HOW TO IMPROVE QUALITY OF MMFF MOVIES

By Thinking Pinoy

Yes, we can put "better" entries like what happened a few years back, but the fact remains that the masses don't watch them. The masses prefer the typical flicks offering formulaic plots and empty calories. But I cannot blame the masses per se because, truth be told, many of the supposedly better quality films are way over their heads.

Simply blaming the audience would be futile. That's just like opening a restaurant and blaming everyone because they don't like the food served.

Kahit sarap na sarap ka sa luto mo, kung hindi naman nasasarapan ang barangay, e paano na? Hindi naman ikaw ang magbabayad ng bill nila. Ikaw nga gustong kumita sa kanila, di ba?

Learn from McDonald's, which adjusts its menu in every locality to better suit the local market's taste. Yes, some highbrow filmmakers will argue that the masa has poor taste, but support from that same masa is what filmmakers need.

I do not even blame Vice Ganda, Vic Sotto, et Al for the movies they make. Why? Because they are not complaining about the status quo anyway.

In this article, I am talking to the filmmaker who thinks "Filipinos deserve better". That's right. The filmmaker who believes that the current fare is not good enough.

Here's what I think.

FIRST, GREATER CREATIVITY AND MORE INNOVATIVE MARKETING

As a short- to medium-term solution, I think filmmakers should endeavor to write scripts while balancing it's "pagka-revolutionary" with the interests and sensibilities of the masses. I have watched so many indie/art films and I notice that many of them were written in a vacuum, i.e. "Ako ang writer, eto ang gusto, dedma kung gusto rin nila."

I think that isn't how good -- AND PROFITABLE -- films are made.

Take Heneral Luna for example. The screenwriters, instead of just creating a typical here-is-history-right-at-your-face script, added a hefty dose of humor into the actors' lines, making what would otherwise be a deathly boring biopic into mega blockbuster.

Para itong pseudo-altruistic bait-and-switch: first give them what they want, then give them what they need.

Moreover, marketing is also key. The market should be aware that they have something to watch before they watch it. Unfortunately, many good films are rarely promoted, probably due to the prohibitive costs of tri-media advertisements. With the online ads, however, filmmakers can spend just a small fraction of what they would spend on TV/radio/print and still get the same results, through targeted ads.

SECOND, FRANK FILM CRITICS

Another solution would be encourage HONEST AND FRANK film critics. More often than not, local film critics either use high fallutin' English that alienate the masses or paid hacks that do nothing but praise the movie to the high heavens even if it sucks. We need a Filipino Roger Ebert, someone who is not afraid to say if a movie is just plain terrible.

I have read a few reviews written by local film critics and I cannot help but feel that they just pander to the film outfits that most likely pay them on the side. Gusto ko pag panget yung movie, sabihin ng critic na panget.

Pag maganda, maganda. Kasi ang daming kong pwedeng gawin sa buhay (DotA, YouTube, Netflix, Amazon Prime, Fox+, iFlix, Hooq, etc) kaya ayoko masayang yung pera at isa't-kalahating oras ko. Suffice it to say, I will never watch another installment of Shake Rattle and Roll or Mano Po.

But these are just a band-aid solutions and we need something more long-term.

THIRD, EXTENSIVE GENERAL EDUCATION FOR THE PUBLIC

The definitive but long-term solution to improving future MMFF movies, and even the local cinema industry in general, is Education. No, I am not talking about film education, but EDUCATION, like better quality elementary, secondary, and tertiary education.

A well-educated market offers at least two distinct advantages to filmmakers:

1. Well-educated people tend to have the I-have-pretty-much-seen-everything mindset, so they tend to look for something new, something radical, something more substantial than the usual darating-ang-pulis-sa-huli-at-papaligiran-ang-kontrabida type of movies.

2. Well-educated people typically are more economically productive so they have greater purchasing power. Hence, even movies aiming for niche audiences can turn a profit for the simple reason that their market is more willing and more able to pay more.

Honestly, a film can get a bajillion awards from a bajillion foreign film festivals but if they appeal neither to the sensibilities of the masses nor to their pockets, then it will still never make money.

Yes, I know that my suggestions are easier said than done, but that's the point of specializing in a craft: the expert craftsman is better than others in doing what he does.

In this case, filmmakers should rise up to the occasion and churn out not only high quality films, but those that connect, those that resonate to the masses.

As for Education, well, I think we are on our way there. There's free tertiary education, and the Philippine middle class is growing. That is, the masa of the future will hopefully be mostly made up of the middle class, opening more financial possibilities for experimental and niche filmmakers. It will sure take time, but that's just the way it is.

That's my honest ten cents. Happy holidays everyone.