more pics

stolen from Amanda N., more pics here

Day. Effin. Two.

This is what you get when you shoot on a full moon. Pix stolen from our production designer Amanda Nava. More pics here. And here (from Shine)

morning
I was prepared for a disaster to be honest. I woke up at 2am and it was raining like hell. Didn't stop till after lunch. We weren't able to shoot the exterior scenes in the morning. We couldn't shoot anything but Charles Hilado (72) reverse shots. Prosthetics was being done at Noel's workshop while we were at the location in fti. They did come in within the expected time and we were able to shoot, shot by shot. No time for masters. We had to do it shot by shot. I guess the actors' rehearsal the day before helped make the scenes run smoother. But the continuity could get a bit tricky. Especially in the lighting. Good thing DOP Alma Dela Pena is a freekin genius. We didn't get to finish what we were targetting to finish. Lovely Gazelle Canlas (Nara) had a previously scheduled event that afternoon so we had to let her go. She was to be back by evening, go through the whole ordeal of getting the prosthetics applied, and to the remaining scenes. What a trooper.

afternoon
We had a late lunch at 1:30pm. We had to do as much of Gazelle's shots as we could. Good thing Karr Cotamora, production manager extraordinaire got Tempura King to sponsor. Though she was gone the whole afternoon, the "angels" Renz, Peachy & Elena took over. They're students from the University of Makati who volunteered (bravely) for the film. Of course Shiney was there to oversee things and help out. Thankfully it stopped raining and we were able to do the exterior flashback scenes (with the talents who had been waiting since 4am). It was around 2:30. Kuya Ben, Alma's asst camera/ focus puller did wonders in the shoots. We shot on an island with cars passing through both sides. Good thing Alma pulled off a stunning shallow depth of field with the lens we had to take out the background. I heart the HPX500. Plus we exploited the 48fps feature with embarrassing frequency. We came back after a couple of hours. Jao Mapa (Elis) had been waiting as well all ready for take. We immediately did his sequences.

night
We shot the Jao sequences in order. It was all action. This is the trick for faster shooting. The less dialogue you have, the faster you can do your scenes. do your shots as they appear and you have less continuity worries. We were able to finish 3 sequences by the time dinner came in at around 9pm. Worth the wait was the birthday party of a dinner with pancit, and roast chicken and lumpia. All courtesy of Ping-Ping's lechon who had been providing digital films free dinners for the past 3 years I think.... Ok, I'm gushing but with just 2 each of the 5Ks, 2Ks, 1Ks and 3 inkies, Alma was able to make the scene look like we had a ton of equipment. Shiney & Kuya Chris (gaffer) & Alma and I all worked together to get the "floating leaves" shot. Can't wait to do the trailer. ;-). Jao surprised my with the breakdown scene. The guy is underrated, plus he still has some of his matinee-idol qualities. At least I think so, when he's walking in high speed, with the wind blowing his black Mike Tidalgo costume coat, looking intense into the camera.
Gazelle was able to arrive back on time and in prosthetics. But we had a ton of remnants to shoot. We had to prioritize that. Plus Jao's remaining shot involved the use of a crane which was yet to arrive. Apparently the jib we borrowed from Brass Knuckles (courtesy of the very generous Gary Rada & EJ Salcedo) couldn't support the HPX. Good thing Balicas (thanks Kuya Jinggoy) had a porta-jib available that could support our camera. It was just 8 feet, but with a scaffolding we could add to the elevation and achieve the same effect. Thing was the traffic to QC was a killer, but what could we do. We were worried too about the added expense (which is another long story. Good thing my mom let me use her cheque book to issue post-dated cheques and good friends Jules Katanyag and Arden Condez (both soap opera writers btw) helped loaned me some cash)....

morning again
Somewhere during the last scene with Charles & Gazelle, I lost my temper and threw a magnificent tantrum. I walked out of the set. It's crazy. I was on the verge of tears but I couldn't cry in front of my crew. I was so angry but I couldn't scream at anyone. I guess the issue with the cloth strips looking like crap was the last straw. It was almost 2 in the morning and we still had the special effects tree transformation scenes plus the crane scenes. I had to finish all the warehouse scenes now and some people I felt were slacking off. I could barely afford a day 3 let alone a day 4. I guess I let the pressure get the best of me. Anyway, I called Renz and told her to ask Shine to direct the inserts with the cloth strips. To this day I have no idea what those inserts look like....But I guess because of that incident, people started to get their act together. There were less complaints and less goofing around. And the miracle was we actually finished by 4:30am. I had to trash some shots but I basically got what I wanted.... The sfx shots, I hope were correct. VFX supervisor Bon Labora was there anyway to make sure it was all done to work in post. I got my crane shot. Good thing Jao was a trooper, waiting for more than 4 hours just to get his last shots despite having another shoot shortly after.

Thank you so much to everyone who made this shooting day possible. Alma and her boys, the Balicas boys, Kuya Allan Hilado and his Boom man (his name slips me now...), Karr and the Angels, Noel and his tireless prosthetics team, Amanda, Mike and their friends, Bon, Shine, the Outpost boys, the drivers, the talents, and my actors, Jao, Charles & Gazelle.

Next step is to wrap up payments and documentation of day 2. PESTER NCCA TO PAY THE 2ND TRANCHE. Of course pay up all my debts. And figure out how fund day 3 and make sure day 3 is flawless. Day 3 will be in January. I hope that's enough time to find extra money.

-p

teaser

shine, karr & i got together and did a post mortem of sorts a couple of days after the shoot (the day after rendered everyone half dead). we were all poorer than when the project started. essentially we came to the conclusion that

1. we need to raise another 112,500 Php to finish shooting the film with a 3rd day shoot.
2. we need to seek sponsors to help arrive at that amount (ie: 10 friends who'll fork up 10k each in return of a percentage of all sales)
3. we need a teaser and sponsorship kit to help make this happen.

So last friday, shine and I trooped over to Outpost to view the existing footage and make a teaser.

So here it is. It isn't much. But hopefully it will amount to something. The moneyshots are still in day 2. Comments are welcome. Music was stolen (thank you, Bjork).





--

Yesterday we had a grand prod meet. Of course we couldn't get everyone all together at one table but everyone came at one point. Finally Noel, Bon & Amanda all got to meet up so we could discuss how to do the tree transformation. Sadly we were all hungry and i couldn't feed the crew. I guess it sort of affected the discussion. We ended up having most of the effects done in post, CG. But this morning I got this nagging feeling that I need live effects. At least when the first branch erupts from her arm. What if we never get sponsorship for visual effects? ARgh.. Noel brought samples of the latex textures. At least that got us excited. I hope we get the soil-morphing-into-tree bark bit right.

So no more chroma, no more studio or warehouse, no more alien landscape set. We decided on shooting in a tunnel. We need to find a tunnel by wednesday. Actually I saw pics of the malinta tunnel and it looks perfect. but in corregidor? fugetit.




Wednesday also, i am praying the money will be released, at least my personal money which i can use while waiting for the NCCA 2nd tranche. i don't know how i can location hunt and occular with just 500 pesos. that's all the money I have (plus the 73 pesos in my atm account which i hope doesn't close).

Money. Money. We need money.

Ito po yung "Galilean Moons"

this was what they were talking about in sequence 5. the moons around jupiter.... wala lang...

pic stolen from Thrilla in Manila, which is all about wonderful illustrations and not much about Manila.

In a few hours Shine & I will be doing the teaser. To help earn funds. Two more shooting days to go. And I have an idea to scrap the whole idea of chroma cloths and fake plastic alien landscape. I just might situate "the wastelands" in a tunnel/ network of tunnels. Yeah, just like TMNT but who gives a hoot if we'll be saving money...

Which means a quick occular and meeting over the weekend. Charles Hilado (72) will be leaving for Bacolod by next week. His handler Ms. Jo was gracious enough to work out extending his stay in manila till the 15th. But still no news from NCCA about the 2nd tranche will have to pester Roswil (committee on cinema) once again. I'm not very good at results-oriented pestering.... Oh well.

-p

Day 1

Call time was 5am and we packed up around 4:45. Which was a good thing if not for the fact that we decided on adding a 3rd shooting day. That's right, there was no way we were going to finish all 16 sequences that day. There were 3.5 sequences left, averaging 3 set-ups each.

But a third day was a good idea. On hind sight, there were scenes that I felt were shot wrongly. After dinner, I threw away my board and tried to block the shots based on the existing sets to avoid set changes. Of course it was horrible. I'm the type of person who gets lost and has a very poor sense of direction. And so it was like that. I lost direction. I should have stuck to my board and decided on the 3rd day earlier. The time saved setting up was wasted just the same on figuring out continuity of direction and how to avoid the spaces outside the set. Our set was usually just 2 walls? We are creating an illusion of a futuristic city with just 2 4-foot walls, how audacious is that?

On the good side, I got most of the shots I wanted. I was happy about the 48 fps shots, the fake 360 degree dolly track (we just used 3 curved tracks and switched the actors around), and the drawing on mist on glass shot. The lighting was lovely (home-made space lights). The costumes rocked. The actors were in it. Who cares about the weird story and lousy continuity? ahehe, just kidding.
Take a look....











pics stolen from shine. more pics here.

Now were in the process of preparing for day 2, figuring out how to get people's skeds right for day 2, following up on the money we need for day 2 to happen, and contemplating selling our kidneys to fund day 3...

More later

20 hours till shoot

things are pretty much laid out just a few more things to do on production's end:
- talk to mom about borrowing her cheque book to issue post dated cheques on monday
- talk to alma about the shots
- look at the designs for the ID chip c/o Bon

I've spoken with the art department yesterday, did shopping for supplies with karr, got an ad/pa and spoke to her, spoke to Bon about the special effects, emailed the call slips and location maps and revised script, picked up the lanterns from Arkeo (in their far-flung office), finished

All that's really needed is to pray that the art dept could get everything down pat at least for the sequences before lunch. Then they can have the morning to prepare everything else for the after lunch and evening sequences.... I think we just have to wing it. Positive attitude. Good vibes. Have a ready plan B, C, D...

Am killing time... I'm not sure there's anything left to do except for the above mentioned tasks. And of course go over the board, and pray. Maybe get a massage...

Here are some costume pics in their almost-done stages... Designs (and gruelling labor) by Mike Tidalgo. Pics taken at their homebase in Cieg's apartment







and some video footage from our occular visit at Pioneer Studios (video c/o Amanda N's digicam)





and some pictures during the line-reading & costume fitting at Karl's house (photos c/o Amanda & Mike)


amanda (aka angel locsin ;-))


mike with charles hilado

rold salamat & jao mapa



that's it... i'm so nervous, i think i'm gonna throw up...

- p

3 Days till shoot

back-up funds (check. love you shiney!)
check costume prototypes (loving it so far)
rehearsals and fitting (scrap this, surprises are usually nice)
PD checklist (this Saturday)
Sound (crew + equipment) (check)
final BOARD (yrrgh, will need to scrap some shots to minimize set-up)
catering sponsorship (check. breakfast, lunch, & dinner. Karr is da bomb)
transportation & logistics (this saturday)
staff:
- AD/PA/Continuity (working on it)
- BTS people (Chard I think, and other guests)
- sound (Kuya Allan is da man)
Final Pre-Prod meeting (whoo.. shooting for saturday)

Later kids.

8 Days Till Shoot

That's right. There was a gigantic pause in the updates... that's because of the hectic schedule. And even as I write, I'm in the process of writing the progress report for the 2nd tranche of funds. So let's make this quick and easy

cast- check
new production designer- check
location- check (somewhat...)
final script- check
camera equipment- check

Things to do/acquire:

back-up funds
check costume prototypes
rehearsals and fitting
PD checklist
Sound (crew + equipment)
final BOARD
catering sponsorship
transportation & logistics
staff:
- AD/PA/Continuity
- BTS people
- sound
Final Pre-Prod meeting


*Sorry, pictures next week after the shoot. As well as other details. Gotta go!

Updates

1. casting call is out. been answering SMS from interested actors and (gasp!) talent managers. the experience is almost like dealing with over-eager boutique sales ladies. will be shortlisting for real on the 24th. browsing through the pics and resumes, my heart hasn't leapt yet. but will find them.

2. bon brought in ian of Tabo Works into the team. They'll be doing 3D effects, specifically the transformation scene. he's had a lot of input with regards to shooting with CG, like the "+" marks on the chroma cloth (for

3. productive meeting last night. finally figured out how to do the sets inside the dome. or at least an idea on how to do it. bon suggested we invest in a honeycomb shaped mold and use frosted semi-transparent plastic (i don't know what kind yet) to melt then harden into shape. each side would be a foot, and also a foot deep. with positive-negative ridges so they're stackable and interconnectable... yes, we'll be making giant semi transparent lego pieces we can transform into corridor walls, to tables, to pillars, etc.... and we can use or sell after the shoot. zero waste. i love the idea... i just hope it doesn't cost an arm and a leg... the quotes will be in, end of the week...

4. we're still stumped as to the material to use for the wastelands. bon suggested we could paint tinted resin onto plastic boards or fiberglass to create a textured but semi-translucent terrain. bambi's suggesting red cement with sawdust covering wire-framed rock formations... both sound a bit iffy at this stage, and i asked them to create a miniature version of each, just so we can see it.

5. i still can't bring myself to write my letters to the desired production houses seeking post-production partnership. i'm scared shitless actually. it's like proposing to a boy. if they say no, i'll kill myself. haaay... there is no way i can afford the CG and compositing for LK with the given budget. so a "no" is not an option... lord help me. but i need to do it before the halloween break, no choice....

6. karr is slowly getting quotes for equipment rentals, we need to have final dates and final decisions by next week as to ...
-when the 2nd occular will be
-tech meeting between alma and the cg people and noel and shine.
-audition date
-do progress report so we can get the 2nd tranche
- discuss feasibility of moving the shoot to december
-schedule an "experiment" day when we figure out how to do the live effects and how i should shoot them
- figure out how much to we really need, and how much we should raise
- the possibility of a 3rd shooting day (ouch)

7. I need assistants to help with these things, so i can DO MY BOARD! This is one reason why i'm "dyahe" to write to the prodhouses. My board looks like crap. Pencil drawings? c'mon. I'm thinking of getting figurines and setting up miniatures and taking pictures instead of drawing. but i need a couple of days to do it without any disturbances (no work, no declan, no lumang kahoy pre-prod concerns) .... i fantasize about faking my own death just for a couple of days just so i won't be bothered... it's hard to think with all this noise, but what can i do?

8. thanks to facebook, scarlet tears' sam vigila found out about LK and offered to do the music. Lo and behold, he sent me the .wav files for the theme. astig.... at least we've an OST on standby now. thanks sam

9. i need: 2 PA's, a costume designer/stylist, a compositor, and a post-prod sponsor.

10. and for the first time, i think i need an AD. i usually don't feel the need for it. i do my own breakdowns, coach my actors, i don't want to appear to be a monster to some of my crewmembers because of their incompetence (and i'm at the brink of doing so aheheh). i need someone else to get angry for me, hahaha.

Casting Call

------
Actors are needed for the following roles in a short futuristic sci-fi film:

ELIS
a young idealistic captain of an Earth colony
2 shooting days
-- male
-- late 20's to early 30's.
-- telegenic
-- holds himself well, respectable -looking
-- preferably with acting experience, but not required
-- fluent in Filipino

NARA
a humanoid, half-soil half-human, who will eventually turn into a tree
1 shooting day
-- female
-- teens to early 20's
-- telegenic and with a voluptous/ curvy built
-- preferably with dance background (can move)
-- preferably with acting experience, but not required
-- fluent in Filipino
-- IMPT: willing to undergo full body prosthetics (the goal is Rebecca Romjin Stamos' Mystique in the Xmen)

72
a humanoid, a 1000-year-old man trapped in his 12-year old body
2 shooting days
-- male
-- 10-13 years old
-- preferably with acting background
-- a child with depth and undestanding beyond his age

Sundalo/ Repairmen/ Extras for various roles
2 shooting days
-- (8) eight males, who will be playing speaking/non-speaking bit parts
-- preferably with acting background

Mimo
Elis' son
1 shooting day
-- male
-- under age 8
-- can read or at least follow instructions
-- cute, articulate and expressive

Interested parties may email the following to lumangkahoy@...
--resume with contact details
-- whole body pic
--close-up pic


THE PROJECT
The film will be shot in digital format and there will be 2 shooting dates tentatively scheduled on November 17 & 24.

The group behind this project has been making award-winning and internationally screened short films since the early 2000's. More information here

The actors must also be available for one line-reading session and two rehearsals scheduled on 3 separate days (to be announced) in November before the shoot. Costume measurements and fitting will be incorporated during those days.

There will be a small honorarium provided for the actors. Shortlisted actors will be invited to audition.

Screening is until October 24, 2008.

For questions or concerns you may email lumangkahoy@... or SMS the ff:
09212561469 or 09289726168

Thank you very much.

Occular and PD meet

Long overdue post. The team has locations now. At least we've chosen them. Karr sent them letters to confirm the dates. We hope they give us discounts too.

We did the occular right smack in the mercury retrograde a couple of mondays ago, so of course we got lost several times, reset schedules, had tons of miscommunication incidents, and so on. We rented a van, a necessary expense considering we travelled from fti to makati to mandaluyong to marikina.

LK will be shooting its day 2 at a warehouse. The one in fti looked perfect. It was cool inside, the place being an abandoned freezer warehouse. And it was huge. Something like 60 feet wide. I just hope we get it for 5K like what they said before. We probably will need to rent an extra day before the shoot for the set up. I'm not sure if we can get a chroma cloth large enough to cover the the 22-ft wall, and the scaffolding of course. We won't use the entire floorspace, just enough for the Elis to run.



Day 1 will be shot in a studio with a pristine white cyclorama. Fine, we're doing a poor homage to THX, so sue me.

The one at Pioneer owned by artist katya guerrero was it. They had a better reception area and the staff seemed friendlier but I guess it helped that the studio was spotless unlike this other studio we went to where they had cars parked and equipment in the studio. Plus there were gigantic dogs in the reception area (i'm terrified of large dogs who act friendly by barking and pawing at strangers). In terms of size, the studios were pretty much the same, 90sqm according to their website, here's a pic...


The other one is from my cam. But what really sold us was that katya mentioned that maybe they could give us a cut off their usual rate and that they understood independent filmmaking and could adjust accordingly. This is the first time their studio will be used for a short film (usually its photo shoots and music videos), i'm not sure though if they're as excited...

----

We wrapped up our occular visits at around 5pm and proceeded to our gruelling scene-by-scene meeting with the PD's at Gusi (along Esguerra). We broke down the scenes and every prop that needs to be constructed.

Prior to this, during a weekend at home, ideas came to me on how the sets should look like. Gossip Girl had a part in this... looking at Blair Waldorf's "Queen B" fanpage on facebook, I thought... "bees"! An alien culture that lived eusocially like bees-- centralized reproduction, colonies.. COLONIES --this was the term i actually used in the script even in the first draft in 2007. And so, the honey-comb structure in the dome design (Cedric H's idea) would make sense and carry-over to the interiors... and the semi-translucent whiteness of an alien-organic world would make more sense than a synthetic-plastic world. Hence the "whiteness" ripoff of THX 1138 (thank you internet video streaming!) but with a fuzzy-alien feel...

And then i stumbled upon this website. Molo Design! And this was the inspiration for the corridors and other "interiors". Bianca mentioned that it will be impractical to use paper like the molo softwalls. Eventually she came up with the idea of using the thinnest available semi-translucent high-impact plastic, folded in the same way.

I actually tried other semi-translucent material. I was hell-bent on using bihon or vermicelli for the walls until I tried doing a miniature at Shine's house. Vermicelli when wet is a nightmare to control (no different from my hair). When dry, it does look good, but practicality killed the idea, did i have any idea how much bihon it would take to cover a 10ft wall? what was i thinking?

I made "mood boards" to help them visualize (because I can't draw!). I'm posting them here as well.
We could save on props by incorporating gadgets in the costumes... and a charcoal palette to contrast the white sets.

And of course, the "wastelands". If earth/soil no longer existed, what would the wastelands be made of? Some alien element... And what landscape would be more alien-looking than one made of uncooked gelatin bars. Reddish, translucent and could be made to glow like lava... I tried it out with some orange gelatin bars and a ceramic house.
But where are we going to get the hundred kilos of gelatin to make the set? The solution would be to find a similar material. But what? and where? This seems to be what's bugging bambi and bianca. Will be meeting with them soon to see the preliminary designs.

----

Later that evening the dome design by Cedric arrived. It was just a structure/ blue-print but there were some parts i didn't get and we might have to tweak the design a bit before constructing the miniature.

---

And much later that evening Noel came. Noel volunteered to do the Nara prosthetics, yay! He used to work for the Batoctoys. Benny Batoctoy and Cecille Baun are like the ABS-CBN and GMA of prosthetics in the Philippines. Anyway, Noel just came from a stint in Dubai where he did computer graphics (i think). Sad thing is though he really wanted to do the project, he might not be here for the actual shoot because his visa could be arriving in early November. He did assure us that he was gonna teach someone and make sure his design is executed properly on that day. I'm not quite sure about this set-up though. Will have to talk to him during the week and make sure that his guy is on board at this early stage.

----

A couple of days later, I finally met up with Bon Labora. Bon owns Anino Design and he did the visual effects of Blood Bank. He agreed to head visual effects. He's friends with a lot of CG and motion graphics people he could talk into helping out with LK. My thing is, I'm offering up the project for co-prod. It's up in the air still, but when I discussed the specific parts where effects would be needed, it seemed a piece of cake to him. Will be meeting with him and his people next week.

---

And finally, I got the preliminary work for PD done, I can focus this week on CASTING...

PA's WANTED

CREW CALL:

We won a grant from the NCCA and are currently in the pre-production phase of a futuristic science fiction short film. In line with this, we are looking for VOLUNTEERS for the following key positions.

1. Production Assistant for Tech
- computer savvy
- interested in the technical aspects of filmmaking
(cinematography, sound, editing, computer graphics)
- eye for detail
- fast learner
- can multi-task

2. Production Assistant for Cast & Admin
- highly organized
- personable, can deal with all sorts people
- eye for detail
- fast learner
- can multi-task

Production is ongoing till December. Target shooting dates are Nov. 16 & 30.

Ideal candidates are those interested in starting a career in film, or sci-fi enthusiasts, or both. We’d prefer people who reside in Metro Manila, and with both a mobile and landline number. We’d also prefer people who have internet access.

I’m not sure at this point if I can offer to pay in cash (hence the term “volunteer”) but food and transportation expenses, we’ll shoulder. Kindly forward to others whom you think may be interested.

Please email by the ff to: pam_miras@yahoo.com by Sept. 26

1. letter of intent (why do you want to take on this job)
2. resume with contact details


Thank you.

Pam Miras

Pre-prod 1 cont....

... Alma arrived later. She had trouble parking. I really thought she was gonna back out after hearing from Bianca that they had a rift between them after a not-so-pleasant working experience for the infamous Haw-Ang. Good thing she decided to stick with it. I'm still hoping this production could help get them on good terms again... Well at least there's Bambi who can act as a mediator of sorts.

Sunshine came last, she had just come from the launching of Rights Vol. 2. We all know she's our editor, but she volunteered to play the part of Nara. To my dismay. But everyone at the table was for it especially Bianca. I'll have to think about it. Shine was a dancer with theater background before her foray into editing and filmmaking. And its important that Nara can move and act. But, my gut says no, she isn't it... Sorry shine...

Further discussions ensued, phone numbers exchanged and the meeting ended with a scheduled occular on the 28th. This is during mercury retrograde so I'm a bit scared. But heck, this needs to be done asap. Bianca and Bambi left and us remaining girls transferred to Katips with Sig B. joining us. We got to watch the xenoa trailer together over a san mig light bucket plus google some possible actors for the role of Elis.

Pre-Prod 1

Pre-prod 1.1
Sept 18, 2008
Starbucks, ELJ

VISUAL EFFECTS
Met with Karr and Cedric in a spur of the moment decision. I came from a terrible docu presentation at DSWD and decided I had some free time in the afternoon. Cedric confirmed for 7pm which gave me enough time to finalize the script. Everyone was supposed to meet on Friday, but since Cedric clarified that he really can't be part of the production, it was a good idea to meet him separately for consultation.

A lot of important points were brought up.

1. the need for miniatures
2. the need for a post-prod partner
3. the design of the domed city (frosted glass and a honey-comb texture will save on money buy not having the need to do scaled-buildings, etc.)
4. the logical look of the place (a short discussion on the colonization process and the cliche fake-utopia which supposedly follows after a superpower takes over a weaker race)
5. the truth that the search for a visual effects supervisor for this project can be likened to the search for the holy grail.

And a lot more, considering that the meeting ran for a little less than an hour.
I think the project was enticing enough for Cedric, and that if he really wasn't tied up, he'd take it. Eventually he volunteered to design the domed city and possibly composite it later in the year if and when he has the time. I'll take that.

MONEY MATTERS
Karr turned out to be an ex-deal guru, which the film badly needs, because with an ultra-tight itemized budget, we are still around 80K over budget. She suggested that letters could be sent out to get several little sponsorships for food and tokens (in lieu of some tf).

But the big thing we need to get is a Post-Prod house willing to co-produce (and of course shoulder the post and visual effects). The group that produced Xenoa came up and the goal this week is to set up a meeting with them and charm them into saying yes.

Karr and I managed to set deadlines and a rough calendar of the things we need to have done.


Pre-prod 1.2
Sept 19, 2008
Baang Coffee, Tomas Morato

PRODUCTION DESIGN
Prior to the meeting, I had an issue of getting the right production designer for the LK. I ended up choosing the one who expressed interest and confirmed first. It also turns out that Bambi had a partner to join him in the project-- Bianca . Bianca Gonzales-Dadivas happens to be the wife of my former Sound teacher in UP, Sir Nonoy Dadivas. I know they'll never forget me because eons ago, when I was editing my friends' TVC for her thesis, I accidentally plugged their cd player into a 220v socket. Of course the thing blew up beyond repair.

At the meeting, there were talk about the ideas for the design of the interiors in the domed city, the Wastelands, etc. I showed them some visual pegs and I think they got it. More cold ultra modern minimalist for the interiors, rough junkyard-y for the wastelands.

The big problem is aquiring the latex for Nara, the mud-girl's prosthetics. Turns out only Cecille Baun has it in large quantities (and we're talking whole body coverage) but she isn't re-selling. Karr and I need to find a way to talk her into letting us buy from her (because there's no way we can afford her services).

I need to break for lunch... more later....

day 1

Here it is lurkers. The official production blog of my short film Lumang Kahoy (one of the 6 NCCA short film grant winners)

I'm such a girl. Trust the female of the species to record memories and retell stories for future generations. A literal and figurative weaving of yarns (hence the term "spinster" for wise old crones who tell these tales). We cannot help it if we talk a lot. We are built this way. Besides it's more fun really than clobbering each other to death and collecting decapitated skulls-- which prehistoric boys found more substantantial.

Hence the scrapbooks, the quilts, the recipe books, and this blog.

I probably will fade into obscurity like my lolas--me and my little films-- but not quietly. I will always be the embarrassing spectacle you secretly aspire for.

And these are the first lucky souls who have chosen to join this little party

A is for Alma, kick-ass DOP.
B is for Bambi, brave PD
C is for Cedric, who I hope will commit to doing the CG
and I'm skipping to K for Karr my PM who will help organize this mess of a production and find me more funding (i hope)...

now i just need to get my shit ready so i don't end up looking like an ass at our meeting.

the script is screaming for one last re-write before i give them the shock of their lives when i email it. had consulted with the geekiest girl i know, Rye officer of most of the fangroups in the country (starwars, hogwarts, new worlds...) i'm glad she's excited, which is a good thing because this short film is really a straight up genre one and it's really for them more than the critics and pseudo critics this "indie" scene has spawned....