Tuesday, May 18, 2010

Filipino television directors should go back to film school

I love watching TV Series but the difference between your average TV Junkie and myself is I watch a serial for everything, i.e. the plotline, the acting, the script, continuity, character depth, camera angles, originality.
To add, as much as I am a TV Junkie, there are some that I love and others that I don't. The last Filipino TV Drama that I loved was the Encantadia trilogy. Then after Marky Cielo died 2 years ago, I turned my back on filipino television.

However, living with my grandparents who are very weak in English, catching 10 minutes of filipino TV every night is inevitable, but more often than not, I return to my room wearing a frown and I find myself complaining left, right and dead centre about various factors so I'm gonna lay it all out here.
  1. The Script

    You know those movies that you've watched one time too many that you end up subconciously reciting the lines. That happens to me all the time. The thing is, it's not for the same show. I can predict the lines down to the last word.

    What's more, dialogues run forever, sometimes the lines begin repeating themselves in one form or another.

    -1 Script

    -1 Originality

  2.  The plotline

    With a memory as powerful as mine - very humble Vhie XD - I remember almost every movie and TV series that I've watched. I hate it when I watch something that resembles another. Taking recent series such as The Last Prince and Diva. They've taken plotlines from the Sister Act, various Disney plots, they even threw in some werewolves and vampires, much to my disbelief.

    -1 Plotline

    -1 Originality

  3. Character depth

    Ok, I won't be too mean. I'll give 'em points for building up different characters and sticking to it.

    +1 Character depth

  4. Cinematography

    Filipino series have very very very poor cinematography. They use the same camera angles. Every. Single. Time. They don't make enough use of the obstacles around them. Take a dialogue between two people for example. 90% of the time the camera shifts from one person to the other, and that's it. There are over 30 camera techniques. Why don't they try it sometime, huh?

    Transitions are very blunt, by that, I mean, they NEVER use any other form of transition.

    They can say they don't have the most advanced technology, but you know even that won't be their saving grace. Some of my friends, including myself, have made short films and music videos with various freeware from the Internet, so please stop, at least gimme a believable excuse.

    I'm not even gonna grade that.
Honestly, if you happen to be a filipino director/know one/plan to be one, PLEASE do philippine television some JUSTICE!!

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