Just finished the first cut of abovementioned film. After a week of drawn blinds, I think I'll go reintroduce myself to the sun now.

Trailer coming soon...

Save Me, Sally!

My friend Avid Liongoren is finally shooting his first feature length film, Saving Sally, next week. I'm inggit because a) I wrote the screenplay for him and I won't get to be there to appear in a cameo, I mean uhm, help out, and b) yet another person I know is shooting their feature and I'm not. Dammit. I gotta get my shit together. Still have that ninja-versus-cheerleaders epic stashed in my head somewhere.


Some pre prod stills off of Avid's site. Looks awesome don't you think? That's Anna Larrucea of Batang X fame and Enzo Marcos, who used to be from the kids show 5&Up. My buddy Pancho Esguerra who used to be from Gameplan is also helping out so Probe gets ta reprezent in this movie. That was a lame attempt at gangsta talk. I apologize.
~
Why do most Pinoy action directors have nicknames? My favourite one is Jose "Kaka" Balagtas, followed by the mysterious yet blatantly obvious "Ronrick." I therefore must have a cool nickname when I direct my full length. Sadly, I have the most common first name in Philippine history. I blame my parents for not having the foresight to give me a cool directors name the way Quark's and Avid's have. I am open to suggestions.

Light My Candle?

The RENT trailer is online. I'm a huge fan of the play having been lucky enough to perform in the Manila and Singapore runs, and I sincerely hope to God in heaven that Chris Columbus does not fuck this up. Martin Scorcese was once rumored to direct this, and so was Spike Lee (making the line "maybe it's not the moon at all, I hear Spike Lee's shooting down the street" instantly and unintentionally narcissistic) and I would have loved to see how both those directors would have done this. Watching the Columbus trailer, I'm getting a sappy St. Elmo's Fire/ Party Of Five vibe. Damn you Columbus. Make us all happy and write Goonies 2 instead. It's great to see most of the original cast doing the movie version though. And Rosario Dawson as Mimi is perfect casting. I wonder who they got to play Paul? Heheh.

Self-censorship

For days when we all feel like we're merely hacks and what we do isn't worth a damn:

"you have to fight every day to stop censoring yourself. and you never have anyone else to blame when you do. what happens to artists is that it's not that somebody's standing in their way, it's that their own selves are standing in their way. the compromise really isn't how or what you do, the techniques you use, or even the content, but really the compromise is beginning to feel a lack of confidence in your innermost thoughts. and if you don't put these innermost thoughts on the screen then you are looking down on not only your audience but the people you work with, and that's what makes so many people working out there unhappy. these innermost thoughts become less and less a part of you and once you lose them then you don't have anything else. so many people have so much to say and there are so many really worthwhile things to say that it seems impossible that we could cut ourselves off from this whole avenue of enormous excitement."

from cassavetes on cassavetes
edited by raymond carney

Wrapped

I'm usually always sad when shoots come to an end. Blinding was really fun to do, thanks in large part to my wonderful cast and even more wonderful City Council who turned a blind eye as I stood on top of various historical monuments just to get my shots right.


Sometimes less is more. The cast and crew (all four of us, l-r): Matt Foster, Sarina Jennings, Carlo Ponti, and James Wong.

Taking a couple of days off to catch up on sleeeeeeep (just writing that sounded good) and hitting the gym. Then it's off to one of the least favourite parts of my job (logging and capturing) right before I move on to one my most favourite- editing.

My Friendster list filled up to 500 friends today. And I did it without accepting random strangers just for the sake of reaching 500. Surely, this must be a milestone of some sort. I know of people whose sole mission in life is to crack the certified 500 friends mark. So what now people? Do I change my name to CarloFULL? CarloONE? Or CarloSHETANGDAMIKONGFRIENDS? Decisions, decisions. Whatever happens, slap me if I use the word "certified" in any way.

And yes, my day ended on a high note. Screened Locked again at Caught Short, and this time the film played all the way through! The organizers had a brand new DVD player but I didn't take any chances so I just hooked up my MiniDV player and played my film the old analog potentially less disastrous way (thanks for the tip Quark). So thanks again to the two Sarahs for the encore!

Sleeeeeeeep.