The Herb

I finally got my hands on a copy of Ciudad's "The Herb," a music video directed by my friend Pancho Esguerra. I got director of photography credit for this one and it was a fun experience. "The Herb" is a love story between a man and a bear (actually a very subtle metaphor for addiction). Our inspiration was Wes Anderson's films, and we pretty much did our own (cheaper version) of the dolly-in/out or left/right two dimensional camera movement which was used in Rushmore and Royal Tenenbaums.

Here we are totally desecrating a church by filming the "wedding" scene. I'm on the dolly:



Some grabbed stills from the video. I think it turned out really well, I'm really proud of Pancho, he did a great job. Last I heard the video isn't getting much airtime because it's an independently produced video. And all along I thought MYX supported indie artists. Guess not.

Almost there...

Finally had time to work on Locked tonight. I think it's really rounding into shape. The class critique really helped. I'm lightening the overall luminance of the video, even if it looks fine on my TV. This is to compensate for the crappy low wattage projector that the Uni will be using to show all the films. Got Alex's take on the music for the film...he's made some interesting choices. Not quite what I had in mind but it made me see other approaches to the story. Still veering toward my Garageband created score.

Spent the weekend directing a low budget commercial for engin, a local broadband phone company. As always, it was stressful and tiring, yet fun and very fulfilling. I love my job! Got Mel to produce and Inaki helped out as PA/ assistant camera/ gaffer/ driver. Pinoy power baby.

Some grabbed stills from the shoot:

Constructive Silence

Screened a rough cut of Locked to the class yesterday and it went well. The class was very polite, they were quiet all throughout, only laughing when classmates popped up as extras onscreen (personally, this bugs me. So WHAT if you see people you know acting on screen? Why snicker and allow your sense of belief in the film to be broken? But that's just me.)

After the screening. Polite applause. I am slowly learning that polite applause, while okay, isn't neccessarily a good thing. At the same time, it's not a bad thing either. It's just...gray and in between. And it sucks in an ambiguous sort of way.

A nice question and answer session followed. What I don't like about my class is that they are quite placid. No one seems to really be verbally expressive enough to say what they think. Personally, I like comments, I like constructive criticism. A few questions were asked and some comments were eventually given and most were very valid. Like why certain shots were there, what was my intention with the music, why is the actor doing this, why is there a repeat shot, and so on. I liked the session because it allowed me to get the perspectives of people who haven't seen the edit and aren't biased. I've seen the thing a hundred times and I think I tend to edit based on what I know will work because I know what the story is about. Hearing reactions from other people gives me fresher perspective, and as soon as I get some other work priorities done, I will tweak Locked with all their comments in mind.

My one big gripe is that the film looked SO dark. Editing at home the colors and luminance levels seem fine, but come across as muddy and dark on the big screen. Will have to adjust for that. But all in all, I think I'm on the right track. Alex Novotni, my composer classmate, is working on the music and based on his emails he sounds really enthusiastic so i am excited to hear what he's done.

Am shooting a low-budget commercial over the weekend. It's not really a commercial, more like a 60-second AVP for a broadband company that will screen in several Dick Smith stores nationwide. Pretty cool, and I swear i'd be more excited if not for the crap weather that's been plaguing Sydney lately (Rain all around and I'm supposed to shoot surfers on the beach).

Why can't I sleep?

Jesus. It's 5:30 in the morning and I can't find it in me to fall asleep. My mind just seems so wired now, a hundred thoughts just keep playing in continuous loop. I hate my insomniac phase. I need to get back into sports again. My heart's in it because I feel adrenalin rush through me when I read about my frisbee teammates' exploits back in Manila.

Insomnia would actually be fine if I channeled it into something productive. I could have written my director's treatment for this ad I'm about to direct, but no. i chose to watch The Goonies again, for the nth time, and listened to the cast commentary after. It's The Goonies dammit, how can I resist?

I really wish there were more hours in the day to get things done. I know I should really be wishing for better sleeping habits and time management skills.

The Best Thing I Learned Today...

...was a quote from Alejandro Gonzalez Innaritu (21 Grams, Amores perros):

"No one is good or bad, we are just floating in an infinite world of circumstances."

I've decided to write whatever characters I create and write about in the future with that quote as a mantra of sorts. I believe that all people have a bit of good in them (the optimist in me), and at the same time, I think even the most avid church goer can have some iota of evil in there somewhere (the skeptic in me).

The wonderful thing about being human is that we are so tragically flawed. We're free to make our own choices based on the hand dealt to us. Now that I think about it, my character Frank in 'Locked' is a character who is definitely caught up in a specific circumstance (he meets a customer who just so happens to have his address written down on his keychain), and the film shows his take on how he deals with it. In 'Boyfriend Seat', two guys find themselves in an existential discussion over why guys have counter-evolved into becoming mere foot servants who are designated to tragically wait in a corner while their girlfriends shop.

I really like that quote, it should serve as a reminder to me that the best characters are the ones who we ask questions about afterwards, the ones who we don't quite get, the ones who aren't purely good nor evil, the ones who don't end the film knowing all of life's answers.

In other words, people like us.

Film Festival Season

Just came from a round of surfing film fest sites. Right now I am so psyched to get my films done and get them out there. First on the list is the .Mov Digital Shorts fest, which will be held this December in Cebu. I shot "Boyfriend Seat" with the intention of entering it in this festival but I realize I have less than 2 weeks to edit it and mail a DVD copy to Manila! So just when I couldn't get busier enough, along comes a new thing I have to do amidst my papers, edits, final school projects...

But then again, that's the story of my life.

Finally finished a complete cut of "Locked" and it comes in at under 14 minutes. Mel and I watched it and she had some valid constructive comments, mainly- What's Frank's motivation? She couldn't quite relate to his character, he wasn't engaging enough. I realize I've been editing the film through the eyes of someone who knows the story. I wrote and directed the damn thing, of course I assume everyone else who hasn't seen it would "get" it just as easy. How foolish. Need to take a few days off from it, then watch it again.

Do my paper do my paper do my paper. Why do I hate writing papers so much?

My Editing "Suite"

Well it's not exactly WETA Workshop, but for now, two milk crates and plywood make for a very passable edit area. Of course, this setup was achieved while Mel was busy vacationing in New Zealand, visiting The Shire:

Poser Caught On Cam!

Or rather, WITH cam.



Tagged along Mel's film group shoot and I got to finally lay my mitts on a FILM camera. Don't get me wrong, I'm one of DV's staunchest flag-wavers, but there's really something about holding a film camera in your hands...

I'm reading "Here And Back Again," Sean Astin's book about making Lord Of The Rings, and he mentioned in one paragraph something about a DOP telling him to shoot a short film he had in mind in 35mm, and then he goes on to say that there's something real about shooting in 35, something validating that makes you film like a REAL filmmaker whereas shooting in 16 makes you feel like an aspiring filmmaker. Holding a film camera in my hands and cradling it in all its un-ergonomic glory, I felt that to be somewhat true.

Felt very envious to be watching Mel's group shoot their project on film. She's a year ahead you see and thus has moved on to doing shorts on film while I am "stuck" with DV for now.

In the meantime, I'll just have to content myself with poser pics like this.

Rushmore and Almost Famous

October 4, 2004
2:44 pm

For the last few days I’ve been holed up in my flat (*was there ever any doubt?) editing my short film. My observations so far- some parts work really well, others not quite. My main gripes are lighting and dubbing; judging from the rushes I will have to do a fair amount of colour correcting in this one.

The actors are great. Brett Joachim, the guy who plays Frank, is terrific, a really solid, consistent guy. I would love to use him and Matt Foster in a film together.

Right now I’m laying down the first cut, going by scene numbers and not working with what hits me emotionally just yet. Because of that, the film is already 10+ minutes long, and I still have 4 scenes to put in! Way too long. On my second pass I’ll need to study Brett’s performance more, and see which take best nails what I’m trying to say.

I can’t wait to see this film done and up on screen. I really wonder how it will be received. I will most definitely be in the back row, my stomach in knots, watching the audience react. Hopefully it’ll be good.

Today is no-edit day however. My zest to finish up my short film has led me to ignore my other assignments, such as my Time, Memory, and Identity paper. I need to take two films and compare and contrast them and relate them to the context of time, memory, identity, or all three. As I’ve mentioned before, I hate doing papers, but I think I just need this exercise to help massage other areas of my brain.

That said, I’ve come up with two films. I originally wanted to write about Gattaca (one of my all-time favourite pics) and Blade Runner. Two sci-fi classics which delve on identity more so than fancy sets (although both films have an abundance of them) and action sequences. Thought about it for awhile and realized I’d much rather tackle identity on a level I can relate to more, and that is the coming-of-age genre.

Let’s face it, probably almost half of all films made are coming-of-age tales. Whether directly or not, most films feature conflict in them which the main characters must overcome. Rites of passage, rituals, obstacles which they must hurdle which ultimately changes them and makes them a better (and in some cases, worse) person. It’s classic Hollywood formula- conflict, then resolution.

There are so many coming-of-age films which I love- off my head- Stand By Me, Lord Of The Flies, The Outsiders, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, John Hughes 80’s teen films, Star Wars, Spirited Away, Cinema Paradiso, Magnifico, Before Sunrise, the list goes on. It’s practically cliché actually. “A coming-of-age tale set in (fill in location here), where one boy must (insert conflict here).”

Why do we love coming-of-age stories? Because at some point in our lives, we’ve all had situations which forced us to change, whether it be physically, mentally, or emotionally.

As a boy what changed me were girls. Honestly. Don’t laugh, because if you were young once and ever had to undergo that period of insecurity and confusion known as puberty, you’ll know how gruesome it is. We hit 12 and just like that we start to see girls differently. We spend a great deal of our childhood trying to avoid girls and their dreaded cooties and all of a sudden we’re staying up late at night finding out ways to be with them.

Enter Max Fischer, from Wes Anderson’s lovely film Rushmore. I can relate to Max in so many ways because like him I had a ton of extra curricular subjects back in high school but was never very good when it came to actual academics. I thrived in theater, and was always thinking up of stories and plays to write. Like Max, I fell in love (or at the very least crushed very hard) with an older girl, and like any prepubescent boy, I had no clue what to do.

Answers don’t come easy when you’re a teenager. Looking back now I remember the dilemmas that used to define my teenage angst and I laugh and part of me wishes I could go back in time and slap my younger self upside the head and say- “That’s IT? You’re worried about whether or not your stupid love note gets to - blank- in time for recess? You have it easy kid. You’ll see that there are bigger problems in the world. Like rent. And electric bills. And scraping off dried risotto cheese from saucepans.”

Of course there are bigger problems. But as a teenager, there are none bigger than overcoming the mysteries of the opposite sex.

Like Max, I also felt somewhat displaced in high school. I was neither nerd nor jock, nor was I a loser or high school god. I was somewhere in between, fitting in easily among all the cliques, yet I remember not really having friends who I could really spew my love for movies for. In that sense I was displaced. Growing up in conservative Bacolod, where kids looked down on you for trying to be artsy (ergo ‘different’), I pretty much kept my love for movies to myself. I’m not saying I was better than any of my classmates, but I just felt like school (or at the least the academic side) just wasn’t for me. I wanted to go, be with people who would understand the things I loved and teach me newer and fresher perspectives on it. Much like…

William in Almost Famous.

With William, his love was music. Mine was the movies. All I ever really wanted to do since I was 15 was make movies. While I was never lucky enough to have travelled cross country with a rock band, I do understand William’s love for something so great that everything else is inconsequential. Screw graduation, I’m travelling with a band! Screw graduation, I’m producing and hosting for TV! Same thing?

Anyways, in a nutshell, I'm writing about both films.