By Jodi Bustos
Eagle News Service
(Eagle News) — Different cultures with different traditions from the 10 Southeast Asian Nations were represented in a strong opening ceremony for the first-ever Southeast Asia Prix Jeunesse on Monday, November 27 at the Peninsula Manila in the Philippines.
The morning was filled with positivity and motivation when Dr. Hyunsook Chung, Executive Producer of Educational Broadcasting System (EBS) in Korea gave insightful talk about the stories of success in children’s entertainment in Southeast Asia.
She first introduced the Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union (ABU), a non-profit professional association of broadcasting organizations with over 280 members in 57 countries and regions. Its role is to help the development of broadcasting in the Asia-Pacific region that encourages regional and international co-operation between broadcasters, followed by sharing helpful tips and inspiring messages to the youth.
Dr. Chung also encouraged every country to produce more local programs and to create more local content.
According to her, working together as one will make it easier to achieve this goal, thus she assured that the international co-production they created will help other countries to create more local programs free of charge.
She also expressed how fascinated she was with children nowadays, “kids now are very used to the new media like iphone, mobile, ipad or camera; they are talented and they are the media generation.”
“I think they should have proper media education, not only on how to make the content but on how to consume the media. That’s the very important part of the new education,” Dr. Chung said.
Furthermore, she acknowledged the impact of children’s media, especially animation programs to the lives of the youth because it helps them to create cultural identity and educational element that will remain for the rest of their lives.
She added that the content for children’s program is more important than the profit from advertisements, because content is more about their “food for soul”.
In her heartwarming message to the youth, Dr. Chung advised the children to pursue their dreams and don’t give up if there are challenges.
“Enjoy the variety of your directions and pick up the best one which is suitable for you in the end. There will be a lot of trials and errors,” she continued.
Learning sessions and hands-on activities
Coinciding with the inspirational talk held at the Rigodon Ballroom, is the start of learning session for children at the Conservatory. It has two parts: using ordinary gadgets to capture images for the morning session and the visual storytelling for the afternoon session.
For the first session, a total of 28 attendees participated in the lecture; 26 were from the Philippines and two delegates were from Indonesia and Cambodia with ages 10-16 years old.
Miss Livi Zheng, an Indonesian-born Hollywood producer, director and actress who specializes in action and martial arts film talked about the basics of capturing images using ordinary gadgets or smartphones, such as the rule of thirds, shooting in multiple angles and finding the story.
She also stressed that uniqueness and traditions are great tools for inspiration in writing stories and creating films.
In the afternoon learning session, Mr. Alex Alejandro, a photography hobbyist, businessman and a producer, together with Ms. Sally Lopez of Net 25 and Ms. Arah Guiao of INCTV as moderators, shared basic concepts that can help participants to take better photos such as focusing on emotions, using the available light, finding your point of view, having a keen eye for details and the basic framing.
Alejandro also talked about the importance of planning and forming the story before taking photos.
The participants were able to practice what they have learned by taking photos around the venue and sharing their stories with everyone.
They were all instructed to take as many photos as they can so they can choose their best photo among the array of their shots for the photo exhibit on Wednesday, November 29 at the Rigodon Ballroom Foyer.
This was followed by the screenings of the top two competing films per categories: Professional Non-Fiction and Professional Fiction targeted for audiences less than seven years old, to 12 years old, and 13 to 17 years old.
On the other hand, group discussions about the films being screened per category were done mostly in the late afternoon. Moderators from their respective countries were given the chance to ask questions about the film presented to them and to tackle its relevance not only in the country where the film was made, but also for the Southeast Asian countries.