FILMMAKER Mark Meily compares his scriptwriting teacher Armando ?Bing? Lao?s directorial debut to ?Lee Strasberg acting in ?The Godfather II? ... the master demonstrating to his students how it is to make a film.?

Lao?s first film ?Biyaheng Lupa? premieres in the Cinemanila International Film Festival today, where it?s part of the Digital Lokal competition.

Another student, filmmaker Ellen Ongkeko-Marfil, points out: ?When I first directed a script he wrote for me for the TV show ?Maalaala Mo Kaya? more than a decade ago, it was clear that he wrote it as a director. He didn?t stop with the script; he was a real partner from casting to editing.?

For Lao, ?scripting was filmmaking itself,? notes Marfil.

Lao agrees: ?In my previous capacities as scriptwriter and creative consultant, I got involved in all phases of production, from research, brain-storming, location hunting, auditions, even negotiation with the actors.?

He says his work style proved to be ?good training ground? for ?Biyaheng Lupa.?

?I got to familiarize myself with all aspects of production. Even the budget. As writer, I learned to be budget-conscious,? he explains.

Although the film was supposed to be directed by another filmmaker, it somehow landed on Lao?s lap.

For Quantum producer Joji Alonso, Lao?s big leap from page to screen is a natural progression. ?Coincidentally, he shares the same initials as his debut film? BL.?

Lao, who also wrote the screenplay of ?Biyaheng Lupa,? says the film took the same circuitous journey as the characters in it.

?It started as the story of a teenaged deaf-mute who took a bus ride from Manila to Bicol,? he recalls. ?It was a road movie, initially told using dramatic time.?

Then, he shifted points of view and turned it into the story of society. ?Not just the story of one passenger, but of all the passengers in the bus. It?s no longer dramatic time ... because it?s not just about an individual. It can?t also be real time because it?s told mainly through voiceover.?

As such, ?Biyaheng Lupa? is recounted in ?poetic time, beyond physical logic.?