THE
DEBUT ($25) is a warm and winning little independent film that only
got made and distributed through the sheer tenacity of the filmmakers,
actors, crew and those in the Filipino-American community that believed in
it. I don’t intend to discuss the behind-the-scenes drama of what went
into the making of THE DEBUT, since the supplemental features
contained on the DVD already do a better job, than I could possibly ever
do. The plot of THE DEBUT follows Ben Mercado (Dante Basco), a
Filipino- American who has fully assimilated into the American culture,
despite his traditional parents. Not only has Ben become totally Americanized, he seems almost ashamed of his cultural heritage- always
keeping a safe distance between his family and American friends. Making
matters worse, is the fact that Ben is always butting heads with his
working class father Roland (Tirso Cruz III), who wants his son to go to
medical school, despite Ben’s desire to become a graphic artist.
The
entire situation comes to a head on the night of his sister’s eighteenth
birthday party, when Rose (Bernadette Balagtas) is to make official debut
into society. Although the party is a big thing for Rose, the family and
friends from the Filipino community, Ben would rather spend the evening at
a drinking party with his American friends. Things, however, take an
unexpected turn when Ben gets acquainted with his sister’s beautiful
friend Annabelle (Joy Bisco) and is forced to deal with Augusto (Darion
Basco), a former friend, who has grown into a street thug. Although THE
DEBUT is about the Filipino-American experience, the story contains
plenty of universal truths that will make it appeal to just about everyone
that has grown up in America with a family that has tried to hang onto the
ancestral culture. The cast of THE DEBUT also includes Eddie
Garcia, Gina Alajar, Dion Basco, Derek Basco, Fe de los Reyes, Jayson
Schaal and Brandon Martin.
Columbia
TriStar Home Entertainment has made THE DEBUT available on DVD in a
1.85:1 wide screen presentation that has been enhanced for playback on
16:9 displays. For a very low budget movie, THE DEBUT looks very
good on DVD. The image is generally sharp and very nicely defined. Perhaps
the picture doesn’t have the silky quality of a big budget studio movie,
but there isn’t anything to complain about either. Colors appear pretty
vibrant, and the pallet does tend to favor warmer hues, although there has
been an effort by the filmmakers to keep all the primary colors on screen
as much as possible. Flesh tones are always appealing and there are no
problems with chroma noise or smearing. Blacks appear solid, white are
pure and contrast is good. The film element used for the transfer displays
a couple of errant blemishes, but is otherwise very clean. Film grain is
occasionally noticeable, but is never more that mild in appearance.
Digital compression artifacts remain in check throughout.
THE
DEBUT comes with a Dolby Digital 2.0 channel soundtrack that decodes
to standard surround. This is a rather nice sounding track that places an
atmospheric quality over directionality, which is perfectly suited to this
type of dialogue driven material. There is a lot of incidental music on
the soundtrack, which has been well integrated into the mix and spread
into the outlying channels to a nice effect. Fidelity is good, with the
music coming across very pleasantly. Dialogue is always crisply rendered
and fully intelligible, as long as the actors are speaking English, that
is. No other language tracks are included on the DVD, although English,
Spanish, French, Chinese, Portuguese and Tagalog subtitles have been
provided.
Full
motion video, animation and sound enhance the DVD's interactive menus.
Through the menus, one has access to the standard scene selection and set
up features, as well as a very nice complement of supplemental materials.
Director Gene Cajayon and writer John Manal Castro are on hand for a very
informative and rather enjoyable running audio commentary. The
Making Of The Debut is a twenty-minute program that details the
film’s long and difficult production history and features interviews
with filmmakers, cast and others that made the film possible. The
Little Film That Could: Touring The Country runs eight minutes and
looks at the difficult theatrical distribution process the film went
through without a formal distributor and absolutely no marketing budget.
Additionally, the DVD includes three featurettes on the film’s art and
music, as well as a brief portrait of the Basco Brothers. The original
short film version of THE DEBUT by Gene Cajayon is also included,
as is Diary Of A Gangsta Sucka by John Manal Castro. Six
deleted scenes, a gag reel, a theatrical trailer and three TV spots close
out the supplements.
As
I stated above, THE DEBUT is a warm and winning little film that
really deserves to be seen. Columbia TriStar has done a really good job
with the special edition DVD, giving this little independent pretty much
close to royal treatment. Since the DVD will finally give it a chance to
reach a wide audience, avail yourself of the opportunity to see THE
DEBUT in the comfort of your own home theater.
THE
DEBUT ($25) is a warm and winning little independent film that only
got made and distributed through the sheer tenacity of the filmmakers,
actors, crew and those in the Filipino-American community that believed in
it. I don’t intend to discuss the behind-the-scenes drama of what went
into the making of THE DEBUT, since the supplemental features
contained on the DVD already do a better job, than I could possibly ever
do. The plot of THE DEBUT follows Ben Mercado (Dante Basco), a
Filipino- American who has fully assimilated into the American culture,
despite his traditional parents. Not only has Ben become totally Americanized, he seems almost ashamed of his cultural heritage- always
keeping a safe distance between his family and American friends. Making
matters worse, is the fact that Ben is always butting heads with his
working class father Roland (Tirso Cruz III), who wants his son to go to
medical school, despite Ben’s desire to become a graphic artist.
The
entire situation comes to a head on the night of his sister’s eighteenth
birthday party, when Rose (Bernadette Balagtas) is to make official debut
into society. Although the party is a big thing for Rose, the family and
friends from the Filipino community, Ben would rather spend the evening at
a drinking party with his American friends. Things, however, take an
unexpected turn when Ben gets acquainted with his sister’s beautiful
friend Annabelle (Joy Bisco) and is forced to deal with Augusto (Darion
Basco), a former friend, who has grown into a street thug. Although THE
DEBUT is about the Filipino-American experience, the story contains
plenty of universal truths that will make it appeal to just about everyone
that has grown up in America with a family that has tried to hang onto the
ancestral culture. The cast of THE DEBUT also includes Eddie
Garcia, Gina Alajar, Dion Basco, Derek Basco, Fe de los Reyes, Jayson
Schaal and Brandon Martin.
Columbia
TriStar Home Entertainment has made THE DEBUT available on DVD in a
1.85:1 wide screen presentation that has been enhanced for playback on
16:9 displays. For a very low budget movie, THE DEBUT looks very
good on DVD. The image is generally sharp and very nicely defined. Perhaps
the picture doesn’t have the silky quality of a big budget studio movie,
but there isn’t anything to complain about either. Colors appear pretty
vibrant, and the pallet does tend to favor warmer hues, although there has
been an effort by the filmmakers to keep all the primary colors on screen
as much as possible. Flesh tones are always appealing and there are no
problems with chroma noise or smearing. Blacks appear solid, white are
pure and contrast is good. The film element used for the transfer displays
a couple of errant blemishes, but is otherwise very clean. Film grain is
occasionally noticeable, but is never more that mild in appearance.
Digital compression artifacts remain in check throughout.
THE
DEBUT comes with a Dolby Digital 2.0 channel soundtrack that decodes
to standard surround. This is a rather nice sounding track that places an
atmospheric quality over directionality, which is perfectly suited to this
type of dialogue driven material. There is a lot of incidental music on
the soundtrack, which has been well integrated into the mix and spread
into the outlying channels to a nice effect. Fidelity is good, with the
music coming across very pleasantly. Dialogue is always crisply rendered
and fully intelligible, as long as the actors are speaking English, that
is. No other language tracks are included on the DVD, although English,
Spanish, French, Chinese, Portuguese and Tagalog subtitles have been
provided.
Full
motion video, animation and sound enhance the DVD's interactive menus.
Through the menus, one has access to the standard scene selection and set
up features, as well as a very nice complement of supplemental materials.
Director Gene Cajayon and writer John Manal Castro are on hand for a very
informative and rather enjoyable running audio commentary. The
Making Of The Debut is a twenty-minute program that details the
film’s long and difficult production history and features interviews
with filmmakers, cast and others that made the film possible. The
Little Film That Could: Touring The Country runs eight minutes and
looks at the difficult theatrical distribution process the film went
through without a formal distributor and absolutely no marketing budget.
Additionally, the DVD includes three featurettes on the film’s art and
music, as well as a brief portrait of the Basco Brothers. The original
short film version of THE DEBUT by Gene Cajayon is also included,
as is Diary Of A Gangsta Sucka by John Manal Castro. Six
deleted scenes, a gag reel, a theatrical trailer and three TV spots close
out the supplements.
As
I stated above, THE DEBUT is a warm and winning little film that
really deserves to be seen. Columbia TriStar has done a really good job
with the special edition DVD, giving this little independent pretty much
close to royal treatment. Since the DVD will finally give it a chance to
reach a wide audience, avail yourself of the opportunity to see THE
DEBUT in the comfort of your own home theater.
