Shooting “Portal 40”
MORE than the awards “Portal 40” brought home during the Sinulog Short Film Festival, director Philip Lapinid IV is dedicating his entry to his grandfather, who died two years ago.
“The moral of the story is to tell people how much you love them before it’s too late,” said Philip in his acceptance speech after their entry was named as the Best Story during the awarding ceremony held at Cinema One, SM City Cebu last Saturday.
Aside from the Best Story award, “Portal 40” also brought home the Best Actor for Choi, Best Director for Philip and was named the Best Sinulog short film.
In an interview with Cebu Daily News, Philip shared that his film is about the relationship of a man and a departed one that is somehow inspired by his relationship with his late grandfather Virgilio Lapinid.
“It’s about my relationship with my grandfather, patay na siya. But before he died, there were instances that I was so mean to him. Didto nako gikuha ang inspiration. And I hope, through this film, mangayo kog pasaylo sa iyaha, even though nga ni taliwan na siya,” said Philip.
His grandfather died at the age of 72.
“Na-stroke siya then he underwent surgery. Naapektuhan iyang kidneys sa tambal, then on dialysis na siya until namatay nalang siya nga gikan sleep,” he said.
When asked if he has any message to his late grandfather, Philip said: “I’d like to ask him if gatarong ba siyag lakaw sa heaven kay di man to siya katarong lakaw gud. Mangumusta lang ko niya if naa man siya didto, I would ask for an apology sa tanan nakong nabuhat nga dili maayo.”
According to him, the 15-minute short film was only shot in three days with a tedious one whole week of editing and splicing together with his editor Jake Ilustrisimo and the rest of his team, the Studio TekniKolor.
“Our first cut was more than 20 minutes, so we had to do it again to make it to 15 minutes, may gani naigo ra pod,” he said.
Team “Sugilanon ni Lukas”
For Philip, he took a subtle and slow attack in doing the film.
“It’s like viewing a scene kung unsa man siya sa tinood nga panghitabo through slow-paced filmmaking,” he said.
Among the 26 entries for this year’s Sinulog Short Film Festival, “Portal 40” made it to the top 12 for the screening last Saturday along with the top 8 entries for video documentary and three entries for the music video category.
“Wa jud ko nag-expect (nga mudaog mi), ang ako ra jud ganahan ko ma-screen ra mi. Mga maayo jud ang mga nadala and I’m just surprised that it took this story to win this year’s Sinulog short film fest,” he said.
Philip and his team joined the Sinulog Film Festival in the past and this year was his third try.
They first joined in 2014 with “Kapintas,” which failed to make it to the screening and last year with “Lay Over.”
Meanwhile, a fourth year student’s work was named second prize winner for Sinulog short film category. Niño Justin Tecson’s “Sugilanon ni Lukas” also went home with the People’s Choice Award, Best Playbill and Best Supporting Actor for Niño Baldevino.
The winners of this year’s photo, video, and docu film categories
“Saad” by Franz Arrogante was declared 3rd Best Picture and also won Best Sound Engineering and Musical Scoring, Best Editing, Best Cinematography and Best Production Design.
University of the Philippines Cebu theater professor Ligaya Rabago won as Best Actress for the short film entry, “Milagros” while the Best Supporting Actress went to Reynalda David for “Lola Luz.”
For the video documentary, Remton Zuasola’s “The Boy from Mechelen was named grand winner, bringing home four awards namely Best Director for Remton, Best Production Design, Best Editing and Best Documentary.
“Crossing Jordan” by Vicente Gloria Ozamiz and “Tokhangyo Niño,” was named as the second and third best documentary, respectively.
For the music video category, Aldo Banaynal’s “Batang Balaan” got the lion’s share of awards. It won Best Musical Scoring, Best Editing, Best Cinematography, Best Production Design, Best Story, Best Director, Best Performer for Jan Michael Banaynal, and the 1st place for Best Music Video.
Meanwhile, “Halad” by Frenyx Tarongoy and “Pag-ampo” by Ademar Adaza Ochotorena, won the second and third place for best music video, respectively.