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