Jolly Feliciano: The versatile storyteller

MANILA, Philippines – Among the independent filmmakers featured in RAPPLER’s profile series this month, none has a name more befitting his personality than Jolly Feliciano.

Jolly is best known for being a TV commercial director who specializes in storytelling and humor.

“People usually get me when they need someone to really tell a story — even something complicated and convoluted — in a 30-second commercial,” he begins. “And to make you laugh, hopefully.”

After making his first short film (which he admits to not having a copy of anymore), Jolly got into making television commercials. He continued down that road for the next 11 years.

“I knew I wanted to do short films, and the only way I could make money to do it was to make commercials,” he says thoughtfully. “But it wasn’t just for the money. I knew that if I made commercials, people would watch it. They’ve no choice; it’s on TV.”

He adds, “With movies, you don’t know what people would pay to see.”

Jolly ventures into making short films with A Life in a Day for the Sun Shorts online film festival. It’s about a boy who is stuck in his room because he’s sick. It’s nighttime; and as the sun comes up and shines into his room, things change.

We get to see how his life would be if he weren’t sick.

“The tagline for Sun Shorts (and SunLife Financial) is ‘Life is brighter under the sun.’ I just went with that,” says Jolly. “I honestly didn’t go through the rest of the rules because I felt it would be restricting, which is just like my day job, advertising.

“It was easier to come up with a story without thinking of all the parameters. I figured that if my film were good enough, they might make an exception. And they liked it naman. They picked my film to be one of the 5 that they will be showcasing,” he adds, smiling.

“The execution was also crucial,” Jolly continues. “I wanted to try out shadow play. A huge portion of the film takes place in shadows.”

While known for his storytelling and humor, as a director, Jolly likes to think he knows a little of everything — enough to know who to hire.

“I usually hire people who are better than me at what I want them to do,” he says. “I consider myself well-rounded. Some people excel at very specific things, and I really admire them for it.”

Jolly doesn’t like telling the same story twice. From here, he plans to make more short films, and perhaps a full-length movie if given the right story.

And while he is still iffy about his dialogue-writing skills, it’s something he would like to tackle, knowing his limitations.

What stories would he like to write? “Well, certainly not something like A Life in A Day since I just did that. Probably a short comedy film, or action. It’s good to mix genres,” he says, sitting in the quiet of RAPPLER’s office pantry.

Jolly’s dream project where he thinks he’ll be able to really flex his storytelling skills would be a continuing TV series — but not the soap opera type.

“I’m more excited for Game of Thrones than any Hollywood movie because you can build up these characters and the story doesn’t have to end in two hours.” – Rappler.com