Quarantine creativity: How making coffee became a lesson in videography for Sean Pelegrin
(Second of a series)
For people so used to expressing themselves through dance and movement in a spacious studio, the enhanced community quarantine can be a soul-crushing experience. Being in a confined space day after day and unable to do their daily class and rehearsals can indeed be challenging. But fortunately, Ballet Manila’s dancers are finding ways to improvise on their fitness regimen while also filling their time with creative alternatives. This series reveals what some of these artists have been up to in lockdown mode.
By Susan A. De Guzman
For company artist Sean Pelegrin, having to stay indoors for hours on end has meant getting the chance to improve his skills in videography and photography – two hobbies that he wants to pursue more seriously.
A photography enthusiast, Sean Pelegrin had an impromptu pictorial with his fellow Ballet Manila dancers, twin sisters Jasmine Pia Dames (top) and Jessica Pearl Dames. Photos by Sean Pelegrin
His curiosity about producing videos began when he saw friends making vlogs. “Ang galing po kasi nado-document nila ‘yung mga memories and places na pinupuntahan nila, tapos pino-post po nila online para mapanood ng iba (It’s cool because they’re able to document their memories and the places they visit, then they post it online for others to watch),” Sean says.
But since he’s admittedly shy, vlogs aren’t really Sean’s thing. When Ballet Manila went to Israel for a performance tour of Ibong Adarna in 2018, he took clips of the company’s various activities and when he got home, edited these into a series of videos showcasing highlights of the trip.
Sean feels he still has much to learn about the process. With time on his hands, he has been spending hours glued to tutorials on videography on YouTube and checking out the channels of the likes of Peter Mckinnon, Daniel Schiffer and Aidin Robbins, Jr. whose works he admires.
Feeling he needed to apply what he was watching, Sean came up with short pieces about the ordinary things he would do in the morning – from cooking corned beef to making brewed coffee. He uploaded these videos on his YouTube channel and shared the links on Facebook – his way of giving his friends a laugh (especially when he made one on mixing instant coffee) while testing his skills.
“Practice din po ng video and editing,” he says. Videography offers him many challenges and he is enjoying the entire process – conceptualizing, doing the actual shoot and determining the angles, choosing the music and editing the piece.
His interest in photography, meanwhile, started when fellow Ballet Manila dancer Mark Sumaylo invited him on a photo walk. They walked from Gil Puyat Avenue to the CCP Complex, taking photographs of things that caught their attention along the way.
The most mundane things such as making brewed coffee and cooking corned beef are the subjects of Sean Pelegrin’s practice outputs for videography.
While in quarantine, he thought of doing an impromptu photo shoot with his girlfriend Pearl Dames and her twin sister, Pia Dames, both BM dancers, in their condominium unit. The result was a series of pictures with the twins having individual shots wearing makeup and different outfits and trying on a variety of poses. “Trip-trip lang po talaga ‘yun kasi sobrang bored po naming lahat nu’n (We just thought of doing it because we were all so bored then),” Sean laughs.
Here are the links to Sean’s breakfast video series:
Corned Beef - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kiDM6BXobf8
Brewed Coffee - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Au1NHjB3e7o
Instant Coffee - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WycUkDap7-o
Fried Tuna with Egg - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZDvJ61WffFY
