MTRCB Launches its 2015 TV and Film Infomercial

Children nowadays could easily pick-up what they see or hear. Since now there are cable TVs that offers childrens' programs, not all of them are child friendly shows. Even the so called cartoons sometimes are using some harsh words that you don't want to hear from your kids. So, as parents, we also need to monitor what they watch on TV, and be available for our kids to explain what happened to a certain scene or explain to them that some words are not good to hear, either coming from other people or from them. And MTRCB is now back with a new infomercial.

As 2015 marks the 30^th year of the Movie and Television Review and Classification Board (MTRCB).  To kick off the celebration of its anniversary, MTRCB formally launched its new infomercial on 23 February 2015 at 2:00 p.m., MTRCB Building.  Directed by renowned film and television director Jose Javier “Joey” Reyes, Jr., DGPI and conceptualized by Mr. Erlito “Lilit” Reyes, the infomercial features actors-spouses Ryan and Judy Ann Agoncillo in a typical morning situation at wwhome.  In such scene, their depicted child picks up a word from a TV feature and asks the elders in the house what it means.

The infomercial aims to challenge parents and responsible adults to be aware of the media content our children are exposed to, and to be mindful of the MTRCB’s classification ratings.  Parents are also reminded that the primary duty in guiding their children as to the media the latter see still rests in them.

Details of the infomercial were discussed by Director Joey Reyes, Ryan and Judy Ann Agoncillo, Lilit Reyes and MTRCB Board Members Bibeth Orteza and Manet Dayrit, the latter being Co-Chairpersons of the Infomercial Committee. 

The launch was culminated by the signing of the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the TV Networks and theater operators to ensure showing of the infomercial and to continuously empower the general public towards discerning viewership and thus, among other objectives, inform parents as to the media and entertainment their children may see. 

The infomercial will be aired in all television networks and theaters nationwide starting 25 February 2015.

Photos provided by: Dina Manlapaz of DigitalMediaPH

No Application, No Effects, Just Natural Light

Mommy Bloggers Philippines and mommy blogger Joy Gurtiza of joybites.com had organized a mini workshop for the members and non-members of MBP last February 21, 2015. Two sessions had been arranged, a morning session scheduled at 10:00 AM at Museum Cafe/Kabila in Greenbelt 4 and the afternoon session scheduled at 2:00 PM at Saboten in Glorietta 5.

I joined the afternoon session. And can you imagine? A DSLR camera is not required for this workshop, you may use your camera phone or a point and shoot camera if that’s what you have. Mine is a camera phone, My Phone A919 Duo.

And I learned the art of natural light. Yes, no light effects like in the studio, just the natural rays of sunlight coming from your window (or door). And believe it or not, there’s also a holy hour for this type of lighting from 7:00 to 9:00 in the morning and 4:00 to 6:00 in the afternoon, but it also depends on the position of your house, like from where your window (or door) is located from the sun’s direction. I also learned on how to check and make use of the settings in my camera phone, as well as DIY (do it yourself) equipment that you may use as props, and reflectors during your own photo shoot at home (I will feature this on my next blog once I have made my own). Now I know how minimize those disturbing shadows on some of my pictures.

Here are some of the pictures that I took with my camera phone.

This is my favorite.

I changed the settings for this one and had the White Balance under Flourescent.

Sponsors for the event are, Raintree Restaurants, Japan Homes, Nature Republic, Henry's Professional, Goauche Bags, Oil of Argan and Villa del Conte.

I will be doing practice for the next few days with what I have learned, and will feature those pictures here soon!

Movie Review: First of Fifty Shades of Grey

“Laters, Baby”, “The Red Room”, “Mr. Grey”, “Ms. Steele”.

All of them came from the now movie “Fifty Shades of Grey”. But the said movie started as a novel first.

The novel Fifty Shades of Grey is a 2011 erotic romance novel by British author E. L. James. It actually started as an ebook. I first read about it from my former BPO Company, from which my former office mate had downloaded at home and saved it through her email. After some office mates had seen her looked so serious at times or laughing, or reacting on a certain scene she had read, alone, and in front of her monitor (I know, sounds crazy isn’t it?), she shared the novel (she had all three), and it’s like almost everyone is reading about it.

Though some had criticized and gave poor reviews on the novel, it seems that the intriguing sex scenes had sent the novel on soaring high sales. If you have read the novel, it is really more on how the character of Christian Grey had transformed and had overcome his dark past through his love for Anastasia Steele. Those erotic scenes are just a bonus.

And because of the popularity of the said novel, here goes the movie version. And I was soooo excited to see on how they would work on this.

They have selected Jamie Doman (as Christian Grey) and Dakota Johnson (as Anastasia Steele) to play the lead roles. And I just loved how they have portrayed their characters. The characters came out as I have read from the novel. Though there were some blurred moments due to some scenes, and it just provided the highlights from the novel to come out from the movie, how they first met, the awkward moment with the question “Are you gay?”, when they met again at the hardware store, Christian Grey’s photo shoot, although Charlie Tango’s existence was not elaborated like the way they had it in the novel. I also loved the heart melting moments between Christian and Ana.

If you have read the book, you would notice that the movie version is the summarized version of the novel. There were some parts that I felt missing. Though I liked the movie version too, I still loved how it is by reading it through the novel. It seems that the movie had concentrated more on how to execute the sex scenes instead of concentrating more on the part why Christian Grey had this attitude towards relationships.

Still looking forward to see on how they would have it on books two and three. Hope it would be better next time.

The Merlene Math Project

I grew up hating math, not being able to multiply fast like my elementary classmates, never get to understand how to compute for the percentage of an amount, anything that is related to math, I never liked it. Guess I was unable to inherit my father’s talent in math.

MSA Tutorial Center at SM City Fairview

Me and my kids would always pass by one of the MSA branches in SM City Fairview. And was hoping to have my kids to be part of it. And then I saw their ad by the door that said, Merlene math.

Think they had the said program named after the owner Merle S. Alferez, a school teacher with a passion for the math subject who started with a one on one tutorial sessions, before it became a well known tutorial center at its best. And I was wondering where they have got the initials MSA before. J

So what is Merlene Math anyway, the said program is based from Singapore Math but was built or designed with a Filipino context. The strategy starts with analyzing problem solving techniques. By seeing the advantages of learning Singapore Math, MSA had actually sent a team of teachers to attend a training in Singapore.

Since I don’t want my kids to hate math like I do, I had my eldest Leo, enrolled in the program first, and I promised my youngest, Shin that he will have his sessions too after Kuya finished his sessions. Leo is currently enrolled on a 12 day session for Merlene Math, he had a one hour and once a week schedule, since I have work and I could only accompany him every Sunday. And all he needs to bring is a pencil, MSA is providing the work sheets.

 

We already had our third session, and he said he is doing fine with the Merlene Math. More blogs about Merlene Math will be coming out soon!

Want to know more about Merlene math or MSA, check out the links provided below:

Website: http://www.msainstitute.com

FB Page: https://www.facebook.com/MSAInstitute