“Hotshots”: An 80’s Movie with Great Visual Effects

In 1984,  Gary Valenciano, Aga Muhlach, Herbert Bautista, Raymond Lauchengco, Eula Valdez and Jobelle Salvador were the lead casts of the movie entitled “Hotshots” which was produced by Viva Films. This was directed by Jeric Soriano, son of the late actor Nestor de Villa and the father of young film director Paul Soriano.

The scenes from the movie reminded the audience of what were the activities and places that people went to during the 1980s as their hangouts. The punk style clothes that were worn by some teenagers and the gels that they applied to the hair. It was also the days of the punk buttons. Aga and Herbert played the roles of these teenagers. Eula Valdez played the lady being courted by Aga who at first was not interested in him but later fell in love with him. There was an earlier obstacle in his love for Eula in the person of one of the identical twins who played the role of Julius and Caesar. (Yes, that were their names in the movie). The twins always harassed Aga and Herbert but the latter gave the former a dose of their own medicine later.

Gary Valenciano played the role of a very busy singer while Jobelle Salvador played his girlfriend who wants to spend some quality time with him. This was the very first movie of Gary V.   Raymond Lauchengco was an Accounting student whose real interest is composing songs. One of these songs was made in a demo tape which he gave to Jobelle who in turn gave it to Gary and he liked the song which was later sung as “Reaching Out”. This composition almost led to the break up of the couple because Raymond fell in love with Jobelle. She told Raymond that they could only be friends because she loved Gary. This was painful for Raymond but he later moved on.

The soundtrack of the movie contained songs that reflected the Original Pilipino Music (OPM) of the times: “Reaching Out” (Gary Valenciano), “Shadow of Time” (Raymond Lauchengco), “Special Memory” (Iwi Laurel) and “The Hotshots Theme” (Gary Valenciano, Raymond Lauchengco and the other casts). The MTV like production numbers in the movie were very creative and innovative. In these production numbers, Gary V. and Aga did well.

I think this was the only movie directed by Jeric Soriano who later directed tv commercials like the “Palmolive Soap” (“I Can Feel It” with Alice Dixson and Sheila Ysrael). In those commercials, we saw the expertise in the visual effects of Jeric. In “Hotshots”, the following scenes were treated with great visual effects:

1. The opening scene where Aga entered a room and started to play a video game called “Hotshots”. The video game read: “Game Start” and Aga enjoys playing the game.

2. The dream sequence in a beach where Raymond sang the “Shadow of Time” for Jobelle which ended when a very colorful rainbow appeared.

3. The concert scene of Gary V where the MTV elements in terms of music and lights were present.

4. The “Special Memory” scene where there were two young girls taking ballet lessons, the individual scenes  which involved the lead casts and the visual photography of the setting sun.

5. The final scene which showed different cars, Gary and the lead casts singing and dancing and ending the movie like a video game which said: “Game Over”.

The images used for this post as updated were taken from online sources as references. With special mention to the Video 48 Blog for the use of the movie poster.

That’s all for now.

Until the next post.

Happy Weekend!