Okay, one of the reasons I haven’t been blogging recently is because I didn’t think I had anything sensible to say to you fuckers these past few weeks. The internet is wading crotch-deep in people who don’t make sense and I don’t want to contribute to that tragedy. However, seeing these results from My Heritage prompted me to briefly come out of my hiatus for one hearty:
For those of you who don’t know it, I’m a scriptwriter for a major Philippine television network. Siyempre I can’t write scripts in the same language I use sa Songs of the Salamander, right? Ang television script ay isinusulat not for their literary merit (which, I must add, is virtually nil… it’s mainstream TV goddamit!) but rather para basahin ng mga director, artista, producer, bosses, and production people. The television script is a fucking instruction manual on how to visually tell a story, not a goddam 19th century Romantic novel. That’s why Taglish ang medium ng scripts dito sa Pilipinas. It’s meant to be understood. Kung maglalagay ka ng hifalutin words para magmukha kang matalino e maba-bad trip pa sayo ang mga magma-mount ng script mo. Iisipin pasikat ka.
Listen, sabihin na nating mas magaling ka magsulat in English… or maybe English is your first language. That doesn’t erase the fact that most of the people who will work to mount your script ay mas komportable sa Tagalog. Ikaw din, pag hindi naintindihan ng direktor kung ano ang ibig mo sabihin sa isang instruction ay baka dumiskarte siya ng sarili niya– diskarte na totally opposite ng gusto mo sanang mangyari. Also, siyempre naman tagalog ang dialogues. Unless coñotic ang character mo. Pero ang character na ganon ay relatively rare.
