Erik Matti: 'I have never been loved by major studios'
Award-winning Filipino director Erik Matti recalled the journey of the critically-acclaimed film "On The Job," saying no one wanted the movie then.
On Facebook Sept. 16, Matti said: "I have never been loved by the major studios. I get the usual congratulations, but never get the love when we pitch it in the beginning. No one wanted On The Job then."
Matti also lamented that popular content platform Netflix undervalued the Filipino movie which received a 5-minute standing ovation during its screening at the 78th Venice Film Festival recently.
"They, too, undervalued our content. They’d buy our first-run films for dirt cheap because they know we didn't have any choice. We held back with On The Job and didn't sell until we found the right partner with HBO Asia, who valued our film more than what we thought we deserved," he wrote.
Filipino actor John Arcilla also won the best actor award in the prestigious competition.
Matti also encouraged producers to start thinking beyond the same business model that was popular before the pandemic.
The full post of Matti on Facebook Sept. 16:
"Filipino films deserve bigger platforms. More value for our hard work. We deserve a chance at the big stage. Producers should start thinking beyond the same business model that was popular before the pandemic.
"Cinemas are closed. But even when it was still open, it only supported the same kind of Filipino films. I can't get enough theaters for my movies. Others know how to woo the theaters with their kind of films. ABS and Star Cinema used to dictate the films that can be done, or they won’t buy it.
"It used to only be about the sweet, sugary, and sappy. But those days are gone. The game has changed. For a time, Netflix was the go-to platform. But when pandemic struck, they too undervalued our content. They’d buy our first-run films for dirt cheap because they know we didn't have any choice. We held back with On The Job and didn't sell until we found the right partner with HBO Asia, who valued our film more than what we thought we deserved.
"Producers should band together to make sure our films get the value and the distribution they deserve. Filmmakers should start getting more ambitious and tell stories that can be seen beyond our small market, and not just make films that figure out what works for the platforms that take pity on us and give us loose change.
"Now is the time when we could all tell the stories we can tell without being dictated by the templates the local studios and cinema chains have told us what we can only do.
"I have never been loved by the major studios. I get the usual congratulations when me and Dondon’s films make it, but never get the love when we pitch it in the beginning. No one wanted On The Job then. But we can say, without sounding self-serving, that the Venice and HBO nod for this franchise, should industry insiders really look into it, is a game-changer.
"Not only did we get prestige, but we sold it at an amount where you actually feel the love for the work we sacrificed our time and money for.
"The game has changed. The players have changed. We have a new game in town. My question to all of us is, for our survival as an industry and as a cinema, do we have what it takes to think big and go for excellence to write our own destiny?"