There’s an Instagram photo posted by user Hazel Calandria that’s going around on Facebook and Twitter. It shows a screen grab of broadcast journalist Ivan Mayrina, live in Zamboanga, introducing a report he filed for GMA News after spending a day covering events in Barangay Santa Barbara. Calandria’s comments: “Sinong niloko mo? With all of your helmet and vest? Hazel Ian Eatery yang sa likod mo! Tindahan namin yan oh!”
The restaurant, which because of Calandria’s clever self-promotion is now in our Zamboanga bucket list, is on Governor Camins Avenue in Barangay Canelar, not in Barangay Santa Barbara.
Perhaps aggravating the situation was the sight of Mayrina kitted out in war gear. It made it appear like he was in the middle of the war zone. Was it necessary? Apparently it was, according to his company’s rules.
“It is a strict GMA News policy that field personnel, including off-camera crew members, wear such gear during conflict coverage,” explains GMA’s PR honcho Butch Raquel. “Nowhere in his live report did Ivan claim that he was in Barangay Santa Barbara or anywhere else at that moment except where he was – at a live remote set-up of GMA News. However, Ivan did go to Santa Barbara earlier in the day.”
In filmmaking and TV, there is a thing called an “establishing shot”, which establishes the context for a scene. So, a report might be about the Black Nazarene procession, but an establishing shot could be outside Quiapo Church; a report could be about politics in Bohol, but the establishing shot could be in Chocolate Hills; a report could be about traffic in Manila, and the establishing shot could be outside Manila City Hall where there might or might not be traffic.
While it would have been better if Mayrina was interviewed right in Santa Barbara, what he did was no less plausible or credible. He was in Zamboanga, he did go to Santa Barbara to interview for his story. Did he say he was in Santa Barbara while he was being interviewed by the anchor? No. Was he running around like crazy to make the audience feel like he was in the middle of danger? No. What he should have done, however, was declare at the start of the his interview that he was in Barangay Canelar at that moment, after spending a day in Barangay Santa Barbara. In the list of stunts that have been performed in the name of ratings, what Mayrina did wasn’t wrong. We’ve heard of a lot of fake, choreographed shots committed for TV to make scenes more believable. This wasn’t one of those.
