last day

after 8 years and 8 months of employment, we, as husband and wife, decided that it would be better if selle resigned from work. it was not an easy decision due to the ties and relationships that have been forged throughout her stay in samsung but whenever work eats up majority of one’s time (6-7 day work week is just too much) and the delight brought about by work is no longer there, it made the decision a little bit easier.

with the goal of letting her feel that she have touched a number of lives, she’s greatly appreciated and that she will be sorely missed, i decided to make an avp for my wife. i set the plan in motion almost a month ago, aiming to create the best avp i have ever made. sadly, editing-wise, it wasn’t the best i’ve made… not even close. 😦

first, i didn’t have the luxury of directing the interviews. for some vague reason, people didn’t want me present during their interviews. nahihiya daw kasi sila. 😀 so i ended up with a lot of interviews (from co-workers and former co-workers) which didn’t have a clear thought flow. that was the first problem.

second, since the quantity and length of the video messages were immense, i ate a lot of time just going through them… thereby reducing my time to edit. also, this meant that the avp will be extremely long.

third, i didn’t have enough pictures to fill-in the gaps of the video messages.

fourth, i had to edit secretly because this was supposed to be a surprise for my wife. so nag-e-edit lang ako pag tulog si selle… further reducing my time to edit. unfortunately, selle caught me editing a couple of days before her last day. bummer. 😦

sum these all up and i ended up with a 20-minute, 5 chapter/song audio-visual presentation which really didn’t have a clear story nor flow. i personally called the avp “chopseuy” or “halo-halo” kasi parang pinag-sama-sama ko na lang talaga ang mga video messages. *sigh* naiinis talaga ako sa sarili ko nun… but i had no more time to edit it more kasi nga a night before her last day ko lang natapos yung avp. 😦

on selle’s last day, i connived with her department-mates and organized a simple farewell party for my wife. this will also be the avenue for me to show the avp. good thing that the party was kept as a surprise and selle was indeed surprised… 😀

it was a simple pizza party with lots of stories… lots of laughter. 🙂



afterwards, i showed the lengthy avp… still a bit disgusted with myself for not producing a better one. but as the avp was being shown, i could see my wife’s reaction…

and based on her reaction alone, nawala bigla yung inis ko sa sarili ko. i was focusing too much on the technicality of the avp, the bells-and-whistles, when what was essential was the substance and impact to the recipient. i guess, i succeeded in my initial goal why i made the avp in the first place. 🙂

here’s the farewell avp cut into 5 chapters. use of earphones are recommended since the audio is not that good.
(note: something went wrong during conversion to mp4 file to upload to youtube. transitions are no longer smooth and the 16:9 aspect ratio disappeared in majority of the scenes.) (update: we changed the video from youtube to vimeo for better video quality. since this is a single file, it would take a while to buffer the whole video so please do exercise patience. 😉)

to those who contributed video messages, a gazillion thanks to you all. pasensya na kung kinulit-kulit ko kayo ha. mahal ko lang talaga asawa ko… at alam kong mahal nyo din sya. 😉 nga pala, don’t worry, we have your complete video messages at napanood na ni selle ang mga yun… including all the non-sense. 😆

to those who helped in planning and executing the surprise party, a gazillion thanks to you as well… kahit na hindi perfect yung “surprise” natin. 😀

to my wife, better things await. sabi nga ni God, He will bring us from strength to strength, faith to faith, GLORY to GLORY. i love you. 🙂