Last Saturday I shot with an all female production crew. It was a real blast! They were so efficient that we finished after four hours of filming. When the main actor didn’t show up, before I can ask why they already had a replacement standing on the wings. And a better actor yet.

Now after trying this, I don’t think I would ever want to go back to an all male crew. Plus they smell better and have a nicer disposition

Three more shooting days and the project would be finished. I can’t wait to see how the costume would look like.

My Optical dogs are standing by for the footages that would be assembled for the spfx. I have already built up immunity on their constant wailings and moaning about a day off.

Not on this parade mister!

And what do they have to complain about? They’re inside an air-conditioned facility with the coolers pointed at them full blast. They’re just sitting there, cataloging and assembling the footages.


Im the one who has to travel into the deep forests and wade waist deep in mire and carabao mud, sweating like a pig while waving off the seventh air borne attack of the mosquito squadron.

I said before and I’m going to say it again, shooting on location is a bitch! Specially when its four hours from the nearest civilized mall.

Of course im just bitching when I just arrived. But twenty minutes later with the equipment unpacked and cam is rolling, pure bliss!

FLIM: “ I love to hear the sound of camera’s cranking, and the crowing of rooster in the early morning light. It sounds like…. uhm victory! “

SUNDAY

Did a nighttime shot in our underground river cavern. My actor and actress were wet during the four-hour shot. But the set looked great and real.

DAV: “ Is the water clean? I have a sensitive skin.”

FLIM: “ Of course it’s not cleaned you idiot! We need to make it look mucky and wet.”

JANITOR: “ Actually its clean. I just filled it up with water seven hours ago>”

FLIM: “ shut up! I want him to think it’s dirty so he’d get this disgusted look as he wades into it! “

DAV: “ My wigs completely comming apart. “

FLIM: “ Well just put a gaffers tape on your forehead and paste it on!”

DAV: “ How clean is the water really? “

FLIM: “ It so clean, that’s where they put the hito (MUDFISH) in for days to purify them before frying!

DAV: ” You mean there could be fish crap on the water? “

FLIM: “ Hold that expression! CAMERA ROLL! “


In between bouts of shooting and editing, my sister in law lent me a copy of her ALIAS SEASON 1 DVD SET. I wasn’t very familiar with it except for the fact that I knew that the lead actress played Electra in that terrible Daredevil movie. Anyway I snuked it into my back pack and figured that I could have it playing in the background while I write or edit.

The first scene in the first episode didn’t really knock me over. Ok she’s wearing a wig akin to RUN LOLA RUN. So what.

So I still find it shocking to discover that I was suddenly into episode 4 and my attention totally diverted from the task at hand. (Since I produce my own projects …I figured that the producer in me should give the director and editor in me a few hours to just relax in case of suffering a burnout!)

Suffice to say that when I was into the last episode of season one I was really hooked!
I wasn’t really shock to find that her mother was the main nasty. All the clues were there.
But it still didn’t detract from the enjoyment I experienced while watching it unfold!

This is a infinitely better than 24 HOURS! I didn’t have to skip any scenes that involved KIM BAUER! In fact I was more interested in the family drama involving Sydney’s dad and mother than her missions that were becoming formulaic!

In fact the series bible could be written down like this.

1. Previous episode recap!
2. Sloan and the latest mission objective!
3. Bumbling tech guy with his one act play before or during the introduction of the latest hardware to be used in the aforementioned mission!
4. Sloan telling Sydney to go to his office and give her paternal advise. (Of course he is the real father of Sydney or he was mistakenly led to believe by Sydney’s mother!)
5. Mission locale is always a high tech disco, rave party or any place where Sydney can walk in wearing her latest designer let me peek and get a hard on for geek costume!
6. Going into the lion’s den with a key card or whatever gizmo that can override the existing safety programs
7. Instant discovery by the guard and a hand-to-hand combat with her winning or getting support from general black side kick Dixon!

So many more elements but I don’t have the time to wade thru them. I really get turned off when they do the high tech stuff but I love any episode featuring THE RAMBALDI ARTIFACTS!

The RAMBALDI subplot struck me as being GRANT MORRISONSQUE which delighted me to no end. Adn i'm really looking forward to what is the end design of it all.

By the time I finished season 1, I became a fan of the series! I was eagerly expecting to get season 2 from my sister in law but alas. There is already a long line of people waiting to borrow it. Luckily a colleague gave me a set for my birthday! Now I m still watching! Ah well just one more disc to go and its back to the salt mines for yours truly!

This is the logo of the new project im currently in pre-production now. I just cant believe it! I just took a few hours off from finishing the final cut of the Jungle movie and suddenly a new idea pops up.. Test shots came in and they prove very promising. I already did a few minutes of a teaser trailer. More on this as it develops.

Im doing some optical line-ups and it?s not a very exciting thing to do. But I want to do it myself to insure that the proper elements come together. The television was on and I spotted some new commercials. After being exposed for a couple of minutes I shut it off After seeing two ads that sold white pigmentation formulas I realized how blatantly the advertising companies dwell on and provoke our insecurities. That no man would desire a girl with black under arms or that a girl with white complexion is infinitely more superior than the one with dark skin.

The actors were yapping about how they get turned off by this and that in a girl, mostly artificial things. They didn?t even stop to look at the mirror and check what do they have to mouth off such insensitive remarks! Yes its just a commercial, But no, its not just a commercial, its something more.

Later in class, we talked about it and I told the girls how would they feel if the guy they really liked suddenly leaned on the table and said, ? I get turned off by black underarms in a girl! ?

FLIM: ? Do you get it? So never mind if you?re a brilliant and intelligent woman who reads a lot of books and has special skills as a chef. Never mind if you have a very decent personality, and a very helpful nature. Never mind if you just climbed Mount Everest with one hand tied behind your back and juggling a pair of pompoms on your left toe, YOU?RE NOTHING BECAUSE YOU HAVE BLACK UNDERARMS!!!!!! ?

All the girls cheered. Then this tall and dusky girl talked.

GIRL: ? Sir, I may be dark but I feel pretty! ?

FLIM: " Of course you are! AND NO CHEAP COMMERCIAL CAN TELL YOU OTHERWISE! DON?T BELIEVE THAT CRAP ABOUT WHITE COMPLEXIONED GIRLS BEING HOT! GIVE IT FIVE TO SEVEN YEARS AND YOU CAN SEE THEIR SKIN WART OVER OR DISPLAY ALL THE STRETCH MARKS IN CHRISTENDOM!?

A man who will dump you because you have black underarms and have a black complexion is not even worth thinking about! What would happen to you if you do get this guy and you get married and are settled comfortably, and then one day you look at the mirror and see that your under arm suddenly became black?

Would you leave him alone with the new pretty maid with the white underarm?

And how do you get black underarms anyway? ?

GIRL: ? If you put deodorants on them.?

FLIM: " DEODORANTS? AS IN THOSE THINGS THAT ARE BEING SOLD USING THIS GUY WHO SMELLS OR SEES THE GIRLS UNDERARMS AND THEN MAKES A FACE? SO YOU GET BLACK UNDER ARMS BECAUSE OF AN EARLIER INSECURITY THE ADVERTISERS FOSTERED ON YOU!?

The girls nod in agreement.

FLIM: " THOSE COMMERCIALS WOULD TELL YOU THAT YOURE NOT PRETTY ENOUGH! YOURE NOT TALL ENOUGH. YOURE NOT THIN ENOUGH AND ALL THAT SHIT!UNTIL YOU BUY THEIR PRODUCT. AND THEN AFTER USING IT THE BOY YOU LIKE IS GOING TO MOZZY UP TO YOU AND GIVE YOU THAT MILLION PESO SMILE!THAT'S THE BIGGEST BULLSHIT BEING DUMPES TO US NEXT TO THE IDIOT WHO CONVINCED US TO BASE OUR MONETARY LEVEL ON FOREIGN CURRENCIES INSTEAD OF OUR GOLD DEPOSITS! WELL DONT YOU BUY IT AND DON?T BUY THEIR PRODUCTS!

We are flawed and insecure human beings with dozens of neurosis AS IS! And we dont need this cut troath companies adding to our misery!"

GIRL: ? Sir, I wish you?re running for office. We?d vote you! ?

There was a huge cheer. They do have their moments. Not many but they do have them!