Rage Radio is about the sign off with a farewell concert in Friendly Foes' upcoming animated feature.
Manila-based boutique development and animation studio Friendly Foes has been working closely on Rage Radio, a 90-minute animated film inspired by the closure of NU 107.5 in 2010, to express the woes of change and the satisfaction punching annoying people in the face. The story follows Bogs, a listener and fan of Rage Radio, as he embarks on a mission to stop the closure of his favourite radio station. On top of that, the film also puts the spotlight on the local music scene with cameos and Easter eggs fans will be thrilled to catch on screen.
To bring the music of Rage Radio to life, Friendly Foes worked with SOS frontman Roberto Seña as the film's Musical Director. According to Seña, conceptualizing music and working with visual artists was new territory for him, but is excited to see how it turns out.
"The story very much has parallels to certain key events in our (local) music's history," Seña shared with Bandwagon. "Without giving too much away, just be prepared to enjoy everything from our past, present and future. There are only a handful of films and short films that celebrate our rich music scene and I only hope to do the film and my peers justice."
Bandwagon caught up with Friendly Foes Creative Director Mark Mendoza to talk about Rage Radio, what it was like working with Kamikazee and the people behind the scenes, and more.
Rage Radio was inspired by NU 107.5 shutting down in 2010. It’s been 14 years since then; why do you feel it’s important to tell its story today?
At its heart, this story is about change, growing up, and punching annoying people, which should always be told. We used a radio station's closure merely as a vehicle to explore what it is to grow up.
Although I'm very much inspired by NU 107.5 and the emotions I felt when they signed off, this story won't be a historical lesson on what NU did for the music industry, hehe.
How significant will Rage Radio’s story be in this time when the primary move for independent acts isn’t radio anymore?
The story looks at how we got here and what it cost us, how we consume media changes so fast, it is nice to explore the effects that has on a cultural/personal level.
It's also about being a fan of music and how genres sometimes define our individuality; you can be a Swiftie or a Metalhead, whatever it is it's just fun to be a fan.
What was it like working with Trese’s Mihk Vergara for the story? What was the collaborative experience like?
We worked with Mihk Vergara on the story, who was one of the writers of the Trese animated series. He also wrote and directed a nice film called Patintero: Ang Alamat ni Meng Patalo. I've never really written a script longer than 15 minutes before this, so I needed someone to guide me a little bit. I sent Mihk an outline of things that happen in the film. Then he made his outline based on mine. Once we agreed on the series of events he came out with the first draft of the script, to which he had a lot of great ideas put in. Then we just fixed it up until we got the final script. Now that it's coming out in comic/graphic novel format some things are probably gonna change again, but I feel more confident now I could just do it myself since the story is pretty much ingrained in my head.
Were any of the characters inspired by real-life musicians and personalities?
Oh, there's a fictional band called Razorwolf, the name, is obviously a play on Wolfgang and Razorback, but its band members are modeled after Kamikazee since I find their band chemistry just funny and fits what we are trying to do. I'm really happy they said yes to playing the role of that band and I hope to channel their more hardcore punk stuff. There are definitely a lot of easter eggs about our local scene, but I think it's best to discover it as you experience it.
The trailer says Rage Radio will feature some of today’s biggest local acts. In what ways will Rage Radio spotlight artists in the local music scene?
Mostly soundtrack and cameos. The story takes place in a big crazy concert (ala-UP Fair), so it was important to get an idea early on in our heads of what kind of music we would hear; it's like we are creating a music event.
I hope this can be a way for people to discover our music, a lot of my music preferences these days are influenced by the films that I watch or the games that I play, so I hope people who experience this can find something new they can relate with.
You mentioned at Graphika Manila that you’ve spoken to some of the acts on your dream list. Is there anyone you can reveal to our readers? What will their contributions to the film be?
As mentioned Kamikazee will play the fictional band Razorwolf. I can say SOS because Seña is our musical director, and he had Mong Alcaraz do the music for the teaser. I can't say more right now, because the last time we talked to them was like a year ago and just verbal confirmations for now. It's still early so a lot of things can still happen.
Where are you now in the making of Rage Radio? When do you see this coming out?
To be honest, I dunno when this will come out. I just know it's years away. We are done with development, but there are a lot of things we have to work on, and wait on, before we can commit to production of the film.
So we are focused on doing the weekly webcomic for now and have it compiled as a graphic novel when it finishes early next year, since I really want everyone to start experiencing this beautiful story.
What else is coming from Friendly Foes this year?
A few things—we plan to start a political comedy YouTube series called Full Mental Populist. It's about the antics of a silly president and his cabinet in a make-believe Southeast Asian country. Then we have our kids show pilot Makopa MD. It's a fantasy adventure series about a group of doctors curing fantasy ailments. Then there's another short film. Doing quite a lot, lolz.
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