With my credit card’s freebie, my family we went to watch “Here Comes the Bride” a film by indie director Chris Martinez. But before my two cents worth of comments on the film, let me share with you a not so nice experience we went through using my credit card’s promotional freebie. I was all praises to Citibank’s free movie pass for every P1,500.00 purchase using the card when I came to know about it. However ,when we went to watch “Here Comes the Bride” at the SM Fairview Cinema, the teller told me that there is now a memorandum from their management that the mechanics of freebie from my credit card has been altered and instead of a free movie pass as it was advertised and which I was able to avail when we watched Jennifer Lopez’ “Back Up Plan” last month, this time the P1,500 purchase using the card is only worth P100.00 meaning that if the movie ticket is priced at P130.00, using the freebie, I have to pay and additional P30.00. This is a glaring example of false advertisement. The teller showed me the memorandum and I did not argue with her. I paid additional P120.00 for the four of us. The following day, I called up Citibank and and called their attention about it. The call center representative from bank – named Micky Ave confirmed the alteration. I knew that our conversation was recorded and I told him that Citibank committed a clear case of false advertisement. I likened their move to a game that the referee suddenly decided to change the rules of the game while the game was going on.
Now back to the movie “Here Comes the Bride”. The frustration that I went through with the freebie of my credit card vanished as soon we entered the movie house. The cinema was “all seats taken!”. The usher was very helpful to look for seats for the four of us but we have to sit far from each other. When we were able to finally have our seats, and my eyes had adjusted to the darkness inside the cinema, I realized that indeed the movie house was full of viewers! It was a blockbuster! It was showing in 100 theatres nationwide and if the attendance of the viewers at SM Fairview is the same in the 99 other theatres nationwide, then the flick is a monster hit!
Now please note that it is originally an indie film produced by Atty. Joji Alonzo, the same producer that produced Armando Lao’s “Biyaheng Lupa”. I noticed that Atty. Alonzo was able to strike a deal with Star Cinema for “Here Comes the Bride”: Star Cinema will be the one which will market the movie. This means that Star Cinema invested in the promotions of the movie through TV plugs in its sister company ABS-CBN channel 2 and their affiliate TV channels and it booked the movie with the SM Cinemas syndicate theatres nationwide. I also read in the credits that Octo Arts is a co-producer. I will make a wild guess: Octo Arts had also provided additional funding for the project.
This deal could possibly signal the start of “mainstreaming” of indie films in the Philippine setting which to my mind is a positive move. It is a win-win situation for both the indie producer and the mainstream producer: the indie producer and of course the director will finally be assured that their film will be finally appreciated by a larger audience while the mainstream producer will be able to save high cost of production and in this case since Star Cinema has an affiliate tv station, the promotional costs is significantly reduced.
However, the indie film should be able to prove that it can be marketed commercially. In the case of the “Here Comes the Bride” it has all the elements of a commercial film: from casting (Angelica Panganiban, Eugene Domingo, John Lapuz, Tuesday Vargas and Jaime Fabregas) that can draw in the audience to a witty and fast phase directing and finally to a fresh story that endears the film to the audience. It has some weaknesses though. I guess that the movie was filmed using digital camera and when it was transferred to 35 mm for theatre exhibition, the quality suffered. Specifically, the sound is weak, and there are scenes that appeared dark.
On a personal note, I was very much delighted to see my co-actors in the popular tv series “May Bukas Pa” in the wide screen: Jaime Fabregas, Timothy Chan and Tess Antonio. Tess is the wedding coordinator/resort manager in the film. She was the DSWD worker in “May Bukas Pa”. My only complain with the director is that Tess did not have a close up shot in the film! Over all, the film was able to make my family laugh! It is highly recommended.
