ARNOLD ARRE Filipino Fantasy Artist

A few months back, Rock Ed Philippines asked me to make the music video for “Kaninong Anino“, a song from the ROCK RIZAL album in celebration of Dr. Jose Rizal’s 150th anniversary. It was easy for me to say yes since the music and the idea behind the project is already wonderful and impressive to begin with.

I originally intended for the video to be in live-action full of intensive special effects and green-screen shots. The original storyboard featured a post-apocalyptic vision of Manila complete with flying jeepneys and hologram images, something I’ve always wanted to do. Here are test videos I made.

Rizal Monument test

Quezon Memorial Circle test with actual footage of people in the foreground

While this project was in progress, I also started experimenting with animation. I was very happy with the feedback on the Andong Agimat video so it was then and there that I decided to go with that medium for the Rock Ed video instead.

The concept remains the same except that with animation, I realized that I can show Rizal as the main character walking amidst ruins. I knew it would be a mistake to try and interpret the lyrics literally so I put a lot of symbolism in the video. We see the structures of Manila all destroyed, however the monuments are still standing. It’s my way of saying that with all the corruption, our country has deteriorated and because of consumerism, we seem to have forgotten our heroes and what they fought for. However their images are still intact and that’s one thing that should encourage us to go on.

The concept came about when I was driving along EDSA and saw all the bilboards and dizzying neon signs representing our modern lifestyles and wondered what Rizal might think if he were here today. In fact, the opening scene of the video shows him looking at the P1.00 coin and I was wondering what he could be thinking, seeing that his image has been relegated to a mere peso coin. Then again if you think about it, one peso isn’t bad at all — it has the symbol “1″ which means No. 1 and because of its minimum value, it’s accessible to every Juan.

I’m very happy with the video, my only hope is that people don’t focus too much on the destruction (although honestly that was the original intention. I believe you can’t powerfully illustrate the positive without contrasting it with the negative.) The end sequence where Rizal hurdles the broken bridge and takes a break from his tour should give people the idea that there is hope for our country and all of us.

I’m very thankful to Gang Badoy Capati (who wrote the moving lyrics) for trusting me with the video and kudos to all the musicians who inspired me in working on this memorable project. Here it is, please enjoy.

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