Ekstra (Jeffrey Jeturian

The road to fame and fortune isn’t always glamorous—it can be oppressive and bloody too. Ekstra is a film by Jeffrey Jeturian, produced in 2013. It showcases the lives of extras or “bit players” as they go along a regular day of shooting scenes. The film portrays the endeavors and struggles undergone by these workers. Ekstra by Jeffrey Jeturian, portrays how class division in the workplace results and contributes to inequality, discrimination and normalized violence experienced by bit players. Seen in this movie are also concepts such as the ideological state apparatuses, which are utilized to alleviate and mitigate the hardships of bit players. The author and producer of this movie created a socio-political motion picture that presents hard-hitting truths in the Filipino society today. Jeffrey Jeturian is a Filipino director and production designer who finished Broadcast Communication at the University of the Philippines. After finishing his education, he immediately went into film production and worked his way up to where he is today for 15 years. Despite not being a part of the lower class, Jeturian looks to portray in his films the kind of class struggles being experienced by the people of the Philippines due to its divisions according to class. Jeturian also won the Gold Award at the 2000 Worldfest International Film Festival in Houston, Texas for his film Pila-balde (2000), which was about the life of Filipinos who lived in the slums. Due to the education he received, Jeturian was able to utilize his skills and knowledge to create socio-political films that sparked the thoughts and hearts of people worldwide regarding these realities. The film Ekstra was produced in 2013, which is one of the greatest years of Philippine cinema after its decline in the early 2000’s. In the film, the increase in job availability for extras or “bit players” is a result of the revival of the Philippine movie industry. Since many Filipinos turn to being bit players, which supposedly hold no major roles in movies, class division becomes a struggle in the workplace. The conflict in the movie is the maltreatment of extras carried out by those who hold higher positions in the movie industry. Clearly seen here is the idea in the Marxist literary theory of there being the bourgeoisie class and the proletariat class. In these cases, authorities and high-class figures are the oppressors. Included in these are the directors, famous actors and actresses, assistants and other staff. The oppressed are the extras, which are most often low-class citizens. Even though they are the ones being oppressed, their oppressors still rely on them since they contribute a big part to the final output of their

productions. In one scene of the movie, when a young, female extra downgraded the roles of bit players in soap operas, Loida (Vilma Santos) argued that without those playing the people of the crowd, then the soap opera would be nothing. Her character pointed out that there would be no sense in scenes located in public places which hold no actual people. She emphasized that passersby, no matter how little their roles may be, altogether contribute to the bigger picture. Seen in the movie, however, bit players hold no actual power over their surroundings and so oppression becomes common and difficult to overcome. These workers cannot defend themselves against any abuse or mistreatment done to them because it is given to them by their employers. Many instances in the movie showcased the struggles of these bit players due to their assumed roles in their workplaces. For example, one of the first few scenes of Ekstra is the recruitment of extras by the Talent Coordinator Ruby (Ruby Ruiz). Here, she is seen to treat the extras rudely and disrespectfully; calling them names, swearing at them and passing off their existence as inferior due to the fact that they were nothing but mere bit players. Off set, they are addressed as “nobodies” and undergo apparent, unequal treatment. After a certain shooting scene, a type of hierarchy in the workplace is seen due to the unequal distribution of food. After being asked about food for the bit players, one of the director’s assistants answered, “Teka, unahin po muna natin yung mga staff.” We can see here how they treat extras as those at the bottom of this hierarchy. While directors, assistants and more prominent actors/actresses ate at a table full of food, recruited bit players were restricted to one small ration of rice and fish. The approach towards already renowned artists and of that towards extras, if compared, reaps another clear vision of inequality. On one hand, when Marian Rivera (playing as herself) completely forgot all the lyrics to a song that she was supposed to sing, Vincent (Vincent de Jesus), the Assistant Director, politely asked her to read over her lines once more. On the other hand, when an eldlery extra fainted during a scene on a farm, under the harsh heat, Vincent reproached and reprimanded her angrily, without a single expression of concern for her health. When Cherie Gil (playing as herself) acted out a scene incorrectly, she was pleasantly asked to redo it, with Vincent even laughing and playing it off as nothing.

In one of the last few scenes, when Loida committed mistakes with her role as an attorney, she was sworn at by the director (Marlon Rivera) and was sent home crying. These extras are also subject to objectification due to their social class. Venus (Tart Carlos), another bit player, stated, “Tao ba tayo dito? Props lang tayo ‘no.” This line presented the reality of how directors and producers saw the extras—objects used to fill spaces. In a scene wherein Loida played as a double, Cherie Gil played the villain of the soap opera and accidentally burnt Loida with a cigarette butt, claiming she got “carried away” by her character. Despite the physical harm done to her, Loida remains quiet and passes it off as a part of her job. The reason for her indifference can also be pointed to the fact that Cherie Gil, as Loida stated many times in the film, was a prominent figure for her in the Philippine cinema industry—her idol. After this, a fellow extra commented, “Ang hirap kumita ng pera, ‘no? Buwis buhay.” Loida was used as a sort of set prop to add to the dramatics of the soap opera, regardless of how the work may have caused harm to or threatened her health. Between all the assistants, directors and producers of the soap opera in Ekstra, there always seems to be tension due to misfortunes such as tardiness, inconvenient timing and even bad weather. During instances when these problems arise, however, it seems that the bit players and their “incompetencies” receive the blame. The question is—why do these extras accept the abuse that they are given? Aside from the stated point of extras being basically powerless in the movie industry, the utopian vision of fame and fortune eases the pains that they experience. Even from the beginning of the movie, the bit players talk about how best actresses like Nora Aunor started as extras and eventually worked their way to where they stood in the industry’s hierarchy. The fruits that these extras aspire and dream to harvest at the end of the day allows them to shoulder all the problems they encounter while working the kind of labor and treatment they face. The art of film, the craft of acting and the promise of prestige that comes along with it becomes the apparatus used by the oppressors to mislead the oppressed into permitting these injustices. In Ekstra by Jeffrey Jeturian, the history behind the film contributes to the basis of the conflict—the rise of job availabilities for bit players which results in the transparency of class struggle in the Philippine cinema industry. The film unveils the many difficulties in the life of

extras at work—facing the brutal end of the unjust and prejudiced system. The use of utopian aspirations is what softens the blow upon the oppressed, as these ideological state apparatuses distract them from the reality of the proletariat’s exploitation done by the bourgeoisie. Through the portrayal of the characters’ sufferings, the film is able to teach its audience the importance of equality in the society. Though it may not be as evident if one does not belong to the lower class, class struggle still exists even until today. The film allows its audience to understand and symphathize with the characters that endure this inequality due to class differences. It promotes the humane and just treatment of an individual towards his/her peers despite the presence of disparity between social classes. Ekstra showcases a reality that, although many Filipinos may be oblivious to, continues to prevail. The film promotes the acknowledgement of the sufferings of these workers and calls Filipinos to action against this kind of oppression that still lingers unrelentingly in the society.