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With Gratitude

Virulence

Let's begin this note with a whine: While other people are blessed with friends I'm endowed with bullies whose idea of friendship is for you to come up with something “creative,” emphasizing, while briefing you, that the deadline was yesterday. This scenario, of course, instantly reduces you into adopting the EQ of Freddie Kruger.

The amazing thing is, you allow such abuse. Friendship is another synonym for insanity. Or masochism.

In this light let me help a major bully of a friend who exercised blackmail, and when that didn't work, resorted to threats of physical harm just to come up with this and post it here:

(click image to enlarge and read the copy)

Insanity is viral.Spread the word!

The Concealed Charms Of Humble Things

Two consecutive Fridays of this month I found myself in two grueling shoots in Tanauan, Batangas. I helped art-directing a branding initiative for a client of Vgrafiks, upon the behest of Russel and Chan. The first Friday was allocated for print, billboard and collaterals production that Art Abraham photographed and the second for capabilities video, directed by Ned and Cenon. I will not enumerate the many insanely hilarious misadventures we all had. Yeah the whole ordeal was tiresome but we had great fun.

While shooting the video in the public market Missy went nuts and began chasing random kids selling stuff from crushed black pepper to crackers. She was merrily snapping pictures of vendors, beggars and kargadors with mad glee that I got infected. I borrowed her camera (technically it was Chan's camera but Missy was in charge of behind-the-scenes documentation) and decided to take snaps of curious objects I chanced upon the chaotic wet market.

No, I have no delusions of being Irving Penn. It was fun snapping pictures of stuff people were ignoring in various corners.

I posted more here.

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What You Won't See In Uno Magazine

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Hitting magazine shelves this November is the photoshoot Art did for Dana's brands of footwear in collaboration with Uno Magazine. KC styled the whole thing and Dana/KC/Art insisted I tag along as the resident kibitzer/intrimitido. It was a fun shoot and when I say fun I mean everyone's nerves were on hyperdrive due to overcaffeination. We improvised the sittings within Dana's kingdom, flanked by the Baranggay Tanod outpost and the clustered shanties of surrounding urban misfortunates. Charming neighborhood, I must say. The entire time we were busily glancing over our shoulders, half-expecting an Indian pana to sink in our necks. No, that one is not true. I'm teasing Dana!

KC has the scans from the magazine (I posted some teasers before) and I thought I'd post some of the images that didn't make it to the printed mag. (Also I desaturated the postings here)

More images here.

Photography : ART ABRAHAM
Styling : KC LEYCO
Models : ISABEL DU @ Fabtrix, LANCE HOWARD @ Mercator
Make Up : DIANE DE CASTRO
Hair : RICKY DIOKNO @ KIEHL'S
Also helping us were Dana's Assistants : Chris And Jean

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Dreaming In Copper And Resin

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Complete boredom had me poking around the filters menu in photoshop and conveniently I was able to dig from the old files archive a shoot we did for the magazine featuring Ming Ong's ornately constructed jewelry art worn by the lovely Farrah Ramos. Here's what I came up with. (Take note: this is not the final layout for the image it was intended for. This is an 'exercise' layout because my brain is approaching terminal stage of atrophy from underuse.) We will be staging an official shoot for the new concepts we developed for Ming's Obra line which will be used for the advertising campaign/editorial releases very soon. We are still casting/scouting for male and female models to be shot by Art Abraham. (Interested folks who would want to model for this, do drop Ming or myself a line.)

Photography : Art Abraham / Art Jewelry Design : Ming Ong (Obra/Kathang Kamay) /Model : Farrah Ramos /Makeup : Janeth Tia / Hair : Cris Aloc of Hairshaft / Image Violation : Myself (note to self: leave post production to skilled experts)

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WM Wins 2!

World Mission Magazine won the prestigious Catholic Mass Media Awards the first time it entered the competition in 2007. (A month later we announced the win in the cover for the Nov-Dec issue. See above)

Just this evening WM Editor, Father Joe Rebelo sent me an SMS announcing that WM won Best Community Magazine and Best In Special Feature, beating the well-funded Philippine Daily Inquirer in the category.

This is an amazing accomplishment considering the magazine's nonexistent editorial budget. It relies on pro bono contributions from writers and photographers. For almost four years now, I volunteer on art-directing and co-designing it with Victor Garcia (yep, that's Victor's hands in the cover above, photographed by Marlon Lacanilao) and the collaboration gave us opportunities to exercise conceptual covers approach which will never see the light of day in a commercial, mainstream title. It is such a joy working closely with Father Joe and Father Dave Domingues, Brother Fabio and the very supportive Comboni Missionaries.

Congratulations to all the generous writers and photographers (yep, Art, that includes you) who keep on donating talent, effort and dedication to promote an independent, smart alternative voice in the sea of mediocrity crowding the newsstands!

Silverboys + Silvergirl

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Jason of Unisilver gave us one confounding challenge: Create a very simple photography-based set of creatives for the mass-centric accessory brand using characters to be channeled by signed celebrity endorsers and make the finished images look expensive.

We scratched our heads and stared at each other. How do you visually reposition a mass brand into something that looked premium when everyone from Boronggan, Samar to Aparri to Jolo knows that in terms of price range you are dealing with something that is not exactly,uhh, Tiffany?! To top it all we will be working with mass darlings Kim Chiu, Gerald Anderson, Sam Milby and hiphop artist Jay R.

Regular mortals would have backed out from the project but we are deeply masochistic so we said Yes and sealed our doom.

No, not really.

On the contrary we had nifty time collaborating with Jason and his boss, tossing in ideas, narrowing the choices of character sketches, discarding story boards, and sorting out props to go with each layout. Also we had the most crazy fun dodging death by crossing the insane streets of Binondo during meetings. Clint, running out of time for costume pull out decided to take matters into his own hands and sew some stuff himself to be used for the shoot. Yes, he whined and moaned but saw to it that every single strand of silver chains snaking around Jay R's well-toned body and Kim's elegant neck are all seamlessly put together.


Art and Marlon also went overboard by creating more variations than what was agreed upon. All in all we had a terrific time working together except for that episode when the entire shoot was interrupted by a starlet who was shooting in the adjacent studio. She wandered in our sitting and yakked like a parrot on speed. No, I'm kidding about the parrot on speed bit, but you get the gist. :P
Since Art didn't give me the DVD containing the polished layouts I am posting here the rough iterations of Unisilver's new creatives now seen on billboards, bus wraps, in-store displays and print materials all over the country.

And no, JayR didn't catch pneumonia for being shirtless four hours straight.

More variations HERE.
Credits:

Photography : Art Abraham
Styling, props and costumes : Clint Catalan
Hair & Makeup : Benji of Hairshaft
Post production + Graphics : Marlon Lacanilao
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Worm Wants YOU

Art Director and (now mad) designer Clint Catalan is looking for models for his Fabric event and subsequent campaign for his WORMS line. I will be co-conceptualizing/art directing this campaign to be shot by Art Abraham. Worms is more of a statement project rather than a commercial one so let it be established upfront that models will not be paid in cash. (All collaborators for this project will be working pro bono, myself included.) "So, can you justify why would i strip for you, losers?" you say.

Simple.

Aspiring "Models" will be guaranteed fashion exposure via Worm's segment to be staged in Embassy Fly on 06 November 2008.

The four outstanding picks will be the centerpiece of a conceptual photo shoot for the WORMS campaign which will be distributed in print (magazines, dailies) and viral (blogs, online networking sites, forums etc). Think high-caliber photography for your model's folio/book. You will be given top-notch creatives and photography which you can use in whatever application you deem appropriate.

WORMS is looking for edgy 'character' faces (boring boy/girl-next-door faces will be ignored. kidding.) Multi-ethnic ones preferred.

Interested parties are encouraged to send head shots (or links to your sites) via Clint's sites here and here.

Thanks. see you at the studio!

How To Disrobe A Rock Star

Frantically digging through boxes of DVDs for a set of files I needed, I unintentionally fished out the CD containing my very first assignment for NoFear underwear. It featured Kjwan front man Marc Abaya whom we collaborated earlier for Dana's in-mag creative integration program. So I might as well post them here in black and white version.

Dana wanted a very sexy shoot and right from the start we plotted for the images to be iconic, sensual and edgy.

More of Marc here.

Photography : Arthur Abraham

Hair & Make up: Cris and Marlon of Hairshaft
Tattoo/Styling : Clint Catalan
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Lawnmowers

Between takes for Dana's editorial integration project with Uno Magazine I decided to take a few extra snaps for the respective Books of models Isabel and Lance. Both gamely rolled in grass populated by ants and dog shit. As we always joked around the set, no amount of shit should stop you from getting good snaps. Disagreements will be automatically ignored. Photography : Arthur Abraham / Styling : KC Leyco /Models: Isabel @ Chameleon and Lance @ Mercator / Hair : Ricky Diokno @ Kiehl's / Makeup:

More Here
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Lace up, Giddy up

Pony is going to be very active visually this coming few weeks. We collaborated with them for a portrait pictorial for the band, Hale. I'm posting here the raw stuff as teasers.

And here's a take from another shoot involving Jake C. I am sure his rabid fanbase will shred us apart for deglamorizing the Methatione hearthrob. Brace yourselves, Arthur, KC and Jean! I'll be in hiding starting today. Haha.

Photography : Arthur Abraham
Styling : KC Leyco
Post production : Chris Azana
Hair & Makeup : To be credited later
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The Sexier Side Of Fearlessness

Already installed is our team's billboard project for NoFear Underwear. This is the first installment. (Grabbed this from KC's site.)

Hope to see the "threesome" version later. Hehe.


Erika, Dana in her (duster chic hahaha), Fabio, KC, Mariana and Tring.

Sicko

Back to back shoot in collaboration with four shoe brands plus helping out in art directing an editorial shoot for a progressive men's magazine have taken their toll. It was a blast though and we all had a funtastic time. (will post pics of the shoot later). Right now I'm too depleted and sick enough to rain check on an invitation for a Friday night gimik. Bummer. Instead of guzzling on beer I am home uploading stuff on multiply, which, the way I look at it is just three stoplights away from pure loser-hood. Haha. Stupid body pains. Argh. But let's see what I have unearthed among the unsorted/unfinished clutter of possible folio materials.

More of this here.

More of this here.

More of this here.

More of this here.

More of this here.

More of this here.

More of this here.

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More of this here.

Sensual Connection

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Other pics in the series
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