Direk Rico to the point

MANILA, Philippines - James Cameron took 12 years to put together Avatar, his 2010 holiday offering. But James Cameron doesn’t live in the Philippines. For his almost forty-minute episode in Shake, Rattle, and Roll XI, titled “Diablo”, local director Rico Gutierrez only had seven days.

“I’m still wondering how I did it,” he says with a laugh.

Just hours after wrapping-up post production, he’s sitting in the very last row of the movie house. Outside, the Megamall Cinemas is in movie premiere mode. Security lines the red carpet, strewn from the front of the ticket booths to the entrance to Cinema 10 like a catwalk for the stars about to descend on us mortals. Cinema 10 is where Shake, Rattle, & Roll XI, a Regal Films entry in the annual Metro Manila Film Festival, is about to make its big debut.

And big is right. The lights are so bright they could take an eye out. Hobnobbing industry insiders are already speculating acting awards. “Walang sinabi yan sa Best Actress,” a bespectacled Ari Gold type says. “For sure, kukunin na yan ni...” Before he finishes, the stars begin to make their way inside the cinema, pandemonium ensuing with each wave and flying kiss. Welcome to showbiz; it’s not Hollywood but it’s pretty darn close.

Through it all, Rico is in his seat, waving at the occasional friend, greeting the usual industry colleagues. He’s cordial but, from my vantage point, a little bit tense. And why wouldn’t he? In this year’s award derby, he has two horses — Shake, Rattle, and Roll XI and Ang Panday, where he served as creative director for visual effects.

It’s a momentous task, directing a third of a big budget movie in a week and then serving as creative director for another blockbuster around the same time. On top of that, Rico was also working on six shows. “I took it as a challenge,” he says today.

Add to that the task of directing a cast of actors from varied backgrounds — from veterans like Gina Pareno and Irma Adlawan to relative newcomers like Maja Salvador. “I just used what I learned from all my teachers,” says Rico, who came from a theater background.

He ended up using different tricks and guides to help him navigate the gargantuan task. “I tried to storyboard most of my scenes (on Shake, Rattle, and Roll) para mas efficient kami lahat.” Shooting eight to ten sequences a day and on P2 cameras, Rico made most of what he had, even enlisting the help of friends to color-grade.

But as I would later learn, short shooting days is not that uncommon in this scattershot industry. What made Rico’s task difficult was his vision. “I didn’t want to use levitating tricks, fire elements, under the bed shots, under the sheet acts that we’ve seen before,” he says. “I won’t give you [the typical] gulat imagery — which is fine — but I wanted more disturbing and odd.”

The credits are rolling on Shake, Rattle, and Roll XI and people are making their way out of the theater, beso-beso-ing the glammed up starlets and industry people literally patting each other’s backs.

“Do you wanna talk outside?” Rico asks. We head out to entrance of the cinema, where random fans are being interviewed (well, encouraging fanatical screaming is more like it) by TV cameras and we sit on the vacated stage.

Showbiz royalty like Ruffa Gutierrez is congratulating him and commending “Diablo”, but when I ask him about his episode, he says, “(It) Can be better but I did my best.” A little bittersweet, a tinge of disappointment.

His eyes light up when he talks about what he did with the film. “I didn’t want to do the usual,” he says. “I tried to put some Pan’s Labyrinth in there.” He even got Tatong Torres, one of the Cultural Center of the Philippines’ thirteen young artists, to help with star Maja Salvador’s horns for her transformation scene.

His dream project is like a tribute to his favorite director Guillermo Del Toro, a local Pan’s Labyrinth with Pinoy creatures. “Suntok sa buwan,” he says. “Oh well.”

Eventually, I realize it’s because he wanted to break the mold with his episode, discard local cinema’s stock horror imagery and revolutionize. After studying everywhere from Parsons School of Design to our very own University of the Philippines, he’s the right guy to do it. But how do you revolutionize a genre in seven days? It’s a moody, atmospheric film that packs enough suspense to satiate horror fans but maybe not a revolution.

At the end of the day, “Diablo” might not be a game-changing, traditon-shattering revolution in forty minutes. But it’s really just about time. Rico will get there and when he does, it’ll be magical. After all, even Earth-bound man made all 239,000 miles to the moon.