Trippin’ with MTV

Perhaps you’ve been seen another billboard light up our "city of billboards," Metro Manila. Among the roster of billboards touting the beautiful faces of Gretchen Barretto, Lea Salonga, and the likes, come another billboard with the faces of MTV’s four mainstay VJs: Donita Rose, Sarah Meier, Belinda Panelo and KC Montero.

As the major MTV Philippines billboard along EDSA, it screams "Sama Ka Na" (in English, "Come Along")! On the billboard, the MTV VJs Belinda, Sarah, and Donita are seen pulling KC towards them, as he reaches out to the gorgeous women surrounding the billboard.

Says Rod Nepomuceno, MTV Philippines marketing and communications director, "Through the ‘Sama Ka Na’ campaign, we wanted to bring MTV closer to the hearts of the Filipino, that MTV is a distinctly Filipino brand. ‘Sama Ka Na’ is an invitation to the Filipino audience to tune into MTV Philippines. Although we air many foreign programs, we also have a good number of locally produced shows. Many of our music videos are foreign, but we also play music videos by our Filipino artists. We have given MTV a touch of Filipino flavor, and ‘Sama Ka Na’ encapsulates this."

To get ready for the shoot, the crew and marketing group gathered early on Saturday morning, May 18 and proceeded to Toto Labrador’s studio where the make-up artist Lala Flores and stylist Donna Cuna-Pita met us along with MTV DJs Donita Rose, Sarah Meier, KC Montero and Belinda Panelo. It was a packed house, along with several assistants, MTV production and marketing interns, the group totalled to nearly 50 people all who came to work on the ‘Sama Ka Na’ campaign.

After Donita picked out outfits for the four VJs, the crew got ready to shoot as photographer Toto clicked away to showcase the VJ’s camaraderie and personalities on cam.

Different situationers were shot for two buses in the Metro Manila area, and a billboard — all screaming to the public, "Sama Ka Na!"

Sarah went first — MTV"s very own supermodel and a pro in her own right after being featured in numerous fashion magazines. Sarah opted for casual, downtime wear: she chose capris and a striped shirt to go along with her sneakers. She shot her sequences in only twenty minutes, all the while smiling sweetly.

Next came Belinda, who arrived fresh from a vacation. She chose to wear jeans and a one-dimensional striped top to show off her golden tan. She too knew how to charm the camera, with her natural comedic talent and her fresh seductiveness coming through. Belinda gamely agreed to hang from a pole with her legs on the air.

It was KC’s turn, and after trying on numerous shirts (that seemed to be one sizes too small). He finally found a bright yellow top to wear over a white undershirt and jeans. The natural MTV clown, KC pretended to hang from a bus while making the group burst out laughing.

Finally, it was Donita’s turn, who posed for us in a capped sleeve striped shirt, a hat, and jeans. It was her turn to act like a conductor on a bus while holding out her hand to bring Belinda, Sarah, and KC along with her. She too finished quickly while flashing her signature sweet smile.

The rest of the shoot proceeded quickly as the MTV group shot alternative scenes and had the VJs change into four different outfits each. The highlight of the show was when the VJs posed for the "Sama Ka Na" billboard, because finally the work we had done had finally culminated! The group broke out into a fresh round of applause. After 10 hours to shoot different situationers, solo VJ shots, and links for an episode of Be Seen, finally everything had materialized, and MTV’s "Sama Ka Na" campaign will be aired on Sept. 5 at 7:30 p.m. on Be Seen @ mtv on MTV Philippines Channel 41 on Free TV, Sky, and Home Cable and on Channel 45 on Destiny Cable.