COO lawyer in charge of what movies and telenovelas you watch in GMA

Anna Teresa Gozon-Abrogar

Many of us have laughed at Eugene Domingo’s jokes, shed a tear or two as Rhian Ramos bares her heart on the silver screen, and marveled at Senator Bong Revilla’s exploits as the latest incarnation of legendary pinoy character, Panday.

If you haven’t, at the very least, these GMA Network stars have entertained you for an hour or so at the cinemas.

Working behind the scenes to millions of Filipinos the movies they love is Anna Teresa Gozon-Arbogar.

Today, the child of the owner, serves as president of GMA Films Inc., which puts her in charge of bringing our favorite GMA stars on the big screen. She also serves as a creative consultant to GMA chair Felipe Gozon, her father.

“I oversee the production of all the films that we do every year and the co-production that we enter into,” she tells SundayBiz.

“Aside from that, I also help out with our Artist Center.  Recently, we’ve been trying to push our talents more; we’ve been busy imaging particular talents and preparing long-time plans for them,” she says.

An accomplished lawyer like her father, Arbogar never dreamed of being in charge of such an important task in the company that requires such a creative mind.

Atty. Annette Abrogar with husband Lito

She received her law degree from the University of the Philippines (UP), where she graduated as her batch’s valedictorian before eventually serving there as a teacher. She also holds a Master of Laws degree from Harvard University in Massachusetts.

“My background was in management engineering and, of course, law. I never really had any formal education in entertainment or in the broadcast field,” she says, joking. “This was just assigned to me.”

To be sure, Arbogar’s no slouch. The key to reaching the Philippine audience, she says, is knowing what they want, before they even know they want it.

“This business is very fluid; you have to adapt to changes. You have to find what they want because it’s always changing. That’s why the key to this game of innovation, yet always having an understanding of the basic wants of the viewers in terms of entertainment,” she says.

ANNE On location

She says what her ten years in the industry has taught her is that cinema is “just like fashion. You have to go with the changing times.”

She points out unlike Hollywood films that have big budgets to spend on bells and whistles to wow their audiences, Filipino filmmakers, even the biggest ones, are always cash-strapped.

“Hollywood movies  can be sold worldwide and so they can afford ridiculously high budgets. Here in our country, our cinema income is confined to the Philippine market only,” she explains.

That’s why the success of Filipino films depend not on explosions and computer graphics, but how well actors and actresses can connect with their audiences on an emotional level-making people care about characters on the screen as if they were real people.

“The Philippine movies that become box-office hits are more love stories, comedies, not really the high-budgeted action movies or fantasy movies, except probably during film fests because that’s an occasion for every Filipino to watch movies,” Arbogar says.

Anna Teresa Gozon-Arbogar hobnobs with the rich and famous.

She explains that for now, it would be foolish to think that locally made movies could compete in terms of sophisticated special effects.

“We cannot compete with Hollywood in that,” she says. “I don’t think Filipinos will have a preference to watch special effects movies made in the Philippines especially if we don’t really put in the budget needed compared to Hollywood movies.”

“But if we confine ourselves to romantic comedies, horror movies, or all-out comedies, I think that’s where we can compete with Hollywood movies in the Philippine territory,” she says.

She says putting popular stars that people know are in love in front of the camera also helps, but asserts that “it’s the material that makes the star,” not the other way around.

As the year comes to a close, Arbogar says the prospects are getting brighter for the Philippine film industry, which has suffered a drop in receipts in past years due to video piracy and competition from foreign films.

ANNA at work

“There has been a resurgence in interest in Filipino films, especially in terms of independent films,” she adds.

Films like the recent

“Zombadings” and Cinemalaya standouts like “Babae sa Septic Tank” have revived interest in local films, resulting in a climb in ticket sales.

“Now, I think independent films have earned its place because viewers have been realizing that the content is not really for niche markets. These films can also be more commercial,” she says.

She says this helps the Philippine movie industry because interest in the entire industry as a whole has improved. “We’re very happy that that’s the trend,” she says.

To take advantage of this, she says GMA would triple its production for the coming year. She says the company’s been tapping a new breed of writers and directors that the company hasn’t worked with before.

“So I think we will be able to give new things also to the movie-going audience giving that expansion in a way,” she says.