Let’s shoot again!

Posted: January 31, 2012 | Author: | Filed under: Arkeofilms, chembular, movies | Tags: , , , | 1 Comment »

About the same time seven years ago, Mario and I were already thick in post, stuck inside Heather Suite of Arkeo’s old office. I love reminiscing about Big Time. The good old days means Big Time Days for me.

I still don't know how we did it. But we did.

I have no clue how we were able to pull it off. In 2004, we had no experience, had to work with such a small budget in a short time. Honestly, I don’t think I’d say yes given the same set of circumstances today. Sometimes I guess it works to not know too much…you worry less!

They were just kids! Kids I tell you.

Ike and Anne rocked the camera department with no gaffer or assistants. Today they are accomplished cinematographers, doing movies and commercials.

In her favorite pose.

CD and Jeck pulled off a stylized look with no setmen and doing their own laundry to save up. CD is now a sikat artist and amazing pole dancer; and Jeck is in Dubai working in a TV station.

I think he's trying to glue the Jenga tiles for continuity.

Vives was the master scheduler of such a tight shoot. We had a ton of locations with an ensemble cast, he said we could do it in 13..and we did!

The quietest sound recordist on earth.

I remember I would sit beside Marc whenever I needed to think during the shoot because he was so quiet which is so typical of sound recordists. Today he’s just so busy I can’t even afford him anymore!

Winston playing up to cam.

I always thought Nor was our secret weapon on the set, keeping us in the loop with what was going on with the mysterious Winston. Nor has recently gone skinhead for a play (“haring lear”)  fresh from his gig as a drag diva. Winston is…who knows what’s going on with that guy?

The Pusoy Scene

Joanne has always been cute as a button and has decided to quit acting and become a boss in a call center. Jamie was always fun on the set and was always on time (actually, everybody was almost always on time…amazing!). I love hearing his outrageous adventures.

Such a Super Trouper.

Michael de Mesa was the best sport of all, being very patient and cooperative and stunningly present in the few scenes he had. I thought Mike was already doing good business in the States but I just saw a plug of a teleserye with him in it. He’s one of the best actors we have, I do hope he comes back.

In his biggest role yet!

Joel played his part as best as he could, but I’m glad he’s decided to be a director now…because he’s really a great director.

Frederick aka Sonnyboy was our import from Los Angeles. I had a big burly guy in mind for Sonnyboy, but he just killed that role and it still remains my favorite character in the film.

last day of principal photography!

As for us, we just got really really lucky to have these wonderful people. And now, the Mario & Monster Show goes on.

By the way, Big Time is now on Amazon!  :)

Let’s just Obama it

Posted: December 8, 2010 | Author: | Filed under: Arkeofilms, movies | Tags: , , , , | Leave a comment »

She said: Bravo. You make such vantastic vilm! Is brilliant!

Monster: {Heeh} Thank you.

She said: You make one-hour version!

Monster: {Eyes pop, a teeny hopefully unnoticeable jaw drop} Uhhhh…you mean cut it by almost 30 minutes???

She said: You muz maximize the vilm!

Monster: I didn’t maximize it by making it?

She said: You arteests. Always kidding. Nobody iz going to zee your vilm except a handful of people in tiny festivals. All you want is to make your babies and not share it with the world. {She looks at my producer instead}

She said to producer: You tell her to make the cut. She make it one hour or vat a peeti! One time artist say no to me, he regret it. You do not make vilm for yourself, you know.

Producer to Monster: You can make that cut, yes?

{Are you people telling me that this is not going to stop happening until all my hair is gone? I really have to do this? But but I just want to save my…}

Monster: Yes I can!

 

I am a baby shark…

Posted: December 3, 2010 | Author: | Filed under: Arkeofilms, Kano | Tags: , , , | Leave a comment »

I keep seeing this really nice nugget from Margie’s wallpaper: “The main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing.” This aggravates me sometimes because it reminds me of things I should be doing that I’m not doing at that moment.

How it would be nice to start obsessing over my next project, but it seems unfair to the one I just finished…But I didn’t know that after you’re done with a film, you’re never really done with it for a good while. There are screenings to attend, questions to answer (why did you make such a film???), speeches, and parties (which are fun sometimes I admit) and all the things that are apparently part of the game.

This is not a complaint but more of a realization that these things really take a whole heck of time! (So maybe I’m complaining an itty bitty bit) It’s really hard to get all worked up on the next thing. I’m not a recluse enough or strange enough to be removed from the normal activities of the unglamorous part of filmmaking- firm handshake, halo! yes of course…hearty laugh followed by intense look so as to project sincerity and good listening skills. I can do it, I will do it, but never losing focus of what to do next.

Because that is the main thing.

If I don’t keep swimming I will drown.

Why does it always have to be the next thing?

Posted: November 11, 2010 | Author: | Filed under: Arkeofilms | Tags: , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment »

One night over frozen margaritas and oily food, I was with the Dude who directs, Beef who’s a photographer, and Seeds who is a painter and pole dance artist. And the conversation started on a cheerful note. And how it’s so much fun to push the boundaries, give it all you got and then ahhh…an exhibit, a premiere, a performance. But then after the ahhhh…moment comes the now what??? moment. And it happens all over again. And then comes Nor, who is a wonderful wonderful actor. And he talks about enjoying the moment where everything is just PERFECT. And don’t we all look for it? Like heroin? That very very rare moment when you know you did a good thing. And you just keep doing what you do to be in that moment again.

I’ve been thinking about that with documentaries and I’m not sure THE MOMENT applies. Perhaps there is this absolutely profound and reflective scene that you just so happen to capture…NOT. Well maybe. I haven’t done enough to know if it’s true.

Unfortunately, the cheerful note turned to anxious as we all went into self-absorption required of all who need to be ahh-tist. Shmah-tist.

But on that note…I’m so excited to do my next film! The progress is a crawl but perhaps because i have not found this seemingly impossible MOMENT that they keep talking about. No a-ha! for me yet but I know this is going to be good.

And because I am a fool for procrastinating, I have resorted to stupid time eating activities so as to avoid the hard work of actual editing. But might as well publish my first amateur study of the poster. I’m sure my more talented graphic artist friends will do a better job.

www.arecloudsblue.wordpress.com

Amster-deyam!

Posted: October 19, 2010 | Author: | Filed under: Arkeofilms, Kano | Tags: , , , , , | Leave a comment »

I’ve always wanted to go to Amsterdam…

1 – for the access to certain organic goods (as they say: NO TO SMOKING. YES TO TOKING!)

2 – to see (i’d be too chicken to transact) the commerce via intriguing window displays to show off “wares”.

3 – and the biggest documentary festival in the world that happens last quarter of every year, IDFA (International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam)

Which is why i’m so frikkin excited to go this November. More for number 3 than anything else. Thanks to the documentary that has taken me, as Joe says it…25, 265 years to make.

This doc has certainly brought me to places I would never have thought of going. From a shoreside village in Cauayan, Negros Occidental, Philippines to the pine-covered hick town of Coquille, Oregon, USA.

And now I go to Amsterdam.

Doe het!

5 reasons why I love Trabajo St.

Posted: August 17, 2009 | Author: | Filed under: Arkeofilms | Tags: , , , | 2 Comments »

boys making wiwi great signs

  1. Serendipitously, it is the street where I work. Oddly, the old street sign reads Trabajo St (with a j) and the new street names spell it Trabaho St (with an h). They are placed side by side which makes it rather redundant, but right on JP Rizal where most of our guests come from when going to Arkeo, is a sign-less Trabajo turn. Perhaps, we can just uproot one of them signs and place it where it matters.
  2. The neighborhood is teeming with texture and life and enough oddities to make it a great location to shoot.
  3. There is a crazy man who walks around in a superhero costume. He wears spandex in varying colors and cape. They come in hot pink, neon green, white and yellow. He has a utility belt filled with wrenches and tools. I have not been brave enough to talk to him. He likes to sing when he walks around.
  4. We usually buy our lunch in the carinderia beside us from a woman named Belo. She’s a middle-aged woman who is always fully made up, complete with big hair while serving her famous giniling or bopis. Sometimes she closes the store when she doesn’t feel like cooking that day.
  5. I live in a neighborhood. Which means the Arkeo House is literally that…a house. It’s not as professional as we’d like to look but right now, this humble 2-storey affair is just right for our needs.

shooting

Tag me an Indie

Posted: June 7, 2009 | Author: | Filed under: Arkeofilms, movies | Tags: , , , , | Leave a comment »

Shiver the thought, this label. Somehow, it sounds like bad porn. It’s shaky cameras and b-list actors. It’s dark lighting and self-conscious stories. I think it’s unfair–to automatically connect this combination as a bad movie. I mean, what about 28 days Later? It was by far Boyle’s better movie over Slumdog Millionaire. But it is understandable to connect this combination as an Indie.

I guess we just need a little more time to show you the breadth and depth local indies can take you. I ask for your patience as I summon some power to find the money. And also, we just needto get better, too.

I need the doctor

Posted: May 20, 2009 | Author: | Filed under: Arkeofilms, Kano, movies | Tags: , , , , , , , | 2 Comments »

I need her so bad. Her name is Fernanda Rossi. And with the way she writes and talks (I haven’t met her in person but her voice is so distinct when she writes), it seems rather impossible to pay her. She is the story consultant to Academy winners and festival regulars. Over the weekend, d-word, the documentary forum where I am a member but officially only a lurker, is hosting a 5-day “conversation” with the documentary doctor Fernanda Rossi. I am hanging on to every word she writes, desperate to have an illuminating moment where the angels appear behind me or a lightbulb pops above my head.
I’m willing to run on the street naked if the moment comes.

She’s trying to tell us frantic and lost filmmakers the things you can do with the unimaginable hours of footage that one has amassed. I listen to her wisdom, trying to see how I can apply it but I just wish she had a wand and touched my timeline and voila! My story telling becomes compelling, my faulty structure…cured. Wouldn’t that be wonderful?

But it is not that wonderful. And my falling hair is at an alarming rate. I am given to spurts of unreasonable anger towards the Dude. I am given to slapping the fat cat because he’s there, unperturbed by my perturbed state. I am careless about slabbing butter all over my keyboard, as I monstrously eat copious amounts of popcorn or toast with cinnamon and butter absentmindedly. And now I know why we are given to paying exorbitant amounts to be saved by the doctor. To fly her in all the way from New York and do her thing now sounds such a small price to pay. But I think the Swedish funders might smirk in disapproval. And I wish them not to smirk. I wish them to smile when they see the lovely documentary that they have invested in: “Vat a vundervul movie from such luverly woman.” I vant them to zmile in apprufal. And the Koreans too. And Teddy Co. Especially Teddy Co.

I’m beginning to daydream about my deus ex machina.

The Doctor : Wow! Such compelling material. If only you can do this (she touches the monitor with her dainty fingers)…and transpose it here (then she kind of twitches the clips on the monitor a la Minority Report) and look at that.

Monster : It’s just as it should be!

The Doctor : Prepare your calendar because it’s going to be a busy year for festivals and broadcast and interviews and all documentary glory.

Monster : [blushing and speechless]

And the Doctor rides in her pumpkin carriage and is off to save another documentary in distress.

And I become a beautiful princess with less hair.

Top of Mind Top 3 Stuff

Posted: March 27, 2009 | Author: | Filed under: Arkeofilms, Kano, movies, television | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment »

It’s always so hard for me to think of my top 3 of anything. But this time, I’ll make it easier and think of the stuff that come to mind in order. This is also procrastination…as I progress, snail’s pace, to the finish line of our first rough cut.

BOOKS


  1. Shipping News by Annie Proulx
  2. A Long Walk to Freedom, Nelson Mandela’s autobiography
  3. A Once and Future King by TH White

DOCUMENTARIES


  1. Hoop Dreams by Steve James
  2. Grey Gardens by the Maysles Brothers
  3. Capturing the Friedmans by Andrew Jarecki

PINOY MOVIES (this is hard)

  1. Kakabakaba ka ba? / Dir by Mike de Leon
  2. Bagets / Mario J de los Reyes
  3. Salawahan / Ishmael Bernal

ASIAN MOVIES, but not Pinoy

  1. In the Mood for Love / Kar Wai Wong
  2. Chungking Express / Kar Wai Wong
  3. Raise the Red Lantern / Yimou Zhang

EUROPEAN MOVIES

  1. Amelie (I can’t help it…the commentary is the best part of it all) / Jeunet
  2. Jules et Jim / Francois Truffaut
  3. Butterfly and the Diving Bell / Schnabel

AMERICAN MOVIES

  1. Clueless / Amy Heckerling
  2. Groundhog Day / Ramis?
  3. Godfather (is this Hollywood? in a sense…very hollywood) / coppola

TELEVISION

  1. West Wing
  2. Six Feet Under
  3. Todas

DISHES BY THE DUDE

  1. Crispy Patalbog
  2. Key Lime Pie
  3. Poached egg with roasted tomato and basil, swimming in olive oil and other leafy goodies…resting on bread.

SITES

  1. www.cnn.com
  2. google reader (is that a site?) –it has all the blogs of people i follow, from chums to bourdain to perez hilton to inquirer.net
  3. www.mirandajuly.com

LIQUIDS


  1. Sunquick
  2. Coke Light avec Rhum
  3. Apple Juice

I WANT TO LEARN

  1. français
  2. how to drive
  3. CPR

I WANT TO SEE

  1. New York City
  2. Barcelona
  3. the Pyramids

ALTERNATIVE CAREERS (wishful thinking lang)

  1. investigative journalist
  2. lawyer
  3. back-up singer

*Not that you’d care, but I posted the pictures after the list.  Just to make sure I don’t muck the train of thought.

To what end?

Posted: March 27, 2009 | Author: | Filed under: Arkeofilms, movies | Tags: , , , , , | 3 Comments »

Before, in the agricultural and industrial days…the harder you worked, the richer you got.

Today, in the information age…the smarter you are, the richer you get.

And then somehow, smarter wasn’t just about IQ or thinking capacity. Smart became about wile and shrewdness and cunning.

Why does it always have to be about the money? Why does bottomline mean money? Why can’t it be “new learning” or “discovery” or “new friends”?

But I’m not like thaaaaaat. How’s dat.

And please, to everyone out there who’s getting sick of all those capitalists drowning in money? (What are they supposed to do with all those billions?) Please watch The Corporation. It’s an engrossing documentary, about the institutions that shield mortals from their morals, that have allowed them to think of bottomline before real people.

Open your eyes and watch it.

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