The OFWs through the eyes of a filmmaker – Brightly

The director who did an excellent production design in Oro Plata Mata speaks of his latest TV directorial job with concern.

No, the project is not a sitcom nor is it a cultural telenovela (Cebu, Boracay), but a weekly series on overseas Filipino workers called OPTV (Overseas Pinoy Television).

Don Escudero considers this a good break from doing movies which he did enjoy except for some occasional frustrations. "There are other stories waiting to be told but we seem to rehash the same plots over and over again. But OPTV are stories of real people and a portrait of a real life abroad."

With a magazine format, the program zeroed in on both land-based and sea-based overseas workers.

In a segment called Taiwan Express, OPTV described the profiles of Taiwan-based Filipinos and featured tips on how to land and keep jobs there. There is a segment called Job Page where viewers can actually inquire about job vacancies by texting. Statistics took second fiddle as the mini-documentary touched on two overseas workers who fell in love and got married soon after.

It is a heart-warming tale of overseas workers seldom touched by the print media.

Fittingly enough, one of the emcees of the show with Mariel Laxa is himself a former overseas worker – Richard Merk who used to sing in the Middle East.

Says Escudero, "What we like to emphasize is that Filipinos abroad are doing well and living a good life. We have been going through the statistics and we found out that the negative things about their life abroad happen to not even five percent of Filipinos living abroad. Of course there are depressing stories about overseas workers which you can’t avoid. But at the same time, we managed to maintain a balance in the program in favor of the positive side. We already know the negative side but are not too aware of the positive side. We have to use our discretion because we are also against exploitation of workers and we don’t want to be accused of exploiting negative stories just for the sake of sensationalism."

The director points out that in the process of researching and shooting OPTV, he actually stumbled on the fact that Filipinos abroad have a very good reputation among foreign employers.

He adds, "Like in the Middle East, they say they really like Filipino workers and they respect them and in many ways look up to them. In some sectors of Taiwan, Filipino workers are the first priority. It is nice to discover these things because in the past many years, we have been so down on ourselves and we do need this discovery to make ourselves feel good as well."

Well, the negative side Escudero had to address very slowly and in his own words, step by step. For example, they have come across a family whose parents are all abroad and the eldest in the brood is only 13 and they are all staying with their aunts and uncles and grandparents.

And of course they all go abroad for one familiar reason: "Para makaangat ang pamilya ko."

The search for good employment abroad usually turns awry for some reason or another.

The basic reason is that they did not know how to take care of themselves.

Continues Escudero: "Some of them left without paying attention to the briefing or they did not read the fine print. What we want to do in this program is to make them aware of the rules and the requirements so that they can cope better with their new-found jobs. You don’t have to hack your last carabao just because you want to go abroad. In some cases, you don’t have to pay so much for processing because there is a limit to what they are supposed to pay. What I am saying is that by making people aware of these things, they get to be informed and forewarned about some fly-by-night recruitment agencies."

And yet Escudero didn’t want to come up with a mere briefing video.

He is aware that viewers can get bored and can swiftly press their remote and turn to another program in another channel.

On the other hand, he is also aware that television audiences are getting younger and younger and so in some segments of OPTV, he has to be hip about certain treatments of the episode.

Manny Castañeda is the head writer and the voice of the show.

Escudero and Castañeda have to structure the show in such a way that it is as entertaining as possible. "We are up against the remote apparatus and when the viewer gets bored, you are out of the picture tube. And so we are really conscious that we have to present the show in a very entertaining way."

Modern technology certainly helped him achieved his goal.

For instance, he finds the new videocam so unobtrusive; at certain points during shoot, the subjects forget that there is a camera. His dream documentary is to use this videocam to shoot a ship crewed by Filipinos and follow them around the world.

What special trait of OFWs did he rediscover in doing this newly launched TV show?

"On the whole, what I confirmed is that they are competent, hardworking and decent people who are willing to go through so much sacrifice and pay a huge cost just to be able to support their families. It is a very strong Pinoy trait and that one I think comes across very strongly in my first episode."

In the near future, the director, who has been involved in filmmaking for the last 25 years (as director, assistant director and production designer) dreams of doing a movie based on the life of conductor Herbert Zipper, one of the pioneers of the Manila Symphony Orchestra.

He concludes, "Directing is actually like conducting with your script as your musical score."

(OPTV airs every Monday from 11 to 12 p.m. over RPN 9).