The man is Mark Meily, debut director of the award-seizing flick, Crying Ladies, trophy-hoister for Best Director in the last Metro Manila Film Festival a month ago, and now a recognized industry-savior by the meticulous lot of film critics who regard Philippine cinema being on a perennial downslide. After 12 years of making thirty-seconders promoting consumer goods, Meily finally concentrated his creative efforts into a making a feature film, gathering together showbiz highflyers Sharon Cuneta, Hilda Koronel, and Eric Quizon not so much to show off but to make the most sure that his 12-year hiatus was worth it. While the plot of his self-penned film (three women turn professional mourners for a week at the employment of the son of a wealthy Chinese businessman) is an uplifting refresher devoid of dramatic squabbles and tragic deaths, Mark Meily is perceptibly as candidly humorous as his film. Even more.
Mark Meily is a man of experience. And a lot of these he has posterized in his black book of a film. A lot of these experiences are so trite that they’re hardly worth remembering until someone like Meily turns into an amusing tidbit on celluloid. One of the first few scenes in the flick has Eric Quizon running errands in preparation for his father’s funeral. The experiences Quizon’s character encountered also happened to Meily.
"The preparations for the burial shown in the film were actually things that happened to me when I was preparing for my mother’s funeral. I went to the coffin showroom and found it strange that this guy was telling me all the features of these coffins. I didn’t think it mattered if it was made of oak, or if half of the body was showing, or if the lining was satin."
Meily was also having problems shopping in the department store for the clothes his late mother would be clothed in inside the coffin. "I couldn’t remember her size. So I asked the saleslady if I could exchange it later on." His research process also followed the same route Quizon took while searching for professional criers. "While I was doing research, I went to the security guard of Funeraria Paz and he directed me to the flower sellers, and they told me to go the suppliers. Eric Quizon’s route was exactly the same one I took while I was doing the film."
Even the film’s hilarious endnote that had Sharon Cuneta’s character, Stella Mate, acting in videokes is a draw from Meily library of life’s little occurrences. Meily directed videokes for Japanese clients when he was first starting out as a director and insists that two-piece bikinis are not – really – standard wear.
YSTYLE: You’re not a very serious person, are you?
MARK MEILY: I’m trying to be one…I laugh easily.
Do you like making people laugh?
Not really. I just like laughing.
What makes you laugh?
Lots of things. Mababaw ako eh. Jokes, strange-looking people…
What makes you cry?
The loss of somebody, poverty, frustration, betrayal.
Have you made anybody cry?
Very few. Very, very few.
Were any of them women?
Uh…yeah. I make my wife [cinematographer Lee Meily -YStyle] cry a lot…out of frustration.
Is it because you guys work together a lot?
Sometimes… Actually there are disadvantages – there are also advantages – of working together. The great thing about it is we’re usually in sync. I can tell her what’s on my mind, and she can easily tell me what she wants. But sometimes we still talk about jobs and projects even if we’re not working and sometimes the line between home and work is crossed.
How often do you work with Lee?
I do mostly TV commercials. Seventy to 80 percent of the commercials I’ve done had my wife as the cinematographer.
How did you come to love film?
My appreciation for film grew when I was in college in UP. I was one of the students in the College of Fine Arts who started a film club. Then I took up short courses at Mowelfund and that was there that I met directors. It was very exciting for a college student to be meeting the likes of Mike de Leon and Ishmael Bernal and have casual conversation with them. It was something else.
When did you create your first film?
I shot my first short film in 1987. It was a grant I got from Mowelfund and I shot it in Super 8. My actors then were Ricky Davao and Pen Medina. It was a short narrative fiction film entitled Pangako ng Bagong Simulain. It showed how the Philippines would be like if something like the Killing Fields happened, or a totalitarian regime takes over… It won third place at the CCP Alternative Film and Video Awards, and it was shown in Brussels. Because of that film I travelled to Europe for the first time and was inspired to go back. After that trip I went to embassies asking if they had scholarship grants for me. When everything seemed to be hopeless, the French embassy told me that they had a grant. The only requirement was that I had to speak fluent French.
Did you?
No I didn’t, but I said that I was learning. The good thing was the interview was in English. So they sent me to language school for two months then sent me to Paris…I was there for almost ten months. The first month was a struggle since I didn’t know how to speak real French…I had very good teachers though. And I think I learned more about doing film being in France than being in school – being exposed to all the French films, going to museums and poetry readings.
Is there a little bit of Paris in Crying Ladies?
One of my teachers in France came from the minimalist school of art. One of the things he always told me is not to put anything in frame that would have no significance to your theme. You can’t just put something kasi maganda. If it doesn’t contribute to what you really want to say, then take it out. In a way, Crying Ladies was structured around that idea.
How did you end up doing commercials?
When I came back to the Philippines, I started working as a production manager for TV commercials. I met Manolo Abaya, Mike de Leon, Ishmael Brocka, and Lino Brocka. After some time I was invited by Electromedia to join the company as a commercial director. At that time, they probably thought it was good publicity to hire somebody who studied film in France.
Why did you decide to finally do a film?
I’ve always wanted to do films which is why I joined Mowelfund. The thing was I didn’t want to break into movies just for the sake of breaking into movies. When I approached Tony Gloria with the script, he said that it might work. So we went ahead with it.
What pays better: TV commercials or films?
Commercials, kaya hindi ko maiwanan. If I had to do films just for the sake of doing films, I’d rather do commercials where the pay is better, where the conditions are better. For Crying Ladies, I worked with the same staff I usually work with in commercials. The conditions that we had – the food, the equipment – were of the same standard as those that we would have when doing TVCs.
People are tripping over the cameos in your film…
Actually, when we were starting there were only a handful of friends whom I asked do cameos. One of the flower vendors in the movie is a TVC director, the other is a caster. I needed a jeepney driver so I asked another friend. In fact Stella Mate’s Indian landlord was a classmate of mine in grade school whom I had not seen for twenty years but always kept in contact with through the Internet. His wife was a Sharonian, which was probably the reason why he agreed.
Was this a money-saving scheme?
I didn’t have the budget to pay name stars. You have to pay cameos a certain amount but these friends did it for free. It came to a point where even the jeepney passengers, the passers-by, and the wake mourners were people from the advertising industry. It became a party list. You weren’t sikat if you weren’t part of the movie. I had people calling me up to be on the film. Pakainin mo lang masaya na. Tapos tuwang-tuwa pa sila kapag ka-eksena nila si Sharon Cuneta.
Are you a Sharonian?
(Laughs) I’m not really a Sharonian. Come to think of it, I remember watching all of her films when she first started out, and until now. I remember in PS. I Love You, Gabby Concepcion’s name was Mark. There was this scene where Sharon was doing a sketch of this boy on horseback on the beach, and she wrote "Mark." So that scene stuck… Although I never really followed her life…
You just happen to have had seen all her films?
I have tapes of them…When I was in college, Sharon Cuneta made this film called Friends in Love. Nag-extra ako sa movie na ’yon. There was this scene where William Martinez was practicing tae kwan do. I used to practice tae kwon do so I was in that scene. There was another scene where Gabby Concepcion and Rowell Santiago fought and I walked past. Meron akong VCD ng movie na ‘yon. Nakikita ko sarili ko dumadaan.
Did you get paid for that?
Yes I did. At that time, the fee was P300… Anyway, I’m not a Sharonian but when I was in high school, I auditioned for the Glee Club…I had memorized what I was going to sing. I go up on stage and begin singing High School Life ni Sharon Cuneta. Everybody started laughing. Naging stand-up comedy act ’yung audition ko. I had memorized the entire song and I finished the song but I got a zero. The teacher said na binaboy ko daw ’yung kanta. I told Sharon about that. Tawa siya ng tawa. The Sunday after I told her, she sang the song on her show and dedicated it to me.
Back to the cameo roles, how were you able to get the big name stars to do the bit roles?
Well, my wife worked with Laurice Guillen in Tanging Yaman. At that time we got close to Lauren and Johnny. Galing. He was the first guy who said "I’ll do it and don’t give me credit in the opening." And he did it for free, pro bono.
What about Bella Flores?
Well, my dad used to date Bella Flores…
And Edgar Mortiz?
Edgar Mortiz did it pro bono too. In fact his scene wasn’t in the script. We just added it later on.
Have you really been to a funeral with crying ladies?
I attended a funeral in college when I was very young where they had crying ladies. But I barely remember it. But in college, I saw this feature on The Inside Story. I started thinking, "Who would cry for them if they died? Who would mourn for them?" They attend all these lavish funerals but they’ll probably end up in a barangay hall when they died. I just thought that about the irony of it all. I became intrigued.
Are you happy with your first film?
Very much. I was thinking about it later and realized that I had mostly award-winning actors in my film: Sharon, Hilda, and Eric. Plus it won Best Picture and Best Director…
Were you expecting to win the award for Best Director?
I wanted to but I wasn’t expecting it.
So you had no speech planned?
(Laughs)
Or did you?
I’ve always dreamt of winning Best Director. A leak came out weeks before the awards night and it said that the award for Best Director was going to somebody else so I wasn’t really expecting it. But months before the Filmfest, I would be alone in my car driving and I would play the theme from Shakespeare in Love – pang-awards ’yung kanta na ’yon, eh. Then I would say out loud, "The winner for Best Director is Mark Meily for Crying Ladies." Then there would be applause all around. I would get up from my seat, walk to the stage – medyo masikip ’yung daanan. I would let the music play out first then say my speech. I would time it since, in the Oscars, you only had forty-five seconds. If it was a little bit too long, I’d do the entire spiel over again.
Did you give the speech that you would practice in the car when you received your award?
They announced the Best Picture award first and since I didn’t think I was going to win for Best Director, I already gave that speech when I went with Tony Gloria to accept the award for Best Picture. I just thanked all the other people I forgot to thank in my first one when I went up to accept the Best Director award…But no, I really wasn’t preparing for it…Yeah right!
Have you received any criticism for Crying Ladies?
I remember two. One said that the film was anti-Filipino – I really don’t understand what that was all about. The other took the epilogue of the film too seriously and said that there was no such thing as an acting award for videoke, that news like that didn’t merit the front page, and that videoke artists are always sexy and wear bikinis, which is not necessarily true since I used to direct videoke.
Are you serious?
Yes. I directed about twelve of them in Hongkong in a span of two weeks. This was when I was first starting out. I had the woman do what Sharon Cuneta was doing – reading the letter, walking along Victoria Peak, looking far away…
Is this supposed to be a secret or are you open about it?
Well, I can be open about it now.