Tado Jimenez, Patricia Ismael, LJ Reyes, Arnold Reyes and Monica Llamas.
“Show creator Alain Kappauf and Jean Yves Robin of CALT (overall franchise holder) saw our version and were so pleased with it, they want to co-produce other CALT programs for the Philippines,” says Meily.
To think that the Pinoy cast had to go through the wringer while taping the show’s first season.
Ismael recalls that it wasn’t uncommon for them to memorize 28 scripts and tape 10 episodes a day.
Alejar admits, “Memorization is my waterloo. But Direk Mark was very patient with me.” Alejar says that he had to shape up because the script required precision. “We were not allowed to ad-lib because we depended on each other for our cues.”
Time limit
“There was a timer on the set. We couldn’t go over the time limit (three and a half minutes),” De Rossi points out. “Unlike in other shows, where the punch line sometimes gets lost in the ad libs, our show is more direct to the point. It’s quick and funny.”
Aquino compares the experience to live theater. Jimenez agrees, saying that a lot of time was spent on “rehearsals.”
“We couldn’t afford to make a mistake because we’d have to start from the top if we did,” says Llamas.
Another challenge, says petite comic Ismael, was the show’s one-camera set-up. “There’s only one camera angle. Since I’m vertically challenged, sometimes only my bumbunan (top of my head) can be seen in the frame. It’s because the other actors are so tall!”
Seriously now. Is the Pinoy audience ready for the bite-size, snack entertainment offered by “Camera Café” (which debuts on QTV on Oct. 15)?
“Today’s viewers have a short attention span. Hopefully, Pinoys will give the show a chance,” Meily says.
De Lorme is optimistic, insisting that the French and Pinoys have the same quirky sense of humor.
“We have the same spirit,” De Lorme says. “The Filipino scriptwriters quickly understood the show’s concept. I think the scripts written by the Filipinos are even better than some of the French originals.”
Wednesday, October 10, 2007
Tuesday, October 9, 2007
CAMERA CAFE!!!
| Start: | Oct 15, '07 |
WATCH A rich blend of Pinoy and French* humor in a 5-minute comedy show!
Kakaiba siya! “Camera Café” ang tawag sa kanya. Nangyayari ang lahat ng
kabalastugan sa point of view ng coffee machine.
Saan ipapalabas? Sa QTV 11. Kelan? Simula October 15, 2007 (10 a.m.
muna, tapos replay ng 1:45 pm tapos 8 pm) pero ang regular time slot ay ito:
Monday to Friday 8 pm (new episode), 10 am and 1:45 pm (next day replay).
(teka . does that mean may saturday show? o sa monday yun? hmmm...)
Bakit daw kabago-bagong show, may replay na? Why? Coz you can’t get Enough of cam café! Kung sa meals dapat 3x a day, ang cam café dapat 3x a day din! Parang coffee break.
Atsaka…
Commercials lang ba ang may karapatang ireplay nang ilang beses sa isang araw? Bakit hindi ang CAM CAFÉ? Music video lang ba ang inuulit-ulit? Bakit hindi ang Cam Café? We need to laugh more than 3x a day!
Actually …
kasi sa sobrang iksi ng 5 minutes, baka magtimpla ka lang ng kape (o mag-CR) e ma-miss mo na ang show. But have no fear! Replays are here!
Kaya’t… WATCH CAMERA CAFE MONDAYS TO FRIDAYS, A new episode at 8pm, replays the next day at 10 am and 1:45 pm. MANOOD KA!
Not only for people with a short attention span.
*Camera Café is a comedy show that originated from France, but we’ve adapted their characters to Pinoy sensibilities. First stop-over of the Asian franchise is the Philippines.
director: Mark Meily
writers: Rey Agapay, Dennis Teodosio, Vincent de Jesus, Rody Vera, Liza Magtoto
starring: Bearwin Meily, Jojo Alejar, Christian Vasquez, Assunta de Rossi,
Jaime Fabregas, Joy Viado, Patricia Ismael, Sherilyn Reyes, Kalila Aguilos,
Noel Colet, Gerry Montes, LJ Reyes, Monica Llamas, Arnold Reyes, Vince de
Jesus, Tado, and Angel Aquino.
Saturday, October 6, 2007
Death in the Land of Encantos Review - Variety.com
http://www.variety.com/review/VE1117934956.html?categoryid=31&cs=1
Venice
Death in the Land of Encantos
Kagadanan sa banwaan ning mga engkanto (Philippines)
By RONNIE SCHEIB
A Produksyung Sine Olivia production in co-production with Hubert Bals Fund. (International sales: Produksyung Sine Olivia, Quezon City, Philippines.) Produced, directed, written, edited by Lav Diaz.
With: Roeder Camanag, Perry Dizon, Angeli Bayani, Dante Perez, Sophia Aves, Gemma Cuenca.
(Tagalog, some English dialogue)
Lav Diaz's latest black-and-white digital marathon, "Death in the Land of Encantos" (clocking in at nine hours), unfolds in the devastated landscape left in the wake of Super Typhoon Durian, the worst storm to hit the Philippines in living memory. Placing a threesome of fictional characters amid the rubble, Diaz measures the aftermath of this natural disaster within the larger trauma of the islands' history. Plunging the viewer into an alternate time zone where distinctions between documentary and fiction, stasis and action slowly dissolve, pic confirms helmer's status as a brilliant but consummately non-commercial artist.
Unlike Diaz's other works, which were carefully constructed over time ("Evolution of a Filipino Family" was nine years in the making -- and 10 hours in the viewing), "Death" sprang fully grown from the ravages of the typhoon in Bicol, where Diaz had lensed several previous films. Thus, the documentary elements could not be described as "interpolated," but rather form the very clay from which the drama (if such slight strands of narrative can be so termed) is molded.
Pic, with its themes of art and madness, is headlined with a quote from Rilke: "Beauty is the beginning of terror." Indeed, the region's Mayon Volcano -- which, under the onslaught of the storm, poured out mountains of rocks and debris, killed hundreds and buried whole towns -- remains one of the most majestic, perfectly cone-shaped structures in nature.
Pic traces fictional famed poet Benjamin Agusan (Roeder Camanag), newly returned to the Philippines from a lengthy stint in Russia. Two of his lifelong friends, a painter/sculptress (Angeli Bayani) and a fellow-poet turned farmer/paterfamilias (Perry Dizon) welcome Agusan home, and the trio starts to hang out together. The three, like everyone in the obliterated village of Padang, lost several close relatives to the natural calamity.
Specters from the past haunt the poet, including images of a beautiful naked woman who turns out to be the girlfriend he left behind who is now interred in his old studio lying somewhere beneath his feet.
Other visions haunting the poet are less explicable, like the nondescript street where the viewer finds himself stranded for stretches as Agusan stalks the Russian woman who left him after their child died.
More disturbing still are scenes of his mother's psychotic breakdown and his father's desperate attempts to drive out the evil spirits with loops of twisted wire hung from trees. Madness stalks Agusan, as death and desolation lie over the land, the nude topmost branches of trees sticking up out of the ground where lush foliage once flourished.
Diaz's stark black-and-white digital compositions frame a landscape so bleak and boulder-strewn, so empty of habitation that it is hard to believe the land was not barren from time primordial. Painful flashbacks to the region's past resurrect a lost Eden. The only thing more shocking than the extent of the damage is the ages-deep acceptance in the eyes of the survivors.
Camera (B&W, DV), Diaz; music, Diaz; production designer, Dante Perez; sound, George Vibar, Laurel Lee Penaranda. Reviewed at Venice Film Festival (Horizons), Sept. 8, 2007. (Also in Toronto Film Festival -- Visions.) Running time: 538 MIN.
Venice
Death in the Land of Encantos
Kagadanan sa banwaan ning mga engkanto (Philippines)
By RONNIE SCHEIB
A Produksyung Sine Olivia production in co-production with Hubert Bals Fund. (International sales: Produksyung Sine Olivia, Quezon City, Philippines.) Produced, directed, written, edited by Lav Diaz.
With: Roeder Camanag, Perry Dizon, Angeli Bayani, Dante Perez, Sophia Aves, Gemma Cuenca.
(Tagalog, some English dialogue)
Lav Diaz's latest black-and-white digital marathon, "Death in the Land of Encantos" (clocking in at nine hours), unfolds in the devastated landscape left in the wake of Super Typhoon Durian, the worst storm to hit the Philippines in living memory. Placing a threesome of fictional characters amid the rubble, Diaz measures the aftermath of this natural disaster within the larger trauma of the islands' history. Plunging the viewer into an alternate time zone where distinctions between documentary and fiction, stasis and action slowly dissolve, pic confirms helmer's status as a brilliant but consummately non-commercial artist.
Unlike Diaz's other works, which were carefully constructed over time ("Evolution of a Filipino Family" was nine years in the making -- and 10 hours in the viewing), "Death" sprang fully grown from the ravages of the typhoon in Bicol, where Diaz had lensed several previous films. Thus, the documentary elements could not be described as "interpolated," but rather form the very clay from which the drama (if such slight strands of narrative can be so termed) is molded.
Pic, with its themes of art and madness, is headlined with a quote from Rilke: "Beauty is the beginning of terror." Indeed, the region's Mayon Volcano -- which, under the onslaught of the storm, poured out mountains of rocks and debris, killed hundreds and buried whole towns -- remains one of the most majestic, perfectly cone-shaped structures in nature.
Pic traces fictional famed poet Benjamin Agusan (Roeder Camanag), newly returned to the Philippines from a lengthy stint in Russia. Two of his lifelong friends, a painter/sculptress (Angeli Bayani) and a fellow-poet turned farmer/paterfamilias (Perry Dizon) welcome Agusan home, and the trio starts to hang out together. The three, like everyone in the obliterated village of Padang, lost several close relatives to the natural calamity.
Specters from the past haunt the poet, including images of a beautiful naked woman who turns out to be the girlfriend he left behind who is now interred in his old studio lying somewhere beneath his feet.
Other visions haunting the poet are less explicable, like the nondescript street where the viewer finds himself stranded for stretches as Agusan stalks the Russian woman who left him after their child died.
More disturbing still are scenes of his mother's psychotic breakdown and his father's desperate attempts to drive out the evil spirits with loops of twisted wire hung from trees. Madness stalks Agusan, as death and desolation lie over the land, the nude topmost branches of trees sticking up out of the ground where lush foliage once flourished.
Diaz's stark black-and-white digital compositions frame a landscape so bleak and boulder-strewn, so empty of habitation that it is hard to believe the land was not barren from time primordial. Painful flashbacks to the region's past resurrect a lost Eden. The only thing more shocking than the extent of the damage is the ages-deep acceptance in the eyes of the survivors.
Camera (B&W, DV), Diaz; music, Diaz; production designer, Dante Perez; sound, George Vibar, Laurel Lee Penaranda. Reviewed at Venice Film Festival (Horizons), Sept. 8, 2007. (Also in Toronto Film Festival -- Visions.) Running time: 538 MIN.
Wednesday, October 3, 2007
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