Matti’s lockdown realization: Content is cheap—and it’s everywhere

Erik Matti

“Where do we go from here?”

Filmmaker Erik Matti asked this question as he posted in his Facebook account his apprehensions about the possibility of going back to work should the enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) be finally lifted on May 15.

“It sounds like good news, but is it, really? It’s easy to think that we can just resume what we have been doing before this lockdown happened,” he began. “There’s a lot to be excited about once we are all allowed to go back to the outside world, but would it still be the same?”

The director also said he has yet to finish the sequel to his 2013 hit action movie “On the Job, “and we still have pending projects that we can start on.”

However, the uncertainty of the times has kept him awake at night, thinking “if things will be better for all of us after this,” he said.

“What stories can we tell after this? Do we all just go back to how we used to be, telling random stories for everyone’s entertainment?” he asked, adding that, “after the scare we all went through, we just need mindless fun to get us through after being imprisoned for more than a month. But isn’t that what we’ve been doing all this time? Watching anything and everything that can take our minds off the worst that’s happening out there?”

Matti also pointed out that the ECQ, which the government has imposed since March 15, has given people enough time “to think of things that matter. When we are allowed to go back, we will start telling stories again—entertaining still, but also those that truly matter.”

He added that he realized one thing while on lockdown, that “content is cheap, [and that] it’s everywhere.”

“All of us are devouring content [via live streaming apps] … We move from one series or movie to the next … We get into content-fatigue … We just click and click to get through the boredom of this long break. And then what?” he asked.

“Where do we go from here? Certainly, we will rush back to work after this long haul because we need the money. Is it still what we want to do?” he pointed out. “I don’t know. I’m scared to go back to work because I don’t want to know how this pandemic has changed my views of the world. I hope it is for the better. Let’s see. That’s all we’ve been saying these last few months, anyway.”—MARINEL R. CRUZ INQ