Faculty: A Prequel to Senior Year In 2010, as Senior Year was being made, the
ABS CBN News Channel tapped Tarog to be part of AmBisyon 2010, a series in which directors would use short films to narratively present the various problems that would face whoever won the Presidency in the
Philippine Presidential Election of 2010. Tarog's entry, covering the area of "education", was the short film "Faculty", subtitled "A prequel to Senior Year." The Ms. Joan character from Senior Year makes her first appearance in this short, which explains why the character, who used to be a College teacher, had become a high school teacher by the time she was shown in Senior Year. Faculty became a viral hit on various social networks, and the popularity of the short film became part of the marketing for its longer, more fleshed-out sequel. Alido and his Digitank Studios staff proceeded to do everything they could to promote the film, lugging promotional material and viewing equipment to different SM branches and eventually getting the film played in twelve SM Cinema Branches beginning March 9, while a nonconventional promotional campaign used Facebook and YouTube to build hype for the film, often taking advantage of the fact that the prequel short film, "Faculty", had become a viral favorite on social networking sites. As of the day before the regular screening, the campaign had attracted more than twelve thousand to the movie's official Facebook page. It was later picked up for distribution in SM Cinemas :"From a purely business standpoint, the hard truth is that some SM branches will pull out the film or slide it to a limited time slot due to slow ticket sales on a Wednesday afternoon (precisely the time when nobody goes to watch a film... So listen...tomorrow might be your last chance to see SENIOR YEAR. So if you have time tomorrow, do catch it! Most branches within Metro Manila are still relatively "safe" so we expect weekend screenings. But the earlier you catch the film, the better." On March 10, 2011, with viewers asking on the various social networks for the film to be extended, the film's marketing team replied "
We notice some of your pleas are addressed to SM Cinema. Well, you can tell it to them directly. Just Like their FB page and post on their Wall. It could work." :It's [...] a big achievement to have an independent film of this type (no major stars, no TV advertisements) to be allowed a weeklong run in a major mall chain. The theatrical run was an experiment for us. Without TV exposure, we didn't really raise our expectations at the box office but, with the advance screenings and word-of-mouth, we DID hope that enough people would see the film to make an impact on the Filipino audience. :Apparently it has. The viral campaign to extend SENIOR YEAR by flooding SM Cinema's Facebook Wall was probably the main reason why SM allowed the film to stay in the theaters in the first place. :It was all about trying something new and seeing if audiences would respond. On that count, we succeeded, all thanks to you, our audience, who helped us fight for the right to be seen and heard. All we need now is more faith from distributors and sponsors to give SENIOR YEAR and other independently-produced, audience-friendly films the proper media mileage. In addition, Tarog noted: :I am confident that's all it takes. The audience and the market exists. The Filipino moviegoer is smart and intelligent. After all, aren't we sons and daughters of people who sparked intelligent revolutions? I don't think it's a big stretch to imagine that we deserve entertainment that levels with us. == Recognition ==