fruit

Food, on the other hand, is more pleasant to shoot, though the discipline of food styling takes more than just an eye for what looks right.

Soon, Marc and I will have to get a stylist kit, complete with droppers, tongs, gloves, scooper, spritzer and all the necessary junk to make stuff like ice cream (using mashed potatoes) and so on.

Bok, one of our designers, had a field day with his food shoot for our culinary studio client – and his perk was that everything could be eaten afterwards.


mountain denied

Feeling like the Joseph (and Mary), I tried to get rooms for next week’s projected trip to Baguio. I called a gazillion hotels of varying pedigrees but everyone was fully booked because of the Ad Congress.

So we cancelled the shoot and plan to go to other malls our client owns around the country instead. In a way I am happy because I don’t need to go insane from the overland trip and my separation anxiety with Sage is nullified. But part of me was also looking forward to just getting away from the city (though of course everyone in the ad biz would have been in Baguio so la de dah) and picking up some ube and strawberry jam from Good Shepherd, as well as finally going to Café By The Ruins.

Some other time then. I need to think about planning a series of aerial shoots in a helicopter.



siglo

As we enter the homestretch, I am simply floored by the quality of work the Siglo creatives have submitted.

Vin and I are absolutely delighted by how things turned out, especially since it is only in the final editing process that we see all the stories side by side.

Look at the line-up, and keep in mind that all the stories are about freedom.

We start off in Jolo, down in southern Mindanao, during the 10’s and the fall of Bud Bagsak, the last Moro stronghold. I have a little abecedarian story about language illustrated by Andrew Drilon.

Next we visit Panay in the 20’s, where Nikki Alfar and Marco Dimaano tell us about a self-proclaimed Filipino emperor through the eyes of his wife.

Cebu is the next stop in the 30’s where a vaudeville magician experiences a certain epiphany, as told by Jason Banico and Honoel Ibadolaza.

Gerry Alanguilan takes us into the war-torn 40’s Laguna and into the personal struggle of one man against what seems to be his family doom.

An impending marriage in Chinatown is the backdrop of Elbert Or’s 50’s nuanced story about duty and choice.

Arnold Arre takes us into a barbershop in Baguio City during the 60’s, and from there into the distant future.

Honoel Ibardolaza tells a quiet story set in Negros during the Marcos years.

Vin Simbulan takes us to Batangas in the 80’s, where love takes second place to parental will, illustrated by Elbert Or.

San Juan is the location of Marco Dimaano’s take on escapist freedom and a wish for a better world – all in the 90’s.

And finally, Andrew Drilon ends the anthology with his meditation on the need for an oasis in the midst of the noise of the Naughts.

Patience, camel. You will see it soon.