MANILA, Philippines – “Juan dela Cruz” is not just a fantasy-super hero series but a “tent pole project” according to ABS-CBN President Charo Santos-Concio.
More than just competition for the show up against it on the rival network or a serye meant to just fill up a time slot that’s soon-to-be vacated by its predecessor, Deo Endrinal, the business unit head of Dreamscape, calls the Coco Martin-starrer a cross-platform project.
“A tent pole project is likened sa circus tent and its tent poles na nakatayo. Those poles cross to different platforms including licensing, merchandising and music,” explained Deo.
This means that what will air starting Feb. 4 is just the first chapter of “Juan dela Cruz,” with four other chapters of the series already created by Dreamscape.
“If we’re going to invest on a franchise, we look at it on a long term basis at least five years. Pero hindi po siya sa iisang platform lang,” said Deo.
Originally, ABS-CBN wanted to enter “Juan dela Cruz” to last year’s Metro Manila Film Festival entry. However, they pulled it out from the race even before the announcement of the festival’s Magic 8, with the Kapamilya network opting to make it into a TV series instead and “for any eventuality, [to turn it into] a movie which would be Chapter Two of “Juan dela Cruz.” The other platforms being considered to market and sell “Juan dela Cruz” are special edition comic books, webisodes and even a remastered HD version of the series.
Making use of High Definition video cameras is one of the many aspects that differentiates “Juan dela Cruz” from other fantasy and action packed teleseryes. It is said that this is in preparation for the coming of high definition technology to the Philippines in two to three years time, said Deo.
“Juan” director Malu Sevilla said that using HD technology would give “bagong look and bagong flavor sa television. This is the future of television in the Philippines.”
She added that those who would immediately benefit from the high-def format are subscribers of The Filipino Channel or TFC abroad, whose cable service providers mostly broadcast signals in high-def. The whole series, though, would be archived then remastered and aired anew once high-def technology is widely available in the country.
On using “aswang” to depict evil and the nemesis of main character Juan dela Cruz, it is due to the fact that the mythical creature is unique to Filipino folklore; that when they sell series abroad or to neighboring Asian countries, the “aswang” then becomes one of the series’ selling points.
“This is not just a TV show, this is not just a one teleserye, it’s a franchise. We are looking forward na pwede siyang sumibol as a webisode sa Internet, maaaring paglabas na special na komiks, maaaring toy para sa mga bata, or a film, may original soundtrack din. And bilang produkto, we are very confident because it has the ABS-CBN tatak ng quality, great narrative and storytelling and characterization,” said Deo.
From www.mb.com.ph
Source:
http://comic.blogm4u.com/2013/02/02/juan-dela-cruz-created-as-cross-platform-tv-series/