We sat down with 10 artists across three months to chart the long road of adapting “Himala: Isang Musikal” from stage to silver screen
September 13. Santa Mesa Heights, Quezon City. It’s pouring rain. A eucharistic celebration and dinner just finished in honor of filmmaker Ishmael Bernal. It’s well into the evening and three figures have been asked to share their personal experiences with the National Artist for Film. Two weeks from now, Bernal would have celebrated his 86th birthday. In the crowd, among Bernal’s living collaborators and friends, Pepe Diokno sits, listening. The next day, as Bernal’s reinterment in the Libingan ng mga Bayani was to happen, Diokno would begin principal photography of his film adaptation of “Himala: Isang Musikal,“ a musical based on Bernal’s 1982 masterpiece penned by National Artist Ricky Lee and starring Nora Aunor.
Diokno had taken an eight-year hiatus from directing features, focusing instead on advertisements, television, and short films. But after “Gomburza” won Second Best Picture at the 2023 Metro Manila Film Festival (MMFF), spent five weeks in the cinemas, and debuted at #1 on Netflix, much attention had suddenly flowed into his filmmaking. Before the historical biopic was even accepted into the MMFF, Diokno was already developing a horror film under the prestigious Torino Script Lab with producer Madonna Tarrayo, with whom he had been working since 2016 under Unitel Straight Shooters. While the reasons for its success and this new wave of historical fiction and dramas remains elusive to him, he knew he needed to capitalize on the moment.
Diokno allowed the horror to gestate and considered adapting Lee’s 2011 novel “Si Amapola sa 65 na Kabanata.” Instead, he opted for an even larger artistic risk—an adaptation of one of the most critically acclaimed Filipino musicals of all time. “It was the most emotional experience I’ve ever had in a theater. I laughed. I cried. It gave me goosebumps. It stuck with me for years. I always had it in the back of my mind when someone would ask me about a film I’d want to do,” says Diokno over the phone. “After ‘Gomburza’ gave me more opportunities to make films, I mustered the courage to ask Sir Ricky if he’d allow… He said it was good timing because him, Vince[nt de Jesus] and the whole cast were waiting for the opportunity to do it again. That was the wind beneath my wings.”
Getting the go signal
Inspired by the story of an 11-year old faith healer from Mindoro Occidental, Lee began writing “Himala” in 1976, the year after he was released from Fort Bonifacio and four years after Ferdinand Marcos Sr. declared martial law. Amid extreme displays of wealth of the elite and the growing desolation of the poor, “Himala” was rejected from every major studio because it lacked commercial appeal, with its tragic end, religious subject matter, and lack of love teams pushing producers away. Only when Lee joined a contest under the Experimental Cinema of the Philippines six years later did it find a life.
The material has reemerged during periods of government turmoil and economic strife, when the country itself has been transformed into Cupang by its political, economic, and cultural leaders; its people disillusioned by false promises and desperate for quick fixes. The musical, first staged by Tanghalang Pilipino in November 2003 at the CCP Tanghalang Huseng Batute, spoke to an audience shortly after former president Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo announced her 2004 presidential bid amidst massive fiscal deficits and allegations of rampant corruption. When “Himala” was brought to life again in 2018 under the direction of Ed Lacson Jr., former president Rodrigo Duterte had, according to Human Rights Watch, “plunged the Philippines into its worst human rights crisis since the dictatorship of Ferdinand Marcos in the 1970s and 1980s.” Now that “Himala” returns to the silver screen as a movie musical, gaps in income, gender, and economic status, as well as human rights, have only persisted in the country at the hands of Ferdinand Marcos Jr., son of the late dictator, plunging us into another period of darkness.
When one looks at Diokno’s filmography, one will find a common thread between his features and “Himala” in its countless iterations—central characters who are thrown into environments that seem to be hellbent on projecting onto them, if not outright outcasting them, and the cyclical violence that comes from trying to attain acceptance from these communities. Themes of penance, moral cleanliness, and the increasingly blurry lines between fact and fiction govern Diokno’s filmmaking. Even the final shot in “Gomburza,” where the three priests die by garrote one by one, pays clear homage to the final sequence of “Himala.”
But what is there more to say that hasn’t already been said in its multiple iterations? The question gnawed at Diokno, who had to pitch it to not only Lee but also Vincent de Jesus, the lyricist and composer of the stage musical. “When I first asked Sir Ricky, he really challenged us to own this version,” says Diokno. “He had told us to be faithful to the soul of the story but also challenged us to be faithful in other ways.”
As opposed to the minimalist approach of Bernal’s “Himala” and the 2018/2019 stage musical under the watchful eye of Ed Lacson, Diokno wanted an adaptation that leaned into the origins of the movie musical as an expressionistic form. “I pitched a stylized Cupang that is neither today nor tomorrow… [one that] you can’t really pinpoint it on a map,” says Diokno. “Elsa’s story was a parable within this world and that’s the idea [Sir Ricky] really bought into.” This new film which existed “in between theater and film” excited Lee, especially as Diokno listed “The Tragedy of Macbeth” and “La La Land” as references of the surreality he was aiming for.
De Jesus was no stranger to adapting his musicals for the silver screen — having written the music and lyrics for both “Zsazsa Zaturnnah Ze Moveeh” (2006) and “Changing Partners” (2017). While “Himala” was only accompanied by piano in its stage iterations, De Jesus figured it wouldn’t work if it remained the same nor would a full orchestra be financially feasible. The intervention was simple: “Mag-rock tayo. Grand sound. Mas gritty. Mas abot ng tao. Mas masa,” says De Jesus. Lee loved the idea, especially as a rock musical had been in his creative bucket list for years. Diokno initially had reservations but ultimately agreed, as it lent energy to the film.
In another year, “Isang Himala” might have been considered a bigger financial risk. But this year alone, a deluge of high-profile movie musicals have dominated the box-office and cultural conversations from arthouse originals like “Emilia Pérez,” “Joker: Folie à Deux,” and “The End” to adaptations of contemporary Broadway darlings like “Wicked” and “Mean Girls.” The Philippines’ history with the movie musical can be traced back to the beginnings of Filipino cinema itself when “Dalagang Bukid,” a popular sarsuwela starring Atang de la Rama, was adapted for the screen by Jose Nepomuceno, creating the first narrative feature produced and directed by Filipinos. With the renewed public interest in Filipino theater post-pandemic, there was a possibility to bring that same excitement in performing arts spaces back into cinemas.
When one looks at Diokno’s filmography, one will find a common thread between his features and “Himala” in its countless iterations—central characters who are thrown into environments that seem to be hellbent on projecting onto them, if not outright outcasting them, and the cyclical violence that comes from trying to attain acceptance from these communities.
Diokno contacted his key staff from “Gomburza” before submitting to the Metro Manila Film Festival and asked them to keep their schedules open in the latter half of the year just in case. De Jesus contacted the cast through their group chat, informing them of the possibility of an onscreen adaptation. “We were very sure we wanted the same cast from the musical,” says Tarrayo. “[They’re] very difficult role[s] to play. The songs are difficult. They’re not just pop songs you can break out and sing. They were made for ‘Himala.’”
Having already produced movie musicals like “I Do Bidoo Bidoo” (2012), Tarrayo came on board as a producer and was supportive of Diokno’s decision to submit to the festival, especially as it was the 50th anniversary. “I feel so privileged to be producing this because how many projects like this will come your way?” says Tarrayo, who was floored when she first saw the film in high school. “It’s going to reel in the younger generation that watched “GomBurZa,” the theater community… The material resonates till today because of poverty, hopelessness, and despair. It’s timeless. Everything else followed.”
Creating Cupang
July 16. Bulwagang Villegas, Manila City Hall. The grand launch of the 50th Metro Manila Film Festival is in full swing and three titles have already been announced. Diokno and Tarrayo are in the audience, listening while checking their phones for updates, when they hear Manila Mayor Honey Lacuna-Pangan call their names. “Himala: Isang Musikal” had been chosen as one of the first batch of official entries in the MMFF based on the strength of the script alone. “Captured nila ‘yong mukha namin. Sobrang grabe ‘yong gulat,” says Tarrayo, laughing. “Ang nakakatawa pa: parang pati ABS, GMA, and IdeaFirst nagulat na nakapasok kami.”
“We were hoping but we really didn’t expect because people usually say you need the box-office stars or [box-office] genre. So we were very surprised and honored to be part of the 50th,” says Diokno. “MMFF is really the only time of the year when we really have some protection over Filipino movies. It’s been very hard for producers outside of the festival to make money. If it didn’t get into MMFF, we’d find a way to do it of course. But it’d take a much longer time to get it off the ground. For a film like this, for the scale that we wanted, we felt like MMFF was the best platform for it.”
The first order of business? Deciding whether to shoot on location or in a studio. When Diokno approached production designer Ericson Navarro to be part of the team, he immediately said yes because of his long-standing relationship with “Himala.” Navarro first encountered Bernal’s original during the Holy Week special on television after the EDSA Revolution, falling in love with Racquel Villavicencio’s design, eventually motivating him to pursue it as a profession. When he encountered the material again, it was 2003 and he was part of a production design workshop under the Cultural Center of the Philippines, which required him to be one of the set men in the first iteration of the stage musical. “Isa sa mga assignments namin was to help create ‘yong puno,” says Navarro proudly.
During one of their earlier conversations, Lee shared the backstory of Cupang’s curse: a withered woman suffering from leprosy was turned away by the townsfolk, resulting in an unshakeable generational curse, at least from the perspective of its inhabitants. From this, Navarro gathered that Cupang may have initially been a rich town whose wealth has since dried up. Building from this, he suggested Cupang be situated in a desert that was harder and stonier, closer to a mining community whose resources had been bled dry by greed. “’Yong paghihirap ng mga taga-Cupang, mas mabigat na ngayon. Mas marami na silang pinagdadaanan.” Navarro built his design partly inspired by the mining town in Mt. Diwalwal in Compostela Valley, Davao De Oro.
“Ang entire Cupang ay tungkol sa katotohanan.”
— Ericson Navarro, production designer
Navarro already had experience shooting a movie musical on location with Chito S. Roño’s 2010 film “Emir.” Logistically, he knew it posed a problem—schedule conflicts with the cast and crew, unpredictable weather, and interruptions in live sound recording. In “Mga Screenplay ni Ricky Lee Volume 2,” Lee details the difficult three months when they were ravaged by sandstorms and sudden rains. So Navarro arrived at their first production meeting with a four foot by eight feet conceptual model with a design that fit everything in a studio. “Magagawa lang namin nang tama at maayos ‘yong bagong version na ito kung controlled ‘yong environment.”
He and his team had to set everything up within two weeks in the two-studio complex at Shooting Gallery Studios. Located in the Central Business District of Makati, the 500+ square meter and 30 foot ceiling-scale of the studios required Navarro to employ over two hundred people within his art department alone, working around the clock in shifts while music rehearsals with the cast ran. “Kinulang pa ako ng tao doon,” jokes Navarro who, at one point, had to ask even the street sweepers if they’d be willing to work after their shifts to augment the gaps in manpower.
“We were hoping but we really didn’t expect because people usually say you need the box-office stars or [box-office] genre. So we were very surprised and honored to be part of the 50th… MMFF is really the only time of the year when we really have some protection over Filipino movies.”
— Pepe Diokno, director
To make sure the set could withstand hundreds of extras on set while remaining soundproofed, Navarro and his team used cement, wood, and galvanized steel and iron roofings to construct Cupang and the structures within it instead of mockup materials like plaster or resin. When Navarro heard that Diokno and de Jesus were planning to include imperfections in vocal delivery and performances in the final cut, he made a last minute request: a truck of sand that would impart Cupang with the same grit and coarseness they were artistically aiming for. “Maganda kung anong inaapakan nila, kung anong hinahawakan nila, kung anong nahahampas sa backdrop, actual material rin. Kailangang marinig mo at dapat mong marinig,” says Navarro. “Ang entire Cupang ay tungkol sa katotohanan.”
Bernal’s “Himala” was littered with product placements from brands wanting to capitalize on Nora Aunor’s stardom, creating a unique contradiction within the film as “Himala” critiques how capitalism infiltrates the provinces under the promise of development. Navarro’s production design does not have this product integration but still pays homage to Racquel Villavicencio’s work from the original film—from the “Elsa loves you” banners that become markers of her ascent as a cult figure to the statue of the Virgin Mary next to Elsa as she makes her iconic speech.
Shortly before they finished, Navarro realized a key element was missing—the tree atop the hill where Elsa’s most important moments happen. The art department assures him they can create a mockup quickly, but Navarro refused. “Hindi pwedeng mockup ang puno,” says Navarro. “Ang puno, kailangang maging totoo dahil ang puno lang ang makakapagsabi kung totoo ba ang na-witness ni Elsa; kung totoong may milagro ba o ‘yong mga nangyari kay Elsa.” Though they were pressed for time, Navarro assured his team that the tree would reveal itself to them soon.
Cut to: Navarro is on one of his regular pre-shoot drives. This time, he found himself in Tarlac, on the way to Monasterio de Tarlac, when he encountered three Aeta children crying by the roadside due to hunger. After stopping by and feeding the three girls, he noticed they were sitting on something—a large tree that was the same shape as the one in the original “Himala.” “Tinawagan ko ‘yong art department ko, sinabi ko sa kanila na magdala sila ng truck para kunin ‘yong puno na ‘yon,” says Navarro. “Hanggang ngayon, na-goo-goosebumps ako. Kasi those three kids were Elsa, Nimia, and Chayong.”
Reuniting the Marias
When Aicelle Santos was told that “Isang Himala” had gotten into MMFF, she cried out of joy and anxiety. “Hindi ako handa. Physically, vocally, mentally,” says Santos. Her role as Elsa in “Himala: Isang Musikal” was the last time she had been on stage before the pandemic and in the interim, she had given birth twice. “Feeling ko I was starting from zero.” But these apprehensions were assuaged by her castmates, particularly Neomi Gonzales and Kakki Teodoro, who alongside her were reprising their roles as Chayong and Nimia from the 2018 and 2019 stage musical.
“Never naming in-imagine na maging movie siya. Ang prayer lang namin, magka-rerun,” says Gonzales. “We’re the second generation and hindi pa ako ready na i-give up ‘yong staging namin. Hindi pa ako ready i-let go.”
Scheduling presented a problem considering Manila’s booming theater scene, especially for Gonzales, Teodoro, and Vic Robinson (who plays Pilo), who were all involved in acclaimed local original musicals. “Meron akong rerun for two musicals—‘Pingkian’ and ‘Bar Boys.’ But for this rerun hindi na ako sumali,” says Teodoro. “I need to focus.”
All of the cast members had less than two months to prepare to return to their roles, with many of them taking singing lessons, exercising their bodies, revisiting notes from the initial runs, and building their mental stamina to reenter Cupang. As the set was being constructed, Diokno scheduled a script reading with the cast and artistic team before music rehearsals with De Jesus began. The ensemble was composed of around 30 people, most of whom had been living with the musical since their auditions in 2016. Diokno interviewed them each, asking for their backstories, and incorporated insights from these conversations into how he would later block scenes and how costume designer Steve Salvador would dress the characters.
Diokno spoke to Santos the day of their table read, where he said a phrase that terrified her: “Sabi niya sa akin ‘I’ll follow your lead.’” Though she had already played a small role in Loy Arcenas’ “Ang Larawan” (2017), “Isang Himala” was Santos’ first crack at a lead role in a film and the weight of following in the footsteps of National Artist Nora Aunor was definitely there. “Hindi ako sanay. I’m the type of person na gusto kong laging nasa back seat,” says Santos. “Pero because Elsa is the lead. Siguro kung paano ko inintindi ‘yong sinabi niya is ‘You know the character more than I do.’”
Like in “Wicked” and “Les Miserables” (2012), “Isang Himala” decided to use live sound recording for all of its musical sequences. During music rehearsals, after only 12 songs, De Jesus noticed their runtime was too long, later clocking in at around 105 minutes for just music. Out of 27 tracks in the original musical, De Jesus, Diokno and Lee agreed to remove two songs, with De Jesus further trimming down repetitive sequences within the musical, reducing the runtime to 95 minutes. After working with an all-star band, De Jesus pre-recorded songs with the entire ensemble, which would serve as guide tracks during the shoot.
The transition from stage to screen presented a different type of challenge to the actors. Robinson likened the process of being directed under Lacson to finishing an undergraduate degree, while working with Diokno was taking your Master’s, making the others laugh. “Si Ed ‘yong nagpasok sa amin sa world ng Cupang. Siya ‘yong nagturo sa amin kung paano maging bahagi nito. After naming grumaduate mula sa course na ‘yon, na-instill na sa amin kung paano maging taga-Cupang,” says Robinson. “Ngayon na kailangan naming i-apply namin ulit. Hinihimay na namin with Direk Pepe and kung paano aatakihin in the way we matured as actors.”
Gonzales believes that this experience is a win not just for them but for theater actors everywhere who struggle to be treated professionally despite their training and credentials. “If you go to teleseryes, hindi pa rin eh. Hindi masyadong common ang respeto. ‘Yong culture natin, gusto sa sikat. ‘Yong theater actors, laging support, unnamed roles, comic relief,” says Gonzales. Though she believes Cedrick Juan’s win last year put a spotlight on the craft in theater, there’s still work to be done. “Dito, bida ang mga theater actors. Nakaka-pressure kasi dapat ipakita namin na worth ‘yong respect. Pero dito sa set, ramdam na ramdam mo ‘yong respeto mula sa lahat. ‘Yon palang, sobrang laking achievement na for us and for the next generation who will dive into theater. Na may foundation para pag time na nila, respetuhin naman sila.”
Lensing a miracle
It is the third day of shooting “And The Breadwinner Is” when they announced the first batch of films accepted into the 2024 Metro Manila Film Festival. Cinematographer Carlo Canlas Mendoza was setting up downstairs when Jun Lana ran to him to deliver the good news. “When [“Isang Himala”] got in, siya ‘yong nagsabi na: ‘Carlo, you have to do that with Pepe,’” says Mendoza, who had been a collaborator of Diokno since his 2014 feature “Above the Clouds.” “They were both supportive of me and have respect for each other. They understand how important it is for a director to have the people they wanna hire.”
Mendoza typically allocates days for script breakdowns with a director, so he can create a detailed lookbook after each project. But because he and Diokno were pressed for time, they simply took a day to chat about the text itself, with Diokno emphasizing the four stages of tragedy in “Himala” as it progresses from a character introduction to catastrophe. “We never talked about cameras or treatment. We just talked about story and characters,” says Mendoza. Conversations centered around questions like: “Who is Elsa? What is the driving force of Elsa? What is her relationship with the people? How is Elsa similar to Cupang? How is Elsa similar or different from other characters?” Mendoza latched onto a handful of keywords that Diokno kept returning to—new, raw, gritty, expressionistic, and the blurring of the lines between real and surreal—and created a mood board from these.
From the beginning, Mendoza was informed by Navarro that the entire space, with the exception of the fire lanes, will be used for the set. “I’m a yogi. I go with the flow. I try to work with what is rather than force what I believe should be. It’s an ego thing and I’m way past that,” says Mendoza. The last time he shot an entire feature in a studio was a decade earlier with Jun Lana’s 2015 drama “Anino sa Likod ng Buwan.” Since then, technology has changed drastically. “I wanted the people, not just the actors but even my crew, to have the feeling of being in a real location. So I wanted a lot of lights that would give me a base exposure of real sunlight so that the experience is the same.”
Through conversations with Diokno, Mendoza had an epiphany. “This is a town that believes in miracles and curses. Everything comes from a higher force,” says Mendoza. “Elsa’s journey as an outcast, from being unloved to being loved and back, ganoon din ‘yong Cupang. It’s dry and lifeless. Visually, I wanted that to be seen. Kung ang mga taong ito nag-de-depend on a higher force. Ang daming kayang ibigay ng sky.” Considering the physical limitations of the set, Mendoza contacted lights programmer Mico Manalaysay and decided to have most sources of light come from the sky, removing any obstacles from the sightlines.
These aligned with one of the early influences Diokno showed Lee—Damien Chazelle’s “La La Land.” “There’s a scene in ‘La La Land’ where Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling were singing this love song in the Griffith Observatory and as they were singing, the sky was also in love with them,” says Diokno. “It was very romantic. In a musical, all the other elements of visuals and sound can express as well.” The initial lookbook considered the skylines of “Macbeth” (2015), “Mulan” (2020), “Nope” (2022), “Bardo, False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths” (2022), and “Texas Chainsaw Massacre” (1974). But instead of giving him these images from his lookbook, Mendoza gave Manalaysay photos he took from trips he took throughout his life. “It’s very personal. Expression ko ito of what [those] skies are,” says Mendoza. “’Yong makikita mo sa ibang pelikula, experience ng ibang tao ‘yon. Mas madali mong maintindihan ‘yong sarili mong experience kaysa sa experience ng ibang tao. So when I see a certain light, I know how to adjust it based on what I have experienced.”
Thanks to Manalaysay, Mendoza worked with “almost 95 percent LED programmable lights” that granted them the power to create an array of horizons that mirrored and contrasted the emotional journey of Cupang and its characters. From warm 7 a.m. suns and cloudless noons to golden sunsets and pink skies to the more dramatic blood moons, cyan nights, and greenish mornings, Mendoza’s cinematography—shot on an Arri Alexa Mini LF—and Manalaysay’s lighting design turned Navarro’s set into a canvas. “Now, we have the ability to create the eclipse,” says Mendoza. Even in the death of Chayong, a pivotal scene in the movie musical, Mendoza was able to create a “contrast of blue hour and red sunset in one frame,” symbolizing the war within her spirit and, unbeknownst to him at the time, also embodying in its color choices the Philippine flag.
Adjusting to film
October 15. Shooting Gallery Studios. It’s the final day of principal photography for “Isang Himala” and the second (or is it third?) day of the stampede sequence. Studio Yellow, the smaller of the two spaces, has been turned into a holding facility for hundreds of extras from around Metro Manila while Studio Red contains the hilltop where Elsa gets killed. A green screen wraps the entire upper half of the ceiling. The ground is wet from an earlier sequence that required soaking the townsfolk through an intricate sprinkler system.
So far, the shooting schedule has been smooth. Because there was such little time for preparation, Mendoza was only able to give a crash course in acting for the camera to a handful of actors, most of whom were acting onscreen for the first time. “It’s a dance between the camera operator and the actors… and ang galing kasi ginagawa na nila,” says Mendoza. “Kakki is really good with that. [It became] very lyrical. If we had more time, I would’ve given a day’s workshop.”
Teodoro admits that prior to stepping on set she had been unsure about her footing as a performer. “I got so anxious the weeks before kasi hinahanap ko ‘yong rehearsals,” says Teodoro. When she asked Lacson for advice, he simply said: “Trust kung anong ginawa natin. Si Pepe na ‘yan. Kaniya na ‘yan.”
“If you go to teleseryes, hindi pa rin eh. Hindi masyadong common ang respeto. ‘Yong culture natin, gusto sa sikat. ‘Yong theater actors, laging support, unnamed roles, comic relief… Dito, bida ang mga theater actors. Nakaka-pressure kasi dapat ipakita namin na worth ‘yong respect.”
— Neomi Gonzales
Film adds a new dimension to the performance process. Onstage, actors can build momentum as the musical progresses, especially as they relate with and gather energy from other actors or the audience. But during filming, one has to tap into emotional truths at the drop of a hat, often out of sequence, sometimes even in the absence of a scene partner. Though most of the cast had already done teleseryes and TV commercials, a movie musical was an entirely different monster. “Ang hirap magbato ng emosyon. Kaya kailangang ihanda ‘yong vessel,” says Santos.
But as the shoot progressed and people began getting into the rhythm, they were tested instead by the repetitiveness of the job, waiting times, and the stamina required by filmmaking. “’Yong challenge sa filming [ay] paulit-ulit, same spot, different angles, with multiple camera setups,” says Gonzales. “[Iba] ‘yong challenge ng singing ng ganoong oras na walang tulog and live.”
“Gusto mo minsan na mag-simmer pa ‘yong choice mo kasi it’s the first time you made that choice,” says Gonzales. The quickness has taught them to be less precious about their acting choices and to trust Diokno, especially as they are able to watch playbacks of each other’s performances for the first time. “Sa play, ikaw ‘yong nagkukuwento ng kung anong pinagdadaanan ng character mo. Dito, si Direk Pepe. Sa lens niya. We’re just mere players.”
The technology for live sound recording was also a conundrum. Unlike the state-of-the-art in-ear monitors and vocal mics in “Wicked,” some of which were woven into their costume and painted to match the actors’ exact skin tone, the production neither had the same scale of budget nor the time. “They had a year to make it. We only had a month,” jokes De Jesus. In-ear monitors had to be given to performers and had to be digitally erased through VFX. Solos were easier to manage, sound-wise. But ensemble pieces? They conducted a trial-and-error process for the first three days, after which they established a system. Sound was subsequently cleaned by Mike Idioma and Bien Sparks of Narra Studios, with De Jesus refusing opportunities to use autotune; insisting that only glitches, cracks, or failures in tech were punched in following ADR. “Of course we use the best takes. Pinagsasama-sama namin sila. Pero dapat may grit and may texture.” Teresa Barrozo and Erika Estacio later added, in their words, “aural dramaturgy and orchestration” to bridge sequences between dialogue and singing.
Stitching things together
Benjamin Tolentino had been approached by Diokno along with the rest of the “GomBurZa” team but had been unsure about whether to take on the project because of the schedule conflicts it posed. Like last year, Tolentino was already in talks to edit two other features for the Metro Manila Film Festival—Jun Lana’s “And the Breadwinner Is” and Zig Dulay’s “Green Bones.” But the chance of editing “Himala” kept tapping on his door. “The themes were pressing and current. Ang lungkot na relevant pa rin siya ngayon,” says Tolentino. “Prinomise ko sa sarili ko at the beginning of the year na maging mas intentional sa mga movies na gagawin ko. Kailangang gusto ko ‘yong mga ginagawa kong pelikula. Feeling ko nagawa ko siya.”
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Early discussions established a baseline and a maximum for the theatricality in this new world. Stitching together the performances was much easier because dialogue was music. “Mas may freedom ako to mix and match, mas unlimited ‘yong choices ko,” says Tolentino, who began to watch the rushes and edit the material in segments as “Isang Himala” was filming. Unlike Christian Bables, whose award-winning performances in “Die Beautiful” (2016) and “Big Night” (2021) he edited, Tolentino was challenged by the film because he hadn’t edited many of the cast in a film before. “Some actors warm up as the takes go on. Some are better first take and their energy wanes,” says Tolentino. But once he had gotten to know their habits and their varying levels of theatricality, it became easier.
At some point, the specter of both the musical and the film loomed suffocatingly over the editing room for both Diokno and Tolentino. “Parang di pa kami happy sa latag. Andoon na lahat ng eksena. Na-polish na namin. But the scenes weren’t talking to each other,” says Tolentino. “On paper, nagfo-flow naman siya. But in terms of what the characters were going through and how the characters were developing onscreen and how they were feeling… it wasn’t translating. Walang escalation. ‘Yong experience nung isa, hindi kinakausap ‘yong sa iba.”
Tolentino knew that this discomfort was innate to the trial-and-error process of film editing. But when the ‘come to Jesus moment’ that typically happens in their collaborations hadn’t arrived, doubt began to settle in. A week before their picture lock, Diokno and Tolentino caved in and they watched the film they were editing side by side with Bernal’s original. “It wasn’t healthy,” says Diokno. “But it was a good exercise for me, I think.”
In this rewatch, the problem became clear: they had been unconsciously rejecting the darkness that defined this new iteration of Elsa, making the arcs of the ensemble murkier. Aunor’s Elsa was impossible to read due to her silences, enabling the audience inside and outside the film to project their thoughts and desires onto her. It was why the two struggled to find the right place for one of the musical’s key songs—”Gawin Mo Akong Sining.” But this solo of Santos follows Elsa as she prays to the Blessed Virgin Mary, slowly transitioning into a dream sequence where she confesses her desire to be immortalized and revered through Orly’s film camera.
“The magic of [Nora Aunor’s performance] is that many people who are skeptics walk away thinking she’s a great manipulator. But also many who are believers walk away thinking she is the real deal. That duality is really partly because you can never read what she is thinking,” says Diokno. The musical separates itself by filling these ambiguities with music, allowing us access into Elsa’s interiority. “They were thinking: ‘What if we gave a song to all of those silences? What would Elsa be thinking and feeling? What would the different characters be thinking and feeling?’”
Diokno and Tolentino had to accept that the only way for the story to be told was to accept the darkness within this new Elsa. “Historically, ‘yong mga bida natin sa pelikulang Pilipino…flawless. We want them to be clean… I wanted Elsa to be flawless pero in trying to do that, nawala ‘yong gustong sabihin nung pelikula. That’s why we just need[ed] to embrace what is,” says Tolentino. When the two regained the freedom to rearrange the scenes according to the character’s inner lives, they saw that “Gawin Mo Akong Sining” made sense in the first act instead of its initial place in the stage musical. “Kaya pala hindi nag-wo-work ‘yong ibang characters kasi si Elsa na ‘anointed,’ malinis. Because Elsa expresses that [grayness] in the first act, it gives everyone permission to be gray as well.”
Final cut
December 16. Nine days before Christmas and the beginning of the MMFF. Tomorrow, Diokno is attending an early morning preview screening for critics at the Director’s Club, SM Megamall. The final cut of the film stretches to a total runtime of 145 minutes, just five minutes under the maximum allowable cut in the festival. “We were told by other producers that we might get less screenings because the cinemas would prefer films with shorter running times so they can do more screenings,” says Diokno. “But all of us producers felt that we should give it the runtime that the story needs. Let’s not cut it for the sake of screenings.”
On top of the pressure of a five-month timeline for a feature film, the weight of the predicament only hit Diokno midway during the process and has been hitting hard ever since. “During the shoot, there was a crash; a realization that it’s ‘Himala.’ It’s the ‘Himala.’ You don’t want to be the one who effs it up,” says Diokno in hindsight. With only days till opening weekend ends, the doubt of the material continues to seep in, especially as “Isang Himala” began with only 31 cinemas nationwide. But Lee has been a North Star for the production, even going as far as joining campus tours throughout Metro Manila to get more audiences, especially the younger generation, to watch their collective efforts. “I was always very encouraged by Sir Ricky with the creative decisions and the departures we were making from the original. He was there to check that we would not stray from the soul of the film.”
“When Sir Ricky saw the [final] edit and it made him smile and he said that we were both faithful and unfaithful—that’s when he smiled,” says Diokno. “To hear him say that he thinks Ishma would be amused by our production and that it would probably make him smile too, that was the ultimate hug.”
“Isang Himala” is part of the 50th Metro Manila Film Festivals and is available in limited theaters.