Schooled

MANILA, Philippines - Jerrold Tarog was a high school metal head—a fact that seemed so farfetched when he met me with his boyish smile and a bulky backpack in tow. He came off more as geek than a rocker. “I was a geek,” he said rather proudly, “Even if hung out with the cool crowd or with my band, pagdating sa bahay nerd pa rin naman ako.”

This month he’s coming out with Senior Year, the full-length sequel to Faculty, last year’s biting ANC AmBisyon and Cinemalaya short film about the Philippine education system. Jerrold’s going back to high school, not as a metal head but as a storyteller.

SUPREME: How’s Senior Year different from Faculty?

JERROLD TAROG: Senior Year is comedy, drama, and whatever’s in between. It’s entertainment peppered with social commentary. It takes a wide view of the middle class high school experience and tackles a more general idea of change within oneself. Faculty, on the other hand, addresses very specific issues about changes in society. You could say Faculty is your extreme close up and Senior Year is your extreme wide shot, with stuff happening everywhere in the frame. It may not be as deep but there’s a lot more to see.

A lot of things do go on simultaneously in Senior Year. How were you able to manage all that craziness while making the film?

You should see the structuring I did. Nakakatawa. It’s the first time I’ve done a film with an Excel file on the side. I have all the characters graphed. There are ten characters, so hindi ko mababantayan lahat. I really needed to plan whose emotions to focus on at certain parts of the movie… May parts na maiiyak ka and there are parts where it’s funny. I wanted to come up with a balance, which is the same thing I do when I compose music. Dapat tama ang pag orchestrate mo—ang pasok ng chorus, kung kailan maingay, kailan ang solos, kailan ang pasok ng drums.

Does music always influence your films?

So much of my structuring comes from music… I always have music pegs. I listen to music when I’m writing. For Senior Year, I listened to ’50s and ’60s music, specifically old-school girl groups and divas like Brenda Lee, Connie Francis, and Peggy Lee. My original soundtrack was supposed to be like that, a sort of homage to the way Tarantino uses old music in his movies.

But then you switched to Johnoy Danao.

Nagclick si Johnoy. Ganoon naman talaga. Madaming nagbabago while editing. I was supposed to contact this old composer of Jazz music. He had a big Louis Armstrong kind of band. I wanted to use that, but Mackie Galvez, my DOP, kept selling Johnoy to me. After hearing one of his songs one day, I asked Macky to send me all his music. I listened to it while watching my edit, and it fit. So I talked to Johnoy and okay naman sa kanya.

The cast is a mix of newbies and some notable indie favorites like Ina Feleo, Ramon Bautista, and Che Ramos. How was it working with such a mixed group?

High school kids have an infectious energy that just pulls you in. So I could say it was the most fun I’ve had on set while, at the same time, it was also quite challenging. I enjoyed shooting classroom scenes because we allowed so much freedom to the entire section. The goal was to emulate the real chaos of a high school classroom. It was great fun. And to be able to work with Ina, Arnold, Ramon, Che, RJ, LJ, Dimples, and the rest of the cast, plus my crew from Mangatyanan, a colorful batch of interns, and a cute dog...wala talagang dull moment sa set.

I was inspired by Mike Leigh. He usually does workshops with his actors before working on the screenplay. That’s how I did Senior Year. I took note of their issues first then went from there. Although their stories in the movie are close to their real lives, hindi naman exactly sila ang characters.

You did the casting and the workshop, wrote the screenplay, directed, and edited. That’s a lot.

All in all, it was almost a year’s work. My social life barely existed before Senior Year. Now it’s just pathetic. [Laughs] When I was in college, I used to take trips to Visayas and Mindanao. Hindi pa ako nakakabakasyon, so I want to do that again.

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Senior Year hits the cinemas on March 9. For more info, check out the Facebook site at http://www.facebook.com/SeniorYearFilm