The announcement of Malacanang last Tuesday that production of movies and TV programs may resume in May but only in areas under the general community quarantine has led filmmaker Erik Matti to worry about the direction of producing film and TV shows.
“Is it enough that as storytellers we just resume our lives and do a version of the top popular hits we saw during this lockdown? Let’s do something like Money Heist but with a bit of Crash Landing on You. Patok yan!!! Or do we do something so original and out there of a story but deep down inside know that no one will bankroll it because no one can see its promise?
“Where do we go from here?”
As part of his post on his Facebook account, Erik admitted that lockdown period has made him realize if he has to continue working for a living and produce random stories just for entertainment. The lockdown period keeps him up all night thinking about the stories that may actually have a greater impact on the audience just like what the Netflix has been offering even before the pandemic COVID-19 disease.
He continued: “Do we all just go back to how we used to be telling random film stories for everyone’s entertainment? And when we are allowed to go back, we will start telling stories that matter. Entertaining still, but matters.”
Though he knew that as soon as the quarantine will be lifted there are far more uncertainties he has to face.
According to Erik, he’s not done with On the Job 2 and tons of pending projects.
“There’s a lot of uncertainty when this is all over. I have yet to finish my shoot for On The Job 2, and we still have pending projects that we can start on.”
Until now, Erik doesn’t have an answer to his quest after the quarantine but there is only one thing he is sure of; to go back to work immediately simply because they need money.
“Where do we go from here? Certainly, we will rush back to work after this long haul because why not? We need the money. But the question is, is it still what we want to do? Deep down inside when we ask ourselves with no regard to earning a living or finishing contracts, what do we really want to do?”
https://www.facebook.com/erikmatti/posts/10157300873981446
On the contrary, ABS-CBN’s former President and CEO Charo Santos-Concio believes that lockdown should have inspired filmmakers and artists to do better than they were before, and never be threatened by the impact of the virus to the audience.
She said: “I don’t think dapat matigil ang value of storytelling, habang nabubuhay tayo, patuloy dapat ang paglalahad ng iba’t ibang kuwento. Hindi tayo puwedeng mabalot ng takot at pangamba. We honor it, but at the same time, harapin natin. Let’s not stop there. Let’s continue looking for solutions and let’s make these bold moves.”
