The four-member team Pawikan Productions, composed of Petroleum Engineering students of Palawan State University, has been shortlisted for the upcoming boot camp of the 2018 Short Film Festival of Maybank.
Timothy Gemar A. Fagut, Neil Christiane Buenaobra, Carrian Balding, and Jason Patrick Pinlac, who are 4th year Petroleum Engineering Students, comprise the team.
They were qualified after the initial screening of their submitted requirements.
“For us, it really is such a great honor to be shortlisted being students with little to no proper foundation on filmmaking. We were really surprised when the announcement came because we never really expected to be chosen for such a big event along with so many talented people,” Timothy said when interviewed by the Palawan Daily News.
They will undergo a 2-day Creative Bootcamp on June 23-24 with the festival’s Artistic Director, Brilliante Mendoza, at the Legen Villas, Mandaluyong, Metro Manila.
There are 25 competing teams coming from different universities / colleges nationwide that have been shortlisted.
Being petroleum engineering students seemed to be far from filmmaking, but the team says it is all about the passion to express themselves with creativity.
“It started from several subjects in our course requiring us to pass video projects by the end of semester- each of us enjoyed going through the creative process and producing outputs for those projects. We started looking for ways to further express ourselves in a fun and interactive way outside our course and before long, it became a way for us to bond and connect with the people around us by creating the content that we wanted to share with others,” Timothy added.
Their team, according to Timothy, doesn’t really have a solid plan for preparations, but they are more determined to get along with it through their boot camp.
“Actually, as of right now, we don’t really have a solid plan for preparations. Hahaha. I guess it’s more of an overall process of making ourselves open to any new things that we might learn along the way and the determination to pull through while balancing both school and passion,” Timothy said.
Major Awards will be Best Short Film – Php 50,000 Cash, 2nd Best Short Film – Php 30,000 Cash, 3rd Best Short Film – Php 15,000 Cash, and Most Viral Short Film – Php 15,000 Cash. Individual Awards include Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Director, Best Screenwriter, Best Cinematographer, and Best Production Designer.
Judging and selection of winners will be on October 19 and the 2018 GAWAD CineMAYBANK Awards Night on December 1.
The Short Film Festival is accredited by the Commission on Higher Education in partnership with the Film Development Council of the Philippines.