MANILA, Philippines?Whenever he and his colleagues in the Directors? Guild of the Philippines, Inc. (DGPI) attend campus symposia and conferences, Soxie Topacio says, the students ask the same question:

?Why do we see the same tired old stories on the big screen??

Topacio took it as a challenge and, as a former guild officer, helped put together the Sine Direk series, with colleagues Tony Y. Reyes and Joel Lamangan and producer Tony Tuviera of APT Entertainment. The goal, says Topacio, was to come up with ?stories that are out of the box.?

He himself churned out a screenplay entitled ?Ded na si Lolo,? which was among six films featured in the recent Sine Direk series.

A dark comedy set at the wake of a patriarch, the digital movie opened in cinemas last week.

It faces tough competition from the likes of ?Wolverine? and ?Star Trek,? but Topacio and company are undaunted. ?Our goals is to revive the local film industry,? he says.

He lauds Tuviera?s for bankrolling Sine Direk. ?We used digital cameras, so we managed to cut costs considerably,? he explains.

Happy cast

With a P2 million budget, he wrapped up work in six days. ?Digital technology was helpful because I have a big cast,? Topacio recounts. ?Working with two cameras allowed me to shoot as many scenes as possible.?

It wasn?t uncommon for them to finish early, by midnight. ?The cast very happy,? he points out.

The ensemble includes some of the country?s finest thespians: Elizabeth Oropesa, Gina Alajar, Manilyn Reynes, Roderick Paulate, Perla Bautista.

Simple formula

?We enjoyed ourselves,? says Topacio. ?The stars often brought food, like we were partying.? By the end of the shoot, the director adds, ?the stars wanted to know when we would have a reunion.?

Topacio insists that to create films that are out of the ordinary, ?directors need only the support of producers, actors and the public.?

Since ?Sine Direk? arose as a dare from viewers, the directors are now posing the same challenge to the public, he says.

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