‘Incognito’ director Lester Pimentel Ong (fourth from left) with lead actor Daniel Padilla (eighth from left) and the Filipino crew in Italy —LESTER PIMENTEL ONG/ INSTAGRAM

A significant part of the action series “Incognito,” starring seven of the biggest ABS-CBN talents today, was shot in Bari, Italy, according to its director Lester Pimentel Ong.

The ensemble includes Ian Veneracion, Richard Gutierrez, Anthony Jennings and Baron Geisler, as well as co-actors Daniel Padilla, Maris Racal and Kaila Estrada, who will be doing action for the first time.

The shoot, which concluded some two weeks ago, was shot around Bari, a large port city in the region called Puglia. “We are grateful that ABS-CBN provided us with a good working condition there,” Ong, who first directed the hit action series “The Iron Heart,” told Lifestyle.

“We lived in a five-star hotel and worked with an Italian crew. What’s amazing—this was hard for us but we managed to make it work—was having to abide by their strict 12-hour work schedule.”

Ong said he was surprised that, for the Italian crew, work starts once they leave their hotel to travel to the set location. “That’s included in Italy’s labor law, and so we had to abide by it.”

Ong was pleased to have worked with very professional Italian talents, he said. “But they admired how we shoot action because we are very fast and efficient … and so they wanted to learn from us,” he said, adding that a group of Italian stuntmen are coming to Manila to observe his team at work.

“They’re so used to working with Hollywood productions. The Americans who go to Rome rehearse there for two weeks and eventually shoot for seven days.”

Training

A practitioner of the competitive martial art wushu for the longest time, Ong said he had to first set up a training camp to prepare the actors for their action scenes. They trained for five days each week for four months in several disciplines.

“My training with them included gun skills, tactical fighting, close-quarter combat and urban warfare. We hired people who coach the military on how to execute close-quarter combat. We learned how to handle guns, how to operate inside and outside a building, and also in the forest,” he said.

The actors also learned pekiti-tirsia, a style unique to Filipino martial arts, also with the goal of promoting it.

“Its weapons are swords and knives. It’s very popular with the special forces in Europe. They would come over here to learn it, or import Filipinos to teach their ranks. We got these trainers to help us … Everyone trained, including the girls,” said Ong, who used to be a national team coach for wushu.

Ong said that if the Philippines would want to “level up” in the competition to provide content globally, “we have to learn everything, to keep up with the training.”

He said he was given permission by ABS-CBN to “run the training camp like it’s for an elite martial arts team…Everyone is so dedicated. If you watch Maris and Kaila, who never had any experience doing action projects, do all their scenes here, you will be surprised to see how good they are.”

First project

“Incognito” is Padilla’s first project since his highly publicized break-up with Kathryn Bernardo, his girlfriend and onscreen partner of 11 years. Ong said he didn’t have a hard time making Padilla perform his action scenes.

“[Padilla] is very athletic. He does a lot of sports. He is also a very smart actor. If you assign him to do a task, he is always quick to understand,” Ong said.

Veneracion and Gutierrez are both martial artists, so Ong didn’t have any problem with them, he said. Geisler, who is better known as a dramatic actor, had done an action movie project with Ong prior to doing “Incognito.” “I already trained Baron six months ahead. He is also a prolific actor,” Ong added.

“I told ABS-CBN that if we’re going to do this, another goal should be to attract buyers for Filipino content,” Ong said, adding that producers are planning to sell the series to an international streaming platform.

“I cannot comment on the deal yet, but this will also air on primetime TV,” similar to other shows like “Can’t Buy Me Love” and “Lavender Fields.” He added: “We have to compete with the other content providers from countries like Indonesia and Thailand. We used to be ahead of them. Naaabutan na tayo.” INQ