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Director Shaira Advincula on making the series ‘The Seniors’: ‘It’s not your usual kind of youth series’

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Rhea Manila Santos

As she makes her series directing debut in the newest Vivamax series The Seniors, Shaira Advincula said that she feels more than ready to take the helm of the teen-oriented series as created by her mentors Antoinette Jadaone and Dan Villegas.“I have been working with Project 8 projects with direk Tonette and direk Dan since 2018. I started as an apprentice to both of them and then PA to writer to script to consultant to assistant director and then last year finally they gave me this project as my first directorial series. Ang concept kasi si direk Tonette talaga nakaisip na what if gumawa tayo ng Mean Girls pero mga kanal sa probinsya? Yung kuwento tungkol sa Gen Z so she saw it fit that a female director should also direct it,” she shared during The Seniors mediacon.<div><a href="https://push.abs-cbn.com/2022/3/16/fresh-scoops/julia-barretto-wants-to-go-back-to-school-educat-199071" target="_blank">READ: Julia Barretto wants to go back to school: ‘Education is such a valuable thing’</a></div>In the series, Julia Barretto plays the role of a student from Manila who transfers to a provincial high school and gets bullied by a group called ‘The Certifieds’ led by Ella Cruz and Awra Briguela.“Yung concept mismo galing kay direk Tonette. It’s not your usual kind of youth series. We decided that we wanted to show something new, something that’s really apt for the story. Yung kuwento naman kasi hindi sila yung mababangong estudyante. Sila yung madungis, oily, malagkit. So we wanted that to be translated visually kaya pag pinapanuod mo siya feeling mo ang lagkit lagkit. In a way nadadala namin yung pagiging experimental namin visually with how we played the series. Dito natin mako-compare yung buhay ng mga high school students sa probinsya versus sa Maynila. Kasi nga sa probinsya ako nag-high school,” she shared.<div><a href="https://push.abs-cbn.com/2022/3/19/fresh-scoops/awra-abriguela-on-julia-barretto-lagi-lang-siyan-199136" target="_blank">READ: Awra Briguela on Julia Barretto: ‘Lagi lang siyang na-mi-misinterpret ng tao’</a></div>The director said she still felt challenged making the series because of the expectations from her training despite having already directed other projects in the past.“Feeling ko naman lahat ng project nakaka-pressure (laughs). Lalo na when you’re working with sila direk Dan and direk Tonette. Both are known in the industry for being great directors for handling films so well and for producing and directing so well. I think lang mahirap siya i-compare to the short films that I’ve made before kasi yung pinagggalingan ko dati mas art house. Hindi siya mainstream yung atake katulad nitong The Seniors. So feeling ko ibang klaseng pressure na naman siya. Ang natutunan ko naman kila direk Dan at direk Tonette okay lang magkamali as long as you own up to it, as long as marunong kas bumawi, as long as hindi mo na siya mauulit,” she explained. <div><a href="https://push.abs-cbn.com/2022/3/19/fresh-scoops/andre-yllana-reveals-the-best-advice-his-mom-aiko-199135" target="_blank">READ: André Yllana reveals the best advice his mom Aiko Melendez gave him </a></div>When asked for her working experience with her cast of mostly teen stars, direk Shaira said she was more than satisfied by their work during their lock-in taping.“Lahat naman sila magagaling sabi ni direk Tonette. When your actors are doing good with their job, 90% of the director’s job is done. So basically 10% lang yung ginawa ko kasi lahat sila magagaling. Pero I guess yung challenge is what comes with the times, sobrang hirap mag-shoot ng pandemic talaga. Siguro parang we had to compromise a lot of things. We were shooting at a public schools eh di yung public school usually super crowded, mas magulo. Eh ngayon we had to make do with what we had with limited talents and with making sure that everyone’s safe during the shoot,” she said. Created by directors Antoinette Jadaone and Dan Villegas, watch The Seniors now streaming exclusively on Vivamax. Starring Julia Barretto, Ella Cruz, Awra Briguela, Andre Yllana, Gab Lagman, and introducing Andrea Babierra. Directed by Shaira Advincula.

‘The Seniors’ director Shaira Advincula talks about working with a young cast led by Julia Barretto and Awra Briguela.