One Night Only stars and their roles:
JASMINE (Katrina Halili) is a playgirl who juggles multiple boyfriends, all of them affluent old men. She is set to fly to Macau with her new Chinese lover when her hot-blooded benefactor, CONGRESSMAN FACUNDO (Ricky Davao), decides tonight is the night he will have his “return on investment.”

Movie hunk DIEGO (Paolo Contis) is in hot water after beating up a pesky entertainment reporter, MELITON (Ogie Diaz), for exposing his shady past. This doesn’t stop him from setting his lascivious sights on an easy target on the set of the movie he is shooting—a naïve-looking extra named ANGELA (Alessandra de Rossi).

Diego’s best friend PONS (Jon Avila), a studly advertising executive, is on his way to a hot date with VICKY (Valerie Concepcion), an adventurous chick he met in Boracay. But an emergency marathon meeting in the office throws him for a loop, delaying his rendezvous with Vicky, who unknown to him is the girlfriend of Congressman Facundo’s chief of staff, BARNEY (Jason Gainza).

Jasmine’s friend VIVIAN (Diana Zubiri) was Pons’ date last night. She’s a romantic at heart, but Jasmine convinces her of the virtues of being sexually aggressive. So she regrets that she played hard to get with Pons and wants to make amends. Thanks to the error of Pons’ harassed secretary, she ends up going to the same motel at the appointed time as his date with Vicky!

EDWARD (Chokoleit), the gay hairdresser of Congressman Facundo’s wife, has also been playing the role of benefactor—to NESTOR (Joross Gamboa), a financially challenged man he befriended on an Internet chatroom. Like the Congressman, Edward has decided that tonight is the night he should reap the sexual rewards of his financial investment.

GEORGE (Manilyn Reynes), a bull dyke, is the talent coordinator on the set of Diego’s movie. She threatens to commit suicide when her supposed girlfriend ELVIE (Jennylyn Mercado), a makeup artist and a cousin of Vicky’s, breaks up with her. Elvie is determined to live a normal lifestyle, but she accepts George’s invitation to go to a motel to talk her out of her suicidal state.

In a motel called Lovers’ Hideaway, chaos and confusion ensue as these characters figure in all sorts of hilarious hi-jinks…for one night only.

To be honest, I was not really expecting anything from this movie, but it turned out that I enjoyed watching it. I love the role of Chokoleit. I really couldn’t hold the hard laughing with every Chokoleit’s scene.

I also love Alex’ role. Alex plays a promdi fan of Diego (Paolo). If you see her, she’s like a virgin “manang” who doesn’t know anything about sex. But I was surprised to see on the later part of the movie that she’s not a “manang”.

So this Holiday season, have yourself a naughty little Christmas with One Night Only, OctoArts Films’ official entry to the 2008 Metro Manila Film Festival! This sex comedy is headlined by five of the Philippines’ hottest leading ladies today: Katrina Halili, Diana Zubiri, Jennylyn Mercado, Valerie Concepcion, and Alessandra de Rossi. The movie’s adult theme seems to go against the grain of the traditional children’s fare of fantasy and horror that the festival is known for. One Night Only is a date movie for teenagers and adults looking for something different this Christmas season. And they are in for a non-stop laugh-out-loud treat with what may well be the funniest movie they’ll ever see in a long time. The stellar cast also includes Ricky Davao, Manilyn Reynes, Jon Avila, Paolo Contis, Ogie Diaz, Chokoleit, and Jason Gainza.

For more information, log on to http://www.onenightonlymovie.com/

Dayo sa Mundo ng Elementalia OST Cover

Jessie Lasaten, multi-awarded film music composer and executive producer of “Dayo,” weaves magic this time complementing the digital animated film with an ensemble of an all-Filipino musical talent and the use of indigenous instruments. Providing for a multi-sensorial treat to audiences of all ages, “Dayo’s” soundtrack highlights the rendition of world-renowned performer Lea Salonga of the movie’s theme song, “Lipad.” Her version of “Lipad” and the whole film score were recorded together with the FILharmoniKA under the baton of Gerard Salonga.

It will be recalled that Lea had already lent her singing voice to Mulan and Princess Jasmine, both from Disney’s animated films. Lea’s track will accompany the first flight of Bubuy and Anna manananggirl. “Lipad is a song about believing in dreams and making them come true,” explains Jessie who collaborated with Temi Abad, Jr. in writing the lyrics. “Kaya mong lumipad,” is a line from the movie’s theme song. It speaks of an aspiration to soar and at the same time, talks about the readiness to reach new heights.

Aside from Lea’s inspirational version, upcoming band Roots of Nature sang an upbeat version of “Lipad.” This is currently released on the airwaves under the Sony BMG label.

Several notable artists also rendered their artistry for the completion of “Dayo’s” sound. Among them was Moymoy Palaboy singing “Kapit,” a song about friendship. New band Juan Lunar performed “Daybreak,” a song about being there for someone when they need you most.

“We have music that combines full orchestral instrumentation with the ethnic instruments of Joey Ayala. I’ve composed new themes for the major characters. In terms of scoring the scenes, I’ve combined orchestral score with Filipino ethnic instruments especially when Bubuy enters Elementalia. We asked Joey to sing the Elementalia Dayo song as well as have him perform his “hegalong ” a two-string lute instrument. He also played kubing (jaw harp), kulintang (ethnic gong), and nose flute which added texture to the score in the Elementalia scenes,” narrates Jessie about the extent of his team’s efforts in coming up with the movie’s full soundtrack. This multi-faceted musical scoring will guarantee to carry the viewers from one scene to the next, bridging animation and real life.

Despite Jessie’s proven track record in garnering awards, he has something else in mind when it comes to “Dayo’s” music. “I’d choose Dayo to be commercially popular. I guess instrumental albums, much less an original score for a movie are rarely released nowadays. I would want the public to know that we can still come up with original instrumental music for orchestra,” stresses Jessie on the direction he’d want to head in.

“Dayo’s” original soundtrack recording is in stores now. It is released through Sony BMG.

It is being sold at P285.

TRACK LISTING.

Music Videos:

1. Lipad by Lea Salonga
2. Kapit by Moymoy Palaboy
3. Lipad by Roots of Nature

Audio Tracks:
4. Lipad by Lea Salonga with Filharmonika
5. Kapit by Moymoy Palaboy
6. Daybreak by Juan Lunar
7. Kasalo at Kasuyo by Noel Cabangon
8. Pang-Surprise by Jay Durias
9. Lipad by Roots of Nature

Dayo Movie Original Music Score:
10. School Fair
11. Bubuy’s Theme
12. Last Supper
13. Tree on Fire
14. Left Alone
15. Two Creatures Meet
16. Toti and Vicky
17. Cemetery Chase
18. Elementalia performed by Joey Ayala
19. Nano’s House
20. Getting to Know
21. Nano’s Chant
22. Adventure Begins
23. Salidumay
24. Alitub
25. Father’s Love
26. Alikupuy
27. The Rescue
28. Hal-Lan
29. The Hero Rises
30. Safe and Sound
31. Peace Offering

For more details about the movie, log on to www.dayomovie.com.

“Dayo sa Mundo ng Elementalia,” an official entry to the 2008 Metro Manila Film Festival (MMFF), is co-presented by Frootees, Purefoods Tender Juicy Hotdog and Mister Donut. The film is also supported by Ascorbic Acid Ceelin, Crispy Fry Breading Mix, Enervon Bright Brand, Timezone, FUJI YKL, Inquirer.net, Yehey.com, ClicktheCity.com, Animation Council of the Philippines, Toon Boom, Wacom, Woodpecker Studio, iAcademy and New Media.

Dayo sa Mundo ng Elementalia

It was not easy for Cutting Edge Productions, the local animators behind “Dayo” to be selected in the festival. When the script by Temi Abad, Jr. and Eric Cabahug was submitted to the committee for consideration, they did not immediately accept it. But the team was hopeful, and insisted on presenting the project again until remarkably, “Dayo” made it to the final 8 out of the 19 films.

“Dayo” is a heartwarming story of overcoming one’s fear and triumphing over adversity. It centers on the 11-year-old Bubuy (voiced by Nash Aguas) who is out to save his abducted grandparents in the land of Elementalia, a mystical world that houses many of the Philippines’ mythological creatures. Along the way, Bubuy meets Anna (voiced by Katrina “Hopia” Legaspi), a teen manananggal (a winged creature that can separate her torso from her lower body) who befriends and helps Bubuy in his quest to rescue his grandparents.

“Dayo” aims to reintroduce a new dimension to the usual reviled fictitious creatures like the tikbalang, kapre, manananggal and aswang. “They are normally presented as predators or portrayed as villains,” explains director Robert Quilao. “We created a new twists to these characters by transforming the scary manananggal into the friendly manananggol (defender) who acts as the guardian of Elementalia.”

The team had comedienne Pokwang to voice over Vicky, the yaya manananggal of Anna, hence the character sketch loosely looks like her. They also thought that it would be funny to have Vicky exchange lines with Toti, a character who sounds like local news anchorman Mike Enriquez. The team disclaims though that if other animated characters may appear to have similarities with real life people, those are unintentional.

“Dayo” also features the voices of Michael V (Narsi), Noel Trinidad (Lolo Meong), Nova Villa (Lola Nita), Johnny Delgado (Carpio), Peque Gallaga (Nano), Laurice Guillen (Diwata/Bruha) and Gabe Mercado (Jo).

Robert recalls some challenges the team had to face, “but the storyboarding stage was perhaps the toughest because it involved setting the mood and look of the whole animation.” Conceptualizing the story took a three-day brainstorming conference and finishing the script took about three to four months.

Since the project is all-digital, it was easy to animate the storyboard (also known as animatics). No storyboard could ever be seen plastered on the office walls or workstations at Cutting Edge. While the drawing was done traditionally by hand, it was executed directly onto the computer screen or PC tablet, hence, Robert labels the project as “tradigital” animation. The film took almost two years to make, a period shorter than the usual three years for a traditional full-length animation to finish. Over 500 artists nationwide were pulled together to work on this project.

“Dayo” is a hybrid product of combining 2D and 3D animation, powered by Toon Boom using Macintosh and Linux platforms. 2D animation is used for the characters while 3D animation is used for the backgrounds especially for the big scenes.

Although it is rather difficult and expensive to produce an animation project, “It’s the only content we can sell abroad,” justifies Jessie Lasaten, executive producer of “Dayo” and CEO of Cutting Edge. “The world is our market. The idea is to recover half of the investment in the local market and half of it worldwide. But if we’re lucky, we can recover the whole investment locally.” Jessie reveals that Cutting Edge has spent around 1.3 million US dollars to produce “Dayo.”

Hence, Cutting Edge is poised at producing world-class projects like “Dayo.” Internationally-acclaimed performing artist Lea Salonga sings the theme song “Lipad,” while multi-awarded composer/arranger Lasaten does the musical score and records it with a live orchestra through FILharmoniKA, conducted by Gerard Salonga.

In certain aspects where other local full-length animated films failed, “Dayo” hopes to succeed.   What makes “Dayo“ unique is the Filipino feel that the whole animated feature has – the characters, environment and even the jokes. While there are some fight sequences included in the film, it is generally non-violent and child-friendly. The film is rich in folklore. It abounds in traditional values that are reflective of Philippine culture.

Originally conceptualized as a research and development project, “Dayo” is a proof that Filipinos can do animated films as ambitious as this. The team behind “Dayo” urges other studios to also start pushing for original content.

DAYO Official Trailer

For more information, visit the official movie web site at www.dayomovie.com

“Dayo sa Mundo ng Elementalia” is co-presented by Frootees, Purefoods Tender Juicy Hotdog and Mister Donut. The film is also supported by Ascorbic Acid Ceelin, Crispy Fry Breading Mix, Enervon Bright Brand, Timezone, FUJI YKL, Inquirer.net, Yehey.com, ClicktheCity.com, Animation Council of the Philippines, Toon Boom, Wacom, Woodpecker Studio, iAcademy and New Media.