CAMP MATEO CAPINPIN, Rizal ? Instead of toting firearms, members of the Philippine Army ?shot it out? with a hand-held camera to produce a 17-minute short film. It was the first time that soldiers joined a filmmaking workshop.

Upgrading skills

?The Philippine Army wanted to upgrade our skills by also going into audio and visual production,? explained Lieutenant Celeste Frank Sayson, chief of the Public Affairs Office of the 2nd Infantry Division based here.

Sayson and Privates First Class Ricardo Jose Jr., John RJ Bombita, Rommel Roldan, Didio Penano and Rani Rafael graduated last week as members of the fifth batch of the basic filmmaking workshop facilitated by Filipino Pictures Inc.

It was division commander Major General Jorge Segovia who thought of sending his men to the filmmaking workshop, after appearing in an episode of ANC?s ?Storyline.?

?He talked to the show?s director Paolo Villaluna and producer Patricia Evangelista about it,? Sayson said.

Like working students

The two-month workshop started with an 11-day lecture on scriptwriting and filmmaking techniques.

?We were like working students. We had to work at daytime and then drive for two hours from Tanay to Quezon City to attend the workshop at night,? Sayson recounted.

The film they worked on, ?Rosas ng Digma,? which is also the title of a popular activists? love song, was shot for 22 hours straight inside the military camp.

Sayson said the film was adapted from the life story of rebel-returnee Pfc. Lerma Bulaklak, who is now with the Army?s 202nd Infantry Brigade.

In the film, Bulaklak (played by Glazy Enopia, a youth volunteer of the Philippine Army in Gumaca, Quezon) is a former rebel who surrenders to the government after her father and husband end up victims of the infamous purging of communists in the 1980s.

Magbanua believes filmmaking can be an effective communication tool of the Army.

?Rosas ng Digma? was shown at the Army camp here and has also been invited for a screening at the Philippine National Police headquarters.