Howie G.

Severino (born July 18, 1966 Manila, Philippines)

Full-time journalist Howie Severino graduated with a degree of

History from Tufts University in Massachusetts and received a
Masters degree in Environment, Development, ad Policy from Sussex
University in England.

Always in pursuit of a story, he began as a newspaper reporter,

magazine writer and established himself as one of the leading
documentary filmmakers in the country.

He is one of the most awarded journalists in the Philippines. His

awards include the 1991 Neil Davis Award, Jaime V. Ongpin Grand
Prize for Investigative Reporting, Manila’s Journalist of the Year
Award for four years, and the 2009 Titus Brandsma Award for
Leadership in Journalism.

“It All Starts with Curiosity” is specifically commissioned for this

textbook and has Severino writing about his creative process and
honed insight in the art of documentary filmmaking.

It All Starts with Curiosity

TV as Art in the Service of the Story By HOWIE G. SEVERINO

I’m a storyteller by profession. Surrounded by broadcast technology and rarely

seeing my audience, I often have to remind myself that I’m part of a cadre that goes back
to cave-man days, when a member of the clan would regale others sitting around a
bonfire with the drama of the latest kill, whether it was the meat they had just dined on or
the fresh enemy head displayed next to the fire. Who said that prostitution is the world’s
oldest profession? Or is it only because storytelling was an unpaid craft for millennia
before a market evolved to put a monetary value on it?

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 Television is just another tool and medium for storytelling. Otherwise, what I do
in TV retains the same ancient elements of the story: plot, dramatic tension, narrative arc,
character development, conflict, a sense of place, a universal truth.

But what I do is also journalism – storytelling about true events that usually just
happened. I can’t hole myself up in a room and spin yarns. I have to go out into the world
and engage it, find out things, confirm facts, talk to people and double check the spellings
of their names. I have to decide whether the resulting information is important and
relevant enough to tell millions of people about, to expend precious airtime on. Then I
have to make the story interesting.

There are many techniques in television to make one’s stories so interesting that
people will set aside whatever else they could be doing (video games, ironing, sex, etc.)
to pay attention to what you have to say. But it all begins with curiosity. If you’re not
naturally curious, find another profession.

Curiosity will lead you to interesting stories. Your creative skills, and those of the
colleagues you work with, will then create the packaging for that story – the turns of
phrase, the visual montages, the right sound bites, the terrific scoring -- that fixes
audience interest in your story. That’s what enables my craft to dare call itself an art.

What I like about making documentaries for television is the combination of

various arts and crafts that give me satisfaction. There is the written and spoken word; the
experimentation with camerawork that marks the style of my cameraman Egay Navarro;
the sequencing and cutting of shots that comprise the art of editing; and the music and
natural sound that enrich the viewing experience. If one suddenly says this sounds just
like cinema, that’s because to me, the best of TV is rendered in the best traditions of
cinema. And the very first movies ever made were a form of documentary, or non-fiction
film: a train arriving at a station, women washing clothes, men having a snowball fight,
etc.

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 But all this is for naught without the vital raw material, which is the story. I do not
do art for art’s sake. Any attempt at art is in the service of a story, so that it creates an
emotional impact, provides an impetus for action, and hopefully even in a small way,
changes the world for the better.

How do you find ideas for your stories? That’s a frequently asked question at
documentary festivals and school events where I speak. Public affairs shows are
assembly lines for story ideas, which are not always driven by headlines. Virtually
anything can be considered a subject as long as it’s relevant, important, interesting, and
fresh (meaning it didn’t just appear on another channel). Those criteria however can
stump anyone, including the professionals accustomed to compiling lists of story ideas.

There are three main methods for scanning the universe of information for stories
that are relevant, important, interesting, and fresh: reading, networking, and
observation.

1. Reading: Sometimes the vital story is there buried in the next to last paragraph of
a tabloid article. That’s the lead you need to check out.
2. Networking: Develop a wide circle of friends and acquaintances, people you can
call, let’s say a Tondo cop, and ask if there have been any interesting murders
lately.
3. Observation: This is perhaps the most important method for a journalist and also
the most neglected, especially in the age of google. There’s nothing like walking
around the city and encountering a scene or incident that becomes the core of a
story.

Allow me to tell the back story of an I-Witness documentary story I found through
observation.

I take public transportation, partly because it helps me keep in touch with the
world of most Filipinos. And sometimes it pays off in the form of a compelling story.

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One day shortly before Christmas, on the street below the Taft Avenue MRT station in
Manila, I noticed a small and growing crowd. Being a naturally curious individual, I
interrupted my commute by finding out what the fuss was about. A dog wearing shades
and a Santa hat named Habagat was performing tricks and following the instructions of
its master, an old man named Sergio. At one point, the duo was dancing the cha-cha. It
was cute and probably worth a brief TV report, especially since the year of the dog was
coming up. Sergio gave me permission to come back the next day and shoot him and his
dog, on video of course.

I returned the next day and after shooting b-roll of the dog show, I pulled Sergio
aside for a perfunctory interview about teaching tricks to his dog. I learned that he was a
former cook on domestic ships who had always had a knack for dog training, even on
board boats. He was also functionally illiterate.

But as with everyone, Sergio had a story to tell. He just needed a willing listener.
Out of earshot of Habagat’s fans, Sergio asked me for my help in finding his five-year-
old son. His wife had left him months before and took their son with her. Now he wanted
him back.

Sergio had been too impoverished to have resources to search for Eddieboy. But
after training Habagat, he started earning from coins and the occasional bills passersby
would place in Habagat’s hat after the daily shows they would stage on the street. That
gave him confidence that he could raise Eddieboy, but he would have to find him first.
And he wanted me to help him.

As a father myself of a boy around that age, I empathized and wanted to perform
a good deed. But I was also a journalist, so my story antenna was working overtime. The
dog act and his master pining for his son were definitely interesting; a quest for family
reunification would be relevant and important for many viewers; and the fact that this
dog had not appeared on TV before made it fresh.

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 That story took me from Sergio and Habagat’s ramshackle hut with a view of
Tondo’s pier to Binondo where the dog act raked in dog-year blessings to Isabela
province, where Sergio’s climactic, tearful reunion with Eddieboy finally took place. My
extended, roundabout journey with Sergio and Habagat, and his successful search for his
missing son, became our Year-of-the-Dog episode on I-Witness.

Sergio and his dog would later appear on other TV shows doing the cha-cha and
other gimmicks. Habagat would even get a dog-food sponsorship, and a wealthy dog
lover would enable Sergio to upgrade his ramshackle hut that he now shares with
Eddieboy, Habagat, and another, newly trained dog named Bagwis.

For a storyteller, there’s no telling where curiosity about a gathering crowd will
lead.

Source:

Severino, Howie. "It All Stars With Curiosity." Unpublished essay.

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PRE DEPARTURE ACTIVITY:

Watch TV and make observations of particular channels, particular documentary

shows. What shows do you like? Why? What shows don’t you like? Why?

GUIDING LIGHTS:

1. According to Howie Severino, when does TV become Art?

2. How does curiosity figure in his creative processes?

3. What are the steps to a good story?

4. What is a documentary? How different is it from film? How similar?

CONNECTING FLIGHTS

Make a 3-minute short documentary Self-Portrait using only images. No

voice-overs, no subtitles. Each student will complete the thought “My
story is about…” Share your creation with the class.