Unplugging your expectations

The media matrix has been hacked once again. The almighty flashing screen known for churning out anything beautiful, as long as it is sliced into something deliciously visual, has been infiltrated by amateur Filipino scriptwriter Carmelo S. Juinio. In this must-be-wired world, this virtual nobody leaves no trace on the usual online haunts such as Facebook, Blogspot or Multiply and even has an aversion to mobile phones. Yet, introverted Carmelo has transformed a 50-page script called Lamb into a 6-million Singaporean dollar multimedia deal with Animax, Singapore Economic Development Board and Sony Pictures Entertainment. This contract involves turning his script into an animated miniseries, a web comic, a mobile prequel and much more.

Although he won the Pan-Asia scriptwriting contest for Animax last September 2007, Carmelo didn’t expect to win anything more than the $2,000 prize because Hayato Takamaga from Japan already won the grand prize, allowing his script to be turned into a movie by A-1 studios. Little did Carmelo know that his story would spark the imagination of Animax vice president and general manager Gregory Ho. A few months later, he got the call of his life: his script would be not just turned into a movie, but become a groundbreaking media series, too.

All Wired Up

The irony about the Animax deal is that its execution — which aims to enslave us with even more media content — is a story about escaping from the traps of technology. Carmelo’s dystopia-driven script features a future on the planet Cerra where criminals are imprisoned in laminated suits. These suits serve as the convicts’ personal prisons and direct them to perform as useful members of society. Troubles start brewing as a visiting scientist Jack falls in love with a Lamb prisoner named Eve.

Following the Star Wars hypermedia model, Animax is making an ambitious leap to generate prequel comics and games on the web and for mobile phones by October-November 2008 through Imaginary Friends Studio which has worked on World of Warcraft cards. Meanwhile, the animation production studio Peach Blossom Media with its director Tei Soejima has worked on international projects such as Nintendo, Nike, Animatrix and Linkin Park’s Breaking The Habit video. They are even hyping it up by animating rock bands Simple Plan and Click Five into the show. However, the fantastic aspect of this story is the fact that everything is wired up and ready to go on the brilliance of one man’s vision.

The clincher is that Carmelo, who has been thrust into an enormous, high-definition Animax project, is an elusive recluse. Little is known about his appearance, except that he is said to look like the typical Bob Marley artist. In this world where face time is everything, he even fails to appear for press interviews. This contrariness makes me even more intrigued about what he has to say. Questions race through my “me-generation” soul. I realize that Carmelo is breaking the hell out of the rules to teach us a lesson. It is that you don’t need to have the media — whether on YouTube, your blog or shout-out — to prove how witty, sensitive, creative, or unique you are. These online expressions can be a waste of time because they delve too much on tooting your own digital horn. Carmelo is reminding us that genius and creativity come from within and does not require being laminated by the expectations of the digital age. You simply must be and you’ll be more than just eccentric. You’ll be original and your work will speak for itself. You might even steal your own multimillion-dollar deal with the right buzz. For now, I share with you the exclusive sketches of Lamb from its project head Tracy Wong and eagerly await further lessons from Carmelo on how to become dewired as his show premieres in February, 2009.

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Learn More About Animax at http://www.animax-asia.com.

Plug into Lamb’s production team at http://peachblossommedia.com/ and http://www.imaginaryfs.com.

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Get wired to me at readnow@supreme.ph and http://readnow.tumblr.com.