By Fred Hawson, July 29, 2013
I had the opportunity to attend the Gala
Premiere of "Ekstra" at the Main Theater of the Cultural Center of
the Philippines during the Cinemalaya Film Festival. It was a full house
despite the heavy rains and floods. The film was introduced no less than by the
director Jeffrey Jeturian and the producer Atty. Joji Alonso.
The occasion was made more special by
the glorious presence of the star Gov. Vilma Santos (accompanied by husband
Sen. Ralph Recto and son Christian). The predominantly Vilmanian audience
filled the theater with claps and cheers whenever their idol looked up and
waved at them before the movie, as well as during the numerous hilarious
one-liners by the Star of All Seasons in the movie itself. That additional
dimension made it a very memorable film watching experience for me. It felt
like we were watching a play.
"Ekstra" is a very
entertaining film that brings us into the world of a bit player or
"ekstra" in the punishing world of television soap operas, where
hectic daily shooting deadlines are the norm. This was not only a glimpse for
the audience, but more of an immersion. We get an in-depth, no-holds-barred,
brutally frank expose on how bit players are treated on and off the set of a
location shoot.
Loida Malabanan has been a bit player
for many years already. This job, however unstable, had enabled her to get her
daughter through college even as a single mother, albeit barely.
Here, we follow Loida on one
particularly eventful day when she was called to a remote location shoot in a
Batangas farm for a hit nightly TV soap opera entitled "Nauna Kang Naging
Akin". The production seems to be behind schedule, needing to shoot so
many sequences to air that very night, making the director, and everyone else
in the crew, super-stressed.
Through Loida, we see every indignity
bit players had to endure in order to earn their seemingly measly living. They
have no privacy, not enough food nor rest while on the set. They were at the
constant beck, call and mercy of the director. the assistant director, the
casting director. They had to wait for long periods of time under harsh
conditions inflicted by weather, technical difficulties, and the inconsiderate
diva behavior of the lead stars.
It was such an inspired idea to get a
star of the highest caliber to play one of these unsung heroes of the show
business. The fact that it was no less than Ms. Vilma Santos herself playing
the lead role of Loida Malabanan makes this film so much more meaningful and
special. If the lead was played by a lesser star, it would not have made an
impression of such great impact as this film did.
Ms. Vilma Santos is the heart and soul
of this film, and she was such a paradox in this role. She portrays her role in
the most natural and realistic way, yet we know the character was so NOT her.
Ms. Vilma was already the lead star in her very first film, "Trudis
Liit"! Incredibly, she was able to successfully dim her megawatt star
power to appear inferior in stature to stars like Marian Rivera and Piolo
Pascual who were the lead stars of the soap being shot, yet Ms. Vilma still
manages to outshine them all. Her most effective scenes had no spoken lines at
all.
Ms. Cherie Gil was so deliciously campy
good in her villainous Doña Beatriz character. Tart Carlos, more popularly
known for her role as the ditsy maid Doris on TV's "Be Careful With My
Heart," has a marked role playing Loida's friend and co-extra, where her
skills in comedy shone. Musical director Vincent de Jesus was very effective as
the harried assistant director, scrambling to accomplish all the orders of the
impatient director.
This was such a revealing and
informative movie for me, to see what really happens behind those neat and
glamorous programs we see night after night on our TV screens. We never would
have imagined that there is much chaos and exploitation before those final edits
were reached. We have never seen these things behind the scenes depicted so
honestly on screen. This could as well have been a documentary to further the
cause of fair treatment of bit players. It is a position statement as much as
it was entertainment.
Link to original post: http://said-fred.blogspot.com/search?q=ekstra
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