Looking Back on the Journey of Creating Dean Palomo’s Documentary

Being able to be part of The Dean Palomo Documentary was trully an honor yet a challenging experience. It started from one idea shared on a typical organizational meeting with the goal of sharing who Dean Palomo is and giving recognition to the impact and legacy that he did as to why he is called the “Father of the Radiologic Technology in the Philippines” which turned into a project where each one of us poured our hearts out into creating.

At the beginning of the journey, creating a strong foundation for the documentary was time consuming and really stressful since almost none of us really has a solid experience of creating a documentary this big, dozens of ideas, mood board, shots, and inspirations overwhelmed us at times but of course with great effort and strong team work of the organization, we ended up with the foundation that resonates and highlights the story we wanted to tell.

Once the idea was set planning took over, from the distribution of tasks, to reaching out to people who know Dean Palomo well and share their personal stories which added more depth and authenticity to the documentary. Through them, this gave us an insight to what started from a knowledge, to turning into a passion in sharing it to those who aspire to be what we call now radiologic technologists.

Filming was exciting and challenging at the same time, this is where we faced some set backs from initially hiring people to help us in filming the documentary, to using our own phones to shoot, gathering equipment and improvising shots. But because of this, the officers had the chance to get to sit down and talk with Dean Palomo himself which made the documentary more personal and meaningful.

Editing was where the story came alive. Putting the footages, clips, narration, voices, while still staying raw and pure to the essence of the documentary was like building a puzzle with tens and thousands of pieces together, staying up for almost 48 hours while still having to go to meetings and do editing at the same time was draining, revising the first draft to having to edit the whole video all over again, which was truly tiring but watching it turn from one figure to a whole picture was indeed rewarding.

It was an exhausting and meticulous task, it was way bigger and different from the the task I do for my own, but this project taught me to not be afraid in embracing new challenges and to trust the my own skills and vision. This made me value and be truly thankful to the people who gave me the chance and trust to show what I have. It made me value that collaboration and bond that the organization and the officers had with whom I struggled with and show appreciation to the people who helped me along the way.

Sharing the final product with others and seeing their reactions made honestly scared and anxious but from their feedback every struggle was worth it, knowing that this documentary wasn’t just solely about telling his story but it is also about keeping Dean Palomo’s legacy known and alive for the future generations.