Loyola Film Circle (LFC), Ateneo’s film organization, announced the finalists for the 10th Ateneo Video Open
(AVO) last February 3 to 9.
Mark Peregrino’s (IV AB Comm) Chimera, Karen Dorothy Ramos’ (III AB Comm) and Rachel Marie Frances Vergara’s (III AB Comm) How Not to Disappoint, and Mikhail Red’s (I AB Comm) Juan Henerasyon are shortlisted in the Short Narrative category. Jose Antonio Parma’s (III AB Comm) music video for Ateneo Musicians Pool band Klieg Lights’s “Sa Huli” is a Music Video finalist.
AVO is shortlisted by LFC and judged by a panel comprised of local film luminaries like Sherad Sanchez (AB Comm ‘08) and Quark Henares (BS CTM ‘01). It has four categories: experimental, documentary, music video, and short narrative.
Winners will receive trophies and cash prizes of P5,000 (Experimental, Music Video), P8,000 (Documentary), and P10,000 (Short Narrative).
Budding filmmakers
The AVO was created in 1998 to address a need in the local film community—the development of young filmmakers and the use of film as social discourse.
“It’s a great opportunity for budding filmmakers to hone their skills, to receive due recognition for their talents, and to have their creative visions seen, and their voices heard,” said AVO Externals Officer Kasey Albano (II AB Comm).
Back then, only 14 filmmakers entered their films in AVO. By last year’s AVO 9, that number had ballooned to 127.
Francis Gonzalo Tan (IV BS Mgt), a finalist in last year’s Music Video category, said that entries continue to come in because of the feeling of community the competition gives.
“You get to see films from different schools and regions and realize that we all have something to offer with the different styles in filmmaking,” he said.
Creative promotions
This year’s AVO focused on widening this community, through extensive and creative promotions.
“Part of our viral campaign was… pulling a [infamous Multiply blogger] Pablo Banila—basically, while logged in to the AVO Multiply account, we viewed user page after user page,” said Albano. In less than two weeks, the AVO website received 300 additional hits.
In the run-up to the launch, Project Head Aika Beltran (II AB Comm) said the project had many difficulties. Companies who believed in the project and wanted to support them were few and far between. The lack of funds also derailed the schedule for promotions.
“We remedied that by aggressive online promotions,” Beltran said, “sending emailers (email ads) every two weeks and finding different ways to get the AVO website out there.”
On December 16, Beltran and Albano went to radio station NU 107 to promote the competition.
“What we lacked in hard copy promotions, we made up for with other forms of advertising,” Beltran said.
Two extensions
Even with aggressive promotions, LFC had to extend the deadline twice to accommodate more entries.
“We wanted more entries because [initially] most of the entries came from Ateneo,” Beltran said. From 76, the total number of entries increased to 110 after the second extension.
AVO was accused of being partial to entries from “elite schools” like the University of the Philippines (UP) and the Ateneo, as seen in February 3’s announcement of Short Narrative finalists, which drew flak from contestants.
Disgruntled contestants used the comment function on the AVO Multiply site to question AVO’s criteria and method for judging. Most comments decried that three of the five finalists are from Ateneo while the rest are from the UP.
“People thought because it was a nationwide thing, there would be more variation [in the finalists’ schools],” Beltran said.
“We didn’t consider schools when choosing the finalists. [Some of these are] thesis films… [meaning] the best of what the school has to offer.”
The winners will be announced in an awards night at Greenhills Promenade’s Teatrino on March 7.
