good afternoon of course to the British
school manila to TEDx thank you for
having me
this is my second time to do a TED talk
and it’s always an honor to be on the
Ted stage very grateful I guess it kind
of just also proves to myself that maybe
I’m doing something right I’m not that
crazy right because I guess what I
really want to talk to you about this
afternoon and just share a little bit of
my experiences in the film industry or
in the business of storytelling if
that’s okay you know I’m still also very
learning I’m still evolving I’m still
transforming but I just like to share
with you I guess a little bit of what I
do and my experiences slight thing
working I did have some slides there we
go so basically I kind of wanted to just
focus of course I know transformations
is the topic of this afternoon but I
also wanted to focus on something called
imagination or imaginations because
that’s kind of what I do for a living
I know Steven Spielberg said that he
dreams for a living so if someone like
Steven Spielberg can say that you know
and be successful at it you know why not
myself or why not you guys Albert
Einstein also said something that like
this that imagination is more important
than knowledge not saying that knowledge
is not important but it just shows you
and it just proves to you how important
imagination is I hope that’s something
you could agree with me this afternoon
actually a little a little antidote or
little story I was about a month ago I
was with my with my family my little boy
we finally brought him to Disneyland and
that’s kind of like the happiest place
on earth for kids right and I was going
through Disneyland I was kind of just
first of all well when you step into
Disneyland it’s kind of like an
experience and of course I thought to
myself all of this came from the mind in
the imagination of a Walt Disney
I mean how powerful was that that this
man who had a vision years and years
decades decades ago and now he’s sharing
it with millions and possibly billions
all over the world and then I read a so
when I was in Disneyland what I like to
do is kind of read a read about about
the origin
and long story short I think they opened
a new Disneyland in in Florida and I
think the granddaughter or the grandson
of Walt Disney and the whole Disney
family there they went there to the
opening of course Walt Disney was not
around anymore he had passed and I think
the one of the grandkids told the parent
the son of Walt Disney cycle I wouldn’t
you wish ground ground Paul was here to
see all this and then the son replied
but he already did so what I like to
stress is that imagination is really
powerful it’s something that you’ve got
to see and then make it happen and
that’s where the challenge lies I really
believe 1017 P is a company I
established in 2009 and for those of you
that don’t know but my birthday is also
in October 17 so for a lack of a better
name I just named my company after my
birthday October 17 I also called it the
day my imagination was born that’s kind
of how I like to look at it I guess ever
since my first second on earth up to
today I believe that imagination has
already been planted in each and every
one of you and that’s something you can
use to further what it is you want to do
in life and that’s what I did so the
challenge really is to transform that
imagination into a reality
because it’s not that easy you have this
idea and the next step is to share it
with all of you and how do you do that
it’s a process and in my business it’s
film every film that I’ve done every
film that I’ve produced every film that
I’ve direct it started with an
imagination whether it was my
imagination or the imagination of the
director writers that I’ve been working
with or collaborating with I always say
a great film a great project and I guess
this can be attributed to business in
general or into life is that you need to
learn how to collaborate it’s all about
collaborations we were just speaking
about that earlier and a great film is
just basically great collaborators
coming together to tell a story and
that’s where the challenge comes in is
because you need to work together and
it’s not easy everybody’s
got their own attitudes everybody’s got
their own egos these are eight films
that I produced and directed I all say
that these were all imaginations to
begin with and the challenges was to
make them the challenges was to make
them let me just briefly go through some
of the films transit I guess one of my
more successful films was was birth from
the imagination of the director Hannah
espía
who had this vision of shooting a film
in Israel and to tell a story about the
OFWs who were living there and and the
troubles and the struggles they went
through transit was just one big
challenge I mean it’s I guess that’s the
easy part you know and I encourage you
that’s the easy part is to imagine right
but to share that imagination with the
world I guess that’s where the challenge
comes in and if you’re able to do that I
guess that’s when you can be very
successful and that’s why I always say
this you know films it can be very
subjective good or bad you can like it
you can eat it but you got to be proud
of it because no matter what you did it
you made a film and we’ve been fortunate
to make eight films transit kid cooler
food was about the origins of manny
pacquiao one of the world’s greatest
boxers and so forth I’ll speak more
about these later on as well but yeah
subjects of my imagination I also had my
last film which they talked about in the
introduction with Shar Gao that was my
latest imagination right I collaborated
with with people and together we made
this happen and we were very successful
last December one are there are more
successful projects for my company and
so we were really really happy with the
outcome of Sharjah but then again let me
just stress that these were all the
products of just imagination
collaborations and so forth so I guess
also you know of course so here I am
imagining you know trying to think a
forward I’ve got hundreds of stories I
want to tell actually I kind of
encourage people also if you look at my
computer if you look at my phone or if
you have a notebook I have something
like I call it like an imaginations
folder because imaginations
can actually happen anytime anywhere
maybe even right now maybe in the car or
while you’re taking a shower and so I
think I make it a point to kind of write
down anything that kind of just pops
into my head so that you know maybe
later on I can actually execute it but I
had to learn of course I had to learn
how to turn my imaginations into reality
and then and and make it into a business
I shared this photo with you here is
because I guess that’s the power of
imagination for me you’re able imagine
this every one of you sitting here this
afternoon has imagination whether you
believe it or not it is there it is
there and you’ve got to find ways to use
it you got to find ways to exercise it
so that you could execute it
working with Manny Pacquiao was an
imagination and I worked hard and I
worked hard to make it happen and we did
a film called kid Kula foo it was just
one big challenge after another but it
was an imagination that I really wanted
to bring to life and at the end of the
day I was also very passionate about it
so I never let go that was about a
project that was three years in the
making the lower right hand corner here
was a photo with Dean Devlin who if
you’re not familiar he recently just
directed a film called geo storm he owns
electric entertainment he’s the writer
behind the independence day’ godzilla’
series he actually acquired transit for
North America and he actually kind of
saved my life because I kind of gave
everything I got financially physically
emotionally spiritually to transit and
it took me a year I was shopping it
around I was going to film markets and
no one was picking it up until my final
meeting my final pitch was to two Dean’s
group and he picked it up
so I guess my learning there is never
stop you know never stop just keep going
it could be that last meeting that gets
you to the next level so I’m very
thankful to the net up to this day we
have a very good friendship and he does
help me and of course here on the left
you’re not familiar with miss meryl
streep we produced the film for a
critically acclaimed director called
love Diaz who had this crazy imagination
of telling a film about the Philippine
Revolution he got even crazier when he
wanted it to be 8 hours it got even
crazier when Meryl Streep
of the film it got even crazier when she
actually took us out to dinner in Berlin
after the film festival it got even
crazier when she was asking us questions
when we were all like we should be
asking you questions you know she was
really interested and if there was one
thing I got out of that dinner and kind
of validated what I was doing was she
asked you know who’s the crazy producer
behind this eight hour film so of course
it was myself and I of course I had did
co-producer and she said you know what
you got to be a little bit crazy to be
in this industry
and I guess if Meryl Streep says it’s
okay to be crazy then it’s okay to be
crazy so that was a wonderful experience
and then again I always attributed to
imagination
with with these films literally I was
probably in a car or in my I know and
not when I was producing the film for
love I got a phone call I think I was
home I just woke up and that they wanted
to meet and once he told me the story
the imagination kind of birth and it was
like so from the bedroom to dinner with
Meryl Streep you know transit was
pitched to me in CCP so I always say
from the Cultural Center of the
Philippines to Hollywood you know that’s
kind of how the power of imagination can
take you and with the Pacquiao story it
was just kind of like meeting him and
working with him on commercial sets to
finally getting the permission to tell
his story on film and that was Kidd Kula
foo so the power of imagination is
powerful but I also want to encourage
you guys that you cannot just stay in
your room you cannot just stay in the
coffee shop once you get that spark of
imagination you got to take action you
got to take that step forward you got to
take that leap of faith and you’ve got
to learn how to experience you got to
learn how to develop and I always tell
this to people
good old hard work you got to get dirty
you got to get dirty I mean you cannot
sit in your room all day and dream and
imagine but that’s a good thing but
don’t just stay there get out of that
room and make your phone ring you know
make your phone and get that phone call
from that producer that wants to believe
in you get that phone call from those
investors I always say experience
because for me that is one of life’s
best teachers experience is getting your
feet wet getting dirty I started out
2005 doing
sizing Rick with mine one of my first
gigs were actually Xerox copying
storyboards you know doing coffee runs I
actually got this internship with a
Hollywood director called Paul Haggis in
2004 I thought it was the big break but
actually my duties were to do drop off
his dry clean you know pick up his kids
from school I never I thought I was
gonna be on the film set right
I only the closest thing I got to a film
set was probably FedExing some scripts
or something like that I never saw any
production but it was those experiences
as I was growing up that exercised my
imagination fueled my passion to kind of
do what I’m doing today and of course I
always say hard work the reason why I
say hard work is because in today’s kind
of world a lot can be done on a chair
and a laptop right but that’s great
that’s good but you got to go and get it
you got to make it happen if you want to
tell that story make it happen if
they’re not caught you up make them call
you up find a way to do that and that’s
kind of you know what I still want to a
discipline that I kind of instill in
myself up to this day I’m big on this
I’m big about I’m big on failures
because that’s all I know how to do I
think if failure was a business I’d be a
billionaire today because in those nine
films that I produce are directed those
are products of failure bad decisions
bad calls but the great thing about it
was that I got to learn from it you know
the failures were never big enough to
crush me to put me down although there
were times I just wanted to quit you
know we don’t have enough money to
finish the film
so-and-so wants to back out but we just
persevered and I just learned to handle
your failures and this is something that
you’ve just got to accept is that you’re
gonna be failing and failing but also be
able to learn from it so that you don’t
repeat the same mistakes you don’t fail
with the same kind of failures and I
always say this if you’re able to handle
your fail you’ll be able to handle your
success and I think that’s what keeps me
grounded today is that I know where I
came from you know I know how hard it
was I was talking to some producers
actually over dinner the other night and
I was I was telling them and we were
having a lot of challenges that might
the next film I’m doing is just
challenge after
challenged and I told them I go this is
this is the two hundred pesos the
Filipino audiences pay for you know yes
they’re gonna be watching a film and
entertainment them but they don’t know
the hundreds of meetings the hundreds of
discussions and debates that go on into
putting an imagination on the big screen
but I’m just so passionate about it that
I just got to make it happen so if you
learn to handle your failures you’ll be
able to handle your success and I want
everybody to be successful in whatever
it is that you do if you’re passionate
about it I really believe you can do it
so just to kind of wrap up my little
talk here is that I like that word
transformations because we should
constantly be transforming the world
around us is changing every day minute
right now when we entered this room and
I’m sure later when we go home something
has changed something has transformed so
learn how to adapt continue to evolve
and for me one of the most important
things is to never stop learning is that
I don’t think I will ever know it all
and I want to work with people that want
to keep learning that wanna know and are
hungry to find ways to to create the
next best idea than the next best
imagination today in the film industry
it’s all about streaming it’s all about
watching movies on your phone so how do
we adapt to that there was a big
disruption it’s not just about the
Senate anymore the cinema anymore it’s
about different it’s about content and
as a filmmaker as a director when I
started out in 20 2004 up to today 20 18
I think today there’s probably thousands
and thousands of directors and creators
so the challenging and the demand is
huge so how do you stay different how do
you stay relevant and I really believe
the way to stay relevant and the unique
thing that nobody else nobody else
around this whole world has what will
set you apart from the billions of
people around this world is your
imagination because that is your own and
if you can think great thoughts if you
can be positive if you can see things
before happens and if you can imagine
and then you can share that imagination
with others and you can collaborate with
the right people I really believe you
can change the world you can just change
the way how people think so continue to
transform guys and imagination imagine
in a matter
I guess my time is up I hope you learned
a little something there and from my
experiences I’m still very young I’m
still learning but TED Talks and British
School Manila thank you very much for
your time I appreciate this afternoon
session thank you guys [Applause]
school manila to TEDx thank you for
having me
this is my second time to do a TED talk
and it’s always an honor to be on the
Ted stage very grateful I guess it kind
of just also proves to myself that maybe
I’m doing something right I’m not that
crazy right because I guess what I
really want to talk to you about this
afternoon and just share a little bit of
my experiences in the film industry or
in the business of storytelling if
that’s okay you know I’m still also very
learning I’m still evolving I’m still
transforming but I just like to share
with you I guess a little bit of what I
do and my experiences slight thing
working I did have some slides there we
go so basically I kind of wanted to just
focus of course I know transformations
is the topic of this afternoon but I
also wanted to focus on something called
imagination or imaginations because
that’s kind of what I do for a living
I know Steven Spielberg said that he
dreams for a living so if someone like
Steven Spielberg can say that you know
and be successful at it you know why not
myself or why not you guys Albert
Einstein also said something that like
this that imagination is more important
than knowledge not saying that knowledge
is not important but it just shows you
and it just proves to you how important
imagination is I hope that’s something
you could agree with me this afternoon
actually a little a little antidote or
little story I was about a month ago I
was with my with my family my little boy
we finally brought him to Disneyland and
that’s kind of like the happiest place
on earth for kids right and I was going
through Disneyland I was kind of just
first of all well when you step into
Disneyland it’s kind of like an
experience and of course I thought to
myself all of this came from the mind in
the imagination of a Walt Disney
I mean how powerful was that that this
man who had a vision years and years
decades decades ago and now he’s sharing
it with millions and possibly billions
all over the world and then I read a so
when I was in Disneyland what I like to
do is kind of read a read about about
the origin
and long story short I think they opened
a new Disneyland in in Florida and I
think the granddaughter or the grandson
of Walt Disney and the whole Disney
family there they went there to the
opening of course Walt Disney was not
around anymore he had passed and I think
the one of the grandkids told the parent
the son of Walt Disney cycle I wouldn’t
you wish ground ground Paul was here to
see all this and then the son replied
but he already did so what I like to
stress is that imagination is really
powerful it’s something that you’ve got
to see and then make it happen and
that’s where the challenge lies I really
believe 1017 P is a company I
established in 2009 and for those of you
that don’t know but my birthday is also
in October 17 so for a lack of a better
name I just named my company after my
birthday October 17 I also called it the
day my imagination was born that’s kind
of how I like to look at it I guess ever
since my first second on earth up to
today I believe that imagination has
already been planted in each and every
one of you and that’s something you can
use to further what it is you want to do
in life and that’s what I did so the
challenge really is to transform that
imagination into a reality
because it’s not that easy you have this
idea and the next step is to share it
with all of you and how do you do that
it’s a process and in my business it’s
film every film that I’ve done every
film that I’ve produced every film that
I’ve direct it started with an
imagination whether it was my
imagination or the imagination of the
director writers that I’ve been working
with or collaborating with I always say
a great film a great project and I guess
this can be attributed to business in
general or into life is that you need to
learn how to collaborate it’s all about
collaborations we were just speaking
about that earlier and a great film is
just basically great collaborators
coming together to tell a story and
that’s where the challenge comes in is
because you need to work together and
it’s not easy everybody’s
got their own attitudes everybody’s got
their own egos these are eight films
that I produced and directed I all say
that these were all imaginations to
begin with and the challenges was to
make them the challenges was to make
them let me just briefly go through some
of the films transit I guess one of my
more successful films was was birth from
the imagination of the director Hannah
espía
who had this vision of shooting a film
in Israel and to tell a story about the
OFWs who were living there and and the
troubles and the struggles they went
through transit was just one big
challenge I mean it’s I guess that’s the
easy part you know and I encourage you
that’s the easy part is to imagine right
but to share that imagination with the
world I guess that’s where the challenge
comes in and if you’re able to do that I
guess that’s when you can be very
successful and that’s why I always say
this you know films it can be very
subjective good or bad you can like it
you can eat it but you got to be proud
of it because no matter what you did it
you made a film and we’ve been fortunate
to make eight films transit kid cooler
food was about the origins of manny
pacquiao one of the world’s greatest
boxers and so forth I’ll speak more
about these later on as well but yeah
subjects of my imagination I also had my
last film which they talked about in the
introduction with Shar Gao that was my
latest imagination right I collaborated
with with people and together we made
this happen and we were very successful
last December one are there are more
successful projects for my company and
so we were really really happy with the
outcome of Sharjah but then again let me
just stress that these were all the
products of just imagination
collaborations and so forth so I guess
also you know of course so here I am
imagining you know trying to think a
forward I’ve got hundreds of stories I
want to tell actually I kind of
encourage people also if you look at my
computer if you look at my phone or if
you have a notebook I have something
like I call it like an imaginations
folder because imaginations
can actually happen anytime anywhere
maybe even right now maybe in the car or
while you’re taking a shower and so I
think I make it a point to kind of write
down anything that kind of just pops
into my head so that you know maybe
later on I can actually execute it but I
had to learn of course I had to learn
how to turn my imaginations into reality
and then and and make it into a business
I shared this photo with you here is
because I guess that’s the power of
imagination for me you’re able imagine
this every one of you sitting here this
afternoon has imagination whether you
believe it or not it is there it is
there and you’ve got to find ways to use
it you got to find ways to exercise it
so that you could execute it
working with Manny Pacquiao was an
imagination and I worked hard and I
worked hard to make it happen and we did
a film called kid Kula foo it was just
one big challenge after another but it
was an imagination that I really wanted
to bring to life and at the end of the
day I was also very passionate about it
so I never let go that was about a
project that was three years in the
making the lower right hand corner here
was a photo with Dean Devlin who if
you’re not familiar he recently just
directed a film called geo storm he owns
electric entertainment he’s the writer
behind the independence day’ godzilla’
series he actually acquired transit for
North America and he actually kind of
saved my life because I kind of gave
everything I got financially physically
emotionally spiritually to transit and
it took me a year I was shopping it
around I was going to film markets and
no one was picking it up until my final
meeting my final pitch was to two Dean’s
group and he picked it up
so I guess my learning there is never
stop you know never stop just keep going
it could be that last meeting that gets
you to the next level so I’m very
thankful to the net up to this day we
have a very good friendship and he does
help me and of course here on the left
you’re not familiar with miss meryl
streep we produced the film for a
critically acclaimed director called
love Diaz who had this crazy imagination
of telling a film about the Philippine
Revolution he got even crazier when he
wanted it to be 8 hours it got even
crazier when Meryl Streep
of the film it got even crazier when she
actually took us out to dinner in Berlin
after the film festival it got even
crazier when she was asking us questions
when we were all like we should be
asking you questions you know she was
really interested and if there was one
thing I got out of that dinner and kind
of validated what I was doing was she
asked you know who’s the crazy producer
behind this eight hour film so of course
it was myself and I of course I had did
co-producer and she said you know what
you got to be a little bit crazy to be
in this industry
and I guess if Meryl Streep says it’s
okay to be crazy then it’s okay to be
crazy so that was a wonderful experience
and then again I always attributed to
imagination
with with these films literally I was
probably in a car or in my I know and
not when I was producing the film for
love I got a phone call I think I was
home I just woke up and that they wanted
to meet and once he told me the story
the imagination kind of birth and it was
like so from the bedroom to dinner with
Meryl Streep you know transit was
pitched to me in CCP so I always say
from the Cultural Center of the
Philippines to Hollywood you know that’s
kind of how the power of imagination can
take you and with the Pacquiao story it
was just kind of like meeting him and
working with him on commercial sets to
finally getting the permission to tell
his story on film and that was Kidd Kula
foo so the power of imagination is
powerful but I also want to encourage
you guys that you cannot just stay in
your room you cannot just stay in the
coffee shop once you get that spark of
imagination you got to take action you
got to take that step forward you got to
take that leap of faith and you’ve got
to learn how to experience you got to
learn how to develop and I always tell
this to people
good old hard work you got to get dirty
you got to get dirty I mean you cannot
sit in your room all day and dream and
imagine but that’s a good thing but
don’t just stay there get out of that
room and make your phone ring you know
make your phone and get that phone call
from that producer that wants to believe
in you get that phone call from those
investors I always say experience
because for me that is one of life’s
best teachers experience is getting your
feet wet getting dirty I started out
2005 doing
sizing Rick with mine one of my first
gigs were actually Xerox copying
storyboards you know doing coffee runs I
actually got this internship with a
Hollywood director called Paul Haggis in
2004 I thought it was the big break but
actually my duties were to do drop off
his dry clean you know pick up his kids
from school I never I thought I was
gonna be on the film set right
I only the closest thing I got to a film
set was probably FedExing some scripts
or something like that I never saw any
production but it was those experiences
as I was growing up that exercised my
imagination fueled my passion to kind of
do what I’m doing today and of course I
always say hard work the reason why I
say hard work is because in today’s kind
of world a lot can be done on a chair
and a laptop right but that’s great
that’s good but you got to go and get it
you got to make it happen if you want to
tell that story make it happen if
they’re not caught you up make them call
you up find a way to do that and that’s
kind of you know what I still want to a
discipline that I kind of instill in
myself up to this day I’m big on this
I’m big about I’m big on failures
because that’s all I know how to do I
think if failure was a business I’d be a
billionaire today because in those nine
films that I produce are directed those
are products of failure bad decisions
bad calls but the great thing about it
was that I got to learn from it you know
the failures were never big enough to
crush me to put me down although there
were times I just wanted to quit you
know we don’t have enough money to
finish the film
so-and-so wants to back out but we just
persevered and I just learned to handle
your failures and this is something that
you’ve just got to accept is that you’re
gonna be failing and failing but also be
able to learn from it so that you don’t
repeat the same mistakes you don’t fail
with the same kind of failures and I
always say this if you’re able to handle
your fail you’ll be able to handle your
success and I think that’s what keeps me
grounded today is that I know where I
came from you know I know how hard it
was I was talking to some producers
actually over dinner the other night and
I was I was telling them and we were
having a lot of challenges that might
the next film I’m doing is just
challenge after
challenged and I told them I go this is
this is the two hundred pesos the
Filipino audiences pay for you know yes
they’re gonna be watching a film and
entertainment them but they don’t know
the hundreds of meetings the hundreds of
discussions and debates that go on into
putting an imagination on the big screen
but I’m just so passionate about it that
I just got to make it happen so if you
learn to handle your failures you’ll be
able to handle your success and I want
everybody to be successful in whatever
it is that you do if you’re passionate
about it I really believe you can do it
so just to kind of wrap up my little
talk here is that I like that word
transformations because we should
constantly be transforming the world
around us is changing every day minute
right now when we entered this room and
I’m sure later when we go home something
has changed something has transformed so
learn how to adapt continue to evolve
and for me one of the most important
things is to never stop learning is that
I don’t think I will ever know it all
and I want to work with people that want
to keep learning that wanna know and are
hungry to find ways to to create the
next best idea than the next best
imagination today in the film industry
it’s all about streaming it’s all about
watching movies on your phone so how do
we adapt to that there was a big
disruption it’s not just about the
Senate anymore the cinema anymore it’s
about different it’s about content and
as a filmmaker as a director when I
started out in 20 2004 up to today 20 18
I think today there’s probably thousands
and thousands of directors and creators
so the challenging and the demand is
huge so how do you stay different how do
you stay relevant and I really believe
the way to stay relevant and the unique
thing that nobody else nobody else
around this whole world has what will
set you apart from the billions of
people around this world is your
imagination because that is your own and
if you can think great thoughts if you
can be positive if you can see things
before happens and if you can imagine
and then you can share that imagination
with others and you can collaborate with
the right people I really believe you
can change the world you can just change
the way how people think so continue to
transform guys and imagination imagine
in a matter
I guess my time is up I hope you learned
a little something there and from my
experiences I’m still very young I’m
still learning but TED Talks and British
School Manila thank you very much for
your time I appreciate this afternoon
session thank you guys [Applause]
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