Full Interview with Vangie Pinoy Siri Creators, Gung Ho Films Manila Execs

The Gung Ho Films Manila Team

We were able to confirm 100% that Gung Ho Films Manila was indeed the company behind the viral smash hit, Vangie Pinoy Siri. It was fortunate that one of my church mates and friends, Paul Pajo, was able to connect me to two of their executives: Lizanne Padilla-Alcazaren, Managing Director and Paolo Dy, Director/Cinematographer. We did a quick interview (he says, she says type) and you’ll find it in it’s entirety below.

NEW MEDIA PHILIPPINES: How did Vangie come about? Was it a spur-of-the-moment video or is this something that you planned for?

PAOLO: The idea of ‘Vangie’, a Siri that could understand Filipino, was a running joke that I had with my wife Cathy; she came up with the name ‘Vangie’. We were all laughing at the thought of it in the Gung Ho Films office (especially after our managing director Lizanne had trouble getting Siri to understand her) when the idea struck that this might make a fantastic viral video.

We grabbed together our merry band of madmen – directors, actors, writers – and we all started throwing ideas around about what a Vangie would do: she would understand jejemon talk, she’d help you cook Pinoy-style spaghetti, she’d have a snatcher-detection feature, and she’d have this brash, earthy personality that worked on loads of cariño-brutal.

From script to uploaded film, it took us one week. Three days later we had a million views!

I think ‘Vangie’ is what happens when you have a combustible combination of crazy, creative people under one roof – and you throw in a spark of an idea. It was a spur-of-the-moment joke that we suddenly decided to jump on and create a funny film about. And we’re just totally thrilled and grateful that so many people enjoyed it.

NEW MEDIA PHILIPPINES: What’s your objective with the video? Is this to showcase Gungho?

LIZANNE: Like all production companies, we have our staple workload of traditional advertising jobs but when opportunities come along for our production team (directors) to stretch their creative legs, we will take the chance and run with it as far as we can, whether it be internally funded or sponsored by clients.

PAOLO: We had three main objectives with the video.

One, we wanted to demonstrate what Gung Ho Films was capable of, especially in the online viral space, in terms of speed, quality, and viral reach.

Two, as a company we have our own advocacies that we try to weave into everything we do, so there is a broader message there that hasn’t been fully revealed yet.

Three – and I guess this would be the bottom line – we simply wanted to share a joke, make people laugh, and give them a few minutes of joy this holiday season.

NEW MEDIA PHILIPPINES: There are currently two videos uploaded for Vangie. Will we see more videos in the coming weeks?

LIZANNE AND PAOLO: Definitely. The virals start out as a parody; really just poking fun at technology and the how Fiipinos embrace or bash it but we hope to evolve into something more substantial in the form of comedy or entertainment.

NEW MEDIA PHILIPPINES: What’s the long term plan for Vangie?

LIZANNE: Vangie will entertain and reek of sarcasm but will send out not so subtle messages of how to deal with the quirks of Filipino life, thus the line “Fix your life”.

PAOLO: We have our own ideas about where we want to take Vangie, but as with all viral efforts, we’re responding to the ebb and flow of the public’s response to her, sometimes hour by hour. So it’s a wonderful give and take, but rest assured that Vangie will be there making her fans laugh for quite some time to come.

Vangie, Pinoy Siri Video

NEW MEDIA PHILIPPINES: What do you think are the elements in Vangie that made it such a viral hit?

PAOLO: I think she’s just so Pinoy that everyone can easily relate to her. She took a piece of super high technology and humanized it, making it approachable to many Pinoys. I also think we got the timing just right on this one. Finally, we Filipinos love to share a laugh!

NEW MEDIA PHILIPPINES: Can you tell us more about Gung Ho Films? What do you guys do? What services do you offer?

LIZANNE AND PAOLO: We like to say that Gung Ho Films is an artist-led, producer-run production company that produces efficient and highly creative work in the advertising, cinema, TV and online worlds.

In the local advertising production industry, we are traditionally the bottom of the food chain. We execute ideas of the agencies as approved by clients. We’d like to be more than that. We specifically partnered with and hired people who will give more than what is asked and go the extra creative mile to help clients and agencies put kobe meat in their materials. We will also, as seen with Vangie, initiate or even sell ideas since we are led by “ideators”.

–END–

Thanks again Lizanne, Paolo, and Paul for the interview! Congratulations to a job well done with Vangie and we look forward to seeing how this will evolve in the future! Who knows maybe someday Vangie might actually exist and be available for everyone through the Apple App Store and Android Market!