Larger Than Life, indeed!

If you’re a computer-semi-illiterate like me, you’ll be bowled over by the mind-blowing facilities of the newly-opened Larger Than Life (LTL), touted to be "the first real data-centric post-production house in the Philippines," owned and operated by Ronald Stephen "Dondon" Monteverde (who should henceforth be called Father Regal Jr., after his parents, Regal Matriarch "Mother Lily" Monteverde and "Father Remy" Monteverde) and Marcus Ng (son of theater magnate Ng Meng Tam) and "other partners."

Blessed only last May, Larger Than Life occupies the whole eighth floor of the F.M. Lopez Bldg. 2 (on Carlos Palanca St., Legaspi Village, Makati City), with Kris Aquino (escorted by husband James Yap) among the sponsors. For good luck (as is the Chinese belief), everybody was requested to wear red which blended beautifully well with the place’s red-painted walls against unpainted, cemented ceilings that looked like they needed some finishing touches.

"Part of the interior design," said Dondon who took me on a quick tour of the facilities a month after the inauguration.

And that’s when I was "bowled over" by the state-of-the-art gadgets, the uses of which needed the expertise of Joseph Cruel (yes, that’s his real surname!), head of LTL’s Computer Graphics department, for us to understand – yes, a bit.

Built at a cost of, according to my wild estimate, more than a hundred million pesos, Larger Than Life "is capable of handling longform, shortform and anything in-between."

"Longform," explained Cruel, "includes feature film and television episodics while shortform is geared towards post and effects for TV commercials, promos, broadcast design and high-end music videos."

And the "anything in-between"?

Well, name it and LTL has it.

"Larger Than Life has invested heavily not only on equipment but with some of the brightest, youngest and best artists in Manila," assured Dondon as we watched an artist do the graphics of a TV commercial for a giant company. "Larger Than Life is poised to take on the regional market without blinking an eye while dominating the local post and visual-effects market."

In short, Dondon added in his soft-sell pitch, local companies don’t need to go to Thailand and Malaysia for their needs.

"Most of the artists doing the job in those countries are Filipinos," said Dondon. "So why not avail of the services here? We like to call Larger Than Life a service bureau with a creative touch."

Here’s a summary of LTL’s integrated services:

• Offline editing (longform/shortform)

• Online editing (longform/shortform)

• Nucoda film master digital intermediate color grading suite (2K, HD and SD)

• Visual effects

• Visual effects supervision (on-set supervision, planning and execution)

• Computer graphics design and animation

• Digital matte painting

• 2K film scanning (available end of August)

• Pre-visualization (longform/shortform)

• 2D design and motion graphics

• Broadcast design

• Creative promos and film trailers

I left Larger Than Life sufficiently (although not thoroughly) educated on computers and whatever, but totally impressed with its facilities.

(Note: For further information/inquiries about Larger Than Life, call 893-6080 to 81 or go to its www.largerthanlife.ph website.)

Reader’s reaction

• Here’s a reaction letter from Jet Montelibano (Creative Concepts International, P.O. Box 351102, Los Angeles, California, 90035):

My (first and only) wife, Edith Gomez-Montelibano, and I breeze through your articles via the Internet, and most recently via Showbiz Stripped since GMA Pinoy TV was launched in the US.

We recently chanced upon your article on the Muñoz brothers and noticed some typos which, I’m sure, could have been inadvertently printed. I wish to point these out with the hope of, perhaps, clearing up some facts, so that the credits go to the people involved.

1. Amerikana is a concept of Fe De Los Reyes, based on true-to-life experiences.

2. Amerikana is produced by Amerikana Productions managed by Fe and her first and only husband, Mario Mendoza, together with partners, songwriters and record producers Bodjie Dasig and the infamous Odette Quesada.

3. Amerikana is directed by yours truly.

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