Cebu TV is dead, finished, done.
You cannot help but shake your head when a company you used to be part of bites the dust. But wait, I was not just part of it once, I was there from the very beginning, I was there at birth, I taught it how to talk, walk, run. Unfortunately, I was not there when it fell… and whoever was couldn’t get it to pick itself up and run again.
But then that is how businesses goes, there are only two inevitabilities; you either stay in business or you go out of business. One of my biggest concerns now is, who or how will they settle their accounts with me; yeah they still owe me some money. I say some, because it might not be so huge, but to some people over 30K is huge; heck, there was a time they owed me over a hundred… thousand. Which may not be so huge also because there are those who owe in the millions also.
It is a bit funny to think, that Cebu TV being a media institution did not even have any media experienced people or any journalists in the company; how could you expect it to thrive when the people running it were experts at ….. shirts, not TV… not media. Come to think of it, that is not the only “Cebu” branded company that folded, years before, another company also owned by the same owners… Cebu Magazine folded likely due to the same reasons.
But instead of looking back at the negative, all the reasons I could probably cite that could have contributed to its demise, I would like to look at the good things that came out of it.
Because of Cebu TV I was put in touch with a splendid group of talented young film makers and video-graphers. These guys were hand picked, and by hand picked I mean like really recommended. Heading production at one point, I asked my cousin who is a professor at USC TC for a few good men; and that is exactly what I got, plus one woman. I hired them myself. They were awesome, they were dedicated, diligent, talented.. they were the perfect team, and best of all they had the right attitude, they were willing to learn and work, and work to learn. They did not get paid much, but maybe today they look back and think of it as an incubation period for them to develop their skills. It was a great time working with them, I was not just teaching them, I was learning from them at the same time. At the time, my greatest strength in production had always been audio, and I started to appreciate video with Cebu TV.
I remember I’d get an idea for a show, map out its guidelines and parameters, then present it to the guys, the director, camera team.. everyone… and then everybody just gets working; I would surely miss that, working with a great team. A team, that actually tried to stick with the company the longest they could bear, given that their salaries, thought not much , were also so delayed because upper management was prioritizing other things. In fact management was so lucky to have a bunch of really great people who came to work, and even used their own personal resources for company related activities or items. Actually that is probably one reason Cebu TV could no longer go on, management did not prioritize their own people. Which was a little difficult for me because it ran against my own principles, I believe your people to be your greatest asset, and take care of them, motivate them and lead them to a specific goal and they will go to hell and back for you. I know that for fact because I have lead professionals in voluntary organizations… and that is probably why many of these guys hung on until Cebu TV’s last breath, because they believed in a vision that I might have had a hand in creating.
One very important lesson I learned was, despite your being so dedicated to the company… you have to set a limit to how far you will go for it. If you have not been paid for so long, do not go and use your own money just to show up for work and keep working. If you need production equipment or materials for a shoot, do not use your own money just for it to push through. I remember a funny thing, even a former accountant, who was from out of town renting a room in the city looking for stable financial opportunity, had on many occasions to shell out her own money for DVD’s… it is hilarious but on the other hand deeply appalling how a situation like this went on for a while unchecked.
I do not exaggerate when I say Cebu TV has put a huge dent on my personal resources, a dent which I am still trying to recover from.. the very reason why I left Cebu TV in the first place, was because it bled me for more than I earned.
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December 13th, 2007 at 3:03 pm
How can they be in this industry while the people working inside are not even trained to run the tv production. That’s why they were so disorganized. I remember that because you let me shoot one of the episode when i was there 2004. I wish they didn’t use Cebu.