The changing face of talent casting

Author: Edsel-thadeus O. Lorete
Column: Final Cut

Finding suitable talent for an expensive television show is no easy task. There are plenty of aspiring talents waiting to take their turn out there, and it takes more than Angel Locsin’s good looks or Bea Alonso and John Lloyd-Cruz’s combined acting experience to give a show commercial success. Even the most inexperienced or unexpected of characters can make a showbiz name seemingly overnight. Case in point is those featured in the ABS-CBN reality television show Pinoy Big Brother, as well as TV5’s weekend talent show, Talentadong Pinoy. The latter seems to be changing the face of talent searches on national television. “We produce a talent show that welcomes anyone who has a talent to showcase. There is no specific casting criteria provided you have a talent to show that is worthy of television exposure,” explained TV5’s production head Percy Intalan. The steadily rating weekend show, which is on its 5th season, is opening venues wherein even the poorest of unknown talents from distant provinces could get their chance at fame. “That is the basic premise of the show, and we have no intention of changing this very successful concept that benefits everyone,” Intalan said. Studio 23’s number one daily top 10 music show, Myx, meantime, is facing its toughest talent search for 2009. Just last week, Studio 23 trimmed down its veejay selection process from four to only two talents this year. The selection of pretty copywriter Janine Ramirez, 24, and theater-honed thespian Nel Gomez, 19, as Myx’s next veejay pair did not shine without questions raised by texting fans who felt shortchanged of their local talent’s expected choices. ABS-CBN was quick to defend this to the media. The network clarified that Myx’s veejay selection process was technically shared by both fans and the network’s management. “Thirty percent of votes come from texting fans, while the remaining 70 percent comes from management,” clarified Myx’s in-house publicist Kathy Solis. Nel and Janine, despite their four-year age gap, showed promise as host. They had tandem chemistry, a natural bonding on (and off) camera. This particular presence, the network said, was absent with the other celebrity contestants in competition. “They (veejay contestants) were all fairly subjected to a series of screen testing, something fans do not usually see on television, and the two (Nel and Janine) worked very well with each other and the show’s production staff. These were important factors put into the final process of talent selection,” Solis said.ABS-CBN took special consideration the upcoming talent’s marketing potential. Nel and Janine’s overall impact with advertisers and their fans were largely positive. Nel said, “I have much to offer, and I am taking this hosting job to enter show business.” Talentadong Pinoy, on the other hand, had a different takeoff on TV5. Host Ryan Agoncillo and the show’s production team were carried on from ABC-5’s defunct talent show, Pinoy Idol. Talentadong Pinoy offered Ryan, as well as the show’s young and ambitious production team, a strong working environment. “Ryan (Agoncillo) has grown personally attached to the show, especially the talents it features. He loves it and we are confident (despite the absence of a written working talent contract) of his hosting commitment with the show.” This Saturday’s Halloween theme, which will be highlighted by the invitational participation of the entertainment press joining the show’s resident celebrity juror’s Audie Gemora, Tuesday Vargas and Assunta de Rossi, is expected to be colorful and grand. Watch out as Ryan Agoncillo gets a funky character makeover, which a producer hinted was coined after a comic movie character Juday used to secretly call Ryan to maintain their blooming relationship’s privacy. While GMA 7 and ABS-CBN gear up for stiffer ratings competition by producing their respective weekend talent shows that promise bigger cash prizes, TV5 is unfazed. “We welcome this healthy competition. Talentadong Pinoy’s format has been widely tested, and we certainly do not want to change that just because there is threat of competition. We need to expand show to more people in 2010. Of the 6,000 who auditioned with the show since August 2008, around 500 contestants have made it to the limelight of national television.” If there is one thing learned from Myx or Talentadong Pinoy’s experiences, it is the ability to remain number one from just a simple entertainment concept.q q qDastardly war heroes Quentin Tarantino made real his promise to direct a “cool periodic film” about the Second World War. He was excited about the film’s commercial prospect, and he could not help bragging then about the film’s bloody concept to Asian filmmakers when he visited Manila. Inglourious Basterds, which is set to premiere for Nov. 4 in Philippine cinemas, was that concept film. It made headlines after Tarantino’s public announcement Brad Pitt agreeing to lead the first war picture he was directing.I. Basterds is about a special military force whose mission is to spread terror among the Nazis in war-torn Europe at the height of World War II. Pitt plays the mission’s fictitious American leader whose agenda is to “kill, torture and then scalp as many German soldiers” caught or die trying. How this diabolic plotting is translated into a workable cinematic screenplay may sound radical so it made sense having somebody as eccentric as Tarantino in the director’s seat. His outrageous humor, however bloody or revolting this may be, may just be what mainstream cinema needs. It appeals to the young and open-minded viewer and aspiring filmmakers. “I make films which I think is cool to my viewers. I believe that movies should be fun and exciting, which is missing in films I have seen in recent years,” was Tarantino’s reply during an ambush interview at the height of the 2008 Cinemanila International Film Festival where he was the guest juror. Inglourious Basterds is no different from Tarantino’s distinctive film structure. He based the concept of his war epic from several European and American war movies that branded the Germans as evil. These were male-centered epic war dramas that featured classic heavyweight character actors such as the late David Niven, Charles Bronson, John Wayne, Gregory Peck, Vic Morrow and Telly Savalas, and highlighted the allied forces defeating the Germans. It appealed to Tarantino in the same way he took interest producing Kill Bill, Quentin’s violent tribute to Asia’s Chinese kung fu cinema. Inglorious Basterds, which poked fun at the Nazi’s insane criminal personality, was a name coined by the Germans to stop the secret mission. In Tarantino’s fictional version, the Basterds ingeniously commissions a local movie theater frequented by art-loving German soldiers, the Fuhrer included, to execute the mission. One disturbing highlight includes a cellar drinking session that ends in a long blood bath triggered by a mouthful of Tarantino’s famed screen lines. The opening scene shows German soldiers mercilessly open firing on a bunch of helpless Jewish farmers hiding underneath a farm storm cellar. Another striking scene shows a ranking German aiming his service pistol while verbally torturing a teenage Jewish girl running for safety in the middle of an open wheat field. The girl survives only to meet the same officer during an emotional invitational dinner involving a half-witted German actor. Half the film’s lines are delivered in German. Inglourious Basterds was touted to win this year’s Cannes International Film Festival’s Palm d’Or Award.

Source: The Daily Tribune

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