Bing Lao mentors Cebu screenwriters

“When the Student is ready, the Teacher will appear.” – Old Buddhist proverb

CEBU, Philippines - Aspiring and practicing local screenwriters gathered for a three-day writing seminar in early June, which featured classes in screenwriting provided by ufo Workshops and mentored by acclaimed veteran screenwriter Armando “Bing” Lao.

Denis Judilla, creative director of SineBuano (Cebu’s Independent Filmmaking Scene), who was one of six participants, narrated that “in his cadenced, soft-spoken manner of speaking, Sir Bing informed the workshop’s participants that Philippine cinema is coming to an interesting time – being internationally recognized and prized once more.”

However, for Filipino filmmakers to match up or compete with global cinema, particularly the big-budgeted, CG-dependent (or computer-generated) Hollywood machine is a not-so-possible if not impractical undertaking.

According to Lao, the only even playing field is where it matters the most for any film: the Story.

Thus, Judilla said, Lao further stressed that the writer has a role that is just as important as that of the director. “The Auteur Writer creates all the foremost aspects of film production – from acting to production design to cinematography to editing – by writing right every word, every scene, every sequence in the script.”

“And so it is with this mindset that the writer has to be auteur,” Judilla said, “Sir Bing shares the basic and advanced concepts of his Found Story code. A former banking and insurance employee, Sir Bing thrives on process, on systematic approach.”

Participants further learned from Lao that writing for film can be two-fold. First, it’s “intuitive”– great for embarking and latching on ideas, concepts, themes for the story. “However, intuition can only bring one so far, a ‘system’ is required to channel the creative flow into something physical, something that can be shared,” Lao said.

“Your story in mind, into a document to be typed for reading – a script,” he added.

Furthermore, Judilla shared that “as Sir Bing expounds and explains more on his Found Story code, with his class grabbing on his every word and trapping these in their notes, I’ve come to grasp on a simple way to describe Armando Lao’s screenwriting system.”

Judilla said he started recalling the words of Michaelangelo: “Every block of stone has a statue inside it and it is the task of the sculptor to discover it. Every beauty which is seen here by persons of perception resembles more than anything else that celestial source from which we all are come.”

With the Found Story code, Judilla finds Lao to have proclaimed a similar principle – that every thing or person or idea or object, be it actual or perhaps a figment of one’s imagination, has a story; and that it’s up to the writer to find it to its very essential source or form that can be received by the audience as rational, real.

“For Sir Bing, the auteur writer creates ‘story’ in its essential form. Not much on special effects, just the raw stuff. Just like Leonardo da Vinci, ‘Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication’,” Judilla went on.

Lao has a solid, award-winning career writing for TV and Film in the country. He also achieved international acclaim writing notable screenplays such as “Pila Balde”, “Tuhog” and “Kubrador” for Jeffrey Jeturian; “La Vida Rosa” for Chito Roño; as well as the recently renowned films “Serbis” and “Kinatay” for Brillante Mendoza, both of which were screened at the prestigious Cannes Film Festival.

Lao also provided positive creative influence as consultant on Filipino independent films to “Tribu” (Jim Libiran, 2007), “Bakal Boys” (Royston Jover, 2008) and “Jay” (Francis Xavier Pasion, 2008).  Each film earned acclaim and won awards.

On the third night of the workshop, Lao presented his directorial debut “Biyaheng Lupa” which won the Digital Lokal Grand Jury Prize at the 11th Cinemanila International Film Festival.

“So one might say that when it comes to ‘story’, Sir Bing has the fabled Midas touch,” Judilla noted in his blog.

Currently, Lao is working on writing the Found Story manual which he hopes to be published by next year. At the same time, he’s working on his “Mga Pananaw (Perspectives)”, an anthology of nine films based on well-known festivals or occasions in the Philippines.