“You do not live in a vacuum nor can you harvest the better fruits of life without help and encouragement from others.” – Og Mandino
“If everyone is moving forward together, then success takes care of itself” – Henry Ford
“I am not the smartest fellow in the world, but I can sure pick smart colleagues” – Franklin D. Roosevelt
“If you don’t change your beliefs, your life will be like this forever. Is that good news?” – W Somerset Maugham
“One can’t give what he does not possess. To give love, you must possess love. To love others, you must love yourself” – Lee Buscagli
“Fill your heart with the creative power to accept the past, decorate the present and transform the future.” – Osho
“Love doesn’t make the world go ‘round. Love is what makes the ride worthwhile.” – Franklin P. Jones
“With ordinary talent and extraordinary perseverance, all things are attainable.” – Thomas Foxwell Buxton
“The ability to speak does not make you intelligent” – #StarWars
“I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life and that is why I succeed” – Michael Jordan
“Pick out associates whose behavior is better than yours and you’ll drift in that direction.” – Warren Buffett
“In my life there is an infinite supply of love. I can never use it all in this lifetime so I don’t have to be sparing with it.” – Louise Hay
“You’ll find boredom where there is the absence of a good idea” – Earl Nightingale
“Life’s challenges are not supposed to paralyze you. They’re supposed to help you
discover who you are.” – Bernice Johnson
“An occasional compliment is necessary to keep up one’s self-respect” – Mark Twain
“Only those who dare to fail greatly can ever achieve greatly” – Robert F. Kennedy
“The value of a man resides in what he gives and not in what he is capable of receiving.” – Albert Einstein
“You have not lived a perfect day unless you have done something for someone who will never be able to repay you.” – Ruth Smeltzer
“An ounce of loyalty is worth a pound of cleverness.” – Elbert Hubbard
“Two things stand out like pillars in life: kindness in another’s trouble, courage on your own.” – Adam L. Gordon
“Promise yourself to be just as enthusiastic about the success of others as you are about your own.” – Christian Larson
“It is our attitude at the beginning of a difficult task which, more than anything else, will affect its successful outcome.” – William James
“We come to love not by finding a perfect person, but by learning to see an imperfect person perfectly.” – Sam Keen
“Love is the energy which expands, opens up, sends out, reveals, shares and heals.” – Neale D Walsch
“A strong passion for any object will ensure success, for the desire of the end will point out the means.” – William Hazlitt
To keep yourself updated with my thoughts and upcoming projects, please like my official Facebook page, Kuya Manzano FanClub, and follow me on Twitter @kuyamanzano.
While most believers have yet to prove the existence of the god they worship under, they keep giving their god a bad name.
Screenshot from Mashable
Another terrorist-related attack occurred in France last January 7, 2015 after a cartoon published in the French magazine “Charlie Hebdo” offended some Muslim extremists. As seen on the retrieved CCTV footage, a car driven by the assailants arrived and started shooting people in the magazine’s office. 12 people including 4 cartoonists were reported dead while 11 were left wounded. And this is all because of a satirical cartoon.
It wasn’t the first time that it happened as another reported incident was traced way back in 2011. The cartoonists were defiant claiming that they would rather die standing than on their knees. Fighting words indeed, much like the words that the assailants screamed after going out of the building “Allahu akbar” (God is great).
There goes the irony in this terrorist attack. If their god is indeed great, why do they have to do the killing themselves? Can’t the god they believe in do the killing instead since he was the one that got offended? This is where you realize a harsh reality in the way some religious folks handle their faith. They get offended more than god itself just in case it exists. It’s like a fanclub that cries louder whenever it’s their idol getting attacked. If the idol gets pricked, the idol’s fanbase bleed.
Screenshot from Mashable
The worst thing that religion ever did to human beings is divide them. It has become a tribal thing. Or a clique thing where everyone is welcome but only those who are welcome get fair treatment. Only those with positive things to say about the movement or the belief get fair treatment. Everyone else that doesn’t belong get excluded. In worse cases, they get ridiculed, persecuted and publicly vilified.
Now when it’s some satirists’ turn to mock or ridicule a certain belief, some of these believers bleed like hell. They get butthurt. Instead of taking a joke or explaining how some jokes can just get so far, they retaliate in violence. What kind of faith teaches its followers to retaliate violently before understand what the joke really is about? Or was it really a joke?
Satire is one of the most underrated methods of shaking things up in society. And this is because people often get offended first before they understand. Almost everyone’s concern today is being politically correct knowing how the rest of the populace easily gets butthurt. Whatever happened to teaching your kids how to face a world that is not fair? Whatever happened to the freedom to question beliefs? If you believe your faith is devoid of bullshit, why retaliate with guns?
Screenshot from Vine
This is why it is heart-warming to see a sea of support for the slain cartoonists. Maybe they did not initially get the joke. Maybe some of them have difficulty identifying satirical journalism and I can’t blame them. Some news items look funnier than what’s found on Onion.com only to discover later on that it’s real news. But the crowd started raising placards with the words “Je suis Charlie” implying that everyone felt the impact of the attacks. If believers bleed whenever their faith is put to question, everyone else bleeds too when freedom of expression is hurt.
France is one of the first secular countries in Europe. Publications like Charlie Hebdo will still persist to keep freedom of expression alive. They would continue whatever is left behind by the slain satirical cartoonists especially now that individuals that labeled themselves as “secular Muslims” are inexplicably silent on the matter. Can’t they be human beings first and religious individuals later? Better yet, can’t they just get rid of religion altogether if it only meant widening the divide between human beings?
Religion is becoming less and less a tool for morality and becoming more and more of a tool of oppression. Some deaths need to mean something. Hopefully this would be the ultimate dealbreaker for most religions like Islam.
To keep yourself updated with my thoughts and upcoming projects, please like my official Facebook page, Kuya Manzano FanClub, and follow me on Twitter @kuyamanzano.
Why are women (and in some cases, men) jealous creatures? Sometimes it’s a win-lose situation. Win because it feels great when someone is so afraid to lose you. Lose because it can get suffocating after awhile.
But before we get irritated, we better understand first the kind of emotional turmoil that they are going through. It’s not easy being a girl. Well, that’s what they say and let’s enumerate some of the reasons why:
– About being afraid to lose us
There is always that fear lurking at the back of their heads that they would lose their boyfriends. Is there a competition going on that we are not aware of? No, some girls enjoy having a boyfriend in a way that they would like be with the guy 24/7. They like getting into activities with the boyfriend. They like going out with friends, family, relatives, co-workers and even total strangers like in a conference with a boyfriend. It’s like remove the boyfriend from all the appointments and they feel like they lost a boyfriend. Please! Not seeing each other for 12 hours meant nothing lost. You’re still separate individuals with your own set of appointments that are separate from the relationship. Some of those appointments might have been there already long before you got into a relationship. What’s there to be afraid of if you got part of your life mapped out? And even more, what’s there to lose when even if you’re already a couple, you still lead normal lives
Not seeing the boyfriend meant that he is already flirting with someone else. It doesn’t always mean that way. If you as a girl feel threatened about losing your boyfriend, it only shows your insecurities. And this brings us to the next pointer.
– About your insecurities
Girls and women will always have insecurities about themselves even outside a relationship. What more if they get into a relationship? The fact that sex and children are no longer guarantees of a long-lasting relationship only aggravates the insecurity more. But much of that mindset is self-imposed.
– About change in behavior
Some men get a haircut, a new cologne and perhaps a new set of clothes to wear for the next few days and instead of being happy for the positive change, some women go “You hate it whenever I ask you to change your bacon briefs because you refuse to do so and now you went into a major overhaul. Who is she?” What?!?!?!?!?! Is that what it’s all about? Can’t it just be that I need to change the way I look because I need to look professional? And do you really have to mention how crinkly and crumply my briefs have gotten?
– About what men do or did
Rumor has it that women’s favorite subject in school is history because they like bringing it up in relationships. I am not referring to history taught in schools but how history is used to remind students that whoever does not learn in history are bound to repeat it. Okay, I get the gist. But how will men learn the lesson gradually if every time they commit mistakes, the girlfriend or the wife will keep bringing it up in an effort to justify the jealousy and paranoia? Some women only hear what they want to hear, not the truth.
Women (and in some cases, men) please? If you keep punishing your loved one due to a mistake they have done in the past, you are pushing them away. Trust is broken. I get that. But if you keep claiming that you’re hurt and heartbroken from something that already happened years ago, instead of hurting only yourself, you end up hurting the one you love too.
– About comparing yourself to practically any person your guy gets in contact with
You are not as bad as you think you are. But you keep feeding your brain negative thoughts. How can you be so in love with someone so bad when you don’t even love yourself? If you have forgotten about why you became in a couple before, then you need to remind yourself that among all the possible better partners for him (or her, in some cases), you got chosen. Start all ideas from there and there would be less insecurities for you to worry about.
Feeling better? You better be. Nobody wants to live 24/7 wallowing in jealousy. Imagine the energy wasted on paranoia and hissy fits because you let your jealousy overcome you and define you. If you can’t trust your partner enough, maybe you can’t love your partner enough. I hope to share some insight there. To keep yourself updated with my thoughts and upcoming projects, please like my official Facebook page, Kuya Manzano FanClub, and follow me on Twitter @kuyamanzano.
A magnitude 5.7 earthquake shaked Luzon at Sunday a.m., which later grew to to 6.0.
It was strong I can tell you.
I live in floor 11 of a condo building and I had to rush to the door because the whole building was shaking so much that I’m still dizzy three hours after.
The shake’s epicenter was in placed 13 kilometers southeast of San Antonio, Zambales with a profundity of 85 kilometers said the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs).
The tremors were additionally felt in Metro Manila. Phivolcs said consequential convulsions are normal from the shake albeit no harm to base is normal.
Distinctive levels of the tremor were felt in the accompanying zones:
Power IV – Pasig City; Pasay City; Manila City; Quezon City; Hagonoy, Bulacan; Makati City;
Oh, musical theater, how do I describe thee? In the Philippines, despite the world-renowned reputation of exporting talent from Disneyland to Cameron Mackintosh’s productions of Miss Saigon, it’s still quite tough to find yourself in a role for a musical. Would that be reason enough for you to stop?
Of course not. If rejection would easily discourage most aspirants, there might not be enough left behind to even get cast in starring roles. For every discovery like Lea Salonga (she contemplated about accepting the role of Miss Saigon since she’s a minor and it meant living in London), there is a sea of struggling theater actresses waiting for their time in the sun. Some of those actresses might have even contemplated about moving to New York or London just to bag a meaty role in mainstream theater. It is hard. But for individuals passionate enough with what they do, no rejection is too painful to stop them.
So it’s about time that some pieces of advice be dished out to anyone still interested to secure a spot in musical theater without having to leave town.
1. Either be a triple threat or at least be great (not just good) in singing and acting.
Because not all roles contained dancing parts, you should at least be great at singing your heart out in congruence to the acting demands of the song. Ever wondered why Elphaba is such a challenging role? It’s not enough that you can sing. The anger, frustration and depression must be felt in some of the songs in the latter acts. Maybe the only moments where she was happy was when she reached Emerald City, when she elevated herself up into the air and when she kissed Fiyero. But the angst is still in the voice. Most songs in her angles are acting songs.
In the earliest performances of Sweeney Todd, he is supposed to sound scary. It’s not enough to have that deep resonating voice often associated with baritones. You need to infuse acting into the songs. You need to sound diabolical especially on the murderous parts. The only dancing parts perhaps involved him and Mrs. Lovett.
2. Training meant time spent in theater troupes
This is why some aspiring musical theater actors and actresses are willing to relocate to New York or London just to get exposed to the industry itself. Prolonged exposure gives them a closer look at how it really is to be in musical theater.
It’s also the reason why in some teasers for the revival of Miss Saigon, Cameron Mackintosh mentioned what made Jon Jon Briones a natural fit for the role of The Engineer – because he’s been in the production way back when it has not been staged at West End yet. He was part of the ensemble. So once the moment arrived for his turn to play The Engineer, the grit added to the performance served as a major improvement. If that kind of immersion will not make you absorb your environment deep enough into your bones, I don’t know what else can improve your talent.
3. Classical training serves as a solid foundation
Voice lessons really help improve the way you sing. Even more, musical theater veterans that got exposed into bel canto singing get to apply the things they have learned into the performances. Suddenly, you find a way to apply lessons like stomach resonance, chest resonance and head resonance into your performances.
You don’t just sing for the sake of hitting the high notes. You sing because the anguish, pain and other emotions required in the story needed to be expressed appropriately. Most musical theater performers sound pop now rather than classical. But that doesn’t mean proper breathing and correct pronunciation are no longer applicable right from the moment you showed up for audition. Some audition directors would eventually notice that too. It is still an advantage after all.
4. Guts
What is talent without guts? A repressed performance. A watered down performance. Something with the energy level of a slow-poke (to borrow a term from Pokemon addicts). Can you imagine such characters like Dr. Frank N. Furter and Hedwig becoming larger than life if the actors that channeled them did not have enough guts to show around?
To borrow a line from “Jerry Maguire”, you hang your balls out there. You just go and do it. You already have the talent. The next sensible thing you are left to do is have fun and perform to your heart’s content. Let go. If the character needs to go borderline crazy then get borderline crazy. It’s the easiest way to add authenticity to your performance. The best performances are those thrown out without inhibitions.
Glad to be of help to everyone interested in getting a spot in musical theater. And chances are I would be sharing more tips and helpful articles in the future. All that you need to do is like my official Facebook page, Kuya Manzano Fan Club. See you around.
Hamlet is one of the most memorable roles ever to establish the Shakespearean plays as challenging from the get-go. Not everyone is willing to take the risk in inhabiting this role, whether straight play, musical or opera (yes, the opera version was by French composer Ambroise Thomas).
What is the play Hamlet all about? Its full title is actually “The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark”. The tragedy pertained to is the vengeance that Hamlet plotted on his own uncle, Claudius, whom he suspected of killing his father, King Hamlet, in order to seize the throne and marry his widow, Gertrude.
Where did he get this idea? The 2009 version aired on BBC shows Hamlet seeing the ghost of his father. Here, King Hamlet tells his son how he actually died. He was poisoned by his brother after seducing and corrupting his wife. It was this act of treachery that would not put his spirit at peace, summoning his son to avenge his death. It’s quite different from some versions where the ghost would appear to Horatio, Hamlet’s confidante, and other guards and would demand vengeance as well only for Hamlet himself to go to that same spot and see the ghost.
Could it be that the ghost’s appearance was so timely – at the time that Hamlet is halfway through madness? At the banquet that Claudius and Gertrude hosted, Hamlet was the only one wearing black. And Hamlet could only state the obvious. King Hamlet just died and Claudius rushed in to marry the widowed queen. It was as if she’s so afraid to return to her bed alone.
It also shattered Hamlet’s view on women so much that he started pushing Ophelia away from him, afraid that she will betray him too right after his death. If madness can be diagnosed as something contagious then it applies on Ophelia although her madness would go much later.
The main difference in the BBC version? An attempt at modernity. As you may have realized, the CCTV installed in the palace served as a plot device to present the ghost as a “ghost” that cannot be captured on camera and to record Hamlet’s descent into madness.
David Temnant as Hamlet in the 2009 BBC version
It gave Hamlet the idea that he’s some lab rat subjected to scrutiny by everyone including Ophelia’s father. Sometimes it comes across as an attempt to speed up the narration here and focus on the madness instead. It’s the version that served as contrast to Kenneth Branagh’s version.
The Shakespearean purists enjoyed Branagh’s version – the 1996 version that he directed with him donning the titular role of Hamlet. Realizing how multi-layered this play could ever get, he tried to balance the presentation of Hamlet’s madness and the court intrigue. It makes you question too if Hamlet is really mad or everyone in the palace just refuses to address the awkwardness of the situation between Claudius and Gertrude.
Have you ever felt like Rosencrantz and Guildenstern? No need to pretend to understand Hamlet when in fact you don’t. Some men find comfort in listening to their own understanding of the world. And you realize the difficulty in portraying a man this crazy. The craziest people in the world are the folks that are least aware of the levels of insanity that they have plunged into.
If Hamlet is not crazy, what does he think he is? If Branagh’s version is to be viewed, Hamlet views himself as a philosopher – one with depressing view of the world. So depressing that it seems as if he’s just speaking just to watch the people around him react. For a mind so messed up, he’d like to mess up everyone’s minds as well. Otherwise, there won’t be rapid cuts to the facial expressions displaying the reactions to whatever Hamlet says.
It’s the least that he can do because he can’t bring himself to kill his uncle. He is not even sure if the ghost that talked to him is really his father’s ghost. What is left for him to do? Spit invective quotes and suspect everyone, including Ophelia, of whatever he could manage to accuse them of.
Excuses, excuses. It’s the kind of performance that made the line “To be or not to be” credible if Hamlet’s indecisiveness is to be identified. Hamlet is a character that is too messed up in the head to even take action into his plans. And it’s also the kind of multi-layered prose that placed immense pressure on actors to deliver them right. In other words, challenge accepted since I will be playing Hamlet in February at DITO Marikina.
Image from RogerEbert.com
To like or not to like, that should not even be a question. Like my official Facebook page, Kuya Manzano Fan Club, in order to keep yourself updated of my next projects like Hamlet. See you around.
New year, new discoveries and new decisions to make. Making money is still a factor in most decisions made. At some point though, money should not be the end-all be-all of the decisions that you have been taking in life.
Until now, sad to say, some folks still consider “following your passions” as a bad advice to follow. It reminded me of some students years ago that took up nursing courses because it’s where the money trail is. Yeah, for a time it was a sensible career move because medical personnel are often in demand abroad especially in the Middle East and in some parts of Europe. But then again the Philippines ended up with a surplus of nursing graduates that can’t pass the board exams and would end up taking just any job available.
Was it worth it to choose a course in college not based on your passions but based on what was then perceived as the profitable option? I can only say “Yes” if the person who decided can see himself doing nursing jobs for the next 10 years. And it did not dawn upon them that such an inconvenience would arise because they are so focused on the “now”, not “10 years from now”. In this age of instant gratification, some students actually wake up months later realizing it’s not the career that they wish to follow. Unfortunately, some realizations stay as lip service – always mentioned but never fulfilled.
It’s the kind of question that applies even to other college students and young urban professionals that discovered their passions but could not do anything beyond the discovery. Why? What’s stopping them? The possibility of not earning as much from it?
My friend had a friend that decided to swim against the current. She took a risk, ditched the idea of enrolling in a nursing course even if the money trail is still there at the time that she graduated from college and enrolled in a journalism course. The risk turned out to be worth it as she ended up having a decent career in local broadcast journalism. She got a job that’s related to her course and managed to follow her passion.
Now that is the tricky part about following your passion. You only realize that the risk was worth it months or years after plunging into it. But it’s unfair to give credit to luck. You worked hard for it too. And when you’re having fun doing something that you are passionate about, it feels less like work and more like a labor of love. It’s the kind of euphoria that artists and musicians don’t get from a 9-to-5 kind of job behind the cubicle.
Following your passions does not always have to mean not earning from it. It’s still a skill after all. Most aspiring writers found a way to revive their writing careers with the help of contractual writing jobs online. Of course the pay is not always lofty in the beginning but it’s how to learn to earn from your talents. It just takes a few months before some learn how to price their works (usually priced at a minimum of 500 words) and move on to writing even eBooks. Once they have saved enough for themselves, they learn how to put up their own websites and start earning from the ad placements. Well, some use their websites to sell their writing talents and end up landing writing jobs with some major publications. And it all started with the kind of courage that would ignore all skepticism and negative talk surrounding the person. In the end, all that is left for them to say is “I told you so”.
Don’t worry. You don’t have to give up your day job just to follow your passions and start earning from it eventually. Most started accepting such gigs part-time anyway. Having something passionate to do can be very cathartic to individuals suffering from stress. The moment they discovered a way to earn from it, that’s when plans to go full-time begin ending with the cliche “This is always what I have wanted to do”.
Just remember. Saying “I want to do this” is different from “I do this”. You don’t always get to do what you want until you finally do it. It’s just like how different “I want to be a producer” from “I’m gonna be a producer” if you recall that line from the hit musical “The Producers“. Now since you have gone this far reading my advice, why don’t you click “Like” on my official Facebook page as well? Follow me on Twitter too @kuyamanzano. Much appreciated.
Thinking of turning Manila into your performing haven? You already have the talent. You then think about professionalizing your talent and start earning from it. But in this vein, how prepared are you when it comes to launching your singing career?
There are tips worth pondering over the moment you have decided go pro. It’s easy to say that you wanted to be a singer. The questions below need to be answered in order to test how ready are you.
1. Do you have a playlist or genre that you have gotten comfortable with?
No Top 40 favorites please? Unless you can manage to sound a little like Katy Perry or singers with the same vocal range as hers, then you can go with singing contemporary pop music. You don’t have to sound exactly like them though as you already have your own distinct voice. This is how you fit in a certain genre. No need to go strictly jazz or middle-of-the-road. But the way your singing voice sounds like should remind your audience of your genre too.
2. Have you checked any announcements looking for a band front man?
It’s how some rock icons start their careers – by fronting a band. At first it seems like just a jamming session with musicians that you get along with. Then you realize that some connections lead you to other singing gigs with a touring band, of course. It’s how you network with several musicians. Most of them needed someone to sing for them in a gig or an event. More exposure, more opportunities secured, more numbers to keep in your phonebook worth calling to bag your next gig.
3. Have you had voice lessons?
Voice lessons are important to achieve a certain sound. This is where you get better voice advice and better judgment when it comes to the right song to sing in gigs. You may be familiar with some coaches from The Voice (depending which franchise you’re watching) asking some contestants to sing a song different from the one they sang. The person who auditioned realizes too late then that he/she sang the wrong song. You don’t want that to happen on TV, right? So you better get sound advice from the professionals.
4. Do you plan on coming up with an image?
For the ladies, the lounge singer look would often be a black dress with an A-line skirt or, to be sultry, a little black dress. For men, it’s just a matter of choosing between the styles of Bruno Mars of Usher when it comes to that snappy attire to wear during performances. For rock star wannabes, the ideal peg would be Steven Tyler’s denim jeans and buttoned tops. You need to feel comfortable in whatever skin you’re in. But to attain performance levels, you better look your best.
If not for everyone with a need to send samples of their singing talent to auditions and tryouts, apps like SoundCloud and Audacity won’t be in demand. Whether you need to record a song in acapella or with a minus one, at least you can use technology to share your talents online. Samples make it easier for booking agents to decide whether to give you a job or not.
After the bookers have heard you, they wanted to know how you look like. The headshots are not enough. They need to learn as well if you’ve been into gigs before or what singing jobs have you been invited to. Putting them on video and uploading them on YouTube or other forms of social media would leverage your need to market your talent too.
7. Put up a website
While Facebook has adjusted itself well enough for businesses that need to plug online, it’s still different when you have a website. It makes you look professional. Looks good to put on your calling card too. This also meant having an email address within your domain like yourname@yourwebsite.com. It’s like being your own agency. It gives that idea as well that you are the direct contact. Having an agent is good but some companies appreciate it more once they realize that it’s you that they are directly in contact with.
8. Stage your own events
You can produce your own concert too the moment you got a nice deal with a venue. If it is your first time to put up a concert with you at the helm, booking it at iChill Theater Cafe would be a good idea. You can sell tickets then give a cut to iChill and record some excerpts to be uploaded on your website. If people interested to hire you saw that you can stage your own events too, they might hire you to be your own musical director at their planned events.
Manila is one of the best cities where you can start a singing career. Once you are set, the bookings will flow into your organizer. In due time, you will eventually hire your own booking agent so you can focus on practicing more. Best wishes to your singing career then. See you around.
Filipinos love Korean pop culture, a fascinating realization when I got into the Philippines. From music to film to television, most observers pin the blame on Koreanovelas why the Latin American telenovelas’ popularity fizzled out.
It’s an interesting observation how, upon closer look, most of these K-Dramas (short for Korean dramas) have plots similar to local teleseries. If this would be the case, why most Filipinos are willing to turn their backs on local soap operas in favor of K-Dramas?
1. The plots are simpler.
Boy meets girl. They fall in love. They separate. Girl gets amnesia and they meet again. Boy is disheartened that his lady love can’t recognize him. Boy has a clingy admirer who acts as if she’s the girlfriend. Girl has a clingy admirer too. The only thing lacking are guns, goons and gold. And this is the plot of “Stairway to Heaven”.
Stairway to Heaven cast; Image by Wikipedia
Switch the roles where it’s the boy who gets amnesia and girl is disheartened that he doesn’t recognize her. Same clingy baggage though. Same result – they still end up falling in love and the amnesiac ends up remembering everything. Still, no guns, goons and gold. And that’s the plot of “Winter Sonata”.
The closest thing that a K-Drama could get to a goon would be found in a different soap, “All About Eve”. Other goons are found in large numbers in sageuk dramas, the Korean equivalent of period dramas. In typical romance dramas like the 2 dramas mentioned as examples, if ever there is violence, it would be either the clingy girl or the clingy guy that would provide the action. No backup needed as either villain is already psycho.
2. It can get surreal without going too surreal.
Dead characters come back to life, new identities forged, babies switched and vengeance plotted. Just remove the baby-switching act and you have the gist for the hit K-Drama “Temptation of Wife”. Put back the baby-switching act and you get a nice summary of “East of Eden”. Both dramas are not fantasies.
East of Eden title card; Image from Photobucket
It’s like having the mind-blowing plots of Melrose Place in a Korean setting, just remove the sex and skimpy clothing. Staged death scenes, cat fights and identity theft all in the course of presenting a story that’s beyond your imagination. It’s crazy but the kind of crazy where you can get some believable acting. In fact, some scenes are filled with restraint that it can get you thinking that no matter how stunned and shocked the characters are, the restraint is still there. Also, less guns, goons and gold for the same reason how psycho the villains already are. The only way the lead characters can possibly outplay the villain is by going crazier.
3. Familiar plots get tweaked
Usually, the adopted daughter is poor and her biological parents are rich. In “Autumn in my Heart”, it’s the rich girl who ends up adopted and the social climber classmate who hates her is the biological daughter. K-Drama doesn’t hesitate putting depressive spin on plots that we are already familiar with.
Temptation of Wife title card; Image by Wikipedia
Also, “Temptation of Wife” is more like the classic Tagalog film “Babangon Ako’t Dudurugin Kita” (I Will Rise Up and Crush You). The man dumps his wife for a prettier and richer woman. Wife gets lost and finds fortune in her new household. She then uses her vast resources to avenge herself against her estranged husband and the woman who took him away from her. Again, no guns, goons and gold since all that is left for the estranged wife to do is watch the competition break down by itself. Also, she ends up falling for her knight-in-shining armor. At least she didn’t return to her husband after accomplishing the revenge plan.
4. Gender benders
While Japanese drama (or J-Drama) is already rich with gender-bending plots from manga. K-Drama has a way of making some remakes their own. It’s easy to see anyway how male Korean actors are so beautiful, they already look like androgynous models. So when “1st Shop of the Coffee Prince” (released in the Philippines as “Coffee Prince”) soared to the top of the ratings, you could tell how the market is ready for gender bender soaps.
The coffee shop owner wanted to avoid the dates that his grandmother keeps setting for him. So he asks his barista (that he mistook for a guy) to pretend to be his gay lover. The barista accepts the deal since she needs the money. Of course they fall in love which begs the question – if the barista is a guy for real, would the coffee shop owner still love him?
It’s the same conundrum that occurred in the K-Drama “You’re Beautiful”. A girl was asked to pretend to be his twin brother after the latter’s cosmetic surgery operation got botched. It was an ill-timed incident as he fronts a K-Pop band with a career ready to launch. The girl agreed since she thought she is helping her brother this way. She ends up getting too close with a band mate and you can see how effed up it could get.
Even the sageuk genre is not spared from the gender bender type of stories even just partly. The largely fictional version of the life of the Hermit Kingdom’s first ever female head of state, Queen Seon Deok, featured the young Deokman (the Queen’s nickname) as a street urchin who got into the palace and got passed off as a young boy. She entered the military and only discovered her true identity as the next in line to the throne. Of course her fellow private end up falling for her which really got him confused as to his sexuality. It must have been a big relief the moment he discovered the person he fell in love with is a woman after all.
Predictability is good. But simplifying them because you have a story to tell instead of trying to improve an already interesting story is way better when it comes to presenting these KDramas. Luckily for the local productions though, the popularity of KDramas is already waning. It can be either saturation point or even Korean producers run out of tricks. Either way, most Filipinos today would still settle for the KDramas than what is offered at the moment on primetime TV because some story-tellers knew better how to present their productions. Could this be a new breed of colonial mentality?
Analyzing the difference between local soaps and K-Dramas helps learn about the market that it is catering too. It turned out to be more interesting than initially predicted. It must have been the final pointer that really set off the interesting factoids. I enjoyed scanning through the comparisons as much as you do. Just don’t forget to like my official Facebook page, Kuya Manzano FanClub. Gracias.
Please read the title again as I would like to make myself clear – I am offering advice on how to be a good actor, not how to be a major superstar. Before even aspiring for that lead role in your dream teleserie, ask yourself first if you have the talent. Be serious when you ask yourself that.
Know the difference between a celebrity and an actor. A celebrity does not always mean “actor” as this would often be defined by the media coverage you attract. An actor does not always mean “celebrity” as some of the most talented actors don’t even get the media mileage they deserve. In this vein, you should be aware that having the talent and the looks are not enough to make it big in Tinseltown.
If you see yourself acting professionally for the long term, you need to prepare yourself for failure. Besides, a long-term career as an actor is not always a guarantee. Even winning talent search competitions like StarStruck can’t guarantee the starring roles in soaps and meaty roles worth the awards. It even happened that some of the runners-up end up having better acting careers than the “grand winners”. And it all boils down to attitude.
You are never too good to skip workshops and training sessions. Sure, acting the part has an element of faking the emotions but that doesn’t mean you will just let it look fake. If you want to go the method acting route, go. But Anthony Hopkins mentioned the side effects of this routine that you can read here. If you’re willing to go miserable and grumpy for the sake of getting a role right, then suit yourself.
Then again, that’s where the workshops come in handy. You are not limited to only one role. If ever, you get to explore all kinds of roles by just letting it all out there. Versatility is good especially if you plan to overcome all objections and silence your critics to kingdom come. Who knows if you end up discovering your type of role?
Headshots are good since you need some photos to send to agencies. But a portfolio to back up the headshot attached in the email would be more than helpful. Experienced actors, even if an agency just saw your email, would be interested to screen you after you give them an idea of what you can do. First impressions come from the kind of headshots that are attached to your portfolio. But that doesn’t mean you’d ignore spicing up your portfolio too. Make it interesting. If ever, adjust it in a way that would get the agencies interested in hiring you by matching it to the vacant roles that they are trying to fill. Once an interview and screening is scheduled, you know you did your part well.
Opportunities don’t fall from trees. You find them. There are events that you can attend either for work or for leisure where you meet people within the same industry. It was mentioned in this article “Marketing Your Play: Questions That Shape The Vision”.
Events where you are plugging your project give you an opportunity to meet more people. Some might need actors for commercials, for short films or for feature films. Agents looking for someone to cast in a soap or a variety show might be there too apart from the press who knew someone somewhere somehow. A friend of a friend of a friend goes a long way and the next thing you know, you belong to the inner circle of the industry.
It’s mostly a social media thing. Some netizens, even if they meant just constructive criticism, still resort to creating dummy accounts so that their feedback will not be taken personally. On the other hand, some self-imposed critics lash out at certain actors for allegedly not having enough acting chops to dish out at a certain role. What if the role required restraint? What if there is no need for histrionics to come up with a believable performance?
Not everyone with a negative feedback meant ill intentions. Feedback is the best way where you can tell if you did a certain role right or if the acting is believable. Believability as opposed to exaggerated theatrics still wins the day. Learning to differentiate the honest comments from comments that just wanted to ruin your day is the clue when it comes to finding ways to improve your craft. There will always be negative feedback, ill intentions and dementors (to borrow that term from Harry Potter) that will eat your happiness. But in the middle of all that crap, genuine feedback still exists. That’s where you start to view your craft artistically then.
There was a manager who was blunt enough to tell her ward “Let’s be honest here. You don’t look nice. You look like a brat with nothing good to do. Accept villain roles and see yourself getting employed constantly”. It risked getting the actress typecast into villain roles in teleseries but she eventually learned the type of roles that suited her. While as an actor, you will not always be stuck in a certain kind of role, much of your repertoire will lean towards it simply because of the way that you look and the skill that back up the look.
Some actors start out as “character actors”. A few of them transcend into becoming lead actors themselves despite less change in facial features or very minor tweaks in the way that they act. In other words, actors like Jeremy Renner still end up getting badass roles despite getting catapulted into lead roles. You may have noticed that in “The Avengers”. Whether he’s on Loki’s side or on The Avengers’ side, his role did not wimp out or go “lamya” mode.
On the other hand, some character actors don’t succeed when trying to go the lead role route. Remember that villain on the film version of “The Count of Monte Cristo”? That’s Guy Pearce, the same actor that bagged the lead role for the underrated sci-fi film “Lockout”. While his strong features meant more villain roles (because he eventually bagged the villain role for “Iron Man 3), he didn’t get typecast in them. He was also on “The Adventures of Priscilla” playing the role of Felicia. Did he end up finding his type of role? Yes. Let’s just say he’s more memorable in baddie roles. The fact that he accepts them meant that he has acknowledged the kind of roles that suited him.
Acting is such a complicated profession. You practice the art of faking your emotions while looking genuine in them. Nevertheless it is a craft worth preserving and harnessing if you plan to do this professionally. I hope I helped you get an idea about acting as a passion. And while you’re at it, please click “Like” on my official Facebook page, Kuya Manzano FanClub. See you around.
