MAGAZINE: THE

ZEE LIFESTYLE INTERVIEW

David Jones Cua

Assistant Editor / Creative Director - The Zee Lifestyle

the Z in ZEE Lifestyle came from the original name of Cebu which was Zugbu.

published 10 issues annually plus the supplementary magazines that comes with it

histor y

used to be called as the ZEE QUARTERLY and has been in the industry for 17 years

the only premium glossy magazine in Cebu

A LIFESTYLE

 A Cebu-based magazine Created by Cebuano writers Claims to know the local market well

EXCLU

Editorial Meeting
Use of Editorial Calendar

Pre - production
Contacting of makeup artists, photographers, designers, models, etc. > Place all of these on a Mood board

Post - production
Drafting, editing, and adjustment of editorials, photoshoots, etc.

Lookbook/notebook is printed where a draft of the magazine is in black and white.

Proofing and Printing

Proof reading stage and finally, sending the final copy to Manila for publishing. Agonizing wait for the magazine to be printed -DJC

PROCESS

Is your market limited to the uppermiddle class and the elites?

DJC: Coz a lot of the things we put here, they really do cost more. You know we have, even Metro, the ads Metro puts in its the gold ads and jewelry ads. But anybody can read it like you know we are not saying Its limited to that. Yeah but our ads are targeted towards these people. You know if youre gonna sell something sell it to that market like condos. This ones our real estate issues so its a lot of condos, a lot of new developments but we also try to - like we do put in an anchor story so its something relevant to anybody no matter what socioeconomic status you have. This is our free edition so this is supplement and it comes in all the hotels in the city and all the major restaurants and all the restaurants in terraces, all the spas and salons

DJC: So its really more commercial not to say its lower-end coz I dont want to refer to it that way so its more commercial you know pizza places here. So still upscale, you know I dont put pungko2x there unless its the best freakin punkgo2x in the world. Right? No, so its more commercial. Lets just stick to that word and affordable.

Are ads enough to support the whole thing? We are talking about Cebu here and there is limited readership. How do you go on about that?
DJC: Cebus a booming economy right now. In our real estate issue we actually talked about it in one of these pages. And our tag line for this issue is why live why play and why work in cebu? Because cebu is getting the most investments in the Philippines right now in terms of BPOS and a lot of foreign companies are coming here. So the readership is increasing tourism, is also increasing in cebu so this is getting a lot more readership. And ads are the lifeline of a magazine so without ads youre not gonna last right?

How do you get your readership response?

DJC: Oh they just tell us. Hahahaha Theres somebody - if they like it or if they dont like it. When I started, I was really worried about what everybody thought but then your skin gets thicker and then as long as you got what you wanted to achieve; and like some people, therell always be someone who doesnt like it for whatever reason but its not a bad thing to create a buzz like you know you dont want to be such a cookie-cutter that pleases everybody if you wanna say something sometimes people are not gonna like it.

Does your cost meet revenue?

DJC: Yeah It has to. Hahahaha. Yeah even this like (points to free magazine). We try to keep cost low, and then in publishing, people do lower their prices for you so if a photographer shoots an ad theres this certain price, but if a photographer shoots editorial its a lot lower, because its a privilege to be published. Like yknow you can always say youre a photographer and then youd post your stuff online, but Im not saying, people, just cause youre not published youre not good or if youre only online youre not good what Im saying is online anybody can post a photo online but then only a select number of people can be on print, coz printing cost also so yknow you try to get the best of the best.

Do you have any advice to give for those aspiring in the field of fashion, photography or magazine-editorial in general?
DJC: Learn how not to sleep and a lot of people think its a glamorous job which is also partly my fault because I keep instagramming nice things. Hahahaha Like Im gonna show you what I mean by how I make it look deceptive. Its really a lot of hard work like if youre a stylist some people think styling is probably the easiest job in the world right, coz I mean you pick clothes, everybody picks clothes in the morning but its so much more than that. I mean, a book of styling is really listing things down; hanging everything pulling them out, making sure theyre returned well and properly coz you know these people have to sell it right after so yeah. Basically we took a trip to Bohol and all the photos are just food, suites and hotels.

DJC: It looks glamorous but its a lot of hard work and you know no ones gonna die. Hahaha When I used to go crazy, a make-up artist, whos work in the industry for a long time would always tell me, in Filipino, but I cant speak Filipino so Ill say it in English, she said you know nobodys gonna die from lifestyle, from the lifestyle industry, that is. Keep it light, keep it fun, dont go crazy. Im a little obsessive coz at first shoot, I still do it now, I make my assistant do it now, every item I pulled out I would have it listed down and I would have a photo of it also, so I make sure everythings there.

DJC: Experiment with things so, you know, you really gotta find your own style of doing things like if youre really into couture, fashion, photography, and like all the weird awkward poses then thats your thing. My thing I try to keep it more natural now, Ill show you, coz before I was really experimental with things so I would shoots like this.

DJC: The one that got a lot of buzz was the nude shoot I did with Ellen Adarna. So you know some people loved it, some people dont like it, thats when you really learn as long as youre trying to say something and you believe in what youre trying to say, you dont really feel so affected by that. And also be really honest with yourself, like when I was younger also (and a lot of kids still do this), they see somebody elses work and instead of appreciating it right away sometimes they try to knit-pick at it. And say I dont like this, this and that, this and that. So just focus on your own work. Go at your own phase. And then do a lot of research. See like, you know some people say dont compare but like you know you look at your work and you look at things and you leave it with thats Patrick Demarchelier and all these big fat photographers all over the world, and you try to see how can I improve, how can I get to their level. So just keep moving and dont cry. Hahaha

Is it hard to get into this industry?

DJC: Mine was dumb luck I swear, hahahah they wanted to do a youth yearbook and my friend, hes not here right now, hes the online editor of Zee - he asked me if I wanted to do it I said Ill give it a shot. And Yeah so this is what I did (shows cosplay photo). That was my very first one with Anne. And I never met Anne before, I just contacted her online also. And then we did a few more shoots together. And so, I dont know I guess its really just about timing and getting yourself out there and like a lot of put your stuff online so people can see it, put your watermark if you want so people wont steal it. But then like you know get yourself out there. Cebu is so small, you guys,I know its getting bigger and bigger, but its still so small so try to be at peace with everybody.

What are the issues faced by Zee Lifestyle, any issues, or challenges that Zee faces as a collective?
DJC: I dont know, I guess like, uhh, sometimes people still dont get, like yknow some people still have an old-fashioned way of thinking so when you try to do something new youll never know if they like it or not and Cebus very fickle also, you guys know that right? I dont think Ill get in trouble for saying that Yeah because its true, one day well like something coz its new and next thing you know its gone. Fads come and go so easily. But Im more positive about it because SM is opening here in new thing produced here, I think next year the seaside city. Ayala has the giant Rustans, so therell be more places to get clothes from, more things to feature, yeah Cebus going in a really good direction, I hope they expand the roads because the traffics getting bad, but Im positive for Cebu.

Big

thanks to the following:

The Zee Lifestyle David Jones Cua for allowing us a total of 35 minutes of his time to interview him. Mary Jerica Pelaez for letting us borrow her DSLR for the documentary. Ms. Bhejay for permitting us to cut class so we could go to Zee P.S. The e-mail from Zee regarding the scheduling is in our RW-CD.

Ceniza, Ezra Hilary Cereo, Sherida Daniel, Ann Dominique Daymiel, Anne Dela Pea, Cynthia Moonmae

fin.