Monday, October 20, 2008

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.

Sunday, October 12, 2008

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.

Monday, October 6, 2008

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...