What is Dayo?

Dayo (www.dayomovie.com) is the first all-digital full-length animated feature film to be made in the Philippines. Two years in the making and at a budget of $1.3 million dollars, Dayo was released to the theaters in the Philippines on December 25, 2008, and has already proved to be a hit.

The Story

Dayo literally means "foreigner" or "stranger" in Filipino, and the movie tells the story of a boy named Bubuy who enters a mystical land called Elementalia in a quest to save his kidnapped grandparents. According to Robert Quilao, the director, the characters in the story are loosely based on Filipino legend. The film includes well-known creatures from Filipino mythology such as a Manananggal (a half -bodied vampire-like creature) that becomes a Manananggol (Savior) and helps Bubuy save his grandparents from their captors.

Credits and Critical Acclaim

Dayo is written by Artemio Abad, Jr. and Eric Cabahug, and directed by Robert Quilao. During the several months required to complete the script, the writers consulted a book on local mythology by Maximo Ramos titled, "Creatures of Philippine Lower Mythology." Only local artists were used to create the voices for the more than dozen characters that appear in the film. Dayo's production was local, too. Production house Cutting Edge employed over a hundred artists in Makati and dozens of animators in Naga for this arduos work.

The hard work obviously paid off as Dayo was awarded four trophies at the 34th Metro Manila Film Festival that was held on December 27, 2008. Dayo won awards for Best Visual Effects, Best Musical Score, Best Theme Song, and Best Sound. "We are so thankful for these technical awards because have validated our vision for Dayo. These awards pay tribute to all the Filipino artists, specifically our animators who have worked on the film," said Executive Producer Jessie Lasaten of Cutting Edge.

About Cutting Edge

Jessie Lasaten founded Cutting Edge Productions (http://cuttingedge-prod.com) in 2003. Cutting Edge is the only one-stop-facility in the Philippines with the technological capability to produce professional animations, TV and radio commercials, music and event videos, DVDs, music soundtracks, and much more in their Macintosh-based studio. They employ eight multi-functional studios for small and large- scale productions for television, film, radio, and new media, and deliver professional service from conceptualization to finished product. Their customers include multi-national companies like Toyota and Colgate, and leading advertising agencies such as BBDO and McCann Erickson.

Cutting Edge and Wacom

Dayo was created in a style that Cutting Edge considers "tradigital," which means a combination of traditional 2D and 3D digital technologies. The characters were drawn with 2D animations and the composited into 3D animated backgrounds. Cutting Edge used a completely paperless workflow featuring Macintosh workstations, Toon Boom software, and 50 Wacom Cintiq 21UX interactive pen displays.

“The art work is still drawn by hand, but the artists are using a Cintiq screen tablet,” said Erwin Escubio, Finance Director of Cutting Edge. Drawing directly on-screen provides a more natural workflow for character artists, illustrators and animators. “It’s very challenging,” Escubio notes. “We are trying a paperless animation process for the first time. It’s like we are learning on the job. We haven’t perfected it, but we’re getting there.”