Trinka Lat. She's an accomplished and award-winning production designer for feature length films and music videos. Her little gem of a short film, April Fools–which she wrote and directed–is a bittersweet and beautiful story about two friends who visit the grave of another friend who died two years before. Trinka Lat's direction and screenplay are spot-on and super tight. I would love to see more of her work, not just as a production designer, but as a writer/director.
Malek Lopez. A good film can be ruined by a bad musical score, just as a great score can uplift a film like in Martin Scorsese's 1997 film Kundun with music by Phillip Glass. I've observed that a majority of our local mainstream (and some independent) films are over-scored, and it annoys me to no end. Talk about buzz kill! Thank goodness for Berklee-trained Malek Lopez, who is a fixture in the independent music scene and a pioneer of electronica in the Philippines, and also an amazing composer. He should really be doing more work in movies. From his drum-and-bass fueled score for Quark Henares' Super Noypi to his eerie melodies in Ray Gibraltar's Wanted: Border, Malek Lopez instinctively knows what to do for a musical score that is unpredictable and the antithesis of cheesy.
Chiu, Martin, Eusebio and Trinidad's photos by Noel Orsal of PEP.ph. Ramos' photo by Migo Vidallo (PEP.ph). Cabral's photo by Ferdy Lapuz (PEP.ph). Prado's photo from her Facebook. Lat's photo from her Facebook. Gozum's photo from his Friendster. Lopez' photo from Rubber Inc.'s Multiply. Artwork (homepage) by Warren Espejo.
