TONIGHT, at Rene’s Fine Dining, Lucky Chances Casino in Colma, California, the 2nd Plaridel Awards event takes place to honor Filipino American journalists for this contributions to excellence in various categories of reporting. I will be there for a short time only. I had already expressed my regrets due to a very demanding work schedule for the weekend as well as the Bart strike. However, one of the awardees, Jose Antonio Vargas, couldn’t make it — and he asked me to represent him in accepting a very special honor.
Before Jose Antonio Vargas “came out” with his “undocumented immigration status” in an essay for the New York Times Magazine in 2011, he secretly met with about 25 Filipino American community advocates from the National Federation of Filipino American Associations on May 13, 2011 in Las Vegas, Nevada — because he wanted to be respectful and inform them about his plans. He sought NaFFAA’s assistance in supporting the comprehensive immigration reform advocacy through the Dream Act. JT Mallonga, Jose’s attorney and prime mover of FALDEF, also happened to be NaFFAA’s National Vice Chair. It was the best-kept secret at that time — and I was the only one who video-taped the meeting. I also killed my own opportunity of a breaking story.
Moving along!
PAPC-USA 2012 Plaridel Awards – Call for Entries, Deadline Extended to September 4, 2012 by Lorna Dietz
In 2012, the FIRST Plaridel Awards event for excellence in journalism was held at Fort McKinley Restaurant in South San Francisco, CA. Yesterday, I looked at the USTREAM videos so I could help streamline the blocking and the presentation scripts. I remembered that Raymond Virata had ustreamed (live-streamed) the program through his mobile phone. The video wasn’t very clear but the audio was magnificent — most of the time.
During this first-ever event, Mandy Chavez and I had volunteered to be the first emcees. Then, Philippine American Press Club’s president, Esther “Boots” Chavez, decided to volunteer Jojo Peralta and yours truly to write the script and its corresponding technical notes. However, 24 hours before the event started, Jojo was suddenly taken ill — so the final script was a combination of visualization techniques, sweat equity, fast typing, and sheer determination. Boots became the editor and director as well. Jojo made it in time for the event to hand out the awards. Multiple tasking was, in my words, awesome!
Mandy and I didn’t get to have a dry run so we relied on our ability to graciously make changes to the program notes as the awards event unfolded. Whether we were able to make the awards event similar to the Oscar Awards or Golden Globe Awards in “spirit,” we believe that we did pretty well even with some last-minute preparations.
DOCUMENTING an event is something anyone of us can do, whether it is through writing, video-taping, or audio-taping — combined with photos. In my case, I don’t have many videos or audio recordings about my ability as an event host or emcee. It was interesting being able to listen to my “writing and emceeing” style for this first event, enjoying the videos without having to criticize my own work.
RECOMMENDATION: Emcees and hosts need to work with the scriptwriters when preparing a program script as soon as the project gets a “go ahead” signal. The producer and director might call the shots BUT in the end, the hosts/emcees are the “face” of the event. It is also much faster to make real-time changes without missing a beat, and keeping that genuine smile and sparkling like the ever-gracious host of a huge party.
Check out the content at http://www.papcusa.org/! You will be a witness to the speaking style of many Filipino American journalists and media personalities who you believe could help you host or moderate your next event or be the voice-overs for your next media project.
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