An Interview with Paolo Dy

Paolo Dy is the mastermind behind the short film suspense-thriller titled "QWERTY" which is featured on the site "On the Lot"

Background and about yourself:

So what was your background like? Did you go to a film school? If so how did you like it?

I didn't start out in a full-time film school; I graduated with degrees that were just about as far from film as you can get (Management Engineering and Economics) haha. But my film education started in college, or rather, in the DORM of Ateneo. There was one summer when I borrowed my dad's video camera, and with the help of a bargain-basement rinky-dink editing card (that would only do 320×240 video at 15 frames per second) I and my friends would do our own little music videos and short films. We'd also do some small ads for the dorm resident's association and so on. 

One of my friends was studying to be a priest at the time; he showed my work to Fr. Johnny Go of the Jesuit Communications Foundation, and that's how I got my first professional job as an editor. 

Afterwards I sought out every chance to study the craft. I burned through every book about filmmaking that I could get my hands on. I soon moved up from editing to directing (I still believe that all directors should start out as editors!) and worked on a number of corporate and music videos. 

I had a short stint as a director in one of the major networks, but I was frustrated by the experience — I had a pretty recalcitrant crew and they just wouldn't follow some of my instructions, claiming some technical issue or another. I don't know how much of that was motivated by the old-timers being stubborn and sticking to what's worked for them before, and how much was because I was a young wet-behind-the-ears whipper-snapper director who didn't know their jargon and thus couldn't communicate to them in their own language.

That's when I decided to study cinematography — I didn't want any cameramen or lighting crew giving me any more mumbo-jumbo excuses that I wouldn't be able to refute. I joined a workshop on film and commercial lighting given by renowned cinematographer Roberto "Boy" Yniguez, who later invited me to apprentice under him. It's safe to say that I'll always owe 98% of what I know about cinematography to this genius. 

I was also fortunate enough to have been able to study under some world-famous cinematographers in New York and Rockport, Maine, under the International Cinematographers Guild and Rockport Film Workshops. The instructors were members of the prestigious American Society of Cinematographers (those guys who have "A.S.C." next to their name in Hollywood film credits)  — Declan Quinn ASC, Fred Elmes ASC (Eraserhead, The Hulk), Freddie Murphy ASC, Barry Markowitz ASC (Sling Blade), Steven Fierberg ASC (Secretary, Entourage), and Jacek Laskus, ASC (The Whole Shebang).  It was fascinating to see how they approached lighting challenges and learn about how they prep for a feature film. 

Today I'm usually busy with a mix of projects: commercials, music videos, corporate work. I rarely do TV though.

What was your first film? (you have links for it?)

My first short film was 'MIKO', which starred Sam Concepcion and his dad Raymond. You can find it on my website, www.paolody.com  

'MIKO' was screened at the 2006 Cinemanila International Film Festival, and won First Place at the Bogen-Manfrotto Short Film Competition in New York

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