“Bakit ba sa buhay, minsan, ang hirap pumili?”
This is the question that constantly haunted Amy, the lead female character played by Karina Bautista in the online flick ”Ghost of the Past,” which is the first offering of ABS-CBN TV Production Digital Group’s (TVDG) interactive movie viewing experience “PILIkula”.
The story, which was written in her point of view by Sandy Morales and directed by Tanya Grace Jamon-Navarro, narrates how her two-year relationship with Dani, portrayed by her on-screen partner and Pinoy Big Brother Otso batchmate Aljon Mendoza, started and then fell apart after she realized that she’s slowly departing from the world they used to build together. As if stroke of fate, their paths crossed again three months after she ‘ghosted’ or suddenly refused to speak to him, in a really peculiar way -- by sharing a ride in a UV Express van. There, they were able to talk about what one another is up to and also reminisce the moments they used to share in the past.
Thus, in order to help her decide what to do next in some of the scenes, we sought the help of their fervent supporters and other netizens! From the name itself, PILIkula, the power to choose what’s going to be the fate of the character and how the narrative will continue is bestowed to the viewers by allowing them to cast their votes via the Star Hunt page on the Pinoy livestream community gameshows app KUMU, where it was uploaded per scene.
Prior to the premiere of the first full version of “Ghost Of The Past” last Friday, March 28, on Star Hunt’s official YouTube account, one scene from the film was uploaded everyday which ended in a cliffhanger. At the end of each episode, two options were given to the viewers on how they would want the story to continue and they had to vote by sending virtual PILIkula stickers that cost 300 KUMU coins each.
The option with the greatest number of stickers would be unlocked and be the continuation of the story the next day. By the end of the week, the full version of the PILIkula completed through the scenes selected by the fans will be uploaded on the official Star Hunt YouTube account.
And this week, there’s a chance that the scenes not picked will be unlocked in order to create the second full version of the digital short film. So you better stay tuned for the upcoming updates to find out how!
Through this initiative, it was not only the PILIkula characters that the KUMU users are able to help, but our Kapamilyas severely stricken by the Enhanced Community Quarantine due to the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), as well!
All the proceeds of the stickers availed will go to the Pantawid ng Pag-ibig project of ABS-CBN Foundation.