There are times in my life when I feel so surreal and perfect that I feel like I am living inside a movie. I know that I don’t have the most exciting life or a superstar exterior but sometimes I wonder what my existence would look like to a cinema audience. I think my life would be one of those sentimental, romantic comedies or those cute ‘90s movies with little kids having adventures. It would be an unpredictable movie; not something planned or scripted. That is pretty much the story of my life. Most of the best moments I have had were the ones that were unplanned, spontaneous fun. My friends and I always find ourselves doing crazy things that we end up turning into videos later. My movie would have no sense of time; every time I’m with my friends, it is as if time stops while we have the time of our lives together. We never really know if it’s 6 p.m. or 2 a.m. when we’re with each other.
Who would the star of my movie be? Well, I’ve never been one to hog the spotlight and neither have my friends. I guess we’d all share the limelight together and have the camera shift to each part of our stories like in the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants movie. The setting of my movie would not be the most beautiful, glamorous place in the world. It would just be an ordinary place that my friends and I would make extraordinary with many happy memories. It would be a simple movie, not meant to wow or confuse the audience with a lot of telenovela moments, but to make them get stuck in a time, that very special time that happens right before you transform into an adult. It is one of the last few minutes, hours, days, weeks, months that you have as a child, and it is the perfect opportunity to do all the adolescent and immature things. Most people live their lives based on what they see in the movies, television and other forms of media. Our lives should dictate media, not the other way around. It is up to us to make the movies for our lives.
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With the ongoing Cinemanila and Quentin Tarantino in town, it seems like the whole of Metro Manila is suddenly going gaga over movies! I don’t blame them. With the thrilling array of unusual films showing at Gateway Plaza, the excitement is contagious. Camille and I went there last Saturday, but to our disappointment, tickets to the show we wanted to watch were sold out!
It was an experience to be there, though: staring at the intriguing movie titles and looking at the posters, trying to figure out what the stories were all about. We started to imagine what our own lives would be like as movies. We left the cinema starry-eyed, thinking what we’d put on the big screen if we had the chance.
If my life were a movie, the first thing you’d notice is that you’d never see any of the characters’ feet. You’d get a sense that the camera’s perspective was always in the clouds. To the viewers’ extreme annoyance or delight, you’d get an idea of what it would be like to look through the eyes of the tremendously absentminded director.
A hundred other little details would be lost also. The elements of the setting would change erratically. A clock would appear where there was no clock before. Suddenly the fur rug would be pink, then gray, then a smooth, dark black. You’d never be sure what color it was originally. You’d have the liberty of naming it whatever you thought was most romantic.
My movie’s plot would drive producers crazy. It would be extremely indecisive. The problem would be that I’d try to cram as many subplots into my movie as possible. “Everybody has a story,” my movie’s tagline would say, “and I need to tell them all.”
The characters in my movie would all have big smiles and be dressed in ‘50s Pleasantville-style clothing with flipped-up bobs or polished crew cuts. My main character would talk to one of these Brady Bunch cut-outs and suddenly their voices would change from politely pleasant to a strange music all their own. You’d notice an odd mole or a shock of pink hair or a twitching eye where you never saw any of that before. They’d walk away completely different, but still loveable characters. “The only normal people in the world are the ones you don’t know would be the other tagline.”
I’m laughing at what I’ve written because I think it’s pretty obvious that my movie wouldn’t do very well. A movie should appeal to at least a handful of other people — besides yourself! I think I’ll leave this whole movie-making thing to the experts. Anyway, it looks like there are a lot of great movies I’ve been overlooking right here in my own backyard. I’ve never been interested in the Filipino movie industry but all this excitement has inspired me to take a second look.