Interview: Director Wenn Deramas on Maria Leonora Teresa

We met Director Wen Deramas a few days ago for a short interview regarding his new project with Star Cinema entitled Maria Leonora Teresa. It's a horror flick starring Jodie Sta. Maria, Zanjoe Marudo and Iza Calzado. The film talks about three folks who lost their daughters then started to have them replaced by dolls as therapy. Dolls that were all made into the liking of their own daughters. What they didn't know though was that they were up for a big surprise. They will start to notice that these dolls would later on have a life of their own, literally. Not just that, but they'll start to also have a killing spree, take over their lives, one that would happen when they least expect it.

It was also consequently Direk Wenn's birthday so we started off singing him a tune or two. Star Cinema folks ushered in with a caramel cake as he wished for the film's success. It's going to be pretty hard though to top what he's done in the past as he's got blockbuster films one after another. He's also doing another installment of Praybeyt Benjamin this MMFF season so you have to watch out for that this Christmas. Meanwhile while we were having the blog conference, we asked Direk Wenn about using the name of Maria Leonora Teresa.... he implicitly says that it's not to put an evil mark on his own well loved Maria Leonora Teresa doll of the famous Guy and Pip love team, that wasn't the purpose, that wasn't the thing they did. Maria Leonora Teresa is actually not just one person and he says it's about three little girls. These kids are all good ones, it just happens that the parents couldn't cope up and they were given dolls that were exact replica of the kids. It's not to insult the famous doll, it's not true that they are maligning it. It's even to remember, a tribute... because Direk Wenn Deramas is actually a Noranian too. 

When asked how long the dolls were made, they auditioned the kids first, got the management to approve it first, then molded, in about two months they got the product. Dutch Ledesma does the special effects, her daughter Laura Ledesma did the dolls much like prosthetic. The scary one is Leonora, even in real life she is actually (then he laughed it off). They had to take care of the kids all the time so they needed about 9 kids all in all so they can do the movie. Leonora even asked Director Wenn about a special alphabet... and said D.O.L.E.., they said some numbers too like 163. Director Wenn made sure they took care of them even before they started because of that. Kids didn't have to go through grueling hours of filming because they were really not allowed to. Aside from that, he told us that this project was actually conceptualized early 2005 right after Kampanerang Kuba starred by Anne Curtis. It got shelved because it was really intended as a series and a lot of people didn't know that doing horror films required so much work. They pitched this as a series to ABSCBN's executives and got approved right away. When they did the Susan Roces series, this got shelved and he said he's going to do it after three years. This is his first horror film, he's definitely excited to see it be on screen!

When I asked Direk Wenn how much of it is Computer graphics, he says he barely used that. He was more keen on using actual people and sometimes they had to spend 4 days straight just for one scene. They had limited time and they had to do 188 shots sometimes. It's not easy. He even called the heavens just to make this work. The dolls already had that name when they started but the title of the series then was called The Dolls. He's also happy about the sound because it's very detailed. They do one part in one day, they had quality, checking and all done by renowned Carmina Cuya. We're talking about 5 parts and he had to even do it after the blogcon. Carmina from Roadrunner was really even impressed about it and had so much excitement doing it. Audiences can expect only the best from the film come theaters this September 17, 2014. You will definitely love it he promises, so go and get your family, friends and make it a frightful day to change your viewing habits a bit.

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Krystal Reyes Celebrates Her 18th Birthday!

Krystal Reyes' 18th Birthday

Krystal Reyes still looks so young in this gown made by Jot Losa. The one and only Marian Rivera gave this as a gift for her as it was worn last September 7 in a small gathering of friends and family at the 55 Events Place in Quezon City. Yes, she still seems so young and innocent... but she's already 18, it's time and she's definitely ready to face the world!

Her 18 candles was literally insane and star studded!

Each one of them cried a bucket of tears and still remembers each program they were with on GMA. From Tween Academy, to Munting Heredera, to the reboot of Anna Karenina, to other projects and Carmela, they went on and reminisced how close they got as friends over the years. Some of them couldn't even talk because they were crying profusely. Most of them are really irreplaceable, they're not just good friends... they felt like family to her. They also treated Krystal as their little Sister.

Then she came in too. Ladies and Gentlemen, the Queen Marian Rivera.

Saranghaeyo #EwanKoSau Story Conference

We spent a quaint afternoon with the cast and crew of up coming film Saranghaeyo #EwanKoSau during their story conference at the Belleville Cafe in Scout Tobias in Quezon City. It's an independently produced film but will be released mainstream by Bagong Buwan Artist Collective (New Moon) and Directed by Roman Perez Jr. It's also written by Palanca Awardee En Villasis. 

As you can see, this one's pretty mixed. Artists from different channels like ABSCBN, GMA and TV5 comprise the stars of this movie and it's not often that this happens. Imagine Jon Lucas, Barbie Forteza, Francis Magundayao and Elisse Joson in one project, that just won't happen in normal circumstances but the stations were nice enough to allow them to do this and Director Roman Perez Jr. is really happy about the outcome of their dialogue with the networks. It was hard but when they told them the story and what they wanted to achieve the network wars didn't seem to be an issue at all. 

The producer herself says she is taking a gamble at this because she believes in the individual actors and the Director who has done projects for the different networks in the past. Aside from that, they are putting out a very current story and will delve more into the KPOP Fever that teens nowadays are crazy about and make the characters live in the moment but portray them differently so they can depart themselves with the goody two shoes role they used to see these stars on TV.

John Matthew Uy is also here. He's gone a long way from his Star Factor TV5 days and is juggling around appearances here and there. He was also in the highly successful She's Dating The Gangster movie with Daniel Padilla and Kathryn Bernardo. Joshua Rafael Davis the Yoyotricker and Ultimate Talentadong Pinoy isn't dishing out toys anymore. He's doing good in shows of TV5 and now he's doing this too with compatriots from other networks. He looks good and it seems that he's going to be part of the crew of John Lucas' character in the movie. Obviously we don't have any shortage of talent with this boy and we can only expect he'll be making this an interesting mix of personalities in the movie as Caloy.

Jon Lucas

Jon Lucas who played Dominic in the highly successful series Got To Believe in Magic and Michael in the longest running show Be Careful With My Heart (lol) will play the role of River Mondragon, a highschool hearthrob who's also an achiever and a student leader. He might grow the irk of Barbie Forteza's character later on, I'm sure it won't be helped.

Barbie Forteza

 I love Barbie Forteza in Half Sisters and I watch her everyday. I also have seen her best supporting actress performance in Mariquina that's been lauded by critics. Now that she's in this film, she's going to be very different from that kind cutesy role we often see her with because as she plays Calixta "Kai" Luna, an only daughter that's rich, but hungers for parental love. She's a hard core KPOP fan and falls for River (Jon Lucas' role). She's THE mean girl in school and she's going to make everyone's life miserable. She says this is going to be a challenge for her but says it's something that she wanted to do because she's always the good one on tv programs. She's welcoming the change and wants to see how they would be able to make the character as feared as she was reading it in the script. The character was that interesting so when her home station permitted her to play the character, she grabbed it. They were all hand picked by the way so just imagine this stellar cast on the silver screen soon.

Elisse Joson

I haven't seen her in person before before this event, but we've seen how she did "Bakit Hindi Ka Crush Ng Crush Mo" (Why aren't you the crush of your crush?) last year. I must say, she's really pretty. She also dresses well. Elisse is playing the role of Amanda "Mandy" Martinez. The character will be the best friend of Baste, but later on falls in love with him. We'll have to watch how her character gets beaten up by Kai (maybe) in the film. Will she also be the apple of the eye of Baste too? Well, we need to watch out for that.

Francis Magundayao

Francis Magundayao has worked for both GMA and ABSCBN. In the Kapamilya Network, he's doing several MMK episodes and Wansapanataym (read as Once Upon A Time) episodes. He's also in the hit series "Sana Bukas Pa ang Kahapon" (Wish Yesterday Was Tomorrow) as Sebastian Syquia. He's on that show with Bea Alonzo and Paulo Avelino. His successful projects makes him one of the most bankable young stars in the network and when the opportunity to work with different networks arrived, he said Yes right away. 

It was a no brainer because he always wanted to work with great people from other networks and lauds Barbie Forteza since he watched her shows and movies prior to this. He's also done an excellent job on his current projects and has amassed a good following even on social networks. In this movie, he's playing Sebastian "Baste" Agoncillo. He comes from a very big and happy family. Even if he's poor, he's doing good in school and wants to be a local Shakespeare in the making. 

 

Alwyn Uytingco, Nadine Samonte, Alice Dixson, Eric Quizon and a lot of other actors will also be in the film. These strong personalities and the different lives they make will surely be a great place to start telling the story. They also showed us a couple of locations that they will be shooting in. I sincerely hope they make more of these independently produced films and make the more commercial ones have a run for its money. It's also refreshing to see the combination of actors and actresses since they're not playing and operating in their own stables this time. Let's see how they play this modern day Romeo and Juliet in the Philippines. I'm sure with the tons of successful shows that they've had, it would be easy to make their fan base happy on this KPOP influenced film. Watch it on theaters soon!

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Chef Rosebud and Cheska Kramer Shares Tips On How To Save

I wrote about Electrolux a couple weeks ago about how to save electricity while washing clothes as part of the Electrolux Save & Share Blog Series. It's a campaign vent to have wives and people at home to save money and precious time by making household chores simple and carefree. We also got to interview their advocates Chef Rosebud Benitez and Cheska Garcia Kramer to help us and share their thoughts on saving.

You see, my Sister always had a hard time paying for electricity bills at home. The love we have for her always tells us to help her when she needs it. Our water bill looks a wee bit high too than the usual amount we pay for these past few months. This just means we have to take arrangements in using electricity and water at home. We asked how Chef Rosebud Benitez and Cheska Garcia Kramer about how they do it in their homes and this is what they've got to say.

We often use appliances at home,  sometimes we have a choice and sometimes we don't. How do we save on electricity? How do we save on water? How do we make sure that our utility bills won't spike up?

Chef Rosebud says "We've recently changed all our lights to LED to save on electricity and we make sure that we remove the plug of all appliances not in use. We also just had barrels installed that act as a rain saver to cut down on our water bill."

Cheska on the other hand says "I have a baby and my kids and they always use air conditioning. I’m not so strict with that. Although at night, I really do my rounds. I make sure all the lights are off, all the faucets are closed properly, there are no leaks, at the same time I do the washing of the clothes and ironing of the clothes on schedule. With that, we are able to monitor our electricity and water bill. I’m not the type of Mom that save utilities if it's for my kids. If they need air conditioning, I allow them to.Doug is the one who chooses our appliances but he always consults with me. In our family, we really practice him to be the head of the family. Big decision making and stuff like that, Doug is the one who does the research and at the same time, he will consult me. He’ll tell me “Hey honey, this is what we need to buy” then we’ll think about it.

Although he makes the big decisions, he also relies on my opinion. So when it comes to buying appliances, we always try to look for one that has the energy saving factor. So from our aircons to our refrigerator, because the refrigerator consumes more electricity right? - it has to be an energy saver. This goes the same for our washing machine. So we do really save a lot with our appliances because we consider that before purchasing anything."

It can be a challenging task to save when you have so many things to spend for at home. Why do you think is it important to save? Can you share tips on how people can do this?

For Chef Rosebud, it's quite easy. She says "It's very important to start saving for the rainy days. First thing one needs to do is to list down one's income and expenses, the essentials and non-essentials. Once you are clear about all the essential payments to be made, the next step you need to take is to manage all your expenses in an effective manner."

Cheska advises couples and says "Well for one, we cannot tell what the future holds, right. So that’s why my husband and I, we are really a team. We make decisions together and both our opinions matter so when it comes to saving, we are realistic also with our expenses. We are honest enough to say the exact time for us to buy, or it’s not time for us to be spending. So what we do is we make sure that, of course we have our monthly expenses and then we also set aside for our investment. So when we have enough money, we have the business. We put in in that business of ours and make sure that we are also able to save there to make our business grow. So the money for our business is only for our business. So whatever money that business makes, it only goes back to the business so that it will grow. We also invest in insurances for our children, for their education and health and that also goes for Doug and I. We also get our insurances, we also spoke to a financial planner and through our financial planner, they were able to see what we can set aside from our money so that we can be able to invest in our future and in our children’s future. So hand in hand, Doug and I talk about how else can we save, how else can we make sure that our children’s future is secured. We want Kendra, Scarlet, and Gavin’s future to be secured. So we’re very realistic with our spending. We’re very open to telling each other when time to spend and when it’s not. So that’s when our budget comes in. ‘Coz basically when you’re a married couple, you already know what your budget is. Like in one month, let’s say you probably need a sure amount of P20,000. On top of that, you have to know when to divide it, if it goes to our business or to our investment.

Both have to be realistic and both have to be open or honest to each other when it’s time to spend and not."

I think I can relate much more with Cheska because my Sister doesn't have savings or thought about investments. I think she lacks control over spending and doesn't even prioritize an exact amount when the time comes that they'd have to pay for utilities. She also decides with the people she loves and makes it a point to have specific budgets run on a monthly basis and still have more just for financial stability and freedom. Not to undermine Chef Rosebuds way, she gave us really cool ideas especially on itemizing and listing down expenses versus what we earn because that is as important as any other plan if we want to succeed and save on little things like utility. Those little things over time actually can be a big amount. It goes to show that it is achievable and possible to do it in a Philippine setting. I guess the next thing to do is talk to a financial planner and see how my Sister would be able to save and invest her hard earned money. 

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