Philippine Entertainment News

The Oscars season finally comes to a gradual close with the buzz on this and that winner’s being deserving or not. Meanwhile, the FAMAS, its local counterpart, has about 8 months to prepare for its next awards show. With the hope that it can improve even just a little, we came up with a list of lessons learned from today’s Oscars ceremony. We deserve better. After all, the FAMAS is also a tradition of glamour and elegance as shown in this 1950’s magazine cover photo of now Red Cross advocate Rosa Rosal who was the model for the FAMAS statuete (inset).

THE IMPORTANCE OF SCRIPT. Cue cards aren’t only distracting for us people watching. They are also make hosts look unprepared. Specially if there are a number of people delivering lines onscreen, cue cards really make a mess out of a nice picture. There is simply no excuse for an actor not to memorise his lines. It’s part of the job, and nobody should be paid for looking stupid. If they can’t memorise, it’s about time the show starts using teleprompters. The commercials in between the show make for a hellish wait already, so we don’t want nonsense rambling onstage.

PRODUCTION NUMBERS ARE ABOUT QUALITY AND NOT QUANTITY. We don’t need the entire cast of your competing variety shows in a single number, and we want them performing something relevant to the occasion, not just any pop song convenient to copy at the moment. And since they are production numbers, they must be performed as they are rehearsed. We expect proper arrangements. We don’t want lazy choreography. And please, no diva-style patalbugan of improvised ending notes.

GIVE US THE MEAT. Please spare us the repeated reading (from cue cards!) of sponsors before every break. Please don’t name awards after sponsors. Let the sponsors have their time in between the show. Show is show. An anonymous usher is enough to hold the trophy, and the presenters themselves can do good in handing it to the winners. There’s no need for every brand representative to steal the show. We want some relevance. For once, we want to feel like movie stuff matters and that it’s about craft and not sponsorship.