Tuesday, June 14, 2011 / 8:00 AM
One thing I can and will never, never bring myself to do is to sit through and finish an entire episode of a local television drama. Ten minutes I can manage, but then the story usually reaches that unavoidable point where there's a whole lot of bitchy glares or all-out crying on the floor with tousled hair and bared teeth. Save me the terrible overacting experience. Everything is then made worse with the two things that can potentially make or break a drama, in my book at least: cinematography and music. Most local dramas fail epic-ly at these, and I'm sorry that I had to say that.
SHOTS.
Most local dramas pay incredibly little to their cinematography. Sometimes I think it's the number of episodes that they have to shoot in advance that pressures them and forces them to settle for less, but really, how difficult is it to find a good angle? Or include establishing shots? Many scenes cut to another and the actors speak right away, without preamble, that you get taken aback by how sudden the story jumped from one conversation to another conversation in another setting.
The visually unpleasant final confrontation scene in Mara Clara (2011)* could have been saved a little had they given more effort than simply framing the actors in the screen. A lot of fantasy or epic series have also been done and shot in breathtaking locations, but it's such a waste that the director or cinematographers sometimes don't even take full advantage of this. (Although I've seen a bit of GMA's Amaya, and, well, it is rather pretty to look at.)
* Gina Pareño and Jhong Hilario are the only good things in this 2010 remake; the latter surprised me, since he's not even a serious actor, but a dancer. The lead actors bored me and had no impact whatsoever; I didn't even bother learning their names. These days just a handful of actors have the strong screen presence that most of the older generation always had, and those two don't. Bleh.
MUSIC.
Number one on my TV drama pet peeves list. Music, when applied properly, can emphasize the characters' emotions and bring out the beauty of a scene. There are cases though that the absence of background music even fleshes out what the characters feel even more. But in local dramas? Local dramas hire music/sound editors sooo diligent enough that they insert music -- songs, instrumental, orchestra versions -- in just every singel scene there is in the episode. It's like people might avert their eyes the moment they only hear the characters' breaths, gulps, the raw crying and sobbing, etc. And it doesn't help that the musical scores sound no different from drama to drama. I can go on and on about this pet peeve #1, but digress, I shall.
So it's generally upsetting, because some local dramas have actually really good plots, with good and capable actors. I like the recently airing show 100 Days to Heaven, which revolves around this dead, sinful middle-aged woman who was not permitted entry to heaven, and thereby forced to return to earth as a small girl to redeem herself. Or Magkaribal: about two rival women in the fashion industry (I love the drama's logo) who turn out to be blood sisters. The action-romance premise of Guns and Roses sounds interesting too, but it's still to early to say anything (lovely title for a local drama; not-so-lovely Word Art-esque logo). However, until the local drama production crews find some buckets of good inspiration and experiment a little bit more with the quality and visuals of their dramas and not only care solely about the rating and money, I'm giving up. I'd stick to Korean and Japanese dramas (the good ones, of course), thank you very much.
About
image from: exploding dog
I'm a bored person and I like to procrastinate by
drawing, watching Asian dramas, listening to K-pop, and spazzing away.
Sometimes I also sleep and
tweet.
I respond to the name JoKimiko. Cheers.
My top 5 dramas:
The World That They Live In (2008)
49 Days (2011)
Hana Yori Dango (2005)
Delightful Girl Choon-Hyang (2005)
My Girl (2006)
(Here's the
list of dramas I've watched so far, in case you're even interested.)
Films: Inception, The Devil Wears Prada, Memoirs of a Geisha, Legally Blonde, Pirates of the Caribbean.
Actors: Hyun Bin, Jung Il-woo, Jae Hee, Gong Li, Alan Rickman, Leonardo DiCaprio, Ryan Reynolds, Johnny Depp
Music: SHINee, BEAST, Big Bang, Panic! At The Disco, Rihanna, Chris Brown
Art Influences: Ruben Toledo, Max Cabrera (Pyromaniac), Stanley Lau (Artgerm), Lois van Baarle
Tuesday, June 14, 2011 / 8:00 AM
One thing I can and will never, never bring myself to do is to sit through and finish an entire episode of a local television drama. Ten minutes I can manage, but then the story usually reaches that unavoidable point where there's a whole lot of bitchy glares or all-out crying on the floor with tousled hair and bared teeth. Save me the terrible overacting experience. Everything is then made worse with the two things that can potentially make or break a drama, in my book at least: cinematography and music. Most local dramas fail epic-ly at these, and I'm sorry that I had to say that.
SHOTS.
Most local dramas pay incredibly little to their cinematography. Sometimes I think it's the number of episodes that they have to shoot in advance that pressures them and forces them to settle for less, but really, how difficult is it to find a good angle? Or include establishing shots? Many scenes cut to another and the actors speak right away, without preamble, that you get taken aback by how sudden the story jumped from one conversation to another conversation in another setting.
The visually unpleasant final confrontation scene in Mara Clara (2011)* could have been saved a little had they given more effort than simply framing the actors in the screen. A lot of fantasy or epic series have also been done and shot in breathtaking locations, but it's such a waste that the director or cinematographers sometimes don't even take full advantage of this. (Although I've seen a bit of GMA's Amaya, and, well, it is rather pretty to look at.)
* Gina Pareño and Jhong Hilario are the only good things in this 2010 remake; the latter surprised me, since he's not even a serious actor, but a dancer. The lead actors bored me and had no impact whatsoever; I didn't even bother learning their names. These days just a handful of actors have the strong screen presence that most of the older generation always had, and those two don't. Bleh.
MUSIC.
Number one on my TV drama pet peeves list. Music, when applied properly, can emphasize the characters' emotions and bring out the beauty of a scene. There are cases though that the absence of background music even fleshes out what the characters feel even more. But in local dramas? Local dramas hire music/sound editors sooo diligent enough that they insert music -- songs, instrumental, orchestra versions -- in just every singel scene there is in the episode. It's like people might avert their eyes the moment they only hear the characters' breaths, gulps, the raw crying and sobbing, etc. And it doesn't help that the musical scores sound no different from drama to drama. I can go on and on about this pet peeve #1, but digress, I shall.
So it's generally upsetting, because some local dramas have actually really good plots, with good and capable actors. I like the recently airing show 100 Days to Heaven, which revolves around this dead, sinful middle-aged woman who was not permitted entry to heaven, and thereby forced to return to earth as a small girl to redeem herself. Or Magkaribal: about two rival women in the fashion industry (I love the drama's logo) who turn out to be blood sisters. The action-romance premise of Guns and Roses sounds interesting too, but it's still to early to say anything (lovely title for a local drama; not-so-lovely Word Art-esque logo). However, until the local drama production crews find some buckets of good inspiration and experiment a little bit more with the quality and visuals of their dramas and not only care solely about the rating and money, I'm giving up. I'd stick to Korean and Japanese dramas (the good ones, of course), thank you very much.
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