WRITER-DIRECTOR Alejandro “Bong” Ramos started his career as a writer at ABS-CBN, writing episodes for “Maricel Drama Special” and soaps like “Mangarap Ka” and “Vietnam Rose”.
Then he branched out into assistant directing, mostly for Direk Joel Lamangan, then he became a full director in films like “Haw-Ang” (set in the rice terraces), sexy films “Butas” with Gwen Garci and “Butas 2” with Mocha.
His last film was “My Amiga Girl” with Daiana Menezes.
He then returned to assistant directing and his last film is “Katips”, which is now still showing.
Early this year, Rodel Ocampo Fernando introduced him to AQ Prime streaming platform and he has since completed three new films for them, now showing on their Director’s Cut for its mature content.
These are “La Traidora”, “Baka Sakali” and “Adonis X”. He also co-wrote the screenplay of “La Traidora” and “Baka Sakali” with Abet Raz, while “Adonis X” was written by Lex Bonife.
“La Traidora” is a story of love and betrayal. Brylle Mondejar plays Direk Darryl, a director who wants to save his career by accepting a porno film.
He gets OJ Arce as his friend Bubbles to be his production manager, but Bubbles will betray him because of money.
It’s also the story of porn stars Miguel and Shiela who are reunited in Direk Darryl’s movie.
Miguel is now married to Dina and it turns out Shiela just stole him from Dina, messing up the shooting of their new film.
Newcomers Juan Calma plays Miguel, the Porno King, Mia Aquino as Dina and Joni Mcnab as Shiela.
“Baka Sakali” is a Boys Love story starring newcomers Drei Arias and Leander Adam.
Leander as Seymour is about April Gustilo as Faith, but then he meets Drei as Ferds in a beautiful waterfall resort and they become good friends, then later, lovers.
The film is about finding love in an unexpected person, in an unexpected time and place.
“Adonis X” is another BL film, but with a touch of fantasy. Kristof Garcia is a visual artist who discovers that his creation, Adonis X, magically comes to life, as played by Kurt Kendrick.
They have a special bond and become good friends. Soon, a budding bromance grows between them. Will they resist it or will they yield to it? Also in the cast are Mark McMahon and Jaycee Domincel as the friends of Kristof.
Most of his actors are newcomers. Didn’t he find it difficult directing them?
“Hindi naman,” says Direk Bong. “ AQ Prime handles the casting at bago sila isalang sa shooting, AQ Prime first conducted acting workshops for them to hone their skills in front of the camera.
"Sa script reading pa lang, makikita mo na kung kaya nila and so far, lahat naman ng talents na napunta sa akin were able to deliver.”
So how is it making a film for AQ Prime?
“Maayos naman. Hindi nila tinitipid ang budget and they give you the artistic freedom to do what you want in your movie.
"Basta kailangan, maayos at organizado ang pre-production mo and sa isang location lang para hindi na palipat-lipat.
"And ako, I get my friends as technical staff para makatipid, like my cinematographer, Pandoy Abanto, who did all my films.”
AQ Prime execs must really be pleased with Direk Bong’s works as they now got him to do another project for them, “Buskay” (meaning: sea shell), to be shot in Cagbalete Island off Quezon, starring Krista Miller and Mark McMahon.