Ben&Ben music video of KathNiel-starrer “Sa Susunod na Habang Buhay”
Kathryn Bernardo and Daniel Padilla stars as a
romantic couple stuck in a time loop in the new music video for Ben&Ben’s “Sa Susunod na Habang Buhay.”
Helmed by the band’s resident director Jorel
Lising and written by Gaya Sa Pelikula creator Juan Miguel Severo, the
song’s visual narrative explores the complicated relationship dynamics of two
lovers who have lost and found each other in a fated cycle of events.
Complicated
love in a time loop
Severo reveals that “Sa Susunod na Habang
Buhay,” a song that
deals with the “possibility of another life to succeed in love,” complements the KathNiel starrer that he has in mind. Having written Hintayan
ng Langit, an evocative piece that examines eternal romance in the
afterlife, Severo decided to do away with another reincarnation story for his
interpretation of the material.
“Then it hit me, what about a couple stuck in a
time loop?”, the prolific
writer points out. “What if every time one dies, they go back to their first
date with one of them carrying memories from their previous run? It took the
band, Direk, and I a couple of zoom calls, brainstorming ideas to
compound on that concept and get everything laid out before I presented it to
KathNiel.”
Severo’s writing
lends to a beautifully understated film that allows KathNiel to tackle their
role with nuanced sensitivity and depth. To make it more impactful on screen, music video director Jorel Lising makes use
of non-liner, fragmented storytelling as a way
to capture the couple’s memories in its undiluted form. Lising adds, “It all
comes from the content of the song - it’s a strong piece that speaks about love
lost and an intense sense of longing, so
the process of developing the treatment and Severo’s script came from that. The challenge for us was
to maximize the emotion based on that kind of narrative.”
Working with KathNiel
According to the band’s co-vocalist and acoustic
guitarist Miguel Benjamin, the journey behind the music video was both a dream
and a serendipitous sequence of events. "About two months ago, an
interesting exchange came up while our keyboardist Patricia Lasaten was working
on the music of Juan Miguel Severo’s Gaya
Sa Pelikula,” says Miguel. “As a way of showing
appreciation when we offered our song ‘Ride
Home’ to
the series, Juan Miguel graciously offered us in return to write a script for
the ‘Sa Susunod Na Habang Buhay’ MV, and pitch it to KathNiel, as they are good
friends. We pushed through, and to our surprise, they loved both the idea of
working with all of us and the script. This
was a big thing for us because we never expected that these great artists would
be open to doing a music video with us, given their stature and busy
schedules.”
Despite the
time constraints, Lising didn’t experience difficulty working
with one of the biggest love teams in recent memory. The nine-piece collective’s frequent
collaborator recounts that he only
has few
adjustments for every take, thanks to KathNiel’s astounding professionalism and
craft. “We
didn’t have a whole lot of time with them, but they definitely possess star
power quality on camera. Every frame we took of them has a strong
presence that comes with lots of experience, especially since they’ve been
acting for so long now.”
The
music video of Ben&Ben’s “Sa Susunod na Habang Buhay” is out now via Sony Music Philippines.
