In celebration of National Arts Month this February, the Intellectual Property Office of the Philippines (IPOPHL) has revealed four initial artistic projects for 2023 to highlight the importance of copyright protection in the development of the Philippine creative economy.
The projects were proposed by creative artists and groups under the Bureau of Copyright and Related Rights’ (BCRR) flagship Copyright Plus Program, with an overall budget of P1.35 million. This program is primarily aimed at educating creators, particularly the underrepresented sectors, on the economic and cultural benefits of protecting their copyright through registration.
“The creative reputation of Filipinos is well-known globally. This is why IPOPHL is constantly finding ways to encourage our countrymen to nurture and develop their creative prowess while also pushing them to register their creative works so that they can protect their copyrights,” said IPOPHL Director General Rowel S. Barba.
“The launch of these projects is also timely as it would empower our creative artists to contribute to the revitalization of our creative economy in the wake of the pandemic,” Barba further said.
February was declared in 1991 as National Arts Month through the promulgation of Presidential Proclamation 683. It aims to celebrate artistic excellence and pay tribute to the uniqueness and diversity of the Filipino heritage and culture.
With this year’s celebration themed “Ani ng Sining, Bunga ng Galing,” the National Commission for Culture and the Arts aims to highlight the different exquisite works of the arts community, one of the sectors hardest hit by the pandemic.
All four projects are targeted to be completed within 2023.
The first project is by Terence G. Gonzalves, Creative Director of Lakan Media Creatives, which is the production of a 7 to 10-minute documentary on the making of a short indie film. This documentary will educate budding filmmakers on all aspects of indie filmmaking, especially in relation to copyright.
The second project is by Nicanor P. Valdez, President of Balangay Entertainment, Inc., and aims to design a tabletop card game that will teach players about the value of intellectual property (IP) while playing and enjoying the game. By adopting a “play” strategy, this project seeks to address the general difficulty experienced by most educators in the area of copyright education and awareness of getting the target audience interested in the topic.
The third project is by Juan Diego Songco and Isabelle Songco, founders of Kwentoon, and will be an online visual storytelling training workshop for aspiring writers and artists. This workshop, focusing on the creation of “one-shot” comics or manga, will educate aspiring writers and artists on storytelling. The collective output of the workshop participants shall be compiled into an electronic publication. Seeing their works published– probably some for the first time– will hopefully encourage them to continue on this path and create more original content like manga.
The last project is by Paolo Herras, co-founder of Komiket, the local comics art market. One part will provide a workshop on storytelling and another will be creating a graphic novel that is a manual on storytelling. The rationale behind the latter is for those unable to attend the workshop to learn about the basics of storytelling. When completed, the manual shall serve as a ready reference for anyone interested in getting into comics writing. In both segments, the protection of IP rights will be emphasized.
“We’re hopeful that the Copyright Plus Program will continue to encourage artists to share their creative stories and efforts, while also becoming ambassadors for copyright—and IP as a whole—in their communities,” said BCRR Director Emerson G. Cuyo.
“With more advocates for copyright protection embedded in the communities, more people will naturally come to realize the value of protecting their creative works through copyright registration,” Cuyo added.