<script async src="//pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/js/adsbygoogle.js"></script> <!-- Showbiz Portal Bottom 1 300x250, created 10/15/10 --> <ins class="adsbygoogle" style="display:inline-block;width:300px;height:250px" data-ad-client="ca-pub-1272644781333770" data-ad-slot="2530175011"></ins> <script> (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); </script>
Mario Bautista, has been with the entertainment industry for more than 4 decades. He writes regular columns for People's Journal and Malaya.

May 7, 2017

Director Veronica Velasco Enjoys Working Anew With Jodi Santamaria After 10 Years In 'Dear Other Self', A Film About Millennials At The Crossroads Of Life

VERONICA VELASCO is happy to be directing Jodi Santamaria once again in Star Cinema’s “Dear Other Self”. The first time they worked together was in “Maling Akala”, an entry in Cinemalaya in 2007 where Jodi’s leading man was Victor Basa (where is he now?) So how is it working with Jodi after ten long years?

“We both enjoyed working with each other again,” she says. “Kung noon, nagkakapaan pa kami, now mas okay na. It’s easy to work with Jodi kasi dati na siyang magaling na artista at bagay na bagay siya sa lead role ng Becky in ‘Dear Other Self’. She’s a woman at the crossroads here as the breadwinner for her family but, at the same time, gusto ring mag-resign sa trabaho so she can pursue her dream of traveling.”

It’s a unique kind of concept. Where did she get it? “I got the story idea from my own daughter. Influence yan ng internet sa millennials who dream of leaving everything behind and travelling around the world. So the viewers would see two parallel stories in ‘Dear Other Self’. One Jodi stays behind and does her usual job and meets a boy next door, Joseph Marco, at yung isa naman, nag-travel abroad and, in Thailand where we shot on location, she meets Xian Lim, the kind of guy na kapag ikinuwento mo sa friends mo, maiinggit sila sa iyo.”

Won’t viewers be confused and think Jodi is suffering from schizophrenia and has a split personality? “Yun nga ang challenge for us. Na hindi malito ang tao, so we want to stress na hindi po kambal si Jodi rito, but the same person going through different kinds of experiences.”

Veronica started directing in 2016 with “Inang Yaya” starring Maricel Soriano, which she co-directed with Pablo Biglang-Awa. Other films she directed are “Princesa” with Romnick Sarmenta in 2007, the black comedy “Last Supper No. 3” with JM De Guzman which won best picture in the Cinemalaya Filmfest 2009, “I Do” with Erich Gonzales in 2010, “Tuhog” with Eugene Domingo in 2013. For TV, she got to direct several episodes of “Maalaala Mo Kaya” and the Janella Salvador soap, “OMG”. She's hoping "Dear Other Self" will make a good connection with millennial viewers who want to do so many things in lives simultaneously.

POST