WHEN it comes to music videos, director Leoby Marquez has worked with popular names like Six Cycle Mind, Cueshe, Luke Mijares, Brownman Revival and even the Sex Bomb Dancers. One can even say that he’s already mastered the craft, but like many artists, he had a long period soul-searching—13 years to be exact—before he realized this was his true calling.
A Thomasian since high school, Marquez was unsure of what course he wanted to take up in college, but one of his choices was Fine Arts in UST, which he never pursued.
“I used to think that Fine Arts students had to be good in drawing, but I never considered myself good, so I decided to take up Engineering because that was my brother’s course,” Marquez told the Varsitarian.
While in his third year as an Electrical and Computer Engineering student, Marquez decided to shift to another course, so in 2000 he took a year off from studying to prepare.
But during this one-year hiatus, he realized that his calling was truly in the arts, partly because he often visited his artist friends, J. Pacena, Buen Calubayan, Edrie Ocampo, and Serj Bato during their exhibits. They have been a big influence in his life and they always remind that he was meant to be an artist. He later got into photography because he said “it didn’t involve drawing.” He bought a SLR camera and taught myself how to shoot pictures.
With to the constant urging of his friends and his newfound love for photography, Marquez shifted to Advertising. It wasn’t long before his gut was proven right. Marquez was cited as an honorable mention in the 2002 Shell National Student Art Competition under the digital art category. He bagged second place the following year. He also became the president of AdFocus, an organization for Advertising photographers in the University.
After honing his photography skills, Marquez experimented in directing music videos. His first attempt was with the song “Under Crisis” by Urbandub which he submitted to the video-making contest “Exposed”, organized by the Tomasian Cable Television (TOMCAT) network. After a few years, Marquez and Pacena were contacted by Sony BMG to direct the first music video of Six Cycle Mind, then an emerging band.
Marquez and Pacena also directed the music videos of Cueshe’s “Stay” and “Sorry”, Luke Mijares’ version of “214” which was nominated as best male video in the MTV Pilipinas 2005 Video Music Awards, and the Sex Bomb Dancers’ “Sumayaw, Sumunod”. Marquez also shot the album covers of Brownman Revival and Cueshe. In 2005, Marquez and Pacena took time off to focus on their separate personal endeavors.
Marquez’s art can be described as unrestrained and deeply personal. His main inspirations are his family, fellow artists, and his religion. In fact, most of his work revolves around his family and Catholicism. He recently finished his thesis titled “Dogmatik Automatik”, a collection of photographs that depict sensitive issues involving Catholicism. Sometimes, Marquez is questioned because of his fearless and frequently misunderstood portrayals, but he doesn’t let critics dissuade him, he just smiles and moves on.
True Thomasian
Marquez acknowledges his 13-year stay in the University as an indispensable part of who he is now.
“That (13 years) was what I had to go through to find myself. It took time before I realized that I wanted to become an artist, but I have no regrets because the environment here in UST really helped me a lot,” he said
An artist, however, must be true to oneself, trust oneself, and not be afraid of expressing what one feels, Marquez said. But he believes that art is not a self-centered pursuit of one’s craft.
“Being an artist calls for a certain degree of responsibility—not necessarily social or political responsibility—but responsibility in the sense that, no matter what your topic is, you present it to your audience as honestly as possible,” he said.
In the future, Marquez wants to direct and take pictures, which he cites as his two passions in life. However, his ultimate dream is to direct a quality film that is not for profit. “I’ve always dreamed of becoming a director, not to change the world, but to show people my world.”
Having proven himself as a versatile artist who is not afraid of making a brave stand, Marquez’s talent and candor are what make him a true artist in ways that many others have forgotten or have been blinded by the glare of money. Celine Ann M. Tobias
