Every afternoon after lunch, the familiar voice of a woman fills the air while introducing a local radio drama, “Handumanan sa Usa Ka Awit”.
Every afternoon for most of his elementary days, Danilo “Dan” Cahulogan gets to hear stories of struggles and triumphs in life from experiences of several individuals including overseas Filipino workers (OFWs).
It was this interest to share life lessons to others that prompted this 31-year-old from a small purok in Barangay San Miguel, Maramag town, Bukidnon to produce his own version.
His first production was uploaded on June 15 featuring the story of an OFW in Kuwait who had to leave her family for greener pasture, faced struggle while working overseas, a relational problem with her husband and eventually overcoming everything.
The 12:29 video gained popularity on Facebook after it was shared 1,200 times and viewed 35,900 times.
Facebook users can’t help but appreciate Dan’s talent in producing the video all by himself.
Yes. You’ve read that correctly.
Dan is a one-man show on all of his recreated radio dramas.
How did he do it?
For the voices of the characters in his drama production, he changes his tone and pitch in order to portray the voice of a man, a woman, a child, and an elderly.
As for his background music and video recording, he uses two mobile phones. One phone is dedicated to play the soundtrack while the other is used for video recording.
The surprising part is, Dan does this all in one take.
“Ako naa ko’y laptop pero dili ko kahibaw mogamit [para] mag-edit. Direct rani ako. Wa’y take two. (I own a laptop but I don’t know how to use it especially in editing my videos. I do everything in impromptu. I don’t do two takes),” he told Bohol Island News.
He also has to go down to the town center from their barangay in order to upload his video.
Dan, who traces his roots from Guindulman town in Bohol province, says he owes it to his parents for exposing him to this type of radio drama.
Dan’s father Artemio Amora Cahulogan and mother Fransisca Luna Uyangurin are both avid listeners and fans of radio drama being played over local radio dyHP. His father is from Bohol while his mother hails from Argao town in Cebu.
Dan said he does not intend to monetize out of this as he only wants to entertain and share life lessons to others through this.
“Pero dili man nako intensyon nga i-negosyo ni. Naa man ko’y uma. Dili pod ko mangtapak og katungod or work sa tawo (I don’t have any intention to make money out of it. I have a farm. I don’t have any intention of stepping down on any right or work of an individual),” he added.
Dan is now an incoming third-year college student taking up Bachelor of Elementary Education in Don Carlos Polytechnic College in Don Carlos, Bukidnon.
Does he intend to make this into a career?
Dan says he plans to really finish school and pass the board exams to become a professional teacher.
However, should he fail to do so, he says he is happy to work on his farm.
Visit the Official Fanpage of Dan Cahulogan
