One of the country's most sought after actors and commercial endorsers, Piolo Pascual truly pave way to success. He had proven his mettle in acting with dozens of awards, blockbuster movies, record breaking albums and multitudes of endorsements.
It was during the latter days of October this year when David Fabros, approached us for a book project. An ABS-CBN resident photographer for years, David had documented and collected Piolo's memorabilia in a span of his showbiz career. Much to our surprise, he planned right away to launch the book by Nov. 30, 2007 for the 10th year anniversary concert of Mr. Piolo Pascual. We only had less than a month to go and I told them that it is a "mission impossible". Materials were not yet ready and aside from that David had to go abroad for a business commitment.
"Wow, this is really a project suicide" I said.
David comforted us when he decided that a concept was already established. He wanted a pictorial biography book for Piolo. Meaning, 80 percent would be images and 20 percent text. Well, I think this could be done if he could give us the materials ASAP, done with his printing budget and contact his Art Director for an initial book design and page lay-out that should be submitted first so we can estimate the intensity of the production work.
So after a week, boxes of images came up brought by David. He said it was from Piolo's collection and some of his shots on him. These images were already arranged as chapter plan and we only think about the Chapter divider text, captions and the Front/Back matters.
We had a meeting with his commissioned Art Director, but declined the project because of some other concerns. What I planned for the project was to outsource the concept design and lay-out so we could only look at the printing schedules. I was so busy then with my online projects and I don't have that time to engage another intensifying and deadline beating schedules.
But since we have committed as the publisher of the book, we have to make ways and make both ends meets. Editorial meeting was called up, plan the project and look for possible team to work for the project. Unluckily again, the in-house creatives can't also accommodate the project because of other deadlines. Then, a schedule from the press came. We need to come up with 3 signatures per day starting Nov. 12 but we have not yet started any single page lay-out. The date is November 10.
With the persistence of David and the commitment to make, I finally gave in and accept the ArtDirectorial job for the project. I have to contact two more lay-out artists to help me and a team of photo editors for a major manipulation of the images. These images are composed mainly of images from Piolo's personal collection and need enhancements to come up with good quality prints.
It's a no turning back point for my team. The editorial team finalizes the captions provided by Piolo himself and of David. We have to work and collaborate online since David will be out of the country for a business trip. So, burden lies ahead of us.
To make this story short, I finally forwarded my cover design to David for his perusal and gladly accepted some minimal adjustments made. Actually, his taste for the book was a mix of a-la magazine and a coffee table book but was rejected by the publisher. So, we have to come up with the design discipline of a coffee table book.
After several sleepless nights and online soft proof approval of Dave, finally files are off for prepress by Nov.22 and initial press running is on schedule. Cover is with special spot UV lamination of Piolo's signature in blue. The cover is protected with matte and give a natural flat color.
Finally, on the concert day itself, the first 300 copies of the book was released from the warehouse and brought to Piolo for his autograph. We'd like to give the public something that they would treasure even it is on its introductory price.
Whew, that was just more than 2 weeks of hardwork and I'm thankful that again we have successfully beat another history in book publishing. More than 500 pix... 184 pages... in one pictobiography book...
Piolo:Believing.... and now, a book is born...
About: Piolo:Believing is a photo biography book of Piolo's 10 years in showbiz career. Published by Vibal Foundation as a fundraising project for WikiPilipinas: the free Pinoy encyclopedia.
