With over 50 stores nationwide strategically located in SM, Robinsons and Ayala Malls, Blade Auto Center is recognized as the country’s largest automotive accessories and parts retail chain. But did you know the company is also producing fun videos and recently a full-length film?
It all started as part of the company’s marketing strategy. They began uploading videos on their YouTube channel three years ago. Most of the clips feature models, some artists and employees having fun, dancing, and performing sketches. Then suddenly, someone thought of finally creating a web series, not exactly to promote the brand but just to showcase people having some good clean fun right in their stores.
“We hire professional models to star in our videos, which as you can see, are normally very comic. We wanted to make a YouTube webseries, something similar to what a popular food chain is doing now,” Robertson Sy Tan, Blade Auto Center founder, told MS Entertainment in an interview.
Tan further said that they were doing a similar approach, but of course since they are not as big as the popular food chain, they have to work on a limited budget.
“With the quality that I demanded, I realized, since maganda naman yung story, I said why don’t we cut it out into a movie so we could promote it better. The material was great and I thought it would be better to have made into a full length film,” he shared.
And that’s the start of Dito Lang Ako, which is inspired by a real-life love story.
The movie revolves around a woman named Nelia who works as a saleswoman at Blade. The lead character then falls in love with Delfin, a mechanic. Nelia and Delfin are played by Star Magic talents Michelle Vito and Jon Lucas.
As Nelia and Delfin’s story unfold, Dito Lang Ako becomes more than just a recollection of a past romance, it shows what love can do to change people and will teach us to love unconditionally.
Set in the ‘70s, and the scenes would revolve around flashbacks of the young couple and the present time where the “older” Nelia eventually reunites with Delfin at the end of the movie. It is a roller coaster of emotions but in the end, true love prevails.
“It’s inevitable that the brand will have an exposure because the story happened and was filmed in our store. We didn’t want a hard sell approach. Although it’s natural to have product placements, we made sure that it’s done in a very subtle manner,” Tan noted.
It took Tan and his team more than one year to produce the film. He said being a first-time film producer is both taxing and scary but it’s fulfilling once the final product is done.
“We encounter a lot of problems and errors, all the people that we should not be meeting, normal problems of startup filmmakers. But of course, along the way, we met people who were more than willing to help us out in completing the story and the movie,” he said.
Tan is thrilled to share their project with viewers. In fact, he and some cast members gave out flyers and went door-to-door to promote the movie.
“We even went to LRT to promote the film. I tried to be very hands-on—from production to promotion. That’s how I am in everything that I do because if you’re aiming for a specific result you really need to do it yourself. Just like the organization that we established. We are on our 14th year, and I’m very fortunate that I work with amazing people that having them around allowed me to venture into different endeavors,” he said.
Meanwhile, Amid the expectations and pressure, Michelle and Jon take comfort over the fact that they’ve given their best on their film. And for them, that reflects the value that they have given the opportunities that they received.
Directed by Roderick Lindayag and produced by Blade Entertainment, Dito Lang Ako is written by Harvey C. Aquino and Hannah Miles Roces.
Catch Jon Lucas, Michelle Vito, and other cast members Akihiro Blanco, Boots Anson-Roa, Freddie Webb, Rey ‘PJ’ Abellana, DJ Durano, James Deakin, Garie Concepcion, Senpai Kazu and Roadfill of Moymoy Palaboy in cinemas nationwide starting Aug. 8.
Get to see the cast members perform live on Saturday Aug. 4 at the Sta. Lucia Mall at 3:00 p.m. and SM City Taytay at 7:00 p.m.. Red carpet premiere is at SM Megamall’s Cinema 7 on Aug. 6.