There's nowhere to go but up with phone brand HONOR Philippines as they initially teased and confirmed the arrival of AI Portrait Master HONOR 200. What's even better is that they're also giving away an HONOR 200 via their FB Live broadcast this coming July 17 at 7PM. To be sure, you may have the event be alerted on your account via this broadcast link https://bit.ly/HONOR200SeriesLaunch_PR
Aside from the usual hardware, they developed the main camera together with Studio Harcourt so the portrait option would have exceptional quality. Output will be of studio quality. You don't even have to go to Paris to achieve that. Their VP Stephen Cheng recommends this to students, young professionals, content creators who would want quality output.
It's also got AI powered portrait capabilities, something that would change the game in getting flagship phone features and still deliver awesome performance. If you're excited as I am, make sure you save the stream so you wouldn't get left behind!
I took the lovely trip to Cinema 76 at Anonas in Quezon City to see Director Alvin Yapan's latest work called HULAGWAY: Dokyumentaryo ng mga Wika at Kulturang Filipino (A documentary of Filipino Language and Culture) a few days ago. Dr. Yapan was tapped by the National Commitee on Language amd Translation under the offices of NCCA (The National Comission for the Culture and the Arts) to direct this film.
Hulagway means "a portrait" and this film lengthily has taken a look at the person, how one lives, how they communicate with their peers or the community. There are also a lot of metaphorical representation of their struggles, even if they're literally not working with a script, the conversations was molded off how language was used as a tool to enrich lives with stories, songs and poems deeply rooted in culture.
Needless to say, he's a genius when it comes to really complex artsy topics like these and interpreting it for cinema must have been a tall task. His treatment in telling this one is like a documentary. He anchors it with two characters Consuelo (played by Sue Prado) and Robert (which is played by Kalil Almonte). They took the long hard trek to far flung communities in the eastern side of Isabela (up north) and islands off Palawan.
Imagine, they started this in 2018 and had to work together with only 15 other crew carrying with them loads of equipment to capture unadulterated views, communities and the few men and women who still have a grasp of the dying languages Dupaninan Agta and Tandulanen Tagbanua. This is officially the most difficult film Alvin Yapan has ever made, he made mention of this during the talk we had after the screening. Initially, they had planned to include 6/7 of them (dialects/languages) but the material was too precious to cut off the block. It was also a little too tedious as it involved time consuming research, with little information from various universities (mostly from outside the country) who have conducted studies about them in previous years, they roughed the process of filming and took on talking to the few descendants left who still have a grasp of the language. My favorite scene was the boat traversing a line of mangroves in Palawan, they talked about that on the video.
Here's the press conference in two parts where they explained the film and the cause of saving the dialects from these two regions.
During the latter part of the press conference I asked about what concrete plans they have about saving the dying dialect, and they replied that this is just the first step, to become aware, educated, and acknowledge that there is something precious to save.
The plan is to also have this film be viewed by educational institutions to not just prove its existence, but to formulate a way to find ways to have people teach these dialects and pass on to the next generation. To not lose their identity as IP, and celebrate their uniqueness, their differences, which makes them cool. If this sparks efforts to do so not just from the government, but the citizens of this country, then this film made its mark. Make sure to coordinate with NCCA if you want your school to be part of the film's tour in the coming months. There's more languages/dialects to save in the country, and telling their story is essential.
She's lovely, she's funny, she's beautiful, she's artsy, and she's one of the Philippines brightest stars who you often see put out content and photos that are really good. She's also Vivo's Selfie Portrait Master Maine Mendoza, and together with the brand, they're introducing their technologically advanced photo centric Vivo X70 which is co-engineered by lens manufacturer ZEISS, one of the industry's finest.
This phone has ultra sensing gimbal technology to prevent those shaky moments when you take videos and photos. It takes brighter than usual photos, and even better night shots with its Zeiss Superb Night Camera and AI tech that makes it easier for folks to take photos during dark times. It's got more than enough storage and RAM at 12GB+4GB and 256GB. It can also be present at work and play because of its long lasting battery at 4400mAh and 44W quick charge if you need to. The display can do 120Hz refresh rates, so imagine what you can do with games and watching movies, the possibilities are endless! Make sure you watch Maine's videos and other influencers on Vivo's Facebook page.
Vivo also launched their TWS 2e wireless earphones that costs Php 2,999. It's got a pretty good microphone and noise reduction so you wouldn't be hearing much when you're in an important call or Zoom meeting. Vivo will also be doing a Christmas promo soon so follow their social channels if you're looking for a new phone soon. If you want to know more about the vivo X70, you may visit vivoglobal.ph/phone/vivo-X70 because it's all there!
Looks like there's a throng of really good entries in the Vivo VISION+ Mobile Photography Awards 2020. This proves a lot that it doesn't really matter if you're using a DSLR or those old boxes they had centuries ago. This year, they partnered with National Geographic to find the photo or video that would be able to capture and personify individual emotions and humanistic culture. They did this for 2 months and over 135,000 entries from around the world were submitted, and the winner for photo of the year evidently won because of the story. Check out the winners below!
This shot called "Balinese Woman" won Arief Satria the Portrait category. He is a photographer who hails from Indonesia.
This is called "Camping Night with Beloved Friends" shot by Rifqi Moch Lutpi who is from Indonesia. He won honorable mention.
This video is called Opera Watch made by Chen Lei of China. This won the mobile video category.
For the Night category, this one is called "Steelwool with Bridge" shot by Pyae Phyo Aung who hails from Myanmar.
This one is called "Replicate" which is shot by Lin Haibo of China. He won the Memories category.
This
photo called "Daily Life of Four Big Mouth Monsters" wins photo of the
year for 2020. This was shot by photographer Zhang Yu from China.
Now how I wish I could watch the next one this year, perhaps I could join the portrait category and win it for the country. It pays owning a Vivo no? They're really making photography a real priority and I can't wait for more things from Vivo, they probably are making mean machines somewhere there. I wanna see, I wanna see!
This August marks another year to celebrate "Buwan ng Wika", celebrating the country's national language. Did you know that this was put into law during the time of Manuel Quezon? We actually owe a lot to this man and obviously for the great things he's done for the country including our independence from the US.
Just this morning, I was among the few people invited to the unveiling of this gorgeous Fernando Amorsolo painting of Manuel Quezon at the Manuel L. Quezon University Campus in Quezon City. That might be a mouthful, but it's an honor bestowed a great man and rightfully so or we all wouldn't be where we are today without him.
The event was graced by MLQU Executives, Directors, officials, and former Speaker of the House Sonny Belmonte. He's my congressman too and I've been a QC boy all my life. It just is different when you see the actual painting, it's like taking something that is rightfully supposed to be here.
A man that has been honored here and around the world, his body lies in the Quezon Memorial Shrine, but his legacy continues. Bringing home this paintig of the great man to the MLQU Graduate School was just the rightful thing to do. MLQU just transferred this from Manila Campus, to it's new home in Quezon City. I think they are transferring everything here in a few years time. It's an offshoot of MLQU's success and they have the student population has doubled this year. Improvements are also being felt in professional schools, graduate school this semester. This is a mark of their cooperation with various institutions and industries.
Bloomberg has also been offering business courses, local and international business programs, all competency based and will in the end have Bloomberg certificates upon finishing the course. They have been active in doing these for professionals, a lot of companies do this with Bloomberg terminals and they have signed an agreement with MLQU the Bloomberg laboratories open to all that wishes to enhance their qualifications now that people are competing with other countries.
They see the need to compete with that. They will have equivalency programs too. MLQU will offer these programs with international qualifications, getting all these degrees in 4-5 years. They are planning to do this with the thought of being the Harvard of Asia. So for those looking for further studies, they're just here at MLQU beside the MRT Station in Kamuning QC. This is in cooperation with East West Educational Specialists. This is good news. They also have real estate management certifications soon as they partnered with CREBA. MLQU will be tapping Engineering, Academe and everything else soon and not just concentrating in Law which is their primary course. The drive to get their students quality and relevant education.
