Education campaign, engaged couple, and a single lady win Jason Magbanua’s free services

Two months ago, celebrated wedding videographer Jason Magbanua—the same man behind the touching wedding videos of It Girls Solenn Heussaff and Georgina Wilson, among other notable personalities—announced that he will be offering his services for free. 

According to him, the project was brought about by his desire to go back to his roots (shooting alone) and inspire people to love and understand.

After making sure that the post was not a hoax or a late April Fool's Day joke, Jason's fans started sending him their own unique pitches, and three out of more than 7,000 entries have already caught the videographer's attention. 

The results are as diverse as it can get—from an education awareness campaign and fundraising project in Leyte, to a simple no-frills couple with a grasp of the Filipino language, and a single lady who's happily by herself.

“Here’s the magical thing about what happened. And I think it happened because I never really confined the 'thing' to weddings alone. I became a magnet for a lot of stories which needed to be told, topics and subjects that could use the medium of video to find an audience,” he said in a Facebook post last Monday.

Jason added: “More than couples wanting their weddings to be filmed, advocacies poured in which I may never have had the chance to know about if I didn’t post about 'free...' More than the buzz generated, I became genuinely excited with the thought of creating something for the betterment of my fellow man (woman).”

The winners

Among the first three projects that Jason will be working on for the next couple of months is an awareness campaign and fundraising to buy new pairs of shoes for students of Leyte “who walk many kilometers, barefoot, back and forth just to go to school.”

Engaged sweethearts Nikko and April got the second spot for the videographer's free services. They are set to get married in December.

Here's April's pitch that touched the videographer's heart: “Ang point ko lang naman po ay marahil marami sa atin ang naghahanap ng pag-ibig sa maling pananaw. Madalas naghahanap ng mala teleseryeng ala Mula sa Puso ang peg. Ang media nga naman. Ang natagpuan ko po kasing pag-ibig ay boring, nakakatamad subaybayan, di makatawag pansin, hindi romantic...pero totoo at sigurado."

Lastly, and most probably the most unusual of all, single lady Dulce wanted to tell a story of fear, hope, trust, and everything in between singlehood and finding your Prince Charming—or not.

“It can be a story of fear of never ever getting married at all. It can be a story of hope, of trust in a Plan.I know that being married is NOT the one and only way to spend a meaningful. I know that. There are friends, family, community, yourself. But still. It would really be nice if someone knew how you wanted your coffee,” according to Dulce.

Jason is set to choose three more winners with whom he will work with on projects, minus the charge.

The celebrated videographer is also behind the wedding and pre-nup videos of celebrity couples Vic Sotto and Pauleen Luna, Drew Arellano and Iya Villania, and Nikki Gil and BJ Albert, among others. —Bianca Rose Dabu/KG, GMA News