The New Color of Media is Indie.Go, Direk Jun Reyes Crafts a New Tale with his Latest Venture
Direk Jun Reyes has told many stories in his lifetime, and he’s counting on telling many more with his latest breakthrough media company, Indie.Go.
Built by masters in the art of storytelling, production management, and a partnership with Shooting Gallery Asia, which has an international network that includes offices in Singapore, New Zealand, France, Indonesia, Vietnam, China, and Malaysia,
Indie.Go is a dynamic, unconventional, and progressive media company that creates unique content for TV, mobile, web, film, and theater.
“See, Indie.Go was formed by a group of people who love what they do,” says Reyes, whose successful 30-year stint in the industry includes accolades for his work as executive producer for the feature film: Crying Ladies, his highly-acclaimed 1999 docu-drama The Last Journey of Ninoy and his numerous award-winning commercials. “You can see this passion at the heart of Indie.Go.
Passion, in fact, is its very foundation.
Shunning the usual route of promoting company size and using established artists, Indie.Go’s lean and mean crew focuses not only on the quality provided by each member of its roster of new, emerging talents, but also on motivating them to have the courage to push the envelope to get that big break. Reyes is definitely no stranger to innovation.
“When I entered the industry, it was stale and was dominated by only a handful of directors,” says Reyes who, after graduating from Ateneo De Manila University and the London Film School, broke the mold by introducing the first video-assist camera and as well as the video-finish in post-production that created visual effects nobody had seen before in Manila. He was also the first to add visual references to storyboards and introduced acting workshops to commercial talents, both practices still widely used in the industry today. “We’re all dedicated to producing the best work that we can produce.”
The content they intend to create, however, won’t stop at just showing clever, out-of-the-box angles, but more importantly, they must contribute to social change.
“We started Indie.Go because of our desire to make a difference in society through our work,” says Reyes, who believes that one impacts society not just by telling a story but through active participation. “We are inspired by Richard Branson and Jeff Skoll, whose enterprises in media contribute to social change.”
This dedication to give back is done primarily through HOUSE (Helping Ourselves Through Sustainable Enterprises), an social enterprise aiming to help rebuild the lives of formerly abused teens. Indie.Go is also conscious about being Green, choosing to reuse and recycle what could, streamlining processes to achieve a higher cost efficiency, and reducing their carbon footprint by avoiding the wasteful habits the industry is infamous for.
Their work doesn’t stop there. One of Indie.Go’s objectives is “to build a global network to support quality work from different parts of the world with high production values that constantly redefine the art of storytelling across different forms of media for the benefit of our clients and audiences.”
Reyes, who was always a step ahead of others because he was gifted with an intuition that craved constant innovation, is always on the lookout for new ways to tell tales to different audiences. Though he began his career by making documentaries, Reyes now finds himself fascinated by the spirit behind the country’s indie film industry.
“The indie landscape has gained popularity due to an intrinsic desire of man to tell stories,” says Reyes. “With today’s technology, there are more choices, and quicker avenues, to share one’s story.”
Indie.Go’s team of passionate storytellers is poised to go beyond commercialism, find a way to tell a brand’s story, and link it with memorable moments that will resonate with its audience long after the story has been told. And, while Reyes believes that the best stories are still out there, he himself has already begun writing the ultimate one: to redefine the industry.
Now, that would be something we’d like to see.
