The Carver's House

In the previous blog post , we talked about the one principle that drives most, if not all, marketing efforts for a product. And that's making sure that the perceived value of a product trumps the perceived cost associated with it. Value is relative. What's valuable to you may not be as valuable to your friend. That's why we call it perceived value. If you observe some of the recent shampoo ads shown on television, you'll note how marketers zero in on specific values to make their shampoos stand out: For instance, 1) In an ad for Pantene featuring KC Concepcion, the benefit that was emphasized was "you don't need a comb," aptly named, "The No-Comb Revolution."  2) In an ad for Sunsilk featuring Sarah Geronimo, the benefit that was emphasized was "great hair for 25 hours," which they encapsulized in a "25-Hour Challenge." 3) Meanwhile, Tresemme ads stress the value of "salon quality hair." (This is reinforc...

Over on Facebook, a discussion took place about how Philippine publications can make headway in the crowded book market dominated by mostly American books. Like many other authors, I find it sad to see the big bookstores display foreign titles prominently in their display windows. In the stores themselves, the Filipiniana section is somewhere in the midst of the sea of shelves. In that discussion, the participants were talking about distribution issues, from the lack of distribution channels to the difficulty in convincing the big bookstores to push local books. These concerns are all valid, for sure, and these issues are similarly faced by Filipino comics creators. But is distribution really the main issue? I will argue that if distribution was the main problem, then every product displayed prominently in every mega-chain retail establishment would have no problem getting sold to the satisfaction of their manufacturers. But we all know that's not true. Hundreds of products the...

The news industry is abuzz with reports of Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos'purchase of The Washington Post for US$250 million, said to come from the liquidation of his Amazon stocks. As of this writing, that amount translates to Php10.88 billion. (It's actually Php10.885. I just took out the 5.) If you had Php10.88 billion, what would you do? To put things in perspective, I made a few calculations, since I'm wont to doing these things as a mental exercise. The examples below do not take inflation into account. MALLS If you allot Php2 billion to start and operate a modest-sized mall, you can build five malls, and you've got spare change to invest somewhere else. (SM Aura was reported to have cost Php3.5 billion.) CONDOMINIUM If you allot Php1.5 billion to build a 300-unit condominium building (DMCI was reported to have invested Php 1.3 billion in a 560-unit Ohana Residences), you'll have seven such buildings. HOUSING If you allot Php100 million to build and furni...

Backstory is essentially everything that happened before your story starts. Alan Moore recommends building a Backstory as one of the first steps in creating a comics story. By building a substantial background for your character and his world, you'll have a goldmine of sources for story. But maybe you don't have the time, so let's see how we can get the ball rolling quickly. To start a story, we asked you to list a series of Story Events, focusing on your character as he makes his way through his day. In following your character, you may have had him talking to other characters, going to different locations, essentially living his Ordinary Life. You continue listing Story Events until you reach a Disturbance, which launches your character into an adventure. But what if you can't find a Disturbance? The easiest way to identify a Disturbance is to find out what will literally disturb your character enough to leave his Ordinary Life. Here's a question to get yo...

Image from Tuxqs Rutaquio's Instagram Wowowow!! So happy to announce that, next year, my play about superheroes, domestic help, and sibling rivalry will be restaged. "Kung Paano Ako Naging Leading Lady," directed by the awesome Christopher Dacanay Martinez, starring Kiki Baento, Skyzx Labastilla, and Hans Eckstein has been chosen, along with Herlyn Gail Alegre's "Imbisibol" and Liza Magtoto's "Isang Daan," to be part next year's Virgin Labfest, tentatively scheduled for June 2014. This whole playwriting thing has been amazing. Though I don't know if I'll be able to do this again, the fact that it happened is enough. During the first run, director Chris Martinez asked me if writing a full-length version of the play was possible. I remember answering, "Yes, if anyone's interested in staging it." Anyway, here's a snippet from a review written by Katrina Stuart Santiago for GMANetwork.com . "The ban...

Below are the steps that summarize story development for graphic novels and comics limited series. It collapses everything that we've talked about in this series of blog posts that began with How To Create a Graphic Novel Story From Scratch Part One . If you haven't read the series of blog posts, it's advisable that you do so. STEP 1: If you're starting from scratch: Take a character, any character you've created, and follow him through his ordinary life by listing a series of Story Events. STEP 2: As you list Story Events, identify a Disturbance that will rock your character's ordinary life and make him decide to fix it. (List the Disturbance as another Story Event.) STEP 3: Continue to list Story Events after the Disturbance until... STEP 4: ...you can jump all the way forward and deduce a Possible Ending to the story. If you can't find an Ending yet, continue adding Story Events to what you have so far until something inspire...

When I was an actor in theatre, I always looked forward to improvisation exercises. When we do improvs, we're given a situation to work with, or a "prompt," and try to act out a scene. It becomes more challenging when we're given limitations, like, "you cannot talk," or "all you say should be sung." It encourages us to think on our toes. A similar game that you may have played before is Train of Thought. A group of people sit in a circle and create a story as a group, each person contributing one sentence. There are other storytelling games in the market, such as  Talecraft  by Komikasi, and  Once Upon a Time  by Atlas Games. Both are card games, and great ways to get a group together to have fun. The following exercise is similar to all of the above. Though it is best done by two people, you can create variations to accommodate more. But since we're working with two people, one will be the storyteller, and one will be the facilitator. ...