Minugbo: A Forum on Contemporary Visual Media

This was the poster for the film and photography seminar I attended as a speaker at the CAFA Theatre of my Alma Mater, The University of San Carlos, earlier in the year. However, unlike most peoples’ presumptions I did not graduate with an Art degree! So the only time I was frequently at the College of Architecture and Fine Arts (read: CAFA) building was for film showing or to attend dreaded Filipino class (it was the hardest subject for me in college!).

Too early in the morning? lol, to be a student again~

First up was Jiji who was so entertaining to listen to! She speaks very candidly and really represented the bisaya filmaking scene best. She talked about the Cebuano film making scene compared to the Tagalog films, a short history about how it all came to be and the classic masters of this industry. I learned a whole lot about it (because I never even knew there was actually a Cebuano film scene in the first place) and it was very interesting to listen too. Jiji makes it all enjoyable because of her humor, so the students were laughing all the way. Totally opposite of how the photo is above!

Have you watched any Cebuano films?

After me was Diem who talked about the technicalities of writing for films. I think it was more on how to write screenplay and all the textual stuff that needs to be done in filmmaking. Perhaps this was the most useful part for aspiring directors, screen writers and those who wanted to join the Minugbo Short Film Contest.

So here’s mine. Honestly, I am not as humorous as Jiji or as technically-inclined as Diem so I hope I didn’t bore the students back to slumping on their chairs.. Haha! I introduced myself and talked about my personal influences. In the photo below, you can see Cleopatra’s Blood Siren because I was showing my photostories as a timeline. I wanted the students to see how my work evolved from when I first picked up a camera until today, that if they thought my photography was good it’s because I practiced and took so many photos to constantly improve. With each photostory I talked about the inspiration behind it and the characters I wanted to portray.

And I let them listen to the main inspiration behind my favorite photostory Requiem for a Dream by playing Lough Erin Shore. I never ever get tired of listening to this piece. It’s my ultimate favorite along with the theme from Caravan. When I’m doing random work in my room I listen to violin pieces on Youtube. I don’t personally play any musical instrument myself, but music is so beautiful and universally transcending! It just tugs my heart strings~ Lately I am obsessed with this Tchaikovsky piece as played by Hilary Hahn, on rewind.

Here I am now talking about the Elements of a Photostory, what you need to know to visually storytell and some tips for first timers. If you’ve missed this talk and want to actually know about it, don’t worry. My former IT teacher has just made an informational website that’s aimed to help others in photography, coding and video. I’ll be one of the contributors for photography so this talk about photostories will be up eventually.

The real forum begins by answering students’ questions 🙂

And then I got a certificate and a gift!!

Happy me, no need to be nervous anymore since the talk’s finally over! Haha

A photo of all of us and the organizers. Thank you to my former Humanities teacher Miss Cindy Velasquez and Sam Nervez for inviting me. It was an honor, and an experience I won’t forget. I hope everyone left inspired and taking something new. ^^

I still got to answer some questions that didn’t make it in time during the forum. And some students took photos with me~ :3 It was the first time that I really felt and realized that my photography reached quite a number of people I didn’t know. Usually it’s more of a virtual appreciation that I get but it’s really different when people you don’t know come up to you to personally tell you they love what you create. I was really happy seeing them inspired and happy from my talk! T_T *touched*

So if I’m in all these pictures, who in the world took them?? My former workshop student and friend, Rae Cabradilla, who woke up early despite having no classes in the morning to come to school just to attend my talk! Thank you so much, Rae! 🙂 She’s a talented photographer as well who just recently opened her own business – please check out her works at CameRae Photography!