MANILA, Philippines — Singer Denise Julia initially said that she will go on a social media detox but broke it early Wednesday, December 25, by airing her side on the photoshoot and music video (MV) issue between her and celebrity photographer BJ Pascual.
In her Instagram Stories Wednesday, Denise posted screenshots of conversations between her manager John Vincent Salcedo and BJ’s manager Pearl Acuesta. It was alternated with her explaining the contexts for each of the screenshots between their managers.
The screenshots involved the conversation that started last May about their two team’s possible collaboration for Julia’s upcoming EP.
Julia said their team had earmarket P600,000 all in for the photoshoot, which they forwarded to BJ’s team last July 18. She said they waited for a month to know if their budget was feasible for BJ’s team.
A self-confessed fan of the celebrity photographer, Julia said she was eager to work with BJ, and that her team pushed their deadlines to accommodate the schedule of the latter.
They met for a total of two times on Zoom, and she and the photographer even had personal calls so they can exchange ideas. Julia said their initial plan was just a photoshoot but BJ was keen on directing his first MV.
“BJ’s team did not get back to us about this budget despite my manager checking in and following up to make sure that the budget is doable to begin with because we can’t really have a shoot date without us being sure if the budget is feasible for them," she said.
"Because on our end, we understand if this is not something that they can work with. We would've pulled back immediately already from the start if they had only told us that this is not doable for them, that's not the price range that they can work with. We will respect that and just move on and move past it and maybe we work in the future for a different type of thing where both of us can align,” Julia added.
They were sent an updated cost of P1.2 million around three weeks after they sent their initial budget.
“We still tried to stretch it to P800,000 because we really wanted to do this. We were thinking of not doing the MV anymore and we would just stick to do layouts. My manager was still trying to give options so that none of the efforts would go to waste,” she said.
In a July 10 exchange, it read the photographer and production designer were free on July 26 to 28.
“After stretching budget to P800,000, came back on August 12 two days before shoot with revised amount of P1million. This was why we wanted to be clear from the very start if that budget we gave was doable or if it was feasible because if not, we would have really pulled back from the shoot out of respect to them if it’s not their rate. And we couldn’t afford it and we respect that. We’ll pull back from it,” the singer said
She added her manager tried to figure out ways to make the shoot work out of respect for BJ’s team and their time and efforts.
The singer said she posted the screenshots because she wanted to clear the details that were not discussed in the podcast. BJ sat down with Killa Kush for the latter’s podcast on December 20, where the photographer shared that Julia was the “worst celebrity/model” he has shot.
The photographer shared about how he was “nanggigil” while recalling what happened between their camps and their supposed collaboration for Julia’s upcoming release.
"I know in the podcast they said I was the one who cancelled on the shoot, but in reality, my manager was still trying to make it work. He suggested to push the shoot to a later date so that none of the team's efforts go to waste and also so that cancellation fees don't incur, but ultimately at the end, BJ's team, not us, cancelled the shoot, citing the differences in our production processes," Julia said.
“They accepted that we don’t align, didn’t agree on production budget, had set own budget way ahead of time so that we could confirm it and they set their own budget way too soon to the deadline of the shoot, which is why it didn’t work out,” she added.
The singer said she sent a message to BJ hours after the podcast went live. She got his reply yesterday, December 24.
“BJ replied today on the 24th regarding my message and that’s the last thing that I want to share in here because I am fully acknowledging my mistake for not reaching out.
"It was because I didn't know the extent of his frustrations until everything aired out on social media and it blew off of proportion. It is something that I will take with me as I move forward with work," she said. “This is the first and last time I am addressing this because BJ and I have discussed we’ll talk in person so that we can find real solutions to address this.”
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