He is the bard on the Frost Jokers’ award-winning cosplay skit at Level Up Live 2007. But wait there’s more! He’s also a filmmaker, and not known to many, the finalist entry to the Level Up Live 2007 Film Fest “Alamat ni Pritong Kandule” is his creation.

Let’s hear more of what this theater actor, filmmaker and now cosplayer has to say. More after the jump!

What’s your name?
Edwin Guillermo

How did you get to join The Frost Jokers?
I’ve known Diwa since college and I knew that with his fiddling he play a mean clown or bard. When I persuaded him to cosplay, we then started to recruit a third female member, since last year’s group cosplay relied on [the standard set by] Charlene Datan aka the Succubus girl.

How does it feel to win the Level Up Live 2007 Group Cosplay?
It feels great! But I was a bit disappointed with the outcome of the LU Live Film Festival though.

Have you cosplayed before? If yes, what characters have you cosplayed?
It’s my first time to cosplay, but as a professional actor, I’ve already done my share of parading onstage in costumes.
Have you had any stage experience prior to forming the Frost Jokers? Can you tell us more about it.
I was a Theater major in UP Diliman. I’ve been part of productions ofDulaang UP, The UP Repertory Company, UP Theater Council and Alay Sining, where I first met this snobbish freshman music major with the violin.

Hahaha ako yata yung snobbish violinist! What Level Up Games do you play?
Ragnarok. I’ve also tried playing an Accretian in RF Online.

What server do you play in?
I used to play the Dirge the Clown of Vanir Guild in Loki.

What are the characters that you play?
I also have a Blacksmith, Rogue, and a Priest

Are you a member of any guild?
Me and my barkada used to to be with Aesir, then we broke off to formVanir.

How long did your costume get done?
Three weeks, we really had to watch Aling Merly, the seamstress, to get things done.

How much did you spend on your costume?
P600 on labor and about P100 on materials. I really did not see the point in spending away your prize money.

What was the most memorable moment you had while wearing the costume at
LU Live?
Becoming a celebrity for a day, getting to meet other cosplayers as one of them, then finally, getting tired of having my picture taken for the hundredth time.

Do you have plans to join other cosplay events after Level Up Live?
We plan to do the same Frost Jokers skit, but this time dressed as fully armored Accretians.

Hahaha sshhh! What keeps you busy nowadays?
Finishing and re-editing my past animations for the upcoming Animahenasyon Pinoy Animation Festival.

So you’re also a filmmaker, what genre do you specialize in?
It seems that I specialize in stop-motion animation

Can you give us some links of the films you made? (please state the
awards and contest entries of each film)

SCAM
Ragnarok Film Festival
MUTATION PERMUTATION
Finalist, ANIMAHENASYON 2007 CATEGORY K: “TVCs/OBBs/Demo Reels” (Competition)

PORING GLORY
3RD Place LU Live 2006 Filmfest; Finalist, ANIMAHENASYON 2007 CATEGORY A: “Animated Shorts” (Competition)

KARANIWANG TAE
Finalist, ANIMAHENASYON 2007 VI. CATEGORY H: “Animated Shorts” (Competition)

ALAMAT NI PRITONG KANDULE
LU Live 2007 Finalist

What can you say about the three winning entries at the LU Live 2007 FilmFest?
I can say that while the RPC / LU Live is getting bigger, and more entries are being submitted, Leve Up is becoming more aware about filmmaking and animation and is greatly learning how to appreciate the medium.

I can see that the judges are getting better at judging. This time, none of the guys who used ingame footage and copyrighted non-Level-Up music won like they won last year.

I especially like “Real-Life Online” for its depiction of social reality. “Countdown to War” though an eyecandy and a breakthru for the LU Filmfest in 3d animation since 2005’s “Just A Dream”, it could benefit from a detailed plot and character development. It looked more like a commercial trailer rather than a narrative. “Flyff Exercise ni Kending
Kamias” is highly unintelligible (we thought it was a Korean Ad for Kiddie shoes) and it wasn’t even on the finalist’s list and then suddenly came out as third place.

Level Up is a big company. If it can hire an army of professional models to cosplay their female characters, then it has the resources to employ judges known and respected in the field of filmmaking and animation, instead of LU employees, to judge their film festivals.

Why focus on clay animation?
It’s easier and cheaper for me. Imagine if I filmed “Pritong Kandule” with real live actors. I’d have to pay for their food and costumes. I’d also have to rent lights since it’s an interior scene. I’d also need a crew of sounds and lighting people. If I did it with Maya 3d, it would take months. You’d have to model the four characters, their props and the bar location. Then comes texturing, then rigging their skeletons, then paint weighting their skins, then making deformers on their lips and synching it with the dialogue. And then you’d wait days to render a few minutes of footage.

Do you also plan to utilize other styles of filmmaking?
Why not? I plan on buying a DV camera and then a Quadro FX card from winnings from filmmaking contests so I can further my filmmaking/animation career.

What’s your latest film project?
I plan to finish “Manggahan”, my final project in Maya 3d about a fruitfly in a mango tree who wishes he could be something else.

What are your inspirations when conceptualizing on a new film?
You have to take into account what medium you’d be using and the limits of the medium. With Live action, it almost always deals with everyday life. With animation, you can take on fantasy and nonhuman creatures. With 3d animation, you can make impossible camera angles. When conceptualizing for LU Live filmfest,and also for LU Live Cosplay one has to adopt to the thinking and aesthetics of the common gamer.

Who are your influences in film making?
Stanley Kubrick, Brothers Quay, Ray HarryHausen, Norman McLaren, Jan Švankmajer, Brad Bird, Hayao Miyazaki

Who do you consider your film mentors?
Prof. Ramon Bautista of the UP Film Institute taught me the basics of filmmaking and editing. Pinoy Animagination members and Indie filmmakers Roxlee, Qubry Quesada, Kat Lorenos and Teta tulay taught me the basics of animation
including traditional 2d, stop motion, oil on glass, sand on glass, pixillation, etc. Herbie Samson and Hardy Gamboa of the Korea-Philippines IT Center for 3D Maya and 2D

Your short film, “Ang Alamat ni Pritong Kandule, Part 1″ is an official finalist at the Level Up Live 2007 Film Fest, can you tell us some more about how you started on this project?
I’ve noticed in the past LU film festivals that in reality, audience reaction is 90% of the criteria for judging, and that none of the judges were actual filmmakers, so I thought about which story RO players would relate to the most and would get me the most audience impact. So I thought of Pritong Kandule. The authors [of Pritong Kandule] were impossible to find and since what they have written was a fanfic, I decided to go ahead with filming.

How long did you finish Pritong Kandule?
A weekend and the following Monday Oct 22 deadline. I had to reshoot twice because I was unfamiliar with the digicam I was using. Thankfully my Core2 Duo was fast enough to render the scenes after editing for 12 hours in Adobe Premiere.

Any plans for a Pritong Kandule Part 2?
Maybe by Christmas break. I plan to experiment on other filmmaking forms for the different chapters. I’m looking forward to our voice recording with Mr. Carlo Ople of Level-Up Games, who has agreed to play the character Waukeen from the series.

What’s your message to your co-cosplayers out there?
Try to find a character that suits your body type. Never go as a heroic character if you’re not tall and athletic. There are a lot of anime characters out there if you know how to research. If you’re male, short and plump, you can go as Porco Rosso If you’re a tall, skinny girl, go out as Olive Oyl.

Be original. Don’t go as another Assassin Cross, Priest or Naruto. Take acting or modelling lessons. Learn to walk and talk in character. If you really love going onstage and taking on different personas, you should join a theater group. It’s like cosplay, only harder. Also check out cosplay.ph for more info about cosplayers!

There you go folks! Stay tuned for more interviews and gaming articles only here at The Master’s Den!