Instructive insights from ‘Starting Over Again’

PASCUAL. Constricting and restricting “signature” screen persona

Despite our previously stated notes on scripting flaws in “Starting Over Again,” we congratulate the makers of the film for grossing P300 million after only a couple of weeks in release. This is a signal indication that the mainstream movie industry is slowly but surely climbing out of the rut that it’s inhabited for over a decade now.

It’s instructive to note that Olivia Lamasan’s film is a romantic drama, indicating that the film type is the format to beat this season (another recent hit, “Bride for Rent,” starring Kim Chiu and Xian Lim, was also in the romantic mode).

We should also point out that both hit movies are Star Cinema productions, so the studio obviously knows what it’s doing in terms of giving local viewers what they want. Other mainstream producers would do well to analyze Star Cinema’s filmmaking template, to learn a thing or two about coming up with popular movies themselves.

Of course, it should similarly and realistically be noted that a major component in Star Cinema’s successful filmmaking process is the heavy promotions it gives to its movie products, principally on its “sister” TV channels, by way of seemingly endless movie trailers and star guestings on their many shows, including newscasts. (GMA Films is also doing the same for its productions on its own TV stations). Other producers don’t enjoy this pervasive kind of advertising support, so their movies do less well.

Extensive use

However, they should note that, to promote “Starting Over Again,” Star Cinema also made extensive use of the Internet, with the movie’s trailer garnering millions of freebie “hits.” Other producers could go this way too, and perhaps save themselves a bundle—provided that they know how to whip up an imaginative web campaign.

After all, not everything is a matter of outright imitation—creative and project-specific emulation would be more like it, with producers judiciously suiting their web campaigns to each film at hand.

Other factors “instructively” accounting for the success of “Starting Over Again” include what we could say is male lead star Piolo Pascual’s “return” to rom-com mode, which he’s tended to avoid for some years now.

He should be credited for his recent forays into less predictable “indie” territory, but it should objectively be noted that the “detour” hasn’t really been all that successful.

In any case, his new romantic drama’s exceptional grosses indicate that his fans miss seeing him in the romantic mode, and would much prefer to see him in it, no matter how predictably.

That, of course, is the “curse” of popular stardom—viewers are so fixated on a star’s “signature” screen persona that they inadvertently make it difficult for him or her to grow beyond its eventually constricting and restricting limits.

Perhaps Piolo can hit on a mutually acceptable compromise with his fans and do a “liberating” indie for every popular rom-com he topbills from here on in? If stars plot their careers creatively and cleverly, they can have the best of both worlds!