MANILA, Philippines - Have you noticed? Many more TV and film productions are shooting abroad this year than a couple of seasons ago:
Sharon Cuneta flew to London to film most of her scenes for ?Caregiver.? Richard Gutierrez and KC Concepcion?s ?For the First Time? will shoot in Greece this month. Angel Locsin and Piolo Pascual will fly to Australia to co-star in their first film together, after their teleserye, ?Lobo,? winds up soon.
Even TV series and shows now occasionally throw in a foreign component. Many live entertainment shows are performed for Filipino communities in different parts of the world. And ?international? premieres for Filipino movies are getting to be quite the rage.
What?s going on? Why does the foreign factor figure more strongly now in Filipino productions, at least as special attraction?
The ?globalization? of the Filipinos is one consideration. With so many of us living and working abroad, we have become less insular in outlook. Our OFWs aren?t the only beneficiaries of this development?their relatives also get to expand their horizons as they enjoy the fruits of their parents or siblings? foreign labors, which include taste-changing entertainment and information components like DVD players, computers, Internet access, etc.
In addition, we must accept the fact that our ?deathless? colonial mentality still affects our preferences and standards. ?Abroad? is still favored over ?local,? so productions shot in other countries enjoy an extra patina of chic and trendiness.
Plus: foreign locales offer beauty, variety, famous tourist sights, telegenic and cinematic visuals, unusual traditions and lifestyles, etc.
And those international settings often provide an opportunity for local productions to deal with the OFW experience?which, as the success of ?Caregiver? indicates, is of great interest and empathetic concern to many Filipinos viewers.
Thus, despite the hefty cost that shooting abroad add to a production?s budget, more local TV and film projects include foreign settings in their come-ons to prospective viewers.
Where else would our viewers want local productions to go? An informal survey reveals this wish list:
It?s been a long time since a Filipino production was shot in Hawaii, so a repeat visit is decidedly in order. For exuberantly lovely vistas, Hawaii can?t be beat. And the fact that some of its earliest migrant workers were Filipinos could lead to the telling of some very interesting and thematically significant stories.
For a romantic story, Paris and the Amalfi Coast in Italy are tops.
For a comedy, Dolphy once shot a film in Spain and Chiquito romanced Mamie Van Doren in an ersatz Western filmed in Arizona, USA. Could today?s popular comedians do something similar?
Our own personal wish is for an enterprising producer to do a Filipino version of ?Around the World in 80 Days,? with a globetrotting Pinoy protagonist breezily doing the honors!
Finally, a respondent has come up with this bright idea: Make a movie that shows the updated Seven Wonders of the World, after they shall have been determined by the ongoing online polls.
On ?Oprah?
Oprah Winfrey?s talk-magazine show on the Hallmark Channel features these guests and topics this month (Sundays, 8 p.m.):
?July 20, sports legends Chris Evert and Martina Nauratilova on their remarkable friendship, and coach Vivian Stringer on her personal struggle with cancer.
?July 27, Oprah marks Earth Day by going green and providing viewers with a list of simple things a family can do to start saving our planet. And Julia Roberts, Sandra Bullock and Al Gore encourage everyone to join the fight against global warming.
