Mula Sa Puso

Tuesday 26th Jan

When we arrived at the press conference it was while before the meal was served, so I munched away at the snacks they've placed on the tables while I waited. I soon discovered that they were provided by the sponsors of the event, Jack n Jill Star Chips. They were excellent snacks too (I'm afraid I munched my way through most of them on our table ;).

At the actual press conference I didn't know too much about the show except the snippets I'd seen on TV, but they showed the movie trailer which showed me most of what I needed to know, namely that basically it's pretty much like any other soap - love triangles, goodies and baddies, the obligatory bitch, the close-knit family, and of course a number of cliff-hangers ;))

There seemed to be a  good relationship between the actors and the press here, and maybe the fact that there were so many actors meant that it was easier to ask relevant questions.  Also, that it was a long-running series as well as a film meant that the press were familiar not only with the actors but also with the characters they portrayed.

Some of the actors didn't seem to get asked very many questions. Naturally enough they appeared to be the ones that weren't the headlining characters, but I sometimes wondered how they felt about being on the sidelines so much and whether they felt that it was all a waste of time.  It's the kind of questions I would have asked them given the chance, as I was so much an outsider to the whole press process. Having said that, I guess their answers would have been fairly diplomatic, so I probably wouldn't have learned much ;)

After the general questions had been asked the cast all stood together for a photo call. I was never too comfortable with the whole 'press photographer' thing and until now had pretty much avoided taking the obvious poses or requesting certain shots. After all, I was just there taking holiday snaps really, and if it wasn't for Pilar's line of work I'd probably just be taking photos of us two in different tourist spots in the area. On this occasion though, as the actors were all assembled there anyway, I stood up and took a few ;)

Then, as usual, people split up into little groups usually comprised of one star and a handful of reporters.  I didn't get chance to chat with any of the actors myself, but I sat and listened (to the bits I could understand ;) as Dieter Ocampo came and sat at our table for a while.  He seemed quite happy to answer a lot of questions from the press, and even posed for a shot.

As was often the case, Pilar wasn't doing any interviews with the stars, and it was Aster's turn to do them instead. The crew sat up on some tables off to the side of the room and a couple of the stars were interviewed in depth. Once again, very little of these interviews saw the light of day on the actual transmission of Showbiz Lingo Plus.  Pilar visited a few of the tables to do interviews for her columns while I photographed Aster's interviews.

I think it was also during this press conference that we learned that Pilar,Aster, and Dolly Ann wouldn't be doing the interviews from now on.   this was presumably because so little of them were ever used, but it seemed strange to me to have the opportunity to film so much good material and then never use it.

One problem of not understanding Tagalog is that I could never compare the interviewing techniques of Pilar and her Showbiz Lingo colleagues. It's hard to tell who's asking better questions when you don't understand any of them...

Monday 25th Jan

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Jan-Feb 1999

Tuesday 26th Jan