Mara Clara. Longest Running Pinoy Drama Ever.
Got inspired from theBlockerPH’s blog post, that I decided to write about this, how to create a Pinoy Soap Opera. From the years of watching Pinoy drama thanks to my parents watching it, I was able to predict what will happen next and how will it end. I mean, if my observation serves me correctly, even if they knew the predictability of the show, they still want to watch it; it is because of the elements that I noticed in most of Pinoy dramas.
The elements are: Love Team + The Female Antagonist + Plot + Twist + Gimmick = Pinoy Drama. I will elaborate each element.
Love Team
No Pinoy drama doesn’t have this! To keep the show running, and advertisers giving them money, a love team is important. It is the couple that everyone is rooting for, the reason why most Pinoys still watch it, because of the kilig factor.
Kilig factor is the thing that causes you to punch your boyfriend because you “feel” the emotion the actors are playing. To create one love team, all you need is a good eye that once you see them, you knew instantly they look good together. That simple. Once the love team is effective, you can recycle them until fans demand you to pair them with someone else.
Note: Only a couple of love teams ended up together. If they ended up together, they would eventually break up which can cause their supporters to be sad *cough*Gabby-Shawie*cough*.
The Female Antagonist
Also known as the kontrabida (Literally translated as the Against the Protagonist), dunno why there is no such thing as an effective male antagonist, if there is such a thing, he would be at the sidelines for the long time and would not make much effect on the show. This character is need for one simple reason, to give the show a certain spice. Her role is to… how can I say this nicely? Eliminate the lead female character. It is rare to see the female antagonist having plots to kill the male antagonist.
There are three classic types of female antagonist:
The Rich Matapobre – The classic setup. She hates you because you are poor, not in her social class. This type’s actions would later involve from slapping you to hiring an assassin to kill you once you are on top. This type will hate the female protagonist more once you are on her level. At the end, this character will be killed (If this is the 90’s) or to be put in jail (If this is the early 2000’s) or be forgiven by the lead character (If this is the late 2000’s).
The Sexy Ex – Hates you because her man fell in love with you, that simple. This is the type often mixed with the first type in the 2000’s setting. This type if often recommended by the mother of the male protagonist to be wed with him. Like the Rich Matapobre type, she will do the same acts as she did… with a little more flair. It would also end up like the first type.
Both types later would end up having catfights with the lead female protagonist, which starts with the antagonist grabbing the female protagonist’s hair and starts swearing at her that she is an animal and all that crap. Then the male protagonist will came to stop the fight and comfort the lead female. Same goes with the antagonist except her amigas will came to comfort her, then after a few minutes, there will be a scene in which with her amingas on the background which she will make a speech about revenge on the female protagonist.
The second approach would happen in one condition: If the female protagonist is once poor and now because of a certain twist, is now part of their social class. The antagonist will try to slap the female protagonist but she will stop it with her hand. This is the cue for the female protagonist to start her speech about her being not abused by the female antagonist again after that speech; this is when the catfight starts. Same end with the last one.
For the third type, perfected by Flor de Luna, the Evil Grandma/Evil Mother, this type only happens if there is a little girl in the series, for the Evil Grandma, while the Evil Mother only happens once her son will introduce her to her poor but beautiful girlfriend.
The Evil Grandma will abuse the little girl until she will grow up into a beautiful lead female protagonist. She is often assisted with the future type 1 or type 2 in abusing the little girl.
While the Evil Mother is a type 1 which would later have a character development to like the lead female protagonist after she learned something about the other lead female antagonist.
Plot
The classic plot, boy meets girl in some place, know each other (Parts of it involves fights between the two, the boy trying his best to say sorry to the girl that involves unnecessary gimmicks) then fell in love. After they are together, the female antagonist will appear to start abusing the girl. After a couple of abuses, the lead female will stand for herself (Finally!) and starts the darker plot of the story. After some random twist (Which will be elaborated later), and a fight scene with the female antagonist getting crazy and now, owns a gun that will shoot the male protagonist anytime or anyone related to the female lead, the female antagonist will be shot or be captured by the police. After the action sequences, we will have an epilogue. The scene is about what happened to the characters introduced in the story and there will be a scene with the female antagonist (If she is still alive), about her saying sorry to the female lead (Even if it’s her fault) and they would make up or see her in a jail or in a nut house.
Twist
The twist adds “uniqueness” to the story. Classic twist involved that the lead male or female protagonist will have amnesia and will meet a new character and this character will be the third party of the story to create a love triangle.
Another classic twist is the female character, if she is poor in the start of the series will rise from rags to riches because of the following:
- She learned that she is the heir of a rich corporation, recommended that the corporation is the same corporation that the female antagonist also work.
- She learned that she is the daughter or son of a rich character that is somewhat related to the male protagonist or female antagonist. If she learned that she is related to the female antagonist (in short, her sister), there are chances that there is a scene that involves about inheritance.
- She worked hard about her being on top (Rarely happens).
A classic twist involves that her boyfriend turned out to be her brother but after some more twist, it will be ignored.
Note that it’s all the twist that I remembered, there a lot of twist seen in Pinoy dramas, if you want to make a list if you are bored, you may.
Gimmick
I quote coming from a manga about special effects makeup, Gimmick!
“For the special effects makeup to work, all you need is the right gimmick!”
– Kohei Nagase, Gimmick!
Sure SFX makeup is not related to drama but the quoted part is related to it. For the drama to be unique, you need is the proper gimmick. Some classic gimmicks include music, action, rags to riches stories. A prominent example of this category is this, Zaido: Pulis Pangkalawakan, no need to elaborate much.
I created this article because of boredom and sheer observation.