Mikhail Red's REKORDER reveals paradox of media; in an interview, Red talks of his first work, its pleasures and challenges, ponders of how his father, Raymond Red, an acclaimed filmmaker, looms large as he creates his own voice

REKORDER
90 min, Philippines, 2013
Cinemalaya Foundation, Filmex, PelikulaRed
Written by Mikhail Red, Ian Victoriano
Directed by Mikhail Red
Stars Ronnie Quizon with support by Suzette Ranillo, Mike Lloren, Abe Pagtama, Archi Adamos


Seemingly random acts of violence caught on cctv open the film, because they are mediated, impress the viewer with their usual-ness as being "normal-occurring" in modern-day metropolis, which in another time would have provoked an inquiry into the roots of evil, Mikhail Red's REKORDER instead infers the truth-revealing power of media, in this case, the all-pervasive modern technology.

Not that the film opts to obscure reality; by making an ingenious reference to Raymond Red's film, HIMPAPAWID/Manila skies (2012), the film being screened in the theater which the protagonist is surreptitiously recording, Mikhail Red's REKORDER in a way, suggests the socio-economic basis of his material. (Raymond Red is Mikhail's father; his HIMPAPAWID tells of the desperation of an impoverished laborer in improving his life.)

While the film's protagonist, Maven (Ronnie Quizon, now looking weather-beaten, a far cry from his matinee idol charm of many a popular film in late 70s through the 80s), so forlorn and withdrawn, toiling the streets of the city as underground recorder of movies for a video pirate, struggles to move forward as witness to a crime, the fatal mauling of a street youth, which he has recorded, speaks of the paradox of media as truth-seeker.

Inasmuch as technology is believed to have democratized media, thus empowering; its use cannibalizes people, the pervasive recording of daily life anesthetizes us to the violence that we see, as well as it continues to be a medium of containment, always subservient to capital economy.

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REKORDER won Best Production Design at Cinemalaya, New Breed in 2013; Was awarded Special Jury Prize and Best Music at the Annonay International Film Festival in France in February, 2014.

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SINE! says:
XO (Crossover appeal) - **
A+ (Arthouse potential) - ***
C> (Cult fav hit) - *
H (Hometown prime) - **

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Mikhail Red (photo by Pamela Reyes)

How did you come up with the idea of REKORDER? What spurred you to work on the subject? Are you political?

The idea for Rekorder started three years ago. I was 19 when I saw a viral video on the news, it seemed to be a random street crime: a young man, about my age at the time, was being lynched and beaten by a group of thugs in the streets. Everyone took videos of the incident but no one helped the victim, eventually he was shot to death, he took a shot to the chest from a homemade pipegun. The perpetrators fled the scene. The video disturbed me, in it I saw the distortion of the society I was living in. That’s when the germ of the idea for Rekorder started. 

When I turned 20, I decided to join Cinemalaya so I came up with a work of fiction based on the controversial viral video. I wrote a comprehensive sequence treatment and submitted it to CInemalaya. I was selected as one of the semi-finalists and tasked to come up with a full screenplay. I co-wrote the final screenplay with Ian Victoriano, and we were ultimately awarded the Cinemalaya grant to complete the film as one of the 10 newbreed entries for 2013.


What is in it, that you think worked and did not? What were the challenges you faced when making the film?

The film was quite a challenge to make. Basically I had to jump off a cliff and build my wings on the way down. I was learning everything for the first time, the hard way. I never really had any professional experience working with feature films, I did ally my previous short films on my own, independently, with do-it-yourself and guerilla methods. It was my first time working with a full production crew, shooting several days and handling several sequences. The transition from short films to a full feature was definitely hard but I had the help of a very dedicated and passionate crew, they were able to back me up during the entire process.

Being a young director was also hard, I was one of the youngest on set, I learned from everyone involved but at the same time I had to show my command and my authority. I respected and learned from a lot of experienced and veteran professionals on set while proving to them my command of the material, I had to make them believe in my vision and show them I knew what I was doing, it was a balancing act.

The treatment of the film was also a challenge. The film was shot using several formats. I had to deal with the headache of handling and integrating newer formats with older and obsolete video and analog formats. We had to find ways to match frame rates and audio rates, we had to find specialists who could convert the older formats into digital files that we could process in post. We were managing several kinds of materials, making the workflow for post-production quite complex. We had to troubleshoot and innovate along the way.

But the biggest problem of all was funding. We shot the film with a total cash-out of around 1.2million pesos, a very modest budget for the material at hand. It was a struggle along the way. We planned for 10 days of principal photography but ended up shooting 13. We went over our intended budget and we even had to stop production half-way because we ran out of funding, a lot of compromises also had to be made. We considered the option of dropping out when we couldn’t finish the film, but luckily we had an angel investment from our Executive Producer Butch Jimenez, his contribution allowed us to continue filming. Even at the post-production stage we reached a bottle-neck situation with our schedule and funding, I even had to skip the opening night of CInemalaya because we were rendering our final screening copy the night before our supposed premiere, that’s how hectic it was.

In hindsight, we should have gathered our funding earlier and we should have prepared an intensive pre-production plan, but at the time it seemed impossible because Cinemalaya had strict deadlines, we had to make the film at a fast pace. I didn’t even expect to get in so when it was announced that our project was a go, we had to rush to gather our resources.


Have you ever thought of being a filmmaker like your dad, since when? Does it affect you thinking that your dad is a celebrated filmmaker, do you feel some pressure?

My father definitely casts a huge shadow over me. He never really pressured me into the craft of filmmaking but being exposed to cinema at an early age and growing up with the influence of artist parents, going into film felt inevitable.

I feel that my dad and I are quite different in our approach and philosophies. He pays tribute to the past with his classical cinema craft and retro-inspired experimental shorts, while I explore the future using modern elements and techniques such as utilizing new and available technology to tell a story, Rekorder for example is a multi-format film. We also make it a point to respect each other’s work and independence, he usually does not attend my shoots during principal photography but I sometimes ask him to stop by during final stages of post to hear his comments before rendering out the material, but of course I always get the final word when it comes to my films. At one time we even had a debate over the ending of one of my films, I completely disagreed with his opinion and went with what I believed was best for my film.


Did you ever ask yourself why you make films?

I keep asking myself that all the time, but sometimes I can’t really think of a clear answer. At times, it feels innate, like I can’t go on living without making films and telling stories, the urge to start a new project just comes naturally. An idea, a concept just goes round and round in my mind until I find myself obsessing over it, the urge stops when I finally see it projected on screen, being shared with others, and for me the whole process in between is what filmmaking is.

I also used to write a lot of short stories when I was growing up as a young teenager. Eventually my writing transitioned into telling stories through motion-picture. I always believe that you should make the films that you yourself would want to see as an audience.


What do you think of the direction the independent cinema is taking at present? Can you think of anything that needs to get improved?

I’m happy to be part of an age where accessible technology has granted new filmmakers the opportunity to tell their stories through moving images. I’m also lucky that there are now a lot of initiatives in the Philippines that encourage young filmmakers to make films and provide them with the support and platform to do so. I guess what we need right now is more funding and support directed towards promotion and marketing. That’s what’s lacking at the moment, we have enough funding for production but have next to nothing to promote and market our film either locally or internationally.


Back to REKORDER, why did you end the film like you did, showing cam02 as the one on screen? What are you trying to drive at?

SPOILER ALERT:
I wanted the film to go full circle, returning to the opening sequence of the film. We start with a viral video depicting the conflict and chaos of our setting and we end with it, it is also here that the main character Maven finally faces the truth – no longer closing his eyes to sleep or hiding behind his camera, he watches the horror with his eyes open and focused on the screen, watching the truth that started his character’s descent and isolation from society. He watches what happened to his family, at that time he wasn’t just a mere spectator, or witness, or observer, or ghost. He was actually there, present during the violence, and because of his actions, his own decision to intervene during the robbery, to interact with society, to resist, it all ends in tragedy – the death of his daughter and the slow death of his once glorified career. His trauma has shaped him into what he is at present day: disconnected, dissonant, detached, afraid to intervene, afraid to act, afraid to do the right thing, but of course he eventually redeems himself by allowing his tape to go viral, and at a personal level he finally accepts the truth, as he sits there in the empty cinema, his eyes wide open to the incident that started it all, the atm-robbery viral video that was captured by cam02, an electronic witness to the horrors of society, a recorder of truth. 

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