Reality bytes on 'HP Space'

I still remember my first. A little blurry, though — the print, I mean — but to a 13-year-old in 1997, the HP Deskjet 850C sure changed the way I looked at things. One day, I discovered that search engines were genies that could bring me E.R. cast bios and Internet porn; the next, I could actually print all this — and in color, at that.

So thanks to that 850C and my ol’ Mac LC 575, I’d become an entrepreneur in the 7 th grade, peddling Playboy printouts of Pam and Anna Nicole for P20 a pop. Until my desk had been raided by a suspicious English teacher, that is, and HP made it possible for my clients to do away with their dealer. But hey, the world was changing fast.

Hp Spaced-Out

Consider, then, my decision to join the “HP Space Creativity Challenge” advertised in October my way of giving back. Of course, there were about 16,000 other people who thought they’d do the same after catching contest details on Star World and Channel (V), but then I never got around to my audition video thanks to a bad case of facial herpes.

Plucked from around Southeast Asia, however, were 16 people who had faces and skills they could present on HP’s reality TV contest. US $50,000 and a job on the Hollywood live-action film rendering of anime The Bubblegum Crisis dangled above contestants’ heads; the same heads that butted or came together on eight one-hour episodes that urged such creative tasks as turning a stark hotel room into an icono-Asian space of Starck-like modernity, putting a Japanimated short film together, or designing a DKNY-inspired laptop sleeve.    

Battle Reál

You’ve got to hand it to HP for commanding utmost creativity on this endeavor; and not just by spurring it through the future-at-your-fingertips technology they provided contestants with for each challenge. I recall MTV attempting a SEA-based reality show in the late ‘90s — It’s My Life, I think it was called — which did nothing but exhibit Asians’ awkwardness with the cameras. It disputes HP Space as “Asia’s first original reality television series” but it sure looks as if its cast has been schooled on the character-driven ways of Project Runway.  

There’s a lot more getting “real” when you’ve got to work creative differences out with other artists. What emerged, apart from all the seamless visuals and slick concepts was a lot of attitude from our Asians. Occasional F-bomb dropping from the resident Korean, a little spit swapping between an Indonesian hottie and a Thai guy, and an abundance of shit-talking that ranged from mildly racist (Chinese girl freaked out by an Indian dude) to concentrated douchiness from the “Simon” of the show, judge Ban Yinh Jheow.

Most everyone was able to get creative in front of the camera as good reality TV should show, and as I’d also witnessed when HP flew me in for the show’s finale. After a last challenge where the top three finalists were given three days to shoot a music video for a top Asian band, host Paula Ali announced Aussie-Singaporean art director David Tang as the winner of HP Space. Filipino music video vet Raffy Francisco (he’s 37) may have had the “most polished” video and Chinese design student and chick favorite Lora Lee had a “cute, interesting use of technology” according to judge Ban, but David, he explained, “had the best idea.”

“Guys, I need you to keep mingling — just keep hugging,” the director ordered Space’s cadets onstage, the tension visible from having the most underwhelming of the three finalists bag the prize. 

“He’s so untalented, just riding on the backs of people,” Filipina contestant and walking conversation piece Adrienne Vergara said of Tang after all that orchestrated mingling and hugging. “David is f*cked. I’m not impressed at all.”

Ah, you can always count on the artists to express themselves well. ‘Course, I was also counting on finalist Raffy Francisco to get creative with his post-loss wordplay and tell me what he plans to do with his 15 seconds of fame. As judge and acting “Paula” Sean Cummins mentioned, “It’s interesting what reality television turns you into.”

With the cameras around, were you more revved or restrained?

RAFAEL FRANCISCO: Me, personally, I just do whatever I wanna do. I’m used to being around cameras, just behind them. I’ve made music videos for, you name it—Barbie’s Cradle, Sarah Geronimo—nagawan ko na yan. In front of cameras, I tend to just be louder than usual.

And you’re okay with viewers thinking you were arrogant?

Talaga! No, I really am ‘cause my ideas…I feel strongly about them. Even in the last challenge, I stuck to my guns. Marami ditong plastic…anyway, kasama na ako dun (laughs). Number one na siguro.  

Tell us about the last challenge and how you went about it…

The brief was to interpret a song using touch and feel ‘cause what HP wanted to promote was a touch screen. May ginawa akong kwento where there’s this prom queen that everyone wanted to touch and feel but she had a Midas touch. Anyone she touches, bumabaliktad ang mundo. If you watch the video, you’ll see them walking in Orchard Road forward, everyone else is walking backward. And there’s a lot of skateboarding shots because it’s a skateboard-punk video.  

What have been your influences since way back when?

I think pinaka-major influence ko na movie, sadly, is Wayne’s World. It’s about ordinary individuals but because meron silang camera sa bahay, they were able to reach out to people through their cable TV show.

Says a lot about you and this show. But the judging wasn’t too justified, huh?

If you ask me, and there are other filmmakers in the group, a lot of people think that I’ve won. But judging is subjective, eh. We actually showed the video last Saturday night at one of the pubs in Singapore and people flocked to me afterwards to tell me mine was the best one. But that’s masa — 21-year old teenagers. For me, that was really the essence of winning this competition. However, Sean Cummings on the first day said not to fear not winning this thing because in all reality shows, people who don’t make it on top have a better afterlife.

How’s that afterlife looking, then?

Sabi ko, ‘Paano ako sisikat? Sana may reality show na kumukuha ng panget.’ So ito na yun. And now the producers have been kind enough to offer me a job on The Bugglegum Crisis as 2nd unit director — which is big ‘cause it’s a Hollywood production. I also wanna do this thing called Pinoy Door-to-Door where one Filipino, nakikitira sa mga Filipino abroad. Kung seaman ka, matutulog ako sa bunk mo. Bahay ni Nora Aunor? Titira ako dun. Kasi yun ang kultura ng Filipino, diba? Pwede kang makitira. At the end of this whole two-month thing, makes you realize kung ano ka ba and do more of what you want.