WORK CONTINUES BUT NOW WITH MORE FAMILY TIME
Scenographer and production designer Gino Gonzales has found his lockdown groove
Top scenographer and production designer Gino Gonzales is keeping busy during this monthlong quarantine. Like other creatives who had to abruptly halt any ongoing work or production, he said that all his pending projects were put on hold.
This didn’t stop him from working as prodigiously as before.
“My work is practically the same since most of it is done in my studio except that I can’t do field work or go on client calls,” Gonzales said. He says his morning prayers before doing bed exercises prescribed by a physical therapist. Breakfast is late in the morning, “but this time with vitamins to boost the immune system.”
“I then post on the IG accounts that I comanage. The content now is primarily aimed at uplifting spirits or encouraging followers,” he said.
One positive thing that has come out of being under quarantine is that he gets to spend more time with his family, including an aunt who is staying with them. Midmornings, he opens Netflix on his laptop for his aunt who, he says, is on her second K-drama. The family then has lunch together. “It’s become a fixed routine, which we are rarely able to do on a normal weekday.”
Therapeutic
Another thing he now has time to do is stare at the lushly green pond from their living room window. “My aunt said, ‘The fish and the frogs have no worries, so it is therapeutic to observe their routines.’”
Afternoons are for work. He monitors his staff via Viber or phone. Design work is done throughout the afternoon in his studio. By late afternoon, he pauses to fulfill one of his household duties. “I head outside with a zapper to kill mosquitoes in the garage. This takes about 30 to 40 minutes. Sometimes I use up the rechargeable batteries of three bug zappers.”
The family then has dinner together. “I regain my laptop after my aunt has watched several episodes of ‘Crash Landing on You’ or ‘Kingdom.’”
The time after dinner and before he goes to sleep is one of Gonzales’ most productive periods. “I start opening emails and doing printouts then I’m
back in the studio for major design work. It’s the most quiet time. I also bug my team with emails and design revisions.”
He winds down by reading BBC or CNN online news. “As a form of pagpag, I watch two episodes on Netflix.”