KungKai: The making of a local music video

It was in July last year during a night-out at Cagayan de Oro's Night Cafe, taking a break after a daylong anti- human trafficking workshop which I attended. Cholo Nuere, a friend way back in law school and who was a fellow workshop participant asked me if I can make a music video for the band of his son Jake.

Babyboomers is the name of the band, formed five years ago, they are starting to make a name for themselves playing 60s and 70s music popular among the babyboomers' generation hence the name. The band is composed of Jake Nuere on vocals, Carlo Dureza on bass, lead guitarist Mark Abella, drummer Poi Munoz and Joe Azurin Drilon on keyboards. Their second lead guitar Mojo Ramirez succumbed to an illness just last year.

jump shot photos by me, edited by Ron Xavier Santos

(from far left) Mark, Carlo, Jake, Joe and Poi

Jeremy Sarmiento, a noted composer, singer and music teacher wrote a song for the band which he titled "Kungkai." I asked Jeremy on the origins of the title. He says that the song started out as a joke to his brother that he could create easily create a song. When the first few lines came out unexpectedly catchy, he expanded it into a whole song and finished Kungkai in a day.

Kungkai nasasaktan
Kungkai iniwanan
Kungkai nasisiraan na ng ulo

Narito lang ako
Tunay na kaibigan mo
Aalalayan ka
Sa tabi mo

Magkahawak kamay
Sipa lata sabay-sabay
Sasamahan kita hanggang mapawi
Ang mga masasamang Kungkai sa buhay

Kungkaw ay masaya
Kungkaw ay natutuwa
Kungkaw ay ok na
Sasamahan pa rin kita
Sa bawat kungkai at kungkaw sa buhay mo

According to Jeremy "Kungkai" means a state of emotional downturn characterized by sadness,emptiness, isolation, dejection, inadequacy, frustration, hopelessness. while "Kungkaw" is Kugkai's exact opposite.

By November last year, Cholo contacted me again, the group he said was deadset on making the video and asked for a meeting on December.

I took on the task of assembling a production crew and chose Bagane Fiola who had made several full-length films, short films and music videos. Bagsy agreed to join the project, he enlisted Wrap Meting, a photographer and DSLR videographer who is known in the blogging community for his work with fashion blogger Cheyser Pedregosa and then there was Mark Limbaga another photographer and videographer who along with Bagsy had won Best Cinematography prize for the 2009 Cinemaone best film Imbunal. For equipment we would be using a two Canon 550D DSLR set-up.

During the pre-production meetings we had agreed to concentrate on visuals and images particularly utilizing the Babyboomers' youthful appearance. The concept was interspersed with images of a clean cut boy band and a melancholic pretty girl.

The video was made to exude a somewhat Tumblrish look with a sprinkle of visual influences from the seminal romance flick 500 Days of Summer.

Some of the photos were post-processed, trying out new pp styles

We shot some of the sequences (band sequence and girl room scenes) at the Abella's house, home of Mark and his parents, who were very supportive and accommodating during the time of the shoot. The rest of the sequences were shot at the Matina Baywalk. (bit of trivia; the Abella's home was the original site of the iconic Harana Restaurant)

Bea Antonio, Jake's batchmate in Ateneo de Davao High played the girl in the video. Finding the right girl for the video proved to be slight problem before production started. Among the early choices was Jake's high school friend Tricia Santos who was part of the Pinoy Big Brother teen edition in 2010. However her tight schedule got in the way and fortunately we got Bea who just lives near the shooting location.

Bea and Jake

Bea is wearing my dri-fit shirt which I bought along as an extra shirt We failed
to inform her of an additional bedroom sequence the clothes she brought were a
bit overdressed for the scene.

Ron Xavier Santos did the styling and make-up during the production and did a great job. transformed Bea from a shy pretty colehiyala to a beautiful belle...

The production went without a hitch, the feared Low Pressure Area (bad weather) did not materialize on that day. And we were able to shoot indoors and outdoors using the best ambient light a great sunny weather can offer. Overall the shoot was a pleasant experience.


After a week of editing Bagsy was able to come up with an edited masterpiece. (watch the video here)


title KUNGKAI
composer JEREMY SARMIENTO
band name BABYBOOMERS
members MARK GENESIS ABELLA, CARLO DUREZA, DAN PAUL MUNOZ, JOSEPH AZURIN DRILON, JASON NUERE, MOJO RAMIREZ†
guest appearance KATRINA BEA ANTONIO
make up artist RON XAVIER SANTOS
producer GEM CACHE PRODUCTIONS
recording studio SOUNDTRACK
prod house STUDIOBUGSY
directors BAGANE FIOLA, RUDOLPH IAN ALAMA
lights/camera MARK LIMBAGA, WRAP METING, BAGANE FIOLA
production assistant JOHN BARREDO
editor/colorist BAGANE FIOLA

Babyboomers and Bea

with friends