Make it happen

MANILA, Philippines - The mobile phone has done more than just offer the convenience of instant telecommunications. You can send text messages, surf the Internet, access social networking services, take pictures and even record short videos. These multimedia capabilities have enabled the rise of mobile filmmaking, a medium that empowers people to create their own video masterpieces — and they don’t even need a fancy film school degree to achieve it.

Helping unleash people’s creativity and their potential is Nokia with its 2nd Cinemaiksi Filmmaking Competition.

With the theme, “As It Happens”, participants were tasked to do a one-minute short film using a Nokia mobile device. At stake was a trip for two to Hong Kong to attend the Hong Kong Independent Short Film and Video Awards, P50,000, and two Nokia N97 devices.

“We began this whole idea because we wanted to find a creative expression or use for our Nokia N series devices,” said Sandeep Khanna, marketing head, customer and market operations for Nokia (Philippines), Inc. “We wanted to showcase what the product can do. We wanted to find new uses for it – more than the usual. At that time, mobile filmmaking was starting to catch the fancy of the creative people in the ad industry. So, it was a good fit for us to talk to them about this (competition) and basically allow them the opportunity to use our devices in new ways.”

Twenty-nine teams from different ad agencies joined the contest and out of that, five were chosen for the finals at this year’s PAC on Nov. 21 during the Ad Congress’ Araw Awards at Subic Bay.

“We saw 29 excellent entries and to whittle them down to five was a challenge. The quality was first rate. It was a tough call but I think we have five excellent contenders right now. We hope to get some great content from them,” said Khanna.

At the end of the competition in the Ad Congress the film Make Believe by Micheline Rama and Patricia Lavandelo from Media Contacts Philippines won the grand prize. A special jury prize was awarded to the film Handmade by Pilar  Dollano and Spiro Andrew Barroga from Dentsu philipines

Before the competion, Nokia held a workshop for the finalists at MyCinema Greenbelt 3 with no less than award-winning director Brilliante Mendoza and scriptwriter Lilit Reyes who offered tips on how to direct and write scripts for short films.

Mendoza relates, “(These short form films) are effective in a way because these participants are from the advertising industry. You must tell your story in one minute and so far, magandang practice yun sa kanila because, dito sa advertising, you have to tell your story in 15, 30 and at the most, 45 seconds. Very rare na ang 60 seconds sa mga TV commercials. If they can come up with a perfect one-minute short, eh di ang ganda, diba? Imagine, telling your story and what you really want to say in one minute. Napaka-challenging and, at the same time, rewarding.

Mendoza goes on to make a comparison of the competition to the growth of independent cinema. “Ganoon nga ang nangyayari ngayon sa independent cinema, diba? Anybody can do their own film, which is a good sign. I don’t have anything against that. Kahit hindi ka talaga nag-aral ng film, but if you’re really willing to learn about the craft, why not? Film is not limited to those who went to film school. If you want to make (a film) just for fun, why not? As long as you know your objective.”