MANILA, Philippines?Vanessa Valdez wrote, or co-wrote, some of the more memorable Filipino romantic movies of recent years, including ?One More Chance,? ?You Are the One,? ?A Love Story? and, ?And I Love You So.?

Most of the time, when she writes, Vanessa says, she keeps the stars of the movie in mind. She explains: ?Star Cinema projects are usually actor-driven. As such, before a writer starts to work, he or she already knows who the actors will be. Depending on the writer?s personality and personal preferences, a casting combination can become a limitation during story development, or a challenge to be more creative.?

Though she herself does not see the need to always match lines with whoever will deliver them, Vanessa says, ?Sometimes, I do have to consider who?s playing the role and what are that actor?s strengths and weaknesses. A good example is Sam Milby. I know he?s still not fluent in Tagalog, so even though the dialogue may sound more ?cinematic? in Tagalog, if it?s a very intense or emotional scene, I?d consider writing it in English so that his delivery can be more truthful.?

Vanessa admits there have been several occasions when the dialogues she wrote were bungled. ?Some actors don?t realize that changing or mispronouncing a word, forgetting a preposition, or delivering the line with the wrong tone can make the line sound nonsensical.?

True collaborators

However, she adds that there are actors who can put their own spin on the script and give the lines more depth and emotion. These include John Lloyd Cruz, Bea Alonzo and, yes, Sam Milby. ?As a writer,? Vanessa notes, ?I appreciate the fact that they ask questions about their characters and the story?and consult the writer/s and the director. [That way, all the people involved] become true collaborators in the storytelling process. Hindi sila pa-star. Kaya pag napapanood niyo sila sa pelikula, they become their characters. The artista fades into the background. The story becomes more truthful and moving.?

Vanessa sees that, sometimes, either the actor?s ego or his fears get in the way of a good performance. This is actually one of the disadvantages of writing star-driven projects, she points out. ?Mahirap pag mas malaki ?yung ego ng artista kaysa sa pelikula. I know of horror stories where the story is drastically changed to accommodate an actor?s limitations and demands. The result is that the final product is an extremely watered-down version of a very promising screenplay.?

No formal training

Vanessa finished her MA Development Education degree at the University of Asia and the Pacific (UA&P) in 2002, where she later became a full-time faculty member of the School of Education. In 2004, she started teaching part-time to devote time to screenwriting.

However, in 2008, she joined Star Cinema?s Creative Department. Her growing responsibilities as a creative manager made it impossible for her to teach in UA&P at all. She relates, ?I had no formal training in film or script-writing. Everything I know about writing for the screen, I learned on the job.?

She stresses that it?s not actual, personal experiences that make an effective storyteller. ?More than anything,? she says, ?it?s empathy.?

It does not hurt, either, that Vanessa makes it a point to interview people who have undergone the same hurts and joys as her characters. For instance, as part of the research for ?One More Chance,? a movie about love lost and regained, she invited her friends, including some who had just emerged from a break-up, to an informal exchange with herself and her co-writer and director Cathy Garcia-Molina. The resulting script pieced together experiences and in sights shared by Vanessa?s friends, and gave the movie a lot of thoughts and feelings that the viewers could relate to.

For ?And I Love You So,? Vanessa also did her homework. ?We interviewed real widowers and got them to share what it felt like to have lost their partner. We asked Bea (Alonzo) to sit down with one of our interviewees. That helped her a lot, considering that during the time the movie was being shot, she would come from taping ?Betty La Fea,? in which her character was the exact opposite of her role in the movie.?

Her own favorite

Among Vanessa?s favorite lines from movies she has written is a line from ?A Love Story.? It was delivered by Maricel Soriano, who plays a mistress to Aga Mulach?s character. In their tearful goodbye, Maricel tells Aga, ?Hindi lahat ng nagpapasaya sa atin tama. Pero lahat ng tama, masakit man sa simula, pasasayahin din tayo sa bandang huli. (Not everything that makes us happy is the right thing. But that which is right, however much it hurts at first, will make us happy in the end.)?