Sunday, December 25, 2011

All I want for Christmas is the Director's Cut


 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Everybody pauses and stares at me
The Director's Cut is gone as you can see
I don't know just who to blame for this catastrophe!
But my one wish on Christmas Eve is as plain as it can be!

All I want for Christmas
is the Director's Cut,
the Director's Cut,
see the Director's Cut!

Gee, if I could only
have The Director's Cut,
then I could wish you
"Merry Christmas."
It seems so long since I could say,
"Action movies are so good!"
Gosh oh gee, how happy I'd be,
if I could only see it (shhhh, shhhh, I'm watching)!

All I want for Christmas
is the Director's Cut,
the Director's Cut,
see the Director's Cut.

Gee, if I could only
have the Director's Cut,
then I could wish you
"Merry Christmas!"
 
Please sign the petition: LET OUR ASIONG GO!!! 

4 comments:

rico said...

Hi, Noel. Was drinking till the break of dawn with a bunch of manly filmmakers the other night, and this topic was a big part of the conversation. Understandably so, a lot of the guys were staunchly siding with direk Tikoy on this matter. Without necessarily taking a side, let's be honest, this type of thing happens in the industry day in and day out, every second of every day. My question would be, what about the other films, whose original content/shape/forms were just as mangled or altered, and yet whose author-filmmakers remained tightlipped, choosing to just bite the proverbial bullet, respecting the "tacit" agreement between director and producer that, in the case of a million dollar budgeted project, the second you sign on the dotted line automatically means you will have several "Gods" that you will need to please? Wouldn't this put the brakes on an already wobbly Pinoy movie industry, if every filmmaker screamed bloody murder every time a director and his/her producer couldn't come to terms with a creative or commercial compromise?

Again, I do not want to take sides. I'm from the school of thought where directors and producers can fight tooth and nail, and scratch and claw, jab and brawl, in PRIVATE, but, respecting the fact that a film consists of several other contributors --such as DP's, PD's AD's, writers (plus investors!)-- the "parents" of the film have to find a way to get along or risk maiming the horse that pulls on the carriage.

A perfect example of who respected this industry "truism" was direk Joey Gosiengfiao. He was a staunch advocate and supporter of independent-minded, visionary filmmakers through Good Harvest. But the flip-side to his character was that he was a ruthlessly efficient "soldier-producer" to Mother Lily. When my DUGO was triple X'd by the MTRCB, Mother then ordered him to excise every nude and gory scene and re-request a GP rating from the censors board. I was exhausted at that point and asked that I be excused from participating in yet another re-edit. Direk Joey told me with a straight face, "Are you sure? Because I will butcher your film if you're not there." And he did! But he was totally honest about it and, in the long run, I respected that about him.

Direk Joey also shot the additional sex scenes in HUBAD SA ILALIM NG BUWAN because Lav refused to do so. Go ask Lav.

But that didn't stop us from having a long-running friendship and professional relationship with direk Joey. In fact, during his burial, Lav and I were the only filmmakers there in attendance.

I watched ASIONG in the cinemas. It was a lot of fun. You can see/feel there's some arm wrestling going on between the styles-- iconic vs. realistic biopic. But if you're looking for a macho, testosterone-fueled, Pinoy action fest (with a heavyweight cast!), this is the MMFF movie for you.

PS: Sorry for the rambling post! Happy 2012!

Noel Vera said...

Maybe. But then there's that moment where Joey looked at you and leveled with you. According to Tikoy, they never did this with him.

It'll happen. There's bite the bullet (and you were at the start of your commercial career) and then there's time to dig in the heels. Both kinds of dramas will happen.

rico said...

Good answer. Sorry again for the long post. Hope direk Tikoy gets his wish (it sounds like an expensive process though).I should also add that direk Joey G. did argue in my/our behalf, but once he saw the writing was on the wall, it was forward with the marching orders. You know the drill, he he.

Noel Vera said...

I don't know. ER claims it'll take two million for a director's cut; Aguiluz explained in detail that it'll take at most half a million or even as low as 150 thousand. That doesn't sound so bad. I mean, the budget is 75 million.