Sharing this from my fellow artists from Tuldok Animation Studios. This is our short film adaptation of the Bernardo Carpio story.

We never thought that jumpstarting this animated short would have this personal impact to us involved in the project, given the entire world is currently at a halt. Suddenly, we realized how the lockdown and this story have something in common…

The Bernardo Carpio Film Call for Character Design

First, we hope you are coping up well in these trying times. As we find our own ways to help while keeping ourselves sane, safe, and healthy being more than halfway through the lockdown, we have decided to try to continue our 15-minute animated film project, the adaptation of the Legend of Bernardo Carpio, despite the halt of supposed funding opportunities. We still have one expected funding to continue, which gives us a ray of hope.

We’re inviting artists to an experimental collaboration project for character designs for this short film. Although not directly related to the pandemic in our midst, the plight of Bernardo Carpio, the leader of the Filipino revolution against the Spaniards, hits very close to home to Filipinos currently locked down inside homes or facing the frontlines. This adaptation focuses on the entrapment of Bernardo Carpio inside the 2 Clashing Boulders in Montalban, Rizal. It is believed that once he finally breaks free from being locked down underground, it will mark the liberation of Filipinos from the oppression of their greedy leaders.

As we try to help in our own ways and find some means to normalize our lives, make sense of things, and keep ourselves mentally and physically healthy, working on this passion project is something that we feel may help us, as well as other artists who have some means to pursue creative endeavors right now while locked up inside their homes.

We will collaborate with selected artworks upon agreement between the artists and Tuldok. This project has evolved into this experimental endeavor due to the circumstances in our midst. We still intend to push through with the film despite the changes in available resources, but we also want to infuse our current state of affairs in the revised script and character/background designs.

For more information about this endeavor, kindly see our invite poster attached.

Bernardo Carpio Character Description:

• He is a demi-God type of revolutionary hero mysteriously trapped under the 2 Clashing Boulders of Montalban, Rizal
• Locked down with intricate chains carefully designed like clockwork attached to the underground boulders.
• His attempts to break free and the exploration of this motivation become the core of the film’s narrative, along with the supporting duel between him and the local salamangkera hired by the Spaniards to lock him down for good.
• As a strategic and experienced Filipino warrior leader, he tries to cope up with his deplorable situation by learning to utilize his chains and the boulders around him to his advantage.
• From being a hot-tempered person going berserk at first, he eventually learns to be more strategic without relying on sheer force.
• The supernatural power used in his underground prison equates his own physical power, making it impossible for him to escape.
• Unfortunately, the only person he gets to communicate with is the one involved in his lockdown, and worse, she is a Filipina also victimized by the Spanish colonizers.