Unsung thoughts

102.2

Passion and dreams holds no boundaries as long as you have the courage to chase them. But we can’t make it out there without each other’s gifts… we are part of a small ship that sails forward. Let’s continue the journey…

43. After graduating from 2D animation, we were waiting for a lot of job promises about animation but we felt there might be some delay.

44. So, we thought of making a big project that would highlight our talents and passion for our culture…we thought about animation of Pintados de Pasi of Passi City, Hirinugyaw of Calinog, Kahilwayan of Sta. Barabara and many others.

45. But I suggested something that would capture the real heart of the Ilonggos…that’s when the idea of Dinagyang animation came into my head.

46. Though everyone was not yet serious about it still some of us expressed interest in making that dream a reality.

47. But to start everything… we need a good story, great ideas and anything that has to do with good animated presentation.

48. So the best way for me to get a good story is to approach people from Iloilo Dinagyang Foundation in the person of Mr. Ben Jimena, the executive director.

49. Upon meeting him in his office, he instantly introduced his article about his personal interpretation of the historical validity of Dinagyang through Christianity and Sto. Nino.

48. Though the article was too long, it clearly expressed the connection of the legendary Barter of Panay in 13^th century when ten Bornean datus arrived in Panay Island and made an agreement with the local Aetas.

49. The next historical event mentioned was when Ferdinand Magellan arrived in the Philippine in 1521 with his Spanish crew. They anointed the locals of Cebu in Christianity…and left the image of Sto. Nino as a gift.

50. The last historical event was when the Sto. Nino replica was brought to San Jose Church in 1968 which started the devotion to the holy child and the next thing is…Dinagyang was started as a festival.

51. Upon receiving a copy of the article from Mr. Ben Jimena, the rest of the group held important meetings to jumpstart the project.

52. Mr. Paul Penuela, one of our animation instructors during the training volunteered to draft the story of the Dinagyang animation.

53. Since the article focused more on the historical narration, I realize that it might be boring to tell that story so I thought of something better that would give a heart to our project.

54. That’s when I thought about Sto. Nino personified as a little boy full of dreams and innocence walking among us.

55. I suggested at the beginning of the story, there should be an orphan little boy named Nino who loves watching a Dinagyang tribe practicing days before the festival at Plaza Libertad.

57. When the rain suddenly pours, he will run across the street towards San Jose Church where he will meet the parish priest that will tell him about the origin of Dinagyang.

58. I guess the heart of the story is Nino himself… as a boy and as the young messiah who loved the world so much.

59. For one whole afternoon, our creative ideas merged…me, Dado and Sir Paul finally made the final script of The BEQUEST based in Jimena’s article.

60. Sir Paul’s hesitation to pursue the visual and artistic presentation of the project through animation might be impossible for us to finish it in time with a public showing after 60 days (third week of January).

61. The fact that we were more than 20 animators who will work for the project seemed to be an impossible task. Unlike other mega-budgeted full-length animated film, it takes hundreds and thousands of animators to finish it more than a year or more.

62. So we decided to combined both Japanese and Western standard in animation to save time and effort.

63. We even used camera panning style (or camera movements) to tell the story and focus the animated scenes in the important parts of the story.

64. When The BEQUEST was shown at SM Cinema 7 on the evening of January 25 this year, we were surprised to see more than 500 curious friends, colleagues, kids, students and lots of fellow Ilonggos who came to see our significant project.

65. Honestly speaking there was a little bit of audio problem during the presentation of the film that occurred due to wrong volume adjustments from the laptop we used which connected to the projector and flashed in the cinema screen (such problem didn’t occurred during a trial presentation a week earlier).

66. Amid the low volume, people couldn’t help it but gave a warm applause on the film’s opening scene...they expressed their appreciation for the stunning visuals they saw even if it’s a just low-budgeted animated project.

67. The next thing we know after the film showing, people we’re coming over to congratulate us. They were telling us that we’re brave enough to create such simple project from scratch but made out of our own sweat and artistic gifts.

68. In February, we held a repeat showing of The BEQUEST for four days at WVCST Ed Tech Center as a request from various schools who wanted to see the film including Central Philippine University and Iloilo National High School.

69. One of the great moments after the repeat showing was when a group of students from CPU asked us to pose for picture taking and autograph signing as remembrance for the first Ilonggo animators who made the very first animated (short) film in Western Visayas. “Wow, we we’re like celebrities”, Racil used to joked about it every time she remembers that moment.

70. Amid the sharp and straight-forward criticisms of some UP students during the Animation and Comics Convention last February at UP Iloilo, they were silenced when The BEQUEST trailer was shown at the end of the convention… I think they refrain from commenting since the convention speaker himself hailed us with the visual artistry we did with the film amid our amateur trainings in 2D or 3D animation.

(to be concluded)