Senior Year (film)
| Senior Year | |
|---|---|
Theatrical poster for the commercial screening of Senior Year
|
|
| Directed by | Jerrold Tarog |
| Produced by | Franco Alido |
| Written by | Jerrold Tarog |
| Music by | Jerrold Tarog, Johnoy Dana |
| Cinematography | Mackie Galvez |
| Edited by | Jerrold Tarog |
| Distributed by | Digitank Studios, Inc and Metric Films |
|
Release date
|
|
| Country | Philippines |
| Language | Filipino |
Senior Year is a 2010 Philippine film directed by Jerrold Tarog, which tells the story of ten students of a private Catholic high school in Manila, as they go through the many transitions that come with their final year in high school.
The promotional material for Senior Year avoids giving the audience specific plot points, and describes the film simply as:
(in alphabetical order within each category)
To cast the film, Tarog sent surveys to about 300 students about their life experiences. The ten students with the most interesting stories were selected to be part of the cast. Tarog then put these students through a two-month workshop, and then he started writing the screenplay for Senior Year.
"Kung anuman yung kwento ng buhay nila, dun ako na-inspire na magsulat ng script" (Whatever their own life stories were, that's where I drew the inspiration for writing the script.), Tarog would later explain.
The film received an "A" rating from the Philippines' Cinema Evaluation Board, and was heartily recommended by the Philippines' Department of Education. Aside from marking the film in the public eye as "excellent", an "A" rating from the Cinema Evaluation Board entitles a film to a 100% tax rebate on its box office sales.
The risky move of featuring real high school students in the major roles of the film paid off, with critics praising the young actors for their exceptional performances. The film was nominated for national awards even before its scheduled regular screenings.
The Entertainment Press Society (Enpress)'s 8th Golden Screen Awards (GSA), which opens the awards season for films in the Philippines, saw Senior Year nominated for six awards, including Best Motion Picture Drama, Best Director, Best Story, and Best Original Screenplay.
The Philippine Movie Press Club (PMPC)'s Star Awards for Movies saw Senior Year nominated for six awards, including Digital Movie Production Designer of the Year for Benjamin Padero, and five nominations for Tarog: Digital Movie Director of the Year, Digital Movie Screenplay of the Year, Digital Movie Editor of the Year, Digital Movie Musical Scorer of the Year,and Digital Movie Sound Engineer of the Year.
In 2010, as Senior Year was being made, the ABS CBN News Channel tapped Tarog to be part of AmBisyon 2010, a series in which directors would use short films to narratively present the various problems that would face whoever won the Presidency in the Philippine Presidential Election of 2010. Tarog's entry, covering the area of "education", was the short film "Faculty", subtitled "A prequel to Senior Year." The Ms. Joan character from Senior Year makes her first appearance in this short, which explains why the character, who used to be a College teacher, had become a high school teacher by the time she was shown in Senior Year. Faculty became a viral hit on various social networks, and the popularity of the short film became part of the marketing for its longer, more fleshed-out sequel.
...
Wikipedia